The unit most students are waiting for from the beginning of the school year: World War 1, Great Depression, World War 2. Most students will feel really comfortable with this content.

You'll see the causes of WW1, including the complex alliances between European powers and the territorial disputes that arose as a result, building on tensions that escalated in unit 6 in the scramble for imperial power. You will look at how the outcomes of the war, such as the Treaty of Versailles, led to the rise of fascism in Europe and contributed to the start of World War II. 

Another important event in this unit is the Russian Revolution, when communism swept Russia and transformed it into the USSR, which set the stage for the Cold War (contextualization!).

The Great Depression caused populations to seek fast solutions to crippling economic trouble, which led to the rise of dictators. Germany took that a step further by invading neighboring countries, re-starting the conflict that was hardly ended by the Treaty of Versailles. Hello World War 2!

It closes out by looking at atrocities and genocides. This unit is overall a very bloody and full of social, political, and economic upheaval.

The essential question for this unit is: How did different ideologies impact states politically, economically, and technologically in the early 1900s?

World War 2 ended, but the conflict didn't stop there--the USA and USSR faced off in the Cold War, and nations around the world that had previously been controlled by European powers pushed for independence. 

You will see how nationalism and self-determination played a role in decolonization movements, which ended up splitting the world into new spheres of influence--"First World" in favor of democracy and capitalism, "Second World" favoring communism and command economies, and "Third World" caught in the middle and pushed to choose a side (or try to stay out entirely).

This was all under the shadow of total nuclear annihilation as the USA and USSR pursued an arms race to try to out-do each other.

Oh, and humans make it to space and to the moon, too.

The essential question is: How did the Cold War affect the development of states in the 20th century, and what developments challenged or supported the new world order?