Name:_______________________________________________________________
Class Period:____
Unit 8, Period 8
Contextualization & Making Inferences … Foreign Policy in the Middle East
Skill 7: Appropriate Use of Relevant Historical Evidence
Historical thinking involves the ability to describe and evaluate evidence about the past from diverse sources
(including written documents, works of art, archaeological artifacts, oral traditions, and other primary sources) and
requires the students to pay attention to the content, authorship, purpose, format, and audience of such sources. It
involves the capacity to extract useful information, make supportable inferences, and draw appropriate
conclusions from historical evidence, while also noting the context in which the evidence was produced and used,
recognizing its limitations and assessing the points of view it reflects.
Proficient students should be able to …
• Analyze features of historical evidence such as audience, purpose, point of view, format, argument,
limitations, and context germane to the evidence considered.
• Based on analysis and evaluation of historical evidence, make supportable inferences and draw appropriate
conclusions.
Skill 8: Interpretation
Historical thinking involves the ability to describe, analyze, evaluate, and construct diverse interpretations of
the past, and being aware of how particular circumstances and contexts in which individual historians work and
write also shape their interpretation of past events. Historical interpretation requires analyzing evidence, reasoning,
determining the context, and evaluating points of view found in both primary and secondary sources.
Proficient students should be able to …
 Analyze diverse historical interpretations.
 Evaluate how historians’ perspectives influence their interpretations and how models of historical interpretation change over time
From the Period 8 Content Outline
Key Concept 8.1: The United States responded to an uncertain and unstable postwar world by asserting and attempting to defend a position of global leadership,
with far-reaching domestic and international consequences.
II.
As the United States focused on containing communism, it faced increasingly complex foreign policy issues, including decolonization, shifting international alignments and
regional conflicts, and global economic and environmental changes.
A. Postwar decolonization and the emergence of powerful nationalist movements in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East led both sides in the Cold War to seek allies among new nations,
many of which remained nonaligned.
B. Cold War competition extended to Latin America, where the U.S. supported non-Communist regimes with varying levels of commitment to democracy.
C. Ideological, military, and economic concerns shaped U.S. involvement in the Middle East, with several oil crises in the region eventually sparking attempts at creating a
national energy policy.
Directions:
1. Analyze the documents on the following page by explaining the historical context of each. Include who, what, when, why!
2. Review the timeline of main events, and define each event.
3. Complete the written contextualization of Middle East foreign policy.
Historical Analysis Activity written by Rebecca Richardson, Allen High School using the 2012 College Board APUSH Framework, sources as cited in document, and images captured from pbworks.com
Name:_______________________________________________________________
Class Period:____
Unit 8, Period 8
Contextualization & Making Inferences … Foreign Policy in the Middle East
Analyze the documents on the following page by explaining the historical context of each image. (Include who, what, when, how, why!) One has been completed for you.
 1948 New York Times Headline, “Zionists
Proclaim New State of Israel…”
Historical Context:
- 1948, the nation of Israel was created
fulfilled the Zionist movement to return the
Jews to their homeland
-sympathy for anti-Semitism and Zionism
following discovery of the Holocaust.
-immediately following its creation, Arab
nations attacked. The United States and
NATO nations supported this change as
Great Britain withdrew from Palestine &
Persia (decolonization of Middle East)beginning of Arab-Israeli conflict and
anti-American sentiment grows
1973 photograph, “Pumps Closed,” United States
Historical Context:
1979 photograph, Tehran, Iran
Historical Context:
1979 photograph, Camp David, United States
Historical Context:
Historical Analysis Activity written by Rebecca Richardson, Allen High School using the 2012 College Board APUSH Framework, sources as cited in document, and images captured from pbworks.com
Name:_______________________________________________________________
Class Period:____
Contextualization … Foreign Policy in the Middle East
Unit 8, Period 8
Review the timeline of main events, and define each event that has not already been defined.
1948
Israel created - The British withdraw from Palestine, and Israel is created. Neighboring Arab nations, which rejected the partition of Palestine,
immediately invade, unsuccessfully. The United States and NATO pledge to defend Israel.
1953
C.I.A. Coup - deposing the democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadegh derailing Iran’s burgeoning democracy. The Shah of Iran (Mohammad
Reza Pahlavi) is reinstalled The Shah had ruled from 1941-1951 when he was deposed.
1956
Suez Crisis
1967
Six Day War
1973
Yom Kippur War
Arab Oil Embargo
1979
Iranian Revolution and the Iranian Hostage Crises
Historical Analysis Activity written by Rebecca Richardson, Allen High School using the 2012 College Board APUSH Framework, sources as cited in document, and images captured from pbworks.com
Name:_______________________________________________________________
Class Period:____
Unit 8, Period 8
Contextualization … Foreign Policy in the Middle East
Complete the written contextualization of Middle East foreign policy.
Historical Thinking Skill 5: Contextualization
Historical thinking involves the ability to connect historical events and processes to specific circumstances of time and place and to broader regional, national, or global
processes.
Proficient students should be able to …
 Explain and evaluate ways in which specific historical phenomena, events, or processes connect to broader regional, national, or global processes occurring at the same time.
 Explain and evaluate ways in which a phenomenon, event, or process connects to other, similar historical phenomena across time and place.
Local Context for Cold War Era foreign policy in the Middle East…
Comparative Context
Similar in Kind From an Earlier Time
Broad
Context
Why, How
What is the
“Big Picture?”
What is the theme?
Comparative Context
Similar in Kind From an Later Time
Historical Analysis Activity written by Rebecca Richardson, Allen High School using the 2012 College Board APUSH Framework, sources as cited in document, and images captured from pbworks.com