The Contemporary World
Essays
Instructions: Choose two (2) of the following four (4) essay prompts. Answer the chosen prompts as thoroughly as possible using in-class lectures, textbook readings, and relevant outside knowledge. Each essay should be between 1.5 and 3.5 pages long for a total of 3-7 pages.
Responses should be typed using 12-point Times New Roman font and double-spaced .
1. What impact did the Industrial Revolution have on one of the following:
a. The development of liberalism?
b. The development of nationalism?
c. The development of imperialism?
2. Compare and contrast American and British imperialism. Use at least two examples from each. Below you will find some possible examples to write about, but feel free to use other relevant examples.
a. American: Puerto Rico, The Philippines, Hawaii, Cuba, U.S. policies towards Amerindian populations, U.S. economic imperialism in Latin America.
b. British: The British East India Company, The British Raj, The Opium Wars, British annexation of Egypt, British South Africa, British West Africa.
3. Compare and contrast Soviet communism and American liberal capitalist democracy in the Interwar and WWII period. Think particularly about:
a. How did each seek to address the inequalities and problems of the era?
b. In what ways did each fall short of their ideals? Why?
4. Compare and contrast how two non-western societies resisted, dealt with, or modified western imperialism. Below you will find some possible examples to write about, but feel free to use other relevant examples.
a. Examples: Meiji Japan, China, India, Thailand, Native Americans, the Ottoman Empire, the Latin American republics.