With industrialization, a small number of states gained the ability to project power across the globe. Steamships, railroads, machine guns, and anti-malaria drugs allowed European powers, along with the United States and Japan, to seize territory in places they had previously traded with. Philosophers justified the land grab with ideas about civilization and racial hierarchy. By 1900, European powers controlled large parts of the globe, while colonized people resisted around the world as industrial economies reshaped societies.
This collection collates articles, definitions, and maps covering Unit 6: Consequences of Industrialization of the AP® World History: Modern curriculum, which accounts for 12–15% of the exam and around 12–15 class periods. It offers an overview for teachers and students alike, providing the materials needed to explore how industrial power reshaped empires, economies, and the movement of people around the world.
Unit 6 covers eight topics: 6.1 Rationales for Imperialism · 6.2 State Expansion from 1750 to 1900 · 6.3 Indigenous Responses to State Expansion from 1750 to 1900 · 6.4 Global Economic Development from 1750 to 1900 · 6.5 Economic Imperialism · 6.6 Causes of Migration in an Interconnected World · 6.7 Effects of Migration · 6.8 Causation in the Imperial Age
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Ideas for Teachers
- Partition roleplay: Have students read the Berlin Conference 1884-5 and Scramble for Africa articles, alongside the Map of the Scramble for Africa. Then ask them to list the arguments Europeans used to justify partitioning large parts of the world. Also discuss who was absent from these negotiations.
- Company to crown: Based on the East India Company and Fall of the East India Company articles, alongside the two East India Company maps, have your students trace how one trading company became a territorial government, and why the British state took direct control in 1858.
- Global resistance: Assign reading of the Battle of Isandlwana article and ask your students to explain how this account presents Zulu tactics versus British assumptions. Then compare it to the Sepoy Mutiny article to identify commonalities between the two rebellions.
- Rebellion over prices: Have your students read the Indigo Revolt article. Ask them to discuss how a dispute over a crop's price turned into a mass uprising.
- Diamond profits: Using the articles How Diamonds Transformed Southern Africa and Witwatersrand Gold & the Creation of South Africa, ask your students to trace the wealth from the mineshaft outward. Discuss in groups how mineral discoveries redrew the political map of the region.
- Competing empires: Read The Great Game and Fashoda Incident articles side by side. Have your students determine why imperial rivalries between European powers were so often fought in Asia and Africa rather than in Europe.
Browse the collection below to find materials that fit your teaching style, and feel free to adapt them to your students. Note that our articles are print-friendly, and there is a PDF export button on each article page.
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