World History Mid-Year Exam Study Guide
You should be able to identify all the following people, places and terms. Identify means that you understand
the historical significance, characteristics, and relationship of that person, place or term. Make sure your
understanding is complete and detailed. The more you know the better off you will be for the mid-year exam.
Rise of Nation States
Divine Right
English Bill of Rights
Enlightenment
Social contract
Adam Smith & laissez-faire
Impact of American Revolution on world
National Assembly reforms
Napoleon’s invasion of Russia
Congress of Vienna
Nationalism
Division of 19th century colonial society in Latin America
Nationalism (definition)
Impact of French Revolution and Napoleon on nationalism
Nationalism as both unifying and divisive
Liberal
Nationalist movements in Austria-Hungarian empire
Cavour, Bismarck & “Realpolitik”
Obstacles to Italian & German unifications
Industrial Revolution
Meaning of word “Revolution”
Agricultural Revolution
Why began in England?
Working conditions in factories
Effects on family life and women
Reasons for growth of U.S. as industrial power
Principles of capitalist economies
Law of supply and demand
What Marx got wrong
Link between industrial revolution and rights for women
Late 19th century progress: (advances and inventions)
Imperialism
Link between nationalism, industrialization, and imperialism
Forces driving imperialism
Direct v. indirect control
Tai Ping & Boxer Rebellions compared
Commodore Perry’s expedition & Treaty of Kanagawa
Meji Restoration
U.S. annexation of Hawaii
Monroe Doctrine
Spanish-American War results
Roosevelt Corollary
Possible Open Response Topics
You will be asked to respond to writing prompts based on the topics below and will be graded based on the
common four-point open response rubric . Sources will be provided for each question. You will need to be
prepared to provide relevant historical examples and evidence in addition to the evidence from the sources to
complete your responses.
Absolutism to Revolution
1. Democratic ideals of the Enlightenment thinkers
2. Abuses of the Old Regime
3. Napoleon’s failures as a cause of the rise of nationalism
Nationalism
4. The process of unification in Italy and Germany
5. Nationalism as a unifying and a divisive force within a country
6. How Enlightenment ideas influenced Latin American revolutions
Industrial Revolution
7. Impact of industrial development on Western Europe or the United States
8. How and why the Industrial Revolution began in England in the 1700s
9. Differences between capitalism and communism
Imperialism
10. Motives of Western nations for their imperialist actions in Africa, Asia and Latin America
11. Forms of imperial control
12. Effects of imperialism on the imperialist nations and their colonies