U.S. Imperialism
The State Department has contacted our school to solicit a review of American influence in the world throughout the 20th Century. Given your collective excellence and the brilliancy with which you conducted our activity the last few days, you have been selected to evaluate the role of the United States in different areas around the world.
The Lancer Library has listed below many resources from the Web. In addition, there are books on a cart in the library to aid you in your evaluation. This is a WebQuest; it will provide you structure and resources to help you prove or disprove the statement - - The United States is an imperial power.
Task
In groups of 3, you will research the actions of the United
States within a specific region of the world. The regions are as follows:
Southeast
Asia India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand |
Middle
East Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Syria |
South
America Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Venezuela |
|
Western Europe Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Greece |
East Asia China |
Eastern Europe Turkey, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Belarus, Bulgaria |
Central Asia Russia |
For each region you will research to find examples of US involvement
in the five areas of imperialistic influence we have discussed:
Military |
Social |
Economic |
Cultural |
Political |
Once you have completed your research, you will write a description card describing your example in detail. Your group should develop Policy Action Cards for each of the five areas of influence. You will present your findings to the class in a similar manner in which we conducted our initial evaluations of US foreign policy actions. Our class will then evaluate American actions in your region to determine the extent of imperialistic influence. After each region has presented and been evaluated, we will be able to answer/evaluate our statement: The United States is an imperial power.
Process
Mr. Stoddart will model the development
of this project through a class study of US/Latin America (Mexico and Central
America) relations in the 20th Century. Here is a link for background on US
involvement in Latin
America.
There are several steps to the process, as follows:
1. Assign roles - Each group member should be assigned an
area of influence to begin researching.
2. Conduct research - You will be given two class periods
to conduct and compile your research.
3. Annotated Resource List - Each group is responsible for
finding Web sites and magazine
or newspaper articles and evaluating at least two of these resources for
each area of influence in your region.Here are links with information to help
you evaluate Web
sites and magazine/newspaper
articles. As you research, keep
track of where you are finding your information. Here are some guidelines
for writing annotations. See the evaluation
rubrics to see how this will be scored. Keep track of your sources by
writing citations for each article, book or Web site at Citation
Machine.
4. Write Policy Action Cards - Each group needs to have a
Policy Action Card for the five areas of imperialistic influence. This card
should describe a particular US action in the 20th Century, which represents
the area of influence. You need a description card for military influence,
economic influence, social influence, cultural influence, and political influence.
See the evaluation
rubrics to see how this will be scored.
5. Presentation - Each group will present their findings
to the class for evaluation.
6. Written evaluation - Each group will write an evaluation
of US actions within their region. The goal of this paper is to decide whether
or not the US was imperialistic in relations with your region. This paper
should not be longer than two, typed, double-spaced pages. See the evaluation
rubrics to see how this will be scored.
7. Group evaluation - Group members will evaluate the efforts
of each member in their group. See the evaluation
rubrics to see how you will score your partners. Resources (for one-week
study of Latin America)
The library has some excellent resources on the background of U.S. involvement in most of the areas below. The following books are on a cart near the librarian's desk:
In the non-fiction section of the library look at the shelf with books cataloged at 327.73. The shelf is marked "Foreign Policy".
"Foreign Policy in Focus" is a site that may be very helpful for this project. Some of the topics such as Military are the same. Others have different names, but they are related, such as Financial Flows or Trade for Economic, Human Rights or Health for Social, Global Governance or Terrorism for Political. You may also search by region. Each report has three sections: 1) key points on the issue; 2) problems with current U.S. policy on that issue; and 3) toward a new foreign policy.
To locate magazine, journal and newspaper articles go to EBSCO and select HS Search, then MAS Ultra School Edition. Another source of magazine, journal and newspaper articles is Infotrac. Select Student Resource Center-Gold.
Whether you are searching Google or one of the databases available on the Lancer Library Web Page, your search strategy will be key to locating useful articles or sites. Below you will find examples of Boolean keyword search strategy.
"Southeast Asia" |
AND | "foreign policy" | AND |
"United States" |
Iraq |
AND | sanctions |
AND |
"United States" |
"Middle East" |
AND |
involvement |
AND |
"United States" |
Southeast
Asia
(India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand)
Military |
Cambodia, December1997 |
| Social | |
| Economic | |
| Cultural | |
| Political | Entering the Pacific Century by Helms, Jesse World & I; Dec96, p68 |
Middle East
(Saudi
Arabia, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Syria)
Military |
|
| Social | |
| Economic | U.S. Oil Policy in the Middle East, January 1997 |
| Cultural | |
| Political | Eisenhower Doctrine, 1957 Essential Documents 1492-present |
South
America
(Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Argentina,
Venezuela)
Military |
Overdose Washington Monthly, April 2000 |
| Social | |
| Economic | |
| Cultural | |
| Political | Peru, November 1997 |
Africa
(Nigeria, South Africa, Congo, Ivory Coast)
Military |
|
| Social | |
| Economic | Economic Policy Toward Africa, January 1997 |
| Cultural | |
| Political |
Western
Europe
(Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain,
Greece)
Military |
U.S., Greece and Turkey, November 12, 1999 |
| Social | |
| Economic | |
| Cultural | |
| Political |
Eastern
Europe
(Ukraine, Turkey, Hungary, Romania, Poland,
Belarus, Bulgaria, Slovenia)
Military |
|
| Social | |
| Economic | Restructuring East-Central European Economies, December 1996 |
| Cultural | |
| Political |
East Asia
(Japan, China, Tibet, Mongolia)
Military |
|
| Social | |
| Economic | Japan: Trade and Security Interdependence, January 1997 |
| Cultural | |
| Political |
Evaluation
There are rubrics to evaluate four different parts of the process
See rubrics for evaluating:* Annotated Resource List
* Policy
Action Cards
* Written
Evaluation (2-page paper)
* Group
Evaluation
.