Global History of the Modern World - Final Exam Study Guide

"Rise of the West"

The Euro-centric notion that modern history begins when Europe had its modern revolution.

The historical idea/trend to think about the beginning of the modern world as the European industrial revolution, when in reality, people have been inventing stuff for forever.

Nationalism

The strong belief that one's nation is superior (ethnically).

Opium Wars

The British had a long trading relationship with China prior to the 19th century, but were typically buyers and not sellers of goods. The Chinese government controlled trade with Europeans through the restrictive Canton System. British merchants used their imperial possessions in India to manufacture opium to ship to China, which altered the balance of trade. The Chinese government attempted to deal with the financial and social effects of opium by cracking down on British merchants. Britain retaliated with force in the Opium Wars, which they won, resulting in China being forced to pay indemnities and sign unequal treaties. As a result of the Opium Wars, Chinese coastal areas became European spheres of influence.

"Century of Humiliation"

During the Opium Wars, The Boxer Rebellion led to everyone teaming up against China and beating them very badly. This caused the Century of Humiliation, which was the lowest point in Chinese History

Boxer Rebellion

Chinese martial artists rebelled in Beijing against foreigners and killed them. Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Japan and the U.S. all decided to declare peace on each other in order to team up and fight China. Each wanted more concessions and to save their citizens in China. This was the lowest point for China, and led to the Century of Humiliation in China.

"White Man's Burden"

The White Man's Burden says that powerful countries like the U.S. should overtake small countries and it would help those countries. Belgium did this to Congo and caused a mass genocide and justified it by saying they were going to educate them and would help them in the long run even though this was not true.

Imperialism in Japan

After the Meiji Restoration, the replacement of the Tokugawa Shogunate with the Emperor caused colonization, racism and genocide to occur in Japan. When the Tokugawa Shogunate was replaced, since the country was open and there was pressure from Western powers to imperialize and expand their territory, Japan began to do this, and started with the annexation of Korea. Both the pressure placed on Japan from Western powers to expand and grow into an empire and a history of hate towards foreigners may have been underlying reasons that Japan colonized and committed cultural and mass genocide, particularly on Koreans.

Japanese invasion of Korea

The Japanese invasion of Korea happened after the Meiji Restoration in August of 1910 and lasted until August 1945, and they invaded Korea. This was an example of imperialism, because they took away Korea's culture, language, made them change last names o try and make it Japanese.

Berlin Conference

The Berlin Conference got all of the most powerful empires together and carved up Africa to split the colonies between the member nations to avoid conflict.

Ethiopia and imperialism

One of the only two African nations that has never been colonized. They were a stronger and more unified nation with a central government and a shared fate, with a natural culture. Other countries that were colonized weren't unified, so Ethiopia never got imperialized.

Ottoman Empire

It inherited the legacy of Dar-al-Islam, and rivaled the European empires for hundreds of years. They had a sultan (king), who was also known as the caliph, or successor to the Islamic Prophet Muhammed. Bureaucrats, religious scholars, warrior-aristocrats, and military officials had the greatest social power. They were mostly Muslim and got tax exemptions, and had a Timar system which means that with military service they get free land. Everyone else provided the tax basis for the system to work. In this society, they also had janissaries. This society was hierarchical but not fixed, and citizens could move up or down the social ladder based on their merit. Both Christianity and Judaism were respected.

Janissaries

Young male Christian slaves taken from wars in the Balkans They were raised in the Islamic faith and served as administrators for the sultan, members of the sultan's personal bodyguard, and elite fighting force in the military. They weren't like chattel slaves, they were paid a wage and got land.

Three Faces of Power

1st face - enforcing/ability (direct power - British and China, Belgium and the Congolese, Japan and Korea), 2nd face - rule making (Rubber quotas, Japan and treaties, unequal treaty and Century of Humiliation, Berlin Conference), 3rd face - symbols (Japan and Korea with changing history and last names changing, white supremacy, Christianity, destruction of symbols).

Colonialism vs. Imperialism

Imperialism is extending territory, and gives a country political or economic domination over another country/territory, and it usually involves expanding one's territory. Colonialism is a type of imperialism, and it replaces the native population in new territory, gives a country physical control over another country/territory, usually by moving their own population into the dominated territory (displacing the native population), like what happened in the U.S. Imperialism takes territory and people can live alongside each other, but colonialism takes culture.

Enlightenment and imperialism

Enlightenment came, people became more industrialized with more power (White Man's Burden) came from this and started imperializing.

Agency in imperialism

Agency means the capacity/ability to fulfill one's desires, ambitions, or wishes. More power means more agency, and less power means less agency. In an empire, it goes [imperialism → domination → agency/power → colonization.] However, the conquered go from imperialism ≠ agency/power.

Legacy of imperialism

This is the Dependency Theory. The Dependency Theory meant that people couldn't switch positions, you can't sort them as easily. Periphery would be colonized places mostly, places that experienced imperialism, and places that used to be empires still are.

Triple Alliance

Later known as the Central Powers, the Triple Alliance was made up of Austria-Hungary, Germany, Italy (which soon switched to the Triple Entente), and the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Triple Entente

Later known as the Allied Powers, the Triple Entente was made up of France, Britain, (soon) Italy, Russia, and eventually the United States during World War I.

Austria-Hungary ethnic groups

All the ethnic groups there wanted to create their own country, and with that, Austria-Hungary would get split up and lose money, because of nationalism so Austria-Hungary never stood a chance.

Germany's "blank check"

Germany was Austria-Hungary's greatest ally, which is like Germany's dumb friend, Germany helped them only to anger Russia, who was one of their greatest enemies.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand was basically the prince of Austria-Hungary, and when he was visiting Serbia, Gavrilo Princip shot and killed him (a member of the Black Hand).

Serbia

Serbia was the cause of WWI because a member of the Black Hand killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary because of nationalism and wanting the Bosnians to be free.

Black Hand

A nationalist organization in Serbia that caused the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Serbia caused them to end this organization.

Three Emperors League

It was an alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, which shifted alliances a lot. It was from 1873 to 1887.

Ottoman Empire (WW1)

It was in the Central Powers, and they fought alongside Austria-Hungary and Germany in WWI, and they ceased to exist after WWI.

Trench warfare

It is a type of land warfare that kills a lot of people. It used occupied lines made of military trench, and they were protected from artillery. People died there because no one could advance or make a move, and so that's why the war lasted so long.

Austrian ultimatum

The Austrian Ultimatum was that Austrian officials should be a part of the investigation of killing the people in charge of Archduke Franz Ferdinand which would have been an important going against Serbia's sovereignty. They only had 48 hours.

The Balkans

Made up of Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Ottoman Empire, and Austria-Hungary, which is where the war occurred and started.

Communism definition

They are trying to solve the problem that wealth is owned by very few in society, and they hoard their wealth, and that the people have no access to wealth. So, the solution is to "seize the means of production" wealth and redistribute. In practice, it means that the government owns everything, no private land ownership, everyone is paid equally for participating in society/work.

Karl Marx and Frederich Engels

The writers of The Communist Manifesto, which led to the ideology of communism and the rise of Lenin

Czar/Tsar

The term for the monarch of Russia (king)

"Land, Peace, and Bread"

The three things that the Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Lenin ensured the people that they would get under his rule (land means wealth redistribution, peace means ending WWI involvement, bread means end famine, these things also go along with killing the Czar).

Bolsheviks

The group of people who were the "communists," led by Vladimir Lenin

Bourgeoisie

The Wealthy Citizens of Russia (own the factories and farms)

Proletarians

Everyday average workers that produce the things you use and consume.

Vladimir Lenin

The Leader of the Bolsheviks (communist Leader). He died in 1929 of natural causes.

Leon Trotsky

Stalin's main competition. Trotsky was actually Lenin's choice to rule after he died. Trotsky was the more intellectual and less brutal one of the two (Stalin and him), but Stalin won.

Red Terror

The period where Vladimir Lenin was killing those who opposed communism or his agenda (controlling through terrorism). Lenin killed all his political rivals at this time

CHEKA

The secret police force to keep Lenin in power.

War Communism

The term for implementing communism by complete force if people object. This means take everything from everybody and redistribute.

New Economic Policy

This means private ownership of farms, so food is low cost but industrial goods are expensive.

Joseph Stalin

The USSR leader after Lenin died. His main competition was Trotsky, but he made him get exiled and killed in Mexico. Stalin was the more brutal and less smart of the two, but he won and was in control from 1929 to the 1940s, and began a Great Purge of all his political rivals. He implemented the 5 year plan on Ukraine and murdered millions of people.

Collectivization

The process of condensing a great amount of small farms into one big farm. This turned all small farms into one huge government farm.

Industrialization

The transferring of a nation or society from one of agriculture and farming to one of manufacturing. The 5 year plan was for rapid industrialization.

Five Year Plans

The five year plan was Joseph Stalin's plan to industrialize the nation of Ukraine. Secretly, this movement was to ultimately suppress any threat Stalin saw in Ukraine. This was to get control of agriculture in Ukraine (all the grain they produced). This caused rapid industrialization.

Great Purge

the mass killing of any type of opponent (politically) and caused political rivals to be murdered. They killed kulaks as well, who were wealthy farmers that were "enemies of the state."

Fascism definition

Fascism is an ideology that contains ultranationalism. It is also authoritarian, which is a central dictatorship usually surrounding one cult of personality. This also results from social Darwinism, which is survival of the fittest and that races " can be superior or inferior." It is collectivist, which means put the nation before yourself and your family. Not every fascist is a Nazi but every Nazi is a fascist.

Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic was what Germany was called from 1918 to 1933. It was made of a democracy but it was mid. There were too many political factions, with a Reichstag (congress) and too many elections (27 in 15 years).

Treaty of Versailles

ended World War I. It blamed the Central Powers entirely for war. It made the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary cease to exist. Germany lost significant territory and had to pay 132 billion gold marks, and it took them 92 years to pay it all back

Great Depression

The Great Depression of 1929 was when the Wall Street stock market crashed, causing the economy to take a great hit for many years, and not until 1940 did the recovery start. This caused the Nazi party to grow in popularity because they told people they would get them their jobs back and blamed the Great Depression on Jewish people by using them as a scapegoat.

Nazi Party

The Nazi Party was a Fascist political party. The name was a portmanteau from National and Socialist (Na-Zi), and was known as the National Socialist Germany Workers' Party. This party succeeded the German Workers' Party (or DAP). They were deeply anti-Semitic. They initially opposed big businesses but as they got financial support from them, they began to support them back.

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazi party and the chancellor and prime minister of Germany. He was in office from 1921 to 1945 when he took his own life in a prison called Führerbunker.

Reichstag Fire

The Reichstag Fire was in 1933 that was when the Reichstag (congress of Germany and the building) was put on fire. It was blamed on a communist but it was likely staged by Nazi party members, and one mysteriously disappeared later.

Night of the Long Knives

Night of the Long Knives was a period of time in 1934 where Hitler arrested 1,000 political rivals and their families. This killed anywhere between 85 and 1,000 others

Anti-Semitism

The deep hatred of Jewish people, the main belief of the Nazis.

Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)

Kristallnacht was over several weeks, there was a mass destruction of Jewish businesses, homes, and synagogues. A few hundred people were killed in the attempt to destroy property. This led to the "Final Solution" which was the mass deportation of Jews in Germany and Nazi-occupied nations, and the concentration camps turned out to be death camps. 6.5-7-8 million people were killed, including Jewish people, Black people, and people with disabilities.

Remilitarization

The act of rearming a country or territory that has previously been disarmed.

Lebensraum

This was a Nazi vision of Manifest Destiny, and the German people needed space to live and their neighbors had that space. Lebensraum was the territory that a state or nation believes is needed for its natural development. They expanded to Austria (1938), Czechoslovakia (1939), Poland (1939), Denmark and Norway (1940), France (1940), Yugoslavia (1941), and Russia (1941). All this was to expand power.

Anschluss

Anschluss was the political union of Austria and Germany, achieved through Adolf Hitler's annexation of Austria in 1938.

Sudetenland

Sudetenland was the region of northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia. During this time, the population was predominantly made up of Sudeten Germans.

Appeasement

Appeasement is a diplomatic negotiation policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power to avoid conflict.

Decolonization definition

Taking control out of colonies, either because of money issues, independence movements and morality because people were agreeing with them, resources ran out to make money, and genocides happening that made people start to disagree with imperialism, as well as science making imperialism irrelevant.

Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

GEACPS was a Japanese concept that would unify Pacific Asia and end the era of Western colonization because the Japanese believed the Westerners were mistreating them.

Balfour Declaration

Was a statement from Britain requesting that "Palestine would be the national Jewish home"

UN Resolution 181 (UN Partition Plan for Palestine, 1947)

Jewish immigration had increased in Palestine so tensions arose between the Arab and Jewish populations. Since Palestine had been governed by Britain they sent the issue to the UN where there they created the UNSCOP, a committee consisting of members from 11 countries. The final decision from this committee was that Jerusalem would be a separate entity joined economically to Palestine.

Synthetic rubber

Rubber that is artificially made rather than being naturally harvested. (takes away business from countries that make rubber naturally).

Modernization Theory

better tech → production goes up → more money → better society.

examples: U.S, Japan, the U.K., China, and the USSR/Russia

some nations haven't done this yet, and there are other issues like dictatorships and previous colonial control/beliefs. The big problems are that it is incredibly eurocentric and ahistorical

"Take-off" model of development

Take off theory refers to the ideals of putting superstition aside to adopt modern technologies and principles. This take-off initiative was believed to fully jumpstart the nation to a fully developed society with a strong economy.

Dependency Theory

Is a larger umbrella term that follows World Systems Theory

World System Theory

Imperialism's legacy was that rich countries became rich at the expense of colonies. The World Systems Theory takes into account that there are core, semi-peripheral and peripheral countries.

raw materials → global companies → rich nations → money.

it describes problems, not solutions, and it is tautology (circular logic like countries are poor because they don't have money).

Sykes-Picot Agreement

A secret agreement between Britain and France, left out Russia, after WWI that would separate the Ottoman territories for their agenda.

Apartheid

segregation against non-white citizens in South Africa. During the period, British colonization ended but Apartheid continued because 20% of their population was white, and that part was the people that governed. Still needed to "decolonize" their government and get rid of white supremacy and racism which was technically still colonization.

Imperialism - Relationship between industrialization, enlightenment, and imperialism

The enlightenment led to new scientific and technological ideas, which manifested in the industrial revolution. Because of all of these new discoveries, the more advanced nations believed themselves to be superior, creating the mindset of the 'white man's burden' that they should help other countries adopt their mindset too. Thus, empires started to imperialize.

Imperialism - Nationalism

People thought that their nations were the most superior and advanced, leading them to imperialize other nations to help them adopt the same mindsets.

Imperialism - Relationship to WWI, WWII, and decolonization

WW1: Large empires continued to expand and gain land, creating tensions among other European nations.
WW2: The Nazi Party invaded Poland to imperialize the nation. Additionally, they created plans to invade Eastern Europe as well.
Decolonization: During the peak of Imperialism, nations were making lots of money off of their colonies, but once they feared they would turn communist, they let them go. However, they were still able to make money off of them because of their trading relationship.

WW1 - Nationalism's role

The Black Hand was a nationalist group, and Ferdinand was seen as a threat to independence in Serbia. Additionally, once the war was declared, the nations were trying to build up their militaries and prove they were the strongest.

WW1 - Alliances

Nations had specific promises to upkeep to their allies in the event of a war.

WW1 - Relationship to WWII and decolonization

After WW2, Africa started to advocate for their independence.

Communism - Relationship to industrialization

Marx and Engles believed that once a nation industrialized, communism would become inevitable because industrialization created jobs that have different pay, creating social classes, which people then revolted against.

Communism - Marx and Engels vs Lenin and Stalin

Marx and Engels were the people that wrote the Communist Manifesto. They were the ones that put the idea of communism onto writing and paper, but Lenin and Stalin were the ones that inherently took their favorite ideas from that and made it (Russia) into a communist government.

Communism - Causes of Russian Revolution

Once Czar Nicholas II is overthrown, there become too many factions, which comes to the solution of killing anyone who isn't communist. This led to the Communist Revolution.

Fascism - Relationship to WWI

Once WW1 had ended, the German government was very economically unstable, and the government was criticized by many fascist organizations

Fascism - Differences to Communism

Communism has no social classes and no one has private property, whereas fascism has a very strict social class system, and supports people owning private property.

Fascism - Anti-Semitism

The Jewish population was blamed for Germany's poor financial situation

Fascism - Popularity of Nazis

"The final solution" led to the mass deportation of Jews in Germany and Nazi-occupied nations

Decolonization - Relationship to the other five topics listed here

The enlightenment led to new scientific and technological ideas, which manifested in the industrial revolution. Because of all of these new discoveries, the more advanced nations believed themselves to be superior, creating the mindset of the 'white man's burden' that they should help other countries adopt their mindset too. Thus, empires started to imperialize. During the peak of Imperialism, nations were making lots of money off of their colonies, but once they feared they would turn communist, they let them go. However, they were still able to make money off of them because of their trading relationship.

Decolonization - Causes (three)

- Colonies were expensive
- Independence movements
- Imperialism became less popular

Decolonization - ideals vs reality

While most nations thought that once they had gained independence, they would no longer be affiliated with their previous empire, when in reality they were still maintaining their trade relationship with them, so the empires were still making money off of them.

Decolonization - Japan's ironic involvement

Japan's ironic involvement was the GEACPS, for they claimed they were helping the nations, when in reality, they were just continuing to imperialize them.

Decolonization - Modernization vs Dependency

Modernization: better technology → production goes up → more money → better society
Dependency: raw resources → global companies → rich nations → lots of money