List of Benchmarks for World History |
| Standard 36. | Understands patterns of global change in the era of Western military and economic dominance from 1800 to 1914 |
| | Level II (Grade 5-6) |
| | 1. | Understands the impact of new inventions and technological developments in various regions of the world (e.g., how new inventions transformed patterns of global communication, trade, and state power; how new machines, fertilizers, transport systems, and commercialization affected agricultural production; significant inventions and inventors in 19th-century Europe and America) |
| | 2. | Understands the experiences and motivations of European migrants and immigrants in the 19th century (e.g., why migrants left Europe in large numbers in the 19th century and regions of the world where they settled; the consequences of encounters between European migrants and indigenous peoples in such regions as the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and Siberia; the general appeal of Canada to European immigrants in the second half of the 19th century) |
| | 3. | Understands factors that contributed to European imperialist expansion between 1850 and 1914 (e.g., advances in transportation, medicine, and weaponry that helped European imperial expansion in the late 19th century) |
| | 4. | Understands political and economic changes in Japanese society in the 19th and 20th centuries (e.g., Japan's rapid industrialization, technological advancement, and national integration in the late 19th and 20th centuries; the death of the Meiji emperor in 1912 and the main achievements of Meiji Japan) |
| | 5. | Understands events that shaped African relations with other countries (e.g., the rise of the Zulu empire and its effects on African societies and European colonial settlements; how the discovery of gold and diamonds in South Africa affected British investors and race relations among Africans, Afrikaners, and British colonial authorities; the relationship between European and African merchants and the types of products traded between the two in the period after slavery ended) |
| | 6. | Understands major changes in the political geography of Africa between 1880 and 1914 |
| | 7. | Understands trends in the population of Europe for the last three and a half centuries, and at what time Europe had the greatest number of inhabitants |
| | 8. | Knows the causes, course, and consequences of the Boxer Rebellion |
| | Level III (Grade 7-8) |
| | 1. | Understands major developments in science and the industrial economy (e.g., the social significance of the work of scientists, including Maxwell, Darwin, and Pasteur; how new forms of generative power contributed to Europe's "second industrial revolution;" the role of the state in different countries in directing or encouraging industrialization; the social, economic, and cultural impact of the railroad) |
| | 2. | Understands influences on European migration, immigration, and emigration patterns throughout the world between 1846 and 1932 (e.g., the geographical, political, economic, and epidemiological factors that contributed to the success of European colonial settlements in various regions; possible connections of the rise of the Zulu Empire in South Africa to European settlements in the Cape Region; relations between migrating European and African peoples that laid the foundation for the apartheid system in the 20th century; how technology such as the steamship and the railroad facilitated emigration) |
| | 3. | Understands European motives and ideology that justified extending imperial power into African and Asian countries (e.g., the motives that impelled several European powers to undertake imperial expansion against peoples of Africa, Southeast Asia, and China; achievements of Cecil Rhodes and his motives and goals in the "scramble for Africa") |
| | 4. | Knows the causes and course of the Spanish-American War, and how this related to U.S. participation in Western imperial expansion |
| | 5. | Understands the extent of British rule in India, and British reaction to Indian nationalism (e.g., the economic and political impact of British rule on India in the 19th century; the social, economic, and intellectual sources of Indian nationalism; the British reaction to Indian nationalism; the causes of the Uprising of 1857) |
| | 6. | Understands political and social elements of Chinese society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (e.g., Chinese efforts to reform government and society after 1895, as well as related causes for revolution in 1911; how the Chinese reacted to the presence and activities of foreigners in their country in the late 1890s) |
| | 7. | Understands the role of trade in shaping political and social conditions in various regions (e.g., how West African economies changed after the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade; how trade helped make empire-builders such as Zanzibar and Tippu Tip; the effect trade had on resistance to European imperialism; the location of the Suez Canal, how and why it was created, and what it did for world trade and political alliances) |
| | 8. | Understands the diverse factors (e.g., variations in birth and death rates, infant mortality rates) that contributed to the peaking and then leveling off of European population growth from the 17th to the 20th centuries |
| | 9. | Understands the geographic location of European interests in South, Southeast, and East Asia in the late 19th century |
| | 10. | Understands the accomplishments and goals of specific African resistance movements (e.g., Abd al-Qadir in Algeria, Samori Ture in West Africa, the Mahdist state in the Sudan, Memelik II in Ethiopia, the Zulus in South Africa) |
| | Level IV (Grade 9-12) |
| | 1. | Knows the factors that transformed the character of cities in various parts of the world |
| | 2. | Understands influences on and consequences of European immigration and settlement (e.g., how European settlements affected the politics and economy of the local regions, as well as resources, labor, the flow of goods, and markets; the diverse motivations behind resettlement for specific groups of immigrants; the impact of new immigrants upon the environment and indigenous populations of Australia; how substantial European immigration in the 19th century had economic consequences for cities in the United States) |
| | 3. | Understands the influence of European imperial expansion on political and social facets of African and Indian society (e.g., ideas of Social Darwinism and scientific racism in 19th-century Europe and how these encouraged European imperial expansion in Africa and Asia; the major chain of events in Europe and Africa that led to the "scramble" for African territory, and the role of particular African governments or peoples in the partition of Africa by the Europeans; the impact of European expansion on legal, familial, and gender relations in Indian and African village life) |
| | 4. | Understands the effects of the Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and the colonization of Korea on Japan's status as a world power, and how Japan justified its imperial expansion |
| | 5. | Knows where the British and French expanded into mainland Southeast Asia, how their colonial policies differed, and how Thailand avoided colonization |
| | 6. | Understands economic, social, and religious influences on African society (e.g., the impact of religious and political revolutions in Sudan on state-building, Islamization, and European imperial conquest; how and why slavery and the slave trade flourished in both West and East Africa even after the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade; the relative strengths of Islam and Christianity in Africa at the beginning of the 20th century, types of rivalries among Christian denominations, and the links between both of these and the interests of the government) |
| | 7. | Understands African resistance movements against the British during the period of European imperial expansion (e.g., the successes and failures of prominent African resistance movements in West Africa, Sudan, Ethiopia, and South Africa; the nature of the Sudanese resistance to the British, as well as the general success of Mahdi Muhammad Ahmed and the Mahdi uprising against British imperialism) |
| | 8. | Understands the debate on the westward movement in North America in the 19th century: whether this movement was unique, or simply part of a larger pattern of European overseas settlement, and what consequences the expansion had for indigenous peoples |
| | 9. | Understands the advantages and disadvantages of imperialism (e.g., the chief benefits and costs of the introduction of new political institutions, and advances in communication, technology, and medicine to countries under European imperialist rule; how medical advances, steam power, and military technology were used in European imperialism) |
| | 10. | Knows the locations, history, and source of funding of major national and international rail lines in Africa and Eurasia constructed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and understands the benefits they provided to imperial powers and indigenous economies |
| | 11. | Understands the European intellectual justifications for imperialism (e.g., the French notion of mission civilisatrice, the German concept of Kultur, and British imperialism as reflected in Rudyard Kipling's White Man's Burden) |
| | 12. | Knows the causes and impact of the Indian Uprising of 1857 (e.g., British imposed religious policies, the participants in the uprising, the varied reactions to the revolt on the part of Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, and Indian royalty who had made alliances with the East India Company) |
| | 13. | Understands significant political events in 20th-century China (e.g., reasons for initial Chinese imperial support for the Boxer Rebellion, the major achievements of Sun Yatsen, the role overseas Chinese played in the 1911 revolution) |
| | 14. | Understands Western influence on Japanese society in the 19th century (e.g., the chronology of major social, economic, and technological changes derived from the West in 19th-century Japan; the political and symbolic role of the emperor of Meiji Japan and how that role compared to those of British and other Western monarchs of the time) |
