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Globalization c. 1900 to the present: Unit 9 Overview

Driving Question: How did new global connections and innovations affect different parts of the world from c. 1900 to today?

From the start of the long nineteenth century to today, humanity experienced rapid changes as industrialization and globalization reshaped societies in every corner of the world. As we continue to grapple with our connections, diversity, and inequalities today, this unit asks how the stories of our past inform our present, and how they will shape our future.

Learning Objectives

  1. Assess the degree to which technological innovation and other changes have created a single human community over the past century.
  2. Analyze the causes and effects of environmental changes during this period.
  3. Evaluate the continuities and changes as well as the costs and benefits of economic globalization from 1900 to the present.
  4. Investigate how social structures, roles, and practices have stayed the same and changed over this period.
  5. Explain how and why globalization has led to cultural changes from 1900 to the present, and analyze the various responses to these changes.
  6. Use historical thinking skills and reasoning processes such as claim testing, causation, sourcing, and continuity and change over time to evaluate historical events and processes.

Vocab Terms:

  • Anthropocene
  • climate change
  • consumption
  • environment
  • globalization
  • gross domestic product (GDP)
  • regulation
STEP 1

Opener: Globalization c. 1900 to the present

Coming soon!

STEP 2

Unit 9 Overview

In this course, you’ve encountered trends such as the growth of political rights, the increasingly interconnected nature of global economic systems, and the emergence of new technologies that enable faster and more sustained communication. How have these revolutions impacted people differently around the world?

Unit 9 Overview External link

We are increasingly tied together in a globalized system, but do these connections lead to more equality and shared experiences over time or just more inequality?

Key Ideas

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

Unit 9 Introduction: Cold War and Decolonization

The era of intense globalization can be viewed through five themes: environment, culture, rights and resistance (governance), economics, and technology—explore how in the article below.

STEP 4

Closer: Globalization c. 1900 to the present

You’re pretty accustomed to the AP themes and the Themes Notebook at this point in the course. Take a stab at identifying the themes that will be important in this unit.