World History Review

Period One: 960 to 1450

  • Filial Piety: A commonly tested concept.
  • Silk Roads: A commonly tested concept.
    • Established by the Han Dynasty, also very influential to the Mongol Empire.
  • 960-1279: Song Dynasty
    • Neo-Confucianism: A significant philosophical movement.
    • Imperial bureaucracy through merit-based bureaucratic jobs.
    • Champa rice, Grand Canal expansion, and trade across Eurasia.
  • 1095-1291: Crusades
    • Military campaigns by European Christians to convert Muslims and non-Christians.
  • 1206-1526: Delhi Sultanate
    • Led to the spread of Islam in Southeast Asia.
    • Rajput Kingdom resisted Muslim intrusion, maintaining Hindu influence.
  • 1206-1368: Mongolian Empire
  • 1206-1227: Reign of Genghis Khan
    • Genghis Khan established the Mongol Empire in 1206 (reign: 1206 - 1227).
    • Impact of Mongols:
      • Diffusers of culture.
      • World trade, cultural diffusion, global awareness grew as they spread through Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
      • Ruthless fighters, organized and mobile.
    • Importance of Trade in the Mongol Empire.
  • 1215: Magna Carta signed
    • Right to a fair trial for citizens.
  • 1258: Mongols overtook and destroyed Baghdad
    • End of the Abbasid Caliphate.
  • 1279-1368: Yuan Dynasty - CHINA
    • The first foreign-ruled dynasty to commandeer all of China, led by Mongols.
  • 1299-1923: Ottoman Empire
    • Founded by Osman Bey as the Mongol Empire fell.
    • Islamic, solidified rule over territory from Greece → Persia.
    • Gunpowder weapons.
    • Devshirme → enslaved Christians from Balkans, converted them to Islam to form elite fighting force (Janissaries).
  • 1324: Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca
    • This pilgrimage introduced the wealth of Mali to the rest of the Mediterranean.
  • 1325: Tenochtitlan founded
    • Capital city of the Aztec Empire → markets were established, commercialised.
  • 1325-1354: Ibn Battuta's travels
    • Indian Ocean Trade (commonly tested).
    • Travelled all over Dar al Aslam -> possible with trade routes.
    • Helped his readers understand the cultures across world.
  • 1346 - 1388: Black Death aka Bubonic Plague
    • Emerged in North China → spread rapidly across the Silk Roads and the Indian Ocean Trade routes - END OF MONGOLS
    • Middle East → Killed nearly 1/3 of their population
    • Europe → killed ½ of their population
    • Very commonly shows up on the exam → notes
  • 1368-1644: Ming Dynasty - CHINA
    • Decline of Mongol rule in China.
    • Established peace and order + expanded their borders with gunpowder.
  • 1405-1433: Zheng He's voyages
    • Sent by the Ming Dynasty to go explore the Indian Ocean & enroll other states in China’s tributary system.
  • 1428-1521: Aztec Empire - “Trade and Sacrifice”
    • Tenochtitlan: capital city (modern Mexico City) → more notes
      • Expansionist policy and professional, strict army
      • To secure their legitimacy as rulers → Mexica claimed heritage from older, more renowned Mesoamerican people
  • 1438-1533: Inca Empire - “My land is your land”
    • Established Mit’a System → required labor of everyone for a period of time each year to work on state projects
    • Expansionist - army, established bureaucracy, unified language, system of roads and tunnels
    • Inca roads (commonly tested)
  • 1440: Swahili state-building flourishes
  • 1440: Printing press invented
    • Johannes Gutenberg → inventor
  • 1400s: Caravel invented in Europe
    • Transporting between 10 and 12 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean
    • Conditions were brutal, overcrowded, unsanitary
  • 1441: Start of Atlantic slave trade
  • 1453: Ottoman Empires conquers Constantinople

Period Two: 1450 to 1750

  • 1450s-1480s: Russia breaks free from Mongol rule
  • 1464-1591: Songhai Empire thrives (Islamic state)
  • 1469: Birth of Sikhism
    • Held onto significant doctrines from Islam & Hinduism
  • 1491: Spain completes the Reconquista
    • Re-established christianity as the official religion of the region
  • 1492: Columbus voyages to the "New World"
    • Marks start of Spanish colonization and the Columbian Exchange
  • 1497: Portugal starts colonization of the Americas
  • 1498: Vasco da Gama reaches India
  • 1501-1722: Safavid Empire emerges as the largest Shia empire
    • In conflict with the Sunni Ottoman Empire
    • Notable rules: Akbar and Aurangzeb
    • Increasing Bhakti Movement & Sufism → commonly tested
    • Ivan the Terrible→ shows up often,
  • 1526-1748: Mughal Empire rises
    • Akbar → religious tolerance and supports the arts (1556-1605)
    • Aurangzeb → persecution of Hindus and Sikhs
    • Ended when last ruler Bahadur Shah II was sent into exile
  • 1534: First enslaved Africans arrive in Americas
  • 1545: Discovery of silver at Potosi mine
    • Silver was KING
  • 1550-1700: Scientific Revolution
  • 1552: Russian Empire emerge
  • 1600-1868: Tokugawa Japan
    • Strict government that instituted a rigid social class model
    • National seclusion policy
  • 1600: British East India Company established
  • 1602: Dutch East India Company established
  • 1643-1715: Louis XIV's absolute monarchy reigns in France
    • Manchu Empire → commonly tested
    • Expulsion, division between Manchu & Han, isolationism
  • 1688-1911: Qing Dynasty governs China → shows up commonly!
  • 1689: Glorious Revolution (England)
    • Effects: major revolutions, expansion of suffrage, abolition of slavery, end of serfdom, calls for women’s suffrage
      • Enlightenment is tested often → notes
        • Montesquieu
        • This ends up being the reason for many changes in period 3
  • Reconquista → effort to rid the Iberian Peninsula of Muslim rule
  • 1715-1789: The Enlightenment flourishes - PERIOD 3 CONTEXTUALIZATION

Period Three: 1750 to 1900

  • 1756-1763: 7 Years' War
  • 1757: Beginning of English colonization in India
  • 1760-1789: First Industrial Revolution → really good notes (read them!!)
    • Main engine → the Steam Engine (effects of steam engine)
    • Understand WHY Britain came first, new advancements
    • Important people to know: Charles Darwin, Adam Smith, Karl Marx
    • Factory act of 1883
  • 1765-1783: American Revolution → notes
    • Provided a template for other nations
    • Tested often!! → role of enlightenment in American revolution
  • 1789-1795: French Revolution→ notes
    • Causes: Social Inequality between the estates, economic hardships, enlightenment, weak leadership, food shortages
  • 1791-1804: Haitian Revolution
  • 1792: Beginning of feminism
    • Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft published
      • Became a symbol for the feminist movements
  • 1799-1815: Napoleon’s reign in France
  • 1806-1826: Latin American Revolutions
    • Simon Bolivar → enlightenment ideas
  • 1815: Congress of Vienna
  • 1839-1860: Opium Wars
    • Treaty of Nanjing → notes on opium war
  • 1839-1876: Tanzimat Reforms
    • Steps towards industrialisation in Egypt
  • 1845-1849: Irish Potato Famine
    • Widespread famine + many died → caused Irish immigration westward
  • 1848: Communist Manifesto published
  • 1848: Seneca Falls Convention
    • Call for a constitutional amendment that recognized women’s right to vote
  • 1850-1864: Taiping Rebellion
    • Qing dynasty began to weaken
  • 1857: Sepoy Mutiny in India
    • Failed; British then made all of India a crown colony
  • 1859: Suez Canal built by Britain in Egypt
  • 1860s-1870s: Social Darwinism begins to take shape
    • Tested often! → notes
  • 1861: Russian serfs emancipated
  • 1863: Emancipation Proclamation in USA
  • 1865-1909: King Leopold rules the Congo
    • Commits human rights crimes to get rubber
  • 1868: Meiji Restoration
    • Era of Japanese westernization - Japan became a world power
    • Cause -> after Matthew Perry demanded Japan open to trade with the US, Japan realized its technological inferiority and adopted Western technology for self-protection.
  • 1870-1914: Second Industrial Revolution → notes
  • 1871: unification of Germany under Otto Von Bismarck
  • 1882: Chinese Exclusion Act
  • 1885: Berlin Conference
  • 1890s: European spheres of influence in China
    • Manchu Dynasty still had authority
  • 1898: Spanish-American War
    • U.S. acquires Guam, Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.
  • 1899: United Fruit Company Established
    • Played integer role in strengthening western rule in developing countries
  • 1899-1901: Boxer Rebellion

Period Four: 1900 to Present

  • 1906: Muslim League founded
    • Supporters for a separate nation for the Muslims of India (Pakistan)
  • 1910-1920: Mexican Revolution
    • Peasant armies led by Poncho Villa and Emiliano Zapata → unsuccessful
  • 1914-1918: World War 1
    • Causes: militarism, alliances, imperialism, nationalism, assassination of Gavrilo Princip
    • “Total war”, propaganda, trench warfare, Indian infantry
    • End → Paris peace conference, treaty of versailles
      • Bolsheviks
  • 1915-1917: Armenian genocide
  • 1917: Russian revolution of 1917
    • Russian citizens grew tired of Tsar regime
  • 1917: Zimmerman telegram
    • A secret telegram between German diplomats saying Mexico could regain territory taken by US if they joined forces
    • Led to widespread American support for getting involved in WWI.
  • 1929-1933: Great Depression
  • 1933: New Deal by FDR
    • Infrastructure projects, retirement program
  • 1939-1945: World War 2
    • 1941-1945: The Holocaust (tested often)
      • Desire to create a pure race
      • Nuremberg law, Auschwitz → notes
    • 1941-1953: Stalin in power
      • Nationalism and its role in facism
  • 1945-1950: Chinese Communist Revolution
  • 1945: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombing
  • 1947: Japanese Empire ends
  • Beginning of the "scramble for Africa"