Global 10 - Turning Points

Scientific Revolution

1500s - 1600s

-Inspired by the questioning spirit of the Renaissance.

-Questioned old ideas about the world.

-Belief in Natural Laws emerged.

-Copernicus, Galileo, Newton.

Enlightenment

1700s

-Period of questioning traditional authority.

-Influenced by the Scientific Revolution.

-Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Wollstonecraft.

French Revolution

1789

-Inspired by the Enlightenment and American Revolution.

-Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

-Declaration of the Right of Man.

-Napoleon, Robespierre, Olympe De Gouges.

Latin American Revolutions

1800s

-Inspired by the Enlightenment, American, and French revolution.

-Toussaint Louverture in Haiti, Simon Bolivar in South America.

Industrial Revolution

1750 - 1850

-Begins in England due to an abundance of resources, labor, and capital.

-Ushers in a new age of production for most of the world.

-Causes urbanization.

-Suffrage, reforms, and new ideas such as Marxism.

Triumph of Nationalism

1830s - 1870s

-Revolutions throughout Europe.

-Unification of Italy (Cavour, Garibaldi, Mazzini).

-Unification of Germany (Bismarck, Blood and Iron, Realpolitik).

Treaty of Nanjing

1842

-Great Britain defeats China in Opium Wars.

-Chinese ports forced open to foreign trade.

-Hong Kong given to Britain.

-Weakened China carved into foreign spheres of influence.

Irish Potato Famine

1845 - 1849

-Extreme shortage of food that led to mass starvation and emigration largely to the United States.

-Caused by a fungus that destroyed the potato crop of Ireland.

-British landlords exported healthy potato crop to other countries.

Sepoy Mutiny

1857

-Indian soldier, both Hindu and Muslim, employed by the British East India Company rise up against the British.

-After the conflict, Britain makes India a colony and absorbs into the British Empire.

Meiji Restoration

1800s

-Treaty of Kanagawa.

-Japan westernizes and industrializes.

-Feudal rulers lose power, emperor gains power.

-Japan resorts to imperialism.

-Manchuria dominated for natural resources.

Berlin Conference

1884

-European leaders meet to carve up Africa after the scramble for territory had begun.

-African interests are not represented.

-Africa under Imperial European control.

WWI

1914 - 1918

-Triple Alliance/Triple Entente.

-Militarism, Nationalism, and Imperialism set stage for war.

-Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated.

-End with signing the Treaty of Versailles, which punishes Germany.

Russian Revolution

1917

-Czar Nicholas II abdicates and is replaced by democratic Provisional Government.

-Communist Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrow Provisional Government.

-Communist Soviet Union, USSR, established.

Rise of Fascist Dictators

1920s - 1930s

-Mussolini’s fascists gain control of Italy.

-Hitler’s fascist Nazi party gains control of Germany.

-Hitler begins WWII in Europe with the invasion of Poland on 1939.

Atomic Age

1945

-Japanese surrender after Hiroshima and Nagasaki are destroyed.

-Soviets obtain technology information that allows them to begin nuclear weapons program.

-Cold War arms race begins.

Decolonization

1945 - 1960s

-Period of WWII when nationalist and independence movements swept across Africa and Asia.

-End of “New Imperialism” that begun in the 1800s.

Cold War Ends

1989 - 1990s

-Communism in Eastern Europe and USSR collapses.

-Former Soviet republics such as Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania break away from the USSR.

-Russia moves politically towards democracy and economically towards free market capitalism, but its democratic shift stalls when Vladimir Putin becomes president in 2000.

Green Revolution

1960s

-Farmers in developing countries, such as India, apply new technologies and methods to dramatically increase food supply such as new irrigation systems, gasoline powered machines, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides.

Globalization and the Information Age

1990s - 2000s

-After WWII, free trade increases and the world becomes increasingly connected and economically dependent.

-Creation and mass use of the internet, satellite technology, and cell phones.

-Transportation technology, such as shipping containers, improves the movement of goods.