Created 1-11
Modern World History - Academic
Course Study Guide
Unit I
Absolutism
1. What was absolutism? How did the absolute monarchs of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries
justify their right to rule?
The Scientific Revolution
2. What was the scientific revolution? What were the major scientific discoveries made during this
time period and how did these discoveries affect the lives and beliefs of Europeans?
The Enlightenment
3. What was the Enlightenment and why is this period sometimes called the “Age of Reason?”
4. Explain the key ideas of these Enlightenment philosophers:
a. Hobbes
b. Voltaire
c. Montesquieu
d. Rousseau
5. Explain the major ideas of the political philosopher John Locke. Why are Locke’s ideas
especially important to us?
Unit II
French Revolution and Napoleon
6. Explain the causes of the French Revolution. Include the existing conflict between classes, the
influence of the Enlightenment, and the economic problems France faced in the18th century.
7. What were the key ideas contained in the Declaration of the Rights of Man. How do the ideas in this
document compare with those in the Declaration of Independence?
8. Who was Robespierre? How was Robespierre’s Reign of Terror similar to the later purges of Joseph
Stalin?
9. Who was Napoleon Bonaparte? Explain his rise to power and the impact that it had on Europe. What
mistakes did Napoleon make that contributed to his eventual downfall?
10. What is Napoleon’s legacy? Explain the changes that his reign brought to France. Why is the
Napoleonic Code especially important?
11. What were the goals of the Congress of Vienna? Explain the lasting impact of the decisions made at
this conference.
Nationalism
12. What is nationalism? What are the general goals and beliefs of nationalists?
13. How can nationalism be a force for either unity or disunity?
14. Who was Otto von Bismarck? Explain his policy of realpolitik. How did Bismarck change the
balance of power in Europe by 1871?
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Unit III
Industrialization
15. What was the industrial revolution? What were the key advancements that occurred during this time?
16. What factors of production are required for industrialization?
17. Why did the industrial revolution begin in England?
18. What were the positive and the negative effects of industrialization?
19. Contrast the ideas of the economic thinkers Adam Smith (in The Wealth of Nations) and Karl Marx
(in The Communist Manifesto).
20. Compare and contrast the following economic systems. Explain the key ideas associated with each.
a. Laissez-faire capitalism
b.Socialism
c. Marxist Socialism (Communism)
Imperialism
21. What is imperialism? What were the motives behind European imperialism in the nonWestern world?
22. What was the “White Man’s Burden?” How was the concept of Social Darwinism used to
justify European imperialism?
23. Why did Europeans want to colonize Africa? Identify the key factors that made European
colonization of Africa possible.
24. What was the result of the 1884-85 Berlin Conference?
25. Where is the Suez Canal located and why is it important?
26. Explain the phrase, “The sun never sets on the British Empire.” Describe the British Empire at its
peak.
27. Why was India Britain’s most important colony? How did British rule impact India and how did
the Indians respond to British imperialism?
28. Contrast how China and Japan responded to Western imperialism.
29. Compare the causes of the Opium War and the Boxer Rebellion. How are they similar?
Unit IV
World War I
30. Explain the long-term causes of WWI. Focus specifically on nationalism, imperialism, militarism,
and the alliance systems
31. Identify the two major alliances that existed in prewar Europe and the countries that belonged to
each.
32. Describe the short-term, immediate causes of the war. Focus on tensions in the Balkans and the
assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
33. Describe the strategies, tactics and weaponry used in WWI. How did these things impact the
number of casualties suffered by both sides in this war?
34. Explain the outcome of the war.
35. Explain the conflicting goals of the Allies at the Versailles Peace Conference.
36. What were the final provisions of the Treaty of Versailles? How did this treaty impact Germany?
37. Contrast the impact of the Treaty of Versailles with the earlier Congress of Vienna.
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Unit V
The Interwar Years
38. What were the causes of the Russian Revolution? Compare the causes of the Russian
Revolution to the causes of the French Revolution.
39. What were the beliefs and goals of Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks? Describe the events of
the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
40. Define totalitarianism and explain its key traits.
41. Explain how Joseph Stalin came to power and explain the methods he used to establish and
maintain a totalitarian state in the Soviet Union. Focus on his five year plans, collectivization,
the “Great Purge,” and the Soviet Gulags.
42. Identify the parties and leaders involved in the Chinese civil war. How did the goals of the
Nationalists and the Communists differ? Why did China’s peasants support the Communists
and Mao Zedong? What was the outcome of this civil war?
43. What was the goal of Indian nationalists? How did British policies in India contribute to the
rise of nationalism in India?
44. Who was Mohandas Gandhi? Explain how Gandhi used the policies of satyagraha (civil
disobedience) and passive (non-violent) resistance in his campaign for independence.
45. What is fascism? How did conditions in Europe after World War I contribute to the rise of
fascism in Europe?
46. What are the similarities and differences between fascism and communism?
47. How did fascists come to power in Italy and Germany? Who became the fascist dictators of
those countries?
48. What was Nazism? What were the core beliefs of the Nazi Party in Germany? How was the
Nazism practiced in Germany different from the fascism practiced in Italy?
Unit VI
World War II
49. Identify the Axis Powers. What acts of aggression by these countries during the 1930s moved
the world closer to world war?
50. How did the western powers – including the League of Nations – respond to Axis aggression?
How do the responses of these powers reflect a policy of appeasement?
51. Describe how Hitler utilized the tactic of blitzkrieg in World War II. How did this tactic differ
from the tactics used in World War I?
52. Describe Hitler’s conquests in both western and Eastern Europe. What strategic error did Hitler
make that Napoleon had also made?
53. Explain how and where the Allies turned the tide against the Axis Powers in 1941-1942 in
North Africa, on the Eastern Front, and in the Pacific.
54. How did the D-Day invasion of France in 1944 lead to the eventual surrender of Germany in
1945?
55. How was Japan defeated and forced to surrender?
56. What was the Holocaust? Why is Hitler’s “Final Solution” the ultimate example of genocide?
57. Why was the United Nations created? How was the UN different from the League of Nations
that it replaced?
58. What is the legacy of World War II? How was the world forever changed by this conflict?
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The Cold War
59. What was the Cold War? How was the Cold War an ideological conflict?
60. For what reasons can the Soviets be blamed for the Cold War? For what reasons can the
United States be blamed for the Cold War?
60. How did each of the following reflect the policy of containment?
a. The Truman Doctrine
b. The Marshall Plan
c. NATO
61. Explain the origin of the term “iron curtain.” Where was the “iron curtain” located?
62. Explain examples of Soviet repression during the Cold War such as the building of the Berlin
Wall and the Soviet response to uprisings in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
63. What was the Warsaw Pact?
64. What were the causes and the outcomes of the Korean War?
65. What were the causes and the outcomes of the Vietnam War?
66. Why did the Soviets invade Afghanistan in 1979? How did the U.S. respond? What was the
outcome of that war? How does that war continue to impact us today?
67. Why and how did communism end in Poland, Hungary and East Germany? Explain the events
that took place in these countries in 1989.
68. Explain the goals and the results of the Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost, perestroika and
democratization. How did these policies help lead to the fall of Communism in the Soviet
Union?
69. How did the Cold War end?
Unit VII
The World Since 1945
70. In what ways did ethnic and religious difference lead to the partition of India and Pakistan?
What were the results of this partition? How does this partition continue to impact events
today?
71. What is decolonization? What problems have been common to the newly-independent
countries of the developing world?
72. Identify the following and explain the impact each has had on China’s development since
1945.
a. Mao’s Cultural Revolution
b. Normalization of relations with the U.S.
c. Deng Xiaoping’s Four Modernizations
d. Tiananmen Square massacre
73. What was the Zionist movement? How did the Balfour Declaration support the goals of that
movement?
74. Explain how the state of Israel was finally established in 1948. What were the immediate and
long-term consequences of that event?
75. How did the creation of the state of Israel affect the Palestinians? What is the major cause of
the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict today? What are the unresolved issues preventing a peace
agreement and the establishment of a Palestinian state?
World Geography (Focus on the key countries that have been stressed in this course)
76. Know the locations of the major countries of Europe.
78. Know the locations of the major countries of Asia.
77. Know the locations of the major countries of the Middle East.