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Advances in Technology and Exchange after 1900

Driving Question: In what ways has technological innovation helped solve global challenges, and what new challenges has it created?

In the last 250 years, the rapid pace of change and increasingly global interconnections have produced an era of intensive globalization. Humanity produces more stuff, more cheaply, and distributes it all more broadly than ever. Yet, these trends haven’t benefited everyone everywhere, and distribution of the stuff produced remains unequal. We are more connected by networks than ever before, but many people feel more isolated and lonelier. How is this era of intensive globalization a product of our long human history, and where will we go in the future?

Learning Objectives

  1. Understand how historians create narratives to explain the convergence and divergence of human communities and experiences during this era.
  2. Explain how the development of new technologies changed the world from 1900 to the present.

Vocab Terms:

  • biodiversity
  • consumption
  • gross domestic product (GDP)
  • monoculture
  • multinational
  • pesticide
  • privatize
STEP 1

Opener: Advances in Technology and Exchange

This is currently in development and will be coming soon!

STEP 2

Globalization I – The Upside: Crash Course World History #41

John Green walks you through what globalization looks like—and how t-shirts are made—in the twenty-first century. How has this system of globalized production improved our lives? How has it endangered us?

Globalization I – The Upside: Crash Course World History #41 External link

How can tracing the production and sale of one T-shirt teach us about the importance of industrialism and globalization? John Green tackles this very issue and comes up with some positive and negative aspects of globalization.

Key Ideas

As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
STEP 3

Advances in Technology in the Global Age

Article: Advances in Technology in the Global Age: This is currently in development and will be coming soon!

STEP 4

Green Revolution

As with many revolutions, the changes created by the Green Revolution did not impact everyone equally. Explore the aims, political motivations, and results of the Green Revolution in this video.

Green Revolution External link

The Green Revolution’s new agricultural technology transfers aimed to reduce world hunger, but also politicized food and aid in ways that were sometimes controversial.

Key Ideas

As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
STEP 5

Closer: Advances in Technology and Exchange

This is currently in development and will be coming soon!