Cold War and Decolonization c. 1900 to the Present
Driving Question: How did the intertwined trends of the Cold War and decolonization impact societies around the world from c. 1900 to the present?
The competition between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War intensified throughout the late 1940s, and continued until the end of the 1980s. Over this period, the two sides engaged in an aggressive arms race that threatened the world with the specter of nuclear war. While the United States and the Soviet Union ultimately did not fight each other directly, they each supported and emboldened smaller countries into engage in regional conflicts.
Learning Objectives
- Explain the historical context for the entanglement of the Cold War and decolonization after 1900.
- Use the AP themes to evaluate how the Cold War and decolonization impacted societies around the world.
Vocab Terms:
Looking for all the vocabulary terms for this unit? Check out the Unit 8 Vocab Guide.
As you get ready to learn about the Cold War, consider what you think you know and what you know you don’t know.
Two conflicts dominated the latter half of the twentieth century: decolonization and the Cold War. Two superpowers emerged from the destruction of World War II: the United States and Soviet Union. Learn how competition between these two superpowers led to the ideological conflict known as the Cold War.
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Guiding Questions
Want to mix up the reading strategy for this article? After reading a section of an article, students design a challenge question about the reading or how it relates to what they’re learning in class. Once students are done reading individually, they meet with a partner and ask each other the challenge questions. They’re not allowed to use the text to answer.
This article provides an overview of the complicated global tensions that emerged after World War II, setting the stage to help you learn more about the entangled conflicts of the Cold War and decolonization later in this unit
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Guiding Questions
Make some predictions about what you’ll learn in this unit, as you agree or disagree with statements, and connect them to the AP themes.
