AP World History Modern Speed Review Notes

East Asia:
- Song Dynasty: Ruled using Neo-Confucianism and the civil service exam.
- Buddhism: Remained the main belief system.
- Champa rice: Increased food supply.
- 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 categories.
South and Southeast Asia:
- Impact of Buddhism and Hinduism.
- Sufism: A mystical branch of Islam that attracted many converts.
The Americas:
- Inca: Centralized power through their road system and the mita labor system.
- Aztec: Centralized power through human sacrifice system; chinampas (lake farms).
Africa:
- State building: Mali and the trans-Saharan trade, Great Zimbabwe, and the Swahili coast.
Europe:
- Feudalism: Serfs working on manors in a decentralized system of government.

Silk Road:
- East meets West.
- Trading cities: Kashgar and Samarkand.
- Luxury goods: Silk and porcelain.
- Banking houses and flying cash.
Indian Ocean Trade:
- Maritime version of the Silk Road.
- Same trade cities, luxury goods, and technology exchange.
- Diaspora: Communities 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 for navigation.
Trans-Saharan Trade:
- Reconnected Dar al-Islam to sub-Saharan Africa.
- Trade: Salt and gold.
- Islam and travelers like Ibn Battuta.
- Mansa Musa's Hajj.
Consequences of Trade:
- Environmental: Bubonic plague, Champa rice, citrus roots.
- Cultural: Religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam), travelers (Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta), gunpowder, algebra, compass.
The Mongols:
- Empires turned into khanates.
- Expedited the spread of ideas, technologies, and diseases.

Gunpowder Empires:
- Manchus (China):
  - Invaded China and established the final Chinese Empire.
  - Neo-Confucianism, civil service exam, dynasty continued.
  - Q haircut as a sign of loyalty.
  - Centralized power on the banner system.
- Ottomans:
  - Took Constantinople in 1453, renamed it Istanbul.
  - Sunni Muslim; clashed with Shia Safavids.
  - Devshirme: Built army (janissaries), bureaucracy, intellectuals.
  - Tax farming: Selling the right to tax.
- Mughals:
  - Islamic group ruling over a Hindu majority in India.
  - Religiously tolerant (Akbar the Great).
  - Taj Mahal (monumental architecture).
- Safavids:
  - Shia Empire between Sunni Ottomans and Mughals.
Other Land-Based Empires:
- Aztecs and Incas (mentioned in Unit 1).
- Songhai: Took over from Mali in West Africa.
- Tokugawa Japan: Military shogunate; sakoku (locked country).
Belief Systems:
- Protestant Reformation (Martin Luther).
- Sikhism: Based on teachings of Guru Nanak in the Mughal Empire (Hinduism and Islam).

Technology:
- Portuguese and Spanish caravels, Dutch fluyts, Islamic astrolabes, Chinese compasses, Latin sails.
- Knowledge of the winds.
Empires:
- Portuguese:
  - Prince Henry sought a route around Africa and to spread Christianity.
  - Made it to Brazil and India (1498).
  - Took control of the Spice Islands and started the transatlantic slave trade.
- Spanish:
  - Spanish Empire in the Americas.
  - Viceroyalties: Areas ruled by a viceroy.
  - Defeated the Aztecs and the Incas.
  - Encomienda system: New World feudalism.
  - Cash crops: Sugar and coffee; silver mining in Potosí.
  - Spread Catholicism with priests (Bartolomé de las Casas) and Our Lady of Guadalupe.
  - Trading Post Empire.
- Joint-Stock Companies: Government-sponsored monopolies.
  - British East India Trading Company: Dominated South Asia (India).
  - Dutch VOC: Took over modern-day Indonesia; controlled the spice trade.
Columbian Exchange:
- Exchange of plants, animals, and diseases across the ocean.
Resistance:
- Revolts of the enslaved: Queen Nanny in Jamaica.
- Resistance against European arrivals in Africa: Nzinga in Angola.
- Local groups: Hindu Marathas, Cossacks.
Social Systems:
- Caste system.
- Banner system in China, millets in the Ottoman Empire.
- Impact of coerced labor: Chattel slavery and encomienda systems.

Political Revolutions:
- Roots in the Enlightenment (natural rights, reason).
- American, French, Haitian, and Latin American Revolutions.
- Nationalism: Shared beliefs; fight for the right to run the government.
Industrial Revolution:
- Starts in Great Britain (access to resources, capital, urban areas).
- Factory system: Mass production.
- Steam engine (James Watt): Movable power source.
- Key technologies: Steam engine, internal combustion engine, railroads, telegraph.
- Decline in production in Asia.
- Meiji Restoration (Japan): Successful industrialization.
- Self-Strengthening Movement (Qing China): Failed to keep up.
- Egypt (Muhammad Ali): Nationalized cotton industry.
Economics:
- Capitalism (Adam Smith): Laissez-faire policies.
- Transnational businesses: Unilever, HSBC.
Social Changes:
- Women push for equality.
- New working class.
- Karl Marx

Imperialism:
- Excuses: Racist policies or religious civilizing missions (social Darwinism).
- Reasons: Access to raw materials and markets.
- Empires: Americans, British, Japanese, Russians, and French.
- Settler colonies: Britain in Australia.
- Berlin Conference (Africa).
- Sepoy Mutiny (India): British Raj.
- Century of Humiliation (China): Opium Wars, Taiping Rebellions, Sino-Japanese Wars, Boxer Rebellions.
- Export economies: Cotton, rubber, palm oil
Resistance:
- Sepoy Mutiny in India, Tupac Amaru in Peru, and the Xhosa cattle-killing movement in South Africa.
Migrations:
- Cities are growing due to new jobs.
- Pushed: Irish during the Potato Famine.
- Pulled by job opportunities.
- Enclaves: Little Italy in New York City, Chinatown.
- Chinese Exclusion Act (US), White Australia Policy.

Decline of Empires:
- Qing, Russians, and Ottomans.
World War I:
- Imperialism increased tensions.
- Alliance systems.
- Nationalism (Serbian nationalism).
- Total war, propaganda, new military tactics (machine guns, gas, tanks).
Interwar Period:
- Great Depression: Governments get involved in economies.
- Empires grow.
- Dictatorships: Italy, Spain, Germany.
World War II:
- Total war, propaganda, new military technology (firebombing, atomic bombs).
Mass Atrocities:
- Holocaust, Armenian Genocide, Cambodian Communist Genocide.

Cold War:
- USA (capitalism, democracy) vs. USSR (dictatorship, communism).
- NATO (US), Warsaw Pact (USSR), Non-Aligned Movement (India, Egypt, Ghana).
- Proxy wars: Vietnam, Afghanistan.
- China turns communist (Mao Zedong).
- Cold War ended in 1991 after the Soviet Union fell.
Decolonization:
- Anti-imperialist sentiment.
- United Nations: Right to self-determination.
- Non-violence (Kwame Nkrumah, Gandhi) or violence (Algeria, Vietnam).