WHAT ARE PRIMARY SOURCES?
Original Documents
 Autobiographies, diaries, interviews, letters, news film
footage, official records, photographs, speeches, etc.
Creative Works
 Art, drama, films, music, novels, poetry, cartoons, etc.
Relics or Artifacts
 Buildings, clothing, DNA, furniture, jewelry, pottery
How do you Analyze Primary Sources?
 What type of document and when was it
written?
Date/Time Period can help with understanding!
 Who wrote/created it and who was it
written/created for?
Does this impact or bias the meaning?
 What is the main idea?
What evidence (quote) supports this?
What else can you do?
Is there any additional information that can
help with understanding?
People, Places, Events, other clues?
How does it fit within your background
knowledge?
Use what you learned in class and your readings to
help you better understand.
Use the document to better understand what you
learned.
QUESTIONS
For each of the following 6 Primary Resources please answer the following.
1. What is the Main Idea or Concept? In other words,
what is being depicted in the Primary Source?
2. What specific piece of evidence from the Primary
Source best supports your claim?
3. What is the Point of View? Do you sense any Bias?
Who is the intended audience?
ORIGINAL DOCUMENT
"When the whites came to our country, we had
the land and they had the Bible, now we have
the Bible and they have the land."
African proverb
ORIGINAL DOCUMENT
Photograph of the Suez Canal after it opened in 1869.
Pictured below are several British Steamships.
Photo by British Historian John L. Stoddard
CREATIVE WORK
“The Rhodes Colossus”
Striding From Cape Town to Cairo
Cartoon by British Newspaper
Punch 1895
CREATIVE WORK
"Thus Colonize the English."
A German cartoon, published in the early 20th century.
POLITICAL CARTOON
“China”
The cake of kings… and of
emperors
A French Political Cartoon from
1898 (Chine is French for China)
POEM
“The White Man’s Burden”
By Rudyard Kipling
Written in 1899 about the United
States and the Philippines
Take up the White Man's burden -Send forth the best ye breed -Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait, in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild -Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Man's burden -In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.
THE PERFORMANCE TASK!
You will create a Postcard from the perspective of either a colonist or native from
any country that we have studied during our Imperialism Unit. The previous
Primary Sources should have given you some insight into the various points of
view regarding Imperialism. You may choose to be anyone ranging from a Sepoy
to an American soldier assigned to a gunboat under Matthew Perry.
Side #1 – Write a letter to me from one of the two perspectives describing the
conditions within your country/colony. Include specific details such as labor,
relations between colony/colonizer, uprisings, or anything else you find helpful to
help me understand what it is like to be in your colony.
Side #2 – Draw a visual representation of a scene from your point of view. This must
be an original piece of art that you created and not taken from the Internet. This
visual should clearly depict a scene that corresponds to your letter. Creativity and
neatness counts!