Chapter 1

Understanding the Past

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Summary

You will gain critical-thinking and analysis skills that will help you fulfill the role of a global citizen in our interconnected world. Primary sources are the first-hand evidence with which historians form a foundation of knowledge of the past. Secondary sources offer valuable starting points for inquiry and context, but students must be aware of any bias they contain. Knowing the past, the human story, has long been considered a mark of civilization, and its study has never been more important.

Key terms

secondary source

a document, object, or other source material written or created after the time period under study

global citizen

a person who sees themselves as responsible to a world community rather than only a national one

primary source

a document, object, or other source material from the time period under study

great man theory

the view that it is enough to study the deeds and impact of important leaders to paint an accurate picture of the past

rhetoric

the way words are used and put together in speaking or writing

social constructs

ideas such as class and gender created and accepted by the people in a society that influence the way they think and behave

historical empathy

the ability to see the past on its own terms, without judgment or the imposition of our own modern-day attitudes

progressive history

a school of thought that views history as a straight line to a specific and more democratic destination

Chapter 2

Exchange in East Asia and the Indian Ocean

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Summary

Although Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur, a Muslim who founded the Mughal Empire, made little effort to assimilate to Indian culture, his grandson Akbar forged a culture that incorporated Indian and Persian, Hindu and… Under him, the Mughal Empire grew to encompass most of northern and much of central India, including the Sultanate of Gujarat, the heart of a rich Indian Ocean trade. Under Aurangzeb, who attempted an Islamic revival and was largely intolerant of the Hindu population, the empire weakened as it battled the Maratha Empire for dominance over the states of seventeenth-century India Europeans sought to control India’s wealth.

Key terms

joint stock company

a company in which numerous merchants pooled their money to fund a business venture like a trading voyage and shared both risk and profit

Sikhism

a monotheistic faith that combines elements of Hinduism and Islam, established in the Punjab region of northwestern India in the fifteenth century

Silhak

a late seventeenth-century Korean reform movement that promoted the study of the physical sciences and technology in order to solve practical problems

Undang-Undang Laut Melaka

a Malaccan maritime law code, part of the Undang-Undang Melaka, governing the conduct of sailors and traveling merchants

trade diaspora community

society established by merchants who initially traveled to a foreign country to do business and then settled there

factory

in the context of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a trading post with offices and warehouses

Sufi

an Islamic mystic; practitioner of Sufism, the mystical expression of Islamic faith

hangul

the Korean alphabet, introduced by King Sejong in 1446

Chapter 3

Early Modern Africa and the Wider World

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Summary

Until the sixteenth century, caravans routinely plied the sands of the Sahara, moving goods, especially gold, from distant West Africa to centers of trade in North Africa and Egypt. Towns in West Africa became cosmopolitan stopping points, and as merchants, rulers, and caravan leaders converted to Islam for both spiritual and financial reasons, Islam flourished alongside the caravan business. In the thirteenth century, Sundiata Keita gained dominance over the Malinke and Soninke people, establishing the Malian Empire. Mali’s control of the Bure goldfields enabled it to prosper, and cities such as Timbuktu and Djenné became centers of Islamic scholarship.

Key terms

Swahili

a language that combines the grammar of African Bantu languages with a Bantu and Arabic vocabulary and is spoken in East Africa

Slave Coast

a section of African coast along the Bight of Benin, centered on the port city of Whydah and a major source of African people sold into slavery

dhow

a ship made of coconut-wood planks sewn together with coconut fiber and equipped with lateen sails

lateen sail

a triangular-shaped sail that allows a boat to sail both with and into the wind

Sudanic

a term describing the region of West Africa south of the Sahara Desert

caliph

an Islamic title designating a spiritual and secular leader

Chapter 4

The Islamic World

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Summary

But although no single powerful caliphate held all these areas together, the religion of Islam allowed for a degree of cohesiveness and unity, despite theological disagreements. By the sixteenth century, the religion of Islam had spread far beyond its point of origin in Southwest Asia. Islamic communities, large empires, and a number of Islamic kingdoms thrived in West and East Africa, southeastern Europe, India, and Southeast Asia. As a result, trade in all types of goods unified the wider Islamic world, flowing along numerous trade routes and through markets overseen by Muslim market inspectors.

Key terms

caliphate

an area under the control of a Muslim ruler called a caliph

devshirme

the system of recruiting Christian boys from the Balkans to be enslaved, converted to Islam, and trained to serve the Ottoman sultan

millet system

the system through which non-Muslim religious communities were allowed to regulate their internal affairs according to their own religious laws

Sultanate of Women

the period between the tenure of Hurrem Sultan in the mid-fifteenth century and the late seventeenth century, during which wives and mothers of the sultan were able to exert…

Twelvers

members of a large Shia sect who believe the twelfth imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, will return, along with Jesus, to defeat evil on earth

caravansary

an inn funded by the state or wealthy individuals where travelers could spend the night and store their goods securely

ulama

a class of religious clerics and scholars who act as the primary interpreters of Islamic law

dhimmi

a non-Muslim living under Muslim rule

Chapter 5

Foundations of the Atlantic World

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Summary

Some scholars in northern Europe had turned to Christian humanism as a means of making people more pious and thus achieving religious reform. Martin Luther, a German monk, began the Protestant Reformation when he publicly objected to the church’s sale of indulgences. In the sixteenth century, many European Christians were critical of practices within the Catholic Church. Luther was excommunicated, but the printing press enabled his ideas to spread throughout Europe.

Key terms

Christian humanism

a movement, also known as northern Renaissance humanism, that stressed the study of the works of Greece and Rome and the early Christian fathers to awaken individual piety

indulgences

a way to reduce or cancel the time after death during which people needed to suffer in purgatory to atone for their sins before reaching heaven

chattel slavery

a form of slavery in which one person is owned by another as a piece of property

astrolabe

a device for navigation that used constellations as a guide and enabled mariners to find their north-south position on the earth’s surface

colonialism

a practice in which one group of people attempts to establish control over another group, usually for purposes of economic exploitation

encomienda

a system of coerced labor based on a grant by the Spanish Crown that entitled conquistadors to the labor of specified numbers of Indigenous people

mercantilism

an economic theory in which a nation’s power depended on the wealth it gained by exporting goods of greater value than it imported, and in which a gain for one nation was a loss…

Middle Passage

the middle (or second) leg of the three-legged triangular trade that carried enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas

Chapter 6

Colonization and Economic Expansion

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Summary

The Seven Years’ War (1754-1763) established a new balance of power in Europe in which Britain emerged as the dominant empire. European settlers in North America were a diverse group with a wide array of motives. Many Spaniards came as part of a broader search for “God, Gold, and Glory.” French settlers also hoped to find wealth, although they were more likely than other Europeans to cooperate with rather than exploit… The Virginia Company of England founded Jamestown in an effort to gain wealth, while English Puritans founded communities they hoped would earn profits while also promoting their religious ideology.

Key terms

balance of power

a situation in which competing nations have approximately equal military power

capitalism

an economic system in which private individuals and companies own the means of production, and free (unregulated) markets set the value of most goods and services based on supply…

bourgeoisie

the social class whose members owned the means of production and whose main goal was the preservation of capital

Marxism

the idea, espoused by Karl Marx, that recognizing class struggle is central to understanding societies

socialism

an economic system in which the public owns the means of production

black legend

the myth, mostly promoted by English writers, that the Spanish treated Native Americans far more harshly than other European colonizers

Canton system

a system that allowed Europeans to trade with China only if they worked through the Chinese guilds that enjoyed monopoly rights to the tea and silk trades

cultural accommodation

the practice of integrating a culture into the dominant society without forcing it to fully integrate and adopt all the dominant culture’s components

Chapter 7

Revolutions in Europe and North America

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Summary

Over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the public sphere became an increasingly important component in the spread and development of Enlightenment ideas. Salons likewise served as important centers of philosophical discussion. The eighteenth century marked the beginning of a new spirit of intellectual exchange in Europe known as the Enlightenment. Inspired by the Scientific Revolution’s spirit of critical thinking, the ideas of the Italian Renaissance, and the legacy of Muslim, Greek, and Indian scientific foundations, the Enlightenment centered on the role of…

Key terms

public sphere

shared spaces that enabled the exchange of ideas and information outside the control of state and church, like coffeehouses and salons

salon

informal gathering in the homes of wealthy aristocrats, generally hosted by women, that served as a site for the discussion of Enlightenment ideas and philosophies

general will

a concept in political philosophy by which the state can be legitimate only if it is guided by the will of the people as a whole

the social contract

an implicit agreement among members of a society to surrender their natural rights to the state, which is then charged with maintaining and protecting those rights

Congress of Vienna

an 1814-1815 meeting of Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria to restore the balance of power and assert principles of conservatism

conservatism

a political ideology that emerged in reaction to the freedoms associated with the revolutions of the eighteenth century and advocated submitting to government authority and…

Continental Congresses

two assemblies of elected colonial representatives that met in Philadelphia in 1774 and 1775, the second time to adopt the powers of government and approve the Declaration of…

Directory

an executive council of five men established by the Convention in France to replace the Committee of Public Safety after the decline of the Reign of Terror

Chapter 8

Revolutions in Latin America

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Summary

The overthrow of the Spanish monarchy by the French gave creoles the opportunity to participate in local self-governing bodies called juntas, and some were delegates to meetings of the Spanish Cortes, a national… These educated people of European ancestry had been born in the Americas and resented both the political power held by the peninsulares and Spain’s economic restrictions. In 1816, Miguel Hidalgo proclaimed Mexico’s independence from Spain with the Grito de Dolores and led a largely Indigenous and mestizo army to overthrow the colony’s government. However, Hidalgo’s call for widespread social reforms and the violence of his followers led creoles to desert both his movement and the calls of his successor José Maria Morelos for social equality

Key terms

Grito de Dolores

the “cry” of Dolores, Miguel Hidalgo’s declaration of rebellion made in the town of Dolores on September 16, 1810

juntas

deliberative or administrative councils in Spain and Spanish America

creoles

in Spanish colonies, American-born White people of European descent

peninsulares

in Spanish colonies, European-born White people from Spain

Virgin of Guadalupe

the apparition of the Virgin Mary who is said to have appeared to the Aztec peasant Juan Diego and later became the national symbol and patron saint of Mexico

Monroe Doctrine

a principle of U.S. foreign policy that warned European nations to refrain from interfering with independent countries in the Western Hemisphere

Plan de Iguala

Agustín de Iturbide’s proclamation of independence creating a constitutional monarchy and protecting both the Catholic Church and Europeans living in Mexico

Cádiz Cortes

the central Spanish junta established in the city of Cádiz that coordinated Spanish resistance to the French occupation

Chapter 9

Expansion in the Industrial Age

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Summary

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the world’s industrialized nations—Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, and the United States—entered the Second Industrial Revolution. They manufactured machines as well as other items to be used for industry, such as steel, rubber, and chemicals. The Second Industrial Revolution was indebted to new sources of power such as electricity and the internal combustion engine; new methods of travel and communication were also developed. As the industrialized nations grew wealthier and more powerful, other nations such as Canada, Italy, Russia, and Japan began to industrialize as well.

Key terms

imperialism

the policy of gaining direct or indirect control over parts of the world with low-cost resources and no competing mass-produced goods

Scramble for Africa

the competition among European countries to establish colonies in Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

shogunate

a Japanese system in which a military leader, the shogun, and an aristocratic military elite, the samurai, ruled in place of the emperor

The Great Game

the contest between Britain and Russia to dominate central Asia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Boxers

members of the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists, an anti-foreign secret society in northern China

Congo Free State

a personal colony of Belgium’s King Leopold II where infamous abuse of African laborers took place

Force Publique

a native army commanded by European officers to enforce brutal discipline in the Congo Free State

Meiji Restoration

the period beginning in 1868 when, under Emperor Meiji, Japan began to industrialize

Chapter 10

Life and Labor in the Industrial World

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Summary

During the Second Industrial Revolution, life in industrialized nations changed dramatically. The electrified, mechanized workplace meant long hours and low wages for unskilled factory workers. Work was often dangerous and unemployment precarious. Nevertheless, industrialization did bring benefits.

Key terms

social democrat

people who favor the creation of a socialist society through democratic means

debt bondage

a system in which a person who owes money works (or provides someone else to work) for the creditor until the debt has been repaid

naturalism

a literary style that emphasized realistic, detached, impersonal depictions of characters whose actions were molded by their environment in ways they often had no ability to…

romanticism

an artistic movement formed in response to the Industrial Revolution that prized emotion and imagination and took as its subjects the themes of nature, the ordinary person, the…

demographic transition

a reduction in family size in the late 1800s caused by falling birth rates in industrialized nations

realism

a literary and artistic style that realistically depicted everyday life in the contemporary world

Taylorism

a system of management that sought to improve workers’ productivity by curbing wasteful movements

real wages

wages measured in terms of the amount of goods and services that can be purchased with them

Chapter 11

The War to End All Wars

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Summary

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Europe was controlled by a series of alliances that served to check any one power from becoming too large. These alliances had worked for a number of decades, and there had been little in the way of warfare on the continent. However, competition existed among the powers, especially in colonial development. In particular, Germany’s desire to have more colonies and a correspondingly larger navy put it in direct competition with the British Empire.

Key terms

Zimmermann Telegram

a 1917 telegram sent by Germany’s foreign minister offering an alliance with Mexico in return for Mexico causing disturbances along its U.S. border

Sykes-Picot Agreement

a secret agreement reached between France and Britain in 1916 to partition areas of the Middle East after the war

War Industries Board (WIB)

a U.S. federal agency created in 1917 to control the economic and industrial output of factories in times of war

Women’s Land Army

a British program to help women ensure enough foodstuffs were produced on farms while men served in the military

U-boats

German submarines equipped with torpedoes that sank thousands of pounds of cargo over the course of World War I

Sedition Act

a 1918 act passed in the United States that forbade forms of speech considered disloyal to the war effort

Allies

the nations that united to oppose Germany and Austria-Hungary, originally, Russia, France, and Britain

Balkan League

an alliance created in 1912 by Greece, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Serbia against the Ottoman Empire

Chapter 12

The Interwar Period

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Summary

The 1919 Treaty of Versailles fully blamed Germany for the war and sought to punish it by assessing reparations of more than $33 billion and physically shrinking the country. A period of significant change followed World War I. New countries emerged through the redrawing of Europe’s maps. Massive physical rebuilding was necessary in former combat areas in Europe, while the United States emerged as a major player in world politics and a creditor nation on the brink of prosperity.

Key terms

reparations

monetary payments to be made to the Allied nations by Germany to compensate for destruction they suffered in the war

Treaty of Versailles

a 1919 treaty that formally ended World War I, redrew the map of Europe, and created the League of Nations

gold standard

a monetary system in which the value of a country’s currency is tied directly to the value of gold

Balfour Declaration

a 1917 statement by British foreign secretary Alfred Balfour publicly supporting the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine

fascism

a political movement focused on transforming citizens into committed nationalists striving for unity and racial purity to remedy a perceived national decline

Five-Year Plans

domestic plans adopted by the Soviet Union in the 1930s to target industrial and agricultural output goals that were usually unrealistic

mandate system

a system in which control of an area was transferred from one government to another under the oversight of the League of Nations

New Economic Policy (NEP)

Lenin’s policy that introduced some aspects of capitalism in response to hardships and growing discontent among the Russian people

Chapter 13

The Causes and Consequences of World War II

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Summary

As the 1930s unfolded, it became clear that peace would not last for long. Japan’s advances through China and its violent attack on Nanjing showed that its military-dominated government would continue to press aggressively for more territory The rise of fascism in Italy and Germany continued unchecked. The Nazis were able to manipulate the situation to their diplomatic advantage and gain British and French acquiescence to the takeover of Austria and the Sudetenland (in Czechoslovakia) before any war began.

Key terms

Atlantic Charter

a statement of British and U.S. goals and objectives for the world after World War II; negotiated by British prime minister Winston Churchill and U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt

German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact

a 1939 agreement between Germany and the USSR in which the two nations agreed not to attack one another or to assist other nations in attacking the other and to divide portions…

Holocaust

the Nazi genocide that resulted in the murder of more than six million Jewish people and at least three million members of other, non-Jewish minority groups

Lebensraum

a German term meaning “living room” and referring to lands seized from countries in eastern Europe in which Adolf Hitler envisioned settling German families to supplant the…

Munich Pact

an agreement reached in 1938 in which Czechoslovakia granted territorial concessions to Germany, Poland, and Hungary in the hopes that Adolf Hitler would cease his aggressions

Nuremberg Laws

a series of laws promulgated in Germany in 1935, institutionalizing Nazi racial theories and discrimination against Jewish people

Percentages Agreement

the agreement between Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin about how to divide political influence in Eastern Europe after the war

Final Solution

the Nazi plan to eliminate the Jewish population of Europe; developed by senior bureaucrats at the Wannsee Conference

Chapter 14

Cold War Conflicts

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Summary

The Soviet Union responded by forming the Warsaw Pact with the Eastern Bloc countries of Eastern Europe Following World War II, the two remaining superpowers—the United States and the Soviet Union—entered the Cold War, an ideological contest in which each side competed for supremacy through the use of economic aid… Foreign policy was focused on containment, preventing the influence of the Soviet Union and the ideology of communism from spreading beyond Eastern Europe. A major test of each nation’s resolve to defeat the other came with the Soviet Union’s blockade of West Berlin in 1948-1949.

Key terms

Cold War

a contest for ideological, social, economic, technological, and military supremacy between the United States and the Soviet Union

containment

the West’s Cold War policy goal of confining communism to the Soviet Union and the nations of Eastern Europe

Warsaw Pact

a military and political alliance among the communist nations of Eastern Europe

bloc

a group of countries united for a common purpose

Berlin Airlift

an operation carried out by Great Britain and the United States to supply West Berlin from the air during the Soviet Union’s blockade of West Berlin

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

the 1964 resolution that gave President Lyndon Johnson permission to retaliate against North Vietnamese attacks and to act first to defend U.S. lives

Non-Aligned Movement

a movement of nations that sought to remain outside the sphere of influence of both the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War

proxy wars

wars fought by allies of the Soviet Union and the United States to avoid risking a direct conflict between the two superpowers during the Cold War

Chapter 15

The Contemporary World and Ongoing Challenges

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Summary

The poorest groups are also most commonly exploited by MNCs that contract with large factories or sweatshops in developing countries. In the aftermath of World War II, countries began to open trade and communications around the world. In Europe, the EEC or Common Market eventually grew into the EU. In Asia, countries worked together to create their own trading blocs like ASEAN and APEC.

Key terms

poorest groups

also most commonly exploited by MNCs that contract with large factories or sweatshops in developing countries

al-Qaeda

an Islamic terrorist organization financed and led by militant Saudi Arabian national Osama bin Laden and responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001

bulletin board system (BBS)

pre-internet computer networks that consisted of personal computers connected with each other via modems and phone lines

European Union (EU)

a single-market zone created in 1993 to allow the free movement of goods, services, money, and people among European member states

globalization

the interconnectedness of societies and economies throughout the world as a result of trade, technology, and adoption and sharing of various aspects of culture

Islamic State

a fundamentalist and militant Islamic group that grew in power and waged a war in Iraq and Syria following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003