History Essay

HIST 2070 Essay 2 Prompts

Choose one of the below essay prompts to answer. Answer in a 5-6 page essay based on the assigned textbook and primary source readings. Suggested primary sources to consult are listed below each question. Choose at least two (2) primary sources to include in your essay.

Essay 2 is due on Sunday, April 23rd by 11:59pm to WRITE Essay (essay 2) dropbox on e-learn.

1. The Industrial Revolution led to a global economic and political shift. Identify and analyze two (2) trends of the Industrial Revolution that led to economic and political changes in industrializing nations. How do these trends also influence and shape either social or cultural ideas or systems.

Possible primary sources to consult: Marx and Engel’s Communist Manifesto, Testimonies of Bentley and Harter, Manifest Destiny, Two Faces of Empire, Mao Zedong’s “On New Democracy”, Senghor’s “African Socialism”

2. Identify and analyze three (3) characteristics of the 2nd wave of imperialism. Identify and explain at least two (2) ways that the 2nd wave of imperialism differed from imperialist ideas and colonizing practices of the 16th through 18th centuries.

Possible primary sources to consult: Manifest Destiny, Two Faces of Empire, Cortes and the Aztecs, Portuguese Views of the Chinese, Olaudah Equiano excerpt

3. Identify and analyze at least two (2) ways that new conceptions of class, race, and nation created tensions amongst and between peoples in one (1) of the following centuries: nineteenth, twentieth, or twenty-first centuries. Identify and discuss how these tensions were exacerbated by two or three historical events in the century of your focus.

Possible primary sources to consult: Marx and Engel’s Communist Manifesto, Testimonies of Bentley and Harter, Manifest Destiny, Two Faces of Empire, Mao Zedong’s “On New Democracy”, Senghor’s “African Socialism”

4. World War I (WWI) and World War II (WWII) were both global wars. Identify and analyze at least two (2) ways each was a global war as well as address. How did the outcome of each warchallenge the ideological justifications for imperialism?

Possible primary sources to consult: Manifest Destiny, Two Faces of Empire

5. History is not just shaped by events that unfold, but also by people. People can shape history through their actions through the recording of an event or by leading a revolution. Choose one or two individuals discussed thus far to analyze their impact on world history. In doing so, be sure to identify the individual, their contribution to and impact on world history. Use primary sources to support your argument.

Possible primary sources to consult: Marx and Engel’s Communist Manifesto, Testimonies of Bentley and Harter, Manifest Destiny, Two Faces of Empire, Mao Zedong’s “On New Democracy”, Senghor’s “African Socialism”, Cortes and the Aztecs, Portuguese Views of the Chinese, Olaudah Equiano excerpt, Nicolo Machiavelli’s The Prince excerpts, Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, Declaration of Independence, Haitian revolution documents, Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen