IB History of the Americas HL Year 1 & 2

Grade Level: 11 and 12

Credits: 2 US History Humanities credits (Year 1); 2 Elective credits (Year 2) 2-year, 5-day per week course

IB History is a two-year course, with prescribed syllabus topics spread across the four semesters. The course is designed to help students be successful on the IB History (HL) exam at the end of year two.

In this first year of a two-year sequence, students in IB HL History Year 1 will begin by investigating the colonial era followed by independence movements in the United States and Latin America following their colonial foundations. Students will examine the Founder’s arguments in the debate about the ratification of the Constitution and the subsequent strength and weakness of this transformative document. Students will then investigate the parallel developments of abolitionist sentiment, Westward Expansion, and American slavery, which resulted in a sectional division that led to disunion in law, economics, society and politics and culminated in the Civil War and Reconstruction. Next, students will examine the key turning points in the early 20th century such as the Progressive Era and the global conditions that led to the Great Depression and how countries in the Americas grappled with its impacts. Students will then explore both the domestic and foreign impact of U.S. Foreign Policy between 1880 and 1973. StudentswillconcludetheyearbyexploringtheoriginsandimpactofSocialMovementsofthe1950’s,1960’s, 1970’s. The course culminates with an in-depth IB style research based historical investigation as well as the US History and Government Regents Exam.

InIBHLHistoryYear2(12th Grade)students focus on developments across the globe from 1800 - 2000, specifically those involving post-colonial conflicts. The course begins with global independence movements, specifically Haiti, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe and asking ourselves what makes fledgling nation states successful. Next, students examine authoritarian governments under Adolf Hitler in Germany, Mao Zedong in China, and Fidel Castro in Cuba This is following by continuing to study Rights and Protests began in year two but now with the focus on the fight againstApartheid. The course also involves students completing the IB Internal Assessment for History ,which is an in-depth research assignment: Historical Investigation requirement over the course of the fall and winter. The course culminates with the IB HL History Exam. Students must earn a yearlong average of 65% or higher in Year 1 in order to move on to Year 2.

Prerequisite: Acceptance into the full Diploma Program or a minimum average of 75% in Global History 10 as well as minimum score of 65% on the Global History Regents Exam.