AP World History Modern Notes

1200 to 1450 CE: Global Review

  • East Asia:

    • Song Dynasty:

      • Ruled using Neo-Confucianism and the civil service exam.

      • Buddhism remained the main belief system.

      • Champa rice provided plenty of food leading to population growth.

      • Influence spread to Korea and Japan.

  • Dar al Islam (Islamic World):

    • The Caliphate system declined after the Abbasids fell to the Mongols.

    • Turks established Sultanates (Islamic kingdoms).

    • Contributions to math, science, medicine, and intellectual pursuits.

  • South and Southeast Asia:

    • Buddhism and Hinduism significantly affected the region.

    • Sufism: A mystical branch of Islam that attracted many converts.

  • The Americas:

    • Incas:

      • Centralized power through their road system and the 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 worked on manors.

      • Decentralized system of government.

Unit 2: Global Connections (1200-1450)

  • Trade Routes:

    • Silk Road:

      • Connected East and West.

      • Emergence of trading cities like Kashgar and Samarkand in Central Asia.

      • Luxury goods like silk and porcelain were traded.

      • Banking houses and flying cash facilitated economic changes.

    • Indian Ocean Trade:

      • Maritime version of the Silk Road.

      • Same trading cities, luxury goods, and technology exchange.

      • Diaspora: Communities of people living away from their homeland (e.g., Chinese in Malacca).

      • Admiral Zheng He led voyages along this route.

      • Monsoon winds knowledge was crucial for navigation.

    • Trans-Saharan Trade:

      • Connected Dar al Islam to Sub-Saharan Africa.

      • Trade of items like salt and gold.

      • Spread of Islam and travelers like Ibn Battuta.

      • Mansa Musa's famous Hajj.

  • Consequences of Trade:

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

    • Cultural: Spread of religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam; travelers like Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta; transmission of gunpowder, algebra, and the compass.

  • The Mongols:

    • Their empires turned into Khanates.

    • Facilitated the exchange of ideas, technologies, and diseases.

1450-1750 Review CE: Global Review

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

  • Gunpowder Empires:

    • Manchus (Qing Dynasty in China):

      • Invaded China and established the Qing Dynasty.

      • Maintained Neo-Confucianism and the civil service exam.

      • Implemented the Queue hairstyle as a sign of loyalty.

      • Centralized power using the banner system.

    • Ottomans:

      • Conquered Constantinople in 1453 and renamed it Istanbul.

      • Sunni Muslim empire, conflicts with Shia Safavids.

      • Key terms:

        • Devshirme: System to build their army (Janissaries), bureaucracy, and intellectual class.

        • Tax farming: Selling the right to collect taxes.

    • Mughals:

      • Islamic group ruling over a Hindu majority in India.

      • Religiously tolerant, especially under Akbar the Great.

      • Built the Taj Mahal.

    • Safavids:

      • Shia empire, rivaled the Sunni Ottomans.

  • Other Land-Based Empires:

    • Aztecs and Incas (mentioned in Unit 1).

    • Songhai: Took over from Mali in West Africa.

    • Tokugawa Japan: Established a military shogunate, eventually isolating the country (Sakoku).

  • Belief Systems:

    • Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther's challenge to the Catholic Church.

    • Sikhism: New religion based on the teachings of Guru Nanak, blending Hinduism and Islam.

Unit 4: Maritime Empires (1450-1750)

  • Maritime Technology:

    • Caravels (Portuguese and Spanish), fluyts (Dutch), astrolabes (Islamic), compasses (Chinese), Latin sails, knowledge of winds.

  • Empires:

    • Portuguese:

      • Prince Henry sought a route around Africa and to spread Christianity.

      • Established a school for navigators.

      • Reached Brazil and India (1498).

      • Took control of the Spice Islands and started the Transatlantic slave trade.

    • Spanish:

      • Focused on the Americas.

      • Set up viceroyalties ruled by viceroys.

      • Defeated the Aztecs and Incas.

      • Encomienda system: A form of new world feudalism.

      • Extracted cash crops like sugar and coffee and mined silver (e.g., Potosi).

      • Spread Catholicism with priests like Bartolome de las Casas and the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

  • Key terms:

    • Trading Post Empire: Establishing small trading posts instead of taking over large land areas.

    • Joint Stock Companies: Government-sponsored monopolies where anyone could invest. Examples include the British East India Company and the Dutch VOC.

  • Columbian Exchange:

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

  • Resistance to European Expansion:

    • Revolts by enslaved people; Queen Nanny in Jamaica, Ananzinga in Angola, Hindu Marathas against the Mughals, Cossacks against the Russian Empire, Tokugawa Japan's isolation.

  • Social Systems:

    • Casta system: Hierarchy in the New World based on race.

    • Banner system in China, Millets in the Ottoman empire.

    • Impact of coercive labor (chattel slavery, Encomienda) on social structures.

1750 CE-Present: Global Review

Unit 5: Revolutions (1750-1900)

  • Political Revolutions:

    • Rooted in the Enlightenment and natural rights.

    • American Revolution: taxation without representation.

    • French Revolution: against absolute monarchy.

    • Haitian Revolution: slave revolt against the French.

    • Latin American Revolutions: Led by Bolivar against the Spanish.

    • Nationalism: Belief that a nation should run its own government.

  • Industrial Revolution:

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

    • spread to the United States and Europe.

    • Factory System: Workers mass-producing goods in factories.

    • James Watt's steam engine: Movable power source.

    • Key Technologies steam engine, internal combustion engine, railroads, telegraph.

    • Decline in production in Asia due to European competition.

    • Meiji Restoration in Japan: Successful government-led industrialization.

    • Self-Strengthening Movement in Qing China: Failed to keep up with the West and Japan.

    • Egypt under Muhammad Ali: Capitalized on global demand for cotton.

    • Capitalism: Adam Smith and laissez-faire policies.

    • Transnational businesses: Unilever, HSBC.

  • Social Changes:

    • Women pushed for equality.

    • Emergence of a new working class.

    • Karl Marx's vision of workers seizing the means of production.

Unit 6: Consequences of Industrialization (1750-1900)

  • Imperialism:

    • Industrial powerhouses turned trading posts into massive empires.

    • Excuses for expansion: racist policies, civilizing missions, social Darwinism.

    • Real reasons: Access to raw materials and markets.

    • Major empires: Americans, British, Japanese, Russians, and French.

    • Settler Colonies: Forcibly removing natives and replacing indigenous culture.

  • Imperialism Worldwide:

    • Berlin Conference in Africa: Determined the future of Africa.

    • Sepoy Mutiny in India: Led to British Raj.

    • Century of Humiliation in China: OpiumWars, Taiping Rebellions, Sino-Japanese Wars, Boxer Rebellions.

    • Economic Domination: no physical takeover, using economic advantages.
      Export Economies: Focused on raw materials like cotton, rubber, palm oil, and guano.

  • Resistance to Empires:

    • Sepoy Mutiny in India, Tupac Amaru in Peru, Xhosa cattle killing movement in South Africa.

  • Migrations:
    * Cities are growing and there are new job opportunities.
    * Technology makes global travel feasible.
    * People leave their homes and move to cities.
    * Diaspora, enclaves.
    * Chinese Exclusion Act in The United States or the White Australia policy.

Unit 7: Global Conflict (1900-Present)

  • Decline of Empires:

    • Qing, Russian, and Ottoman Empires.

  • World War I:

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

  • The war:
    * Total war: Everything in your country is utilized for victory.
    * Propaganda.
    * New military tactics: Machine guns, gas, tanks, and zeppelins.

  • In between Global Conflicts:

    • Great Depression: Government intervention in economies.

    • Growing tensions in empires.

    • 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 (firebombing, atomic bombs).

  • Mass Atrocities:
    Holocaust, Armenian genocide, Cambodian communist genocide.

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

  • Cold War:

    • Split between US (capitalism, democracy) and Soviet Union (dictatorship, communism).

    • Alliances: NATO (American), Warsaw Pact (Soviet), Non-Aligned Movement.

    • Proxy wars: Vietnam, Afghanistan. China turns communist after World War two.

      • Mao Zedong, their leader, pushed for reforms to create a communist state.

      • His policies, like the Great Leap Forward, mirrored Stalin's five year plans with similar devastating effects.

    • Cold War ended in 1991 after the Soviet Union fell following the Soviet Afghan war, communist economic failures, and American technological and military dominance.

  • Decolonization:

    • Anti-imperialist rage from unit six spills over into unit eight.

    • United Nations, after World War two.

    • Guaranteed states the right to self determination.

    • Nonviolence and violence.

    • New borders could often lead to more conflict like India or Israel.

      • Some of these newly independent states had significant economic growth like Tanzania, Egypt, or India.

Unit 9: Globalization (1900-Present)

  • Interconnected World: Technology (planes, radios, cell phones, container ships) creates a more connected planet. Petroleum, nuclear, and later solar, and wind continue to power the planet. * Earth control allowed women to control their reproductive rights for the first time. * The green revolution massively increased the production of crops worldwide to feed an ever growing global population. * Antibiotics and vaccines meant that humans could stop or prevent diseases from decimating populations.

    • Diseases: Alzheimer's, HIV/AIDS, 1918 Spanish flu.

      • Human's effect on the environment continued to grow as the release of greenhouse gases led to the increasing threat of climate change.

  • Economic Shifts:

    • Push for free market policies like Dang did in China or in Chile.

    • Regional trade networks: NAFTA, ASEAN.

  • Cultural Globalization:

    • Bollywood, World Cup.

  • Institutions:

    • UN formed to maintain international peace following World War II.