Story of the World Volume 4 Chapter 12

During the years of colonization, the British Empire was expanding rapidly. It took land in Ireland. It took land in India. It sent colonies to Africa. At one point, it was said that the sun never set on the British Empire. In chapter 12 of the Story of the World Volume 4, the British Empire was having some troubles with its lands in Ireland and South Africa.

I have been using the Story of the World with my kids for several years. We like how the book tells history in story form; it also packs a lot of history into its pages. Even I have learned a lot over the past three years from this series. Volume 4 is a lot more difficult than the other three books; I recommend going in order and saving this one for last.

This page gives some quizzes that you can give to your kids on the two chapters. Some of the questions that they ask in the activity book are a little hard for my daughter, so I came up with these questions to help her review the material.

The time period where these quizzes take place was a time of profound change. Between 1849 and 1900, the world became a different place.

Of course, the potato famine occurred during this time, which caused many Irish to immigrate to America. In the United States, the country went through the Civil War and through reconstruction.

Another thing that was happening at this time isn't always covered in history books, but it is nonetheless important: the Little Ice Age was ending. The Little Ice Age was partly to blame for the potato famine, as the weather created the conditions that allowed the potato disease to thrive.

Technology also changed the way that people lived during this time period. Railroads changed the way that people traveled, and allowed the frontiers in the United States to be able to communicate and exchange goods more freely with the more established East. Railroads also led to the introduction of time zones.

History tends to repeat itself. If we don't learn from history, we may repeat it.

After the Boer War, the British put innocent civilians into concentration camps. Hitler did this during World War II with the Jews, and two US presidents put some of its citizens into concentration during World Wars I and II. In all of these cases, the governments later regret their actions, yet they continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. Perhaps, if we would learn from our mistakes, then governments would stop doing this.

The Irish history shows us that its not always good to put your eggs into one basket. The Irish depended on one variety of potato for their survival, but when the potato rot hit, they ended up starving. If they had grown more than one variety of potato, or potatoes and corn, they might have hit hard times, but they may not have starved by the millions.

This history also shows us that countries can get a little over-aggressive in their quest to take new lands. Although it was Britain in this case, Hitler also did it in the 1940s. The United States had a plan of "manifest destiny" and unfairly took land from the Indians in the 1800s. Even Russia encroached upon lands that had once belonged to free people as they underwent expansion.

We live in a chaotic world, and we can never assume that the conditions that we live under now are going to be the same conditions that we will live under in 10 years. Today, we can see the Middle East undergoing political change. Europe is in crisis. History is being written as we speak. We may see profound change, just like the people that lived in this time period did.