Colonization and Decolonization Process

Instructions
The final exam is an essay exam. Your response to the questions should take the form of formal essay with a clear thesis, body paragraphs focused on topic sentences with evidence to back up your claims, and a conclusion driving home your main points. Be sure to cite the pages of the textbook and other course materials from which you take information. Your grade is based on the completeness, thoroughness, and coherence of your answer and proper use of citation; the better organized, more detailed, and well supported with citations from the textbook and other sources your answer is, the better your grade will be. Be sure that your answer has a main idea or point (a thesis) as well as appropriate examples. Clarity of expression and organization will help your grade. Since this is a final exam to see how well you have mastered the materials of this course, you may only use materials from the texts and other materials assigned in HIS 434 to answer the questions. You may not use texts from outside the course to answer these questions.
To prepare for this exam, I suggest that you take notes on the textbook reading and appropriate websites, noting points that will help you answer the areas of consideration outlined for each question above. You can prepare for the exam from the beginning of class as you read through materials for the first time. Using an efficient and clear note-taking system will help you locate material easily and make writing the exam and organizing your ideas far less stressful.
Answer one of the following questions to the best of your knowledge and ability in a double-spaced, 8-page (2000-word) essay with standard margins:
• Assess the nature, impact and importance of the American (1775-1783), the French (1789-1799), the Mexican (1910-1920), and the Cuban (1956-1959) Revolutions on the modern world. In what specific ways were they similar and in what specific ways were they different? What factors best account for their similarities and differences? How influential were these revolutions? What is your overall view of the importance of each of these revolutions in shaping modern political agendas?
• Compare the process of colonization in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries with the the rise, fall, and consequences of the second wave of European expansion into Africa and Asia that began in the 18th century and ended with decolonization after World War II. Which areas of the world were involved in each process? What factors led to this second wave of European expansion and what factors led to its demise? Are they related? If not, why not, and if so, how are they related? What were the consequences of this second wave of European expansion for the major imperialist powers, the nations they subdued, and for the globe as a whole?
Whichever question you choose, try to avoid the simply narration of factual events and phrase your response in terms of large-scale processes of change: colonialism and imperialism, the spread of capitalism, the process of state-building, the rise of new social classes, political ideologies such as democracy, socialism, nationalism, etc.
Book – Crossley, Pamela Kyle. The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History. Sixth ed., II, Wadsworth, 2015.