Unit 4
1750-1914
The Modern Era

1. Diverse interpretations
   1. What are the debates over the utility of modernization theory as a framework for interpreting events in this period and the next?
      1. Modernization/Westernization
         1. Nations become economically prosperous
         2. Various social changes occur
            1. Improved health care
            2. More educational opportunities
            3. More rights for women
         3. Desire for democratic government will evolve
            1. People learn more about what the world holds
            2. Give up old ways and attitudes
         4. Western Europe cited as proof that in time developing nations will evolve into developed nations
      2. Dependency Theory
         1. Developing nations economically dependent will remain
            1. Have in past and present history of developed nations draining their resources
               1. Export agricultural products
               2. Export natural resources
               3. Production of assembly-line workers/sweatshop labor
            2. Developed nation with access to processing
               1. Example oil
                  1. Make more money from refined gasoline than crude oil
         2. Dependency is inherent in capitalism
      3. Marxist Theorists
         1. Dispute both theories from above
         2. Socialism only way that developing nations can become viable economic entitites
   2. What are the debates about the causes of serf and slave emancipation in this period and how do these debates fit into the broader comparisons of labor systems?
   3. What are the debates over the nature of women’s roles in this period and how do these debates apply to industrialized areas and how do they apply in colonial societies?
2. IX. Major Comparisons and Snapshots
   1. Compare the causes and early phases of the industrial revolution in western Europe and Japan
   2. Comparative revolutions (compare two of the following: Haitian, American, French, Mexican, and Chinese)
   3. Compare reaction to foreign domination in: the Ottoman Empire, China, India, and Japan
   4. Comparative nationalism
   5. Compare forms of western intervention in Latin America and in Africa
   6. Compare the roles and conditions of women in the upper/middle classes with peasantry/working class in western Europe

Examples of What You Need to Know

Below are examples of the types of information you are expected to know contrasted with examples of those things you are not expected to know for the multiple-choice section.

• Women's emancipation movements, but not specific suffragists
• The French Revolution of 1789, but not the Revolution of 1830
• Meiji Restoration, but not Iranian Constitutional Revolution
• Jacobins, but not Robespierre
• Causes of Latin American independence movements, but not specific protagonists
• Boxer Rebellion, but not the Crimean War
• Suez Canal, but not the Erie Canal
• Muhammad Ali, but not Isma'il
• Marxism, but not Utopian socialism
• Social Darwinism, but not Herbert Spencer