World History,
Culture, and Geography: The Modern World
Students in grade nine study major turning points that shaped the modern world,
from the late eighteenth century through the present, including the cause and
course of the two world wars. They trace the rise of democratic ideas and
develop an understanding of the historical roots of current world issues,
especially as they pertain to international relations. They extrapolate from the
American experience that democratic ideals are often achieved at a high price,
remain vulnerable, and are not practiced everywhere in the world. Students
develop an understanding of current world issues and relate them to their
historical, geographic, political, economic, and cultural contexts. Students
consider multiple accounts of events in order to understand international
relations from a variety of perspectives.
STANDARD 1:
Demonstrate an understanding that problems in the contemporary world are caused
and impacted by economic, social, geographic, historical, political, and other
cultural factors.
- Describe the relationship of geography and history to the political,
economic, and social problems in many countries
- Describe the possible solutions, resolutions, or means of living with
unresolved dilemmas
- Analyze the ways in which citizens and organizations can work to resolve
many of the current problems; (e.g., role of the United Nations, regional
and international organizations)
A sample of a specific activity:
Acting as a representative of the United States who is
addressing an international audience, the student makes a presentation outlining
a current world problem, its roots and developments, and suggests possible
solutions or policies to resolve the problem that are well reasoned and
substantiated with facts.
STANDARD 2:
Identify the sources and describe the development of democratic principles in
Western Europe and the United States.
- Analyze the similarities and differences in Judeo-Christian and
Greco-Roman views of law, reason and faith, and duties of the individual
- Trace the development of the Western political ideas of the rule of law
and illegitimacy of tyranny from Greek and Roman antecedents
- Consider the influence of the U.S. Constitution on political systems in
the contemporary world
- Compare the major ideas of philosophers and their effects on the
democratic revolutions in England, the United States, France, and Latin
America (e.g., John Locke, Charles-Louis Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
Simón Bolívar, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison)
- List the principles of the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights (1689),
the American Declaration of Independence (1776), the French Declaration of
the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789), and the U.S. Bill of Rights (1791)
- Understand the unique character of the American Revolution, its spread to
other parts of the world, and its continuing significance to other nations
- Explain how the ideology of the French Revolution led France to develop
from constitutional monarchy to democratic despotism to the Napoleonic
empire
- Describe the influence of democratic ideas on the United Nations
Declaration of Human Rights
A sample of a specific activity:
After examining major documents (such as the
Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the English
Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Rights of Man, or the United Nation’s
Universal Declaration of Human Rights) for specific democratic principles they
contain, the student makes a comparison chart showing how certain principles
appear in these documents. To accompany the chart, the student makes a narrative
map showing the place or origination of these principles and indicating the
approximate time in which they seemed to have emerged. Notable persons, such as
Plato, Locke, and King John, should be included in the narrative.
STANDARD 3:
Analyze the effects of the Industrial Revolution in England, France, Germany,
Japan, and the United States.
- Analyze why England was the first country to industrialize
- Discuss how nationalism spread across Europe with Napoleon but was
repressed for a generation under the Congress of Vienna and Concert of
Europe until the Revolutions of 1848
- Examine how scientific and technological changes and new forms of energy
brought about massive social, economic, and cultural change (e.g., the
inventions and discoveries of James Watt, Eli Whitney, Henry Bessemer, Louis
Pasteur, Thomas Edison)
- Describe the growth of population, rural to urban migration, and growth of
cities associated with the Industrial Revolution
- Trace the evolution of work and labor, including the demise of the slave
trade and the effects of immigration, mining and manufacturing, division of
labor, and the union movement
- Understand the connections among natural resources, entrepreneurship,
labor, and capital in an industrial economy
- Analyze the emergence of capitalism as a dominant economic pattern and the
responses to it, including Utopianism, Social Democracy, Socialism, and
Communism
- Describe the emergence of Romanticism in art and literature (e.g., the
poetry of William Blake and William Wordsworth), social criticism (e.g., the
novels of Charles Dickens), and the move away from Classicism in Europe
A sample of a specific activity:
After reading historical accounts and excerpts from
such books as Hard Times by Charles Dickens, the student describes
the effects of early industrialization on the environment and on the lives of
individuals. The description includes examples from the materials read. The
student also correctly identifies the characteristics that led to
industrialization in England and explains the benefits resulting from
industrialization, comparing it to the social costs and the human-environmental
consequences that resulted.
STANDARD 4:
Analyze patterns of global change in the era of New Imperialism in at least two
of the following regions or countries: Africa, Southeast Asia, China, India,
Latin America, and the Philippines.
- Describe the rise of industrial economies and their link to imperialism
and colonial-ism (e.g., the role played by national security and strategic
advantage; moral issues raised by the search for national hegemony, Social
Darwinism, and the missionary impulse; material issues such as land,
resources, and technology)
- Discuss the locations of the colonial rule of such nations as England,
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Portugal, and
the United States
- Explain imperialism from the perspective of the colonizers and the
colonized and the varied immediate and long-term responses by the people
under colonial rule.
- Describe the independence struggles of the colonized regions of the world,
including the roles of leaders, such as Sun Yat-sen in China, and the roles
of ideology and religion
A sample of a specific activity:
The student constructs a time line showing three
distinct stages of Indian history: the British advancement into India (1750 to
1858), the consolidation of British rule (the Raj, 1858 to 1949), and the
independence of India to the present. Then, selecting one event from each of the
three time periods, the student correctly describes the varying responses of
Indian populations to these events; e.g., to the role of the British in India,
the effects of industrialization in India, or the problems of Indian nationalism
compounded by provincial, linguistic, and cultural diversity.
STANDARD 5:
Analyze the causes and course of the First World War.
- Analyze the arguments for entering into war presented by leaders from all
sides of the Great War and the role of political and economic rivalries,
ethnic and ideological conflicts, domestic discontent and disorder, and
propaganda and nationalism in mobilizing the civilian population in support
of "total war"
- Examine the principal theaters of battle, major turning points, and the
importance of geographic factors in military decisions and outcomes (e.g.,
topography, waterways, distance, climate)
- Explain how the Russian Revolution and the entry of the United States
affected the course and outcome of the war
- Understand the nature of the war and its human costs (military and
civilian) on all sides of the conflict, including how colonial peoples
contributed to the war effort
- Discuss human rights violations and genocide, including the Ottoman
government's actions against Armenian citizens
A sample of a specific activity:
The student will write an essay or diagram explaining
the multiple causes of the war and the consequences on the lives of the people.
The student draws from literature and primary sources to illustrate key points.
STANDARD 6:
Analyze the effects of the First World War.
- Analyze the aims and negotiating roles of world leaders, the terms and
influence of the Treaty of Versailles and Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points,
and the causes and effects of the United States's rejection of the League of
Nations on world politics
- Describe the effects of the war and resulting peace treaties on population
movement, the international economy, and shifts in the geographic and
political borders of Europe and the Middle East
- Understand the widespread disillusionment with prewar institutions,
authorities, and values that resulted in a void that was later filled by
totalitarians
- Discuss the influence of World War I on literature, art, and intellectual
life in the West (e.g., Pablo Picasso, the "lost generation" of
Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway)
A sample of a specific activity:
The student will take part in a model League of Nations
which attempts to peacefully resolve the disputes after the war, taking on roles
of different nations involved and representing that specific point of view in
research, debate, and resolution of historical international issues.
STANDARD 7:
Analyze the rise of totalitarian governments after World War I.
- Understand the causes and consequences of the Russian Revolution,
including Lenin's use of totalitarian means to seize and maintain control
(e.g., the Gulag)
- Trace Stalin's rise to power in the Soviet Union and the connection
between economic policies, political policies, the absence of a free press,
and systematic violations of human rights (e.g., the Terror Famine in
Ukraine)
- Analyze the rise, aggression, and human costs of totalitarian regimes
(Fascist and Communist) in Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union, noting
especially their common and dissimilar traits
A sample of a specific activity:
The student will research and develop a presentation
that accurately compares the economic conditions in postwar Germany to those in
Russia that led to totalitarian governments. The presentation also explains the
steps taken by the leaders of each country to establish a totalitarian state and
the effects such actions had on individuals and groups.
STANDARD 8:
Analyze the causes and consequences of World War II.
- Compare the German, Italian, and Japanese drives for empire in the 1930s,
including the 1937 Rape of Nanking, other atrocities in China, and the
Stalin-Hitler Pact of 1939
- Understand the role of appeasement, nonintervention (isolationism), and
the domestic distractions in Europe and the United States prior to the
outbreak of World War II
- Identify and locate the Allied and Axis powers on a map and discuss the
major turning points of the war, the principal theaters of conflict, key
strategic decisions, and the resulting war conferences and political
resolutions, with emphasis on the importance of geographic factors
- Describe the political, diplomatic, and military leaders during the war
(e.g., Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Emperor Hirohito, Adolf
Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight
Eisenhower)
- Analyze the Nazi policy of pursuing racial purity, especially against the
European Jews; its transformation into the Final Solution; and the Holocaust
that resulted in the murder of six million Jewish civilians
- Discuss the human costs of the war, with particular attention to the
civilian and military losses in Russia, Germany, Britain, the United States,
China, and Japan
A sample of a specific activity:
The student will
STANDARD 9:
Analyze the international developments in the post-World World War II world.
- Compare the economic and military power shifts caused by the war,
including the Yalta Pact, the development of nuclear weapons, Soviet control
over Eastern European nations, and the economic recoveries of Germany and
Japan
- Analyze the causes of the Cold War, with the free world on one side and
Soviet client states on the other, including competition for influence in
such places as Egypt, the Congo, Vietnam, and Chile
- Understand the importance of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan,
which established the pattern for America's postwar policy of supplying
economic and military aid to prevent the spread of Communism and the
resulting economic and political competition in arenas such as Southeast
Asia (i.e., the Korean War, Vietnam War), Cuba, and Africa
- Analyze the Chinese Civil War, the rise of Mao Tse-tung, and the
subsequent political and economic upheavals in China (e.g., the Great Leap
Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the Tiananmen Square uprising)
- Describe the uprisings in Poland (1952), Hungary (1956), and
Czechoslovakia (1968) and those countries' resurgence in the 1970s and 1980s
as people in Soviet satellites sought freedom from Soviet control
- Understand how the forces of nationalism developed in the Middle East, how
the Holocaust affected world opinion regarding the need for a Jewish state,
and the significance and effects of the location and establishment of Israel
on world affairs
- Analyze the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union, including the
weakness of the command economy, burdens of military commitments, and
growing resistance to Soviet rule by dissidents in satellite states and the
non-Russian Soviet republics
- Discuss the establishment and work of the United Nations and the purposes
and functions of the Warsaw Pact, SEATO, NATO, and the Organization of
American States
A sample of a specific activity:
The student researches the Marshall Plan and the Truman
Doctrine to identify the economic and political motives of these postwar
American policies. The student then assesses the effectiveness of these policies
in promoting the economic development in Europe and preventing the spread of
Communism.
STANDARD 10:
Analyze instances of nation-building in the contemporary world in at least two
of the following regions or countries: the Middle East, Africa, Mexico and other
parts of Latin America, and China.
- Understand the challenges in the regions, including their geopolitical,
cultural, military, and economic significance and the international
relationships in which they are involved
- Describe the recent history of the regions, including political divisions
and systems, key leaders, religious issues, natural features, resources, and
population patterns
- Discuss the important trends in the regions today and whether they appear
to serve the cause of individual freedom and democracy
A sample of a specific activity:
The student investigates and reports on the challenges
faced by two newly emerging democratic nations. This investigative report
includes an accurate description of the similar problems faced by these nations,
such as prior domination by communist government, their struggles to secure
rights for governments citizens, the development of workable constitutional
governments in the face of ethnic or other cultural strife, and current
difficulties faced by these nations in maintaining their democratic
sovereignties.
STANDARD 11:
Analyze the integration of countries into the world economy and the
information, technological, and communications revolutions (e.g., television,
satellites, computers).
