World History Era 7

Standard 3: The transformation of Eurasian societies in an era of global trade and rising European power, 1750-1870

Standard 4: Patterns of nationalism, state-building, and social reform in Europe and the Americas, 1830-1914

Standard 5: Patterns of global change in the era of Western military and economic domination, 1800-1914

Standard 6: Major global trends from 1750-1914

The invention of the railway locomotive, the steamship, and, later, the telegraph and telephone transformed global communications in this era. The time it took and the money it cost to move goods, messages, or armies across oceans and continents were drastically cut. People moved, or were forced to move, from one part of the world to another in record numbers. In the early part of the era African slaves continued to be transported across the Atlantic in large numbers; European migrants created new frontiers of colonial settlement in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; and Chinese, Indian, and other Asians migrated to Southeast Asia and the Americas. International commerce mushroomed, and virtually no society anywhere in the world stayed clear of the global market. Underlying these surges in communication, migration, and trade was the growth of world population, forcing men and women almost everywhere to experiment with new ways of organizing collective life.

This was an era of bewildering change in a thousand different arenas. One way to make sense of the whole is to focus on three world-encompassing and interrelated developments: the democratic revolution, the industrial revolution, and the establishment of European dominance over most of the world.

Political Revolutions and New Ideologies: The American and French revolutions offered to the world the potent ideas of popular sovereignty, inalienable rights, and nationalism. The translating of these ideas into political movements had the effect of mobilizing unprecedented numbers of ordinary people to participate in public life and to believe in a better future for all. Liberal, constitutional, and nationalist ideals inspired independence movements in Haiti and Latin America in the early 19th century, and they continued to animate reform and revolution in Europe throughout the era. At the same time political and social counterforces acted to limit or undermine the effectiveness of democratic governments. Democracy and nationalism contributed immensely to the social power of European states and therefore to Europe’s rising dominance in world affairs in the 19th century. Under growing pressures from both European military power and the changing world economy, ruling or elite groups in Asian and African states organized reform movements that embraced at least some of the ideas and programs of democratic revolution.

The Industrial Revolution: The industrial revolution applied mechanical power to the production and distribution of goods on a massive scale. It also involved mobilizing unprecedented numbers of laborers and moving them from village to city and from one country to another. Industrialization was a consequence of centuries of expanding economic activity around the world. England played a crucial role in the onset of this revolution, but the process involved complex economic and financial linkages among societies. Together, the industrial and democratic revolutions thoroughly transformed European society. Asian, African, and Latin American peoples dealt with the new demands of the world market and Europe’s economic might in a variety of ways. Some groups argued for reform through technical and industrial modernization. Others called for reassertion of established policies and values that had always served them well in times of crisis. Japan and the United States both subscribed to the industrial revolution with rapid success and became important players on the world scene.

The Age of European Dominance: In 1800 Europeans controlled about 35 percent of the world’s land surface. By 1914 they dominated over 84 percent. In the long span of human history European world hegemony lasted a short time, but its consequences were profound and continue to be played out today. Western expansion took three principal forms: (1) Peoples of European descent, including Russians and North Americans, created colonial settlements, or “neo-Europes,” in various temperate regions of the world, is placing or assimilating indigenous peoples; (2) European states and commercial firms exerted considerable economic power in certain places, notably Latin America and China, while Japan and the United States also participated in this economic expansionism; (3) in the later 19th century European states embarked on the “new imperialism,” the competitive race to establish political as well as economic control over previously uncolonized regions of Africa and Asia. Mass production of new weaponry, coupled with the revolution of transport and communication, permitted this surge of power. The active responses of the peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America to the crisis of European hegemony are an important part of the developments of this era: armed resistance against invaders, collaboration or alliance with colonizers, economic reform or entrepreneurship, and movements for cultural reform. As World War I approached, accelerating social change and new efforts at resistance and renewal characterized colonial societies far more than consolidation and stability.

Why Study This Era?

• The global forces unleashed in the second half of the 18th century continue to play themselves out at the end of the 20th century. Students will understand the “isms” that have absorbed contemporary society–industrialism, capitalism, nationalism, liberalism, socialism, communism, imperialism, colonialism and so on–by investigating them within the historical context of the 18th and 19th centuries.
• At the beginning of the 20th century, Western nations enjoyed a dominance in world affairs that they no longer possess. By studying this era students may address some of the fundamental questions of the modern age: How did a relatively few states achieve such hegemony over most of the world? In what ways was Western domination limited or inconsequential? Why was it not to endure?
• The history of the United States, in this era, was not self-contained but fully embedded in the context of global change. To understand the role of the United States on the global scene, students must be able to relate it to world history.

 

Each standard was developed with historical thinking standards in mind. The relevant historical thinking standards are linked in the brackets, [ ], below.

STANDARD 1

The causes and consequences of political revolutions in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Standard 1A

The student understands how the French Revolution contributed to transformations in Europe and the world.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
7-12	Analyze how the Seven Years War, Enlightenment thought, the American Revolution, and growing internal economic crisis affected social and political conditions in Old Regime France. [Analyze multiple causation]
5-12	Compare the causes, character, and consequences of the American and French revolutions. [Compare and contrast differing movements, institutions, and ideas]
7-12	Explain how the French Revolution developed from constitutional monarchy to democratic despotism to the Napoleonic empire. [Reconstruct patterns of historical succession and duration]
5-12	Analyze leading ideas of the revolution concerning social equality, democracy, human rights, constitutionalism, and nationalism and assess the importance of these ideas for democratic thought and institutions in the 20th century. [Interrogate historical data]
7-12	Explain how the revolution affected French society, including religious institutions, social relations, education, marriage, family life, and the legal and political position of women. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
5-12	Describe how the wars of the revolutionary and Napoleonic period changed Europe and assess Napoleon’s effects on the aims and outcomes of the revolution. [Analyze multiple causation]
9-12	Analyze connections between the French and Haitian revolutions and assess the impact of the Haitian movement on race relations and slavery in the Americas and the French empire. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

Standard 1B

The student understands how Latin American countries achieved independence in the early 19th century.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
5-12	Analyze the influence of the American, French, and Haitian revolutions, as well as late 18th-century South American rebellions, on the development of independence movements in Latin America. [Analyze multiple causation]
7-12	Explain the effects of Napoleon’s invasion of Iberia and the growth of British power in the Atlantic basin on the struggles for independence. [Evaluate the implementation of a decision]
5-12	Analyze the political and ideological objectives of the independence movements between 1808 and 1830 and explain why these movements succeeded. [Interrogate historical data]
9-12	Compare the political roles of Creole elites, the Catholic Church, and mestizo, mulatto, and Indian populations in the independence movements. [Marshal evidence of antecedent circumstances]

STANDARD 2

The causes and consequences of the agricultural and industrial revolutions, 1700-1850.

Standard 2A

The student understands the early industrialization and the importance of developments in England.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
5-12	Describe the characteristics of the “agricultural revolution” that occurred in England and Western Europe and analyze its effects on population growth, industrialization, and patterns of land-holding. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
5-12	Identify the major characteristics of the industrial revolution and compare industrial economies with other forms of economic organization. [Compare and contrast differing institutions]
9-12	Analyze relationships between the expanding world market economy of the 16th through 18th centuries and the development of industrialization. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
7-12	Analyze connections between early industrialization and Britain’s commercial relations with continental Europe, the Mediterranean, India, the Caribbean, and other world regions. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
7-12	Assess the relative importance of geographical, economic, technological, and political factors that permitted or encouraged the rise of mechanized industry in England. [Analyze multiple causation]

Standard 2B

The student understands how industrial economies expanded and societies experienced transformations in Europe and the Atlantic basin.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
5-12	Explain connections among population growth, industrialization, and urbanization and evaluate the quality of life in early 19th-century cities. [Appreciate historical perspectives]
5-12	Explain how industrialization and urbanization affected class distinctions, family life, and the daily working lives of men, women, and children. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
7-12	Analyze connections between industrialization and movements for political and social reform in England, Western Europe, and the United States. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
9-12	Analyze connections between industrialization and the rise of new types of labor organizations and mobilization. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

Standard 2C

The student understands the causes and consequences of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the Americas.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
9-12	Assess the relative importance of Enlightenment thought, Christian piety, democratic revolutions, slave resistance, and changes in the world economy in bringing about the abolition of the slave trade and the emancipation of slaves in the Americas. [Analyze multiple causation]
5-12	Describe the organization of movements in Europe and the Americas to end slavery and explain how the trans-Atlantic trade was suppressed. [Reconstruct patterns of historical succession and duration]
7-12	Compare contract labor migration and other forms of coerced labor with slavery as methods of organizing commercial agriculture in the Americas in the later 19th century. [Compare and contrast differing values, behaviors, and institutions]
7-12	Assess the degree to which emancipated slaves and their descendants achieved social equality and economic advancement in various countries of the Western Hemisphere. [Interrogate historical data]

STANDARD 3

The transformation of Eurasian societies in an era of global trade and rising European power, 1750-1870.

Standard 3A

The student understands how the Ottoman Empire attempted to meet the challenge of Western military, political, and economic power.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
9-12	Assess the effects of population growth and European commercial penetration on Ottoman society and government. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
5-12	Analyze why the empire was forced to retreat from the Balkans and the Black Sea region. [Analyze multiple causation]
7-12	Explain the defensive reform programs of Selim III and Mahmud II and analyze the challenges these rulers faced in resolving the empire’s political and economic crises. [Interrogate historical data]
5-12	Explain the impact of the French invasion of Egypt in 1798 and analyze the subsequent efforts of Muhammad Ali to found a modern state and economy. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

Standard 3B

The student understands Russian absolutism, reform, and imperial expansion in the late 18th and 19th centuries.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
7-12	Analyze the effects of the French Revolution, Napoleonic invasion, and world economy on Russian absolutism to 1850. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
9-12	Analyze relations between the Russian peasantry and land-owning aristocracy and explain the persistence of serfdom in the 19th century. [Identify issues and problems in the past]
7-12	Assess the significance of imperial reforms and popular opposition movements in the later 19th century. [Compare and contrast differing ideas and values]
5-12	Explain why Russia was successful in wars of expansion against the Ottoman empire and other Muslim states. [Analyze multiple causation]
5-12	Analyze motives and means of Russian expansion into Siberia and North America. [Interrogate historical data]

Standard 3C

The student understands the consequences of political and military encounters between Europeans and peoples of South and Southeast Asia.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
5-12	Explain the advance of British power in India up to 1850 and appraise the efforts of Indians to resist European conquest and achieve cultural renewal. [Consider multiple perspectives]
7-12	Describe patterns of British trade linking India with both China and Europe and assess ways in which Indian farmers and manufacturers responded to world trade. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
9-12	Compare the British conquest of India with the Dutch penetration of Indonesia and assess the role of indigenous elites under these colonial regimes. [Compare and contrast differing values, behaviors, and institutions]

Standard 3D

The student understands how China’s Qing dynasty responded to economic and political crises in the late 18th and the 19th centuries.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
7-12	Analyze the economic and social consequences of rapid population growth in China. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
7-12	Analyze causes of governmental breakdown and social disintegration in China in the late 18th century. [Analyze multiple causation]
5-12	Analyze why China resisted political contact and trade with Europeans and how the opium trade contributed to European penetration of Chinese markets. [Appreciate historical perspectives]
9-12	Assess causes and consequences of the mid-19th century Taiping rebellion. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
9-12	Explain the growth of the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia and the Americas and assess the role of overseas Chinese in attempts to reform the Qing. [Formulate historical questions]

Standard 3E

The student understands how Japan was transformed from feudal shogunate to modern nation-state in the 19th century.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
5-12	Analyze the internal and external causes of the Meiji Restoration. [Formulate historical questions]
5-12	Analyze the goals and policies of the Meiji state and their impact on Japan’s modernization. [Obtain historical data]
7-12	Assess the impact of Western ideas and the role of Confucianism and Shinto traditional values on Japan in the Meiji period. [Appreciate historical perspectives]
9-12	Explain the transformation of Japan from a hereditary social system to a middle-class society. [Examine the influence of ideas]
9-12	Explain changes in Japan’s relations with China and the Western powers from the 1850s to the 1890s. [Reconstruct patterns of historical succession and duration]

STANDARD 4

Patterns of nationalism, state-building, and social reform in Europe and the Americas, 1830-1914.

Standard 4A

The student understands how modern nationalism affected European politics and society.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
7-12	Identify major characteristics of 19th-century European nationalism and analyze connections between nationalist ideology and the French Revolution, Romanticism, and liberal reform movements. [Appreciate historical perspectives]
9-12	Analyze causes of the revolutions of 1848 and why these revolutions failed to achieve nationalist and democratic objectives. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
5-12	Describe the unification of Germany and Italy and analyze why these movements succeeded. [Analyze multiple causation]
9-12	Assess the importance of nationalism as a source of tension and conflict in the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

Standard 4B

The student understands the impact of new social movements and ideologies on 19th-century Europe.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
5-12	Analyze causes of large-scale migrations from rural areas to cities and how these movements affected the domestic and working lives of men and women. [Analyze multiple causation]
7-12	Explain the leading ideas of Karl Marx and analyze the impact of Marxist beliefs and programs on politics, industry, and labor relations in later 19th-century Europe. [Consider multiple perspectives]
9-12	Analyze interconnections among labor movements, various forms of socialism, and political or social changes in Europe in the second half of the 19th century. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
9-12	Analyze connections between reform movements and industrialization, democratization, and nationalism. [Analyze multiple causation]
7-12	Explain the origins of women’s suffrage and other movements in Europe and North America and assess their successes up to World War I. [Marshal evidence of antecedent circumstances]
9-12	Explain the ways in which Britain, France, and Italy became more broadly liberal and democratic societies in the 19th century. [Formulate historical questions]
9-12	Describe the changing legal and social status of European Jews and the rise of new forms of anti-Semitism. [Reconstruct patterns of historical succession and duration]

Standard 4C

The student understands cultural, intellectual, and educational trends in 19th-century Europe.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
9-12	Explain how expanded educational opportunities and literacy contributed to changes in European society and cultural life. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
5-12	Evaluate major movements in literature, music, and the visual arts and ways in which they expressed or shaped social and cultural values of industrial society. [Draw upon visual and literary sources]
9-12	Analyze ways in which trends in philosophy and the new social sciences challenged and shaped dominant social values. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
7-12	Describe elements of the distinctive working- and middle-class cultures that emerged in industrial Europe. [Compare and contrast differing values, behaviors, and institutions]

Standard 4D

The student understands the political, economic, and social transformations in the Americas in the 19th century.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
5-12	Assess the successes and failures of democracy in Latin American countries in the decades following independence. [Formulate historical questions]
9-12	Explain Latin America’s growing dependence on the global market and assess the effects of international trade and investment on the power of landowners and the urban middle class. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
9-12	Assess the consequences of economic development, elite domination and the abolition of slavery for peasants, Indian populations, and immigrant laborers in Latin America. [Interrogate historical data]
9-12	Analyze how liberal ideology and the expansion of secular education affected legal and political rights for women in various Latin American countries. [Examine the influence of ideas]
7-12	Assess the effects of foreign intervention and liberal government policies on social and economic change in Mexico. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
7-12	Explain the factors that contributed to nation-building and self-government in Canada. [Marshal evidence of antecedent circumstances]

STANDARD 5

Patterns of global change in the era of Western military and economic dominance, 1800-1914.

Standard 5A

The student understands connections between major developments in science and technology and the growth of industrial economy and society.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
7-12	Assess the social significance of the work of scientists, including Maxwell, Darwin, and Pasteur. [Examine the influence of ideas]
5-12	Explain how new inventions, including the railroad, steamship, telegraph, photography, and internal combustion engine, transformed patterns of global communication, trade, and state power. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
5-12	Analyze how new machines, fertilizers, transport systems, commercialization, and other developments affected agricultural production in various parts of the world. [Employ quantitative analysis]
7-12	Explain how new forms of generative power contributed to Europe’s “second industrial revolution” and compare the role of the state in different countries in directing or encouraging industrialization. [Analyze multiple causation]
9-12	Analyze factors that transformed the character of cities in various parts of the world. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

Standard 5B

The student understands the causes and consequences of European settler colonization in the 19th century.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
5-12	Explain why migrants left Europe in large numbers in the 19th century and identify temperate regions of the world where they established or expanded frontiers of European settlement. [Draw upon data in historical maps]
5-12	Compare the consequences of encounters between European migrants and indigenous peoples in such regions as the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and Siberia. [Compare and contrast differing values and institutions]
7-12	Analyze geographical, political, economic, and epidemiological factors contributing to the success of European colonial settlement in such regions as Argentina, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Algeria, Siberia, Canada, and the United States. [Analyze multiple causation]

Standard 5C

The student understands the causes of European, American, and Japanese imperial expansion.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
9-12	Explain leading ideas of Social Darwinism and scientific racism in 19th-century Europe and assess the importance of these ideas in activating European imperial expansion in Africa and Asia. [Identify issues and problems in the past]
5-12	Describe advances in transportation, medicine, and weapons technology in Europe in the later 19th century and assess the importance of these factors in the success of imperial expansion. [Analyze multiple causation]
7-12	Analyze the motives that impelled several European powers to undertake imperial expansion against peoples of Africa, Southeast Asia, and China. [Interrogate historical data]
7-12	Relate the Spanish-American War to United States participation in Western imperial expansion in the late 19th century. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
9-12	Assess the effects of the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars and colonization of Korea on the world-power status of Japan. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

Standard 5D

The student understands transformations in South, Southeast, and East Asia in the era of the “new imperialism.”

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
7-12	Analyze changes in Indian society and economy under British rule. [Interrogate historical data]
7-12	Explain the social, economic, and intellectual sources of Indian nationalism and analyze reactions of the British government to it. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
9-12	Compare French and British colonial expansion in mainland Southeast Asia and analyze Thailand’s success in avoiding colonization. [Compare and contrast differing values, behaviors, and institutions]
7-12	Analyze how Chinese began to reform government and society after 1895 and why revolution broke out in 1911. [Analyze multiple causation]
5-12	Analyze Japan’s rapid industrialization, technological advancement, and national integration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. [Formulate historical questions]

Standard 5E

The student understands the varying responses of African peoples to world economic developments and European imperialism.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
7-12	Analyze how the termination of the Atlantic slave trade and increased output of European manufactured goods affected economies of West and Central Africa. [Reconstruct patterns of historical succession and duration]
9-12	Explain the impact of religious and political revolutions in the West African Sudan on state-building, Islamization, and European imperial conquest. [Examine the influence of ideas]
7-12	Explain the rise of Zanzibar and other commercial empires in East Africa in the context of international trade in ivory, cloves, and slaves. [Appreciate historical perspectives]
5-12	Describe the rise of the Zulu empire and analyze its effects on African societies and European colonial settlement. [Formulate historical questions]
5-12	Assess the effects of the discovery of diamonds and gold in South Africa on political and race relations among British colonial authorities, Afrikaners, and Africans. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
9-12	Analyze the sources and effectiveness of military, political, and religious resistance movements against European conquest in such regions as Algeria, Morocco, West Africa, the Sudan, Ethiopia, and South Africa. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
5-12	Explain major changes in the political geography of northern and Sub-Saharan Africa between 1880 and 1914. [Draw upon the data in historical maps]

STANDARD 6

Major global trends from 1750-1914.

Standard 6A

The student understands major global trends from 1750 to 1914.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
5-12	Describe major shifts in world population and urbanization in this era and analyze how such factors as industrialization, migration, changing diets, and scientific and medical advances affected worldwide demographic trends. [Interrogate historical data]
7-12	Compare industrialization and its social impact in Great Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Russia, Japan, or other countries. [Compare and contrast differing values, behaviors, and institutions]
7-12	Describe major patterns of long-distance migration of Europeans, Africans, and Asians and analyze causes and consequences of these movements. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
7-12	Explain major changes in world political boundaries during this era and analyze why a relatively few European states achieved such extensive military, political, and economic power in the world. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
9-12	Assess the importance of ideas associated with nationalism, republicanism, liberalism, and constitutionalism on 19th-century political life in such states as Great Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Russia, Mexico, Argentina, the Ottoman Empire, China, and Japan. [Identify issues and problems in the past]
7-12	Identify regions where Christianity and Islam were growing in this era and analyze causes of 19th-century movements of reform or renewal in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. [Interrogate historical data]
9-12	Identify patterns of social and cultural continuity in various societies and analyze ways in which peoples maintained traditions and resisted external challenges in this era of expanding Western hegemony. [Reconstruct patterns of historical succession and duration]