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Unit 9: Absolutism & EnlightnementDuring the period from 1750-1914, the world saw a lot of major changes around the globe. As Europeans began to experience the wealth of the Age of Exploration, the Absolute Monarch’s power expanded. During the Enlightenment, which started in the 18th century, European thinkers began to question rule by absolute monarchs and suggested new government models based upon natural rights, individual liberty, democracy, and separation of powers.
Unit 9 Agenda |
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Unit 11: Industry |
In the 19th century, major developments changed the world. The Industrial Revolution began in Britain and spread to other nations, like the USA, Germany, and Japan. The new factory system led to mass production of goods, urbanization, new forms of transportation, terrible working conditions, unions, and new economic ideas, like socialism.
Unit 11 Agenda |
Unit 12; Imperialism, Nationalism, & WWI |
The growth of industrialization led to an increase in demand for raw materials and markets to sell goods. This, along with the increased European competition as a result of nationalism, led to imperialism. Industrial nations annexed colonies in Africa and Asia in order to gain raw materials and markets to sell goods. Imperialism weakened once powerful empires like India, China, and African kingdoms and inspired revolts by native peoples against Europeans. Imperialism and industrialism led to the domination of the “West” over the rest of the world, but this economic and political competition also set the stage for World War I. From the 1880s to 1914, tensions increased among European nations as a result of imperial competition, advanced militaries, and powerful feelings of nationalism, especially in the Balkans. The outbreak of war between Serbia and Austria-Hungary triggered a network of European alliances and the beginning of the first World War between the Central Powers and the Allied Powers. This “Great War” was unlike any previous world conflict. Troops fought in trenches with new weapons like machine guns, tanks, and poison gas. Nations committed to “total war” and converted all their nation’s resources to winning. During the war, Russia was plagued by a series of economic and political problems. In 1917, Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian government and created the world’s first communist nation, the Soviet Union. By 1919, the Allies had won and signed the Treaty of Versailles, bringing an end to the war. The peacemakers created a League of Nations to prevent future wars, but brutally punished Germany and inadvertently created conditions that would lead to another world war in 1939.
Unit 12 Agenda |
Unit 13; World War II |
The peacemakers at the end of World War I created a League of Nations to prevent future wars, but the treaty brutally punished Germany and inadvertently created conditions that led to another devastating world war. In the 20 years between the world wars, totalitarian regimes came to power in Italy (Benito Mussolini), Japan (Hideki Tojo), and Germany (Adolf Hitler). These nations aggressively expanded in Europe, Africa, and Asia, which ignited a new world war between the Allies and Axis Powers in 1939. World War II proved to be a much larger, more costly, and more deadly war than World War I. Unlike the first world war that was fought in only Europe, the second world war was fought in two theaters: Europe/North Africa and Asia. WWII brought new changes: the discovery of the Holocaust, the development of atomic weapons, and the emergence of two dominant superpowers (the USA and USSR). At the end of the war, the United Nations was formed to do what the League of Nations did not: maintain world peace.
Unit 13 Agenda |
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Unit 15: Global Issues |
The end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century presented a new set of global challenges. In the decades following World War II, imperial colonies in Asia and Africa gained their independence. These new nations formed democracies and took control of their own economic futures, but many nations faced problems associated with population pressure, education, infrastructure, civil war, and the rise of military governments. While decolonization dominated Africa and southern Asia, China experienced major changes after the death of revolutionary leader Mao Zedong. Under Deng Xiaoping, China’s Communist Party relaxed strict socialist policies which allowed China’s economy to boom. Elsewhere in the world, corporations and trade organizations became more internationally connected. Advances in technology sped up information allowing businesses
and governments to better function across continents. This globalization marked an important transition in the modern era. In the 21st century, much of history has been defined by global terrorism and the “Arab Spring,” the embracing of human rights and democracy in the Middle East and north Africa. Issues that are current events today will soon be events in tomorrow’s history books. Unit 15 Agenda |