Unit 8: Global Conflict
1914 to 1991 CE
Teacher Resources
Unit 8 Vocab Guide
Key Unit 8 vocabulary words.
OER Teaching Sensitive Topics in Social Studies Guide
Support for having discussions that are difficult, but meaningful.
Historical Thinking Skills Guide
Develop the skills needed to analyze history and think like a historian.
Differentiation Guide
Research-backed strategies for differentiation, modification, and adaptation.
What caused the global conflicts from 1914 to 1991, and how did people experience this period of global war?
The historian Erik Hobsbawm called the period from 1914 to 1991 an “Age of Extremes.” In these lessons, we’ll attempt to understand the causes and consequences of the twentieth century’s global conflicts.
World War I
In the summer of 1914, the guns of war echoed across Europe and brought to a screeching halt all the “progress” and rapid interconnections of the long nineteenth century. Colonial connections soon spread the conflict globally. What caused this war?
World War II
Twenty years after the devastation of the First World War, the world was engulfed in another, even deadlier global conflict. Between the two world wars, internationalists faced off against a tide of rising authoritarianism and a new ideology called fascism.
Decolonization and the Cold War
As World War II ended, new global conflicts were brewing. Across the colonized world, people demanded independence. Their struggles were soon entangled with the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union.
