The Global Nature of WWI: Two Awesome Twitter Threads

The 100th anniversary of the end of World War I has spawned a number of new resources about the war.

Two of those resources remind us of the global nature of that war.  Both come from writers on twitter who tweeted the nature of the war in China and Africa

I snagged both twitter threads and used a service to embed them below. My thanks to Angela Lee for tweeting both.

The first comes from Eileen Cheng-yin Chow, Director of Shewo Institute of Chinese Journalism.

Chow notes that although China contributed much to the war effort, including an untold story over 140,000 Chinese laborers who fought on the European frontlines beside French, Russian and British troops,  she got few concessions at Versailles.

The thread includes some interesting links including a trailer for a new movie from Yellow Earth Productions called "Forgotten" that is about China during the war.

Another link takes you to a fascinating National Post Story about Chinese Labor Corps during the war.

The second twitter thread reviews the participation of African colonial troops in the war and comes from historian, Michelle Moyd, Associate Professor of History at Indiana University Bloomington, USA. She is also the author of Violent Intermediaries: African Soldiers, Conquest, and Everyday Colonialism in German East Africa.

Moyd writes about German East Africa and the "devastating" campaign of General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck.   She includes links to maps and two short essays on Lettow-Vorbeck and the African troops.

Both of these threads are excellent and some of the links should be useful in the classroom.

Thread by @chowleen: "The Armistice signing was enthusiastically celebrated in China, too - with street rallies, a military parade, and even a new comm […]" #WorldWar1 #WWI100 #Armistice #WWI

Thread by @mimoyd1: "Since my book *Violent Intermediaries: African Soldiers, Conquest, and Everyday Colonialism* came out in 2014 (@OhioUnivPress), I've been wo […]"

Using Images in AP World History

Images offer students a great way to understand history. The AP World History chat recently asked teachers to suggest images they used in their classes.  Here are a few that I snagged.

Bram Hubbell tweeted the handout below for analyzing images which ask students to consider the context, audience, and message of each image.

The nine images below cover all periods from post-classical to the early 20th century.

The image below represents the Danse Macabre, or the Dance of Death, painted in the 16th century during the Black Death.

Here's an image from the Song Dyansty scroll which shows society and urban life in Song China.

Here is a 1918 image from an Indian Home Rule pamphlet. It shows the British keeping Indians off Wilson's boat of self-determination.

The image below from Puck in 1899  shows Japanese perceptions of the West.

The image below come s from a Chinese newspaper in China on western colonialism and the response of the Qing court.  According to the essay from which this came, "the action takes place on “sacred” Chinese soil, Shenzhou, and under the brilliant sun of “civilization,” wenming, that shines on the present. The Westerner on the left is entering the sacred place with a “greedy look” on his face, while the Manchu official on the right is just “idly standing by."

This 1886 image below called "Mongolian Octopus" looks at the causes and effects of immigration between 1750 and 1900.

Here's a German cartoon called "Thus Colonize the English" showing imperialism in Arica.

 This 1900 image below from Puck shows Chinese perceptions of Western imperialism.

Foreigners divide up China in the image below Minhu ribao 1909. The pig in the middle, according to Angela Lee, is labeled China and the slices are areas of China.