How have globalization, technology, and international cooperation shaped the contemporary world, and what challenges does it face?
Apply social science skills to understand the contemporary world: economic and cultural globalization and interdependence, advances in technology and communication, the growth of international organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union, and global challenges including terrorism, human rights, and environmental issues (WHII.16).
A standards-level answer on the contemporary world for the Virginia World History SOL: economic and cultural globalization, advances in technology, the growth of international organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union, and global challenges including terrorism and the environment, with worked exam questions.
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What this topic is asking
Standard WHII.16 closes the course with the contemporary world, the era from the late twentieth century to the present. The standard asks you to understand globalization (the growing economic and cultural interconnection of the world), the impact of advances in technology and communication, the growth of international organizations (such as the United Nations and the European Union), and the major global challenges of today: terrorism, human rights, and environmental issues. This topic connects the long story of world history to the world students live in now.
Globalization
Technology and communication
International organizations
Global challenges
Try this
Q1. Define globalization and give one technology that has driven it. [Short explanation]
- Cue. Globalization is the increasing economic, cultural, and technological interconnection and interdependence of countries; it has been driven by technologies such as the internet, computers, and faster global transport and communication.
Q2. Name the purpose of the United Nations and two global challenges of the contemporary world. [Short explanation]
- Cue. The UN was created to promote international cooperation, peace, and security and to help prevent future wars; global challenges include terrorism, human rights, environmental issues such as climate change, population growth, and global health crises.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of VDOE exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
VA SOL WHII (MC)1 marksGlobalization is best defined as (A) the breakup of all nations; (B) the increasing economic, cultural, and technological interconnection and interdependence of countries around the world; (C) a return to isolationism; (D) the end of all trade.Show worked answer →
The correct answer is (B). Globalization is the growing interconnection and interdependence of the world's economies, cultures, and technologies, as goods, money, people, information, and ideas move more freely across borders.
Why the others are wrong: (A), (C), and (D) describe the opposite of globalization. Markers reward identifying globalization as increasing worldwide economic, cultural, and technological interconnection and interdependence.
VA SOL WHII (MC)1 marksThe United Nations was created after World War II primarily to (A) fight the Cold War for one side; (B) promote international cooperation and peace and help prevent future world wars; (C) rebuild the Roman Empire; (D) enforce mercantilism.Show worked answer →
The correct answer is (B). The United Nations (UN) was created in 1945, after World War II, as an international organization to promote cooperation, peace, and security, to address global problems, and to help prevent future wars, learning from the failure of the earlier League of Nations.
Why the others are wrong: (A) the UN was not created to fight for one Cold War side; (C) and (D) are unrelated. Markers reward identifying the UN's purpose of international cooperation and preventing war.
Related dot points
- Apply social science skills to understand the end of the Cold War: the reforms of Gorbachev, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the emergence of the United States as the sole superpower in a changed world (WHII.16).
A standards-level answer on the end of the Cold War for the Virginia World History SOL: Gorbachev's reforms, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the changed world that followed, with worked exam questions.
- Apply social science skills to understand the Cold War: its origins in the ideological conflict between the democratic, capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union, the major events and alliances (NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the Berlin Airlift, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War), and the nuclear arms race (WHII.16).
A standards-level answer on the Cold War for the Virginia World History SOL: its origins in the conflict between the capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union, the major events and alliances such as NATO and the Warsaw Pact, key crises, and the nuclear arms race, with worked exam questions.
- Apply social science skills to understand decolonization and independence movements after World War II: the weakening of European empires, the independence of India under Gandhi, the wave of independence in Asia and Africa, the end of apartheid in South Africa under Mandela, and the conflicts that arose from decolonization (WHII.16).
A standards-level answer on decolonization for the Virginia World History SOL: the weakening of European empires after World War II, the independence of India under Gandhi, the wave of African and Asian independence, and the end of apartheid under Mandela, with worked exam questions.
- Apply social science skills to understand the impact of European imperialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the economic, political, and ideological motives, the domination of Africa and Asia (the Scramble for Africa, British India, French Indochina), and the responses and resistance of colonized peoples (WHII.12).
A standards-level answer on the age of imperialism for the Virginia World History SOL: the economic, political, and ideological motives, the European domination of Africa and Asia, and the responses and resistance of colonized peoples, with worked exam questions.
- Apply social science skills to understand World War II and its worldwide impact: the causes including aggression by totalitarian states and the failure of appeasement, the major theaters and turning points (Stalingrad, D-Day, Midway), the use of the atomic bomb, and the Holocaust and other genocides (WHII.15).
A standards-level answer on World War II for the Virginia World History SOL: the causes including totalitarian aggression and appeasement, the major turning points, the atomic bomb, and the Holocaust and other genocides, with worked exam questions.