Introduction to IB History of the Americas 2016-2017 Introduction to IB History of the Americas

IB Course Layout Several topics Junior Year Senior Year Pick and choose Topics for Study Junior Year US Civil War, Emergence of Americas in Global Affairs, WWI, WWII, Cold War Senior Year Authoritarian States, Cold War, Political Developments in Latin America, Civil Rights and Social Movements in the Americas, Rights and Protest in South Africa and United States

Year 1 Curriculum Semester 1 Unit 1: Causes of US Civil War Unit 2: Fighting and Effects of US Civil War Unit 3: Emergence of America in Global Affairs Unit 4: Causes of World War I Unit 5: Fighting of World War I Unit 6: Settlement and Effects of World War I Semester 2 Unit 7: Causes of World War II Unit 8: Fighting and Effects of World War II Unit 9: Early Cold War Conflicts Unit 10: Late Cold War Unit 11: US Post Cold War

IB Course Tests Paper 1 (20%; 1 hour) Paper 2 (25%; 1.5 hrs.) DBQ Senior Year (1 topic of 5) Paper 2 (25%; 1.5 hrs.) Junior and Senior Year (2 topics of 12) Paper 3 (35%; 2.5 hrs.) Junior Year (3 questions of 30) Internal Assessment Junior Year (topic of choice)

History What is History? The study of past events, experiences, people, etc. What makes history different than math or science? Many answers: particularly-the same event can be seen in a variety of ways-nothing is absolute

History v. Math In math, 2+2=4 Can you argue against that? History, in 1865 slavery was abolished in the United States Although technically abolished, was it? Blacks still had few rights, certain institutions of slavery lived on, etc. Also can ask why slavery was abolished? Answers/possibilities are ENDLESS

How Do We Know What We Know? What are ways we know about what happened in the past? Archeological Digs What can we learn about the remains of people? Diet Cultures/Rituals Average Age Clothing Others?

Written Sources Huge way of what we know: written source of time Name? Primary Sources Primary because they come from the time Hugely beneficial-were written by someone who was physically present at the time something happened Examples? Diaries, newspaper/magazine articles, books, letters, etc. Issue? Typically bias-one-sided-need to be aware of this bias

Secondary Sources Secondary sources are sources that are written after the fact Culmination of variety of primary and other secondary sources? Examples? Textbook, historical novels, etc. Advantage-combine variety of primary sources into one succinct explanation/work Disadvantage-not actually from the time period-could be missing key things

US History Intro 13 colonies by Britain Other colonies in Americas Salutary Neglect Revolution and War Democratic Constitution? Why so Successful? What Limits?

The Other Parts of America… Spanish colonies Different than US/British colonies Inspired by success of US Independence Issues/Problems in 19th/20th century Issues Today…