State Expansion from 1750 to 1900 CE
Teacher Resources
Lesson Guide
This guide includes all the usual stuff on pacing, guiding questions, and sample answers, but it will be especially useful as you prepare to teach the Gentlemen of the Jungle and Imperialism Cartoons activities.
Blog: “They Make It a Desert, and Call It Peace”: Anti-Imperialism in World History
Responses to state expansion did not begin and end in this era of imperialism. The roots of resistance extend to the ancient world, and the effects impact the world today. Help students put imperial resistance in context with this blog post.
Driving Question: How did industrialization shape the expansion and administration of empires from 1750 to 1900?
As imperialist powers expanded their reach, they did so in different ways. Regardless of the methods involved, state expansion would have many intended and unintended consequences around the globe.
Learning Objectives:
- Compare processes by which state power shifted in various parts of the world from 1750 to 1900.
- Evaluate the various tools used by imperial powers to expand their empires and the environmental and economic causes of these expansions.
- Use image analysis skills to determine the message and meaning of imperialism through illustrations from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Vocab Terms:
- activist
- administrator
- bureaucracy
- diplomacy
- indirect rule
- profit
- sovereignty
A picture really can tell a thousand words! Reinforce your understanding of imperialism through an analysis of an illustration. At the end of this lesson, you’ll continue this practice with more image analysis.
Instructions for the Gentlemen of the Jungle activity can be found in the Lesson Guide. Be sure to read these directions ahead of time to better prepare for full-class discussion.
It’s a jungle out there—and in here, where you will be analyzing a fable that might tell us a thing or two about colonialism.
When remodeling or reshaping something, one needs the right tools to get the job done. What kind of tools allowed imperialism to reshape the world?
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Guiding Questions
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Before you read
Preview the questions below, and then skim the article. Be sure to look at the section headings and any images.
While you read
Look for answers to these questions:
- How are colonialism and imperialism different?
- What were some ways of thinking about the world that supported imperialism?
- What physical tools helped imperial powers to create empires?
- What is gunboat diplomacy?
- How did science sometimes function as a tool of imperialism?
- What is indirect rule?
After you read
Respond to the following questions:
- To what extent does this article explain how various technological factors contributed to the expansion of empires from 1750 to 1900?
- The tools of imperialism were being developed at the same time as other transformations were reshaping the world. What are some connections you see between these tools and transformations like industrialization, the rise of capitalism, reformism, and liberal and nationalist political revolutions?
This is a must-do activity for one AP teacher who wrote that this activity “encourages students to consider multiple perspectives on imperialism, tracing patterns of domination and resistance while developing empathy and visual analytical skills.”
Looking for some student exemplars for this activity? Check out this community conversation.
As you did earlier in this lesson, use your image analysis skills to find the meaning behind cartoons created during this period of imperial expansion.
