Chapter 14
Unit 4 World History
The Battle of  the Pyramids by Louis-Francois Baron Lejeune. (Public Domain photo. Info can be found here)
A caricature of Uncle Sam teaching children from various areas of the world. It is pretty obvious how the artist felt about those from countries other than the U.S. in this picture. This is often shown in classrooms as an example of the prejudice in the West at this time. (Public Domain photo. Info can be found here)
As we inch closer to the modern world it is important to cover some of the historical concepts that lead to some of our current issues. This chapter covers one of the concepts that has helped create some of the problems in the next century. The process known as imperialism would change the world in ways that are still being felt today. We cover the most well known examples of imperialism and the immediate effects of that process. Due to the fact that it is hard to view this concept in positive terms, this chapter gets a little bit depressing. I do, however, take a break by giving the students a chance to have a debate over current school curriculum. This helps negate (to an extent) all the negative talk of military and/or economic take overs, murder and genocide that is sometimes associated with the process itself.

Essential questions

The following questions are meant to be studied during the chapter as possible essay questions for your exam.
Please be ready for any of the following questions.
  1. Explain the justifications given for imperialism and why they were a bit strange in retrospect.
  2. How was Leopold able to keep the rest of the world from realizing what he was really doing in the Belgian Congo?
  3. In what was did either the Philippine-American War or the Annexation of Hawaii betray the ideals that the US was founded on?
  4. What specific decisions led to the Sepoy Rebellion and how was this handled?

Chapter Content

Use the following links to find the content you are interested in or use the search bar at the top right to look for specific concepts.

What Is Imperialism 

Justification For Imperialism

Racial Justification

Exploration Leads To Imperialism

New Faces Lead The Imperialist Struggle

The Fight Over Control Of India

The Slow Takeover Of New Zealand

American Imperialism

American Wars With Native Americans Continue

The Barbary Wars

French Empire In West Africa

The US View Of Expansion

US Involvement In Mexico

Issues Between US & Mexico

The Mexican American War

Indian Independence Movements Begin 

Later Wars With Native Americans

French Indochina

South African Imperialism

Discovery of Diamonds Changes Everything

British Rule In South Africa

Scramble For Africa

Africa Under Colonialism

Leopolds Belgian Congo

Philippines Under the Spanish 

The Philippine Revolution 

The Unification of Hawaii 

The Takeover of the Kingdom of Hawaii 

Start of the Spanish-American War 

End of the Spanish-American War 

The Philippine-American War 

Atrocities in the Philippines 

The Herero & Namaqua Genocide 

Class
Resources

The following are a list of helpful resources that can be used in studying for this chapter.

Class Notes

These are the notes that I use for class. All information found in these notes lead directly to the test so they should be used in studying if you want the correct answers. This can only be accessed by students logged into their school account.

Chapter Powerpoint

This link will lead you to the PowerPoint for this unit. Those who missed class can use this to catch up on what was taught in class and what specific concepts to focus on in your studying.

Exam Review

This is the review that should be used to prepare for the exam. All exam questions will be connected directly to this document. Students are expected to answer all questions and are encouraged to know the rest also.

Review Videos

The videos to the right are placed here so that you can find other ways to study if that is your desire. Crash course videos tend to work pretty well for this type of studying as many of the AP World students use them to prep for tests. Please feel free to click on any of the videos in this feed for more info.

This Chapter in the news

Many students don’t realize that history is being debated and rewritten daily. These are stories related to our chapter from the news.

Why politicized Science is dangerous

In this article a fiction writer explains why he thinks that blending politics and science is dangerous. To do this he uses the history of eugenics in this country.

Lessons from history for The Iraq war

One great thing that history helps with is solving current problems. This article covers the possibility that we could use history to help in winning the war in Iraq.