AP World History Modern Speed Review Notes

AP World History Modern Speed Review

Download the speed review sheet linked in the description.

Unit 1: 1200-1450 - Global Review

  • Overview: Focus on different peoples and cultures across six AP regions.

  • East Asia:

    • Song Dynasty: Utilized Neo-Confucianism and the civil service exam for governance.

    • Buddhism: Remained a significant belief system.

    • Champa Rice: Increased food supply.

    • Influence: Spread to Korea and Japan.

  • Dar al-Islam:

    • Decline of Caliphates: The Abbasid Caliphate fell to the Mongols.

    • Rise of Turks: Established sultanates (Islamic kingdoms).

    • Contributions: Significant advancements in math, science, medicine, and intellectual pursuits.

  • South and Southeast Asia:

    • Influence of Buddhism and Hinduism

    • Sufism: A mystical branch of Islam attracting many converts.

  • The Americas:

    • Inca Empire: Centralized power through a road system and the Mita labor system.

    • Aztec Empire: Decentralized power through human sacrifice.

    • Chinampas: Lake farms.

  • Africa:

    • State Building: Focus on Mali and the Trans-Saharan trade.

    • Great Zimbabwe and the Swahili Coast.

  • Europe:

    • Feudalism: Serfs working on manors; decentralized government.

Unit 2: Networks of Exchange (1200-1450)

  • Overview: Connections between regions covered in Unit 1.

  • Trade Routes:

    • Silk Road: East meets West; trading cities like Kashgar and Samarkand emerged.

      • Luxury goods: Silk and porcelain.

      • Financial Innovations: Banking houses and flying cash.

    • Indian Ocean Trade: Maritime version of the Silk Road.

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

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

      • Monsoon Winds: Seasonal winds; knowledge of them was essential for trade.

    • Trans-Saharan Trade: Connected Dar al-Islam to Sub-Saharan Africa.

      • Goods: Salt and gold.

      • Spread of Islam.

      • Ibn Battuta: Famous traveler.

      • Mansa Musa: His famous Hajj.

  • Consequences of Trade:

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

    • Cultural: Spread of religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam), travelers (Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta), gunpowder, algebra, compass.

  • The Mongols:

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

    • Empires: Divided into Khanates.

    • Tolerance: Generally tolerant rulers.

Units 3 & 4: 1450-1750

Unit 3: Land-Based Empires

  • Overview: Focus on empires that expanded primarily through land-based military power.

  • Gunpowder Empires:

    • Manchus (Qing Dynasty): Invaded China, maintained Neo-Confucianism and civil service exam.

      • Q Haircut: Sign of loyalty.

      • Banner System: Centralized power.

    • Ottomans: Conquered Constantinople in 1453 (renamed Istanbul), Sunni Muslim.

      • Devshirme: System to build the army and bureaucracy, including Janissaries.

      • Tax Farming: Selling the right to collect taxes.

    • Mughals: Islamic rulers over a Hindu majority in India.

      • Religious Tolerance: Akbar the Great.

      • Taj Mahal: Example of monumental architecture.

    • Safavids: Shia empire, rivals of the Sunni Ottomans.

  • Other Land-Based Empires:

    • Aztecs and Incas.

    • Songhai: Took over from Mali.

    • Tokugawa Japan: Established a military shogunate and isolated the country (Sakoku).

  • Belief Systems:

    • Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther.

    • Sikhism: Founded by Guru Nanak, blending Hinduism and Islam.

Unit 4: Maritime Empires

  • Overview: European empires expanding via sea routes.

  • Technological Advancements:

    • Caravels (Portuguese and Spanish).

    • Dutch Fluyt.

    • Islamic Astrolabe.

    • Chinese Compass.

    • Latin Sails.

    • Knowledge of winds.

  • Empires:

    • Portuguese: Prince Henry sought a route around Africa.

      • School for navigators.

      • Reached Brazil and India (1498).

      • Control of Spice Islands.

      • Transatlantic Slave Trade.

    • Spanish: Focused on the Americas.

      • Viceroyalties: Areas ruled by viceroys.

      • Conquest of Aztecs and Incas.

      • Encomienda system.

      • Cash Crops: Sugar and coffee.

      • Silver Mining: Potosi.

      • Spread of Catholicism: Bartolomé de las Casas, Our Lady of Guadalupe.

      • Trading Post Empire: Establishing small trading posts.

*Joint Stock Companies:
* Government-sponsored monopolies (e.g. British East India Company, Dutch VOC).
* VOC: Dominated the spice trade and Indian Ocean trade.

  • Columbian Exchange:

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

  • Indigenous Resistance:

    • Revolts: Queen Nzinga.

    • Local Groups: Hindu Marathas, Cossacks.

Tokugawa Ieyasu and Japanese Isolation.

  • Social Systems:

    • Casta System: Hierarchy in the Americas.

    • Banner System (China).

    • Millets (Ottoman Empire).

    • Impact of coerced labor from chattel slavery and coming the system on Africa and The Americas.

Units 5 & 6: 1750-1900

Unit 5: Revolutions

  • Overview: Political and Industrial Revolutions.

  • Political Revolutions:

    • Roots: The Enlightenment and natural rights.

    • American Revolution: Taxation without representation.

    • French Revolution: Against absolute monarchy.

    • Haitian Revolution: Slave revolt.

    • Latin American Revolutions: Simón Bolívar.

    • Nationalism: Shared beliefs.

  • Industrial Revolution:

    • Origin: Great Britain (resources, capital, urban areas).

    • Spread: To the United States and Europe.

    • Factory System: Mass production.

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

    • Decline in Asian Production: European factories as competitors.

    • Government Implementation: Meiji Restoration (Japan), Self-Strengthening Movement (China), nationalization of cotton (Egypt).

    • Macro Level: Capitalism alongside the works of Adam Smith. Restrictions of mercantilism were gone

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

Unit 6: Consequences of Industrialization

  • Overview: Effects of industrialization, especially imperialism.

  • Imperialism:

    • Motives: Economic (raw materials, markets), racist policies, civilizing missions (Social Darwinism).

    • Empires: American, British, Japanese, Russian, French.

    • Settler Colonies: Forcibly removing natives or trying to replace indigenous culture.

  • Key Events:

    • Berlin Conference: Determined the future of Africa.

    • Sepoy Mutiny: Shift to British Raj in India.

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

  • Economic Domination:

    • Economic dominance without physical takeover.

    • Export Economies: Cotton, rubber, palm oil, guano.

  • Resistance to Imperialism:

    • Sepoy Mutiny (India).

    • Tupac Amaru (Peru).

    • Xhosa Cattle Killing Movement (South Africa).

  • Migrations:

    • Causes: Urban growth, job opportunities, 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.

Units 7, 8 & 9: 1900-Present

Unit 7: Global Conflicts

  • Overview: Focus on the World Wars and their causes and consequences.

  • Decline of Empires:
    *Fall of Qing Dynasty, Russian Empire, and Ottoman Empire.

  • World War I:

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

    • Total War: Mobilization of entire country.

    • Propaganda: Media restrictions.

    • New Military Tactics: Machine guns, gas, tanks, zeppelins.

  • Interwar Period:

    • Great Depression: Government intervention.

    • Growing Tensions: Imperialism, dictatorships.

World War II:
* Catalysts: Aggression of totalitarian states (Nazi Germany, Japan).
Total War tactics same as WWI with the addition of firebombing.
* Atomic Bombs: Ended WWII in 1945.

*Mass Atrocities:
* Holocaust; Armenian Genocide, Cambodian Communist Genocide.

Unit 8: Cold War and Decolonization

  • Cold War:

    • Ideologies: Capitalism/democracy (US) vs. dictatorship/communism (Soviet Union).

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

    • Proxy Wars: Vietnam, Afghanistan.

    • Fall of Soviet Union: 1991.

  • Decolonization:

    • Causes: Anti-imperialist movements, UN self-determination.

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

    • New Conflicts: India, Israel.

    • Economic Growth: Tanzania, Egypt, India.

Unit 9: Globalization

  • Overview: Effects of interconnectedness in the modern world.

  • Technology:

    • Planes, radios, cell phones, container ships.

  • Energy:
    *Petroleum, nuclear, and solar/wind energy.

  • Social Changes:

    • Birth control.

  • Green Revolution:
    Increased crop production.
    *Modern Medicine: Antibiotics and vaccines.
    New Diseases: HIV/AIDS and Alzheimer's
    Pandemics: The 1918 Spanish Flu.
    Climate Change from effect of greenhouse gases.

  • Economic Policies:

    • Free market policies (China, Chile).

    • Regional Trade Networks: NAFTA, ASEAN.

Cultural Globalization: Bollywood and the World Cup appeal.

UN Formation.