Economic Imperialism from 1750 to 1900 CE
Driving Question: How did various European nations and United States interests gain economic advantages in Latin America and Asia during this period?
Industrialized nations during the long nineteenth century organized trade in ways that helped them dominate the global economy, often at the expense of smaller, less industrialized countries. This was particularly true in Asia and Latin America.
Learning Objectives:
- Explain how various economic factors contributed to the development of the global economy from 1750 to 1900.
- Use the historical thinking of contextualization to evaluate the Opium Wars.
Don’t skip this opener, which gives students practice with visual analysis, a skill that they’ll need for the AP exam.
Economic imperialism led to shifts in global power. Use your image analysis skills to predict what some of these shifts might have looked like.
Foreign investment seemed like a great way to boost the economies of newly independent nations in Latin America, but this investment came at a steep cost.
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Guiding Questions
Help students understand the impact of opium in this era by showing them historical images. You can find a collection of images in the Objects of Addiction: Opium, Empire, and the Chinese Art Trade exhibition resources from Harvard Art Museums.
The Opium Wars were a heavyweight fight between the British Empire and Qing Dynasty China. The results changed the global economy forever. Explore these globe-altering developments with this activity, article, and video.
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Guiding Questions
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Guiding Questions
Newspaper headlines might be short, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy to write. Reflect on what you’ve learned in this lesson by crafting a headline—from the perspective of a Chinese reporter writing about the conflict.
Although China was not formally colonized, it still experienced significant outside interference in the shape of a more informal imperialism.
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Guiding Questions
