10th Grade Social Studies – World History: Foundations of the Modern World
Global interactions, revolutions, industrialization & imperialism, world wars, and the contemporary world with integrated geography and ELA literacy.
Standards at a Glance
Course Focus
10.1 Global Networks & Exchange (1200–1750)
10.2 Revolutions & New Political Ideas (c. 1750–1900)
10.3 Industrialization, Imperialism & Global Inequalities
10.4 World Wars, Genocide & Global Upheaval
10.5 Cold War, Decolonization & Globalization
Overview
10th Grade Standards at a Glance – World History
A quick view of how 10th graders investigate the making of the modern world—from expanding global networks and revolutions to industrialization, world wars, decolonization, and globalization—while strengthening geography and literacy skills.
10.1 Global Networks & Exchange (1200–1750)
Social Studies Focus
- Analyze Afro-Eurasian networks of trade, power, and culture before European dominance.
- Explain how maritime exploration and early colonialism reconfigured global connections.
- Evaluate the Columbian Exchange and early globalization from multiple perspectives.
Geography Skills
- Map land and sea trade routes, empires, and major centers of exchange.
- Connect physical geography to trade, political power, and cultural interaction.
ELA Integration
- Reading: comparative historical accounts and primary sources on premodern networks.
- Writing: explanatory and argument pieces on early globalization’s costs and benefits.
- Speaking/Listening: seminars that compare empires and trade systems using evidence.
10.2 Revolutions & New Political Ideas (c. 1750–1900)
Social Studies Focus
- Evaluate causes, ideas, and outcomes of political revolutions in the Atlantic world.
- Analyze Enlightenment and other intellectual traditions that reshaped governments.
- Trace the spread of nationalism, liberalism, and other 19th-century ideologies.
Geography Skills
- Map centers of revolution, state formation, and nationalist movements.
- Connect regional contexts to different revolutionary paths and outcomes.
ELA Integration
- Reading: excerpts from political documents and revolutionary writings.
- Writing: argumentative essays about revolution, rights, and political change.
- Speaking/Listening: debates that weigh revolutionary ideals against realities.
10.3 Industrialization, Imperialism & Global Inequalities
Social Studies Focus
- Examine causes and consequences of industrialization and urbanization.
- Analyze imperial expansion and resistance in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.
- Evaluate how industrialization and empire restructured global inequalities.
Geography Skills
- Interpret maps of industrial centers, colonial territories, and resource flows.
- Connect resource distribution and environment to patterns of conquest and resistance.
ELA Integration
- Reading: political cartoons, testimonies, and essays on industry and empire.
- Writing: cause/effect and problem/solution analyses of industrial and imperial change.
- Speaking/Listening: evidence-based dialogues on empire, labor, and reform.
10.4 World Wars, Genocide & Global Upheaval
Social Studies Focus
- Explain the origins, major events, and legacies of World War I and World War II.
- Examine totalitarianism, economic crisis, and mass violence, including genocide.
- Evaluate how global conflict reshaped borders, societies, and international norms.
Geography Skills
- Use maps to trace alliances, fronts, and shifting borders in both world wars.
- Relate geography to strategy, occupation, and human displacement.
ELA Integration
- Reading: testimonies, diplomatic texts, and historical analyses.
- Writing: analytical essays evaluating causes, turning points, and consequences.
- Speaking/Listening: presentations and seminars interpreting complex moral questions.
10.5 Cold War, Decolonization & Globalization
Social Studies Focus
- Analyze the Cold War as a global conflict of ideas, power, and proxy wars.
- Explain decolonization and new nation-building in Africa, Asia, and beyond.
- Evaluate globalization, international institutions, and contemporary global issues.
Geography Skills
- Interpret thematic maps showing alliances, decolonization, and global networks.
- Connect spatial patterns to independence, conflict, and interdependence.
ELA Integration
- Reading: international charters, speeches, and case studies on global issues.
- Writing: research-based arguments on globalization and human rights.
- Speaking/Listening: problem-solving discussions about complex global challenges.
Course Focus
10th Grade Social Studies – World History: Foundations of the Modern World
In 10th grade, students investigate how the modern world was made. They trace expanding global networks of trade and empire, revolutions in politics and industry, the rise of nationalism and new ideologies, the devastation and transformation of two world wars, the Cold War and decolonization, and the intensification of globalization and contemporary global issues.
Throughout the year, students strengthen geography skills by reading and creating maps, analyzing shifting borders and trade flows, and connecting environmental and spatial factors to historical change. They deepen ELA literacy by reading complex primary and secondary sources, evaluating claims and evidence, writing explanations and arguments, and engaging in academic discussions that connect past choices to present realities.
Content Focus: Students examine Afro-Eurasian empires and networks before European dominance, then analyze how maritime exploration, colonization, and the Columbian Exchange reconfigured global power and everyday life across regions.
Social Studies Indicators
- 10.1.1.SS – Analyze major Afro-Eurasian empires (for example, Ottoman, Ming/Qing China, Mughal India, Safavid) and their roles in regional and global trade networks.
- 10.1.2.SS – Explain how land-based and maritime trade routes (such as the Silk Roads, Indian Ocean, Trans-Saharan) facilitated exchanges of goods, technologies, and ideas.
- 10.1.3.SS – Evaluate the causes and consequences of European maritime exploration and early colonization in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
- 10.1.4.SS – Analyze the Columbian Exchange and the rise of the Atlantic system, including the transatlantic slave trade, from multiple perspectives.
Geography Integration
- Use historical maps to locate major empires, trade routes, and port cities; compare different map projections and perspectives.
- Interpret maps showing monsoon patterns, ocean currents, and overland routes to explain why particular networks flourished.
- Map the Columbian Exchange, labeling flows of crops, animals, technologies, peoples, and diseases between regions.
- Create layered maps that connect environmental features (rivers, coasts, climate zones) to the emergence of key trading hubs.
ELA Literacy Integration
- Reading: Analyze primary sources (travel accounts, royal edicts, trade records) and secondary overviews about global networks; evaluate point of view and reliability.
- Writing: Write explanatory or argument essays assessing how early globalization benefited some groups while harming others, citing maps and texts as evidence.
- Speaking/Listening: Engage in structured seminars comparing different regions’ roles in global exchange, using evidence to support interpretations.
- Language: Use academic terms such as empire, diaspora, globalization, continuity, change, perspective accurately and precisely in discourse.
Content Focus: Students investigate how Enlightenment and other intellectual traditions reshaped ideas about authority and rights, sparking political revolutions and new nation-states in the Atlantic world and beyond.
Social Studies Indicators
- 10.2.1.SS – Analyze key Enlightenment ideas (for example, natural rights, popular sovereignty, separation of powers) and explain how they challenged older political and social orders.
- 10.2.2.SS – Evaluate causes, major events, and outcomes of the American, French, Haitian, and Latin American revolutions.
- 10.2.3.SS – Explain how the spread of revolutionary and nationalist ideas reshaped political boundaries and citizenship in the 19th century.
- 10.2.4.SS – Assess the extent to which revolutions expanded rights and freedoms for different social groups, noting contradictions and limitations.
Geography Integration
- Use maps and timelines together to trace where revolutionary movements emerged and how new states altered political geography.
- Connect regional economic structures, social hierarchies, and colonial relationships to the paths and outcomes of revolutions.
- Map the diffusion of revolutionary and nationalist movements across the Atlantic and into other regions.
- Create case-study maps that compare pre- and post-revolution borders and regional alignments.
ELA Literacy Integration
- Reading: Read excerpts from constitutions, declarations, and political treatises; identify claims, rhetorical strategies, and audiences.
- Writing: Write argumentative essays judging the success of a particular revolution, drawing on diverse primary and secondary sources.
- Speaking/Listening: Participate in debates or simulations (for example, a revolutionary convention) using evidence-based arguments.
- Language: Use vocabulary such as republic, constitution, nationalism, liberalism, conservatism to explain complex political developments.
Content Focus: Students analyze how industrialization reshaped economies, societies, and environments; how imperial powers expanded and justified control; and how colonized peoples responded, creating enduring global inequalities.
Social Studies Indicators
- 10.3.1.SS – Explain the technological innovations, labor systems, and social changes associated with the Industrial Revolution.
- 10.3.2.SS – Analyze new ideologies and reform movements (for example, socialism, labor unions, suffrage) that emerged in response to industrial society.
- 10.3.3.SS – Evaluate motives, methods, and justifications for imperial expansion in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.
- 10.3.4.SS – Examine forms of resistance and adaptation among colonized peoples and assess long-term economic and political legacies of imperialism.
Geography Integration
- Interpret maps of industrial centers, railroads, ports, and resource regions, explaining spatial patterns of growth.
- Use imperial maps to identify which powers controlled territories, noting changes over time and contested borders.
- Connect physical geography and resource distribution to the locations targeted for imperial control and resource extraction.
- Create map-based case studies that link resource flows, environmental change, and economic inequality across regions.
ELA Literacy Integration
- Reading: Analyze political cartoons, factory reports, literary excerpts, and anti-/pro-imperialist writings for point of view and argument.
- Writing: Write cause/effect or argument essays on how industrialization and imperialism transformed lives and widened global inequalities.
- Speaking/Listening: Participate in debates or structured academic conversations on the ethics and impacts of empire and reform.
- Language: Use vocabulary such as industrial capitalism, urbanization, imperialism, exploitation, resistance with nuance and precision.
Content Focus: Students examine the intertwined causes of the world wars, the rise of totalitarian regimes, global depression, and mass violence—including genocide—then evaluate how these crises reshaped international systems and norms.
Social Studies Indicators
- 10.4.1.SS – Analyze long-term and immediate causes of World War I and assess how the peace settlement reshaped borders and grievances.
- 10.4.2.SS – Explain the global depression and the rise of totalitarian regimes in Europe and Asia.
- 10.4.3.SS – Evaluate causes, major events, and turning points of World War II, including key decisions by Axis and Allied powers.
- 10.4.4.SS – Examine the Holocaust and other examples of genocide or mass violence, considering causes, mechanisms, and responses.
- 10.4.5.SS – Assess how international institutions and human rights frameworks developed in response to global conflict and atrocity.
Geography Integration
- Use maps to trace alliances, fronts, and major battles in World War I and World War II.
- Analyze how geography (chokepoints, climate, industrial regions, colonies) influenced military strategy and outcomes.
- Interpret maps showing displacement, refugee flows, and postwar border changes.
- Create “conflict maps” linking specific locations to events, decisions, and human consequences.
ELA Literacy Integration
- Reading: Read testimonies, speeches, treaties, and historical analyses related to global conflict and genocide; evaluate claims and moral reasoning.
- Writing: Compose analytical essays that weigh different explanations for the outbreak of war or the failure to prevent atrocities.
- Speaking/Listening: Participate in seminars and presentations that carefully discuss ethical questions using evidence and respectful dialogue norms.
- Language: Use vocabulary such as totalitarianism, genocide, armistice, appeasement, diplomacy, human rights with accuracy and care.
Content Focus: Students investigate the Cold War as a global struggle, trace decolonization and new nation-building, and analyze globalization and contemporary global issues, considering responsibilities of global citizenship.
Social Studies Indicators
- 10.5.1.SS – Explain the origins, major crises, and global dimensions of the Cold War, including nuclear competition and proxy conflicts.
- 10.5.2.SS – Analyze the processes of decolonization and the creation of new states in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, including challenges these states faced.
- 10.5.3.SS – Evaluate the rise of international organizations and agreements addressing security, development, and human rights.
- 10.5.4.SS – Investigate contemporary global issues (for example, climate change, migration, pandemics, inequality) and different perspectives on possible solutions.
Geography Integration
- Interpret Cold War maps of alliances, spheres of influence, and divided regions (for example, Germany, Korea, Vietnam).
- Use decolonization maps to visualize the emergence of new nations and shifts in political boundaries.
- Analyze thematic maps and data related to contemporary issues (such as carbon emissions, migration routes, or access to resources).
- Create “local–global” maps that show how a chosen global issue affects multiple regions, including students’ own contexts.
ELA Literacy Integration
- Reading: Analyze speeches, UN documents, NGO reports, and news articles focused on Cold War events, decolonization, and current global challenges.
- Writing: Write research-based arguments or policy briefs that explain a global issue and advocate for specific actions, integrating maps and data.
- Speaking/Listening: Engage in civic discourse formats (simulations, panel discussions, roundtables) where students evaluate trade-offs and propose solutions.
- Language: Use vocabulary such as ideology, decolonization, globalization, interdependence, diplomacy, sustainability fluently in academic contexts.
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