Fun Imperialism Games for History Class
Imperialism is a complex and often solemn or enraging topic, but learning about it is crucial to a student's understanding of world history and the development of its cultures. By introducing imperialistic concepts through classroom game play, teachers can actively engage students in forming a critical understanding of imperialistic agendas, effects and consequences in history through a fun and interactive activity.
Other People Are Reading
-
Board Games
-
Board games are excellent for teaching and learning the basic concepts and effects of imperialistic missions of domination. "Risk," "Axis and Allies" and "War! Age of Imperialism" are popular board games that center upon strategic decisions of exploration and conquest, encouraging students to think beyond simple invasion tactics and consider notions of how and why imperialistic missions may be of benefit or disadvantage to a given empire or culture.
Computer Games
-
"Civilization," "Imperialism" and each game's subsequent titles are useful for learning about imperialistic dominance and rule over cultures and territory. These strategy-based, simulation PC games put players in control of an empire, which must achieve a balance between scientific, militaristic, cultural and agricultural production in order to be successful. Games like these can help students build a conceptual understanding of imperialistic agendas, influences and consequences by compelling players to make choices regarding dominance, invasion and colonialism, and to recognize associations between these decisions and their effect on the direction of gameplay. These games are easily integrated in the history classroom as long as a classroom computer is available, or they can be the basis of a presentation or report.
-
Role Playing Games
-
Role playing games require few or no props and are easy to conduct within a normal class period. Divide the classroom into "territories" and establish a context through which students can exercise decision making in terms of diplomacy and conquest, or assign historical characters or cultures to students and ask them to reenact a modernized version of the dynamic between dominant and subordinate peoples. Include variables such as resources, economic factors and geographic locations to promote students' understanding of imperialism's influence on world history.
WebQuests
-
WebQuests are a popular way that teachers integrate technology and learning in the classroom. If you have basic Web-building experience, you can design your own WebQuest, or you can implement a ready-made WebQuest into a class lesson on imperialism. The purpose of a WebQuest is to actively engage students in discovery or inquiry-based learning, sending them on a kind of online scavenger hunt to track down, consult and acquire pieces of knowledge from different online media such as maps, articles, videos and pictures. A WebQuest about imperialism, for example, might require students to uncover colonial texts from a specific part of the world map that is or was under imperialistic rule to determine the effects of conquest, dominance and assimilation of a colonized civilization.
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/liquidlibrary/Getty Images
