Skip to content

Take a quick tour of the new website with this short video – watch here

Education

Industrialization and Colonialism Lesson Plan

Length
Two 45-minute periods
Grade Level
High School

Learning Objectives

Students analyze the relationship between industrialization and colonialism and evaluate the long-term consequences of the processes by which colonial powers extracted wealth from colonized nations.

Instructional Plan

  1. (Set-up) - Set up the class session by writing the following data points on the board while students take their seats. Do not provide any context for these data points.
    • India, 1700: Economy larger than all of Western Europe combined - nearly 25% of global GDP
    • India, 1973: 3% share of global GDP
  2. (5 minutes) - Read the points out loud to students and give them 90 seconds to discuss the following prompt in pairs: “What could explain this economic drop? Write down your best hypothesis.” Ask 3-4 students to share their answers aloud. Write these responses on the board without confirming or denying, and tell students that they will come back to these theories at the end of the session.
  3. (15 minutes) - Explain to students that today’s session will focus on the global consequences of the industrial revolution, or the sweeping economic transition from agricultural to factory-based manufacturing in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Give students the next 10 minutes to read CFR Education’s “What are the Causes and Consequences of Industrialization?” - specifically the five consequences in the latter half of the article. Tell students to keep the following question in mind as they read: “The Industrial Revolution made some people very wealthy. As you read, use the hand-out to note down every place where you can see who benefitted from this revolution and who paid a cost.”
  4. Once students have finished reading, have them do a quick pair-share with a neighbor focusing on the following question: “What’s the most important thing you wrote down for either column?” Take responses, but ensure that the following points are covered:
    • 1) Industrialized countries frequently forced their colonies to produce raw materials, which would be shipped to European countries, turned into finished products, and sold back to the colonies at marked-up prices — a process that actively deindustrialized countries like India.
    • The reading frames colonialism as a consequence of industrialization — demand for raw materials and new markets drove European empires to seize territory abroad.
  5. (10 minutes) - Next, have students read the India sections of CFR Education’s “What is Colonialism and How Did it Arise?” reading - from “Colonialism in India” through “Challenges and opportunities after independence.” As students read, they should use the hand-out to record the specific tools and policies that transferred wealth from India to Britain during the colonial period.
  6. (5 minutes) - Ask students to name the mechanisms they found. Build a list of mechanisms on the board together, then ask: “Now look at what the reading called ‘deindustrialization.’ India went from producing finished goods to exporting raw materials. Who is responsible for this transformation - and why?” Use student responses as a bridge for the following full-class discussion.
  7. (15 minutes) - Using the questions below, facilitate a full-class discussion on industrialization and its connection to colonialism.
    • “Go back to the hypotheses you wrote at the start of class. Did anyone answer correctly? Who would like to revise their answers? Explain.”
    • “The industrialization reading lists five consequences: changing workforce, labor rights, urbanization, climate change, and colonialism. Why do you think colonialism is listed last? Does the order matter?”
    • “The Industrial Revolution produced unprecedented economic growth - but growth for whom? Is it accurate to call it a global revolution if so many parts of the world experienced it as extraction rather than development?”
  8. (5 minutes) - Debrief the day’s learning by asking students to write down an answer to the final question on the hand-out: “Some scholars argue today that we are in the midst of a new revolution - the AI revolution. Who do you think will benefit from this revolution? Who do you think will bear its consequences? How do you think we should understand or remember these kinds of revolutions? Why?” Collect the completed worksheets at the end of the session as an “exit ticket” and a measure of how well students understood the day’s material.

Materials