Unit 2: Age of Revolutions

Students will understand how new ways of thinking about science, government, and human rights reshaped political systems and societies. They will recognize that revolutions emerge from long-term tensions involving economic inequality, political power, and competing ideas about authority and rights. Students will analyze how ideas spread across regions and how revolutionary movements often produce both reform and instability. They will also examine how historical change often occurs unevenly and produces unintended consequences.

Students will analyze political writings, historical documents, and visual sources to evaluate revolutionary ideas and movements. They will compare different revolutions to identify shared causes and different outcomes. Students will engage in discussion, debate historical interpretations, and write analytical arguments explaining causes, impacts, and consequences of revolutionary change. Students will also evaluate how ideas move across regions and shape political movements.

Students will create a comparative revolution analysis project. The project will require students to examine at least two revolutions and explain how ideas, economic conditions, and political structures contributed to revolutionary change. Students will present an argument explaining whether revolutionary movements tend to produce greater stability or greater disruption in societies.