AP World History Modern Speed Review Notes

Unit 1: 1200-1450 Global Review

  • Focus: Different peoples and cultures from six AP regions.

  • 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 (Islamic World):

    • Caliphate System: Declined after the Abbasids fell to the Mongols.
    • Turks: Established Sultanates (Islamic kingdoms).
    • Contributions: Significant advancements in math, science, medicine, and intellectual pursuits.

  • South and Southeast Asia:

    • Focus: Impact of Buddhism and Hinduism.
    • Sufism: Mystical branch of Islam, attracted many converts.

  • The Americas:

    • Incas: Centralized power through road system and Mita labor system.
    • Aztecs: Centralized power through human sacrifice; Chinampas (lake farms).

  • Africa:

    • State Building: Mali and the Trans-Saharan trade; Great Zimbabwe and the Swahili coast.

  • Europe:

    • Feudalism: Serfs working on manors; decentralized government.

Unit 2: Networks of Exchange (1200-1450)

  • Focus: Connections between regions from Unit 1.

  • Trade Routes:

    • Silk Road:
      • East meets West trading route.
      • Trading Cities: Kashgar and Samarkand emerged in Central Asia.
      • Goods: Luxury goods like silk and porcelain.
      • Economic Impact: Banking houses and flying cash.
    • Indian Ocean Trade:
      • Maritime Edition 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 route.
      • Monsoon Winds: Seasonal winds, knowledge of them was essential.
    • Trans-Saharan Trade:
      • Connected Dar al Islam to Sub-Saharan Africa.
      • Trade: Salt and gold.
      • Islam: Spread through the region.
      • Ibn Battuta: Famous traveler.
      • Mansa Musa: Famous for his hajj.

  • Consequences of Trade:

    • Environmental: Bubonic Plague, Champa Rice, Citrus Fruits spread.
    • Cultural: Religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam), travelers (Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta), gunpowder, algebra, compass.

  • The Mongols:

    • Empires turned into Khanates.
    • Facilitated the exchange of ideas, technologies, and diseases across regions.

Unit 3: Land-Based Empires (1450-1750)

  • Gunpowder Empires:

    • Manchus (Qing Dynasty in China):

      • Invaded China from the north.
      • Maintained Neo-Confucianism and the civil service exam.
      • Mandatory Queue haircut.
      • Centralized power using the banner system.

    • Ottomans:

      • Captured Constantinople in 1453, renamed it Istanbul.
      • Sunni Muslim, clashed with Shia Safavids.
      • Key Terms:
        • Devshirme: System to build army/bureaucracy, notably the Janissaries.
        • Tax Farming: Selling the right to collect taxes.

    • Mughals:

      • Islamic rulers over a Hindu majority in India.
      • Religious tolerance, especially under Akbar the Great.
      • Built the Taj Mahal (monumental architecture).

    • Safavids:

      • Shia empire between Sunni Ottoman and Mughal empires.

  • Other Empires:

    • Aztecs and Incas.
    • Songhai (took over from Mali).
    • Tokugawa Japan: Established a military shogunate, eventually implemented Sakoku (locked country policy).

  • Belief Systems:

    • Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther.
    • Sikhism: Based on the teachings of Guru Nanak, blending Hinduism and Islam.

Unit 4: Maritime Empires (1450-1750)

  • Technology:

    • Caravels (Portuguese and Spanish), Fluyts (Dutch).
    • Astrolabes (Islamic), Compasses (Chinese), Lateen Sails
    • Knowledge of Winds.

  • Empires:

    • Portuguese:
      • Prince Henry sought a route around Africa and spread Christianity.
      • Reached Brazil and India (1498).
      • Controlled the Spice Islands.
      • Started the Transatlantic slave trade.
    • Spanish:
      • Viceroyalties in the Americas.
      • Defeated the Aztecs and Incas.
      • Encomienda system (New World feudalism).
      • Extracted cash crops (sugar, coffee) and silver (Potosi).
      • Spread Catholicism with priests like Bartolomé de las Casas and Our Lady of Guadalupe.
    • Trading Post Empire: Establishing small trading posts for moving goods.
    • Joint Stock Companies:
      • Government-sponsored monopolies with public investment.
      • British East India Company (dominated India).
      • Dutch VOC (dominated Indonesia and spice trade).

  • Columbian Exchange:

    • Exchange of plants, animals, and diseases across the Atlantic.
    • Very important topic for the exam.

  • Resistance:

    • Revolts: Queen Nanny in Jamaica, Ana Nzinga in Angola.
    • Local Groups: Hindu Marathas against Mughals; Cossacks against Russian expansion.
    • Tokugawa Ieyasu: Shut down Japan to foreigners.

  • Social Systems:

    • Casta System: Hierarchy in the New World based on race.
    • Banner system in China, Millets in the Ottoman Empire.
    • Impact of coerced labor: chattel slavery, encomienda system.

Unit 5: Revolutions (1750-1900)

  • Political Revolutions:

    • Roots in the Enlightenment: Natural rights, reason.
    • American Revolution: Taxation without representation.
    • French Revolution: Overthrow of absolute monarch Louis XVI.
    • Haitian Revolution: Slave revolt against the French.
    • Latin American Revolutions: Bolivar against Spain.
    • Nationalism: Shared beliefs of a nation should run the government.

  • Industrial Revolution:

    • Started in Great Britain: Access to resources, capital, and urban areas.
    • Spread to the United States and Europe.
    • Factory System: Mass production.
    • James Watt: Improved the steam engine.
    • Key Innovations: Steam engine, internal combustion engine, railroads, telegraph.

  • Global Impact:

    • Decline in Asian production due to European competition.
    • Meiji Restoration: Japan became a global powerhouse.
    • Self-Strengthening Movement: In Qing China failed to keep up with the West.
    • Egypt: Muhammad Ali capitalized on cotton demand.

  • Economic Changes:

    • Capitalism: Adam Smith, laissez-faire policies.
    • Transnational Businesses: Unilever, HSBC.

  • Social Changes:

    • Women push for equality.
    • New Working Class: Championed by Karl Marx.

Unit 6: Consequences of Industrialization (1750-1900)

  • Imperialism:

    • Industrial powers turn trading posts into empires.
    • Excuses: Racist policies, civilizing missions, social Darwinism.
    • Real Reasons: Economic access to raw materials and markets.
    • Empires: Americans, British, Japanese, Russians, and French.
    • Settler Colonies: Forcibly remove or replace indigenous cultures with a Colonial one. (e.g. Britain in Australia)

  • Key Events:

    • Berlin Conference: Determined the future of Africa.
    • Sepoy Mutiny: Transfer from British East India Company to British Raj rule.
    • Century of Humiliation: China & Opium Wars, Taiping Rebellions, Sino-Japanese Wars, Boxer Rebellions.

  • Economic Dominance:

    • Economic dominance using industrial advantages without physical takeover (e.g., Banana Republics).
    • Export Economies: Focused on cotton, rubber, palm oil, guano.

  • Resistance:

    • Sepoy Mutiny: India.
    • Tupac Amaru: Peru.
    • Xhosa Cattle Killing Movement: South Africa.

  • Migrations:

    • Cities growing, new technology facilitates travel.
    • People leave their homes and move to cities worldwide.
    • Pushed: Irish during potato famine, Chinese during the century of humiliation.
    • Pulled: Job opportunities.
    • Enclaves: Little Italy, Chinatown.
    • Restrictions: Chinese Exclusion Act, White Australia policy.

Unit 7: Global Conflicts (1900-Present)

  • Decline of Empires:

    • Qing, Russians, and Ottomans.
    • China: Became a republic briefly.
    • Russia: Overthrown by the Bolsheviks.
    • Ottomans: Broken up after World War I.

  • World War I:

    • Causes: Imperialism, alliance systems, nationalism (Serbian).
    • Total War: Mobilization of all resources.
    • Propaganda: Used to mobilize populations.
    • New military technology: Machine guns, gas, tanks, zeppelins.
    • Casualties increased because of new weaponry.

  • Interwar Period:

    • Great Depression: Government intervention in the economy.
    • Growing Independence Movements in unit 6.
    • Rise of Dictatorships: Italy, Spain, Germany.

  • World War II:

    • Catalyst: Aggression of totalitarian states (Nazi Germany, Empire of Japan).
    • Total War: Propaganda, new military technology.
    • New WarTech: Firebombing, atomic bombs.

  • Mass Atrocities:

    • Holocaust.
    • Armenian Genocide.
    • Cambodian Communist Genocide.

Unit 8: Cold War and Decolonization (1900-Present)

  • Cold War:

    • Split world: Americans (capitalism, democracy) vs. Soviets (dictatorship, communism).
    • Alliances: NATO (US), Warsaw Pact (Soviet), Non-Aligned Movement.
    • Proxy Wars: Vietnam, Afghanistan.
    • China turns communist post WWII, pushing for communism and mirrored 5 year plans -> similar devastating effects.
    • Ended in 1991: Fall of the Soviet Union.

  • Decolonization:

    • Anti-imperialist rage.
    • United Nations: Guaranteed states the right to self-determination.
    • Methods: Nonviolence (Kwame Nkrumah, Gandhi), violence (Algeria).
    • New borders led to conflict (India, Israel).

Unit 9: Globalization (1900-Present)

  • Technology: Planes, radios, cell phones, container ships.

  • Petroleum, nuclear, solar, and wind continues to power the Earth.

  • Birth Control: Allowed women to control reproductive rights.

    • Green Revolution: Increased crop production.
    • Antibiotics and Vaccines: Prevented diseases.

  • Challenges:

    • Diseases: Alzheimer's, HIV/AIDS.
    • Pandemics: 1918 Spanish Flu (high mortality rates).
    • Climate Change: Greenhouse gases.

  • Economic Policies:

    • Free Market: Policies like Dang in China or in Chile.
    • Regional Trade Networks: NAFTA, ASEAN.

  • Culture:

    • Globalization: Bollywood, World Cup.

  • Institutions:

    • United Nations (UN): Formed to maintain international peace.