Download Introduction: Thinking Historically Proficiencies

World History Proficiencies
Goals:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the major events in modern
world history.
2. Trace four key themes in the development of world history
and understand their impact on the present and their
implications for the future:
a. The interactions among world civilizations in the modern
era
b. Development of representative government, democratic
citizenship, and individual rights in the modern era
c. Development of nation-states and nationalism
d. The rise of Western global dominance: the growth of the
economic and imperial power of the Western world.
3. Read critically as historians do, evaluating sources, placing
readings in historical context, and using primary sources to
corroborate or challenge historical interpretations.
4. Communicate an understanding of history in oral, written,
and multimedia formats.
5. Develop an awareness of current issues that pose challenges
for the global community.
Readings:
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Students will download a World History iBook onto their
laptops.
Additional primary source readings and secondary essays by
leading historians will be accessed from Haiku
FIRST SEMESTER
Introduction: Thinking Historically Proficiencies
Students will be able to
1. Understand the distinction between primary and secondary
sources.
2. Define sourcing questions, context questions, and
corroboration questions.
3. Understand the elements of an effective history paragraph.
Unit 1: Globalization 1.0 Proficiencies:
Students will be able to…
1. Identify and describe economic, religious, and political factors
that led to the first era of globalization: the age of exploration.
2. Evaluate the role of technological innovations in exploration.
3. Describe Portugal and Spain’s first voyages of exploration and
the alternative routes explored by France, England, and the
Netherlands.
4. Describe the world civilizations Europeans encountered as they
explored and assess the impact of Chinese, Islamic, and West
African civilizations on European exploration.
5. Describe the colonial empires established by Spain, Portugal,
France, the Netherlands, and England in the Americas.
6. Explain the factors that led to the origins of the Atlantic slave
trade and assess its impact on individuals and societies.
7. Assess the impact of disease on conquest and colonization.
8. Explain the concept of the Columbian exchange; give examples,
and evaluate its impact on Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
9. Explain the concept of the commercial revolution and describe
the system of global trade that placed Europe at the center of
things.
10. Discuss the importance of trade and empire as a measure of
national power and describe how the policy of mercantilism
related to national goals.
Unit 2: Renaissance and Reformation Proficiencies
Students will be able to
1. Define the term "Renaissance" and describe factors that explain
its origins in Italy.
2. Define the concept of "humanism" and explain how the values of
the Renaissance gave renewed importance to the individual.
3. Identify major Renaissance writers and their important works;
explain how they reflect the values of the Renaissance and focus
on issues of importance to Renaissance thinkers.
4. Identify characteristics of Renaissance art, comparing and
contrasting Renaissance art with the art of the Middle Ages and
classical Greece. Illustrate the characteristics of Renaissance art
using specific artists and works of art from the High
Renaissance.
5. Assess the role of technology in spreading new ideas during the
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era of the Renaissance and Reformation.
Explain how scientists challenged both ancient beliefs and
Church teaching about the origins of the universe; identify the
important scientists who presented a new model of the universe.
Describe the background causes of the Protestant Reformation,
evaluating impact of (1) problems within the Catholic Church,
(2) political issues that contributed to the split, (3) social and
technological factors that played a role in the Reformation,
Assess the role of Martin Luther and John Calvin in the
Reformation; identify disagreements with the Catholic Church
that led them to break away, evaluate the social and political
impacts of Protestant ideas, show on a map the geographic
division of Christianity that resulted from the Protestant
Reformation.
Explain the political problems that led Henry VIII to seek a
divorce, the religious tensions that emerged under his children,
and the compromise Church of England that emerged during the
reign of Elizabeth I.
Unit 3: English Revolution and the Enlightenment Proficiencies
Students will be able to
1. Explain the importance of the Magna Carta and the Model
Parliament in limiting royal power and establishing
constitutional government.
2. Explain the clash over political power between James I and
Charles I and Parliament and assess the importance of other
factors such as religion and economic issues.
3. List and explain the events that led to the outbreak of the
English Civil War under Charles I and identify the factors that
led to Parliament’s victory in the Civil War.
4. Describe the changes instituted by Cromwell and explain why
England restored the monarchy under Charles II.
5. Explain why a second revolt erupted during the reign of James
II and evaluate the Glorious Revolution as a triumph of
Parliament over royal power and for individual rights.
6. Summarize the Enlightenment outlook and describe the impact
of the English and Scientific revolutions on Enlightenment
thinking.
7. Describe the ideas of the major philosophes (Locke,
Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire, Beccaria) and assess their
contributions to the Enlightenment ideas about government
and law.
8. Assess Enlightenment attitudes toward women and explain how
Mary Wollstonecraft challenged these ideas.
9. Explain how the Enlightenment changed ideas about the role of
the individual in society.
Unit 4: French Revolution Proficiencies
Students will be able to
1. Analyze political, social, and economic background causes of the
French Revolution, evaluating the common and separate
grievances of the Third Estate.
2. Identify and describe the key events of 1789 and evaluate the
Revolution of 1789 as a widespread popular revolt that drew
support from a broad range of groups in France.
3. Define political positions on the “political spectrum.”
4. Evaluate the positive achievements of the moderate revolution
as well as the problems that led to its fall.
5. Explain the Reign of Terror as a radical phase of the French
Revolution and decide to what extent the radical revolution
betrayed the ideals of the French Revolution.
6. Assess the factors that led to the rise of Napoleon and evaluate
his actions as the leader of France.
7. Analyze the factors that led to Napoleon’s fall from power.
8. Discuss the impact of Napoleon on the spread of nationalism and
of revolutionary ideas in Nineteenth Century Europe.
9. Describe the political re-organization of post-Napoleonic Europe
and assess the success and failure of the goals of the Congress
of Vienna.
SECOND SEMESTER
Unit 5: Machine Culture and the Industrial Revolution
Students will be able to
1. Understand the significance of the industrial revolution as a
turning point in history.
2. Explain why the industrial revolution began in Great Britain.
3. Assess the economic and social impact of industrialization.
4. Evaluate the impact of unions and political reforms on the lives
of the working classes in Britain
5. Describe and contrast the fundamental principles of laissez-faire
capitalism and the leading figures associated with it.
6. Identify the aims of Utopian socialism and explain its limitations
as a system that could improve the lives of many workers.
7. Identify the key principles of Marxism, contrast Marxism with
utopian socialism and with capitalism, and critique the ideas of
Karl Marx.
8. Describe the process of reform that gradually extended the right
to vote in Britain to all adults.
9. Describe the removal of social and economic barriers for women
in Great Britain.
Unit 6: The New Imperialism: the West and the World
Proficiencies
Students will be able to
1. Compare and contrast “old colonialism” with “New Imperialism.”
2. Analyze the background causes of the New Imperialism, and
evaluate the role technology played in 19th century empire
building.
3. Assess the motivations of the individual Great Powers and
evaluate the role of economics as a background cause of
imperialism.
4. Explain how Great Power rivalries led to the “scramble for
Africa;” evaluate the roles played by competing national
interests and changing geopolitical realities.
5. Assess the short-term impacts and long-term consequences of
African imperialism on African peoples.
6. Explain the role of the “Indian Mutiny” in Britain’s decision to
impose more direct and formal forms of imperial control.
7. Trace the origins in the 19th and growth in the 20th century of
Indian nationalism and assess the role of Gandhi.
8. Identify and explain the factors that weakened the Qing Dynasty
by the nineteenth century.
9. Explain the economic motivations that led to the Opium Wars
and identify and explain the “unequal treaties” imposed on
China.
10. Describe the goals of the Meiji Restoration and analyze the
methods employed by Japan to achieve their modernizing project.
Unit 7: The Great War
Students will be able to
1. Evaluate the impact of the unification of Germany on the balance
of power in Europe and on France.
2. Analyze the background and immediate causes of World War I.
3. Evaluate the impact of technology and new weapons on the
nature of the fighting and on the course of the war.
4. Understand the factors that led to the entrance of the U.S. and
the exit of Russia.
5. Explain the factors that led to the conclusion of the war.
6. Analyze the goals Woodrow Wilson and the other members of
the “Big Four” at the Paris Peace Conference.
7. Describe the key provisions of the Treaty of Versailles and assess
its impact on Germany and for Europe in the inter-war period.
8. Identify changes to the map of Europe and the Middle East at
the end of the Great War.
9. Evaluate the impact of the contradictory promises made by the
Allies regarding the future of Ottoman lands after the war.
10. Contrast the creation of Turkey and Saudi Arabia with the
establishment of Iraq; identify sectarian and ethnic problems in
ignored by the British.
11. Evaluate Britain’s handling of its “mandate” in Palestine.
12. Explain how the failure of the UN Partition plan was the
beginning of a sixty-year failure to find a “two-state solution” for
Arabs and Jews.
Unit 8: Totalitarianism and Total War Proficiencies
Students will be able to
1. Explain long-standing problems in Russia that set the stage for
revolution.
2. Evaluate the role of World War I and the mistakes made by
Nicholas and Alexandra that led to the first Russian Revolution.
3. List and describe errors made by Kerensky and the provisional
government that led the Bolshevik Revolution.
4. Assess Lenin’s role in the successful establishment of a Marxist
revolution in Russia.
5. List and describe key characteristics of a totalitarian state.
6. Describe the steps taken by Stalin to strengthen a totalitarian
system in the Soviet Union.
7. Explain the factors that allowed Hitler to rise to power in
Germany.
8. Analyze the ways Hitler consolidated his power and established a
totalitarian state in Germany.
9. Trace the aggressive steps Hitler took in the 1930s that led
Europe to war in 1939.
10.
Define appeasement and assess the response of the Allies to
Hitler’s aggression.
11.
Trace the course of the Holocaust from pre-war harassment
and legal restrictions through the genocide of the “Final
Solution.”