Enduring Issues Essay Setup

Suggested issue: Power and abuse of power

Sample document set: (1) a passage describing the Berlin Conference, (2) an account of conditions in the Belgian Congo, (3) Kipling's "White Man's Burden," (4) Indian or Chinese descriptions of British or Western treatment, (5) a later document on decolonization or human rights for continuity-and-change

Thesis template: "Power and abuse of power is an enduring issue because throughout history dominant powers have used their advantages to exploit and dehumanize weaker peoples. This is visible in the European partition of Africa at the Berlin Conference, in the brutal exploitation of the Congo under King Leopold, and in the imposition of unequal treaties on China after the Opium Wars, all of which produced lasting harm and shaped the contemporary world."

Second essay setup, alternative issue: Impact of technology. Document set could include accounts of how steamships, machine guns, telegraphs, and quinine made the New Imperialism possible. The thesis would argue that technological gaps allowed industrial nations to impose their will on pre-industrial societies, and that closing those gaps (as Japan did) was the key to preserving sovereignty.