readers note*

I’ve tried my hardest to make this study guide for myself and now for others. All the information in this document comes from 3 valid sources (one of which being an official AP prep book that covers all the content as is, plus guidance from a proclaimed history teacher that grades the AP exam himself and his online resources outlying everything he deems necessary to know, and the school textbook we use) that is all aligned with the official AP college board curriculum standards and more. Therefore if I’ve done my job right, this is enough information you could possibly need for the exam, and all contained in this document. Everything is organized by time period (there are 4 main ones in the curriculum). I would recommend searching up a word to start studying unfamiliar concepts, otherwise reading it all is a good idea. The information here is correct and cross checked through the 3 sources. I also frequently do extra research to add a piece of info to add context here or there where I thought confusion may arise. I made nothing up, it is comprehensive and explained to no degree of vagueness. I structured it to 4 units corresponding to the time periods. The units correspond to our school textbook as well, Chapter 7-12 is Unit 1, Chapter 12-15 is Unit 2, Chapter 16-19 is Unit 3 and Chapter 20 to the end is Unit 4). Vocabulary is emboldened. I did my best, good luck reading this comprehensive guide for AP world history exam come May 15th. (Lastly, this guide is written assuming you know where certain places and things are. For example, the Indian ocean routes are not described as to where they are, the same applies for a place like Algeria or where the Aztecs are based, and other assumed knowledge, like what Christianity, an aristocrat, colonial empires or nuclear warfare is).

Unit 1 - AP World History

1200-1450

The First Empires, The First Exchanges

Global Religion For Starters: Let’s Begin

Confucianism was a belief system implemented in China during the Tang and Song Dynasties. It was based on society being fundamentally hierarchical. Life consisted of unequal relationships between those and their superiors. One example was filial piety, where unquestioned obedience to their familial seniors was practiced, such as sons to fathers, wives to husbands, and so on. This created a patriarchal society, in which women were subordinate to men. CULT CONTINUITY

Confucian values became central to the education system, so much so that in order to work in the government, you had to pass the civil service examination. It was an exam with a very low pass rate that tests Confucian laws and ideologies. The elite scholar gentry was made up of those who passed and worked for the imperial bureaucracy. This created a meritocracy where anyone could take it causes a merit based system. GOV CONTINUITY

Daoism arose in China and ran almost in counterbalance to Confucianist values. Daoists believed in withdrawing from the world, and becoming one with nature. Escaping from the problematic ordeals of society to prosper in the natural world. Balance between the sexes was appreciated in contrast to Confucian subordination. CULT CONTINUITY

Philosophical Hinduism was an Indian religious culture throughout its early years. Brahman was the chief idea, of the soul, the world, and ultimate reality. Liberation after life, in which the individual was one with Brahman, was called moksha. Samsara was the notion of repetitive reinarcation, and depending on one’s actions throughout life, which was karma, they would become birthed into a higher or lower position of status in their next life. CULT CONTINUITY

Hindu religion brought forth the formation of the caste system, higher castes associated with good karma. The caste system provided no social mobility because, once birthed into a caste, the only way to achieve a higher social order was to die, and become reborn, which resulted in people being attached to a single position their entire life. SOC CONTINUITY

Buddhism developed alongside Hinduism and shared elements of rebirth. Buddhism was all about achieving nirvana, in which one achieves enlightenment through self-discovery, however Buddhism also rejected elements of Hinduism, such as the Brahmin priest authority. Buddhism went somewhat against the caste system, lower castes and women favored Buddhism. CULT CONTINUITY

The Bhakti movement occurred in India, which was the adoration and devotion to India’s many gods and goddesses, an example of cultural change. This occurred because of the stress opposing Muslims put onto the Hindu religion. Buddhism was declining. CULT CHANGE

Trade On The Global Stage

The interconnected networks of exchange, changed society. They affected the working lives of empires, because they became more commercialized, producing specific products for trade, rather than for personal use. ECON CHANGE

Merchants became a growing and distinct social class. The wealth from trade connections was heavily relied upon, and greatly influenced the entire global economy. ECON CONTINUITY

The trade that occurred on the Silk Road was heavily focused on luxury goods such as silk. Silk was flaunted by royals and leaders to indicate high status. It ran through Asia. ECON CONTINUITY

The Silk Road functioned at its highest when there was mercantile security. Two examples of this include the simultaneous reign of the Byzantine, Abbasid and Tang dynasties, which provided city states with great power that provided a safety net for merchants. This same instance occurred when the Mongols conquered most of Afro-Eurasia and this single domain, with a powerful military, caused a resurgence of Silk Road use. ENV CONTINUITY

Caravanserais were roadside settlements that acted as lodges for merchants and travelers on the Silk Road, that provided them with shelter, and other necessities. ECON CONTINUITY

Buddhism was a major religion that traveled along the major trade routes, merchants preferred it because of its view of egalitarianism compared to Hinduism which favored higher castes. Societies who converted to Buddhism found it a gateway for access to richer empires. CULT CHANGE

Buddhism changed along the routes, adopting different forms, such as the Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhism, which focused less on the material world, but more on the spirit and gods and deities. CULT CHANGE

When Buddhism in Daoism met along the silk roads, Zen Buddhism became a new popular form amongst the Chinese common folk but was viewed negatively by the scholar gentry. CULT CHANGE

The Indian Ocean trade network was another vital trade system. Transportation was actually cheaper than on the Silk road, because ships could accommodate more goods. ECON CONTINUITY

The monsoon winds were periodic weather patterns that were predictable in nature. Technology and understanding around these winds were utilized for efficiency, and provided a connective system most empires used. ENV CONTINUITY

The maritime technology at this time progressed, with ships called junks, and dhows with lateen sails. Advancement in navigation also rose, with the compass and the astrolabe which calculated latitude and the sternpost rudder. TECH CONTINUITY

The Song economic revival in China reestablished a unified state, encouraged trade, and provided a market for other goods. The Chinese also experienced an intense period of advancements in technology which may have also boosted commerce. The rise of the Islamic Abbasid Caliphate also assisted in the Indian Ocean trade because the single political system and the wide range of economies under the dynasty boosted cultural energy towards oceanic trade, especially in merchants. ECON CONTINUITY

New societies started to form from the wealth of the ocean trade, such as around the straits of Malacca. Trade was competed for in this Southeastern Asian region, and dominated by Srivijaya, most likely due to their gold, spices and their taxation of the ships that arrived. A similar prosperity occurred at the sea ports of Hangzhou China, which led to increased urbanization with a flourishing population of over a million people, and in the security came artwork, literature, and poetry. ECON CHANGE

The Indian Sanskrit traveled here, and was used heavily in writing. God king rulers were adapted into these societies from Hindu influence. Buddhism and Hinduism showed major architectural prevalence, from the Buddhist Borobudur monument in Java, and Angkor Wat which was initially Hindu in the Khmer Empire, which as an empire openly accepted Chinese merchants, and flourished because of complex irrigation systems. CULT CHANGE

The Majapahit Empire forced tribute onto nearly a hundred nearby islands and cities and gained power because of it, founded in Java in 1293. GOV CHANGE

One important agricultural exchange was when Indonesian merchants brought bananas all the way to Sub-Saharan Africa, because when the Bantu people learned how to plant the foregin crop, it changed their lives. Their previous food staple was yams, and they lived only where they could be produced, but now they could move into regions where yams didn't have to grow because they had bananas. This is a common theme that when new crops are introduced, populations increase, similar to Chinese champa rice. It was because of this crop that the Bantu migrations occurred that led to them spreading their knowledge all across Africa such as their language, irrigation and especially ironworking. ENV CHANGE

When preachers of Allah (Muslims) arrived in the east coast and met with the Bantu speaking people of the time, a new language was born out of it known as the swahili and also openly accepted the new religion. CULT CHANGE

The Swahili City states emerged because of the Indian Ocean trade, who lived in small communities. Commercialization greatly influenced the growth of the Swahili. The African merchant class was growing, villages and chiefs becoming cities and kings. They competed with each other for trade. ECON CHANGE

Comparing East Africa and Southeast Asia draws many comparisons. Islam posed relevance to East Africa as Buddhism did in the latter mentioned region. Arabic was their written language, and Islam was voluntarily adopted, mosques dotted the region as did temples and monuments in Java and the Khmer. ECON CHANGE

Great Zimbabwe was a near successful neighbor to the Swahili, and the wealth they had accumulated from them as well as their own involvement in trade was substantial, having built an impressive stone wall surrounding the society, constructed by an abundance of laborers. ECON CHANGE

The various West African environmental zones such as the grasslands and forests provided many different trade items that acted as an incentive for many markets, from grain and tree crops. ENV CHANGE

The introduction of the camel changed the saharan trade because it finally gave the ability to travel long distances efficiently due to the animal being able to go without water for unusually long periods of time. Now caravans were organized by traders, using the camels. TECH CONTINUITY

Many city states were constructed near the Atlantic Ocean, such as Ghana, Mali and Songhay. These grew into monarchies with complex administrations and strong militaries. Mali had a monopoly on African camel trade especially with horses and metals. They drew on trade wealth, levying taxes on merchants. They were renowned for having many riches, and because of them they started to take shape with social hierarchies with royalty and elites on top, merchants in the middle and slaves at the bottom. Timbuktu was the regional trade center in Mali, where gold and ivory were traded. ECON CHANGE

However environmental consequences did ensue, such as in the late 1400s the entire population of Great Zimbabwe, abandoned the city because of overgrazing, and lack of plants led to severe environmental degradation, because of their agricultural productivity. ENV CHANGE

The interconnectedness of trade in the Americas was to a much lesser degree than in Afro-Eurasia. However some civilizations still functioned in trade. Aztecs made use of pochtecas who acted as business merchants. On a side note, the Aztecs used the tribute system to politically dominate much of mesoamerica without being directly involved. Cahokia was at the epicenter of a large trade network in what is now considered the midwestern United States. The Incas with their quipus that numerically recorded data, since they had no written language, had a large road network with state centers that both traveled along the coast and inwards towards the forestry areas. ECON CONTINUITY

The Americas had many geographical hurdles to cross in order for trade to have been more prevalent, such as the Panamanian bottleneck. This provides reason as to why certain technologies were not as quickly invented here, such as the major absence of the wheel. ENV CONTINUITY

Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta, were explorers and travelers. Marco Polo traveled across the asian continent and met with Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty. The stories Polo told of the places he went, ending up in China where Khan made him the ambassador of China for 17 years. But after Marco Polo returned, he was imprisoned but his stories were published and caused Europeans to become infatuated with trading outside of Europe and even traveling there. Ibn Battuta kept a journal while traveling all over Afro-Eurasia, going all over Dar Ar Islam, such as Spain and East African coast and these published jorunals had a similar affect on the Muslims. SOC CHANGE

The most significant environmental cause of the trade routes was the black death. As the Mongols pushed into all the land of afro-eurasia, they brought the fleas with them. Indian ocean boats with infected rats brought it all across the world, especially Europe, and silk road caravanserais, as discussed earlier, housed merchants in close proximity to animals and all the trade culminated in a perfect environment for the black death to manifest. Every time it would come in contact with a city, the events were devastating, especially in Europe, eliminating around half the entire population. ENV CHANGE

In Europe, since labor was scarce due to the death of many, the relationships between lords and workers changed. The advantage went to the workers as wage negotiations were favorable. ECON CHANGE

The Mongol Moment

The most significant pastoral people in this time period were definitely the Mongols. They emerged in the 1200s and quickly ruled over the largest land based empire of all of human history. Genghis Khan would become the ruler of all of Mongol reign, and had a reputation for ruthlessness and brutality. However one important aspect apart from his military victories was the fact that he was sometimes peaceful and incorporated societies into his mongol tribe. SOC CHANGE

He first attacked China in 1209, which was fierce, and this set the Mongol expansion. With less than a million people, the Mongols conquered without a definite plan and simply gained resources in the domino effect of power they earned as they grew. Genghis Khan organized his military into decimal units of 10,000, 1000, 100, and 10. Every military he conquered would become part of that same organization. He prevented rebellions by dividing the same people into different units. He earned people's loyalty because of fear. If one member stepped out of line, the whole unit was killed. However he did spare those who would submit. GOV CHANGE

The Mongols were surprisingly tolerant. They allowed people to practice their own religious faith so long as it did not interfere with their abidance with the Mongols. The Mongols were essentially cultural borrowers, incorporating almost every religion to some degree at some point. One specific example of this is the written script adoption of the Turkic language, called Uighur. They also adopted China’s paper money, and incorporated skilled people from societies they dominated. CULT CHANGE

The Mongol takeover of China was largely focused first on destruction, but moved to the accommodation of their people. The consequence was the unification of all of China. Some Confucians even though the Mongols were given the Mandate of Heaven, to rule over them. This religious idea was that a divine power would give a ruler the right to rule over the people. This formed the Yuan Dynasty, which largely improved the infrastructure and unification. The new Mongols ruled quite similarly to the previous Confucians. SOC CHANGE

However the rule only lasted 100 years, with division, the plague, and rebellions such as the Red Turban Revolts, which ultimately ended the Yuan dynasty and started the Ming Dynasty. SOC CHANGE

The Mongols also conquered Persia, and the muslims were so confused because of the fact Mongols were non-believers, and the ruthlessness was so intense and the Persians had never seen anything like it before. For example the Siege of Baghdad in 1258 resulted in the mass killing of 200,000 people. However it was interesting because Mongols allowed Persian rulers to remain in power, and many of them also became Muslim was well. They assimilated so much that the end of the Mongol rule in Persia ended on a note of mongol disappearance. SOC CHANGE

The Mongol rule enabled security for merchants and an overall period of stability. This allowed trade to flourish since the Mongols had control of essentially all the land. This idea is usually labeled as the state of Afro-Eurasia during what is called the pax-Mongolica, or mongol peace. ECON CHANGE

The Chinese Domain

The Song Dynasty experienced the richest, most skilled and most prosperous empire at the time. Their population jumped to 120 million people compared to the 60 million in the Tang Dynasty, This is due in large to remarkable agricultural advancements, most notably, champa rice, which was a drought-resistant, and fast growing strain of the grain from Vietnam. This grain was so influential it introduced a new method of farming on the rough Asian terrain, - terrace farming. TECH CHANGE

Supplying the cities of the Song with food was made possible by the grand canal system of many internal waterways thousands of miles long. The canals provided cheap transportation and a unified economic system. Industrial output also soared, including China’s iron which increased production dramatically along with porcelain as well. ECON CONTINUITY

China’s technological era boomed with inventions in printing, in the woodblock and movable type, which generated the first books, which allowed academic topics to be widely available. China became far more commercialized and also began the first use of paper money. TECH/ECON CHANGE

The clearest example of the Song empire’s patriarchal Confucian rules were in foot binding. The wrapping of girls feet at a young age, usually breaking bones causing immense pain was done to symbolize female beauty, submission, and desirability to that of a man. SOC CONTINUITY

During the Ming Dynasty, the tribute system was used in order to deal with the constant attacks from northern nomadic people. The nomadics would present the emperor with exotic goods in exchange for trade, and for that, the nomadics would not invade China. SOC CONTINUITY

China greatly affected its neighbors, for Japan, Korea and Vietnam all adopted Chinese culture however without being politically dominated. Korea tried to replicate China’s administration from being exposed to it during their participation in the tribute system. Thousands of Korean students were sent to China, where they studied Confucianism. Schools of Confucian thought were opened in Korea, the Korean Civil service examinations also existed, however peasants were not allowed to take it, therefore the meritocracy that China developed never took hold in Korea. Japan's leader Shotoku Taishi launched missions to China of many scholars and when they came back they implemented what they had learned, such as Confucianism, Buddhism and even architectural design as seen in the capitals of Chang’an and Heian (China and Japan) respectively. The Japanese progressed the printing revolution by producing the first ever novel, The Tale of Genji. SOC/CULT CHANGE

Japan however, advanced militarily differently with their military faction known as the samurai being the powerful warrior class. They developed the bushido mentality of honor, loyalty and death over surrender. Confucianism also never replaced Japan’s dominant Shinto religion, with focus on the sacred kami spirits. CULT CONTINUITY

Landowning aristocrats in daimyo participated in feudalism with respect to a Shogun which Japan used. (TO BE DISCUSSED LATER IN THE STUDY GUIDE). GOV CONTINUITY

The Vietnamese, like both Japan and Korea, adopted the culture, writing styles and architecture however they were more opposed to China than the other two, rejecting ideas like foot binding, and even having battles against imposing Chinese military efforts. Vietnam also enjoyed nuclear families (just, wife, husband and children) different from China’s preferred living with extended family. Political centralization also did not exist in Vietnam, with villages functioning independently. SOC CONTINUITY *no longer relevant

China’s most important adoption of culture from anywhere was from India in Buddhism, and as it faded in India, it became extremely prevalent, as the Chinese seemed to favor the ‘kind’ nature of the religion that also mixed with Daoism. This caused China to become the Buddhist launchpad in which it dispersed to its eastern neighbors. CULT CHANGE

Neo-Confucianism, is a common ideology in Song China that combines rational thought (Confucianism), Daoism and Buddhism. CULT CHANGE

After the Yuan Dynasty, discussed earlier, The Ming Dynasty arose, after the Red Turban Revolts. The Hongwu emperor’s goal was to repair China to its thriving capacity once again. They rebounded but not without cost. The emperor ruthlessly purged any disloyalty in the government, up to an estimated 100,000. The Forbidden City was built and established by the dynasty, which included a magnificent capital building. They continued to use the tribute system, and the admiral Zheng He made several voyages across Asia, The Middle East and Africa and expanded trade, whilst learning much about the outside world, making many new trade connections expanding the possible Chinese economy. This effect is comparable to that of Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo. GOV/ECON CHANGE

Everywhere Islam Is

The Abbasid Caliphate that was established in the 8th century, was united through the Arabic language, and cultural traditions, including Sharia Law, where there were codes of law that Islams were indebted to do, such as fasting, donations, and praying. In many of these Islamic establishments a way of government was the circle of justice, in which the ruler gives justice to the people, the people pay taxes to the treasury, the treasury ensures the army its salary, and the army protects the ruler. The ruler of Islam was called the caliph, who governed politically and religiously. However the political power of the empire was fracturing whilst the religion of Islam was spreading rampantly across all of Afro-Eurasia. GOV CONTINUITY

In the 13th century, newly converted muslim nomadic Turks, who were the third largest carrier of Islam, who dominated much of Islamic power, behind Arabs and the Persians. These Turks invaded India and established the Delhi Sultanate. Hinduism, being the dominant religion in India, prevented much of a foothold to be gained by the muslims even as they conquered most of northern India. This was due to the varying differences in the two religions. SOC CHANGE

After this sultanate was established, and example of disarray was in the Rajput Kingdoms, which were Hindu resistant states and cities that broke away from muslim rule, the most powerful of these was the Vijayanagara Empire, which retook some land previously taken by the Delhi Sultanate. One example of traditional Hindu culture was the act of sati ritual, in which women were buried alive with their dead husbands. SOC CHANGE

In Egypt, the Mamluk Sultanate, was born. The Egyptians forced non-Muslims to work in the military, but this group rebelled, overthrowing the government, and established their own state, which is an example of the crumbling political powers of the Abbasid Caliphate. GOV CHANGE

Hinduism was polytheistic and was separated by a hierarchical caste system, Islam was strictly monotheistic and believed that all muslims were equal. Converting Indian culture was difficult. CULT CONTINUITY

A specific type of muslims known as sufis, embraced a more emotional devotion to Islam, and became more popular because of it. Sufi muslims embraced Hinduism to a degree and in response, so did some Hindus and converted. Many other Indians that converted were Buddhists, and members of lower castes, because of their hard lives, looking at Islams promise of egalitarianism, they were greatly persuaded to believe in Allah, so that they could achieve social mobility. SOC/CULT CHANGE

In west Africa, Islam spread differently, instead of invasion, it spread through commercial trade and interaction with merchants, and african conversion was particularly peaceful, especially in places like Mali and Ghana. Berbers, who were nomadic camel herders, also embraced the new religion and spread it even further south in Africa. SOC CHANGE

The mass spread of Islam was highlighted in traveling to the highest levels of government. So much so that, the ruler of Mali, Mansa Musa, went on the pilgrimage to Mecca, called the hajj, to celebrate his devotion to Islam. SOC/GOV CHANGE

Islam was highly commercial and valued merchants, becuase of their economic prevalence, they also came up with economic innovations, such as forms of credit, and business contracts, and these became common amongst all the networks of exchange. They also progressed the discovery of gunpowder in China, by applying it to make accurate rockets. ECON CHANGE

Common Islamic practices were that of translating Greek literature into Arabic, while also progressing Chinese papermaking in this process, translating many texts of intellectual importance, such as Greek philosophy and Indian math, especially algebra and geometry. CULT CONTINUITY

This Islamic premise of learning and innovation drove the establishment of the intellectual House of Wisdom, in Baghdad, which was a center for learning and research. This spirit was further driven by learning institutions called madrasas. CULT CONTINUITY

African civilizations usually did not have centralized governments, but chiefs on many communities who formed federal councils to solve regional problems. One example of this is the Hausa Kingdom which was made of several states connected with kinship ties. The regional variation of the states allowed specialization, such as agriculture in the plains, and military in the west. They benefited from the trans-Saharan network and were mainly muslim. In culture, important people of African culture were the griot people. They housed an oral form of literature in narrative, storytelling and history. Had an effect on religious authority. GOV/CULT/SOC CONTINUITY

Cahokia (midwestern north america) had distinct social hierarchies, with nobles and priests at the top. The Incas had social hierarchies as well assigned to people by class, called ayllu, and these classes fulfilled labor obligations to the elites in what was known as the mita system. GOV CONTINUITY

The End of Classical Europe

The fall of Rome in 476 ended the Roman reign in the east, but in the west, the Roman Empire lived on through the Byzantine Empire. The rest of Europe during this time was fractured and many smaller states were in constant conflict with one another for dominance. Feudalism was established in common use and it was a system of mutual obligations politically and socially between the different classes. A king would grant land to a lord, in exchange for their service. Lords appointed knights to protect that land, and at the bottom were the peasants of this system, who were called serfs. The manorial system was the specific system in serfdom where these peasants were tied to the land of their lords and were not allowed to leave, or marry without permission and they were punished for resistance and they owed their lords portions of their earnings, such as livestock. GOV CONTINUITY

Knights were elite armed cavalry that used the code of chivalry such as treating women with delicacy and respect. CULT CONTINUITY

A period of time known as the High Middle Ages began once kings and monarchs rose to power shifting it away from the noble feudal lords, and more towards these kings who consolidated power by establishing large bureaucracies who simply carried out their will and established lage militaries. GOV CONTINUITY

By the 13th century however, power was once again shifting back to the nobles. In 1215 the Magna Carta, led by the nobles, was a signed deal that guaranteed rights to nobles, and citizens such as right to a jury trial and owning land. In 1265 power was further taken by nobles in the establishment of the English parliament which was a body that represented the interests of the noble class. Throughout Europe however, one constant was the reign of the Roman Catholic Church, which established the first universities and because of this most philosophers were religious men. Catholicism provided a sense of unity for European citizens in a time of disarray. Christian art was created to provide the illiterate peasants with ways to understand Christianity. GOV CHANGE

In Byzantium, the emperor utilized eastern orthodoxy to legitimate his rulership, in the also christian empire, and made a large bureaucracy to supervise his territory. In Byzantine, caesaropapism was utilized by the emperor in which he was supreme authority in both political and spiritual affairs, putting the orthodox church in a weak position, however in Catholic Church, the ideal of Christendom ruled the ideologies as they believed all of europe to be united a single civilization joined together in allegiance to the catholic church. CULT/GOV CONTINUITY

The uprising in monarchy and the ideological unity even among the small states across Europe provided conflict between the monarchs and the catholic papacy. These monarchs were threatening the power of the church. A response to this were the Crusades, in which the pope sent knights to reconquer Jerusalem from the infidel Muslims in the holy land. By doing so, the crusades ultimately shifted the people’s allegiance to the church and away from the monarchs. GOV CHANGE

There was also a period of the Little Ice Age where temperatures gradually began to fall as agriculture productivity decreased, which led to decreased population, decreased trade, and then decreased economic activity. After 1300, Europe experienced the rebirth of the Renaissance. It was the rebirth of Roman, Greek culture and literature. During this time, some of the world's most prestigious pieces of art were created, including the Mona Lisa. ENV/CULT/ECON CHANGE

Unit 2 - AP World History

1450-1750

The Land and the Sea: Featuring Their Empires

Empires of the Land

One of the new features of the new emerging empires based on land is the new acquisition of gunpowder weaponry. The main empires formed include the Mughal, Safavid, Ottoman Empire and Russia. These were militaristically formed empires, in the form of the gunpowder empires. GOV

Europe was also experiencing a rise of land power post black plague and as feudalism was disappearing, monarchs began to rise to power. The monarchs centralized the disunited state of Europe during feudal states, taking control in contrast to the former rule of the noble elites. SOC

Also in Europe, the movable type Gutenburg printing press was developed which made the practice of printing books extremely efficient. This made making books easier and this allowed ideas to spread faster than ever, and also had the effect of increasing the literacy rates all over Europe since more people had access to printed books. During this time, the scientific revolution was also on the rise. This brought through historical figures such as Isaac Newton and Galileo, who disproved the geocentric theory, which was for long thought to be true, which was the idea that the sun orbited Earth, which is not the case. This laid the groundwork for the later event of the enlightenment, because it promoted the ideas of independent thinking, such as that of Galileo. CULT

Europeans centralized through control over the military, taxation and religion. In order to carry out controlling these segments of society was through the use of faithful bureaucracies. The English monarch tudors employed this function. As a result of mass centralizing, nobles lost power and the middle class gained power, usually just in the form of rising prominence. GOV

An example of bureaucracy under the tudors, is the justices of the peace. This group of officials were sent out to counties to settle disputes and carry out the will of the monarch. During this, once response of the people involved the parliament passing the bill of rights, which gave civil liberties to the people. Some states choose forms of governments known as systems of parliamentarism, these governments worked by a ruler who controlled an empire controlling alongside a body appointed by an election or aristocracy. This was the way of control in England, the parliament led the bill of rights and it gave the group dominant power as the monarch continuously weakened. The positive effects of this way of government included the result of strong commercial economies, powerful navies, and more urbanized societies, as well as more religious tolerance. Social mobility however, was more prevalent in absolutist states, mentioned next. GOV

On a separate note, absolutism is the ideology of putting all the power into the hands of the king. Going back to religious rule as a main sector in maintaining power, the doctrine of the divine right of kings legitimized the power of the king because it established the king being given the right of ruler by god himself. So by challenging the king, meant challenging god. GOV

Louis the 13th was an example of absolute ruler, and he created the intendants. This was another form of bureaucracy who executed the will of the king and gathered taxes (taxation control). This king was a strong example of absolutism to the point he was almost an outright dictator, because he combined the legislative and judicial powers into himself. He had made it extremely difficult for anyone to oppose him including the nobility. He shifted power from the old nobles onto new civil servants that he appointed as the nobility of the robe that owed him loyalty. He made all of his new appointed nobles live in the Palace of Versailles, which he had magnificently built, where he also lived so that he could always keep an eye on their activities. GOV/CULT

Louis the 13th had been influenced by a continuous power battle between monarchs and nobles ever since the latter lost power during the fixation of borders and dilution of feudal states. The Fronde even occurred as a result of the tension and it was a civil war between the aforementioned groups. The negative effects of his rule included the persecution of protestants, to be discussed later, and he involved France in too much war, which led to international debt. CULT

Religion in Europe at the time was also in division. The Roman Catholic Church that used to bind together the continent in Christendom, was weakened along with the deterioration of feudalism, since the kings were now the dominant unifier. Their authority was distrusted after the black death, and gradually became corrupted. These forms of corruption included the selling of indulgences in which churches made money for forgiveness of sin, and simony. Simony was the selling of offices in churches for high buyers over religious loyalty. CULT

Martin Luther, a man who was distasteful of the church's antics, discovered corrupt means of salvation in the catholic bible. He wrote a protective complaint document and brought it to the church outlying the corruption in profit and salvation. The new literary effects of the printing press allowed this document to spread all over Europe and thus the Protestant Reformation happened where many agreed with the 95 theses Luther had written. The Christian Schism occurred and countries disputed on which form of Christianity they would adopt, and this ultimately played a part in the deadly Thirty Years War. However this did have a beneficial effect because once the religious were separated, they could prosper under independence and without the disruptive conflict. The Council of Trent was held by the Catholics and it was their own form of reformation addressing the abuses of the church. CULT

Russia was expanding into falling Mongol territory for the purpose of gaining wealth on trade. Ivan the Terrible led Russia to take control of most of this land through use of gunpowder. Russia continued the use of serfdom essentially employing serfs that were bound to the land to make required payments to the landowners usually racking up great debt. However these cossacks (serfs) lead the Cossack Uprisings including the Pugachev Rebellion. The decently skilled fighting serfs rebelled against the state to rid themselves of the system, however the state did wind up victorious and clamped down harder on the serfs. Similar revolts occurred in the German Peasants War, which also arose from lack of rights for serfs and severe debt. SOC

The Russian tsar was at the very top with the boyars underneath. The boyars or noble landowners were against the expansionist ideas of Ivan the Terrible and the two engaged in conflict with one another. However Ivan won, confiscating their land and relocating them to Moscow where they were put under strict surveillance. SOC

The Red Turban Revolts had played a major role in the fall of the Yuan Dynasty. And thus the Ming Dynasty was born, and to prevent the still remaining Mongol threat, the Great Wall of China was restored. During the Ming Dynasty Zheng He led multiple voyages across the world opening up trade connections in the process also having a similar effect to China comparable to Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo. During the dynasty, the continent also opened up to European maritime trade especially with Portugal, Spain and the Dutch. This led to a massive influx in silver and this triggered inflation, devaluing much in the society, and the economic breakdown of the dynasty followed. During this period the little ice age also occurred, which stagnated the global economy due to many famines occurring globally. This tipped the scales for the Ming Dynasty. ENV/ECON/SOC

Neighbor Manchuria and the Turkic Manchus invaded the dynasty during this economic instability and peasant revolt, again with the use of gunpowder. This became the Qing Dynasty and although nonnative, they adopted the civil service exam to provide a group of similar thinking bureaucratic members to carry out their will since they needed a method of legitimizing their power. GOV

The new Qing rulers however were not tolerant of culture. The Han people of China were forced to wear their hair in the braided queue style of the Manchu people if they worked in the government. Resistance to this would result in execution. Thousands of Chinese were massacred because of the dishonoring of the culture the new rulers had imposed. The new rulers also expanded the territory of the empire going into Tibet, Mongolia, Taiwan and central Asia. They also imposed trade protectionism in which they heavily restricted what came in through the ports. CULT/GOV

The Ottoman Empire was another gunpowder empire and one of the greatest of the Islamic empires during this period. They seized Constantinople surpassing its multilayered fortified walls (thanks to gunpowder cannons) and changed it to Istanbul to which they greatly benefited because of its high traffic trade center. Under Suleiman the Great, the empire expanded its territory into Europe and Africa. They also continued to use the circle of justice where to reiterate, the sultan ensured the peoples rights, the people paid the taxes, the treasury funded the military with those taxes, and the military protected the sultan. GOV

The Ottomans controlled their empire with their sultans enforcing the system known as devshirme. They took enslaved people of their tribute states and made them serve in the military or administration (the bureaucracy). These slaves were usually young males of European Christian populations. This was because the Ottomans were not to enslave the people of their religion. These boys received a strong education and the best of them became trained military elites or the janissaries, and they were usually fiercely loyal to the sultan. They also had tax farmers who collected instructed amounts of money. GOV

Social hierarchies were always changing and in conflict due to the constant urge of wanting power. The janissaries wanted supreme rule and sometimes even staged assassinations of the sultan. The warrior aristocracy competed with the current second class of the islamic scholar ulamas. During the period, a series of incapable sultans led to long civil unrest and during the unrest the advisors of the sultan known as viziers stepped in and consolidated power for themselves. The Celali Rebellions were yet another revolt and this one was due to the depreciation of currency (inflation) and heavy taxation. SOC/GOV

The Ottomans also employed a specific taxation technique in the form of the jizya or the nonbelievers tax, where any non muslim would have to pay it. Such as the Jews that were expelled from Spain that took refuge in Istanbul. Non-believers were also only allowed to live in certain parts of the empire somewhat like segregation. Women did not have direct power, however wives of sultans could promote their sons to power to which women could get to wield large indirect amounts of power in what was called harem politics. GOV/ECON

In Istanbul the blue mosque was constructed which is an example of political use of art and architecture. These architectural monuments were important to legitimize their ruler, usually in the form of convincing the population that whoever had this magnificent structure built would have to have been in charge. CULT

In the Safavid Empire, Persia and Iraq were taken over with gunpowder. Islam was made the official religion, however a specific type of Islam called Shi’a Islam. The empire was united in this way. However the Ottomans were the other type of Islam known as sunni islam. This caused conflict between the two. Since they bordere each other, not only were they now in territorial disputes, such as over Iraq, but they were hostile to each other because of the resentment attached in the form of religious disagreement. The Ottoman-Safavid War occurred as a result of this, where territory was fought over mainly, with the added tension of religion. The Safavids employed a similar slave training system in the form of ghulams, who became military elites taken from slave populations. CULT/GOV

In the Mughal Empire, northern India was conquered during a period of instability. The government was centralized and Akbar became the leader of one of the most organized empires of all the land based societies in the world. Akbar established a system of bureaucracy to which the members were called zamindars. These people would manage the territories and collect taxes. Akbar was also significantly tolerant and open to religion. Granting land to Hindus, Muslims and even funding catholic churches. Out of this, many religious syncretism occurred or the blending of cultures specifically between the muslim and hinduism religions forming Sikhism that became fairly popular, to which Akbar also accepted. He also tried to eliminate the sati ritual but was unsuccessful. However there was not complete peace within the empire as Hindus and Muslims were in tension throughout. Structures in the empire include the Taj Mahal built in commemoration of a sultans dead wife and the Red Fort. CULT/GOV

The African kingdom of Songhai used Islam as the official religion and used it to legitimize their rule by having people perform court rituals to the king, confronting him face down on the ground. This is the way that this empire established its ruling power through culture. Other states did this through architectural designed buildings such as the Palace of Versailles, Red Fort and Blue Mosque and the divine rights of their rulers such as in the divine right of kings, mandate of heaven, the caliph, and even the old Byzantine caesaropapism. CULT

The fading Mali that had taken control of Timbuktu was not what it once was and the Songhai empire took control of the city and the connected trade routes that supplied its wealth. The state prospered until a Moroccan invasion took place so that they could make funds to defend Christian offenders on their own Moroccan soil. ECON

The Aztec Empire still utilized the tributary system to control places they didn't need to go to, including giving out demand lists on what they needed, sometimes including people for human sacrifice a common practice there, this greatly intimidated the people they governed using this. Additionally the Blood Tax was a form of taxation through slaves given by these states as well that would become military soldier elites, comparable to the devshrime and ghulam systems in the middle east. Their capital was the brilliant city of Tenochtitlan and they possessed a lot of gold. GOV/CULT/SOC

In Japan, feudalism was still prevalent. Daimyo the landowners paid samurai to protect their land and this triggered a dismantled daimyo rivalry between the social class all across Japan for land. A few daimyo became powerful enough to centralize more and more of Japan and this culminated in the Tokugawa Shogunate when the government was reorganized taking away power from the daimyo and transferring it to the shogun, who were generals or military leaders, requiring any daimyo to have to own some land in the capital so their affairs could be overseen by the shogun. GOV

The reunification of Japan occurred because of restoration of national order under Tokugawa Ieyasu declaring himself the leading shogun. They adopted Confucian ideology, creating a Japanese caste system. Japan experienced a type of prosperity during this period. Salaried samurai were established as bureaucrats and civil servants from the former warriors. Gunpowder and weaponry of any kind was restricted for normal citizens. GOV/SOC/CULT

Their policy was heavy on isolationism as they feared foreign ideas and thought. The National Seclusion Policy instituted in the 1630s restricted foreign port access, yet Japan’s economy flourished, with rice production flourishing becoming highly urbanized building roads and canals and the merchant class had much economic success despite low caste status. SOC

The Expansion of Empire: Through the Waters

The Europeans were now interested as ever in partaking in global trade, however they wanted their own routes to Asia. Muslims controlled much of the Indian Ocean ports and trade routes. They gained this interest through the insight gained in the Mediterranean Trade, the Crusades, and the traveler journals of Marco Polo. Now they were all for access to the luxury goods in Asia. CULT

The Europeans inherited maritime technology and used it to their benefit including the astrolabe, magnetic compass and lateen sail. New technologies also started arising including the Portuguese caravel and the Dutch fluyt. The caravel was a smaller ship that was easily navigable using lateen sails. The fluyt (ship) was made exclusively for trade, requiring less time and money to make, and could carry more materials and needed less people. Gunpowder was also incorporated into many ships including galleons and gunships. TECH

Gold, god, and glory were the three staples of motivation for these sea expanding empires. Mercantilism was the dominant European economic idea, which stated the world's wealth was fixed and it was measured in gold, to be divided unevenly amongst people, and some would get more than others (a bigger piece of the pie). The meaning can be derived down to profit off protecting the favorable advantages of trade an empire might have. These rulers wanted trading post access, for more money and gold. Chrstianity was by nature a missionary religion and the Europeans felt it their duty to spread the religion much like they needed to recapture the holy land in the Crusades. They also were competing amongst each other as seen through every main area of the sea-based empires, they wanted the most land and wanted to prevent others from gaining the land, they wanted superiority. ECON/CULT

República Portuguesa! The Western Iberian Front

The Portuguese are up first (they invented the caravel). The state sponsored the outward expansion. Bartholomeu Diaz and Vasco De Gama were important first figures in the Portuguese explorative reign, sailing to the tip of Africa, and then sailing around it to India, claiming Portuguese territory respectively. In 1514 they arrived in China along with Catholic missionaries. Franciscans worked to convert the masses and the general crowd or population. The Jesuits worked to convert the elites and rulers. The Chinese rejected these Portuguese as barbarians however and the religious impact was minor. CULT/ENV

The Portuguese would be one of the first empires to successfully control in a sea based manner, and in a rather unique way called a trading-post empire. This meant they claimed land in strategic locations, such as the port of Melaka, to have a complete monopoly over the oceanic trade in those locations, through taxation and trade profits. They claimed postal ports all along Africa and India, and they often settled for trade and were neither interested nor powerful enough to move inward and develop land societies. They operated in these places solely for economic gains. GOV/ECO

Portugal became exceedingly rich and they did this in a forcefully cooperative manner for example in the case of Africa. Portugal usually used terror tactics to force cooperation, such as the practice of outright raids or taking hostages until they engaged in a coercive relationship with them. Portugal would trade gunpowder for slaves. This allowed the African tribes that traded with Portugal to become powerful themselves because they now possessed gunpowder and could use it against other neighboring tribes to establish dominance. The slaves sold in these swaps were usually taken from tribes that these Africans raided themselves to give to the Europeans. They usually became extremely wealthy and even adopted culture as well, for example the king of Kongo converted to Christianity. These effects are seen through Africa as certain societies became immensely powerful due to their acquisition of gunpowder weaponry. GOV/SOC

This did not always happen however because once the Portuguese arrived in Japan they were not open to influence and once the state observed Christian influence they shut off the ports and eradicate the remaining culture. SOC

The Portuguese got into some naval battles with the Muslims who had previously dominated the Indian Ocean Trade, the Portuguese had initially won the sea battle but once on land the Moroccans humiliated the Portugal native attackers. The looming threat remained for Muslim ships as the Portuguese frequently got into battle and destroyed them. SOC

Further Portuguese resistance is displayed in the Kingdom of Ndongo. Controlled by Portuguese slave raids and nearby attacking tribes, the queen made an agreement with them to cease the raids and offer protection from neighboring trives, however the Portuguese did not honor in so she allied with the Dutch and led a rebellion against them. (Dutch to be discussed in depth further down) The previously mentioned Kongo empire also asked for help from the Dtuch, but the Portuguese always remained a constant threat due to their overbearing presence in the oceans. SOC/GOV

Since Portugal’s arrival they have used their military might in the Indian Ocean trade which was relatively peaceful before to demand through force and fear that trade was favored for them. Military might now govern the facilitation of the Indian Ocean trade and not religious ties. In addition Portugal was in constant competition with other expanding maritime empires including the seizure of Melaka from Spain, and French rivalry in the Indian Ocean. A specific example of this is the sea based Dutch-Portuguese War that was globally fought for control over sea ports around the globe. SOC/GOV

The Dutch were consistent eradicators of Portuguese presence in Africa, as it was frequently diminished as seen in the two previously mentioned African tribal uprisings as well as another example in the Omani Arabs who pushed Portugal out all along the East Coast. SOC

España?

The Spanish started off with Ferdinand Magellan and Christopher Columbus. Ferdinand Magellan was the first to circumnavigate the globe marking a significant advancement in sea exploration, where they also annexed the Philippines, setting up their own trading post attracting Asian trade. However the Spanish thought westward to find a route to Asia to obtain high amounts of silver and gold. Christopher Columbus set out to do this. This brought him into contact with the Aztecs and Incans, after first arriving in the Caribbean identifying the people as Indian and then to mainland South America (specifically what is now Venezuela [unimportant note]). This was a defining movement and would soon cascade into a multitude of events that changed the course of history, because now the East and West worlds were finally about to become connected. The Spanish enslaved the two groups forcing the natives into agriculture immediately to become wealthy. This arrival of Europeans in the Americas and all the change that came with it was known as the Columbian Exchange. (also it was definitely not just Spain) ENV/SOC

After toppling Inca and the Aztecs they claimed New Spain with the help of a superior military, having gunpowder of course and military tactics such as divide and conquer tactics breaking up populations and connections making it difficult to revolt, similar to the Mongol in the decimal unit military but in conquest of a civilization. They still had to deal with Portuguese rivalry, because they had also arrived in the West, notably Brazil. The two turned to the Catholic pope to decide who would claim these new world territories. These were lines of demarcation, and in the treaty of tordesillas Portugal was given pretty much Brazil and the Spanish the rest of South America. SOC/ENV

New Spain put these natives to work as well as their existing lower classes in the Americans to make money off agriculture. Coerced labor was common, it meant labor against someone's will. In Spain, the hacienda system involved the lending of land ownership to conquistadors willing to make the journey to the Americas where they controlled their own plots. These owners gained wealth through the low wages and debt of the workers on these lands, especially in the cultivation of a very vital crop, sugarcane. The encomienda system similarly granted nobles responsibility over lower classes to which they offered protection and education in turn for tribute as labor, similar to feudalism. The Spanish also borrowed the mita system from the Incas. This forced these natives to fulfill work obligations usually in public projects. When the Spanish found silver they forced the Incas to send their men to silver mines all in the name of the mita system. They acquired Tenochtitlan as their new headquarters. SOC/GOV

Monopolies are when one entity has total domination over a market that leads to exclusive rights of trade. The Spanish monopolized tobacco which they grew in the Americas. ECON

The Spanish colonies of the Pueblo and Apache Indians fought back in the Pueblo Revolt (near present day Southwest United States such as New Mexico). The Indians were tired of the forceful conversion they endured in Christianity as well as the forced Spanish language, to which Spain both imposed culturally. These natives killed hundreds of colonizers and burned down churches. 10 years later however, the colonizers reconquered. SOC/ENV

Worlds Meet: The Columbian Exchange

England was in search of a northwest passage to Asia, the new expansionists found their way to Northern Canada instead, claiming land from Newfoundland down to Chesapeake Bay. In 1607 they founded the Jamestown settlement in the bay. France wanted an Asian passageway as well but ended up claiming more Canadian land, but they were pleased with the rich resources they had found, establishing Quebec. France used this as a trading-post instead of a colonial settlement. They also had better relations with the natives because of this. The Dutch followed the pattern and found the Hudson River Valley calling it New Amsterdam (or present day New York City). ENV

When these two hemispheres finally met, it became disastrous for the Americans and prosperous for the Europeans. The natives had no immunities to the diseases carried by Europeans. This included malaria, measles, and the flu. Smallpox is estimated to have killed 50 percent of the native populations once Europeans arrived. ENV

The sharing of food and animals went both ways. The Europeans introduced pigs, cows, wheat and grapes. These items became staples of the American diet. They also introduced horses, which was important to the natives changing their hunting lives making it much more efficient, as well as an advantage when in conflicts with other tribes. The Mesoamericans gave Europeans food staples as well, including cacao, maize and potatoes, these new food introductions lead to population growth on a large scale comparable to the population boom of China when champa rice was introduced and the affects bananas had on the Bantu people in Africa, new crops, new prosperities. ENV

The European colonizers wanted to monopolize agriculture and did so by attempting to enslave the native populations for their crops to be raised and grown. However, the natives escaped because of their better knowledge of the land and did so repeatedly. The sugarcane growth in Brazil lead to the same problems so the Portuguese’s solution was instead of using the natives, to import slaves from Africa and the Kongo region espeically. Sugarcane and tobacco demand were spiking, and now so did the need for slaves. This lead to the inception of millions of Africans being forcibly removed and made to participate in what is known as the Atlantic Slave Trade. In contrast to expectation however, the African populations noticed a considerable increase in certain ways because foods from Brazil, mainly yams and manioc were also being imported to Africa, and yet again this new food caused a population spike. ENV

These new African Slaves were imported through the torturous endurement of the middle passage in the atlanitc where they were stuffed tightly in ships many dying from disease and sometimes even dreaded suffocation. This passage was usually part of the larger organized triangular trade where goods were systematically moved from Europe to West Africa, where the slaves were transported to the Americas and goods were sent back to Europe. ENV/ECON

The population was not at all prospering in Africa either as the demographic of men severely dropped considering all the men leaving for the Americas. This had the byproduct of polygny becoming common practice throughout Africa, or when one man takes several wives. SOC

Similar to Spain, these new colonial powers had to figure out how to run the labor systems with these new slaves from Africa. The British tried indentured servitude but ultimately failed for the British as the labor system meant freedom after a certain amount of years of work, which was unpreferred to the Englishmen. Chattel Slavery was simply where people owned other people as property, and were legally owned as such. SOC

The European disease factor led to a complete erasure of culture only worsened by impositions of the colonizers to convert. Burning any religious material opposed to their Christian missionary beliefs. The new languages coming in also stomped down hard to cultural obliteration. Syncretism was a common occurrence in these colonial empires where religions blended. Africans took their indigenous religion and mixed them in with Christianity, the natives did something similar. CULT

For example the African populations in the Caribbean created voodoo from the West African type of worship with elements of Christianity. The cult of saints in Latin America resembled indigenous and Christian saints being intertwined. In Mexico, the Virgin of Guadalupe is a religious figure that shows another prime example of religious mixing between the native Mexican beliefs and the colonial religion. CULT

Similar to the Pueblo Revolt, the Metacom’s War was the last ditch large-scale attempt of the natives to rid their lands of the British colonial rule. However the British won and subjugated most of them to their rule and impositions. The much smaller Stono Rebellion involving 20 slaves gathering in South Carolina raiding a warehouse and killing white slave owners moving and rampaging throughout towns chanting liberty illustrates the disconent common throughout victims of colonialism. SOC

In the Spanish ruled Americas the casta system was born based on ancestry and race. The peninsulares were on top and were people born in Europe. The criollos were next down, being Europeans born in the Americas. The castas were of mixed ancestry. The mestizos (european and indigenous), mulattoes (european and african), zambos (indigenous and africans) and at the very bottom were the indigenous and africans themselves. Once born into a caste, it was very difficult to move out, since it was determined on your race. SOC

Competition, Competition, Competition

The purpose of these colonies was to enrich the mother country. This led to the economic formation of joint-stock companies to finance colonial expansion and overall power. These were companies funded by investors who pooled their money together, sharing the profits. They include the Company of New France in Quebec, which also claimed the Louisiana area and dominated fur trade. The commercial revolution infused gold and silver in massive amounts into the economy. ECON

On an Indian Ocean side note, the British had been gaining significant power in India after establishing their own prevalence in the trade networks there with the trading post called the British East India Trading Company, however they were restricted in territory by the Mughal Empire. Yet the tensions between the muslims and hindus there mentioned earlier allowed the British to consolidate some land and power. This did not end the Mughals but greatly diminished their power. ECON/SOC

On the note of competitive trade, France elbowed their way into the Indian Ocean competing with the Portuguese. However their biggest rival became the English, who took Canada from France in the French and Indian Wars which exemplifies the constant struggle for glory, and becoming the most powerful sea based empire as colonialism always led to wanting more money and land. To move into India, the English would later down the line defeat French allied Mughal States to ensure easy conquest of India. The English also were motivated to move into the New World because of their Spanish rivalries, as they would practice carrying out voyages to raid Spanish ships and ports. SOC/ENV

Dutch exploration was tied to their strive to escape Spain in independence. They disrupted Spanish trade ships and attacked their ports worldwide, they seized Melaka from Spain which had originally taken it from Portugal, in this process and much of West Africa. They took control of the east indies and administered it through the joint-stock Dutch East India Company. ECON

In South and East Africa Dutch colonists claimed power and were called boers and they enslaved the African population that was there. The Zulu who were a strong tribe broke out in war with the Dutch. SOC

In 1795 the English seized Melaka again from the Dutch establishing the British East India Company. These places also fell victim to disease such as smallpox. GOV

Russia with its already established land based empire extended its reach into North America with the Bering Expedition surveying the waters between Siberia and Alaska in a scientific voyage. Russian missionaries moved into Alaska stimulating a fur-trade settlement and a colony known as the Russian American Company. Russia also endorsed a coerced labor system known as the yasak where tribute was paid to hunt fur bearing animals for the Russians. ENV/SOC

Unit 3 - AP World History

1750-1900

Revolutions, Industrialization and Imperialism Across the Globe

The New Thought

The Enlightenment thinking created the social and political changes that were necessary for the industrial revolution. It was the intellectual 18th century movement that advocated reconsidering accepted ideas. It was a byproduct of the scientific revolution and renaissance humanism (studies on what it means to be human). It was the application of human reason to natural laws. It was the revolutionary idea of not just accepting what was given such as from the bible, the quran, the state or the people in power, but by trusting what we as people can decipher ourselves. SOC

Starting in France with empiricism. Meaning the only way to know reality is through the senses, and not revelation life from the bible - but figuring out reality with one's own knowledge. John Locke argued the divine right of kings was flawed and that humans had natural rights like life and liberty and granted by being human. Human beings and the government are in a social contract. Which should ideally mean humans give up some of their power to the government so that the government can protect their natural rights. This would lead to revolution if the government did not value that social contract and this ended up being the initial basis to which enlightenment drove the common folk of empires to start revolting. Nationalism is the stron g identification of a group of people who share ethnicity and language. Enlightenment drove equality, proliferation and nationalism as just mentioned. SOC/GOV

Adam Smith published a famous book called the Wealth of Nations criticizing the mercantilist economic idea in Europe, that requires heavy government involvement. He argued for laissez-faire economics meaning ‘let alone’ which resembled capitalism, letting individuals make their own economic choice so that they would eventually benefit all of society. GOV/ECON

The enlightenment caused people to reexamine their relationships with religion. Deism, the new brand of religion that acknowledges God as a creator but does not recognize him as one who intervenes in history. So understanding good would mean understanding the natural laws that he put in place at the beginning. People who resisted this enlightenment strain of thinking were called conservatives. Conservatism by definition means the strong belief in tradition and the shunning of ideology in the favor of practical ideas. CULT

Women up until now were treated particularly poorly in most if not all empirical societies. With this new wave of thinking, women found power in their voices that was not seen before due to the guaranteed natural rights that these new thinkers agreed everyone has. A written document called the Vindication of Rights of Women saying that given the chance, women could succeed in every endeavor possible and exist as equivalents in equal shareholders of all there is in society. In the United States the Seneca Falls Convention was called to rally for women's rights, especially suffrage (voting). The Declaration of Sentiments declared the truth that all men and women are created equal and emphasized the importance in recognizing that fact moving forward in society. SOC

These new ideas also changed slavery and serfdom that up until this pount existed and disaffected lower classes for centuries. All human beings are created with simple rights and the abolitionist movement was picking up. In the US the slave trade was banned in 1808. The population of enslaved people however grew dramatically, the fight between abolitionists and the slaveholders lead to the civil war and the abolition of slavery. In Russia 23 million serfs were emancipated. SOC/GOV

Revolution…

To briefly mention again, natural rights are rights deserved from birth given to all by God and the social contract is the power to rule in the hands if people and governments are the willingness of people to give the state power, so they should be constitutional. These ideas took off all over the world, and caused massive uprisings against states that did not honor the social contract. SOC/GOV

The first main location where it made a large impact was in the British colonies of North America. The American Revolution was caused by many reasons including that overtime, the colonies had become functionally independent of British rule. The colonies grew increasingly aggravated as they had no representation in the British parliament and the government kept levying taxes that were becoming more repulsive. Free trade was not permitted by British mercantilism and therefore the colonies of the USA could not carry out their capitalist free trade. On July 4, 1776 the British colonies declared their independence and became the United States of America. This is important because the Declaration of Independence was full of John Locke's enlightenment thinking. The colonies got help from the French to defeat the British. The United States Constitution (also an enlightenment document). and to coincide with it, the government wanted to ensure that political power was not concentrated too much into any office. The legislative, judicial and executive branches were formed. GOV/ECON

The French Revolution occurred during a time where France was in deep economic trouble after overspending on war. King Louis the 16th called the Estates General to solve the problem. France experienced a large socioeconomic gap between their elite and middle classes. They also had an unfair tax system that favored the first and second estates (or classes). France was in long-term debt from war. The Estates General wanted to fix the system but no one was willing to compromise. The body represented 3 estates of the French population. The clergy, nobility and the commoners. The commoners made up over 95 percent of the population yet had equal vote to the other two estates. The third state broke away from the misrepresentation and made their own body called the National Assembly to which Louis the 16th threatened to arrest the leaders. In 1789 a crowd of people stormed to Bastille (a prison representing monarchical abuse). This spread all over France and forced the king to accept the National Assembly's new say in government. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was another document written after the events that unfolded and it too was riddled with enlightenment ideologies. Louis resented it and this proceeded further to a period known as the Reign of Terror where the king was beheaded by guillotine. SOC/GOV/ECON

Radical parties became more influential as the desires of all the people post revolution could not be met and France engaged in war with Prussia and Austria. The radical Jacobins created the Committee of Public Safety and assumed dictatorial powers in the radical transformation of French society. They carried out the first European draft, expanded war and peasant rebellion erupted. The Committee then initiated the Reign of Terror searching for couterrevolutionaries. 50,000 people were killed. SOC/GOV

The Haitian Revolution occurred in the small island French colony made up of French plantation owners and a large enslaved African population. In the influence of the revolution in France the enslaved population of Haiti rose up against their masters burning houses and killing many. The Haitians were victorious and established their own government. It was the first successful revolution of enslaved people and the first black led independent nation in the western Europe. SOC/GOV

In the New Zealand Wars that occurred after the British annexed the nation in 1840 and established dominance over the native maori people. The Maori tribes banded together to expel the British from their land, in 1872 however the rebellion was crushed. SOC

The growing awareness of revolution spiked in Latin America and especially for the secondary group in the casta system mentioned earlier. The criollos were discontent with the peninsulares. Many criollos became wealthy off of agriculture, but because of the mercantilist governing policies of Spain, they were losing a large chunk of profits. They were also often not given positions of authority over the peninsulares although they were both European (the criollos just having been born in the Americas). The criollo people rose up against Spain and it was successful, gaining a huge portion of land called Gran Colombia. The leader of the rebellion, Simon Bolivar, necessitated enlightenment ideals such as natural rights and democratic laws that he believed should have been used to govern all of Latin America. SOC/GOV

Nationalism is the binding force of people who share ethnicity and language and people who use nationalism including the revolutionaries described just before, they strived to be ruled by a single political unit. This led to unifications of countries. SOC

In the Italian Unification, the Italian peninsula had been divided into competing states since the fall of Rome. Count Cavoy led to unify the nation under the House of Savoy. It was the only native Italian dynasty at the time he thought the entire nation should be united under his rule, and through alliances and battles he succeeded. The kingdom of Italy was now established. In 1871, the same year as the next unification. GOV

In the German Unification, Prussian Otto von Bismarck engineered three wars that united the Germans starting in 1848. These wars guided the German spirit against the enemy and in 1871 he united them under the German Empire. The three wars sparked nationalism against Denmark, Austria and finally France and in the Franco-Prussian Wars, the unified Germans or Prussians were victorious, and thus their government was modernized and they were independent. GOV

Overall, as a result of the Revolutions of 1848 the mass of people was finally respected and all over Europe this affected the passing of legislations, constitutions, reform, political representation and improved conditions across the board. The European Alliance System was formed at this time and because of it, the formation of the Triple Entente occurred and thus France, Russia and Britain were partnered in fear of Germany’s scary rapid influence, this caused any crisis between two countries to involve all of Europe's major powers significantly increasing odds for war, that would occur in the next century. SOC/GOV

Industrialization…The Worldwide Factory

The Industrial Revolution at face value is the process of making goods with machines to make labor more efficient, however the shift in production caused the entire social, economic and governing order to be affected on such a massive scale. SOC/TECH/ECON

The Industrial revolution occurred at first in England, due to a multitude of reasons that allow the country to be a prime candidate for the accompaniment of a new industrial way. SOC

First, its proximity to water, which abundant access to rivers and canals and this allowed easy access to inexpensive trade to be discussed later. ENV

Second, they had tons of raw materials, huge deposits of coal lay under the soil of England as well as iron, which powered and structured the necessities of the industrial revolution respectively. ENV

Third, was improved agricultural productivity which included significant advances in agriculture that produced large harvests, namely crop rotation which meant the planting of different crops year after year so the soil would not be depleted of its natural resources required to grow the food, which improved soil productivity. The seed drill was also a new farming technology that allowed precise seed plantation in location and depth. TECH

Fourth, urbanization. The new harvesting mechanics allowed an increasing population. Combined with the agricultural tech increase with the newer efficiencies of farming tools, there were countless people growing up on farms where their labor was unneeded. This caused a large migration of people from rural areas into the urban areas of england. Additionally, the Enclosure Acts were favorable to wealthy English landowners because they fenced off pieces of land instead of common property impoverishing farmers forcing them to relocate to cities, creating a pool of labor. SOC

Fifth, the legal protection of private property and this was important because it enabled entrepreneurship, meaning risks were taken in business without the looming fear of government interference such as the taking away of what they worked for. GOV

Sixth, access to foreign resources. In the last period England established a global empire and this benefited them with countless materials and because they had colonies all over the globe, there was basically nothing that England did not have access to. SOC

Seventh, was the accumulation of capital, British capitalists had accumulated large amounts of wealth and capitla largely due to the Atlantic slave trade. They could now invest all that capital in new business opportunities should they arise. ECON

Last but not least was the new factory system and up until this point, manufacturing took the form of small scale such as in artisanship where an individual would have to build it themselves, and this production was very slow. Richard Arkwright in 1769 invented the water frame. It was a wheel that when placed in moving water it would spin. In 1760 the spinning jenny was invented by James Hargraves and this contraption made weaving cloth much faster. Now once these two machines were hooked up to one another, textiles were being produced at a rate faster than ever. This was the birth of the factory. ECON/TECH

But the machinery changed along with labor. Eli Whitney invented interchangeable parts. He first applied the logic to guns, and at the time things were made one at a time, so when a gun was made, the trigger for it would only suit that gun. But the notion of interchangeable parts meant that triggers should be made so that they would fit every gun, and the same logic applied for all parts of the gun as well. The manufacturing of goods was now focused on individual parts and companies did not have to hire skilled laborers. Anyone could just work along an assembly and perform a simple function over and over. TECH

The industrial revolution spread first to neighboring nations such as Belgium, France and Germany because they had the same natural advantages Britain had. The industrial revolution then spread to the United States, then Russia and then Japan. SOC

In the United States industry performed well and it became the most powerful industrial force in the whole world. The main reason for this was the large influx of European immigrants. Most of them were Irish and German and usually settled in urban areas and because factories needed unskilled laborers and the producers wanted to pay very low wages, immigrants were the most popular demographic to work in these factories. A large number of Americans however believed these immigrants were culturally polluting the country. SOC/CULT

The large immigration movements spiked due to crop failure and famine, such as the Irish Potato Famine that led to mass starvation and disease from the diseased crop that failed nationally that they very much depended on. Many other people fled because of the common want of freedom. The United States was viewed as a place of economic freedom and many fled Europe because of it. ENV

In Russia the industrial revolution focused heavily on the building of railroads. They built the Trans-siberian railroad that stretched from Moscow to the Pacific Ocean. The largest effect of this was the increase of trade with eastern states such as China. The expansion of the steel industry was also heavily prioritized and Russia became the fourth largest producer by 1900. ECON

In Japan, industrialization was more defensive than other nations because they did not undertake the change as it was seen successful across the world and thought they needed to implement it. They industrialized because for a while they possessed an ancient culture that they were proud of and they recognized that mass changes that came with industrializing would put those cultures at risk however they knew there was no way to stop this new wave of industry. They understood that power was being revolved around these industrial nations and they adopted some western industrial techniques to be viable in this new world. But they only did so to a large enough extent so that they could keep the industrial powers away from them so that they could keep their precious dignity and culture. CULT/GOV

Despite the industrial revolution across the world, many places still produced things in the old way lacking the large scale production. The share of these nations in the global economy declined because of it and these states included those in the middle east and other asian states. In India, shipbuilding declined because of the oppression by British rule there partly due to their English prevalence in the Indian Ocean. Still in India, the ground was rich in iron, and they prospered greatly from it, but because of British trade domination, India did not find it worth it to mine it. Also during this time, India held an uprising against the British, and the British figured that the Indians were mining the iron to produce ammunition against them and then British colonial rule shut the whole industry down and soon the entire ironworks industry would be diluted to near nonexistence. TECH/ENV

There are actually two industrial revolutions in terms of the ways they rose to prominence across the world, the first occurred between the mid-18th century to the mid 19th century. The main piece of technology invented here was the steam engine. Coal was the chief resource in the industrial revolution. It was discovered that burning coal could heat up water, and heating up that water produced steam and pressurizing that steam in an engine could move a piston that could then move a wheel. In simple turns, coal was a resource that offered the necessary ingredients to power this machine in the form of the steam engine. On a prior note, the water frame (important to factories) needed moving water for it to spin, however there were not that many locations in which that was possible, but now with the steam engine and coal, a factory could be built wherever. The innovation allowed factories to be built all over the place. TECH

The steam engine also affected transportation as well, a key example includes the steamship. Up until this point, ships were powered by wind, water direction and sails, but now it did not matter. Putting steam engines into ships greatly improved the efficiency of trade. Rivers were often used to trade and transport goods but the streams in these rivers made it difficult to make the reverse journey but steamships changed that, trade increased. Another example is locomotives, especially in trains. This affected Russia in their railroad and in the United States in the transcontinental railroad that not only boosted trade but allowed large waves of immigrants to migrate from one side of the nation, to the other. TECH

In the second industrial revolution, which occurred from the mid-19th century to the early-20th century. This second wave majored in steel, gas and communication in comparison to the first industrial revolution which majored in steam, iron and textiles. First, steel during this time was mass produced and was stronger than iron, and it became the building material for industrialization itself. A new method of refining steel was also introduced and it was called the bessemer process, and this was blasting iron with hot air that got rid of its impurities, but the important effect is that it allowed mass production of steel. Gas was important as well. Oil wells were being drilled all over and after refinement, it was separated into kerosene and gasoline. Gasoline took over as the main benefit, the internal combustion engine was invented and it operated similarly to the steam engine in powering a piston that pushed a crank but it used gas and not steam. The communication revolution also occurred during this time and this was largely due to the harnessing of electricity. The telegraph utilized it greatly. It was capable of sending pulses of electricity along wires at great distances. In 1876 the telephone was also invented and it transmitted voices. This all would provide greater global connectivity than ever before. TECH/SOC

Governments were tasked during the industrial revolution to either modernize or retain their beliefs. The Ottoman Empire during the 1800s was in a rough period and they were called the Sick Man of Europe and they were called this because nations all around the empire were adding great pressure to establish colonial rule. In addition, since the world was industrializing, places that didnt (like the Ottomans) had their power wane and decline, Ottomans leaders did nothing to change that fact and were poor governors. Muhommad Ali (not the boxer) became governor in Egypt given to him by local Egyptian leaders (under Ottoman rule at this time), and the Ottoman ruler lost much control and couldn't stop this due to the whole situation, as well as getting backed by the people. Muhammad Ali brought Egypt into the industrial age and the Egpytian state sponsored it. GOV

Japan for 400 years until now was largely isolated from the world, due to their isolationist and cultural protection mindset. They realized accepting industrialization also meant accepting the western culture. The nature of industrial nations was to seek for places of influence and possible capital revenue, one example of this involved Japan. In 1853 the United States sent American ships to Japan and Matthew Perry demanded Japan to open their doors for trade with the rest of the world. Japan initially refused however the military power of the United States led Japan to open their borders. Japan however did not want to be overtaken such as in China, they planned to guard their culture from these nations by - industrializing. The process of Japanese industrialization and Westernization prevention was the Meiji Restoration. Feudalism was abolished, roads and railroads were built and they established a constitutional monarchy and they supported this through high taxation, Japan had industrialized but maintained their precious culture. CULT/GOV

As industrialization occurred an economic shift occurred. This shift was from mercantilism to laissez faire capitalism. To review, these systems meant the following. Mercantilism was the understanding of a mixed amount of wealth measured in silver and gold and success was achieved through favorable trade balance by more exportation than imports and the colonies operated as economic earners for their parent country and all of this involved heavy governmental interference. Free-Market economics which were usually fundamental to capitalism meant no limit on wealth, people should be left alone to make monetary decisions and because of it, decisions people made should and would benefit those societies and thus governments had less prevalence. The states that made the change usually gained tremendous wealth. ECON/GOV

Joint-stock companies continued to operate with investors putting money towards the company. Shareholders would earn profit if the company succeeded however if it failed they would be responsible. During this period corporations were introduced. These worked similarly however because they welcomed limited liability. Shareholders earned profit, but they could now only lose the amount of money they originally invested in the company. Their liability towards debt was- limited. Multinational Corporations also began to rise because of this. The first example is the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. After the Opium Wars (to be discussed later) British merchants went into China to establish trade. They decided they needed a bank to finance them, and they created the bank that established many banks. The Unilever Corporation was between the British and the Dutch. Their goal was to produce household items, especially soap. They set up factories to produce these items in many different nations. It still exists today. These companies are relevant because they became massively wealthy on a scale largely unheard of because of the global reach they had due to the evolution of business and shareholders. ECON

The rise of capitalism brought forth the rise of consumerism in middle classes. Standards of living rose, and people had more income to buy the influx of goods. The advertising industry was devoted to the task of getting people to purchase peoples products. The leisure culture also came about. This meant that after the long and tedious work hours, people found pubs and bars to escape, where socialization could occur. The bicycle was invented, cockfighting was a thing and spectator sports began to take shape as common practice including horseracing and baseball. All in all the rise of industry improved the economy so much that society could fund community projects that were for the pleasurability and consumerist ideas of the population. SOC/CULT

The industrial revolution did come with resistance as most things did. One major example of this was the factory workers. They worked in tight, harsh and dangerous conditions, and their wages were close to nothing, however the massive amount of workers that existed meant that anyone could take your place. The living conditions of many of these workers were often negligent and many were called tenements which were slum like tightly packed living arrangements. People living in these conditions had no plumbing and disease spread viciously. Labor Unions began to form as collective units to protest and bargain for reform. These labor unions did cause certain worker rights to be implemented that are considered standard today. This included the five day work week, the limits on hours, and the minimum wage. Even further, this middle class began to demand for democratic prevalence in the state, demanding more political influence and voting rights, this was the idea of chartism. The franchise, meaning the right to vote in this context is important, because as in Britain you needed to own property to vote, however this restriction was loosened due to labor unions. It was then extended to all men and all women. SOC/GOV

Child labor was common in this time as well. Factories often employed children because they were small and required extremely small wages. These children often developed health issues, such as sickness and physical injuries so labor unions stood up for the children. In 1843 the US passed a law that made it illegal for children under 10 to work in coal mines. (which implies they did, which is surprising). At this time, since children could not work, and the adults were stuck working, the government implemented laws for mandatory education or in other words school to which it is still used to this day. ECON/GOV

Another type of resistance came from the people who believed in the idea of free market economics, which to a degree initially kickstarted the entire industrial revolution. However the implementation of the original idea could no longer be applied considering the transformation of large scale economic control as in corporations. Different thinkers began to criticize the idea and offered other options. Such critiques included the selfishness of a capitalist society as everyone is out for themselves, seen in the effect of factory owners providing for their own self-interest over the safety of the laborers. One other option was utilitarianism. This argued that every individual action should be carried out to benefit the whole of society and not any one's self. Karl Marx saw and thought that society was divided into two. At the top, the bourgeoisie and under them the (middle class) proletariat. He argued that capitalism required the suffering of the latter mentioned group of people for the former to succeed and prosper. Marx outlined his ideas in the Communist Manifesto and in it he argued that workers should own the wealth of production and by doing so, share it amongst everyone equally. This was called scientific socialism. The end goal of his ideology was communism which would mean the complete erasure of classes and that everyone would be equal. GOV

In 1808 the Ottoman sultan sought to overhaul the Ottoman society regarding industrialization. The building of extensive roads and the initiation of the postal service were examples of this new wave of change. This was continued through the tanzimat reforms. The Ottoman legal system changed to a thought process of equality for all. They worked to erase corruption, and schools were transferred away from the Islamic scholars ulama. After the tanzimat, a new sultan rose to power and he grew unfavorable of the policies. This sultan worried about the radical young turks who wanted to replace the monarchy with a constitutional government. He eradicated these thinkers. Armenians also preached large reform and this sultan massacred many of them. SOC/GOV

In China, the British demanded porcelain, silk and tea in mass quantities, but the British were far more interested in goods than the Chinese did, and therefore England was not making as much money as they wanted too. The British East India Company forced India to start producing opium, which is a highly addictive hallucinatory drug. The British brought opium into China, and the Chinese got so addicted the trade transaction increased because China started to actually want back the drug and therefore Britain maintained their power over the trade. In 1729 the emperor made it illegal, but the ban had little effect due to the national dependence on the drug. After a century China grew tired and rose up against the British in the Opium Wars. The Chinese wanted to oust the British from their trade. Britain then enforced economic dominance forcing them to open up more ports and required a free trade agreement for all goods, especially - opium. Other nations came to China for trade, and this caused the Spheres of Influence where all these nations got exclusive trading rights to China. ECON/SOC

During the Qing Dynasty they realized that their success meant having a successful economy and thus they modernized like the rest of the world. They began a period of reform known as the self-strengthening movement (This is AFTER the Opium Wars). They did so to protect their culture similar to that of Japan, they upheld Confucian values and wanted to gain from the west powerful military technology and also some renovations to the state, education and military. These reforms however failed and were abandoned. In 1894 the Japanese defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War and as a result they rekindled their reform movement in the Hundred Days of Reform. Under these they abolished the civil service examination after a massive time playing a major role in China. They started to implement western systems of governing to compete with them on a global economic scale. During this weakened state and after a few internal rebellions opposed to the changes, China accepted help from the West to modernize in exchange for exclusive trading rights and this would mean economic domination from the west (to be discussed later…again). SOC/GOV/CULT

In late 1899, Chinese unrest at foreign influence got out of control through severe drought and unemployment. In the next summer the secret society-driven Boxer Rebellion occurred in attempts to bring attention to the economic and cultural impositions following the disastrous Opium Wars. Qing authorities attempted to suppress it, but after realizing they could use it against Western occupiers, the government encouraged it. Months of violence and destruction ensued in all foregin bases and concessions in the country. In revenge European powers burned many Chinese temples and forced them to pay back in the form of reparations. SOC

Tenements were built to accommodate the influx of migrant peoples. Cholera was a byproduct of drinking unsanitary water which was an example of the harsh living conditions. The industrial revolution overall provided more wealth for the middle class, and this allowed them to buy consumer goods and better access to education. The environment began to be seriously environmentally disaffected by this industrial wave. This is largely due to the coal and petroleum fossil fuels that introduced smog into the air and this word was brand new and added into the English language at the time, and it was apparent because in these large cities it would cause major respiratory problems for all who lived there. Human waste was dumped into rivers and this strikingly polluted the water supply and facilitated previously mentioned spreads of bacteria. A new type of worker emerged from this growing middle class and they were called white collar workers, and these were typically men who would work in office or administration or management, a very different type of labor. The richest people at the top of the social hierarchy were factory owners. Before urbanization, most families worked together such as on farms. This meant that one of the more significant effects of social life in the industrial revolution was the fracturing of the family, which at the time was a huge societal shift to be away from one another for a long time every day. The household and workplace were separated. ENV/SOC

Women were also changing in society during this time, it was not uncommon for factory jobs to be occupied by women however the wives of white collar workers were often unemployed and would stay home to raise children. This gave rise to the notion called the Cult of Domesticity. This outlined that the work that females did at home was good and dignified. However what it implied was that women were to be submissive and pure, and fit into these societal standards. Many women were discontent with this assignment of childbearing and taking care of the household only to be there to provide her husband with whatever he may need (such as food), many women started to raise their voices. In 1848 the Seneca Falls Convention in the United States is a good example of this. There the Declaration of Sentiments was formed. Including the added, We hold these truths to be evident, that all men and women are created equal. It would be years until fulfillments in equality for men and women would be fully realized but these movements marked the true beginnings of this wave of feminist activism. SOC

Imperial Takeover Worldwide

The industrial revolution brought forth a new wave of empire building and this was of course called imperialism. There were big rationales for imperialism including culture, nationalism and economics. Most imperial efforts were made by European powers during this time, and they generally believed their race and culture were superior to all. They thought of themselves as protectors of most other nations of different races and cultures, and they felt it their duty to spread their cherished culture. GOV

Another rationale for imperialism was in the form of science, specifically darwinism and this philosophy was that the strong eat the weak and only the strong and fit survive. This made logical sense to many so they applied the natural scientific definition to social and political structures. This was social darwinism. It begged the question of why should powerful nations not take over and rule weaker nations, applying the concept to imperialization. It was called the White Man’s Burden to modernize the modern global society. SOC

Imperialism could be achieved as it coincided with many technological advances such as quinine was a treatment of malaria so now these Western societies could more easily intervene in tropical areas where it would be present. TECH/ENV

Christians continued spreading throughout the world (as mentioned during the Portuguese expansion), still posing the missionary objective to convert everyone, and this meant empires had to be present in as many places as possible to enforce it. This was somewhat positive in many forms however because they usually built Christian schools in many of their empires and those schools taught important subjects such as math, hospitals were built all over the world and through their interventions they assisted in abolishing the slave trade. Nationalism continued a main reason for all expansion, as it always had. Britain, for example, immediately searched for places to establish rule over after losing the American colonies, and they often highly valued these places economically such as their crown jewel India. France wanted to ensure the British never outperformed them so they established empires in North and West Africa, especially Algeria and Senegal, and Southeast Asia, specifically Indochina. SOC/GOV/ECON/CULT

Japan was also influenced by nationalism. They kept getting closer and closer to Korea posing a threat to their economy and politics. The Qing Dynasty was upset about this and this would lead to the Sino-Japanese War and since the Meiji Restoration had already modernized Japan’s military they easily defeated the Chinese and Korea became an established colony. GOV

Many nations gew hungry for raw materials as an economic reason for imperialism. For example, Dutch, French and English governments made trade agreements with nations such as in Africa for trading post rights to establish them. It gave them the right to defend those territories as well however, so these European nations trained militaries and they conquered territory at these posts. This led England to having the wealthiest economy in the world at this time. The United States would later claim this title during the second industrial revolution but as of now, Asia and African countries were the biggest losers in this global change. SOC/ECON

One way these imperialist powers established control was that many western powers trained native elites to serve as officials and bureaucrats to serve as oversea military forces for the colonial rulers. Such as the Indian sepoys and the African askaris. They economized labor making it cheaper and ensured loyalty by doing this. Compradors were native merchants who cooperated with Western colonists (were very common in China) and corporations as middlemen. GOV

Economic imperialism was when a country has significant economic power in another country. In India, it started with the British East India Company because the English exerted extreme power to the point the majority of their export economy became cotton, because the British needed it. ECON

In Latin America, there was a large imperial interest for raw materials, low wage workers and a market. The US had the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, which was the notion that the American claimed the Western Hemisphere and essentially owned it and Europeans could not interfere. The USA had gained major wealth in the industrial revolution. With all of it, they invested in places like Mexico in practices such as meat-packing, guano and railroads. They gained trade partners through this. The British helped invest in Argentina to fund the building of the Port of Buenos Aires because it was in the interest of the English. In Chile, Spain held power and their entire economy was almost dependent on their agriculture. Once copper was discovered however, this changed and a third of all their exports was copper. Which is one example of many commodities European colonial powers had access to that gave both sides economic advantages. GOV/ECON

By the late 1800s Europe desired more than just trading post empires in Africa. The British wanted shorter sea based routes to Asian trade posts, since the industrial revolution produced a larger trade of goods. They were dedicated to building a canal through Egypt that connected the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. The Suez Canal was built, the unrest in the region allowed the English to seize full control. Britain desired more colonies in Western Africa, in their already established colonies, favorable diplomatic relations were held with the Africa states. However when the need to imperialize picked up they began to take over by force, since the Africans resisted the influence. ECON

The Scramble For Africa was the competition heating up between colonial lands in Africa, it would cause a war. Otto Von Bismarck called the Berlin Conference, which would determine how to divide Africa between the European countries to maintain peace. These divisions did not accommodate the Africans however, as they divided tight relationships between Africans and put together rivals, and this would cause major future unrest. No Africans attended the Berlin Conference. By 1875 Western nations pushed into Africa. The Belgian leader colonized Kongo and enacted brutal forced labor policies onto the Kongolese. Over 8 million people died. GOV/SOC

Under the British East India Company, the British continued to claim more Mughal land; they eventually conquered all of India which initially had their own military but then they employed sepoys, who were Indian soldiers to fight for their cause. GOV

In China the European powers exercised economic imperialism, China was in a state of instability from natural disaster and internal rebellion. Europeans demanded trading rights with the weak China and powers divided up China into spheres of influence and while the Qing dynasty remained in power, these spheres had their own individual access. ECON/GOV

The British colonized both Australia and New Zealand. Australia was established as a penal colony which is where they sent all their convicts. They sent them to contained locations and then conquered the whole continent. The British discovered the climate was good for wool production and under the surface lay copper and gold it became a proper colony. New Zealand was another settler colony, however the Maori People were already there and the British made a colony for them and demanded them to move into it. The New Zealands lost to their colonizers in a war. GOV

The first American expansion was in their own continent, pushing westward, and they did until they made it from east to west coast. However in these lands were the native americans, resisted the expansion but lost the conflict. The Indian Removal Act passed by Congress led to the systematic removal of Indians from the east to reservations in the west, this migration became the Trail of Tears because of the bloodshed in the native journeys. This was due to the American philosophy of Manifest Destiny, to take all of the continent as it was theirs. GOV/SOC

During American expansion they gathered their own empire in the Spanish-American War and in the process gained a lot of territory including the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam and Cuba. Russia also imperialized, expanding into Poland from the Ottomans, and they later annexed Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Finland and Armenia and later Manchuria in China. SOC

The indingenous people of the world felt a surge of nationalism against imperial powers. In the Americas the British colonies were not yet America but during the French British Wars the Proclamation Line of 1763 reserved lands west of the colonies for the natives. The Americans constantly pushed westward. The Cherokee Indians tried a tactic to try and maintain their society and this was in the form of assimilation. They tried to become culturally like Americans, adopting a constitutional government and American customs. However when gold was discovered on their land they were forced to move to Oklahoma in the Native Removal Act. Later, the Ghost Dance was a ritualistic resistance movement where this prophecy would bring back the dead to drive out the white man, and the dance would make that event happen faster. This movement culminated in 1890 where the Sioux Indians were crushed by the Americans. ENV/CULT

In Peru, a hereditary leader or a cacique named Amaru, led an armed conflict against colonial Spain, the Tupac Amaru II Rebellions arresting one of their leaders charging him with cruelty. The rebellion spread throughout other parts of South America but once Spain executed the move, it would be the last native revolt against the Spanish. In Mexico, Benito Juarez, of zapotec blood or pre columbian people despised any foregin influence such as the French. A lot of the government did not like his liberalism and joined with the European powers to get rid of Juarez’ government. However the French were pushed out after years of armed Mexican resistance. British settlers in Australia pushed onto the native lands, and they did defend themselves but the Brits crushed and killed thousands. In Africa, Europeans would set up European run governments and this was true in South Africa but the Xhosa People refused to be ruled, they fought with them for 40 years. Their cattle were also dying in large numbers and the natives thought the English cattle had infected their cattle. They killed all their own cattle, believing that doing so would get rid of the Europeans. This was the Xhosa Cattle Killing Movement, this ultimately did not work and lead to famine. In West Africa the Sokoto Caliphate established a thriving economy through the slave trade. They were then designated as British, rebelled but were broken to be a nation under their rule, the French experienced this as well. The Wassoulou Empire in west Africa resisted the French violently in the Samary Toures War, but they lost to France's established presence. In Sudan an army was gathered after seeing what was done in Egypt in regards to the Suez Canal. The army resisted the British and actually won the war in the Mahdist Revolt, however the movement disintegrated once the leader had died and the British then established rule. In the Balkans the territories were ruled by Ottomans, resistance against Ottoman resentment boiled over and many of them rose up and established their own new states such as Greece. The relevance of all this is, to understand imperialism led to resistance, which matters because it shows the significance of nationalism, economic gains and the real weight of the white man's burden and all other rationale for taking over.

Industrial nations realized they needed more raw materials for their factories, and more food for the urban workers and populations. In Africa, before Europeans showed up, they engaged in subsistence farming which meant they grew just enough so that they could live. Once the new colonists came in, they ridded of it and replaced it with cash crop farming, which is growing for sale in a distant market. Whole plantations were devoted to coffee, rubber, and sugar to export to countries. ENV/ECON

One of the consequences of the revolution was a growing middle class, and this middle class with upgrades in average wealth were in high demand for beef. Meat became a new staple of food, and colonial holds in Argentina and Uruguay were used to raise large amounts of cows, for export. Ships were equipped with new refrigeration technology to ensure the prevention of the beef spoiling. Guano which was literally bird droppings were found in high quantities in Peru and Chile and since the new booming agriculture, fertilizer was in high demand. Therefore, Peru and Chile made it profitable by making it a staple of their export economies which led to economic stability that represents an era of prosperity. Moving onto raw materials, cotton. During the industrial revolution, British textiles and cotton were mainly imported from the United States, but when the US entered their own civil war, these exports dropped dramatically. The British, needing it, turned to Egypt and by the 1800s over 90 percent of Egypts was cotton. India was also turned to for this same reason. ENV

Rubber was very important. Rubber actually comes from trees (‘rubber trees’). This type of tree grew abundantly in the Amazon Rainforest so colonial powers forced natives to work on rubber extraction and most of these trees were destroyed. Palm oil came from West Africa and it was an important crop for centuries in Africa, but once Europeans came across it they found it a fantastic lubricant for factory machines so then they used enslaved workers to raise the crop. Diamonds are next. In 1871 a diamond rush started in South Africa. The DaBeers Mining Company was formed and South Africa was exporting 90 percent of the world's diamonds, Cecil Rhodes was the ambitious man behind the company and he became very powerful and got elected to the South African parliament, and then he became the prime minister and it was his racist policies that laid the foundations for apartheid. This increasing interconnectedness of the global economy improved, because once they gained raw materials to feed their machines, they produced goods that were sold right back to the places where they were supplied raw materials. All these products boomed the global economy. ECON

One consequence was the weakening of colonial economies. Because cash crops were often grown at the expense of other agricultural necessities, and when there is a single or dependent export for an economy, and then something goes wrong with that export such as a crop failure, then their economy fails along with it. This is commodity or export dependence. Cotton severely depleted nutrients in the soil, therefore they could only grow it for so long, and when it failed, so did the corresponding economy. ECON

Migration was caused by a multitude of reasons during this time. Economies had been globalized, through economic imperialism and new transportation, but nonetheless it caused migration. Labor systems, challenges and settler migrations. As factories needed more materials, labor needed to work those as cash crops increased, while this happened the movement of the abolition of slavery was growing and it worked in most places, but the demand was not gone. Migrants were as high as ever, Indians to Britain, Chinese to California and Malaysia, Japanese to Hawaii, Peru and Cuba for sugar plantations, and since they were not slaves, they became a previously mentioned labor system, now popularized - indentured servitude. This was attractive because after a period of working for a certain amount of years, they were free. These laborers would send money back to their families (remittances) and some would stay long after freedom from the servitude and these new migrants would influence the culture. For example, Indians accepted work in places all over the world including Fiji, Trinidad and Mauritius, and these migrants had great cultural influence in food and language. The Penal Colony in Australia, used the convicts to build railroads and did hard labor but were returned once their time was served. France had similar penal colonies most famously Devil's Island in French Guiana. Here, prisoners were underfed and forced into labor. SOC

Many migrated in the face of challenges. They migrated from their homes to escape harsh living conditions at home. These groups formed a diaspora, which is a scattered population whose origin is elsewhere, such as many Chinese in Western USA. For example, the British sent out Indian indentured servants all over the world to places like Mauritius and Trinidad. The Indian diasporic culture still remains there.

The most notable example of this challenge would be in Ireland. In 1801 Britain annexed Ireland and abolished the Irish parliament, reducing their political power dramatically. The English were Anglican and therefore the Roman Catholic Irish experienced serious descrimination, and in addition the Irish lower classes’ main food source (potatoes) experienced contamination and the Great Potato Famine caused millions of Irish to leave too many places especially the United States, where their catholic dscrimination did however continue. ENV

Settler Colonies would be involved in the third reason for migration. Large portions of these migrators were advanced in their speciality, like technical engineers and geologists. This was because the colonial powers wanted to expand industrialization and their technologies into these places. In South Africa, massive amounts of engineers planned railroads and other builds. In Japan, migration occurred similarly, one place Japan looked at was Mexico. The attempted colonization was ultimately unsuccessful, however many Japanese did migrate there regardless, and also many traveled to the United States leading significant amounts of Japanese in the US that would have an effect in the next century. SOC

Migration had many effects as well. Gender roles were affected at the places where these migrants left because most who left were men. This meant the woman’s role in the family was larger, in some places another man would essentially temporarily fill the spot, until the husband returned. Once men who migrated finished their tenure, families would often go to join them, where gender roles reamined often the same. However they often had more of a voice considering having the burden of taking care of the family while the men were gone, or men would just return. SOC

Generally, migration brought culture and people of the same origin in ethnic enclaves where they shared culture and language and these enclaves would influence the recipient countries. Chinese Enclaves brought their culture to Southeast Asia. They would claim jobs in the Dutch East Indies, engage in commerce in Indochina, and run Opium farms in Malaysia. In the Americas they came mainly for the purpose of the gold rush to mine it, but became crucial to the railroads, many went to Peru and Cuba to work on sugar plantations and also guano, and they always rubbed off culture especially in food. In Mauritius, Indians worked sugar plantations and brought in Hindu customs, where they learned to abandon the caste system because it did not function where Hinduism was not the primary religion. They did bring home shrines to their gods wherever they went. In Southeast Asia, Indians were the major labor source there for 100 years since the 1830s, originally indentured servants and a new system was implemented called kangani which was a form of labor recruitment sending whole families to work on plantations and often were given great freedoms. Irish Enclaves In America took up factory work in low wage urban areas, or canal building. They were victims of strong anti-immigrant movements. Saint-Patrick's Day came from the Irish, as did some of their music and dance. They were popular in forming labor unions, they also spread catholicism. Italian Enclaves also traveled to the US and Argentina. In Argentina, European citizens were promised equal treatment under their constitution and the big cultural relevance was in language. Argentine Spanish adopted many Italian words and it is a popular second language. CULT

Most countries however were distasteful of new immigrants. The Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States was the first time that America banned Chinese immigrants. In Australia, the British set quotas on allowable Chinese immigrants and by 1901 the British passed even more laws to prevent it entirely and it was called the White Australia Policy. GOV

Unit 4 - AP World History

1900-Present

World Wars, The Cold War, Decolonization and Globalization

The Stage of the Globe Before It All…

Many revolutions at the beginning of the 1900s led to reordering of the global power balance. First the Russian Revolution. Russia was internally unstable, they were surpassed in wealth and power, and their economy was weak because of their lack of infrastructure prioritization, like roads and they did not extend voting rights and the civil unrest led to the Bloody Sunday Massacre, where they shot many of these civilians. They also had external problems as well, they lost the Crimean War to the Ottomans and then to the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War. The Bolsheviks sprung up representing the oppressed working class led by Vladimir Lenin. They established a communist government, abolishing free trade, nationalizing the government and industries and redistributed peasant crops to feed the workers, in what was collectivization. SOC/GOV

The Bolsheviks pulled Russia out of the war as they internally fought for control with the anticommunists in the Russian Civil War resulting in millions dying. Once the communists one, a Marxist government was tried and Lenin implemented a one-party dictatorship establishing the secret police or more specifically the KGB which was instituted to perform operations against political parties against Lenin or opponents within the nation in general. GOV

China was also facing problems. The Qing dynasty was experiencing ethnic tensions, the Han and Manchurians were in conflict as the Han did not believe in the legitimacy of the Machurian leaders, this led to discirmination against the Han, so much so that civil war arose in the Taiping Rebellion. There was also always a threat of famine, population was always increasing as the crops remained at a rate where any slight tip of the scales would cause a famine. The Qing Dynasty’s tax revenue was low and could not keep up with the industrial world because of it. It was being surpassed economically and being used by numerous powers enforcing free trade. A man named Sun Yat-sen led a revolution to overthrow the Qing in 1911, called the Xinhai Revolution. Confucianism remained relevant, however change occurred in the form of making it more democratic by placing the hands of government in those fit to do so. SOC/GOV

In the Ottoman Empire, still the Sickman of Europe, were behind and attempted to modernize under the Tanzimat Reforms yet they did work as much as they needed to. The young turks advocated for a more European type of government and religion the views it what was called turkification which required all citizens to embrace Turkish culture which was deeply influenced by Islam. The Armenian Christians in the empire would lead to tension. In 1923 the Republic of Turkey was established. Which was made more like European nations, this marked the end of the long lived Ottoman Empire. GOV

In the early 1900s, Mexico was under brutal authoritarian control. The leader had consistently allowed foreign investors to control much of Mexico’s resources. There was a severe inequality of wealth distribution, 1 percent of the people owned 90 percent of the land, leaving most without land and money. In 1910 the leader Diaz imprisoned his opponent in the upcoming presidential election (Fransisco Madero) this action triggered the Mexican Revolution. Modero escaped prison and organized a rebellion that won. This resulted in a new constitution, providing voting rights, land redistribution and better education. GOV

World War I…The First Global Conflict

The main causes of World War I are as follows: militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism. GOV

Militarism is when a state wants to develop a powerful enough military to aggressively gain their interests. Britain and Germany had invested large amounts of money into the military. They recruited heavily, building up navies and making new weapons, (which was greatly assisted through the industrial revolution). Alliances, since the rise of strong militaries created awkward tensions, nations would form agreements of self-defense. Imperialism as discussed before, there was a lot of empire building in the scramble for Africa, China was economically owned and rivalries were forged out of colonial race for dominance. Nationalism remained relevant, and was distinct from patriotism in the sense that nationalism plied the need for excluding and even aggressing onto those who did not align with your nationalist views. GOV

The spark that caused the beginning of the War occurred in 1914. Franz Ferdinand, archduke of Austro-Hungary. The Serbian nationalist Blackhand group wanted to rid Bosnia of Austrian influence and planned to assassination. The man was assassinated (in an unbelievable fashion, the story is not necessary to know however) and the alliance system came into effect. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia to which Germany came to aid Austria-Hungary and Russia came to aid Serbia, which means Germany declared war on Russia. Germany then declares war on France, Britain then declares war on Germany, and then Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia. GOV

Two groups of nations readily took sides in part to the alliances they had built up. The Allies included Britain, France, Russia, Italy and later the USA. The central powers included Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. Germany took advantage of the Serbian Austrian conflict to one break up the Russian France alliance and begin an expansionist conquest, reflected in their military invasion of neutral Belgium. The Schlieffen Plan illustrates Germany’s intense urgency to combat both France and Russia. GOV

This war lasted 4 years, because of new wartime technology. Machine Guns were now as capable as ever and were devastating to soldiers, and all sides had the lethal ability to kill at a rate never seen before in this manner. Chemical Warfare was a common method including France’s tear gas that irritated the eyes and lungs. Germany developed chlorine gas that chemically reacted in your lungs, causing an excruciatingly painful death. Trench Warfare was a new method, and one of the defining ways of combat in WWI. This reality made the war long and very drawn out as now much progress is made due to the trenches and long ranged machine guns. This leads to endless stalemates. TECH

This global war was also a total war which meant that all the countries used all of their resources domestically and militarily. Another social cause was conscription including involuntary drafts in Britain for example, leading to civil stress and sometimes unrest. Further examples include factories being converted to war material production sites, women working in them as men fought in the wars, food was rationed amongst all populations, media was strictly censored, this made it so that the people of these nations were equally as invested with the war. The states encouraged the people to support the war effort through propaganda, or any form of media that influences people's opinions, through fear, exaggerated biases and misinformation. GOV/SOC

The United States had many isolationist policies in regards to European conflicts, however events had occurred that made it impossible for the United States to not get involved. First was Germany’s policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. German u-boats made sure that they sank any boats both military and civilian and they sank the passenger Lusitania that killed 100 American citizens. It was the Zimmerman Telegram that got the US involved. It was a message from the German government to Mexico, saying that the Mexicans should wage war on the United States, and Germany would help. Germany did this so that the United States could not enter the war, because they would focus on controlling the Mexican War that would have ensued. Germany promised Mexico they would claim back what they had lost in the Mexican-American War. The Americans picked up this telegram and entered WWI, and their massive industrial capacity left them untouched whilst simultaneously majorly favoring the war in the hands of the allies. GOV

Colonial holdings allowed the war to be as large as it was, and they preceded the war by causing many rivalries between different powers with many colonies, and this colonial want still influenced the war during it as well. Japan came in with the allies because they wanted Germany’s territories in the Pacific. Nations called up colonial troops frequently, with Africans, Indians and Australians all fighting in the war for the Allies. Many of these troops were eager to do so because many of these powers promised that they would earn their freedom if they did so plus the ability to self-govern. GOV

The allies ended up winning the conflict in 1918 the Paris Peace Conference was held. The goal was to create a treaty that would end the war. The USA, Britain, France and Italy attended this meeting. Russia was not invited to this because halfway through the war, the communist revolution had occurred with the Bolsheviks, and with them in rule they did not fulfill allied obligations to the other countries formerly with them. There was a lot of debate on how peace would be established at this event. The Treaty of Versailles officially ended the war. This treaty took the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungary nations and since they were split up into many smaller nations that included FInland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Another important part of the treaty was the German punishment for the war including the burden of having to pay back reparations for the damages done in the war, and this would mean billions to other countries, and the war guilt clause placed the entire responsibility for causing it onto Germany. This would cascade in the new German Weimar Republic accepting these terms, greatly upsetting the German people that would culminate in the formation of the Nazi party to be discussed later. SOC/GOV

The worldwide economy struggled after World War, the allies lost workforce in large numbers and had spent loads of money. The central powers were off worse however, Germany had to pay reparations in billions, and in addition they had planned to pay back war spending debt through winning the war through annexation however they lost and were knees deep in lost money. The German government responded by printing more money, and then the value of German currency plummeted, in hyperinflation. When Germany could not pay back their debts, these allied countries could not pay back their debts to the United States, and neither were the Soviets still in the midst of communist overthrow, and the Bolsheviks did not feel the need to pay back debts. Colonial economies suffered as well because they were dependent on their parent countries for financial support, so in Africa, Asia and South America the economy was in general shambles. In 1929, the United States stock market crashed and this was simply the Great Depression. ECON

John Maynard Keynes, a British economist, made an argument that the world should not wait for theWhat is this what is this what economy to correct itself as the notion was thought to be in laissez faire economics as those living in that current economy would suffer, so the government should try to stimulate the economy. The government did this by spending borrowed money, called deficit spending. Essentially to get the water flowing, but adding some. The New Deal in the United States was a way to address this, by borrowing money and putting millions of people to work on public projects such as dams and roadways. ECON

The Bolshevik government had presided over a currently crumbling economy, so Vladimir Lenin introduced the New Economic Plan. It was to actually roll back communist policies by reintroducing private trade into Russia, but when he died so did the plan, and then Joseph Stalin entered the scene. He introduced Five Year Plans to further industrialize Russia, including collectivizing agriculture confiscating private land and making quotas for the farmers to meet, angering the farmers, the food was taken to feed people in urban areas so the farmers burned crops and killed livestock in a form of rebelling. These plans did not work and millions starved to death. ECON/GOV

In Mexico, following the Revolution, one party dominated the economic scene called the Institutional Revolutionary Party or the PRI. They nationalized the oil industry, previously owned by foreign affairs. GOV

Fascism is an authoritarian and nationlisitc system of government and social organization, one staple including the significance placed in military might and often blamed issues to ethnic minorities in their nations, and had heavy economic control. In Italy, Benito Mussolini incorporated corporatism. Each sector of the economy organized themselves as they pleased as long as they did so in accordance to serving one whole body of the economy. In theory this was how it worked however in fascist Italy it was totalitarian and controlled most aspects of Italian society. GOV/ECON

Adolf Hitler, took inspiration from Mussolini, leader of the Nazi party and he addressed the severe German depression, by canceling all reparation plans and engaged in large deficit spending to build up the military and engage in public building projects. SOC

In Brazil, there was a very slow transition from agriculture to industrial economy. In 1930, Getulio Vargas became president because of the perceived democratic policies the people thought he had. He structured the government similar to what Mussolini did. The industry did grow rapidly but removed individual freedoms from the people, in his New State program, he limited the freedom of the press and imprisoned his political rivals. GOV

Imperialism did not go away after World War I, which meant colonies were still causing unresolved tensions in the interwar period. Nationalistic movements were brewing all over the world in colonies. Many of the troops from colonies fought and died hoping they would earn their freedom in the form of decolonization. The colonial holdings of the central powers were simply transferred to rule under the ally parent countries. Millions of Africans fought, including France bringing in Moroccan, Algerian, and Senegalese soldiers, French soldiers of Indochina were brought in. The British brought in Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders, but used Indians, Sikhs, and even Nepalese troops emphasizing how massive and diverse this war really was. SOC

In India, the Indian National Congress was formed to formally facilitate complaints to the British colonial rule. After their lack of decolonization they became a loud voice in Indian independence. The spark for independence was from the Massacre of Amritsar. The colonial government had arrested Indian freedom fighters and Indian nationalists gathered in protest. In addition to that Sikh worshippers had come to the same location for a religious festival. The protest was peaceful even though it was outlawed by the British, but the British soldiers opened fire on both the protestors and the worshippers. In the 1920s they got a leader to drive their anger towards British brutality in the name of Mohandas Gandhi. He led India in a campaign of nonviolent resistance in acts of civil disobedience. The Homespun Movement advocated Indians to make their own clothes against the British textile industry, which Indians grew cotton for to sell back to India at higher prices. India was majorly Hindu with a Muslim population as well, who feared their voice would be lost in a Hindu ruled country. The proposal was made to separate into two nations being India and Pakistan. GOV/SOC

In Korea, Japan had been impeding onto their peninsula, Japan garnered European support for more expansion, and Korean nationalists were severely upset after their emperor was suspected to have been killed by Japanese. The March 1st Movement occurred in which over 2 million Koreans protested and in response Japanese troops brutally ended it. The May 4th Movement in China also occurred. China had supported the allies in hopes to reclaim land from Germany. Japan also wanted the land and in the end the allies sided with the Japanese. The Chinese gathered, rejecting Western democracy and turned towards communism. GOV

Two parties vied for power in China including the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) led by Mao Zedong, inspired by the revolution in Russia, who wanted to get the peasants on board. The other group, being the Nationlist Party led by Sun Yat-sen who wanted an independent industrial China. These parties ended up working together to create independent China. However after Sun Yat-sen died a new leader of the Nationlist party took hold and attacked Mao’s forces in 1927 and then came the Chinese Civil War. GOV

In West Africa, movements started from Africans who were educated by European colonialist rule in European society. They had learned about natural rights and the social contract and they grew to realize the injustice of the European domineering that had taken place. Black workers in French West Africa began striking such as railway laborers, (railway strikes). SOC

World War II

The Treaty of Versailles was an unsustainable peace agreement as it demanded German reparations that would require a radical state decision from the German economy considering hyperinflation and the Great Depression. The treaty mandated that the allied forces occupy Rhineland in Germany between France. The War Guilt Clause was also made to accept full responsibility, so overall German humiliation was the theme. GOV

The second cause was the rise of the Nazi Party. The Weimar Republic was seen as weak and did not solve the problems Germany had following WWI, the people were looking for something else to get behind. The Nazi Party or the National Socialist German Workers Party. They took power in the parliament in 1932, they were elected in a democratic process. The platform appealed to the people, as it vied for a stronger central authority. Hitler later declared himself president. He enacted militaristic nationalist and scientific racism claiming that certain races were superior to others and he had severe anti-semitism within him claiming jews were responsible for all German issues, and that they had to be eradicated out of German society. The first major push against jews were the Nuremberg Laws which pushed Jews far out in German society, and to add fuel was the event of Kristallnacht or the night of broken glass where Germans killed 90 Jews and destroyed many Jewish synagogues. Over 30,000 Jews were arrested to be sent to concentration camps or deported. Lebensraum was the notion that was big for Hitler, which meant living space or simply territorial ownership, and Hitler wanted the entire European continent. Hitler then initiated the Rome-Berlin Axis making alliance with Italy. They also allied themselves with Japan in the Anti-Comintern Pact. These were The Axis Powers. Hitler broke the treaty and began to put a lot toward building up a very strong military and started sending troops to Rhineland. GOV/SOC

Mandate system was the post world war deal made that transferred former central power colonies to the allied powers, where all these nations fell under new imperial possessions. GOV

The allies did not do much to combat this figuring if they were to intervene another war would most definitely ensue so in response Hitler took more land in Austria, threatening to invade, giving the Austrian Nazi Party much influence and then they welcomed in the Germans, to occupy them. Hitler then wanted Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, since it was mainly German speakers. Hitler met with leaders of the British, France and Italy to discuss this. The British prime minister was convinced that in order to keep the peace, the best course of action was to please Hitler, so the Munich Agreement met Hitler’s demands, but this had the reverse effect. Hitler saw how much Europe feared starting another war and that the British and France were not to do anything so in 1939 he invaded Czechoslovakia, Hitler then invaded Poland, and Britain's policy of appeasement ended agreeing to defend Poland, and then allied with Russia and France. Hitler invaded and the allies declared war on Germany. GOV

In Japan, they were getting closer to China and Korea, and in 1937 fighting between Japanese and Chinese began and that marked the beginning of the war in the Pacific arena. GOV

WWII, like WWI, was again a total war investing all their resources to fight. New technologies were also brought in, including atomic weaponry. Another similarity was the colonial armies who fought for the parent countries. GOV/TECH

In Japan, they were still trying to impose imperialism on Asia. Japan however also wanted to continue expanding including Siberia. However the nonaggression pact made between Russia and Germany, and Germany being allied with Japan they could not expand into Russia. So they went to Southeast Asia. However these territories were controlled by western nations, or the United States imposed economic sanctions, hurting their economy and the Japanese planned to attack America on this behalf. GOV/ECON

Germany took opportunity in the war to obtain massive amounts of lead by means of what was called blitzkrieg, which means lightning war. This method of war which relied on shock campaigns from armored tanks and airstrikes, that dealt massive blows to the enemy in a small amount of time, they did this to Poland, and in doing so they won and split the land with Russia. They then went on to conquer Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium and even France. Britain feared this so they asked the United States for help. The US responded with the lend-lease act sending buttloads of raw military materials to the British to aid them. After this the US neutrality was no longer apparent, they were on the allies side. Germany did try invading Britain, attacking military targets and then bombing civilian cities, the British invasion ultimately failed however. GOV

The Germans then turned to the Soviet Union. In 1941 they started to invade, violating the pact, surprising the Russians making large advances, and it was called Operation Barbarossa, until Leningrad where the Russians held them off, as many Germans starved in the cold Russian winters, or even froze to death. GOV

The Japanese then sought to attack the Hawaiian military base of Pearl Harbor thinking it would make the US submit to Japan and lead them to pursue their imperial wants. The American public was outraged and wanted to retaliate, and FDR declared war on Japan. Germany then declared war on the United States. GOV

This was a total war and as such the United States had a powerful industrial sector to produce ammunition, ships, guns, tanks etc and especially aircraft carriers, which allowed planes to take off in the sea. In the world wars, media and images would inspire women to keep up morale as they took jobs that were generally dominated by men while they went out to engage in the war effort and the women at home played a huge effort in maintaining this spirit, and in Japan they refused to put women to work. TECH

In Europe, the axis powers began to falter and in 1943 the allies defeated Italy and Mussolini, and then they turned to liberating France. The massive invasion of France's Normandy Beach invaded and defeated the Germans often known as D-day, and in 1944 the Nazis were pushed out of Paris. The allies turned right to Germany, conducting air raids destroying much of the infrastructure, and then allied troops crossed in Germany and marched towards Berlin. Germany officially surrendered in 1945. GOV

In the Pacific, the United States was systematically defeating them on many different islands. In order to end this pacific war, the US could either invade or employ a weapon that was years in the making, the notorious atomic bomb. In 1945, president Truman ordered the dropping of the bomb onto Hiroshima, reducing the city to dust, and the Japanese did not surrender, so the US followed with another bomb on Nagasaki and in 1945 Japan also surrendered. It was estimated that over 75 million people died in the war and most of them were actually civilians. TECH/GOV

In the Soviet Union, farmers deeply resented collectivization, because much of their food was confiscated, which led to farmers killing livestock and burning crops and this led to the Ukrainian Famine, where 7-10 million peasants died. ENV

In 1918 to 1919, the Influenza Pandemic, following WWI, soldiers all over the world began to return home, and they brought with them a fatal strain of the influenza virus and all over the world once it returned home it spread. By 1919 the worldwide pandemic had killed 20-50 million people. ENV

Firebombing was a new method in WWII, that was meant to blast apart and then start fires, causing way more destruction. Allies firebombed Germany and this led to 75000 deaths. The USA firebombed Tokyo dropping 2000 tons of firebombs and these fires destroyed the city and 90-100 thousand dead. TECH

Genocide was the intentional slaughter of people belonging to a particular nationality or ethnicity. In the Armenian Genocide, In Turkey between 600,000 and 1.5 million Christians were killed and the Ottoman government blamed the Christians for secretly cooperating with enemy Russians and because of this the Ottomans gathered them up in concentration camps, where they died of disease, starvation of flat out execution. SOC

In the infamous Holocaust, Hitler was achieving lebensraum he systematically removed large groups of people including Slavic peoples, moving them into concentration camps where they provided their labor for the war effort, he also sent political opponents, disabled people and homosexuals but by far the largest group he sent were jews. The Nuremberg banned Jews from professions, pushing to margins of society assigning them to live in ghettos with their people. Hitler had his final solution and implemented it by attempting to extinguish all jews from the european continent, this policy made Nazis send jews to Death Camps most notable Auschwittz, where Germans used technology to mass slaughter including gas chambers and crematoriums. The holocaust killed 6 million jews, the news of the camps came to the public and across the world horrifying people globally. SOC

In the Bosnian Genocides, following new state made after WWII including Yugoslavia, and it was diverse including Muslims, who lived in the Bosnia region. When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, so did Yugoslavia and conflict arose as people wanted to separate borders through ethnic grouping. The Serbian nationlist led a campaign of ethnic cleansing to rid the state of muslims, 300,000 muslims died. GOV

The Rwandan Genocide a former colony of Beligum, including the tutsis (minority) and the hutus (majority). Belgians favored the minority and gave them the power, and the majority resented the leaders. In 1962, Rwanda became independent and the Hutus established power easily because they were the majority and they enacted discrimination against the tutsis, and in 1994 the president of Rwanda was killed by a tutsi, and over the next months the hutus engaged in the systematic slaughter of the tutsis mostly with machetes. GOV

The Cold War

When WWII was coming to a close the big three met in the Yalta Conference where they would discuss how to reorder the war. FDR wanted free elections in Eastern Europe after the war. Stalin wanted Eastern Europe under Soviet influence. These two powers disagreed strongly on this, so Stalin eventually got what we wanted in this agreement giving assurance free elections would occur. Later, the Potsdam Conference, where Truman still continued to be adamant about free elections but Stalin had already established troops in these Eastern countries, and denied, and this deepened tensions between the two. GOV

The United States became a superpower because no fighting had ever occurred in mainland US and it remained completely untouched and its industrial power took off since the absence of war in it and offered 12 billion dollars in aid of the rebuilding of European cities called the Marshall Plan. Russia did however sustain damage, but the Soviet Union was large enough to compensate in population and size and up until this point Stalin was aggressively building up Russian industry. ECON

Another point that drove the Soviets into having tensions between the US and Russia, was the atomic bomb. The world and Russia had never seen this technology, and therefore Russia was shocked at this new unspoken weaponry, this led to the cold war, or a state without direct conflict, in deep tension however battling through different types of conflict such as smaller wars and races. TECH/GOV

At the start of WWI, colonization was at its strongest, with troops traveling to fight for their parent countries, however self-determination still did not occur even after they fought again in WWII. However since all over the world colonial powers were severely aggravated at their lack of freedoms and all these European countries were in ruins and overall weakness, it was difficult to suppress all the urgent rebellions and strikes against parent countries, as sending troops into these places and funding the defense would be extremely burdensome following a world war. Colonies all over the world garnered support from the US and the Soviet Union to free themselves. GOV

The United States was capitalist or the private ownership of profitable systems, or individuals can make their own economic decisions, communism is government ownership and even distribution, which was used by the Soviets. ECON

The US was also a democracy having free elections, and Soviet Russia was authoritarian with one single dominant party totalitarian in nature. Both of these ideologies are naturally inclined to spread and control the world in conformity. GOV

One way of tension was to make countries economically dependent on the US or Russia. The Soviets gathered Eastern Europe into the Soviet Bloc including Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary and Romania to name a few. Stalin introduced the five year plans here and outlawed everything but communism. The economies of these states were also made to serve Russia. GOV

The United States garnered Western European connections through the Marshall Plan, lending 12 billion dollars to Europe in aid to help rebuild, if their economic instability was fixed, they could remain free and democratic. ECON

The Marshall Plan was under a large US policy called containment or the prevention of the spread of communism and the Truman Doctrine furthered this by ensuring military aid was threatened with communism, especially for Greece and Turkey. GOV

The Arms Race was the technological battle for superiority in the creation of bombs. By 1947 the Soviet developed their own atomic bomb. In the early 1950s, both developed the hydrogen bomb more destructive than the atomic one. The Soviets then developed an intercontinental ballistic missile. The people in these countries were getting worried because of all this, however both sides understood mutual assured destruction which meant in the end both sides would be destroyed and engaging in war would cause major unnecessary loss. TECH

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the main moment of the arms race. The US attempted to rid of communist Fidel Castro in Cuba and failed, the Soviets transported a bunch of nuclear missiles to Cuba. The US was outraged at this, although they did do a very similar thing with Turkey, who bordered the Soviets. The US then ordered a naval blockade around the Cuban island. This led to much anxiety, however no missile was ever fired. The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty called on nuclear powers to prevent countries without nuclear weapons from developing them, to hopefully prevent any disastrous event regarding nuclear bombs. GOV

The Space Race was another method of competing, the Russians launched sputnik in the first satellite. The Americans responded with their own. They both sent men into space but in 1969, the United States successfully landed a man on the moon in the Apollo Mission. TECH/SOC

Many countries did not want anything to do with conflict, and wanted to distance themselves in the non-aligned movement. They wanted to distance themselves from conflict and they were usually newly independent nations. This union sought to see out the interests of these developing nations apart from the ones dominated by the US and Soviet sides. GOV

Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, won independence from Great Britain, he established the Organization of African Unity advocating for the unity of Africans regardless of nation. Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia who organized the Bandung Conference which created the non-aligned movement. GOV

The Military Alliances formed in response to the cold war communist bloc, and the Western Nations created NATO which was a unity of nations against the Soviets, and these included, the US, Britain, France, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, Italy, Netherlands, Iceland, Norway and Luxembourg. In response to this the Soviets had the Warsaw Pact and it included the Soviets, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Albania, and Bulgaria. GOV

Proxy Wars also resulted from the Cold War in the form of indirect war. In Korea following WWII the Allies divided Korea into North and South Korea. The North was occupied with the Soviets and the South, the US and allies. In 1950 the North invaded the South to create a single domain under Northern leadership. The US aided South Korea and Russia supported the North through military aid and funding. The South forces pushed the North up to China, so China started to aid the North, and by 1953, the countries entered a stalemate as borders were largely unchanged. This was the Korean War. GOV

In the Angolan Civil War, the former colony of Portugal, Angola, was governed after the Portuguese drew borders grouping together rival groups. These groups fought against the Portuguese and won independence, however once free, there was debate over which rival group would rule free Angola. The United States and Soviets backed different groups causing the small war to become part of the larger conflict that was the Cold War. GOV

There was also the Contra War. In 1979 the socialist Sandinista National Liberation Front seized power in Nicaragua. The United States being discontented with the socialist on the continent backed a group of contrasts to overthrow the Sandinistas who were supported by the Soviets. The Sandinastas had lost in the next election. GOV

The communists won the Chinese Civil War and Mao Zedong proclaimed the People’s Republic of China, where they nationalized industry and redistributed land to peasants. His reform program was called the Great Leap Forward. Mao recalled that when Stalin did this, rebellion ensued, established re-education camps and they were intense physical strain camps to believe Mao's policies were good and if it did not convert your mind you would be killed. Harvests failed majorly, but Mao needed the world to know the policies were working and exported all the grain they had anyway, and as a result 20 million Chinese died in the Great Famine. GOV/ENV

Communism also spread elsewhere, in Iran during WWII the leader supported Hitler, so the British and Russia invaded Iran and set up a new shah (Iranian leader) that aligned with their interests. In 1953 the Iranian nationalists overthrew it, and in response the British and Russians responded again putting Muhummad Reza Pahlavi who was authoritarian implementing social welfare and women’s suffrage. He also instituted the white revolution where the government forced land out of wealthy owners and resold it to peasants for a fraction of the price. SOC

In Vietnam, they declared their independence from Japan and France. Communists seized land from landowners and gave it to the poor in Northern Vietnam. In India, they became independent in 1947 after escaping the British. They instituted land reform as well with mixed success. In 1974, Mengistu Haile Mariam led an overthrow of the Ethiopian government, which he thought was just Western puppet at the time. This rebellion was successful, putting in a socialist regime, pleasing the Soviets. Land redistribution was a priority however it again resulted in economic failure mainly in the name of famine. GOV

Decolonization was occurring throughout the world in two different ways. First is negotiated independence. The first example is in India. Mohandas Gandhi led the Indian National Congress, following the rule of nonviolence and civil disobedience, and it worked. The British did not have the resources after WWII to maintain colonial rule in India, and therefore they became independent. The Muslim minoirty in India formed the Muslim League as India became independent, and its cheif aim was to advocate for an independent muslim state, and this worked in the form of Pakistan. Another example of negotiated independence is in French West Africa. The French relied on cooperation with the locals to rule here, but once France became unstable, most of these nations also gained their independence. GOV

In Ghana, (the Gold Coast) being a British colony experienced similar events to that of India. The new president Kwame Nkrumah wanted to construct a nationalist Ghana, and instated a flag, a national anthem and monuments so that he could symbolize Ghana’s glory. GOV

Armed conflict is another form of independence for these decolonizing nations. In Algeria, they started to rise up against the French colonial government, the French government after losing Indochina wanted deeply to keep Algeria, and as they rose up, France campled down hard with strict laws and violent brutality, the National Liberation Front occurred and the Algerians used brutal guerrilla tactics against the French. GOV

Vietnam was also a colony of France, as just mentioned, after the French left the North of Vietnam after WWII Ho Chi Minh established a communist government and wanted to unite the entire nation of Vietnam under this ideology. The Vietnamese War for Independence ended in 1954 and the country was divided in two, with the south democratic. This would become another proxy war. GOV

In Egypt, British troops remained stationed in Egypt for interests in the Suez Canal, Egyptian generals led an overthrow of the Egyptian king and established the Republic of Egypt, the now socialist president, he nationalized the canal, escaping the British troops and a lease for French use of the canal. The Suez Crisis ensued. France induced ally Israel to invade Egypt. Britain and France sent troops to surround the canal. The US and Soviets opposed the action, and the United Nations settled the Suez canal as an international waterway under the sovereignty of Egypt. ECON

In relation to this, to expand trade and make transportation easier, the United States took over the Panama Canal. ECON

In 1960 the Nigerians negotiated their independence from Britain. A civil war broke out between who would rule the new Nigeria. The Igbo people in the South tried to make their own more Western nation of Biafra, the land was rich in oil and the North resisted violently and won establishing a united Nigeria. SOC

The Quebecois Separatist Movement revolved around Quebec suffused with French culture. There was not a separatist division between the French catholic and the British protestants. Movements to get Quebec as an independent state failed. Nationalism among the Quebec people, in 1963 culminated in violence including terrorist bombings and Queubc remained part of Canada. GOV

In Israel jews wanted a separate Jewish state (Palestine). Israel was home to a huge muslim population. The British supported the Jews and more of them began to migrate to Palestine from Europe. This influx pinned the muslims and threatened their culture, so they started enacting opposition. However the jews garnered support from the world regarding the second world war, causing even more immigration into the nation, further restricting these worried muslims. The UN made a deal to split Israel into two sections (similar to India and Pakistan). War broke out between Jewish Israel and muslim Palestine. GOV

In Cambodia, they gained their independence from France. A communist organization established the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia following the Vietnam war. Pol Pot became their ruthless dictator, and because of widespread famine (communism again) over 2 million people died from starvation or straight execution. In 1978 Vietnam invaded Cambodia to help many overthrow the dictator. The Vietnamese remained and occupied them until they left and Cambodia became a free democracy. GOV

In India and Pakistan (Hindu and Muslims) there is a wave of immigration, back and forth. All this migration resulted in violence between religions that resulted in 500,000 to a million people. India became a democracy and Pakistan became authoritarian. There was also a persistent dispute over the land of Kashmir whos population was mostly muslim whilst their leader was Hindu. This problem became scarily tense when both nations developed nuclear weapons, China, Pakistan and India all claimed their own portions of the land. GOV

Sri Lanka had their first female prime minister, and the nation was struggling economically so she instituted socialist policies, land redistribution, nationalized industry and restricted free trade to the nation. These attempts were unsuccessful. ECON

In India again from the 1960s to 70s they also had a female prime minister, and under her rule, the country was undergoing inflation and increasing poverty. She had a 20 Point Plan to imprison her opponents, reforming laws, increase national production and alleviate inflation. In 1977 she was not reelected however. ECON/GOV

Tanzania, who gained their independence in 1961 with their first president (Julius Nyerere) enacted socialist policies such as cooperative agriculture, and advocated to make the country less reliant on foreign powers. However, yet again, the economic policies were unsuccessful. ECON

There was also some migration that occurred in this time period in the form of migration towards metropoles, which means the home territory of a colonial power. For example, after WWII, refugees and immigrants moved from India and Bangladesh to England. Vietnamese and Algerians to France, and Filipinos to the US. The reason for this was because this method allowed metropoles and their colonies to keep strong economic relations with each other. SOC

There was resistance during this time period as well as much power shifting is happening and as such it is only natural for conflict to arise. Starting with nonviolent forms of resistance, Mohandas Gandhi against the oppressive British rule. Gandhi led the Indian National Congress to resist. He led them in campaigns of civil disobedience including the Homespun Movement because since the American Revolution, France had ramped up cotton production in their colonies, especially India. India would produce it, where Britain would make it into textiles, and the British would resell it back to them for much larger prices. This injustice encouraged Gandhi to initiate this movement to spin clothes for themselves and boycott all foregin textiles. The spinning wheel became a symbol of nationalism so much so it remains on the Indian flag today. Another act was the salt march. The British salt monopoly prohibited Indians to harvest their own salt so in protest Gandhi led a march where they harvested salt. Many were arrested but these acts worked towards tilting the favor into the hands of the Indians. SOC

Moving on to Martin Luther King Jr. who moved in acts of civil disobedience against oppressive discrimination. After the abolition of slavery, the documented equality of all citizens was not yet realized as segregation, racism and violence had mistreated the black community, so King led the Civil Rights Movement. He performed acts of civil disobedience as well including sit-ins, and bus boycotts. This movement won many supreme court decisions, which included the desegregation of public transport and schooling. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act made racial discrimination illegal and the Voting Rights Act which prevented discrimination in regards to the democratic process of voting. SOC/GOV

Third was Nelson Mandela. In South Africa, the white minority had established apartheid. Nelson Mandela initially protested in violent means but then switched to nonviolence. He was arrested for life, and this aggravated the world into stepping in to end apartheid, this pressure brought it to an end and Mandela was released and was elected president in the end. SOC/GOV

Some states used violence to stop resistance, in Spain, Francsico Franco came to power by overthrowing the elected government and he was an intense anti-communist and anyone who challenged him was executed, sent to labor camps or imprisoned. In Uganda from 1971, Idi Amin was a dictator, and was called the butcher of Uganda and under his leadership he denied basic rights and intensified existing ethnic tensions. 500,000 Ugandans lost their lives under his control. GOV

The rise of the military industrial complex was a response to defend any possible hardships that could hinder the future success of a country. The United States and Soviets practiced this by nuclear development, and as military spending increased, so did the amount of people who relied on it. Therefore decreasing military funding could put many out of work. GOV

In Peru the Shining Path in the 1970s was a revolutionary organization to overthrow and start a communist government. It began engaging in terrorist incluidng assassinations and bombings and in this process 37,000 Peruvians died. The leader was captured and the movement disintegrated. GOV

In Al-Qaeda a Saudi billionaire Osama Bin Laden, the group carried out attacks against Western countries. This was resistance of Western oppressive policies of intrusion, the main violent act was 9/11 where they hijacked passenger planes and flew them into the New York trade centers, and into the Pentagon in Virginia, and overall this was an example of resistance to the global power balance. GOV

In the 1980s Ronald Reagan led the Strategic Defense Initiative. This was a system that would shoot down any attack in the form of missiles from space, however the technology was incapable of being reached at the time, but the steps they took towards this shifted power to America and away from the Soviets. GOV

Another reason for the end was a failed invasion of Russia to Afghanistan. Communists established a communist government in Afghanistan, and supported by Russia. The policies were repressive, and became unpopular with the people. This resulted to the murder of the president of Afghanistan who was communist and friends of the Soviet. The new president who killed the previous one, however the Soviets invaded Afghanistan killing him and put back another Soviet president. The Soviets reamined to stop the Afghan rebellions. However they could not gain much ground in Afghanistan. This put strain on the Soviet economy, because of the conflict and all the economic sanctions, and these financial penalties were effective in hurting the economy. The Soviets lost and this event triggered the fall of the Soviets. ECON

Trade outside of Russia was limited and government control of agriculture prevented industrial growth because of farmer restrictions. Soviet bloc nations were growing unhappy because of the policies. An example of this was the Prague Spring, which were protests in Czech. This spread and more resources were used from Russia to stop the rebellions from their failing economy. SOC

In 1985 a liberal russian came to power. Mikhail Gorbachov, who started two programs that would undermine the union. Perestroika, which was designed to kickstart the economy. Glasnost was the freedomization of the economy. These policies have more freedom in Soviet countries. The Union would not come to stop the rebellions of Eastern Europe and the countries initiated democratic reforms to sweep through and in 1991, the Soviet Union was dismantled. ECON

Globalization

New communication and transportation technologies were connecting the world and on the climb first including the radio. This allowed individuals to hear the real voices for one of the first times. Also the filter of bias through reporters was also erased. Leaders could speak directly to people, FDR used the radio to comfort families during the Great Depression. The television and cellular technology have obvious effects, communication was now instantaneous and had the effect of connectivity on a scale unprecedented up until this point, but news could travel in seconds now. TECH

Social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This gives anyone a platform to have a direct impact, democratizing communication, where anything can be said, and anyone can watch. The Arab spring was directly affected by this in the early 2010s and there were a series of anti-government protests in the Arab world. They were organized and documented through social media, exemplified by the fact that governments would try and shut down the internet and censored social media to try and prevent the protests. The whole world can now be aware of global issues, and garner massive support. TECH/GOV

Air travel had a major effect of connectivity, and also with shipping containers people could get goods faster than ever. On the note of energy technology, nuclear energy. After atomic bombs, governments figured to use the same technology for energy. Petroleum is a nonrenewable resource, while nuclear energy is much cleaner and more renewable. However when nuclear energy gets out of hand it can cause disasters such as at the Chernobyl power plant that malfunctioned in the 1980s. More radiation was unleashed onto the environment then both bombs on Japan together. TECH

In agricultural technology, the green revolution occurred. This was significant because scientists developed new grain that grew more and was resistant to pests. They did this through genetic engineering modifying the cellular organization of the crops, fertilizers and pesticides also increased, and the overall land devoted to farming was greatly increased. They were all used to feed the growing world population. Small farmers could not compete with these large farmers, which meant these larger corporations often acquired these smaller farms. TECH

There were also medical advances, including antibiotics that would kill bacteria and in 1928 penicillin was developed saving many lives of soldiers in wars, being able to survive infections. TECH

There was also a spike of vaccines. These nearly eradicated entire diseases such as measles, polio and smallpox. There was also birth control which consisted of a hormone to prevent pregnancy and this caused fertility rates to decline worldwide, meaning women were having less children. ENV/TECH

Impoverished people usually had to deal with contamination and poor health care that mostly only wealthy people will encounter. Malaria is a disease spread by mosquitoes and exists in tropical climates, outbreaks in Africa. Tuberculosis is associated with poverty because they live in very close quarters and can spread this disease very easily. Cholera, as mentioned earlier, is prevalent in unclean water environments. ENV

The Spanish Flu in 1918. As WWI ended many soldiers became infected with the flu, and when these soldiers returned home one fifth of the world became infected and up to 50 million people died worldwide. HIV (the virus) which causes AIDS was also a new concern. AIDS suppresses an immune system so that normal viruses usually weak to fight off can kill. Spread through the exchange of bodily fluids, in the 1980s there was a major outbreak and about 20 million people died up into the 21st century. Ebola has a devastating death rate and there was a major outbreak in 1976 in the Congo and in 2014, 11,000 died in West Africa. ENV

Some diseases are associated with longer lives, and since the world of medical technology has increased the average lifespan, these are more common. First is Alzheimer’s Disease which is a form of dementia causing memory loss, that spirals into death. Heart disease as well is another age associated disease, being the number one cause of death globally. ENV

The world was facing environmental problems after 1900. Deforestation was caused from the increasing population needing more food and this means agriculture which requires large amounts of land. Desertification is another issue that occurs when fertile land becomes like a desert such as things from deforestation, and other things like harmful farming techniques, and these places cannot be used for food. Air pollution caused by massive industry caused things like the great smog in London where industrial coal emissions combined with smog to cover the city killing up to 12,000 people for 4 days. Other problems included issues with the water supply and in the infamous global warming. ENV

The causes of these problems include globalization and industrialization. As industry spreads, more resources are in demand, and the standard of living rises for many and this demand only increases further which strains the environment. Another cause is urbanization and population growth which is growing dramatically, and these necessitates more food. ENV

With increasing population, there is competition for scarce resources, mainly, non-renewable resources. One example of these is oil, however since the industrial revolution, half the world's oil is used up. Another non-renewable resource is freshwater. Much of the water uses it for crops, and there is massive demand for freshwater which is a tiny portion of the global water. The World Health Organization estimates half the world's population by 2025 will lack clean water. ENV

There is then also climate change. Factories, cars and airplanes release pollutants, mainly carbon dioxide emissions or a greenhouse gas. These consequences can be disastrous. The kyoto protocol in 1997 was established which was an international agreement to reduce carbon emissions and this responsibility was put on global superpowers with economies capable of curbing their emissions, whilst developing countries were not given much of a role. The Paris Agreement in 2015 was a global agreement to legally bind countries to an effort to keep the temperature at less than a 2 percent increase by each year. ENV

There was an influx of free market economics after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Former communist nations and nonaligned nations started to adopt this economic ideology. The US, with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, fiercely encouraged this and so did the leader of Chile, Augusto Pinochet, who took Chile to the free market. The Chicago Boys were the economists responsible for solving the problems in Chile. The reforms were unpopular however because Pinochet enforced them with brutality, however they did work. In 1981 Deng Xioaping took leadership of China and relaxed the communist policies. He allowed peasants to lease land and sell their own crops and even allowed private ownership for some businesses. However the Chinese people getting a taste of these new freedoms longed for more and marched on Tiananmen Square to try and achieve things like freedom of speech, however this was crushed. ECON

There was a rise of knowledge economies. Information technology gave rise to a new type of economy, which is specifically here, an economy which depends on the quality and quantity of information available which can be monetized. Engineers, teachers and lawyers include these. In Finland in the 1990s they heavily invested into communication technology and communication and held a share of software and development markets, shifting their entire economy from the cultivation of land towards this. In Japan, they also invested in education to transition economies. Japan diversified their economy from a manufacturing one to an economy in finance, banking and development of information tech. ECON

As knowledge economies increase, manufacturing ones decrease. Most of the latter type moved to places like Asia and Latin America where many jobs are attributed to manufacturing. It is much cheaper to make these goods in these places because of their tiny wages. ECON

Transnational Free Trade Organizations are agreements that eliminate barriers to trade. One of them includes NAFTA. This deal meant that Mexico would produce goods and export them tariff free to the US and Canada. This worked because in Mexico, they had low wages and worked in conditions worse than legally allowed in the other two countries. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations including Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines has played a role in the growth of these nations in their economy. ECON

In the world, you have the World Trade Organization made up of 164 member nations that represent 95 of the global economy. The aim of the agreement is to reduce barriers in trade in terms of tariffs and quotas. These organizations facilitate the global economy to function. ECON

A multinational corporation is simply one that is incorporated in one country but makes and sells goods elsewhere. These companies work through employing knowledge workers in their own countries, making goods for sale in other countries to sell them globally. One example is Nestle, who is based in Switzerland, purchases and manufactures their chocolate in West Africa to sell globally. Mahindra and Mahindra is an Indian company that makes automobiles and farm equipment that has operations in China, Africa, Southeast Asia and even the US. ECON

As the world became connected, the social side, and interactions between social groups needed to be changed and maintained. This included the later mentioned Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in 1948 the UN created this to articulate the basic human rights everyone on earth deserved, and this was put in place to ensure certain groups began to be properly treated such as women and children. For example, unicef was established by the UN and served as a children’s international emergency fund devoting its resources, one of its missions to feed starving children after World War II. In 1975 there was the United Nations First World Conference on Women, where the world discussed the advancements of women. Four years later, there was the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and there they produced the International Bill of Rights for Women and this included equality in education, women’s suffrage, the right to marry a spouse of her choosing and the right to birth control, and these changes were gradually implemented into the world. SOC

The Negritude Movement in French West Africa was a celebration of blackness and their cultures after being oppressed for years. Out of this movement, poetry and great art emerged that glorified African culture and its place in the world. CULT

There was also Liberation Theology in Latin America which was a unique ideology saying Jesus was on the side of the poor and against the rich. This type of Christianity was supposed to free the oppressed from economic and social abuses. SOC

There was also a push for racial equality. For example in South Africa, race was officially separated in apartheid segregation. Nelson Mandela who led the African National Congress whose goal was to make South Africa equal. His imprisonment was publicized and drew global criticism and support for black South Africans. Protests were gathered and the white minority often responded brutally. South Africa then faced economic sanctions, and was then removed from the United Nations in 1974. In the 1990s Mandela was freed and apartheid ended. SOC

Now coming back all the way from the beginning, the Indian Hindu caste system inherently caused oppression to the lower members. The lowest class received the most brutality, the dalit. In 1949 however discrimination against this class was constituionally banned, and in order to reduce the opressive system in place the caste reservation system was made, and what this did was reserve and ensure a certain percentage in the amount of jobs and positions for lower castes of social inequality. SOC

In China, the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party) and as they progressed in some ways, their social reforms were lagging behind and in 1989 the Tiananmen Square Massacre where democratic activists demanded that the government install certain rights such as freedom of speech. Protests spread across the nation and when it happened here, the Chinese military arrived and started attacking the protestors. GOV

The Uighurs are a muslim minoirty in the Chinese Northwest, who are discriminated against. Many of them have been removed from their homes, deported or exiled and many are relocated to re-education camps. This calls China onto more social reform all the way to today, but China has still yet to make significant social changes. China has also been accused of banning religious practices and destroying mosques. SOC

One manifestation of global might and globalization is the environmental failures of poorer developing nations. Since there are no restrictions for pollution in these places, much manufacturing and industry have been relocated to these places, meaning clean water and clean air are no longer expected. These inequities were addressed by Greenpeace who opposed practices that led to global warming. The Green Belt Movement in Kenya was a movement to address the environmental degradation experienced during colonization, their streams were drying up and keeping the population fed was a difficulty. This movement sought to fix this by planting trees, reviving soil and collecting rainwater for irrigation and drinking water. ENV

The World Fair Trade Organization was established to address economic inequalities in 1989. Fair trading practices, good working conditions and hiring discrimination were tackeld by this organization. ECON

Social change brought about a ton of culture and many social changes were brought about through art and literature to express modern day change. Pablo Picasso did this in the form of art known as cubism that changed the traditional norms of painting. The Harlem Renaissance in New York occurred after many black southerners migrated there to escape the oppression in the south. All across the United States, major consumerism was dubbed the Roaring Twenties. This created a large body of cultural creation in the area including things like jazz that was a new music at the time. Televisions, radios, and the internet allowed culture to become global. Reggae originated in Jamaica and spread globally, this compares to the spread of k-pop that originated in Korea, this means cultures are being exported to other corners of the globe. Movies became a new culture including hollywood and bollywood. Americans had a massive international influence, which leads to American values and traditions to reach places unheard of before and this is called Americanization. India also has spread their bright culture in the previously mentioned bollywood. SOC/CULT

The Olympics established in 1896 is a major unity of the world as millions of people are watching the same thing, at the same time. This same trend is seen through the World Cup in the form of the world’s most popular sport, soccer, with 3.5 billion watching it in 2018. Sports draw the world’s collective attention together, passively uniting everyone. SOC

The rise of global consumerism as well has an effect on the world. Brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, and Apple exemplify this as people in New Zealand, Netherlands, Peru and Singapore can all wear, drink and use the same exact things. This phenomenon is often called coca-colonization. Online shopping contributed to this in the form of amazon and the Chinese alibaba. New communication and transportation for the diffusion of culture like never before. ECON

The global north usually benefited far more than the global south. In 1999, the Battle for Seattle and the World Trade Organization were discussing global commerce. 40,000 protesters arrived outside this meeting to protest that free trade should not be the highest value of the world community as according to them the WTO has allowed environmental degradation, lowered labor standards, and prevented developing nations from protecting themselves. In 2001 the World Social Forum addressed this by embodying the ideals of anti-globalists to make a more equitable world. ECON

There were also protests against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. These organizations worked together to foster financial cooperation and reduce global poverty. However the conditions that cause the north to be economically prospering is usually at the expense for other countries. Protests against these organizations ensued due to claims against them that they favored richer countries over poorer ones, and overall these poor countries were neglected by the World Bank and IMF. ECON

One of the first complaints was pollution as in these places the environmental impact was usually terrible. Another issue arose in threatening national sovereignty. One example of this is Brexit or Great Britain leaving the European Union, as Britain felt their ability to make important decisions was hindered by the constraints of the EU. For example, the EU was making them accept more immigrants than they wanted to. Another reason for globalization resistance was human rights abuses, because many of these corporations taking advantage of global outreach involve child labor and very low wages in the production of their goods somewhere in the road, usually in the outside of the local nation. ENV/GOV/SOC

One other significant resistance to globalization is in the form of social media. For example China shut down facebook and twitter accusing them for creating unrest in their country, as conflict arose between the Uighurs and the native Han people. Social media was blamed for facilitating the spread of ideas that cause uprisings like this. China then introduced their own social media platform called Weibo to do the same things with the other platforms, just under Chinese surveillance and restrictions, such as preventing western ideas from entering. SOC

Since the world has been shrinking through globalization, organizations facilitate global cooperation. The big one is the United Nations. It was created after WWII ended, to make an international body to converse about world issues and not fight about them. This was essentially a second attempt of the League of Nations that was made after WWI made for the same purpose but it had no authority to back it up. The UN maintains world peace. They use the security council where if a member nation is violating principles the UN has agreed upon, this council has the authority to use their militaries to keep the peace. At first, the council included the US, Russia, China, France and Great Britain and each had veto power which has caused difficulty in actually following through. In the Rwandan Genocide for example the peacekeepers or UN troops, could not stop it. On several instances the UN has been unable to fulfill their mission. The International Court of Justice is there to settle disputes between nations when international law is applicable. The UN also exists to facilitate international cooperation such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which include rights for every citizen in the global community such as right to life, prohibition of slavery and torture, and the right of equality among genders and ethnicities. Member nations agree so the UN is allowed to investigate any abuse of human rights. There is also the economic and social council. The UN can have a say on any humanitarian and economic projects that nations agree to. The UN has a large hand in protecting refugees to provide them with basic necessities. GOV/SOC

The World Food Program which responds to emergencies for hunger such as post war, but also assists developing countries to provide food for themselves. The International Peace Bureau is devoted to reducing military spending and disarming nuclear weapons The International Committee of the Red Cross responds to human needs with armed conflict and natural disaster. SOC

OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) was an organization designed to regulate the world’s oil, by controlling the global supply and price of oil, internationally. Other international programs include the War On Terror intiative, launched following the 9/11 attacks, as an effort to stomp out global terrorism. ECON

END OF CURRICULUM

LAST MINUTE STUDYING:

Unit 1 BIG IDEAS:

The Song Dynasty maintained its rule through Confucianism and an imperial bureaucracy, Buddhism continued to shape China’s society and the economy flourished during this period.

The Abbasid Caliphate was declining, and during this new Islamic empires emerged and Islam expanded, whilst the societies of them engaged heavily in intellectual innovations and transfers.

The religions of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam deeply influenced and shaped state building in South and Southeast Asia.

The states in Africa were facilitated through all of their participation in trade networks and religion.

The state building in Europe was characterized through Christianity, feudalism and decentralized monarchies with nobles having much power.

The Mongol empire came to power establishing one of the largest empires ever and assimilated to the culture, by using brutal however sometimes peaceful means of power.

The Silk, Indian and trans-Saharan trade routes facilitated merchants and the spread of culture, goods and prosperings of civilizations, involving countless commercial and technological practices.

Unit 2 BIG IDEAS:

The gunpowder empires came to power largely due to their militarism.

The land-based empires of this time used bureaucracies, religion, militaries and architecture to legitimize their rule.

The religious tensions across multiple land empires shaped the balance of power in the world during the Protestant Reformation, Sunni-Shi’a split and Mughal tensions.

The new and continual use of maritime technology facilitated transoceanic trade and the development of sea-based empires.

The European state-sponsored exploration led to rapid expansion of trade and interaction with the Americas.

The Columbian Exchange was the transfer of animals, plants, foods and disease between Europe and the Americas and because of this the European colonial powers sought to establish colonies in the Americas,

The European colonial states established empires fueled by mercantilist policies and coerced labor systems.

The development of maritime empires significantly changed the societies and economies of which they were established.