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A Chinese Dynasty that ruled the southeastern and central regions of modern-day China. It was a significant era of Chinese history, due to the technological innovation that was prominent during this time. Magnetic compasses, gunpowder, and paper were examples of the technological innovation of the Song Dynasty. It was conquered by the Mongols in 1279, and was replaced by the Yuan Dynasty. Theme: Political, Technology
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A Turkic Empire that spanned Persia, the Levant, the Caucasus regions, Anatolia and modern-day Iraq. This empire changed the power balance of the region by establishing strong Turkic influence and dismantling the Abbasid Caliphate. It was also responsible for the spread of Islam into traditionally Christian regions like Anatolia, which were previously ruled by the Byzantine Empire. Theme: Political, Culture
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The separation of Christianity into two branches; Latin in the West, and Greek in the East; caused primarily by bitter disputes between the East and West. The Great Schism was significant because it led to the creation of the Catholic and Orthodox churches, and has divided Christians, even today. Theme: Political, Culture
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A series of religious wars sponsored by the Latin Church based in Italy. Their primary goals were to reconquer areas that had been conquered by Muslims, like Jerusalem. The Crusades led to increased European trade and a negative impact on the relations between the Byzantine Empire and Latins. Many of Europe’s flags were inspired by the Crusades and many of the Crusades’ leaders are popular, such as Saladin and Richard the Lionheart. Theme: Political, Economic, Culture
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The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic State based in Delhi that encompassed most of the Indian subcontinent. It was significant for spreading Islam on the Indian subcontinent and weakening the hold of traditional religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. Theme: Political, Culture
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A Venetian explorer who made numerous journeys to China, meeting Kublai Khan, ruler of the Yuan Dynasty, and serving him. He wrote of his time in China, and returned to Europe with this knowledge. He was responsible for the early cultural exchanges between Europe and the eastern world. Theme: Culture, Political, Social, Interaction between Human and Environment
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Emperor of Mali from 1312 - 1337 AD. He greatly profited off the Trans-Saharan trade, where gold and salt were primarily traded. He is significant for his pilgrimage to Mecca and Egypt, and later establishing Mali as a center for Islamic learning. He helped Islam spread to other parts of Africa as a result of this. He is the wealthiest person who ever lived. Theme: Economic, Culture, Political
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A Moroccan Muslim scholar who traveled all over the Islamic world, from Africa, Iberia, Arabia, Central Asia, India, and Southeast Asia, even as far as China. His accounts of his travels allowed the world to see how Islam was practiced differently from region to region.
Theme: Interaction between Humans and Environment, Culture, Social, Culture -
A deadly disease also known as the ‘Black Death’, which spread to parts of Asia and Europe through trade routes like the Silk Road. The Black Death reached its peak in Europe from 1347 to 1351, and killed at least a third of the population. It is significant for being the deadliest outbreak in history. Theme: Interaction between Humans and Environment
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Centralized China’s government and changed ideology to Confucianism adjusted to the time’s societal problems. China achieved many feats due to the centralization such as the Great Wall and the Grand Canal connecting north to south China which instigated trade.
Theme: Economic, Political, Social, Culture -
Wrote the Book of Margery Kempe, which was the first autobiography in the English language. In the book, she chronicled her pilgrimages all over Europe and parts of Asia and detailed visions that she claimed told her to ‘leave the vanities of the world’. Theme: Social, Culture
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A time when many adventurous explorers were funded by their government to find resource rich land which was running out in Europe. Much of the world had been influenced through expeditions which include Magellen’s around the world, Columbus’ colonization of the bahamas (America), Henry the Navigator’s sail around cap vert to morocco involving the portuguese with the African slave trade, and Vasco de Gama’s trade route around the Southern African coast connecting Europe to India.
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Not only was the World more understood, it vastly increased the strength of the nation's homeland from the resources gained by the colony.
Theme: Economic, Social, Human and Environment interaction. -
Through the discovery of new land or trade routes conflict and mutual benefits were created. Portugal became an established power with control over trade, Spain, Philippines and America’s silver trade boosted Spain’s economy while detrimentally decreasing silver value, and trade between France and America for fur. Nations grew in power and had a strong economy built around the relationship of other nations.
Theme: Economic, Social, Culture, Human and Environment interaction, Political -
No longer ruled by the Mongols, Russia went through a government reform and expanded territory. Gained access to the Caspian Sea and began colonization of Serbia. Russia became a great power using taxes to focus on infrastructure.
Theme: Political, Social, Economic, Technology, Human and Environment interaction -
As the colonization of America became the focus of the new world a spark of influence in trade between the New World and Old World began. Between America and Eurasia went all types of crops and livestock with the inclusion from Eurasia, diseases and slaves. The world became more diverse in terms of resources due to the age of constant beneficial trade.
Theme: Economic, Human and Environment interaction -
Ottoman Empire, Safavid Empire, and Mughal Empire. All with Turkic Nomadic cultures the empires monopolized gunpowder which kept them in the lead in military and political power. Reliance on gunpowder for the military led to expansion because of the huge shift in military technological power. With the trade (also expansion) of gunpowder also came the Islamic culture and art renaissance spread.
Theme: Culture, Economic, Political, Social -
Focused ideology based on logic and reason rather than religion. During this time period the questioning of ancient philosophers led to the expansion of scientific knowledge; This caused an influence in academics and the scientific method which was also reflected on the questioning of authority based on religion.
Theme: Culture, Political, Human and Environment interaction, Social -
Shifted the economy to be reliant on business rather than self sufficiency. The change grew the economy as it increased the welfare of the masses. Society became based on pay which brought wealth to some and poverty to the others not as lucky. Capitalism made it so the economy would be built off a strong foundation and would grow based on the transactions between people.
Theme: Economic, Political, Social -
The VOC and British East India Company were both companies that raised the economy and funding for exploration as more income was made through the buying of shares in the company. This allowed the facilitation of trade which also led the colonization of America to be possible.
Theme: Economic, Human and Environment interaction -
Demand for goods went up as the economy rose and living conditions were better. Following the demand the production required more labor which was found in different ways. Forced indigenous labor of the Mita or Encomienda systems, forced or regular debt labor with the Hacienda system or Indentured servitude, and the ownership of lives normally through the African Slave trade of chattel slavery.
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New labor forced the reliance of labor onto nations which increased the African Slave trade of abducting or just enslavement of people, but also greatly increased the power of nations as the labor filled the jobs or were the production for the consumer goods.
Theme: Economic, Political, Social, Human and Environment interaction -
In France Louis XIV was in power. Feudalism was replaced with Absolutism. France became a dominant power with a huge surgence of art and culture glorifying Louis XIV’s rule.
Theme: Economic, Culture, Political, Social -
To put ideas into action, the rights which had been denied and recently revealed what could be put into action as people from around the world fight for rights as humans. This brought upon movements supporting, abolishment of slavery, feminism, liberalism, communism, socialism, nationalism, and Zionism. Such ideas all influenced the creation of new governments or view of the world changing the way people lived and what they could do based on discriminatory features.
Theme: Social, Political -
A mad burst of technological advancements in a short time period. The use of fossil fuels became prominent and canals were built, pretty much anything that would advance humanity as a whole. Created job opportunities so it not only urbanized nations, but raised the population within cities.
Theme: Technology, Economic, Political -
This also brought upon new previously oppressed rights to even those with the status of slave such as the Haitian revolution had represented.
Theme: Social, Political -
In response to the irritation of the people the French were tired of the absolute monarchy held by the king. A revolution to uphold the rights of the people and for democratic values to be within the government. Not only inspired other nations to follow these values, the new government which was held by the hands of the people changed the way nations viewed a government.
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A series of two wars fought between the British and Qing China over the drug, opium, which was outlawed by the Chinese. The British had been hoping to use opium to force the Chinese to open up its borders to them. The wars ended with a British victory, and the seizure of Hong Kong and the opening of multiple Chinese ports to foreign merchants. These wars greatly weakened the Qing Dynasty, and led to events such as the Taiping Rebellion, which weakened it even further.
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Theme: Economic, Political, Technology
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A resistance movement against imperialism that took place in South Africa. The Xhosa, a native people believed that killing all of their cattle would bring back the way of life before the arrival of European colonists. It is significant because it is one of the most pivotal movements against imperialism.
Theme: Political, Culture, Social -
A revolt by sepoys (Indian soldiers serving in the British East India Company) against British rule. It was triggered over rumors of cow fat being used to grease rifle cartridges, which offended Hindus and Muslims at the same time. The revolt was brutal, with both sides committing atrocities, but ultimately, it ended with a British victory. It led to the creation of the British Raj, an Indian state ruled directly by the British crown. Theme: Political, Social, Culture
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Places in the world such as Italy, Germany, Japan, China, and the Ottoman Empire at the time needed a stronger government that could also intervene with public affairs to improve daily life. The unification or reformation of governments allowed the creation of a government that could benefit the nation through policies. The main influence was on the economy as they changed society so it would focus more on industrializing than anything else.
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The effects were shown through Japan that eventually became a western power.
Theme: Political, Economic, Technology, Human and Environment, Social, Culture -
A Native American resistance movement against the US that took place in the Great Plains region of the modern day United States. According to Native American prophets, the dance would bring back the spirits of the dead and unite them with the living to drive off the whites out of their land. The Ghost Dance Movement was the last form of significant resistance Native Americans offered to imperialism before being dealt with by the US Army. Theme: Political, Social, Culture
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A 1898 rebellion that took place in Beijing, where the rebels, known collectively as ‘Boxers’, seeked to drive out the ‘foreign devils’. The rebellion was supported by Empress Dowager Cixi, ruler of China during that time. It was crushed by a coalition of British, British colonial, American, French, Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian, and Japanese troops.
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The failure of the Boxer Rebellion was a devastating blow to the already weakened Qing Dynasty, which would fall just 11 years later. Theme: Political, Social, Culture
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Imperialism: Germany wanting more colonies but everything was already colonized by other nations and imperial states drafting colonists to fight in the war resulted in high casualties
Nationalism: People’s patriotism to their nations sparked tensions (ie. the Austrian waging war against Serbia and Serbian nationalism that led to the assassination in the first place)
Spark: The assassination of the heir of the Austrian empire Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian nationalists -
Theme: Political
Acronym for the causes of WW1
(mainly in Europe but also U.S.):
Militarism: Belief that a nation should maintain a strong military, led to high tension as nations try to build stronger armies than their neighbors (ie. the German and British navies)
Alliances: The intricate alliance system between nations that escalated a minor event into a World War -
A total war involving almost every nation in the world due to the intricate alliance systems and European nations drafting soldiers from their colonies. It became known as “The Great War” because of the new technology like: The Machine Gun, U-Boats, Chemical Warfare, Trench Warfare and Aerial Reconnaissance all resulting in the alarmingly high death toll of not just soldiers but civilians too. The U.S. economically aided the Allies and only formally joined the war after the sinking of Lusitania.
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The war ended in the falling of all the remaining empires in the world (German, Austrian, Russian and the Ottoman) and due to joining the war so late, the U.S. emerged as a global superpower and creditor to whom almost all the Europe nations are in debt to, setting the stage for the Great Depression.
Theme: Political, Economic, Technology -
At first the government won popular support by abolishing discriminating laws, dismantling the Czar regime and granting peasants more rights, but its decision to continue the war and failure to carry out land reforms and lost public support.
Theme: Political, Social -
After the Provisional Government failed to fulfill their promise of land reform and continued the war, the Bolshevik party, gaining power of the Petrograd soviet, won popular support with their slogan “Peace, Land, and Bread” summing up the Russian peasants’ wishes and in November, the Bolsheviks seized power from the provisional government in an almost bloodless revolt and ended Russian involvement in the war with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
Theme: Political -
After its disastrous performance in WW1, Russia faced a political turmoil as peasants and workers got tired of the corrupt government and Czarist regime. In March 1917, peasants protested and revolted in the streets of Petrograd and soon the Czar abdicated the throne and the rivalry between the provisional government and the Petrograd soviets began.
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In the aftermath of WW1, aspiring dictators took advantage of the weak governments and public resentment towards them to start totalitarian regimes. In Germany, the Nazi party overthrew the Weimar Republic, in Italy, Mussolini rose to power for a short period of time and in Russia, Stalin established a dictorshiped that lasted for the rest of his life.
Theme: Political -
A five-year plan designed to protect communism in Russia and bring all of the economy under central authority. They were plans drafted by Stalin to industrialize the Soviet Union to the level of the Western powers. Land was collectivized in fear of being used for capitalism and to increase agricultural output, which did increase by 250% but famines rose as farmers killed their livestock in response to their lands being taken away.
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Managed to overtake Germany and Great Britain in industrial output and modernized Russia.
Theme: Social, Economic, Technology -
To gain support to overthrow the Weimar Republic, Hitler used the widespread acceptance of Anti-Semitism in Europe as groundwork for the Nazi party leading to the Holocaust, a systematic annihalation of targeted populations undesirables like Jews, disabled people, Roma and other undesirables. Staring at the beginning of the Nazi regime, Jews were targeted and slowly devalued, forced to distinguish themselves and live in ghettos and later concentration camps.
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In the Wannsee Conference in 1942, the “final solution” was proposed where Jews in concentration camps were either worked to death or exterminated through the use of new technology capable of mass destruction like poison gas.
Theme: Social, Political, Interactions Between Humans & Environment, Culture, Economic, Technology -
Social and cultural globalization refers to new technology and innovations like social media and communication technology that led to the sharing of information and values across nations and blending of various aspects of different cultures being exchanged across the world such as Americanization. Another aspect of globalization is the increased awareness of global events like climate change, oppressive governments and green movements.
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Economic Globalization is the reduction and removal of barriers between national borders to facilitate the flow of goods, capital, services, and labor and although this is not new since Ancient Rome and China and later the Mongols did the same, the scope of modern globalization is unprecedented. The GATT and later the WTO fostered free global trade and gave rise to a copious amount of global corporations.
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Theme: Social, Political, Interaction between Humans & Environment, Cultural, Economic, Technology
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The cold war was a period of high tension between the US and the USSR with conflicting ideologies of capitalism and communism. The Truman Doctrine first started this conflict by trying to contain communism and the emergence of nuclear weapons further increased the tension between the two superpowers.
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The effects of the Cold War include the Berlin crisis, the split between east and west Germany, the Warsaw pact, the COMECON, the Marshall plan, NATO, the proxy wars in Vietnam and Korea and eventually the Cuban Missile Crisis where the world came VERY close to complete annihilation. Theme: Political, Technology
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Rapid diffusion of these new high-yield seeds, new agricultural technology, and increased use in fertilizers helped reduce food scarcity across the world and prevented the Malthusian famine but this increased use in fertilizers and the factory usage that followed affected the environment significantly and brought awareness to climate change.
Theme: Interaction Between Humans & Environment, Cultural, Economic, Technology -
The Green Revolution refers to the scientific advancements in major staple crops like wheat, maize and rice tripling cereal and other grain production and dramatically reducing food prices.
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Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward was a 5 year plan to increase the republic of China’s industrial and agricultural productivity which backfired and led to a dip in the economy as well as the population due to the great famine. One of the few positive outcomes was a significant increase in literacy rates and women’s rights and status in China.
Theme: Social, Political, Cultural, Economic, Technology -
OPEC: The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was one of the earliest and most successful trade alliance in the world, established in 1960 by the oil-producing states of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, and later joined by Qatar, Libya, Indonesia, Abu Dhabi, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador, and Gabon, OPEC had almost complete control of oil prices and was dissolved in the 1980s because it contributed more to a global recession and debt crises.
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Theme: Political, Economic Regional trade agreements are treaties signed by two or more countries to encourage free trade across the borders of its members. Major regional trade organizations include:
EU: Beginning as the European Community, the European Union was established by the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, and acted as a supranational organization for even greater European economic and political integration. -
The Algerian war of liberation began in 1954 by the Front De Liberation Nationale (FLN) against France through gorilla warfare and “terrorist” attacks” and while doing so France sent all its troops to Algeria to stamp out the rebellion, which failed and Algeria gained independence. During the war, a chain reaction went off in West Africa and 13 French colonies there like Morocco and Tunisia were granted independence in a single year, becoming the “year of Africa”.
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Theme: Social, Political
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Campaign by Mao Zedong that purged all opposition to communism in China and reinforced maoism. Traditional elements of Chinese society were eliminated in an attempt to modernize China and boost its economy.
Theme: Social, Political, Economic, Cultural, Technology -
ASEAN: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is a partnership of SE nation established in 1967 by the foreign ministers of Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines to accelerate economic development and promote political stability in southeast Asia but after the inclusion of Japan in 1977, and starting in 1992 member states agreed to establish a free-trade zone and cut tariffs on industrial goods.
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The name “four little tigers” was given to Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan due to their remarkable economic growth through rapid industrialization and becoming major economic superpowers of SE Asia just like Japan a generation ago. But by the 1990s, the four nations no longer just imitated Japan but became real competitors and soon Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia joined them for economic prosperity.
Theme: Economic, Technology -
NAFTA: The North American Free Trade Agreement is a regional accord established in 1993 between the United States, Canada, and Mexico that formed the world's second largest free-trade zone.
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The World Trade Organization is the successor of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade(GATT) formed in 1995, that regulates free trade across the world and has developed into a forum for settling international trade disputes, with the power to enforce its decisions. It has 153 member nations, which account for 97 percent of all world trade and helps producers, importers, and exporters conduct their business and ensure that trade flows smoothly.
Theme: Economic