AP World History Review

General Ideas:

• Land-based empires:

  • Qing Dynasty/Manchu Dynasty

    • Last dynasty of China

    • Became a Central Asian Empire by conquering Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet

      • Did not try to make the people there Chinese or tried to flood them with Chinese settlers

  • Mughal Dynasty

    • Gunpowder empire

    • Fragile control because India was divided

    • Division between Hindus and Muslims

    • Akbar: Mughal Emperor

      • House of Worship

      • Accommodated

  • Russia

    • Expands into Siberia

    • Local people died from diseases too

    • Many Russians moved into Siberia and became the majority

    • Russification of Siberia

    • Became multiethnic

    • Knew about Siberia, but the sea-based empires did not

  • Ottoman Empire

    • Europe, Middle East, North Africa

    • Lots of cultural blending

    • Jews were welcomed

    • Turkic and Muslim

    • Islamic and Christian

  • ANY EMPIRE MUST CONQUER PEOPLE THAT ARE NOT THEM

• Sea-based empires:

  • Portuguese gets Brazil and sends many ships to Africa

  • Spain and Portugal fights over land, goes to Pope, and draws the Line of Demarcation

• Europeans were strong, but Natives were also weak

  • European advantages:

    • God, goods, glory

    • Guns

    • Diseases

    • Europeans were successful because they had sailing technologies

      • ex: compass, rudder, lateen sails

  • Native Americans disadvantages:

    • Only had canoes

    • Lack of technology prevented them from expanding

    • No metals and gunpowder weapons and horses

    • Division within

    • WERE NOT EXPOSED TO DISEASES

      • Europeans did not spread disease on purpose

• Europeans in 1300 were threatened by the Muslims/Ottoman Empire, which motivated them to spread Christianity

• Effects of Europeans in the Americas:

  • The Great Dying

  • Columbian Exchange:

    • Old to new: people, pigs, horses, cows, sugarcane, diseases, rice, wheat, gunpowder

    • New to old: corn, tomatoes, potatoes

  • Africans were brought in as laborers because the Native Americans refused to work and died out

    • In contrast to common beliefs, this was NOT because of racism, but African rulers sold out their own people

• Africa’s population went down, but it would have been much worse without corn

• Spices came from the New World

• Silver and gold mines from Peru fueled transatlantic and transpacific commerce

• Europeans, through their colonies in America, changed the global balance

• Mercantilism: silver and gold

  • Joint business working with a government system, where they used colonies to get raw materials, then process and sell these manufactured goods to the colonies

    • Kept colonies dependent on Mother Colony

  • Led to Capitalism

• Spanish conquistadors did not bring women when they first go to the Aztecs and Incas, which is why they began mixing with Native women

• Casta system: Spanish hierarchy

  • Peninsulares

  • Creoles

    • Creole elites, minority

  • Mestizos

    • Majority

  • Slaves and Natives

• Brazil had tons of African slaves because of sugar cane

  • Sugar is a cash crop

  • Average African in the Caribbean lasted 3 years

• Settlers colonies: whites were majority (French, Dutch)

  • North America

• All European colonies brought Christianity and European culture, used the colonies, and followed mercantilism

  • In contrast, Spanish and Portuguese were the most interested in converting to Christianity, while French and Dutch cooperated with locals

  • Spanish and Portugal were linked to the royals, while English were more loose