KEY EVENTS & TURNING POINTS
Objective: To understand the causes, effects and significance of key turning points in World History.
NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION
when? 11 thousand years ago
 came after the Paleolithic
Stone Age
when people hunted and gathered.
( Nomads)




Neolithic era started when
people invented stone tools
for farming.
people began to settle_
in villages, often near
rivers such as the
Nile, Huang, Indus or Tigris
and Euphrates.
Civilization began.
Each civilization was
accompanied by the development of a
Economic system,
Political system,
Social system,
Belief system.
FALL OF ROME:
MIDDLE AGES BEGIN
when? 476 AD (CE)
 political causes:
Rulers fight each other for
control
 social cause:
People lose interest in giv’t
 economic causes:
High Taxes
 political power changed
from Centralized
to Feudal-Decentralized
 Middle Ages began.
political term: Feudalism
 huge buildings called
Castles were built for
shelter and protection
 land surrounding castles:
Fiefs. Economic term:
Manorialism
 people made everything
they needed.
term: Self Sufficient
 Catholic Church
became the most powerful
institution in Europe.
CRUSADES
when? 1095-1295
why? To free Constantinople
from Seljuk Turks
RESULTS:
 trade between Europe
and Middle East resumed.
 Europe rediscovered
Greek and Roman
classics by Plato, Aristotle,
and Socrates.
 these classics had been
preserved by Arab
and Byzantine
scholars.
 Muslims kept
Christians from
regaining the Holy Land.
led to the rise of towns and
cities the decline
of feudalism.
 the rebirth of
Greek and Roman ideas led
to a new era called the
RENAISSANCE
RENAISSANCE
AGE OF EXPLORATION
(VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS,
when? 1300-1600s
 main cause: Crusades
 Renaissance means
Reawakening (rebirth)
 Main concept: HUMANISM
emphasized Individuality.
 artworks featuring humanism:
Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo,
Last Supper by Leonardo.
 Entrepreneurs,
business owners who took risks,
grew rich through trade
 A Market economy
emerged so that people wouldn’t
have to barter.
 Banks were started
(where people kept money safe).
 rich Patrons of the
arts, such as the Medicis,
funded great art works.
 City States such
as Venice, Florence, and Rome
were like Athens in Ancient
Greece.
 people began to question
the authority of the Catholic
Church leading to
the Protestant Reformation
 as the power of the Catholic
Church declined, the power of
Monarchs increased.
 ultimately, this led to the rise
of Absolute monarchs
such as Louis XIV of France,
Ferdinand of Spain, and
Henry VIII of England.
COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE)
when? 1492
 First permanent contact
between Old World and
New World
 Cause: Ottoman Turks
blocked trade routes to
the Middle East after
conquering the Byzantine
Empire
Empire in 1453.
 led to the Age of
Exploration and
“ Triangular Slave trade”
between Europe, Africa and the
Americas
 Two countries from Iberian
peninsula that conquered Latin
America: Spain and Portugal
 main reason why Native
Americans were conquered:
Europeans had better
technology and weapons
 Spanish term for conqueror:
conquistador
 Cultural diffusion:
products to the Old worldCocoa, potato, corn, beans,
tobacco
products to the New WorldSugar, bananas, pigs, diseases
 effect of European diseases:
Killed many Native Americans
 terrible impact: Slave
trade caused great human
suffering and change of
life in western Africa.
 led to Mercantilism,
where ‘mother’ countries
acquired raw materials
and new markets.
PROTESTANT
REFORMATION
when? 1517
 started with Martin Luther
from Germany who protested
Sale of Indulgences.
 He nailed the 95
theses onto a church door.
 ended religious unity
in Western Europe
 Luther translated the
Bible into German (vernacular)
 new technology that
spread the Bible’s message:
Printing Press
 Henry VIII, king of
England broke from the
Catholic Church because
Pope wouldn’t grant him a
divorce.
 Catholic Church became
weak therefore
gov’t became
stronger. This led to the rise
of Absolute Monarchs
such as Louis XIV.
TURNING POINTS Global II
French Revolution
when? 1789
political cause-three estates:
1) Clergy – 1st Estate
2) Nobility- 2nd Estate
3) Peasants/Bourgeoisie- lacked
political power
Industrial Revolution
when? 1750
where? England
why England?
1)Natural Resources (coal and Iron)
2)Irregular Coastlines
3) Supportive Gov’t = $
economic cause:
positive results:
France, led by Louis XIV,
Many more goods made since
was deeply in debt caused by costly they could be produced by
wars
Machine. Steam powered iron
ships could travel farther and
more quickly.
social cause:
Enlightened thinkers
Many inventions were created
challenged the absolute
along with many factories
authority. People revolted and
that fostered economic growth.
stormed the Bastille in order
Examples:
release the political prisoners and Textile factories/power loom
get weapons
Ship building
Railroads
Telephone/telegraph
major events:
1) tennis Court Oath
2) King Louis XVI and his wife, negative results:
Marie Antoinette were beheaded
Working conditions
by Committee of Public Safety
 Low wages
3) But eventually M. Robespierre  Long Hours
was also beheaded
 Unsafe conditions
How? guillotine
 Child labor
4) Napoleon gained
control and expanded France’s
influence.
 Better wages were also
made. Positive? Negative?
main results:
1) middle class ( Bourgeoisie )
 Karl Marx hated
gained political power.
Capitalism. He wrote
2) French Revolution inspired
the Communist Manifesto
struggles for independence in Haiti which called for a over throw
(San Domingo )
of industrial capitalism
and in Bolivia and Columbia
workers. Famous quote:
( New Granada).
“Workers of the World Unite”!
3) expanded voting rights
to all males, whether they owned
property or not.
Nationalism
when? 1800s
where/leader:
 Italy-Mazzini, Cavour,
Garibaldi
 Germany- Otto von Bismark
 Turkey- Kemal Ataturk
 India- Gandhi
 Israel- Theodore Herzl
 Kenya- Jomo Kenyatta
causes:
 Latin American revolutions
were inspired by revolutions in
France and the United States
 Italy was tired of being
colonized, so nationalism
became a popular cause.(against the
French)
Germany 1800s- disunity among
the states-wanted to be free of
French Rule
results:
 Gangs of nations known
as alliances were
formed.
 Nations wanted more control
to show off their wealth
 Power hungry leaders
relied on force
to achieve their goals.
 Along with imperialism,
militarism, alliances, and
nationalism were the MAIN
causes of WWI and WWII
which began in 1914 and 1939.
Imperialism
India:
 Became a British colony
after the Sepoy Mutiny
in 1857.
 England took raw materials
such as salt and sold cotton products
back to India.
 Human rights were
violated. ( Human Rights Violations
)
Tactics/events: Passive resistance
and civil disobedience-Gandhi
 Salt March which
proclaimed Indian Independence
 Boycott of British clothing.
 arrested for treason.
 General strike which
shut down the country.
 Fasting to protest
violence against the British
and also to end Muslim-Hindu
conflicts.
Results: Gained Independence
in 1947, but Pakistan
was created as a homeland for the
Muslims.
Africa: same motives (
Independence)
Kipling’s “ White man’s Burden”
described British attitudes of
Imperialism,
 Scramble for Africa lasted
from 1880 to 1914.
 Africans began to resist
oppression. Independence
movements (i.e. Kenya ),
were successful after WWII.
CHINA: England gained power
after Opium War (1839 ).
Spheres of Influence were
created. Negative response:
Taiping Rebellion ( 1850-1864 )
led to fall of last dynasty
and creation of a weak central
government.
JAPANESE EXCEPTION:
US and great Britain did not colonize
Japan. Instead, Japan
became an imperialist
nation. Won wars against Russia
and China. Gained land in
Manchuria and Korea.
Turning point: Meiji Restoration
after Matthew Perry landed in 1853.
World War I
when?1914-1918
World War II
when? 1939-1945
MAIN causes
M iliterism
A lliances
I mperialism
N atioalism
MAIN causes again, this shows
how history repeats itself !
 Employed new weapons
of the Industrial rev
including tanks, bombs, gas
 style : trench warfare.
 casualties:8.5 million
 Winners: US, Britain, and
France
 Peace Plan: Versailles Treaty
written by Woodrow Wilson
called for a _________________
league of Nations
to prevent future wars. But U.S.
didn’t join and the League of
Nations was weak
 Biggest loser, Germany,
had to pay reparations
which caused inflations
and devastated the German
economy
 Revenge created a backlash
of German nationalism which
led to the rise of Hitler,
an evil dictator who
murdered millions of
men, women, and children.
 Hitler’s rise to power was
unchecked due to Neville
chamberlain , a British
Prime Minister, who followed a
policy of appeasement
( backing down to aggression).
Allies: Britain, France, Soviet
Union, USA
Axis: Germany, Japan, Italy
Some major events:
 Japan’s vicious takeover of
Manchuria and Nanjing
in China.
 Hitler’s invasion of Poland.
 Bombing of Pearl Harbor
a naval base in Hawaii.
 D-day, landing of
Allied forces in Europe.
 Costly battles on islands in
the Pacific Ocean.
 Atom bombs dropped
on Hiroshima, Nagasaki
Results: Allies win!!!!!!
VE day: May 1945
VJ day: Aug 1945
 U. S. occupies Japan.
 Power struggle between
US and Russia leads
to the Cold War, an
ideological battle which
pitted American Democracy
and capitalism against
the Soviet Union’s Totalitarianism
dictatorship and communism.
 Cold War conflicts in
Vietnam and Korea
were fought to stop the spread of
communism
 The outcome was seen as a
triumph of good over Evil
It forced Great Britain, which had
been weakened by WWII, to
reevaluate its policy of
imperialism. Soon Britain
gave up colonial claims in
Africa and India.
 China, under Mao
underwent its communist
Revolution after WWII. Its
effects are still felt today.
(i.e. Human Rights issue)