These will cover periods 4-6. These terms are vital to know for the AP exam. Period 4: c.1450-c.1750 (cards 1-11). Period 5: c. 1750 - c. 1900 (cards 12-25). Period 6: c. 1900 - present (cards 26-41)
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| 9536119484 | Inca Empire | Centered in the Andes Mountains in western S. America, this civilization and empire was built on previous cultures in their region. Their empire extended along the western coast, a result of both conquest and diplomacy. Its peak of influence was in the fifteenth century; it declined rapidly when Spanish conquistadors arrived in the early sixteenth century. | 0 | |
| 9536119485 | European Explorations | Seeking an increase in the trade of spices, silk, and other goods from East and Southeast Asia, kings from new European nations sent ships around Africa into the Indian Ocean and also across the Atlantic Ocean. Led by Portugal, then Spain, France, England, and Holland, these explorers initiated the first truly global contacts and ushered in the rise of European influence around the world. | 1 | |
| 9536119486 | Columbian Exchange | Columbus's expeditions to the Americas triggered exchanges of plants, animals, technology, and diseases on a worldwide level. This term is a key definition in the global scope of AP World History. | 2 | |
| 9536119487 | Atlantic World | The Atlantic World encompasses the people, politics, religions, goods, and ideas that crossed back and forth over the Atlantic after Columbus's journey connected Europe, Africa, and North and South America. This term is especially important in the years c. 1450 - c. 1900 | 3 | |
| 9536119488 | Mercantilism | An example of economic nationalism that originated and developed in Europe. Under its policies, nations developed colonies in the Americas and Asia and used them to provide raw materials such as sugar, furs, silver, and lumber. These products were then processed and sold by companies from the owner nation all over the world. This nation competed with others to amass and keep as many colonies as it could as a sign of economic and political power. | 4 | |
| 9536119489 | Atlantic Slave Trade | European mercantilists needed many laborers to work on the large sugar plantations of the Caribbean. These laborers were found mainly in West Africa, and millions were seized and shipped across the Atlantic in the middle passage. As a result, great demographic changes occurred in both Africa and the New World. | 5 | |
| 9536119490 | Encomienda System | This system was a Spanish practice that was used in Spain's American colonies and in the Philippines. Spanish settlers were granted tracts of land and were permitted to use the native people already living on that land as indentured servants. | 6 | |
| 9536119491 | Mughal Empire | This empire was a Muslim empire in S. Asia that lasted from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. One of its famous leaders was Akbar. Religious tolerance was one of its features. The Taj Mahal was built during this empire's reign. Its leaders claimed to be descended from the Mongols, which is where it derives its name. | 7 | |
| 9536119492 | Syncretism in Religions | A "world class" religion must be flexible enough to adapt to local customs as it spreads. Many examples of a world-class religion exist: when Buddhism spread into Southeast Asia, the Buddha became a god-like provider of eternal salvation; as Islam spread into parts of South Asia, it adopted some Hindu features and turned toward mysticism with Sufism; some forms of Christianity in the New World adopted traditional gods and made them part of the pantheon of saints. | 8 | |
| 9536119493 | Printing Press | Developed in China c. 500 CE, this printing technology moved along trade routes, arriving in Germany by the fifteenth century, when it spread rapidly into many other areas of Europe. The short structure of Western alphabets was a great benefit in printing. In contrast, the Chinese written language contained thousands of word characters, making printing more challenging. | 9 | |
| 9536119494 | Ottoman Empire | A Muslim empire that expanded from Southwest Asia into parts of North Africa and Eastern Europe, this empire began in the thirteenth century and lasted until the early twentieth century. Turks ruled this large empire. This empire was an important political, social, and economic conduit for Western Europe, Africa, and East Asia for many centuries. | 10 | |
| 9536119495 | Industrialization | This significant economic revolution began in England in the mid-eighteenth century and was a major part of the West's enormous social changes and economic and political expansions in the nineteenth century. It marks the shift from slow hand-made to rapid machine-made production. It spread to Russia, South and East Asia, and North and South America by the end of the nineteenth century. | 11 | |
| 9536119496 | Enlightenment | Like the Industrial Revolution, this movement was a western European development in the era 1750-1900 that had tremendous effects globally. Having its foundations in scientific study and intellectual reason, its basic tenets included individual rights such as freedom of speech and participation in government. It greatly influenced the American and French Revolutions, which in turn inspired political revolutions around the world. | 12 | |
| 9536119497 | Capitalism | An offshoot of the Enlightenment and strongly attached to the Industrial Revolution, this economic practice is an economic system based on individual economic development. Private investors use their money (capital) to invest in potentially profitable activities. Adam Smith was an important English proponent of capitalism. The industrialized nations of the early twenty-first century hang their economic hats on this to varying degrees. | 13 | |
| 9536119498 | Marxism | In the mid-nineteenth century, Karl Marx proposed an alternative to capitalism in an attempt to close the gap between the rich and poor in industrial western Europe and one day, he hoped, the world. In this economic ideology, the many poor unite and overthrow the few rich, and establish a political and economic system where the government controls production and labor to the benefit of all. | 14 | |
| 9536119499 | Nationalism | Belief that a group of people with similar cultural backgrounds rightly belong together in one nation. It became popular in western Europe in the nineteenth century and spread globally, leading to many wars for independence, most notably in Latin America. | 15 | |
| 9536119500 | Age of Revolutions | During the mid-nineteenth-century "Age of Isms" in western Europe many revolutions seeking political and social change occurred, inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. In Latin America, most countries successfully revolted against European political control in this era. | 16 | |
| 9536119501 | Imperialism | In the nineteenth century, western Europe's economic and industrial power made it the world's strongest political force, and to nations accumulated colonies all over the world. Russia, Japan, and the United States also participated. In its peak, Britain claimed colonies in half of Africa and much of South and Southeast Asia. The quote, "The sun never sets on the British Empire" reflects the national pride that accompanied imperialist expansion. | 17 | |
| 9536119502 | Social Darwinism | Connected to strong nationalist ideas, Europe's political and industrial superiority led to the belief that it was socially and morally superior to the peoples it conquered. Charles Darwin's "survival of the fittest" scientific theory in the animal world was applied to non-European peoples around the globe. China adopted this belief as well. | 18 | |
| 9536119503 | Resistance to Western Hegemony | Local resistance to European imperialism was widespread. Examples included the following: The Chinese government attempted to stop England's importation of opium; anti-colonial rebellions broke out in Africa; and in India, the National Congress promoted self-rule. | 19 | |
| 9536119504 | Meiji Restoration | In an attempt to compete with the West's industrial and political power, Japan embarked upon the Meiji Restoration, reorganizing its government in the late nineteenth century. The emperor's power was reestablished, and Japan purposefully westernized its industrial base and even its society. | 20 | |
| 9536119505 | Nineteenth-Century Migrations | The Industrial Revolution included improvements in transportation that made ocean travel safer and cheaper. Pushed by revolutions and poor living conditions, and pulled by stories of opportunities, millions of people, especially Europeans but also South and East Asians, migrated to North and South America in the nineteenth century. | 21 | |
| 9536119506 | Indentured Servitude | Part of the nineteenth-century migrations was a result of the end of slavery in areas under Western control. Thousands of South Asians migrated to South Africa and the Caribbean as agricultural indentured servants. East Asians were also employed as indentured servants in the Americas. | 22 | |
| 9536119507 | Open Door Policy | At the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States flexed its new global muscles by proposing that the United States, Japan, and the European powers share open access to trade with China, and the other powers accepted the U.S. plan. The weak government in China was unable to resist the economic and political influence of these nations. This policy is widely regarded as a sign of the "arrival" of the U.S. in global affairs. | 23 | |
| 9536119508 | Second Industrial Revolution | The "first" Industrial Revolution involved the mechanization of agriculture and textiles, but in the last half of the nineteenth century, its focus changed to innovations in electricity (telephone and radio), chemistry (fertilizers), transportation (cars and airplanes), and steel (skyscrapers and modern weapons). These developments continued to influence the rapid social and economic changes in the West into the twentieth century. | 24 | |
| 9536119509 | World War I | Beginning in 1914, immediately after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, this war was caused by imperialism (colonial powers of Europe competed for decades over land in Africa and Asia), nationalism (tensions rose inside the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ottoman Empire, and Russian Empire from ethnic groups that wanted to break off and start independent nations), militarism (French developed deadly machine guns, Germans built a lethal cannon and navy that could rival Britain's), nationalism (started an unofficial competition among governments to see who could produce the best weapons and strongest nation), and alliances (Allies: England, France, Russia, Italy); (Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire). It ended in 1918. | 25 | |
| 9536119510 | World War II | (1939-1945) Primarily a continuation of unresolved issues from World War I, this war outdid its predecessor in duration, global scope, use of military technology, and death. This war was caused by Germany's desire for revenge after the Treaty of Versailles, the spread of fascism which led to Italy invading North Africa and Ethiopia in 1930s and Germany invading Czechoslovakia and Austria around the same time, which all caused this war. Most importantly, this war started when Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931. | 26 | |
| 9536119511 | Great Depression | Between the two World Wars, a global economic disaster struck the industrialized nations around the world. By the end of World War I, the U.S. had the world's largest economy; when it failed in the late 1920s, the economies of much of the rest of the world, which were already reeling from the effects of World War I, were severely affected. Two major results were authoritarian governments and World War II. | 27 | |
| 9536119512 | Authoritarianism | One result of the catastrophe of World War I was a rejection of democratic forms of government in parts of Europe and Asia, namely Germany, Italy, Russia, and Japan. Single-party rule led by a strongman which dictatorial powers was thought to be a more efficient system than democracy. Communism and fascism were the best-known examples of such governmental systems. The growing military aggression of the fascist government was a cause of World War II. | 28 | |
| 9536119513 | Communism | Was originally proposed by Karl Marx from Germany in the mind-nineteenth century and put in place by Vladimir Lenin in Russia in the early twentieth century. In this economic and political system of socialism, the government attempts to direct the economy and provide services for all. Authoritarianism was often the method of rule in these systems. This spread around the globe in the twentieth century and competed directly with capitalist societies. | 29 | |
| 9536119514 | Decolonization | A major global development after World War II was Europe's process of getting rid of its colonial empires around the world. Colonies in S. Africa, Southeast Asia, and Africa regained their independence, but they often faced many significant social, economic, and political challenges. | 30 | |
| 9536119515 | Partition | The largest British colony, India, performed this practice: India split up along religious lines when it gained independence in 1947., forming India with a Hindu majority and Pakistan. In 1971, East Pakistan separated from Pakistan to become Bangladesh (both were Muslim majorities). For many decades afterward, Pakistan and India were major rivals in the region of S. Africa. | 31 | |
| 9536119516 | Cold War | The dominant global conflict after World War II; was conducted between the U.S. (and its allies: NATO) and the Soviet Union (and its allies: Warsaw Pact). The aim for each side was to keep the other from increasing its political and economic influence around the world. It was called "cold" because the two sides did everything to prepare for a real war except actually fighting directly. When the Soviet Union fell apart in the late twentieth century, the war ended. | 32 | |
| 9536119517 | Multinational Corporation | This corporation does business in more than one country. The British and Dutch East India colonies of the eighteenth century were early examples, but it was after World War II in the twentieth century that this business model became common. Exxon Mobil, Toyota, and General Electric are prominent examples of these corporations. | 33 | |
| 9536119518 | Pacific Rim | In the second half of the twentieth century, strong economies developed on both sides of the Pacific. Although the United States was a major economic power in the region, the term usually refers to the economies based in nations such as China, Japan, Australia, South Korea, and Singapore. | 34 | |
| 9536119519 | Chinese Revolutions | In the early twentieth century, a revolution in China against the emperor led to a limited democracy. After World War II, communists led by Mao Zedong overthrew that government. Vast social, political, and economic changes resulted. Until the late twentieth century, communist China was relatively isolated from global economic involvement, but after Mao's death, China opened its economic system to allow capitalist development, and its economy boomed. | 35 | |
| 9536119520 | Apartheid | Was a political and social policy in S. Africa in the mid-20th century that separated whites and blacks and that granted the white minority many rights that the black majority was denied. The policy was reversed in the late 20th century after decades of global pressure, and majority rule was established. | 36 | |
| 9536119521 | Feminism | Although its roots extended back to the Enlightenment, it was largely a 20th century movement dedicated to increasing the political, social and economic rights of women. It began in Western democracies and expanded to include much of the world by the century's end. Counterexamples persisted in parts of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. | 37 | |
| 9536119522 | Globalization | Describes the "shrinking world" that resulted from increased economic and communication connections. While the term could be applied to mean world systems, Columbus' voyages, or to the Age of Imperialism, it became especially popular in the late 20th century. Not everyone was content with this process. | 38 | |
| 9536119523 | Historiography | AP World History exam defines this as "historical interpretation." This is the study of the history or different ways that historians interpret the past at different times. | 39 | |
| 9536119524 | Periodization | Term that describes possible alternatives to "turning point dates" that historians mark in World History. Ex. The Neolithic Revolution, which in Ap World History is marked at c. 8000 BCE, occurred earlier in the MIddle East than in the America.s The Classical Era is said to have ended by 600 CE, but the Han Dynasty and the Western Roman Empire fell long before that date. | 40 |
