List of Benchmarks for World History |
| Standard 33. | Understands the causes and consequences of the agricultural and industrial revolutions from 1700 to 1850 |
| | Level II (Grade 5-6) |
| | 1. | Understands the emergence and impact of industrialism in 18th-century England (e.g., the effects of the agricultural revolution on population growth, industrialization, and patterns of land-holding; major characteristics of industrialization; how the industrial revolution affected population shifts; how the industrial revolution in the textile industry changed the way people worked; how figures such as John Kay, James Hargreaves, James Watt, Edmund Cartwright, and Richard Arkwright contributed to industrialization in England) |
| | 2. | Understands the impact of the industrial revolution in Europe and the Atlantic Basin (e.g., connections between population growth, industrialization, and urbanization; the quality of life in early 19-century cities; the effects of urbanization on the development of class distinctions, family life, and the daily working lives of men, women, and children; advances made in communication and transportation; effects upon the political and economic status of women) |
| | 3. | Understands aspects of the abolition movement in the 18th and 19th centuries (e.g., the organization and arguments of movements in Europe and the Americas that sought to end slavery, and how the trans-Atlantic slave trade was suppressed; why and how the slave trade continued after it had been outlawed; major accomplishments of the American abolitionist Frederick Douglass) |
| | Level III (Grade 7-8) |
| | 1. | Understands why industrialization flourished in Britain (e.g., Britain's commercial connections with foreign markets in the early industrial revolution; Britain's unique combination of geography, location, natural resources, economy, technology, and political tendencies) |
| | 2. | Understands the effect of the industrial revolution on social and political conditions in various regions (e.g., connections between industrialization, labor unions, and movements for political and social reform in England, Western Europe, and the United States; the pace and extent of industrialization in Great Britain and the United States in the latter half of the 19th century; Robert Owen's New Lanark System and its role in dealing with societal problems caused by the industrial revolution; changes affected by the "Great Reform" bill of 1832, and how it addressed problems of the industrial revolution) |
| | 3. | Understands the status of slavery and slaves throughout the 19th century (e.g., how contract labor migration and other forms of coerced labor compare with slavery as methods of organizing commercial agriculture in the Americas in the later 19th century; the degree to which emancipated slaves and their descendants achieved social equality and economic advancement in various countries of the Western Hemisphere; locations of legal slavery around the world in 1800, 1830, and 1880, and how changes in the legal status could be linked to revolution ideology and economics) |
| | 4. | Understands the importance and consequences of new technologies (e.g., seed drill, crop rotation, stock breeding, three piece iron) in the agricultural revolution |
| | 5. | Understands the impact of new technology that emerged during the industrial revolution (e.g., technological innovations that propelled the textile industry to the forefront of the industrial revolution; the roles of interchangeable parts and mass production in the industrial revolution) |
| | 6. | Knows new patterns in world manufacturing production that developed among the nations of Great Britain, United States, Germany, France, Russia, and Italy between 1800 and 1900 |
| | 7. | Understands the discourse surrounding the abolition of slavery (e.g., the debate over abolition of slavery in the context of the French Revolution, the different strategies to resist slavery employed by peoples in the Americas) |
| | 8. | Understands significant individuals in the abolition movement (e.g., prominent women from the abolitionist movement in America and their major accomplishments, including Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, the Grimké sisters, Lucretia Mott; the story of Olaudah Equiana [Gustavus Vasa], his experience during the "middle passage," and his efforts to bring an end to the slave trade) |
| | Level IV (Grade 9-12) |
| | 1. | Understands the effect of economic conditions and theories on the development of industrialization (e.g., the relationship between the expanding global market of the 16th to 18th century and the development of industrialization, the effect of new economic theories on industrial policies and practices) |
| | 2. | Understands how industrialization shaped social class and labor organizations (e.g., connections between industrialization and the rise of new types of labor organizations and mobilization; what 19th-century literature reveals about the emergence and conditions of new social classes during the industrial period; conditions for children employed by 19th-century England before and after major legislation passed in 1833, 1842, and 1847; the wide variety of organizations created by working-class peoples in England, Western Europe, and the United States in response to the conditions of industrial labor) |
| | 3. | Understands reasons why various countries abolished slavery (e.g., the importance of Enlightenment thought, Christian piety, democratic revolutions, slave resistance, and changes in the world economy in bringing about the abolition of the slave trade and emancipation of the slaves in the Americas; evangelical arguments against slavery, and the economic, evangelical, and "Enlightened" reasons for Britain's abolition of slavery; why Brazil was the last nation to abolish slavery and the slave trade; the consequences of the Haitian Revolution for the slave trade) |
| | 4. | Understands the realities and romanticized visions of pre-industrial England (e.g., as reflected in the paintings of Constable and Turner) |
| | 5. | Understands the relationship between improvements in agriculture, population increase, the rise of the textile industry, the enclosure movement, urbanization, and industrialization in 18th century England |
| | 6. | Knows the strengths and weaknesses of Adam Smith’s analysis of capitalism in the "The Wealth of Nations" (e.g., his principle of the "Invisible Hand," the role of free enterprise, the profit motive, and competition; his "pin" story) |
| | 7. | Understands how and why industrialization developed differently in Britain than it did on the continent |
| | 8. | Understands different perspectives regarding the nature of the African slave trade (e.g., how the African slave trade might be compared to the migration of Chinese workers to North and South America, and Indian workers to the Caribbean in the 19th century; the significance of the book The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vasa, Written by Himself about the slave trade) |
| | 9. | Knows the extent of slave imports to Brazil, Spanish America, the British West Indies, the French West Indies, British North America, and the U.S. and how the influx of slaves differed in the periods 1701 to 1810 and 1811 to 1871 |
