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Global Resistance to Established Order After 1900

Driving Question: How did opposition to existing power structures manifest across different regions around the world, and what were the most successful strategies for challenging these power structures?

After World War II, African American soldiers and civil rights leaders drew inspiration from global decolonization, recognizing a shared struggle against oppression. In South Africa and Latin America, people fought against colonial hierarchies and elite rule, pushing back against racism and inequality. What did these struggles share in common? What made them unique?

Learning Objectives

  1. Explain various reactions to existing power structures in the period after 1900.
  2. Explain the causes of the end of the Cold War.
  3. Use close reading skills to consider the effect of liberation movements during this period.

Vocab Terms:

  • activist
  • apartheid
  • discrimination
  • disenfranchisement
  • jihad
  • propaganda
  • terrorism
STEP 1

Opener: Global Resistance to Established Order After 1900

STEP 2

Civil Rights and Global Liberation

Histories of the US Civil Rights struggle and the global decolonization movement are often told separately, but these two struggles were entangled. This article argues that the civil rights movement was linked to both the Cold War and decolonization.

STEP 3

Apartheid

The struggle against apartheid in South Africa is one of the longest of the decolonization struggles, and it, too, was also embroiled in the machinations of the Cold War. This article will help you to explore the route the struggle took, and how it connected local and global forces.

STEP 4

Source Collection: Global Resistance to Established Power Structures

This collection explores both the context of twentieth-century power structures and the ways that people reacted to them. You will hear from both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Osama Bin Laden, from Nelson Mandela and the CIA. We recommend you use the Quick-Sourcing Tool to complete this exercise.

STEP 5

Non-State Terrorism

Although you may think of terrorism as a recent phenomenon, it has been around for ages. But was it always thought of in the same way?

STEP 6

Closer: Global Resistance to Established Order After 1900

For this SAQ practice activity, you will respond to one SAQ as if you were actually the taking AP® World History: Modern exam. This should give you a sense of just how prepared you are to respond to SAQs on exam day.

Extension Materials
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Expand your understanding of reactions to existing power structures through an exploration of Latin America.
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Modern Latin America

Latin American countries inherited a hierarchical structure from their colonial past, resulting in power shifts between powerful elites on the right and popular governments on the left.