AP World History Modern Speed Review Notes
Unit 1: Global Tapestry (1200-1450)
East Asia:
Song Dynasty:
Ruled using Neo-Confucianism and the civil service exam.
Buddhism remained the main belief system.
Champa rice provided abundant food.
Influence spread to Korea and Japan.
Dar al-Islam (The World of Islam):
Caliphate system ended after the Abbasids fell to the Mongols.
Turkey established sultanates (Islamic kingdoms).
Contributions to math, science, medicine, and intellectual pursuits.
South and Southeast Asia:
Impact of Buddhism and Hinduism.
Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam, attracted many converts.
The Americas:
Incas:
Centralized power through their road system and the mita labor system.
Aztecs:
Centralized power through human sacrifice.
Chinampas (lake farms) were a key agricultural innovation.
Africa:
State-building focus.
Mali and the trans-Saharan trade.
Great Zimbabwe.
The Swahili coast.
Europe:
Feudalism.
Serfs worked on manors in a decentralized system of government.
Unit 2: Networks of Exchange (1200-1450)
Silk Road:
East meets West.
Trading cities like Kashgar and Samarkand emerged in Central Asia.
Traded luxury goods like silk and porcelain.
Banking houses and flying cash transformed the economy.
Indian Ocean Trade:
Maritime version of the Silk Road.
Similar trade cities, luxury goods, and technology exchange.
Diaspora: Communities of people living away from their homeland (e.g., Chinese in Malacca).
Admiral Zheng He: Famous admiral who made voyages along this trade route.
Monsoon winds: Seasonal winds requiring knowledge to navigate.
Trans-Saharan Trade:
Reconnected Dar al-Islam to sub-Saharan Africa.
Trade included salt and gold.
Islam spread with travelers like Ibn Battuta.
Mansa Musa’s famous Hajj.
Consequences of Trade:
Environmental: Bubonic plague, Champa rice, and citrus fruits.
Cultural: Spread of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam, and travelers like Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta.
Technological: Gunpowder, algebra, and the compass.
The Mongols:
Their empires turned into khanates.
Expedited the exchange of ideas, technologies, and diseases.
Unit 3: Land-Based Empires (1450-1750)
Gunpowder Empires:
Manchus:
Invaded China and established the final Chinese Empire.
Maintained Neo-Confucianism and the civil service exam.
Required the Queue haircut as a sign of loyalty.
Centralized power with the Banner System.
Ottomans:
Took Constantinople in 1453 and renamed it Istanbul.
Were Sunni Muslim.
Devshirme: System for building the army and bureaucracy, including the Janissaries.
Tax farming: Selling the right to tax to the highest bidder.
Mughals:
Islamic group ruling over a Hindu majority in India.
Religiously tolerant, especially under Akbar the Great.
Built the Taj Mahal.
Safavids:
Shia Empire.
Located between the Ottoman and Mughal Empires.
Other Land-Based Empires:
Aztecs and Incas (mentioned in Unit 1).
Songhai: Took over from Mali in West Africa.
Tokugawa Japan: Established a military shogunate and eventually sakoku (locked country).
Belief Systems:
Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther’s actions around 1500.
Sikhism: New religion based on the teachings of Guru Nanak in the Mughal Empire, blending Hinduism and Islam.
Unit 4: Maritime Empires (1450-1750)
Maritime Technology:
Portuguese and Spanish caravels.
Dutch Fluyts.
Islamic Astrolabes.
Chinese compasses.
Lateen Sails.
Knowledge of Winds.
Portuguese Empire:
Prince Henry sought a route around Africa and to spread Christianity.
Established a school for navigators.
Reached Brazil and India by 1498.
Took control of the Spice Islands.
Started the transatlantic slave trade.
Spanish Empire:
Focused on the Americas.
Set up viceroyalties (ruled by viceroys).
Defeated the Aztecs and the Incas.
Established the Encomienda System (New World feudalism).
Extracted cash crops like sugar and coffee, and mined silver in Potosí.
Spread Catholicism with priests like Bartolomé de las Casas and Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Trading Post Empires:
Empires established small trading posts to move goods in and out of places rather than taking over large amounts of land.
Joint-Stock Companies:
Government-sponsored monopolies that spread wealth and risk.
British East India Trading Company: Dominated South Asia (India).
Dutch VOC: Dominated modern-day Indonesia and the spice trade; most successful company ever.
Columbian Exchange:
Exchange of plants, animals, and diseases across the Atlantic.
Resistance to European Powers:
Revolts of the enslaved, like Queen Nanny in Jamaica.
Resistance against European arrivals in Africa, like Nzinga in Angola.
Local groups like the Hindu Marathas and Cossacks challenging expansion.
Social Systems:
Caste system attempted to build hierarchy in the New World.
Banner System in China and the Millets in the Ottoman Empire.
Slave trade caused social changes in Africa and the Americas.
Coerced labor: Chattel slavery and the encomienda system.
Unit 5: Revolutions (1750-1900)
Political Revolutions:
Rooted in the Enlightenment and natural rights.
American Revolution: Taxation without representation.
French Revolution: Hated absolute monarch, Louis XVI.
Haitian Revolution: Slave revolt against the French.
Latin American Revolutions: Bolívar led revolutions against the Spanish.
Nationalism: The idea that a nation should run the government; fueled many revolutions.
Industrial Revolution:
Started in Great Britain due to access to resources, capital, and urban areas.
Factory system: Workers mass-producing goods for sale.
James Watt’s steam engine: Movable power source.
Key technologies: Steam engine, internal combustion engines, railroads, and the telegraph.
Decline in production in Asia.
Meiji Restoration in Japan: Successful industrialization.
Self-Strengthening Movement in Qing China: Less successful.
Egypt, led by Muhammad Ali: Capitalized on global demands for cotton.
Economic Changes:
Capitalism grew alongside the works of Adam Smith.
Laissez-faire policies.
Transnational businesses like Unilever and HSBC.
Social Changes:
Women pushing for equality.
Emergence of a new working class.
Karl Marx: Envisioned a world where workers seized the means of production.
Unit 6: Consequences of Industrialization (1750-1900)
Imperialism:
Industrial powerhouses turned trading posts into massive empires.
Excuses for expansion: Racist policies, religious civilizing missions, and social Darwinism.
Real reasons for expansion: Access to raw materials and markets.
Major empires: Americans, British, Japanese, Russians, and French.
Key Topics:
Berlin Conference in Africa: Determined the future of Africa.
Sepoy Mutiny in India: Shift to British Raj government rule.
Century of Humiliation in China: Opium Wars, Taiping Rebellions, Sino-Japanese Wars, Boxer Rebellions.
Economic Domination:
Economic dominance without physical takeover.
Export economies focused on raw materials (cotton, rubber, palm oil).
Resistance to Empires:
Sepoy Mutiny in India.
Tupac Amaru in Peru.
Xhosa Cattle-Killing Movement in South Africa.
Migrations:
Due to industrialization and urbanization.
People moved to cities like London, New York, and Buenos Aires.
Push and pull factors: Irish Potato Famine, Chinese Century of Humiliation, job opportunities.
Enclaves:
Migrants setting up enclaves like Little Italy and Chinatown.
Restrictions: Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States and White Australia Policy.
Unit 7: Global Conflict (1900-Present)
Decline of Empires:
Qing, Russian, and Ottoman Empires collapsed.
China became a republic.
Russians overthrown by the Bolsheviks.
Ottomans broken up after World War I.
World War I:
Caused by imperialism, alliance systems, and nationalism.
Total war: Everything utilized for victory.
Governments used media restrictions and propaganda.
New military tactics: Machine guns, gas, tanks, and Zeppelins.
Interwar Period:
Great Depression: Governments intervened to fix economies.
Empires grew, leading to increased tensions.
Dictatorships rose in Italy, Spain, and Germany.
World War II:
Catalyzed by aggression of totalitarian states.
Total war with propaganda and new military technology.
New tactics: firebombing, atomic bombs.
Mass Atrocities:
Holocaust.
Armenian Genocide from World War I.
Cambodian Communist Genocide in the 1970s.
Unit 8: Cold War and Decolonization (1900-Present)
Cold War:
Split the world with American capitalism and Soviet communism.
Alliances: NATO (American), Warsaw Pact (Soviet), Non-Aligned Movement.
Proxy wars: U.S. vs. Soviet proxies (Vietnam, Afghanistan).
China turned communist: Mao Zedong's policies like the Great Leap Forward.
Ended in 1991 after the Soviet Union fell.
Decolonization:
Anti-imperialist sentiment from Unit 6.
United Nations guaranteed the right to self-determination.
Non-violence: Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana and Gandhi in India.
Violence: Algeria and Vietnam.
New borders led to conflicts like India and Israel.
Economic growth in Tanzania, Egypt, or India.
Unit 9: Globalization (1900-Present)
Technology:
Planes, radio, cell phones, and container ships connected the planet.
Energy:
Petroleum, nuclear, solar, and wind power.
Social Changes:
Birth control allowed women to control reproductive rights.
Green Revolution:
Increased crop production.
Medicine:
Antibiotics and vaccines.
Diseases:
Alzheimer's disease, HIV/AIDS, and pandemics like the 1918 Spanish Flu.
Environmental Impact:
Greenhouse gases and climate change.
Economic Policies:
Free market policies (Deng Xiaoping in China and Chile).
Regional trade networks: NAFTA and ASEAN.
Cultural Globalization:
Bollywood and the World Cup.
International Institutions:
United Nations formed to maintain peace