Reform, Imperialism & Asian Transformations — Problem set, Grade 10
Five focused units, followed by an evidence workshop, chapter review, and chapter quiz.
Review the key ideas
Reform: Labor Organizing, Suffrage & Public Services
Britain’s 1833 Factory Act regulated work by children and young people in many textile factories and established inspectors, with important limits and exceptions. Parliamentary voting reforms expanded participation in stages rather than creating universal suffrage in 1832. Reforms could improve conditions while leaving exclusions and uneven enforcement.
New Imperialism: Territory, Extraction & Colonial Rule
The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 set rules among participating powers concerning claims and commerce in Africa; African representatives were excluded. Conquest and boundary making continued afterward. Colonial regimes varied in administration, land policy, forced labor, settlement, and extraction. African communities negotiated, resisted, adapted, and maintained institutions under unequal power.
Resistance & Response: India, Ethiopia & Colonial Power
The 1857 rebellion in India arose amid East India Company rule, military grievances, annexations, and social pressures. It led to the transfer of British governance from the company to the crown in 1858. Ethiopia defeated an Italian invasion at Adwa in 1896, preserving independence at that time. Different outcomes require different local explanations.
China in the Nineteenth Century: War, Rebellion & Reform
The first Opium War of 1839–1842 ended with the Treaty of Nanjing, including treaty-port access and the cession of Hong Kong Island to Britain. Later wars and agreements imposed further constraints. The Taiping Rebellion and other internal struggles caused immense destruction. Reform efforts sought military, industrial, educational, and institutional changes through contested strategies.
Meiji Japan: State Reform, Industry & Empire
New leaders reorganized domains, taxation, military service, education, and industry. The 1889 constitution established institutions under imperial sovereignty with limited participation. Industrial and military expansion also supported imperial domination of other peoples, including the annexation of Korea in 1910. Reform at home and coercion abroad require separate but connected explanations.
Problem 1
Answer and explanation
The workshop may be outside the law’s scope rather than violating that particular provision. That distinction does not make the conditions harmless. Evaluating protection requires coverage, other applicable rules, inspections, and actual practices.
Read the category defining coverage.
Distinguish excluded work from violation within covered work.
Request the applicable rule and inspection decisions.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.
Problem 2
Answer and explanation
A strike is an action, not automatic evidence of success. Examine demands, participation, employer responses, legal constraints, and the eventual agreement. Wage changes, safety improvements, and control over work are separate possible outcomes.
Problem 3
Answer and explanation
Transport can lower export costs while land seizure and coerced work burden particular people. Both mechanisms can operate together. The report’s praise does not establish equal benefit, and one local account does not quantify every impact; compare dated institutional and household evidence.
Identify what each source emphasizes.
Connect land and labor rules to construction.
Request costs, access, and community records.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.
Problem 4
Answer and explanation
Distinguish a stated justification from the mechanisms and interests revealed by decisions. No single motive explains every conquest. Compare correspondence, investment, military planning, and local consequences to establish a particular case.
Problem 5
Answer and explanation
Service documents participation in an institution, not unanimous political approval. Motives can include wages, obligation, opportunity, or coercion. A bounded inquiry investigates recruitment and local responses rather than assigning one opinion to the entire population.
Distinguish military service from political opinion.
Consider recruitment, pay, coercion, and alternatives.
Compare independent accounts from named communities.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.
Problem 6
Answer and explanation
A trigger does not explain every participant’s aims. Identify the unit, region, and grievance, then connect military revolt with broader struggles. Avoid describing all Indians as acting together or reducing the conflict to one religious misunderstanding.
Problem 7
Answer and explanation
Opening ports changes specified access and institutions; it does not establish annexation of the whole country. The treaty’s provisions and later agreements are needed to identify jurisdiction, territory, and enforcement. A generalized color can erase legally and historically important distinctions.
Distinguish access provisions from territorial ownership.
Read the specific treaty and date.
Compare jurisdiction and administration at each location.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.
Problem 8
Answer and explanation
Distinguish trade demand from a right to force access. Explain the commodity, prohibition, actors, and military decisions. A trade imbalance alone does not justify warfare or identify all participants’ motives.
Problem 9
Answer and explanation
Schools can expand learning and conscription can expand state obligations without giving everyone equal influence over policy. The scenario shows different forms of participation. Evaluate access, coercion, eligibility, and decision rules separately.
Identify each institution’s role.
Distinguish obligations from voting power.
Request eligibility and implementation records.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.
Problem 10
Answer and explanation
Explain the transition through existing resources and political conflict. The word restoration describes a claim about imperial authority; it does not mean all earlier institutions or social relationships simply returned unchanged.