HIS 556
Historical Overview of Your Country
Preparation for Essay 1: Research Guide
You should spend 1 hour and 15 minutes for homework in completing this form PLUS 50 minutes from class release. So, just over two hours.
Your research can be based from sources in the library, or other scholarly sources. I suggest you check the PEA Library website and look under “research guides” for either HIS 202 or any other pertinent class. There are some good sources linked there including “Country Reports” and “Modern World History.” The librarians also suggest the Library of Congress Country Studies (available through loc.gov). Times of London might be of use for European historical perspective, particularly if your country was under British colonial rule. (That’s available as a under “E-resources” on the library website).
VERY IMPORTANT: Your NOTES should be paraphrased. That’s what notes are. That is important to avoid inadvertent plagiarism for the paper that comes next. And help yourself out by keeping a key to keep track of where the research comes from. If something is so amazing as it is written that you absolutely need the exact wording (e.g., it comes from primary voice), then be sure you are using quotation marks to indicate as much and note the source.
DO NOT JUST CUT AND PASTE. Something very important happens in your brain processing the information when you at least transcribe, better yet - paraphrase, and better yet, although optional, – handwrite! (Shocker, I know). Evidence actually does suggest, we learn better when we write stuff down than when we type it.
Some of these questions may not pertain to you, in which case just write “N/A” or adjust the question so it does fit. Either way, spend the requisite time researching.
You can download these questions into a word document and type up your answers or use the hard copy I give you and write them in by hand.
1.List here any sources consulted to fill out this form (This is an excellent opportunity to get down any requisite bibliographic info, but it needn’t be in formal formatting here.
2. Was your country a colony? What years? Who was/were the colonizing power/s?
3. How were the modern (or 1955) borders of your country determined?
4. What was the primary economic base for your country in the colonial, or pre-1955 era?
5. What kind of role did local populations have in the colonial-era political and economic spheres?
6. Pick five key dates in your country’s 19th and 20th century history. (You can choose more if you’d like). Make a chronology with one column for date, the other for event.
7. Why did you pick the events you listed above?
8. What domestic issues would have been prominent in the minds of the leaders of your country in the era of independence? (or, in the mid 20th century)
9. Who are the key players, or other names, terms, or places that keep coming up? (These are all potential search terms too.)