AP World History Modern Speed Review Notes

Unit 1: 1200-1450 - Global Review

  • East Asia:

    • Song Dynasty: Ruled with Neo-Confucianism and civil service exam.

    • Buddhism: Remained the main belief system.

    • Champa Rice: Led to food surplus, spread to Korea and Japan.

  • Dar al-Islam:

    • End of Caliphate System: Abbasids fell to the Mongols.

    • Sultanates: Turkish Islamic kingdoms emerged, emphasized contributions to math, science, medicine, and intellectual pursuits.

    • Focus: East Asia and Dar al-Islam are crucial for Unit 1.

  • South and Southeast Asia:

    • Buddhism and Hinduism: Significant influence.

    • Sufism: Mystical branch of Islam attracting many converts.

  • The Americas:

    • Incas: Centralized power with road system and mita labor system.

    • Aztecs: Centralized power with human sacrifice system and chinampas (lake farms).

  • Africa:

    • State Building: Key focus.

    • Mali: Trans-Saharan trade.

    • Great Zimbabwe

    • Swahili Coast

  • Europe:

    • Feudalism: Serfs worked on manors in a decentralized system.

Unit 2: Networks of Exchange (1200-1450)

  • Focuses on connections between regions covered in Unit 1.

  • Trade Routes:

    • Silk Road:

      • East meets West.

      • Trading Cities: Kashgar and Samarkand.

      • Luxury Goods: Silk and porcelain.

      • Economic Innovations: Banking houses and flying cash.

    • Indian Ocean Trade:

      • Maritime version of the Silk Road.

      • Key Terms:

        • Diaspora: Communities living outside their homeland (e.g., Chinese in Malacca).

        • Admiral Zheng He: Famous admiral who voyaged along this route.

        • Monsoon Winds: Seasonal winds; knowledge crucial for trade.

    • Trans-Saharan Trade:

      • Reconnected Dar al-Islam to sub-Saharan Africa.

      • Trade Items: Salt and gold.

      • Impact: Spread of Islam, travelers like Ibn Battuta, Mansa Musa's Hajj.

  • Consequences of Trade:

    • Environmental: Bubonic plague, Champa rice, citrus fruits.

    • Cultural: Religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam), travelers (Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta), technologies (gunpowder, algebra, compass).

  • Mongols:

    • Empires turned into khanates.

    • Facilitated the spread of ideas, technologies, and diseases across Eurasia.

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

  • Also known as the Gunpowder Empires.

  • Key Empires:

    • Manchus (Qing Dynasty):

      • Invaded China, retained Neo-Confucianism, civil service exam.

      • Queue Haircut: Sign of loyalty.

      • Banner System: Centralized power.

    • Ottomans:

      • Took Constantinople in 1453, renamed Istanbul.

      • Religion: Sunni Muslim.

      • Key Terms:

        • Devshirme: System for building army (Janissaries), bureaucracy, intellectuals.

        • Tax Farming: Selling the right to collect taxes.

    • Mughals:

      • Islamic rule over Hindu majority in India.

      • Religious Tolerance: Akbar the Great.

      • Taj Mahal: Example of monumental architecture.

    • Safavids:

      • Shia Empire between Sunni Ottomans and Mughals.

  • Other Empires:

    • Aztecs and Incas: (From Unit 1).

    • Songhai: Replaced Mali in West Africa.

    • Tokugawa Japan: Established a military shogunate, sakoku (closed country) policy.

  • Belief Systems:

    • Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther, 1500s.

    • Sikhism: Founded by Guru Nanak in Mughal Empire, blend of Hinduism and Islam.

Unit 4: Maritime Empires (1450-1750)

  • Gunpowder empires with boats.

  • Technology:

    • European: Portuguese and Spanish caravels, Dutch fluyts.

    • Islamic: Astrolabes.

    • Chinese: Compasses, lateen sails.

    • Knowledge of winds

  • Empires:

    • Portuguese:

      • Prince Henry sought route around Africa and spread of Christianity.

      • Reached Brazil, India (1498), Spice Islands.

      • Transatlantic slave trade.

    • Spanish:

      • Focused on Americas.

      • Set up viceroyalties.

      • Defeated Aztecs and Incas.

      • Encomienda System: New World feudalism.

      • Cash crops (sugar, coffee) and silver mining (Potosí).

      • Spread Catholicism.

  • Trading Post Empire:

    • Established small trading posts for goods.

    • Joint-Stock Companies: Government-sponsored monopolies (e.g., British East India Company, Dutch VOC).

  • Columbian Exchange:

    • Exchange of plants, animals, and diseases across the Atlantic.

    • Critical concept for the exam.

  • Resistance:

    • Revolts (Queen Nanny in Jamaica, Nzinga in Angola).

    • Local groups (Hindu Marathas, Cossacks).

  • Social Systems:

    • Caste System: Hierarchy in the New World.

    • Banner System (China), Millets (Ottoman Empire)

    • Impact of coerced labor (chattel slavery, encomienda).

Unit 5: Revolutions (1750-1900)

  • Political and Industrial Revolutions.

  • Political Revolutions:

    • Enlightenment: Natural rights, reason.

    • Examples: American Revolution (taxation without representation), French Revolution (Louis XVI), Haitian Revolution (slave revolt), Latin American Revolutions (Bolívar).

    • Nationalism: Belief that a nation should run the state.

  • Industrial Revolution:

    • Started in Great Britain due to resources, capital, and urban areas.

    • Factory system: Mass production.

    • Key Inventions: Steam engine (James Watt), internal combustion engine, railroads, telegraph.

    • Decline of Asian Production: Competition from European factories.

    • Government Implementation: Meiji Restoration (Japan), Self-Strengthening Movement (China), Muhammad Ali in Egypt (cotton).

    • Capitalism: Adam Smith, laissez-faire policies.

    • Transnational Businesses: Unilever, HSBC.

    • Social Changes: Women's rights, new working class, Karl Marx.

Unit 6: Consequences of Industrialization (1750-1900)

  • Focus on imperialism.

    • Excuses for Imperialism: Racist policies, religious civilizing missions (social Darwinism).

    • Reasons for Imperialism: Economic (raw materials, markets).

    • Key Empires: Americans, British, Japanese, Russians, French.

    • Settler Colonies: Forcible removal/replacement of natives (e.g., Australia).

    • Key Events:

      • Berlin Conference: Determined the future of Africa.

      • Sepoy Mutiny: British Raj.

      • Century of Humiliation: China (Opium Wars, Taiping Rebellion, Sino-Japanese War, Boxer Rebellion).

    • Economic Domination:

      • Banana republics (Latin America).

      • Opium Wars (China).

      • Export economies: Cotton, rubber, palm oil, iguana.

    • Resistance:

      • Sepoy Mutiny, Tupac Amaru, Xhosa Cattle-Killing Movement.

    • Migrations:

      • Urban growth, new technologies.

      • Push Factors: Irish Potato Famine, Chinese Century of Humiliation.

      • Pull Factors: Job opportunities.

      • Enclaves: Little Italy, Chinatowns.

      • Restrictions: Chinese Exclusion Act, White Australia Policy.

Unit 7: Global Conflict (1900-Present)

  • Farewell to Old Empires: Qing, Russians, Ottomans.

    • China became a republic, Russian Revolution (Bolsheviks), Ottoman Empire broken up after World War I.

  • World War I:

    • Causes: Imperialism, alliance systems, nationalism (Serbian).

    • Key Aspects:

      • Total war.

      • Propaganda.

      • New military tactics (machine guns, gas, tanks, Zeppelins) = high casualty rates.

  • Interwar Period:

    • Great Depression: Government intervention.

    • Growing tensions in empires.

    • Rise of dictatorships (Italy, Spain, Germany).

  • World War II:

    • Catalyst: Aggression of totalitarian states (Nazi Germany, Empire of Japan).

    • Key Aspects:

      • Total war.

      • Propaganda.

      • New military technology (firebombing, atomic bombs).

  • Mass Atrocities:

    • The Holocaust.

    • Armenian Genocide, Cambodian Communist Genocide.

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

  • Cold War:

    • USA (Capitalism, democracy) vs. USSR (Dictatorship, communism).

    • Alliances: NATO, Warsaw Pact, Non-Aligned Movement.

    • Proxy Wars: Vietnam, Afghanistan.

    • China: Communist under Mao Zedong (Great Leap Forward).

    • End: 1991 (Soviet Union fell).

  • Decolonization:

    • Anti-imperialist sentiment.

    • UN guarantee of self-determination.

    • Methods: Non-violence (Kwame Nkrumah, Gandhi), violence (Algeria, Vietnam).

    • Consequences: New borders, conflicts, economic growth in some states (Tanzania, Egypt, India).

Unit 9: Globalization (1900-Present)

  • Interconnected world.

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

    • Energy: Petroleum, nuclear, solar, wind.

    • Birth Control Allowed women to control reproductive rights.

    • Green Revolution: Increased crop production.

    • Medicine: Antibiotics, vaccines.

    • Diseases: Alzheimer's, HIV/AIDS, pandemics (1918 Spanish Flu).

    • Environment: Climate change (greenhouse gases).

    • Economy: Free market policies (Deng Xiaoping, Chile), regional trade networks (NAFTA, ASEAN).

    • Culture: Bollywood, World Cup.

    • Institutions: UN (international peace).