German Pro-colonial Propaganda
Purpose:
This activity teaches students about propaganda methods imperial countries used to sell their citizens on the need for imperialism. It also allows students to see the ways that the indigenous people resisted dehumanization and reclaimed their humanity.
This lesson is recommended as an activity to be included in a unit on European “New” imperialism in Africa and Asia
Grades: 9-10. High school students taking a modern World History course.
Objective: Students will understand how Germans, both the government and business men, used propaganda to convince the German populace that imperialism was a necessary good. Students will understand methods of resistance used by the indigenous people living in human zoos.
Standards: See end of document
Suggested Time: 1-2 class days (at least one hour of class time)
Unit context:
This lesson is designed to go in the middle of a unit on “new” imperialism, after a lesson on the “Scramle for Africa”
Procedure:
The materials in this lesson can be adapted to fit a single 55min class, spread over two days, or used in a single “block” class of 85-100 minutes.
Materials/Handouts:
Standards:
2017 History-Social Science Framework:
California History-Social Science Content Standards:
10.3.1 Describe the rise of industrial economies and their link to imperialism and colonialism (e.g., the role played by national security and strategic advantage; moral issues raised by the search for national hegemony, Social Darwinism, and the missionary impulse; material issues such as land, resources, and technology).
10.3.3 Explain imperialism from the perspective of the colonizers and the colonized and the varied immediate and long-term responses by the people under colonial rule.
This activity teaches students about propaganda methods imperial countries used to sell their citizens on the need for imperialism. It also allows students to see the ways that the indigenous people resisted dehumanization and reclaimed their humanity.
This lesson is recommended as an activity to be included in a unit on European “New” imperialism in Africa and Asia
Grades: 9-10. High school students taking a modern World History course.
Objective: Students will understand how Germans, both the government and business men, used propaganda to convince the German populace that imperialism was a necessary good. Students will understand methods of resistance used by the indigenous people living in human zoos.
Standards: See end of document
Suggested Time: 1-2 class days (at least one hour of class time)
Unit context:
This lesson is designed to go in the middle of a unit on “new” imperialism, after a lesson on the “Scramle for Africa”
Procedure:
The materials in this lesson can be adapted to fit a single 55min class, spread over two days, or used in a single “block” class of 85-100 minutes.
- Warm-up: Ask students what they know about propaganda: What is propaganda? When do you think propaganda is used? What do you think propaganda looks like?
- Photo analysis: Have students analyze two photographs on successive slides and compare what they saw in each one. Have the class brainstorm how these images might be used as propaganda.
- Short lecture: The lecture is five slides long. For accessibility reasons all slides contain all the information you would need to convey. Edit them to suit your teaching style and student population
- 1st slide covers how colonial photography was used as a form of pro-colonization propaganda
- 2nd slide discusses the propaganda in everyday culture as when indigenous people from colonies are used as “mascots” to sell products
- 3rd slide talks about the pro-colonization message that was embedded in children’s literature of the time. This slide has students turn & talk about how such propaganda would lead to support for the colonies
- 4th slide explains Germany’s Great Exhibition of 1896
- 5th slide features the colonial/ethnological exhibition and it’s ‘human zoo.’ I decided against making a slide on the history of human zoos because that would be a distraction. If you feel the need to give your students that history a) it is easy to find information about them on the internet, they have occurred from 1500-1930, b) you might want to provide a content warning at the beginning of the lesson
- Timeline: Have students read through the timeline lined below. Currently it is six pages. You may want to edit it down for your students depending on their attention span. As your students read they should work with a partner to create a two-column table of dehumanizing events and events that were forms of resistance
- Paragraph: Have students review the evidence they compiled. Then, using the evidence they gathered, they should write a paragraph that answers the question of how German propaganda was used to exoticize the indigenous people of the German colonies and how those same indigenous people resisted.
Materials/Handouts:
- Google Slide deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_FyYoivsc2dcsxo9TxxheXgpfQvweZNfAz6-3w4hAb0/edit?usp=sharing
- A timeline of events connected to the German Colonial Exhibition human zoo https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vtkzfFMKSbp_btyJIk6gtX69n-iKtd3WkjT0eCvQsyo/edit?usp=sharing
Standards:
2017 History-Social Science Framework:
- Why did industrialized nations embark on imperial ventures?
- How did colonization work?
- How was imperialism connected to race and religion?
- How did native people respond to colonization?
California History-Social Science Content Standards:
10.3.1 Describe the rise of industrial economies and their link to imperialism and colonialism (e.g., the role played by national security and strategic advantage; moral issues raised by the search for national hegemony, Social Darwinism, and the missionary impulse; material issues such as land, resources, and technology).
10.3.3 Explain imperialism from the perspective of the colonizers and the colonized and the varied immediate and long-term responses by the people under colonial rule.