Big Era Eight: Landscape Unit 8.2


		Complete Teaching Unit in PDF format

The Search for Peace and Stability in the 1920s and 1930s
1920 - 1930 CE

Why This Unit?

This unit explores global developments in the 1920s and 1930s. Because of the horrors of WWI (1914-1918), people around the world made desperate searches for peace and stability. Social, political, and economic relations between women and men, rich and poor, colonizer and colonized were dramatically changed by the demands of the Great War. A resulting wave of revolution transformed prewar states, and the Russian, Ottoman, German, and Austro-Hungarian empires crumbled. The ideology of nationalism formed the foundation of this transformation as the world was shrunk by technological development. Individuals were empowered by technology to an unprecedented degree.

Unit Objectives

Upon completing this unit, students will be able to:

1. Examine how technological developments drove social, political, and economic change in ways not possible in prior eras.

2. Analyze the strengths and flaws of the League of Nations.

3. Assess how peace and stability might have been more fully served through the League than it was.

4. Evaluate the events and leaders of the Russian Revolution and its potential for
success.

5. Examine responses of Arabic-speaking peoples to the political geography of the Middle East established after World War I.

6. Evaluate the impact of early twentieth-century technological advances on tropical African societies.

Time and Materials

This unit is divided into five lessons. Each lesson takes from two to four days, depending on classroom circumstances and size. If time is limited, parts of each lesson may be used at the discretion of the instructor. Individual lessons may also be used independently of others.

Table of Contents

Why this unit?	2
Time and materials	2
Unit objectives	2
Author	2
The historical context	3
This unit in the Big Era timeline	5
Lesson 1: William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming”	6
Lesson 2: League of Nations: Mock League Strategy	8
Lesson 3: Sixty Minutes: The Russian Revolution	15
Lesson 4: The Mandate System in the Middle East	21
Lesson 5: Technological Change	28
Lesson 6: Tirailleurs Sénégalais	30
This unit and the Three Essential Questions	41
This unit and the Seven Key Themes	41
This unit and the Standards in Historical Thinking	41
Resources: Bibliography for Teachers and Students	42
Correlations to National and State Standards	43
Conceptual links to other lessons	43

Complete Teaching Unit in PDF Format

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