The World in 1900, A Hyperdoc Assignment

Studying the twentieth century just before World War I? Here's a hyperdoc I made, using a template from Ms. Byars,  that allows students to research four significant events in the first decade of the twentieth century. The hyperdoc includes links for each event as well as links to short video clips.

The events include the Bloody Sunday massacre in Russia in 1905 and the Russo-Japanese War in the same year. Students examine Georgii Gapon's petition to the tsar and the main concessions that Russia lost to Japan.

Students also read about the collapse of dynastic China and the Mexican Revolution, both in 1910.

The guiding question for students is to analyze the commonalities of these different events.

The research should show students the instability or insecurity that characterized the beginning of the 20the century.

In years past, I started the 20th century with World War I but a relatively new book by James Carter and Richard Warren called Forging the Modern World, changed my mind.

Carter and Warren start off Chapter 10, Total War and Mass Society: 1905-1928, with a review of unrest in Russia, the collapse of China, and the Mexican Revolution in an effort to demonstrate the "volatility that stretched the capacity of political regimes in the early twentieth century."