Final Exam Review: History

What were Sunni and Shi’ah?

The two sectors in the Islam religion

What did the Sunni believe?

The leader should be chosen among the prophet

What did the Shi’ah believe?

Leadership should stay within the prophet’s family.

What are the Five Pillars of Islam?

No other God but Allah (Muhummad is his final prophet), pray 5 times a day facing Mecca, required to give 2-3% of net worth to the poor, fast during daylight hours for lunar month of Ramadan, pilgrimage to mecca (once in a lifetime)

Who was Genghis Khan?

Leader of the Mongol empire. He united Mongol tribes, established the Yassa, encouraged trade, allowed freedom of religion, and built a strong and smart army, but he destroyed ancient cities, killed millions, and used fear and violence when ruling.

What was the Magna Carta?

A charter of liberties signed by King John in England in 1215

What was the Plague?

A major deadly disease

What was the Black Death?

What the pandemic was called during the spread of the Plague in Europe and Asia. The accepted mortality rate was 25-45%

Who was Gutenberg?

The inventor of the printing press

Who was Machiavelli?

Author of “The Prince,” believed that people were bad by nature, “The end justify the means,” “If one has to choose, it is better to be feared than loved”

Who was More?

Author of “Utopia.” His main beliefs were no private possessions, all women and men allowed to work, class systems based on intellectual potential from childhood, freedom of religion.

Who was Michelangelo?

An artists who created the Sculpture of David, the Creation of Adam, and the Last Judgement.

Who was Raphael?

An artist who painted the School of Athens.

Who was Leonardo?

An artist who painted the Mona Lisa.

Who was Bosch?

An artist who painted the Garden of Earthly Delights

Who was Martin Luther?

A reformer who went against the Catholic Church. He believed indulgences should stop being sold, all church teachings should come from the bible, you should get into heaven based on faith alone, priests should be allowed to get married. He wrote 95 Theses.

Who was John Calvin?

Replaced Zwingli as the Protestant leader of Switzerland, and had a religion called Calvinism. Came up with Predestination.

What was Predestination?

The idea that God had predetermined who would be saved and who would be damned.

Who was Henry VIII?

The English King who broke away from the Catholic Church and created the Church of England.

What was the Counter Reformation?

The Catholic Church’s effort to keep people from turning to Protestantism by promoting loyalty to the pope, obedience to the church, and using education to spread Catholicism.

Who was Ignatius Loyola?

A main figure in the reformation who founded the Society of Jesus

What was the Middle Passage?

The voyage enslaved Africans were forced to make to the Americas

What was the Heliocentric Theory?

The theory that the planets revolved around the Sun

Who was Copernicus?

The person who came up with heliocentric theory

Who was Galileo?

Scientist who said moons of Jupiter revolve around Jupiter, not the Earth, and this was seen as heresy because it proved the church wrong. He planned to write a book about his discoveries in the common language so many people could understand

Who was Newton?

Scientist who came up with the law of gravitation, inertia, and wrote “Principia”

Who was Columbus?

An Italian explorer who sailed for Spain in 1492. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached the Caribbean, believing he had found a route to Asia.

What was the Columbian Exchange?

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and goods between the Americas and the Old World after Columbus’s voyages.

Who was Cortes?

A Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztec Empire

Who was Pizarro?

A Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca Empire

Who was Magellan?

Leader of the first trip to circumnavigate the world, but died along the way

Who was Adam Smith?

Author of the “Wealth of Nations,” and came up with the idea of Laissez-Faire

What was Laissez-Faire?

The idea that the government should interfere as little as possible in the economy

Who was Voltaire?

A French writer during the Enlightenment. Known for his ideas of supporting freedom of religion and speech, criticizing unfair governments and abuses of power, promoting the use of reason and logic instead of blind acceptance.

What was Candide?

A book written by Voltaire that had the main purpose of criticizing blind optimism and shared some ideas in society, religion, and philosophy

What was Communism?

A system where the government owns businesses and resources, and wealth is shared so everyone is supposed to be equal

Who were Marx and Engels?

Writers of Communist Manifesto. They believe society is divided into classes and the workers are being exploited by the rich. They want to end private property, get rid of class systems, and give power to the proletariat. 

What does Bourgeoisie mean?

Factory or business owners

What does Proletariat mean?

Factory workers

What is Nationalism?

The belief that people’s loyalty should be to their nation, defined by a shared language, culture, and institutions rather than to a king or region 

What was the Unification of Germany like?

Unified in 1871 when Bismarck led Prussia to unite many German states into one country through wars and diplomacy

What did Bismarck do?

Unified Germany under Prussian leadership by fighting wars vs Austria and France.

What happened in the wars with Austria and France?

Germany beat Austria and France, which helped unite Germany

What was the Unification of Italy like?

Different Italian states were joined into one country

What did Garibaldi do?

He raised a volunteer army called the Red Shirts, and helped complete the unification of Italy by 1870

What was the Industrial Revolution?

Started in England in the 1700s. Steam power began to be used for machines instead of muscles, water and wind, England had many natural resources, many rivers for transportational power, money to invest, and colonies and markets to sell goods

Who was Napoleon?

A French military leader who became emperor of France in the early 1800s and conquered much of Europe. 

What happened in the Invasion of Russia?

The Russians burned supplies and Moscow, forcing a retreat that destroyed most of Napoleon’s army.

What was the significance of Waterloo?

It was Napoleon’s final defeat

What was Social Darwinism?

Philosophy that was used to justify imperialism and said “survival of the fittest” applied to nations and races

What was the Opium War?

Conflicts in the 1800s between Britain and China after Britain tried to continue selling illegal opium in China

What was the Scramble for Africa?

European countries quickly took control of almost all of Africa and divided it into colonies. The Berlin Conference dealt with it.

What was White Man’s Burden?

A poem written by Rudyard Kipling, and also a belief that Europeans had a duty to civilize people in Africa and Asia

What was Schlieffen Plan?

The plan to put most troops in the west to quickly defeat France, then move all those troops to the east to fight Russia

What were the causes of World War I?

Militarism, Alliances, Nationalism, Independence Movements, Arms Race, Colonies

What was the League of Nations?

An international organization created after World War I to help prevent future wars by encouraging countries to solve problems through diplomacy instead of fighting

What caused the US to enter WWI?

Germany continued to sink U.S. passenger ships without warning, and sent the Zimmerman Note asking Mexico to attack the U.S. in exchange for land, enraging U.S. and convincing Wilson to join the war

What was the Russian Revolution?

When Russians overthrew Tsar Nicholas II because of war, poverty, and unrest.

Who was Lenin?

A Russian Revolutionary who came to power during the October Revolution with his group, the Bolsheviks, and created a communist government.

Who were the Bolsheviks?

Lenin’s section of the Communist Party

What was the Great Depression?

A severe worldwide economic crisis that started in 1929, causing massive unemployment, bank failures, and poverty.

What were the causes of the Great Depression?

Overexpansion of US production capabilities, high protective tariffs, expansion of easily available credit, German reparations, Stock Market Crash of 1929

Who was Stalin?

Leader who came to power after Lenin. He had the Five Year Plan, Collectivization, Industrialization, Communism, Great Purge, Secret Police.

What was collectivization?

A policy started by Joseph Stalin where peasants were forced to give up their private land and work on state-owned farms controlled by the government.

What was the Great Purge?

A period when Joseph Stalin eliminated all potential opponents in the Communist Party and the Red Army by having them killed.

Who was Hitler?

The leader of Germany’s Nazi Party who became dictator in 1933. He occupied nearby countries, believed in extreme nationalism and anti-semitism, led the NAZI party, and took over from the weakened democratic government after the Depression started

How did Hitler rise to power?

Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 because German leaders thought they could control him and use him to stop Communism. He then used the Reichstag fire to blame communists, ban them, and take full control as dictator.

What was the Holocaust?

Mass murder of millions of people (specifically Jews) by Nazi Germany during World War II, led by Adolf Hitler, in concentration and death camps.

What was Appeasement?

A policy used by Britain and France in the 1930s where they tried to avoid another war by giving Hitler some of what he wanted, hoping it would keep the peace

What was Operation Barbarossa?

Hitler’s invasion of the USSR. It was a major attack where Germany used blitzkrieg tactics to quickly try to defeat the USSR

Who was Churchill?

British Prime Minister for most of World War II

What was Pearl Harbor?

A surprise attack by Japan on a U.S. naval base in Hawaii in 1941, which led the United States to enter World War II

What was D-Day?

The allied invasion of Nazi occupied Normandy, France.

What was the Cold War?

A global rivalry between the capitalist nations led by the US, and the communist nations led by the USSR. The Yalta Conference was seen as the “unofficial start”

What was Containment?

The US policy of trying to stop communism from spreading beyond where it already existed. The goal was to keep the USSR and communism “contained” within its current borders

What was M.A.D?

It was the idea that if the US and the USSR ever used nuclear weapons against each other, both sides would be completely destroyed, so neither side would start a nuclear war

What factors led to the fall of the USSR?

Gorbachev’s policies, the Invasion of Afghanistan makes their government less powerful (Freedom Fighters help Afghan fighters and US is funding Afghanistan), the economic system in the USSR is poor (basic needs aren’t met), and USSR civilians view US capitalist system as better than communism

Describe the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge

The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, took control of Cambodia and tried to create a radical communist society by forcing people out of cities, making them work in the countryside, and killing or imprisoning anyone they saw as an enemy, which led to millions of deaths

What was the Domestic Interpretation?

Argues that European countries themselves no longer wanted to keep their empires because colonies had become too expensive and weren’t bringing in enough wealth.

What was the Nationalist Interpretation?

Argues that decolonization was mainly caused by independence movements and resistance within the colonies themselves.

What was the International Interpretation?

Argues that the US, USSR, and UN pressured lesser countries to free colonies.

What happened in the Nigerian Civil War relating to Biafra?

Biafra tried to secede from Nigeria, but Nigeria won the war and Biafra was reintegrated into the country

What was the Rwandan Genocide?

Mass killing in Rwanda where the Hutu goverment and militias killed thousands of Tutsi people. 

What was Hutu and Tutsi?

Hutu was the majority ethnic group, while the Tutsi were a smaller group that historically held more power during colonial rule.

Who was Nehru?

First prime minister of India (British created to be the Hindu part)

Who was Jinnah?

First leader of Pakistan (British created to be the Muslim part)

What happened to create Bangladesh?

East Pakistan broke off from the rest of Pakistan by fighting a civil war and became Bangladesh.

Who was Chiang Kai-shek?

Chinese political and military leader who led the Nationalist government in China and later ruled in Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War to the Communists.

Who was Mao Zedong?

Communist leader of China who led the revolution and founded the People's Republic of China

What was the Great Leap Forward?

A program started by Mao Zedong in 1958 to quickly modernize China through increased industry and collective farming.

What was the Cultural Revolution?

A movement started by Mao Zedong from 1966 -1969 to restore communist ideals in China. Millions of young people joined the Red Guards and targeted anyone seen as opposing Mao’s ideas.

Who was Deng Xiaoping?

The dominant figure in China following the death of Mao Zedong. He moved away from strict control of the economy and allowed for a more free market based approach. He also helped increase the Chinese population.

What was Abstract Art?

Has no objects, just random

What was Cynicism?

Humans live according to nature, to achieve happiness by fulfilling “natural” needs without giving into luxuries.

What was Dadaism?

An art movement that was used as a way to protest WWI, violence, and the idea that society was logical or civilized

What was Existentialism?

The philosophy that says there is no guiding force and no greater purpose to life other than existing. The universe is what you make out of it

What was Freudian Psychology?

Id (desire), Superego (morality), Ego (balance), psychoanalysis, oedipus complex, subconscious influence, castration anxiety, theory of female development

What was Liberalism?

People have natural rights, and government should be limited so it protects those rights instead of controlling everything