World History Flashcards

4740783812	Sumerians	In mesopotamia, they were among the first groups to build a civilization. They were the first to develop a system of writing.	0
4740783813	Mandate of Heaven	A legacy of the Zhou Dynasty. It is the concept that dynastic familiesrule by divine right. There can be only one legitimate dynasty at a time. When heaven mandates or orders a change the current dynasty will lose power and another dynasty will rise to legitimacy.	1
4740783814	Ziggurat	A form of temple common to the SumeriansBabylonians and Assyrian, of ancient Mesopotamia. Earliest are from 3rd mil. BCE to the 6th c BCE. Place for security/ used by priest.	2
4740783815	The Silk Road	A series of trade route that connected different empires of the ancient world- allowed the sharing of knowledge and ideas, customs and religious beliefs. It was protected by the Great Wall from nomadic groups from the north. High demand of silk. Made the Han dynasty very wealthy.	3
4740801069	Peloponnesian War	431 - 404 BCE. Athens and Sparta went to war after fighting along each other in the Persian Wars. It involved almost the entire Greek world with Athens and Sparta as head of alliances. By 411 Athens was in turmoil. The economic cost of the war affected all of Greece, while Athens never regained it's prewar prosperity.	4
4742844657	Legalism	Chinese religion/ philosophy, men and women were innately bad and therefore required moral education and authoritarian control. Governed by a system of laws that rigidly prescribed punishment and awards for specific behaviors.	5
4742855073	Oligarchy	a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution.	6
4742865601	Central Powers	World War two coalition that consisted primarily of the German Empire and Austria Hungary, the Central European States that were at war from August 1914 against France and Britain on the Western Front and against Russia on the Eastern front. Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria came in couple of months later.	7
4742879870	Constantine	Emperor of Rome from 306 BCE to 337 BCE. He inherited a policy of persecuting Christian but in 312 while he was fighting he saw a vision that made his soldier draw crosses in their shields and they won. In 313 he ended the persecution of all Christians and made it the official religion of the Roman Empire. Christianity spread as he gained power.	8
4742901130	Open Door policy	Statement of principles initiated by the U.S in 1899 and 1900 for the protection of equal privileges among countries trading with China and in support of Chinese territorial and administration integrity.	9
4743077136	Rome's Collapse: Corruption	Rome had become violent and greedy. The life of the rich and powerful was much better than the life of any other citizen. This led to unrest and rebellion as well as lack of faith in Roman leaders.	10
4743106492	Rome's collapse: Economic Problems	The Romans used military conquest to grow their economy and as time went on it depended less and less on internal production of goods by Roman citizens. With Rome's economy so bound to it's need to conquer and control other people, Romans found themselves outnumbered by the people they had conquered, plundered from, taxed	11
4743747945	The codes of Hammurabi	This, the earliest known written legal code, was composed about 1780 B.C.E. by Hammurabi, the ruler of Bablyon. This text was excavated in 1901; it was carved on an eight foot high stone monolith. The harsh system of punishment expressed in this text prefigures the concept of 'an eye for an eye'. The Code lays out the basis of both criminal and civil law, and defines procedures for commerce and trade. This text was redacted for 1,500 years, and is considered the predecessor of Jewish and Islamic legal systems alike.	12
4744975502	Rome's Collapse: Curruption	Rome had become violent and greedy, where the life of the rich and powerful was much better than the life of an average citizen. This led to unrest and rebellion as well as lack of faith in Roman leaders.	13
4745020821	Rome's Collapse: immigration	Rome was initially successful because it could integrate outsiders. But by the time Barbarians had began moving south the Roman Empire could no longer absorb the massive influx of tribes. The failure to continue to make immigration a success led to ethnic tensions that eventually divided the military.	14
4745113599	Rome's Collapse: A weekend military	The army required an increased amount of wealth to support its soldiers. It was harder to integrate local soldiers whose loyalty was unclear. In its final days Rome lost its most powerful general and was left vulnerable to attack.	15
4745125965	Nationalism	Sentiment based on common cultural characteristics that binds a population and often produces a policy of national independence or separatism. It can also cause intense competition among other nations.	16
4745433210	French Revolution: Rifts in the Assembly	A rift slowly grew between the radical and moderate assembly members. The moderate Girondins took a stance in favor of keeping constitutional monarchy while radical Jacobins wanted the king completely out. Austria- Prussia feared the Revolution would spread and issued the declaration of Pillnite insisting King Louis XVI to the throne. France took it as hostile and declared war.	17
4745505615	French Revolution: Storm of Bastille	The national assembly's revolutionary spirit galvanized France manifesting in many ways. Citizens stormed the longest prison in Bastille in pursuit of of Arms. Followed by many rural attacks dubbed the "Great Fear" shortly after the assembly released the declaration of the rights of man and of citizen which established a proper judicial code and autonomy of the French people.	18
4745555510	French Revolution:Feudalism and Financial crisis	France collects large debt and due to years of feudalism it was on brink of revolution. Charles de Calone appointed by Louie XVI to fix the economy. The assembly of notables asked those whose were exempted of taxes to pay and they refused. Nobility refused his taxation plan. The enlightenment caused a division and questioned religious justification to rule.	19
4745576565	French Revolution: Estates General 1789	There are three estates. The clergy, nobility and the rest of French society. The estates general was a call for each estate to vote on the matter. The third estate counted as one regardless of the size and was overridden. The third estate took advantage of its massive size and protested and broke away from the estates general and proclaimed itself the national assembly. It granted control of taxation and others joined.	20
4745585932	Tennis court Oath	vowing "not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established." It was a pivotal event in the early days of the French Revolution.They will remain indissoluble until they created a new national constitution. The king tried to intimidate the group, however due to its size was forced to accept.	21
4745654868	Reign of terror	The national convention abolished Monarchy and declared France a republic and in 1793 King Louis was executed. Maximilian Robespierre took control however became paranoid of counter revolution and began the reign of terror. 1500 people were killed. He was later arrested and executed but were taken over by Napoleon through a coup. The revolution ended and entered a fifteen year period of military rule.	22
4745669782	Germany Under Hitler	In 1938, Germany was a total dictatorship under the Nazi Party and Chancellor Adolf Hitler. Although the 1919 Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I had imposed strict disarmament terms on Germany, by the late 1930s, Hitler had dropped all pretense of observing the terms of the treaty. He began not only to rebuild his military rapidly, but also to speak openly of Germany's need for lebensraum , or "living space."	23
4745681746	The German Agression	The war in Europe began in September 1939, when Germany, under Chancellor Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland. Britain and France responded by declaring war on Germany but took little action over the following months. In 1940, Germany launched its next initiative by attacking Denmark and Norway, followed shortly thereafter by attacks on Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. All of these nations were conquered rapidly.	24
4745682740	Battle of britain	Later in the summer of 1940, Germany launched a further attack on Britain, this time exclusively from the air. The Battle of Britain was Germany's first military failure, as the German air force, the Luftwaffe, was never able to overcome Britain's Royal Air Force.	25
4745683422	Greece and north Africa	As Hitler plotted his next steps, Italy, an ally of Germany, expanded the war even further by invading Greece and North Africa. The Greek campaign was a failure, and Germany was forced to come to Italy's assistance in early 1941.	26
4745683959	The USSR	Later in 1941, Germany began its most ambitious action yet, by invading the Soviet Union. Although the Germans initially made swift progress and advanced deep into the Russian heartland, the invasion of the USSR would prove to be the downfall of Germany's war effort. The country was just too big, and although Russia's initial resistance was weak, the nation's strength and determination, combined with its brutal winters, would eventually be more than the German army could overcome. In 1943, after the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, Germany was forced into a full-scale retreat. During the course of 1944, the Germans were slowly but steadily forced completely out of Soviet territory, after which the Russians pursued them across eastern Europe and into Germany itself in 1945.	27
4745684982	The Normandy invasion	In June 1944, British and American forces launched the D-Day invasion, landing in German-occupied France via the coast of Normandy. Soon the German army was forced into retreat from that side as well. Thus, by early 1945, Allied forces were closing in on Germany from both east and west. The Soviets were the first to reach the German capital of Berlin, and Germany surrendered in May 1945, shortly after the suicide of Adolf Hitler.	28
4745685757	Pearl Harber	The war in the Pacific began on December 7, 1941, when warplanes from Japan launched a surprise attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. By this time, Japan had already been at war with China for several years and had seized the Chinese territory of Manchuria. After the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan began a massive campaign of expansion throughout the Southeast Asia-Pacific region.	29
4745686673	Battle of Midway	Although the Pearl Harbor attack provoked a declaration of war by the United States on Japan the very next day, it would be several months before U.S. forces would get seriously involved militarily. In late spring of 1942, the United States and Japan engaged in a series of naval battles, climaxing in the Battle of Midway on June 3-6, 1942, in which Japan suffered a catastrophic defeat.	30
4745687416	The Solomon Islands and Guadalcanal	For the next year, the United States engaged Japan in a protracted struggle for the Solomon Islands, which lay near vital Allied shipping routes. Between August 1942 and February 1943, Allied forces carried out an invasion on the island of Guadalcanal—the beginning of a long series of Allied offensives that would eventually force the Japanese out of the Solomons and then pursue them from various other Pacific island chains that the Japanese had earlier seized. In the meantime, British and Indian forces were combating Japanese troops in Burma.	31
4745688286	The Approach to Japan	Fighting continued throughout the Pacific in 1944 and early 1945, including major battles at Leyte, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. By the late spring of 1945, most of Japan's conquests had been liberated, and Allied forces were closing in on the Japanese home islands. As they neared Japan proper, the Allies began heavy bombing campaigns against major Japanese cities, including Tokyo. This process continued through the summer of 1945 until finally, in early August, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Stunned by the unexpected devastation, Japan surrendered a few days later.	32
4745699628	Causes of the enlightenment	On the surface, the most apparent cause of the Enlightenment was the Thirty Years' War. This horribly destructive war, which lasted from 1618 to 1648, compelled German writers to pen harsh criticisms regarding the ideas of nationalism and warfare. These authors, such as Hugo Grotius and John Comenius, were some of the first Enlightenment minds to go against tradition and propose better solutions. At the same time, European thinkers' interest in the tangible world developed into scientific study, while greater exploration of the world exposed Europe to other cultures and philosophies. Finally, centuries of mistreatment at the hands of monarchies and the church brought average citizens in Europe to a breaking point, and the most intelligent and vocal finally decided to speak out.	33
4745700543	Pre-Enlightenment Discoveries	The Enlightenment developed through a snowball effect: small advances triggered larger ones, and before Europe and the world knew it, almost two centuries of philosophizing and innovation had ensued. These studies generally began in the fields of earth science and astronomy, as notables such as Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei took the old, beloved "truths" of Aristotle and disproved them. Thinkers such as René Descartes and Francis Bacon revised the scientific method, setting the stage for Isaac Newton and his landmark discoveries in physics. From these discoveries emerged a system for observing the world and making testable hypotheses based on those observations. At the same time, however, scientists faced ever-increasing scorn and skepticism from people in the religious community, who felt threatened by science and its attempts to explain matters of faith. Nevertheless, the progressive, rebellious spirit of these scientists would inspire a century's worth of thinkers.	34
4745702847	The enlightenment in England	The first major Enlightenment figure in England was Thomas Hobbes, who caused great controversy with the release of his provocative treatise Leviathan (1651). Taking a sociological perspective, Hobbes felt that by nature, people were self-serving and preoccupied with the gathering of a limited number of resources. To keep balance, Hobbes continued, it was essential to have a single intimidating ruler. A half century later, John Locke came into the picture, promoting the opposite type of government—a representative government—in his Two Treatises of Government (1690). Although Hobbes would be more influential among his contemporaries, it was clear that Locke's message was closer to the English people's hearts and minds. Just before the turn of the century, in 1688, English Protestants helped overthrow the Catholic king James II and installed the Protestant monarchs William and Mary. In the aftermath of this Glorious Revolution, the English government ratified a new Bill of Rights that granted more personal freedoms.	35
4745703352	Enlightenment in France	Many of the major French Enlightenment thinkers, or philosophes, were born in the years after the Glorious Revolution, so France's Enlightenment came a bit later, in the mid-1700s. The philosophes, though varying in style and area of particular concern, generally emphasized the power of reason and sought to discover the natural laws governing human society. The Baron de Montesquieu tackled politics by elaborating upon Locke's work, solidifying concepts such as the separation of power by means of divisions in government. Voltaire took a more caustic approach, choosing to incite social and political change by means of satire and criticism. Although Voltaire's satires arguably sparked little in the way of concrete change, Voltaire nevertheless was adept at exposing injustices and appealed to a wide range of readers. His short novel Candide is regarded as one of the seminal works in history. Denis Diderot, unlike Montesquieu and Voltaire, had no revolutionary aspirations; he was interested merely in collecting as much knowledge as possible for his mammoth Encyclopédie. The Encyclopédie, which ultimately weighed in at thirty-five volumes, would go on to spread Enlightenment knowledge to other countries around the world.	36
4745704862	Romanticism	In reaction to the rather empirical philosophies of Voltaire and others, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote The Social Contract (1762), a work championing a form of government based on small, direct democracy that directly reflects the will of the population. Later, at the end of his career, he would write Confessions, a deeply personal reflection on his life. The unprecedented intimate perspective that Rousseau provided contributed to a burgeoning Romantic era that would be defined by an emphasis on emotion and instinct instead of reason.	37
4745705947	Skeptism	Another undercurrent that threatened the prevailing principles of the Enlightenment was skepticism. Skeptics questioned whether human society could really be perfected through the use of reason and denied the ability of rational thought to reveal universal truths. Their philosophies revolved around the idea that the perceived world is relative to the beholder and, as such, no one can be sure whether any truths actually exist. Immanuel Kant, working in Germany during the late eighteenth century, took skepticism to its greatest lengths, arguing that man could truly know neither observed objects nor metaphysical concepts; rather, the experience of such things depends upon the psyche of the observer, thus rendering universal truths impossible. The theories of Kant, along with those of other skeptics such as David Hume, were influential enough to change the nature of European thought and effectively end the Enlightenment.	38
4745706491	The end of the enlightenment	Ultimately, the Enlightenment fell victim to competing ideas from several sources. Romanticism was more appealing to less-educated common folk and pulled them away from the empirical, scientific ideas of earlier Enlightenment philosophers. Similarly, the theories of skepticism came into direct conflict with the reason-based assertions of the Enlightenment and gained a following of their own. What ultimately and abruptly killed the Enlightenment, however, was the French Revolution. Begun with the best intentions by French citizens inspired by Enlightenment thought, the revolution attempted to implement orderly representative assemblies but quickly degraded into chaos and violence. Many people cited the Enlightenment-induced breakdown of norms as the root cause of the instability and saw the violence as proof that the masses could not be trusted to govern themselves. Nonetheless, the discoveries and theories of the Enlightenment philosophers continued to influence Western society for centuries.	39
4745739235	The Balkan Crisis	This crisis started when Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia. Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia because they wanted to expand their empire into the Balkans. Serbia were annoyed by this because they wanted Bosnia to become part of a 'Greater Serbia' as there were a lot of Slavic people living in Bosnia. Russia backed up Serbia as it saw itself as the protector of the Slavic people that Serbia sought to protect. Serbia and Russia had to back down because Germany backed up Austria-Hungary, in accordance with the Triple Alliance of 1882. Germany's army was far stronger than Russia's, and so backing down was their only option, however Russia did begin to modernize her armed forces and increase the speed of their mobilization, in addition, Russia was determined not to back down again.	40