AP World History: Modern - Concept Outlines
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion and Intensification of Interactions
Overview: The period saw a deepening and widening of human interaction networks within and across regions, contributing to cultural, technological, and biological diffusion.
Trade Expansion:
Improved commercial practices increased trade volume and geographical range.
Existing trade routes, such as the Silk Roads, trans-Saharan network, and Indian Ocean trade, expanded, promoting the growth of trading cities.
Indian Ocean Trade: Fostered the growth of states.
Luxury Goods Trade: Innovations in transportation and commerce encouraged interregional trade in luxury goods:
Caravanserai: roadside inns that supported the flow of commerce, information and people across the network of trade routes.
Forms of Credit: Enabled merchants to increase the scale of there business.
Money Economies: Standardized currency facilitates easier transactions.
Compass, Astrolabe, Larger Ship Designs: Improved navigation and increased maritime trade efficiency.
Song China's Economy: Flourished due to increased productive capacity, expanding trade networks, and agricultural and manufacturing innovations.
Empires and Trade: The expansion of empires (e.g., Mongols, Mali) facilitated Afro-Eurasian trade and communication by integrating new populations into their economies and trade networks.
Environmental Knowledge: Long-distance trade depended on understanding environmental conditions, like monsoon winds.
Muslim Expansion: Muslim rule expanded across Afro-Eurasia through military expansion, and Islam spread via merchants, missionaries, and Sufis.
Diasporic Communities: Merchants formed diasporic communities along trade routes, introducing their cultures to indigenous societies, and vice versa.
Travel Accounts: Increased cross-cultural interactions led travelers to document their experiences.
Cultural Diffusion: Cross-cultural interactions resulted in the spread of literary, artistic, and cultural traditions, as well as scientific and technological innovations.
Cultural Continuities and Influences:
Chinese cultural traditions persisted and influenced neighboring regions.
Buddhism shaped societies in Asia with diverse branches and practices.
Islam, Judaism, and Christianity continued to shape societies in Africa and Asia.
Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism influenced societies in South and Southeast Asia.
Christianity, Judaism, and Islam shaped societies in Europe.
Diffusion of Crops and Pathogens: Continued diffusion of crops and pathogens, including epidemic diseases like the bubonic plague, along trade routes.
Key Concept 3.2: State Formation and Development
Overview: State formation and development in various regions demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity.
Islamic Political Entities: As the Abbasid Caliphate fragmented, new Islamic political entities emerged, often dominated by Turkic peoples, showing continuity, innovation, and diversity.
Empires and States: Empires and states in Afro-Eurasia and the Americas demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity in the 13th century.
Song Dynasty of China: Used Confucianism and an imperial bureaucracy to maintain rule.
South and Southeast Asia: New Hindu and Buddhist states emerged, exhibiting state formation and development with continuity, innovation, and diversity.
Europe: Politically fragmented, characterized by decentralized monarchies, feudalism, and the manorial system.
Collapse and Replacement of Empires: Empires collapsed and were replaced by new imperial states, such as the Mongol khanates.
Americas and Africa: State systems demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity, expanding in scope and reach.
Intellectual Innovations: Muslim states and empires fostered significant intellectual innovations and transfers.
Interregional Contacts and Conflicts: Contacts and conflicts, including those involving the Mongols, encouraged technological and cultural transfers.
Chinese Maritime Activity: Led by Ming Admiral Zheng He.
Key Concept 3.3: Changes in Trade Networks
Overview: Changes in trade networks resulted from and stimulated increasing productive capacity, with significant implications for social and gender structures and environmental processes.
Demand for Luxury Goods: Increased demand for luxury goods in Afro-Eurasia.
Chinese, Persian, and Indian artisans and merchants expanded production of textiles and porcelains for export.
Iron and steel manufacture expanded in China.
Urbanization: The fate of cities varied, with periods of decline and increased urbanization driven by rising productivity and expanding trade networks.
Song China's Economy: Became increasingly commercialized but remained dependent on free peasant and artisanal labor.
Europe: Largely an agricultural society dependent on free and coerced labor, including serfdom.
Key Concept 4.1: Interconnection of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres
Overview: Transoceanic voyaging interconnected the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, transforming trade and significantly impacting the world socially.
European Technological Developments: Facilitated by knowledge, scientific learning, and technology from Classical, Islamic, and Asian worlds.
New Tools and Ship Designs: Allowed for transoceanic travel and trade.
Understanding of Global Wind and Current Patterns: Improved navigation.
State-Supported Maritime Exploration:
Portuguese Development: Increased travel to and trade with Africa and Asia, leading to a global trading-post empire.
Spanish Sponsorship: Voyages of Columbus increased European interest in transoceanic travel and trade.
Northern Atlantic Crossings: Undertaken by English, French, and Dutch to find alternative routes to Asia.
Global Circulation of Goods: Facilitated by chartered European monopoly companies and the global flow of silver.
Silver from Spanish Colonies: Used to purchase Asian goods and satisfy Chinese demand.
Regional Markets: Continued to flourish using established commercial practices and new shipping services.
Mercantilist Policies: Used by European rulers to expand and control their economies and claim overseas territories.
Joint-Stock Companies: Used by rulers and merchants to finance exploration and compete in global trade, influenced by mercantilist principles.
Atlantic Trading System: Involved the movement of goods, wealth, labor (including enslaved persons), and the mixing of African, American, and European cultures.
Columbian Exchange: Exchange of new plants, animals, and diseases between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
Disease Transfer: European colonization led to the spread of diseases like smallpox, measles, and malaria, reducing indigenous populations.
American Foods: Became staple crops in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Cash Crops: Grown on plantations with coerced labor and exported to Europe and the Middle East.
Afro-Eurasian Transfers: Fruit trees, grains, sugar, and domesticated animals brought by Europeans to the Americas; foods also brought by enslaved Africans.
Nutritional Benefits: Populations in Afro-Eurasia benefitted from the increased diversity of American food crops.
Religious and Cultural Impacts:
Expansion of Religions: Interactions between hemispheres expanded existing religions and led to syncretic belief systems.
Protestant Reformation: Marked a break with Christian traditions, contributing to the growth of Christianity.
Political Rivalries: Intensified the split within Islam between Sunni and Shi’a due to Ottoman-Safavid conflicts.
Sikhism: Developed in South Asia through interactions between Hinduism and Islam.
Key Concept 4.2: Changes in Labor Systems and Social Structures
Overview: While agriculture remained central, significant changes occurred in agricultural labor, manufacturing, gender and social structures, and environmental processes.
Demand for Labor: Intensified due to growing global demand for raw materials and finished products.
Peasant and Artisan Labor: Continued and intensified in many regions.
Enslavement in Africa: Continued in traditional forms, including incorporation into households and export to the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean regions.
Plantation Economy: Increased demand for enslaved labor in the Americas, leading to demographic, social, and cultural changes.
Colonial Economies: Depended on agriculture, using existing labor systems (e.g., Incan mit’a) and new systems like chattel slavery, indentured servitude, and encomienda and hacienda systems.
New Elites: Imperial conquests and global economic opportunities led to the formation of new political and economic elites.
China: Transition to the Qing Dynasty.
Americas: Rise of the Casta system.
Fluctuation of Existing Elites: The power of existing political and economic elites fluctuated as they faced challenges from increasingly powerful monarchs and leaders.
Gender and Family Restructuring: Demographic changes in Africa resulted from the trade in enslaved persons.
Key Concept 4.3: Expansion of Empires
Overview: Empires increased in scope and influence, shaping and being shaped by the diverse populations they incorporated.
Legitimizing Rule: Rulers used religious ideas, art, and monumental architecture to legitimize their rule.
Diversity and Accommodation: Many states, such as the Mughal and Ottoman empires, accommodated ethnic and religious diversity or utilized the contributions of diverse groups.
Suppression of Diversity: Some states suppressed diversity or limited certain groups’ roles in society, politics, or the economy.
Bureaucratic Elites and Military Professionals: Recruitment and use of bureaucratic elites and military professionals became more common for centralized control.
Revenue Generation: Rulers used tribute collection, tax farming, and innovative tax-collection systems to generate revenue.
Imperial Expansion: Relied on gunpowder, cannons, and armed trade to establish large empires.
European Trading Posts: Europeans established trading posts in Africa and Asia, which proved profitable.
Asian Trade Policies: Some Asian states limited the disruptive economic and cultural effects of European-dominated trade through restrictive policies.
Growth of African States: The expansion of maritime trading networks fostered the growth of states in Africa, such as the Asante and the Kingdom of the Kongo.
Indian Ocean Trade: Continued to flourish despite disruption from Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch merchants.
Land Empires: Included the Manchu, Mughal, Ottoman, and Safavid empires.
Maritime Empires: European states established new maritime empires, including the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, and British.
Political and Economic Rivalries: Led to conflict between states.
Resistance to State Expansion: State expansion and centralization led to resistance from various social, political, and economic groups.
Key Concept 5.1: Development of Industrial Capitalism
Overview: The development of industrial capitalism led to increased living standards for some and improvements in manufacturing methods.
Factors Contributing to Industrial Production:
Proximity to waterways, rivers, and canals.
Geographical distribution of coal, iron, and timber.
Urbanization.
Improved agricultural productivity.
Legal protection of private property.
Access to foreign resources.
Accumulation of capital.
Energy Revolution: The development of machines like steam engines and the internal combustion engine allowed the use of fossil fuels, increasing energy available to human societies.
Factory System: Concentrated production in a single location and increased specialization of labor.
Spread of Industrial Production: New methods spread from northwestern Europe to other parts of Europe, the United States, Russia, and Japan.
Second Industrial Revolution: Led to new methods in the production of steel, chemicals, electricity, and precision machinery.
Export Economies: The need for raw materials and food led to the growth of export economies specializing in natural resources and crops, with profits used to purchase finished goods.
Shift in Global Manufacturing: Steam-powered production increased the share of global manufacturing in Europe and the U.S., while the Middle East and Asia declined.
European Economic Advantage: Trade was organized to give European and U.S. merchants and companies an economic advantage.
Free Trade Policies: Western European countries began adopting free trade policies, influenced by Adam Smith’s laissez-faire capitalism theories.
Transnational Businesses: The global nature of trade and production contributed to large-scale transnational businesses using new banking and finance practices.
Transportation and Communication: Railroads, steamships, and the telegraph facilitated exploration, development, and communication, increasing trade and migration.
Labor Movements: Workers organized into labor unions to improve working conditions, limit hours, and gain higher wages. Workers’ movements and political parties emerged.
Reforms in Asia and Africa: Governments in Asia and Africa, including the Ottoman Empire and Qing China, sought to reform and modernize their economies and militaries.
State-Sponsored Industrialization: Some states promoted their own state-sponsored visions of industrialization.
Social and Economic Reforms: Governments, organizations, and individuals promoted political, social, educational, and urban reforms in response to industrial capitalism.
New Social Classes: The middle class and the industrial working class developed.
Gender Roles: Middle-class women were increasingly limited to household roles, while working-class women and children held wage-earning jobs.
Urbanization Challenges: Rapid urbanization led to pollution, poverty, increased crime, public health crises, housing shortages, and insufficient infrastructure.
Key Concept 5.2: Expansion of Overseas Empires
Overview: As states industrialized, they expanded existing overseas empires and established new colonies and transoceanic relationships.
Strengthening Colonial Control: Some states strengthened control over existing colonies and assumed direct control over others.
Territorial Acquisition: European states, the United States, and Japan acquired territories in Asia and the Pacific, while Spanish and Portuguese influence declined.
Imperial Expansion in Africa: Many European states used warfare and diplomacy to expand their empires in Africa.
Settler Colonies: Europeans established settler colonies in some parts of their empires.
Economic Imperialism: Industrialized states and businesses practiced economic imperialism primarily in Asia and Latin America.
Internal Reform in Japan: U.S. and European influence led to internal reform in Japan, supporting industrialization and the growth of Japanese regional power in the Meiji Era.
Land Expansion: The United States, Russia, and Japan expanded their land holdings by conquering and settling neighboring territories.
Anti-Imperial Resistance: Took various forms, including direct resistance within empires and the creation of new states on the peripheries.
Justifications for Imperialism: Cultural, religious, and racial ideologies were used to justify imperialism, including Social Darwinism, nationalism, the civilizing mission, and religious conversion.
Key Concept 5.3: Revolutions and Rebellions
Overview: The 18th century marked a period of revolution and rebellion against existing governments, leading to new nation-states.
Enlightenment Thought: Questioned established traditions and preceded revolutions and rebellions.
New Ways of Understanding: Empiricist approaches to the natural world and human relationships.
Reexamination of Religion: Emphasized the importance of reason.
New Political Ideas: Focused on the individual, natural rights, and the social contract.
Influence of Revolutionary Documents: Enlightenment ideas influenced resistance to political authority.
American Declaration of Independence: During the American Revolution.
French “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen”: During the French Revolution.
Bolívar’s “Letter from Jamaica”: On the eve of the Latin American revolutions.
Reform Movements: Enlightenment and religious ideals influenced reform movements, contributing to the expansion of rights (e.g., expanded suffrage, abolition of slavery, end of serfdom).
Nationalism: Became a major force shaping the development of states and empires.
Sense of Commonality: People developed a new sense of commonality based on language, religion, social customs, and territory.
National Identity: Linked to borders of the state, challenging boundaries or seeking unification.
Colonial Rebellions: Colonial subjects in the Americas led rebellions inspired by democratic ideals.
American Revolution: Served as a model and inspiration.
Independent States: The American Revolution, Haitian Revolution, and Latin American independence movements facilitated the emergence of independent states.
Resistance by Enslaved Persons: Challenged existing authorities in the Americas.
Anticolonial Movements: Increasing questions about political authority and growing nationalism contributed to anticolonial movements.
Religious Influence: Increasing discontent with imperial rule led to rebellions influenced by religious ideas.
Development of New Ideologies: Discontent with monarchist and imperial rule encouraged the development of democracy and 19th-century liberalism.
Socialism and Communism: Discontent with established power structures encouraged the development of ideologies espoused by Karl Marx.
Emergent Feminism: Demands for women’s suffrage and an emergent feminism challenged political and gender hierarchies.
Key Concept 5.4: Migration Patterns
Overview: Transoceanic empires and a global capitalist economy dramatically changed migration patterns, increasing migrant numbers significantly.
Demographic Changes: Influenced migration, presenting challenges to existing patterns of living.
Urbanization: Internal and external migrants relocated to cities, contributing to global urbanization.
Return Migration: New transportation methods allowed migrants to return home periodically or permanently.
Free Relocation: Many individuals chose to relocate for work.
Coerced Labor Migration: The global capitalist economy relied on coerced and semi-coerced labor migration.
Enslavement.
Chinese and Indian indentured servitude.
Convict labor.
Gender Imbalance: Migrants tended to be male, leading women to take on new roles in the home society.
Ethnic Enclaves: Migrants created ethnic enclaves, transplanting their culture into new environments.
Prejudice and Regulation: Receiving societies did not always embrace immigrants, leading to ethnic and racial prejudice and state regulation of migration.
Key Concept 6.1: Advances in Science and Technology
Overview: Rapid advances in science and technology altered the understanding of the universe and the natural world, leading to advances in communication, transportation, industry, agriculture, and medicine.
New Modes of Communication: Including radio, cellular communication, and the internet, reduced geographic distance.
Transportation Advances: Including air travel and shipping containers, reduced geographic distance.
Green Revolution: Increased productivity and sustained the growing population by spreading chemically and genetically modified agriculture.
Medical Innovations: Vaccines and antibiotics increased human survival and longevity.
Energy Technologies: The use of petroleum and nuclear power raised productivity and increased the production of material goods.
Environmental Degradation: Human activity contributed to deforestation, desertification, a decline in air quality, and increased consumption of fresh water and clean air, leading to competition over resources.
Climate Change: The release of greenhouse gases and pollutants into the atmosphere contributed to debates about climate change.
Impacts of Diseases: Diseases, as well as medical and scientific developments, had significant effects on populations.
Poverty-Related Diseases: Persisted.
New Epidemics: Emerged as threats, spurring technological and medical advances.
Increased Longevity: Led to higher incidences of some diseases.
Birth Control: More effective forms of birth control gave women greater control over fertility, transforming reproductive practices and declining fertility rates.
Military Technology: Led to increased levels of wartime casualties.
New Tactics: The atomic bomb, fire-bombing, and total war led to increased casualties.
Key Concept 6.2: Challenges to Political and Social Order
Overview: Peoples and states challenged the existing political and social order, leading to unprecedented worldwide conflicts.
Decline of Empires: The West dominated the global political order at the beginning of the 20th century, but empires gave way to new states.
Chinese Communist Seizure of Power: Resulted from internal tension and Japanese aggression.
Collapse of Ottoman, Russian, and Qing Empires: Due to internal and external factors, leading to communist revolution in Russia.
Anti-Imperial Sentiment: Increased after World War II, contributing to the dissolution of empires.
Nationalist Movements: Nationalist leaders and parties in Asia and Africa sought autonomy or independence.
Regional Movements: Challenged colonial rule and inherited boundaries, advocating for autonomy.
Revolutions: States challenged the political and social order.
Mexican Revolution: Arose from political crisis.
Land Redistribution: Movements to redistribute land and resources developed within states in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, sometimes advocating communism or socialism.
Redrawing of Political Boundaries: Led to the creation of new states, as well as conflict and population displacement (e.g., Partition of India, creation of Israel).
Migration to Imperial Metropoles: Former colonial subjects migrated to colonizing countries, maintaining cultural and economic ties.
Extremist Violence: The rise of extremist groups led to the attempted destruction of specific populations (e.g., the Holocaust) and other atrocities.
Total Wars: World War I and World War II involved the mobilization of populations through propaganda, art, media, and nationalism.
Government Use of Ideologies: Fascism and communism were used to mobilize resources and repress freedoms.
Causes of World War I: Included imperialist expansion, competition for resources, territorial conflicts, a flawed alliance system, and intense nationalism.
Causes of World War II: Included the unsustainable peace settlement after World War I, the Great Depression, imperialist aspirations, and the rise of fascist and totalitarian regimes.
Cold War: Had profound effects on economic, political, social, and cultural aspects of global events.
Shift in Global Power: The U.S. and the Soviet Union emerged as superpowers, leading to ideological conflict and a power struggle between capitalism and communism.
Military Alliances: The Cold War produced new military alliances like NATO and the Warsaw Pact, leading to nuclear proliferation and proxy wars.
End of Cold War: Due to U.S. advances, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, public discontent, and economic weakness in communist countries.
Opposition to Conflict: Individuals and groups opposed conflict and promoted nonviolence.
Nonviolent Resistance: Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela promoted nonviolence.
Non-Aligned Movement: Opposed existing economic, political, and social orders.
Increased Conflict: Militaries and militarized states often intensified conflict, and some movements used violence against civilians.
Key Concept 6.3: The Role of the State and Global Association
Overview: The role of the state in the domestic economy varied, and new institutions of global association emerged and continued to develop.
State Responses to Economic Challenges: States responded in various ways to the economic challenges of the 20th century.
Soviet Union: Government controlled the economy through Five Year Plans, often with repressive policies.
Communist China: Government controlled the economy through the Great Leap Forward, often with repressive policies.
Post-World War I and the Great Depression: Governments began to take a more active role in economic life.
Newly Independent States: Governments often took on a strong role in guiding economic life to promote development.
Late 20th Century: Many governments encouraged free-market economic policies and promoted economic liberalization.
Economic Shifts: Revolutions in information and communications technology led to knowledge economies, while industrial production shifted to Asia and Latin America.
International Organizations: New organizations, including the United Nations, aimed to maintain world peace and facilitate international cooperation.
Free-Market Economics: Changing economic institutions, multinational corporations, and regional trade agreements reflected the spread of free-market principles.
Protests Against Globalization: Movements protested the inequality of the environmental and economic consequences of global integration.
Rights-Based Discourses: Challenged old assumptions about race, class, gender, and religion.
Increased Inclusivity: Access to education and participation in political and professional roles became more inclusive.
Changes in Arts and Culture: Political and social changes led to changes in the arts, and popular and consumer culture became more global.
Globalized Culture: Arts, entertainment, and popular culture increasingly reflected a globalized society, with consumer culture transcending national borders.
Responses to Globalization: Took a variety of forms in response to rising cultural and economic globalization.