May 31, 2016 - Final Exam Review

Final Exam Review Materials

The exam will take the format of 100 multiple choice questions and two essays - there will also be extra credit that is worth up to 5% of the exam.

These are the essay questions that you will be answering on the final exam:

1. What is the meaning of the word “Modern” in the “Modern World” and is the whole world currently “Modern”?

Recognize that this question is really two questions – each should get a paragraph. First, you will need to explain what you mean by modern - think in terms of political, economic and social systems –as well as access to technology. Second, you will need to explain how well the countries of the world fit into your idea of "modern".

2.  Imagine that you have been hired by the United States Department of State as a foreign policy strategist. What do you think are the three largest challenges facing the United States today and how should the United States deal with these challenges?

Recognize that identifying the three largest challenges is only the first part of answering this question. The second part, "how to deal with them", will involve addressing the history that created these challenges and noting how your solution is the best choice given the history.  Do not think that you can get a good grade by going all Trump and simply bluster through an answer without logic or facts.

Your answers should have the following format:

• First Paragraph – Thesis statement only.
• Supporting Paragraphs – start with a topic sentence and include relevant facts. 
• No Conclusion Paragraph

Important points to remember:

These are both open essay questions. There is no one correct answer for these essays. Instead, you will be graded based on the content of your answers – the more specific and detailed your essay the better.

These essays are based on the concept that an education is only truly tested when it is challenged to do something new.

I am giving you these questions with the expectation that you will discuss them with each other and other people.

I will not do your thinking for you. You need to state relevant facts and specifically make important connections in your writing.

May 27, 2016 - Importance of the Islamic Revolution

Homework - Write a response to question, "Should the Islamic Revolution be considered to be a historic event on the same scale as the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution?"

Your answer should be no more than one page in length single spaced.

Your answer should clearly explain how you think about the historical scale of the impact from the French and Russian Revolutions.

You need to include historic facts to support your answer.

You should think about this homework assignment as being equivalent to a test answer - I will be grading it out of 20 points.  This means that your answer should be clear and logical, but it does  not need to take the form of an essay answer.

Due - Tuesday, May 31, 2016

In addition, I have moved the due date for the Documentary project to June 8, 2016.

May 20, 2016 - Modern Middle East

Homework - For next class,  you should read the assignment "Overview of Modern Middle East" and answer the questions (these are available on the class web page and here).

On Wednesday, you will have a quiz on the reading notes for the Modern Middle East.

May 16, 2016 - Africa Source Materials

Homework Friday (5/20) - Use the following source materials about Modern Africa to answer the assigned questions. The assignment is available on the class web page and here.

Thursday's class will be for checking in on your documentary projects - You need to have a "General Thesis" for your project.

  Source # 1 - Colonial Rule of Africa & Ghana - click here



Source # 2 - Ghana Becomes Independent - click here



Source # 3 - Problems in Ghana after Independence - click here



Source # 4 - Independence Comes to Africa - click here



Biography - Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in 1918 to a chieftain family in the Xhosa tribe in South Africa. He was one of thirteen children. His father named him Rolihlahla, which means "pulling the branch of the tree", or more colloquially "troublemaker." The name Nelson was not given until his first day at school. Mandela attended a missionary school and college, before studying at the University of Fort Hare (South Africa's first university college for Black Africans). He was expelled from the Fort Hare for political activism. Mandela moved to black township outside of Johannesburg, where he worked as a clerk in a law firm and studied law at night. He studied law with Seretse Khama, who would later become the first president of an independent Botswana.

In 1944, Mandela joined the African National Congress or ANC. Mandela thought the organization was "a dying order of pseudo-liberalism and conservatism, of appeasement and compromise." Mandela and other young ANC leaders formed the African National Congress Youth League to change the ANC from the inside. Over the next few years, Mandela rose in leadership within the ANC.

In the early 1950’s, the South African government began to go after both Mandela and the ANC by using the Suppression of Communism Act to ban Mandela from holding an official position in the ANC and limiting his travel to the area around Johannesburg. In response, the ANC developed the M-plan (M for Mandela) that would allow the ANC to keep operating even if it was made an illegal organization by the government. In addition, Mandela secretly traveled around the country, including attending the Congress of the People in 1955 to watch the adoption of the Freedom Charter.  The Freedom Charter begins with the statement, "We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know: that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people..."

In response to the Freedom Charter, the South African government arrested the leadership of the ANC and charged them with "high treason and a countrywide conspiracy to use violence to overthrow the present government and replace it with a communist state." However, in the "Treason Trial" the government was unable to prove its case and in 1961, Mandela and his 29 co-defendants were acquitted.

After the violent police response to the Sharpeville protests, Mandela had the ANC set up a military organization called “Spear of the Nation”. In addition, Mandela left South Africa to meet other African leaders and to go to Europe to get support. in 1962, when he returned to South Africa, Mandela was arrested and sentenced to five years for "incitement and illegally leaving the country".

While already in jail, the South African government put Mandela on trial and found guilty in 1964 for his leadership in the Spear of the Nation, which included counts of "sabotage, preparing for guerrilla warfare in SA, and for preparing an armed invasion of SA". Mandela sentenced to life in prison. In his final statement before being taken away, Mandela said,

"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

By 1989 it was clear that the South African government could not maintain the Apartheid system and the South African president FW de Klerk began secret meetings with Mandela about how to dismantle Apartheid. In 1990, de Klerk released Mandela from prison. After this, Mandela and de Klerk worked together to change the South African constitution to make it a democracy with voting rights for all. Both men shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for their work. In 1994, Mandela was elected president of South Africa. In his inaugural presidential speech, Mandela said,

"We have at last, achieved our political emancipation. we pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender, and other discrimination. Never, never, and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another... Let freedom reign. God Bless Africa!"

As president, Mandela worked to ease the dangerous political differences in his country and to build up the South African economy. To a remarkable degree he was successful in his aims. Mandela's skill at building compromise and his enormous personal authority helped him lead the transition to democracy. In an effort to help the country heal, he also backed the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission which offered amnesty (exemption from criminal prosecution) to those who had committed crimes during the apartheid era. This action helped to promote discussion about the country's history.

In 1997 Nelson Mandela stepped down as leader of the ANC in favor of Thabo Mbeki, and in 1999 he relinquished the post of president. In retirement Mandela campaigned for AIDS prevention and treatment and for more international support for African development.  Mandela died in 2013 at age 95.

Source # 5 - Apartheid Falls in South Africa - click here
Note - You will have to be logged into your BHS Google account to watch the video

May 12, 2016

Homework - For Monday (5/16) finish reading read the Modern Africa notes - this is the sections on South Africa & Zimbabwe. There will be a quiz on this at the start of Monday's class.

Important - Keep doing research on your documentary project.  You will need to have your General Thesis for next week. 

May 9, 2016 - Modern Africa

Homework - For Thursday (5/12) read the Modern Africa notes up to the section "South Africa".  There will be a quiz on this at the start of Thursday's class.

Wednesday's class will be spend working on the Documentary Project.

May 6, 2016 - Test on Modern Asia

Test - The class will have a test on Modern Asia next Tuesday (5/10).  The test will have the short answer format that was common in the first part of the year - four questions will be asked and you will answer two of the questions.

Here are past test questions that you can use to study:

1. How is the Japanese model of "authoritarian development" different from Western liberal capitalism and how has this model affected the rest of Asia?

2. How did World War Two help Mao defeat Chiang Kai-shek in the struggle over China?

3. What does Deng Xiaoping’s quote, “What does it matter is the cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice” show about how his approach to ruling China was different from Mao’s approach?

4. How did the American and Soviet conflict of the Cold War shape the development of Asia in the second half of the twentieth century?

5. How did the Japanese model of "authoritarian development" result in the Asian Tigers?

6. How has the process of growing international trade affected the region of Asia?

7. After his death, the modern Chinese government sum up Mao’s legacy as one who was pure of thought but misguided in his actions.  Is Mao a positive or negative force in Chinese history?

May 3, 2016 - Modern China

Homework for Friday (5/6)  - Use the following source materials about World War Two in Asia to answer the assigned questions. The assignment is available on the class web page and here.

Biography - Deng Xiaoping

Deng Xiaoping was born in 1904 to a family of landlords in China. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1924 while studying France. Before returning to China in 1926 he went to Moscow, where he studied for several months. After returning to China he joined with Mao in organizing peasants into a communist force in southern China and was leader in the Long March. Deng was described as very talented and intelligent - he was nicknamed, "a living encyclopedia". During the civil war against the KMT, Deng proved to be a very good and pragmatic leader. After Mao established the People's Republic of China, Deng became part of the Politburo, or group of leaders of China. Mao used Deng to work with the government of the Soviet Union in getting Soviet aid for China.

Mao and Deng's close relationship broke down as a result of the failed Great Leap Forward. Deng was one of the more moderate Chinese leaders who pushed Mao out of power in order to save the country from the terrible famine. The reforms that Deng made stopped the famine and helped China recover. However, Mao was furious over losing power and plotted on how to get back at Deng. In 1966, Mao launched the Cultural Revolution. Deng and his family were force to move to rural China. Deng was forced to work in a factory cafeteria. His son was attacked by the Red Guard, who threw him out of a fourth story window and left him paralyzed.

The Cultural Revolution resulted in chaos across China and the communist leaders realized they needed Deng's talents in ruling China. In 1973, Deng returned to power. When Mao died in 1976, Deng emerged as the leader of China. His first action was to punish the communist leaders who had punished him during the Cultural Revolution by having them arrested and jailed - this included Mao's widow.

Deng opened China to trade with the rest of the world and allowed foreign countries to build factories in China to take advantage of cheap Chinese workers. In short, Deng turned China away from a Communist system to a Capitalist system and the result was the economy of China began to grow at a rapid rate and quality of life for the average Chinese person began to improve, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Deng’s willingness to change his policies based on their effectiveness, instead of being based only on communist ideals, is best described in Deng’s saying, “What does it matter if a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice.”

In addition, while Deng gave the Chinese people more economic freedom, he did not give them political freedom. In 1989, when a large group of students began to protest for democracy in Tienanmen Square in the center of Beijing (the capital city) , Deng ordered the army to crush the protests - hundred of people were killed by the army. The Tienanmen Square Massacre showed that Deng thought that the communist party would not give up power the way it had in the Soviet Union. After this, Deng slowly gave power to younger leaders who would continue his market reforms without changing the political structure of the communist dictatorship. In his last years Deng started debate within the Communist Party on the need to balance economic reform with political stability. Deng died in 1997 at age ninety-two.

Source # 1 - Video on Deng Xiaoping's reforms in China - click here

Source # 2 - Video on Tienanmen Square protests - click here

Source # 3 - Video on China in the 1990's - click here


Source # 4 - Video on how well the image of the "Tank Man" is known in China today - click here

Source # 5 - Video on China's transformation from the first British trade expedition to the present day - click here