America Becomes A World Power

Students will be able to organize and defend the positive and negative impacts of European and American Imperialism and give reasons why imperialism led to nationalism, militarism, and conflict.

Rationale

The purpose behind this Unit is to introduce how industrialization and imperialism led to the rise of industrialized conflict and warfare. Students will begin to form connections between the Industrial Revolution, imperialism, and Social Darwinism which ultimately led to World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. In addition, students will begin to look at how industrialization exacerbated negative relations between ethnicity and cultures causing numerous cases of human rights violations. Students will also address the role the United States played in global trade, politics, and conflict which gave rise to the policies of isolationism that proved to be largely ineffective for the United States.