9.1 Advances in Technology and Exchange After 1900

Thematic Focus (TEC): Technology and Innovation — Human adaptation and innovation have resulted in increased efficiency, comfort, and security, and technological advances have shaped human development and interactions with both intended and unintended consequences.

Learning Objective Unit 9.A: Explain how the development of new technologies changed the world from 1900 to present.

• KC-6.1.I.A New modes of communication—including radio communication, cellular communication, and the internet—as well as transportation, including air travel and shipping containers, reduced the problem of geographic distance.
• KC-6.1.I.D Energy technologies, including the use of petroleum and nuclear power, raised productivity and increased the production of material goods.
• KC-6.1.III.B More effective forms of birth control gave women greater control over fertility, transformed reproductive practices, and contributed to declining rates of fertility in much of the world.
• KC-6.1.I.B The Green Revolution and commercial agriculture increased productivity and sustained the earth’s growing population as it spread chemically and genetically modified forms of agriculture.
• KC-6.1.I.C Medical innovations, including vaccines and antibiotics, increased the ability of humans to survive and live longer lives.

9.2 Technological Advances and Limitations After 1900: Disease

Thematic Focus (ENV): Humans and the Environments — The environment shapes human societies, and as populations grow and change, these populations in turn shape their environments.

Learning Objective Unit 9.B: Explain how environmental factors affected human populations over time.

• KC-6.1.III Diseases, as well as medical and scientific developments, had significant effects on populations around the world.
• KC-6.1.III.A Diseases associated with poverty persisted while other diseases emerged as new epidemics and threats to human populations, in some cases leading to social disruption. These outbreaks spurred technological and medical advances. Some diseases occurred at higher incidence merely because of increased longevity.

Illustrative examples:

• Diseases associated with poverty: § Malaria § Tuberculosis § Cholera Emergent epidemic diseases: § 1918 influenza pandemic § Ebola § HIV/AIDS Diseases associated with increased longevity: § Heart disease § Alzheimer’s disease

9.3 Technological Advances: Debates About the Environment After 1900

Thematic Focus (ENV): Humans and the Environments — The environment shapes human societies, and as populations grow and change, these populations in turn shape their environments.

Learning Objective Unit 9.C: Explain the causes and effects of environmental changes in the period from 1900 to present.

• KC-6.1.II.A As human activity contributed to deforestation, desertification, a decline in air quality, and increased consumption of the world’s supply of fresh water, humans competed over these and other resources more intensely than ever before.
• KC-6.1.II.B The release of greenhouse gases and pollutants into the atmosphere contributed to debates about the nature and causes of climate change.

9.4 Economics in the Global Age

Thematic Focus (ECN): Economics Systems — As societies develop, they affect and are affected by the ways that they produce, exchange, and consume goods and services.

Learning Objective Unit 9.D: Explain the continuities and changes in the global economy from 1900 to present.

• KC-6.3.I.D In a trend accelerated by the end of the Cold War, many governments encouraged free-market economic policies and promoted economic liberalization in the late 20th century.
• KC-6.3.I.E In the late 20th century, revolutions in information and communications technology led to the growth of knowledge economies in some regions, while industrial production and manufacturing were increasingly situated in Asia and Latin America.
• KC-6.3.II.B Changing economic institutions, multinational corporations, and regional trade agreements reflected the spread of principles and practices associated with free-market economics throughout the world.

Illustrative examples:

• Governments’ increased encouragement of free-market policies: § The United States under Ronald Reagan § Britain under Margaret Thatcher § China under Deng Xiaoping § Chile under Augusto Pinochet Knowledge economies: § Finland § Japan § U.S. Asian production and manufacturing economies: § Vietnam
  • Bangladesh
• Latin American production and manufacturing economies:
  • Mexico
  • Honduras
• Economic institutions and regional trade agreements:
  • World Trade Organization (WTO)
  • North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
  • Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
• Multinational corporations:
  • Nestlé
  • Nissan
  • Mahindra and Mahindra

9.5 Calls for Reform and Responses After 1900

Thematic Focus (SIO): Social Interactions and Organization — The process by which societies group their members and the norms that govern the interactions between these groups and between individuals influence political, economic, and cultural institutions and organization.

Learning Objective Unit 9.E: Explain how social categories, roles, and practices have been maintained and challenged over time.

• KC-6.3.III.i Rights-based discourses challenged old assumptions about race, class, gender, and religion.
• KC-6.3.III.ii In much of the world, access to education as well as participation in new political and professional roles became more inclusive in terms of race, class, gender, and religion.
• KC-6.3.II.C Movements throughout the world protested the inequality of the environmental and economic consequences of global integration.

Illustrative examples:

• Challenges to assumptions about race, class, gender, and religion:
  • The U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, especially as it sought to protect the rights of children, women, and refugees
  • Global feminism movements
  • Negritude movement
  • Liberation theology in Latin America
• Increased access to education and political and professional roles:
  • The right to vote and/ or to hold public office granted to women in the United States (1920), Brazil (1932), Turkey (1934), Japan (1945), India (1947), and Morocco (1963)
  • The rising rate of female literacy and the increasing numbers of women in higher education, in most parts of the world
  • The U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1965
  • The end of apartheid
  • Caste reservation in India
• Environmental movements:
  • Greenpeace
  • Professor Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement in Kenya
• Economic movements:
  • World Fair Trade Organization

9.6 Globalized Culture After 1900

Thematic Focus (CDI): Cultural Developments and Interactions — The development of ideas, beliefs, and religions illustrates how groups in society view themselves, and the interactions of societies and their beliefs often have political, social, and cultural implications.

Learning Objective Unit 9.F: Explain how and why globalization changed culture over time.

• KC-6.3.IV.i Political and social changes of the 20th century led to changes in the arts and in the second half of the century, popular and consumer culture became more global.
• KC-6.3.IV.ii Arts, entertainment, and popular culture increasingly reflected the influence of a globalized society.
• KC-6.3.IV.iii Consumer culture became globalized and transcended national borders.

Illustrative examples:

• Global culture:
  • Music: Reggae
  • Movies: Bollywood
  • Social media: Facebook, Twitter
  • Television: BBC
  • Sports: World Cup soccer, the Olympics
• Global consumerism:
  • Online commerce: Alibaba, eBay
  • Global brands: Toyota, Coca-Cola

9.7 Resistance to Globalization After 1900

Thematic Focus (CDI): Cultural Developments and Interactions — The development of ideas, beliefs, and religions illustrates how groups in society view themselves, and the interactions of societies and their beliefs often have political, social, and cultural implications.

Learning Objective Unit 9.G: Explain the various responses to increasing globalization from 1900 to present.

• KC-6.3.IV.iv Responses to rising cultural and economic globalization took a variety of forms.

Illustrative examples:

• Responses to economic globalization:
  • Anti-IMF and anti-World Bank activism
  • Advent of locally developed social media (Weibo in China)

9.8 Institutions Developing in a Globalized World

Thematic Focus (GOV): Governance — A variety of internal and external factors contribute to state formation, expansion, and decline. Governments maintain order through a variety of administrative institutions, policies, and procedures, and governments obtain, retain, and exercise power in different ways and for different purposes.

Learning Objective Unit 9.H: Explain how and why globalization changed international interactions among states.

• KC-6.3.II.A New international organizations, including the United Nations, formed with the stated goal of maintaining world peace and facilitating international cooperation.

9.9 Continuity and Change in a Globalized World

Learning Objective Unit 9.I: Explain the extent to which science and technology brought change in the period from 1900 to the present.

• KC-6.1 Rapid advances in science and technology altered the understanding of the universe and the natural world and led to advances in communication, transportation, industry, agriculture, and medicine.
  • KC-6.1.I.A New modes of communication— including radio communication, cellular communication, and the internet—as well as transportation, including air travel and shipping containers, reduced the problem of geographic distance.
  • KC-6.1.I.D Energy technologies, including the use of petroleum and nuclear power, raised productivity and increased the production of material goods.
  • KC-6.1.III.B More effective forms of birth control gave women greater control over fertility, transformed reproductive practices, and contributed to declining rates of fertility in much of the world.
  • KC-6.1.I.B The Green Revolution and commercial agriculture increased productivity and sustained the earth’s growing population as it spread chemically and genetically modified forms of agriculture.
  • KC-6.1.I.C Medical innovations, including vaccines and antibiotics, increased the ability of humans to survive and live longer lives.
• KC-6.3.I States responded in a variety of ways to the economic challenges of the 20th century.
• KC-6.3.III.i Rights-based discourses challenged old assumptions about race, class, gender, and religion.
• KC-6.3.III.ii In much of the world, access to education as well as participation in new political and professional roles became more inclusive in terms of race, class, gender, and religion.
• KC-6.3.IV.i Political and social changes of the 20th century led to changes in the arts and in the second half of the century, popular and consumer culture became more global.
• KC-6.3.IV.ii Arts, entertainment, and popular culture increasingly reflected the influence of a globalized society.
• KC-6.3.IV.iii Consumer culture became globalized and transcended national borders.