US History

The Diploma Programme history course aims to promote an understanding of history as a discipline, including the nature and diversity of its sources, methods and interpretations. It also helps learner to gain a better understanding of the present through critical reflection upon the past. It is hoped that many learner who follow the course will become fascinated with the discipline, developing a lasting interest in it whether or not they continue to study it formally.


Learners and teachers have a choice of two routes through the Diploma Programme history course. The route one history course explores the main developments in the history of Europe and the Islamic world from 500 to 1570, while the route two history course focuses on 20th century world history.


Whichever route is selected the course provides both structure and flexibility, fostering an understanding of major historical events in a global context. It requires students to make comparisons between similar and dissimilar solutions to common human situations, whether they be political, economic or social. It invites comparisons between, but not judgments of, different cultures, political systems and national traditions.

Learners will study major turning points that shaped the modern world from the late eighteenth century through the present, including the cause and course of the two World Wars. They trace the rise of democratic ideas and develop an understanding of the historical roots of current world issues, especially as they pertain to international relations. Students extrapolate from the American experience that democratic ideals are often achieved at a high price, remain vulnerable, and are not practiced everywhere in the world. Students develop an understanding of current world issues and relate them to their historical, geographic, political, economic, and cultural contexts. Students consider multiple accounts of events in order to understand international relations from a variety of perspectives.


Students relate the moral and ethical principles in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, in Judaism, and in Christianity to the development of Western political thought.

Learners will:

• compare and contrast the Glorious Revolution of England, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution and their enduring effects worldwide on the political expectations for self-government and individual liberty.
• analyze the effects of the Industrial Revolution in England, France, Germany, Japan and the United States.
• analyze the causes and course of the First World War.
• analyze the rise of totalitarian governments after the First World War.
• analyze the causes and consequences of World War II.
• analyze the international developments in the post-World War II world.
• analyze instances of nation-building in the contemporary world in two of the following regions or countries: the Middle East, Africa, Mexico and other parts of Latin America, and China.
• analyze the integration of countries into the world economy and the information, technological, and communications revolutions (e.g., television, satellites, computers).

Learners study the major turning points in American history from the establishment of the Colonies to Reconstruction. Learners will analyze ideas and concepts pertinent to the ratification of the US constitution and the addition of the Bill of rights.  Following a review of the nation’s beginnings and the impact of the Enlightenment on U.S. democratic ideals, learners build upon the middle school study of global industrialization to understand the emergence and impact of new technology and a new world economy, including the social and cultural effects.  Learners will trace the movement of populations from rural America to urban settlements.  Learners will understand the political implications of new immigrant populations on the traditional party system. Learners trace the change in the ethnic composition of American society, the movement toward equal rights for racial minorities, and the role of the United States as a major world power. Learners understand the effects of the political programs and activities of the progressive era. An emphasis is placed on the expanding role of the federal government and federal courts as well as the continuing tension between the individual and the state. In addition, learners consider the major social problems of our time and trace their causes in historical events.  Learners will discover that the United States has served as a model for other nations and that the rights and freedoms we enjoy are not by coincidence, but the result of a carefully designed set of political principles, that are absent to many other nations.


Learners will understand that the rights under the U.S. Constitution comprise a precious inheritance that depends on an educated citizenry for their preservation and protection. Learners will analyze the significant events surrounding the founding of the nation and its attempts to realize the philosophy of government described in the Declaration of Independence. Learners will compare and contrast the relationship among the rise of industrialization, large-scale rural to urban migration, and the massive immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe to the US.  Learners will explain the role religion played in the founding of America, its lasting moral, social and political impact and issues regarding religious exploration of how that meaning is affected by reading practices that are culturally defined and by the circumstances of production and reception. A wider aim of the course is the development of an understanding of “critical literacy” in learners