Big Era Nine: Landscape Unit 9.2

Why This Unit?

This unit falls in Big Era Nine after a unit on post-World War II world politics and global economy and is therefore designed to build upon students’ previous knowledge of that era, including World War II outcomes, the establishment of the United Nations, and the unstable economic and political conditions of nations across the globe. The unit starts with students forming definitions of “Cold War” and “Third World” and framing the problem they will work on throughout the unit: How did the opposing ideologies of the United States and the Soviet Union affect political, cultural, and economic developments in the Third World? The first lesson focuses on reading and discussion of three primary documents that will shed light on the values underlying the competing ideologies and the reasons why they stood in such strong opposition to each other. At the end of the lesson, a suggested assessment has students answering the following questions: What ideas and values underlie capitalism and communism? Why were the ideologies of the United States and the Soviet Union in opposition? How might these opposing ideologies result in political, economic, and cultural developments in the Third World? These questions set the context for the remaining lessons in the unit.