You will be using one of the 4 perspectives below (that I will assign to you), in order to answer the

questions in the packet. Keep that perspective in mind when answering all questions.

Perspectives of Imperial Powers Perspectives of New Empire Builders

Fundamental Question: Does this development Fundamental Question: Does this development
help me maintain or expand my empire? grow my empire while older imperial powers
decline?
At the start of the twentieth century, you sit, so to speak,
on top of the world. Over the course of the last century, One hundred years ago, you looked on as other powers,
you built up your country’s industrial power and used like Britain and France, held dominion over the world.
the economic and military might it brought you to Britain built its industrial base and used that economic
conquer other countries around the world. More than just might to drive competitors around the world out of
national glory is at stake. Your industrial economy takes business while building an empire on which the sun,
while it gives. It produces great wealth but requires a famously, never set.
steady stream of raw materials with which to produce.
The colonies provide them. Your factories can out- So, too, with the French, who built an empire only
produce the manufacturers of any non-industrialized slightly less titanic than that of the British.
country. But without buyers for your products, your You were behind in the imperial game, even fifty years
businesses are bound to fail. The millions over whom ago. But now, the future looks bright as you look
you rule across your empire are consumers your forward to the twentieth century. It is not that your
businesses need. empire is as big as that of the British
Crown—not yet. You know, though, that what goes up
At some basic level, you sense that you need your must come down. The French are big, and the British
colonies more than they need you. You have a sinking bigger. To you, however, this only means that they have
feeling that your colonies have come to this realization, more to lose.
too. With apprehension, you look ahead to the future.
Growing independence movements of all sorts have How can you beat the powers that rigged the rules of the
increased the cost of colonial occupation. If the strength game in their own favor? Not just by copying them, but
of these movements grows, they will threaten not only by bettering them. Your factories need to be more
the profitability of your empire but its existence. productive and your businesses more efficient. Your
armies must be better trained and better armed.
Add to this pressure from without a pressure from Whatever the means, you need to make sure that your
within. A small but growing segment of your own empire grows, either economically or geographically,
population, not entirely but largely socialist or ideally both. Other empires may need to shrink for this
communist in their political orientation, echoes the anti- to happen.
imperialist call of the independence movements and
couples it with calls for a more equal distribution of This is a tall order and at no point can you afford to rest.
wealth at home. The critique is not just moral, but This is a national project: the particular desires of elites
economic. This part of the population would prefer to and, more pressing, working classes must be
see government spending on social services rather than subordinated to the larger, more important goal of
on exploiting and keeping order in overseas colonies. national greatness. You want your rich to enrich
themselves further but not on behalf of foreign capital.
You are not the only empire in the world, either. You You want your workers to be able to afford the products
have not only the old rivals from the past but new they make in the factories, but you want them to love
industrial powers. They have rapidly-growing and serve the nation, not a particular social class.
economies and the newest technologies. Socialists and communists would divide the nation into
All your rivals would like to expand their economic competing or even warring classes, and they oppose the
reach in the world at the expense of your own. achievement of national glory through imperial
expansion.
Looking ahead fifty years to 1950, your main goal is the
same as it was in the nineteenth century: expand your You learned the rules of the game in the past century. To
empire. If you cannot do that, then, at the very least, do be a Great Power, you build an industrial, capitalist
not let it shrink. economy at home and secure access to materials and
Main examples: Great Britain, France, Russia. markets with a colonial empire. The bigger the empire,
the greater the Great Power. As the twentieth century
 begins, you are playing the game to win.
Main examples: United States, Germany, Japan.

Perspectives of Colonized Peoples Perspectives of Socialists

Fundamental Question: Does this development Fundamental Question: Does this development
help colonies become free of imperial domination? diminish the power of capitalism in the world and
increase the power of workers?
By no measure can you argue that the nineteenth century
was good for your country. It is not that all was well one The Industrial Revolution of the last century gave
hundred years ago. Even then, European countries like humanity more power over the world than any other
the Netherlands, France, and Britain ruled over much of single development in history. At the same time, it
the globe through their colonial empires, leeching raw produced widespread misery. Never before had laboring
materials from conquered lands to feed their growing people produced, you argue, so much wealth for so
industrial economies. Even in the regions which relatively few, while gaining so little for themselves.
remained politically independent, the industrial centers And yet you are hopeful. The simple fact that human
exerted a sort of economic centrifugal force, sucking beings can produce so much in the age of industry lets
wealth from the peripheries, from countries like your you know that the means exist to solve age-old human
own. problems. All that remains is to get unrestrained
capitalism, based as it is on the private ownership of
You know where you need to go, but not quite how to productive wealth, out of the way.
get there. You could push for independence, but the odds
seem to be against you. Your elites might come to terms Therein lies the problem. On the surface, the capitalists
with the imperialists but probably never as equals. of the world hold all the advantages. Though labor
drives modern world production, capital organizes it, not
Asking for independence is like asking the winning side only through corporations and banks but also through
to forfeit the game. Demanding it, however, could states and militaries. At the start of the twentieth
become ugly, if, say, your demands are put forward by century, the international working class—factory
intellectuals without connection to the masses. In that workers in industrialized countries, newly emancipated
case you have too little popular support to back up your slaves in the Western Hemisphere, peasants in the
demands. Ugly, too, if your demands take the form of a colonies—seems woefully disunited in the face of
mass movement. A mass movement creates real capitalist oppressors.
pressure, but the imperialists’ reprisals would surely fall
hard on your people. You are certain, however, that the situation is not as it
appears. Capitalism as a system is dynamic, but
Of course, the country that colonized you is not the only unstable. How could a system which takes competition
industrial power in the world. At times you wonder if it as its cardinal virtue be anything but unstable? In the last
would be best to seek help from one of the rival century, empires gobbled up lands across the globe,
industrial powers. Perhaps the enemy of your enemy is particularly in Africa. Now, the imperial appetite for
your friend. But perhaps not. Your goal is independence, resources and markets remains, but unclaimed lands are
not to exchange one colonial master for another. You few. Empires, you are sure, will soon go to war to take
know that at root all industrial powers have the same what belongs to the others. Then, with their attention on
needs: raw materials and markets. You could change the each other, they will lose their grip not only on their
colonizer, but you would remain a colony economically, colonies but also on their own workers.
if in no other way.
Your goal in the new century is to restrain capitalism,
Many of your people, both intellectuals and laborers, see replacing the excesses of that system with a new world
in the international socialist movement an answer to economy dedicated to social justice. Your communist
your problems. The industrialized world’s strongest friends, who are more radical socialists, want to
critiques of imperialism are voiced by socialists and terminate capitalism altogether. It is true that what
communists. You are intrigued but concerned. The motivates an urban factory worker is different from what
socialists and communists want your independence too, motivates a peasant, but both groups share the same
but they see it as a part of class struggle. Do they really capitalist enemy. In the next half-century, you know you
understand the racism you face in the colonies? And will see that system crumble.
after independence, socialists and communists might ask Primary examples: Russia/USSR, China.
your workers and peasants to rise against your own
upper classes.
Primary examples: India, Vietnam, Nigeria.

Directions: Answer these questions using the Power Point and your assigned perspective.
Please answer the questions in a different font or color than the question itself. Submit to
TurnItIn once completed. This will be counted as a quiz.

Maps Discussion Questions:

1. How much of the world based on the first map is dominated by Europe in 1900? Based
on what you know about the nineteenth century and on your perspective (Imperial
Powers, New Empire Builders, Colonized Peoples, or Socialists), why would this be the
case?

2. In 1900, which continents are the least independent? Which are the most independent?
From your perspective, is this a good or bad way to organize the world? Why?

3. By 1950, how has the world changed? Which areas have become more or less
independent? Which countries have gained and lost power in the world? From your
perspective, are these changes positive or negative? Why?

World Population Discussion Questions:

4. Which parts of the world had the largest population in 1850? Which in 1950? Did one of
these regions grow more quickly than the other? Why do you think this might have
happened?

5. Based on your perspective (Imperial Powers, New Empire Builders, Colonized Peoples,
or Socialists), were the changes in the world’s population by 1950 good for you or not?
Why do you say so?
War Deaths Discussion Questions:

6. In what parts of the world did most of the killing in war take place between 1900 and
1925? Between 1925 and 1950? What changed between the two periods and what stayed
the same?

7. From your perspective (Imperial Powers, New Empire Builders, Colonized Peoples, or
Socialists), how would you explain why the war deaths happened where they did, based
on what you know? Why do you think so many people were killed?

8. Would the wars of 1900-1950 make it easier or more difficult for you to attain the goals
of your perspective? Why do you think so? Which perspectives are helped most by these
wars? Which are hurt most?

World GDP Discussion Questions:

9. In 1870, which regional group had the largest share of world GDP? How much greater
was its share than that of other regions? How did the distribution of GDP change by
1913? Did the basic distribution change or did the trends from 1870 continue? How did
the distribution change by 1950? Do you think it was fundamentally different than that in
1870, basically similar, or somewhere in between?

10. Why? Why do you think some regions in those years had so much greater a share of GDP
than others? What do you know in history that might make the wealthier regions wealthy
and the poorer poor?

11. From your perspective (Imperial Powers, New Empire Builders, Colonized Peoples, or
Socialists), is the distribution of GDP in this period a helpful development or a harmful
one? Did the changes over the period help or harm your interests? Why?

Regional Share of Exports Discussion Questions

12. Which region or regions played the most dominant role(s) in international trade in 1870?
Which played lesser roles? From your understanding of history, what would have led to
 this balance? How had those roles changed by 1913? By 1950? Why do you think this
might have happened?

13. Which regions of the world found their share of participation changing the most over the
course of this period? Which changed the least? From what you know, what do you think
might have changed certain regions’ roles more, or less, and in a positive or negative
direction?

14. From your perspective (Imperial Powers, New Empire Builders, Colonized Peoples, or
Socialists), was the distribution of regional share of exports a basically positive or
negative thing in this period? Why? Did it change for the better or worse over the course
of the period? Why?

Data: Percent of Population Living in Cities as Percentage of Total

Population Discussion Questions

15. Which regions were the most urban in 1890? Which were the least urban? Based on your
knowledge of the nineteenth century, why do you think this would be so?

16. Which regions were the most urban in 1950? Which were the least? Based on what you
know, why do you think the situation changed or stayed the same?

17. From your perspective (Imperial Powers, New Empire Builders, Colonized Peoples, or
Socialists), is this regional distribution of urban population a basically positive or
negative thing? Did it become more or less positive as time passed? Why do you think
so?