History Exam Review 2025 PDF

EXAM REVIEW WORLD HISTORY THE RENAISSANCE 1490s and the 1520s Europe in 1500 – class structure, concept of world and self ​ Class structure: Three classes: upper class: kings/monarchs, clergy, knights, and nobles, middle class: merchants, doctors, lower clergy, lower class: pea...

EXAM REVIEW WORLD HISTORY THE RENAISSANCE 1490s and the 1520s Europe in 1500 – class structure, concept of world and self ​ Class structure: Three classes: upper class: kings/monarchs, clergy, knights, and nobles, middle class: merchants, doctors, lower clergy, lower class: peasants and serfs (majority of pop. were lower class) ​ Concept of world: Did not know geographical location say for local landmarks: when peasants went out to fight battles for their lords, they did not know how to return home so they established many small scattered towns ​ Concept of self: Did not have last names, they essentially lived to work the land and serve their lord Birth of Capitalism – impact of New World, notion of Superpowers, Mercantilism ​ Birth of Capitalism: ○​ 1500 Europe - period of rapid economic growth (commercial revolution) ○​ Large sums of money/capital to engage in large-scale commercial, manufacturing, or agricultural operations (private interest) ○​ Impact on social class: middle class grew in ranks as artisans and labourers worked their way up in this age of economic expansion ○​ European geography: moved trade routes from Mediterranean Sea to the High Seas - economic power passed from Italian cities to cities that bordered the Atlantic ​ Impact of New World: ○​ Cornucopian wealth, abundance of natural resources, expanded world view (maps were inaccurate) ○​ Gold and silver (mining) ○​ Opens up many opportunities for trade/richness ○​ On capitalism: exhausted supplies of gold and silver, disturbed trade industry (?), countries went bankrupt as they tried to keep large armies in the colonies/field ​ Mercantilism: ○​ Countries try to become self-sufficient by producing everything they need (sell max., buy min.) ○​ Trading with a country's own colonies?? ○​ Nationalist economic policy that maximizes the exports and minimizes the imports for an economy. ○​ One sided trade? ​ Six major figures of the Renaissance ​ Johannes Gutenberg - introduced printing press, published his version of the bible. ​ Leonardo da Vinci - Famous renaissance artist. Challenged the church after his discovery of the human anatomy being more than just a spirit. ​ Martin Luther - Challenged the church, and created his ninety five theses.  ​ Christopher Columbus - ‘discovered’ America, as well as the aztecs. ​ Nicolaus Copernicus - Polish astronomer, who discovered the sun is the centre of our universe and everything else rotates around the sun. ​ Niccolò Machiavelli - Fear!! Henry VIII ​ Elizabeth I ​ ABSOLUTISM AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT - 1685 – 1815? Louis XIV – Divine Right, Power and Control, Standing Armies, European Influence ​ Divine Right: As sovereign by divine right, the King was God's representative on earth. An adherent of the divine right of kings, Louis XIV (14th) continued his predecessors' work of creating a centralised state governed from the capital. ​ Power and Control:Thins out nobility, moved his court to Versailles, hard to disagree with him, isolating people from Paris, basic/demeaning tasks, go to all the meetings and sit in on them/involved in them (micromanaging), three year limit on governor’s position (no one is going to build up power/support if they’re only in for three years) ​ Standing Armies: Loyal army, National Army directly loyal to him, only job is to be military men (up until this point, Kings had to round people up/get Lords to gather their men for their King - problem: Soldiers loyal to their Lords, not the King), organized, uniformed, streamline ​ European Influence: in other international courts they used French language (most elegant, fashioned, cultured), looking to France for inspiration Enlightenment Movement – What is it, what spawned it, who instituted it, Enlightened leaders ​ What is it: ○​ Criticized unquestioning obedience to authority (royal or religious) ○​ Praised free discussion and debate ○​ Subscribed to “Deism” - belief that God did not actively participate in human affairs but built the world ○​ Unhindered by the constraints of political and religious persecution resulted in the debate of issues like: ​ Free market economy ​ Freedom of speech and the press ​ Abolition of slavery ​ Human rights / Women’s rights ​ Public education ​ Crime and punishment ​ Starts because: literacy is improving, King and court are distant, general dissatisfaction with the King, merchant class (now nobility), more money, open to discussions (SALONS - French coffee  houses), enlightenment started in salons, women invited (held with equal weight), academics, nobility, merchant class, not peasants ​ Discussions: Women’s rights, new philosophies, new scientific concepts, Isaac Newton’s mathematics, socialist ideas (merchant class and peasant rights, general human rights, slavery being questioned, monarchy and absolute leadership, what is this Divine Right of King’s, religion, God, prisoner rights ​ Who instituted it: women’s salons, nobility ​ Enlightened Leaders: ○​ Catherine the Great (yay enlightenment!!! until French Revolution, and kill their king and queen) ○​ She sponsors the Russian revolution ○​ Revises Russian laws based off enlightened ideas of French philosophers ○​ Many monarchs unsettled by this anarchy and death as a result of the enlightenment movement Social Class [The Three Estates] in France – who was where, impact of Enlightenment, role of church and state ​ The Three Estates: First (clergy) 1%, Second (nobles) 1%, Third (peasants, merchants, etc) 98% ​ Nobles and clergy had more power (1 vote per estate, equal amount of power per estate despite drastic inequality in population/members) ​ Estate general: The political and financial situation in France had grown rather bleak, forcing Louis XVI (16th) to summon the Estates General ​ Tennis Court Oath (handball court): Third Estate took an oath never to separate until a written constitution had been established for France ​ Impact of Enlightenment: Non-elites were becoming involved in experiences previously only available to the upper echelons of society, these experiences continued to exclude both women and the working class ​ Role of Church and State: The radical Enlightenment promoted the concept of separating church and state: the Roman Catholic Church and European monarchs tried to censor, or ban, many of the books and other works of Enlightenment thinkers Roots of The French Revolution – Louis XVI, role of class, role of external influences ​ Roots/external influences: Lose Seven Years War (lose all of North America, resources, supplies), fund American Revolution (get back at Britain, put them in even more debt), harsh winter killing wheat crop (starvation, bread/food shortages), French enlightenment talking about getting rid of the King, democracy/democratic model FRENCH REVOLUTION / NAPOLEON - 1789 Overview of Revolution – ​ Fall of Louis XVI (16th): beheaded for trying to escape France (seen as treason, fleeing to Austria), him and Marie Antoinette were young, naive, out of touch, brought up in Versailles) ​ Rise and fall of Robespierre: ○​ Associated with the Jacobin Club (political club - extreme violence to achieve their goals: widespread education, separation of Church and state, etc.)  ○​ Idealistic, wants constitutional monarchy, then goes crazy and thinks he's a God, Executing people, says he has a list with traitors / threatens people, they kill him (gets sent to the guillotine) ​ Marat: ○​ Wrote column about revolution/hate on monarchy, stabbed in bathtub (assassinated because of his ideas: violence, guillotine ○​ French political theorist, journalist and politician during the French Revolution ○​ Vigorous defender of the sans-culottes, a radical voice, and published his views in pamphlets, placards and newspapers ​ Jaque Louis David: ○​ French painter ○​ Painted Marat and Napoleon (propagandist for Napoleon) ​ Napoleon: French military officer and statesman ○​ Napoleon Bonaparte promoted French nationalism based upon the ideals of the French Revolution such as the idea of liberty, equality, fraternity and justified French expansionism and French military campaigns Napoleon and War – ​ Rise to power: Napoleon gained power due to his respected reputation as a military officer during the French Revolution. In 1799, Napoleon and his allies overthrew the French Directory government and established the French Consulate. Napoleon was elected ​ Napoleon and French Society ○​ ​ Nationalism: ○​ Nationalism is an ideology that emphasizes loyalty, devotion, or allegiance to a nation or nation-state and holds that such obligations outweigh ○​ Napoleon spread the idea of Nationalism = detrimental to his forces as they became increasingly loyal to their own countries instead of France ​ Continental System: ○​ The Continental System, 1806, was meant to prohibit all trade, even by neutral countries, with Britain ○​ LED TO NAPOLEON’S FALL - Russia withdrew from the system so Napoleon invaded Russia, lost miserably ○​ He was then forced into exile from France to a Mediterranean island called ELBA ​ Congress of Vienna ○​ A meeting of European nations that set out a strategy to maintain peace and stability throughout the continent ○​ PURPOSE: get rid of French revolutionary ideas (ex: everyone getting the vote, new governmental ideas like power of king and church being reduced, nationalism, etc.) ○​ Alexander the 1st (Tsar of Russia) will do this ​ 1848: constant rebellions, ideas of enlightenment come, get pushed back, etc; Britain is fine, everytime there is an uprising, they give them a little bit more power (industrial revolution is happening now) INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND NATIONALISM - 1760 to about 1820–1840? Industrial Revolution – what was it, what started it, what did it mean for manufacturing ​ What was it: New machines + New technologies: transformed economies that had been based on agriculture and handicrafts into economies based on large-scale industry ​ What started it: ○​ Urbanization: populations moving from farmland to cities ○​ Advances in metal work and production techniques ​ Manufacturing: ○​ Led to streamline, copy-paste, mechanized manufacturing ○​ Economy improving, gradually quality of life is improving, ○​ Workers rights Impact of Industrial Revolution – Class structure, political philosophy ​ Class structure: ○​ The industrial rev. Created a new middle class along with the working class ○​ Owned, controlled, and operated factories and mines (other industries) ​ Liberalism: ○​ Industrial revolution = complex societies = popularity of political and moral philosophy based on: ​ The rights of the individual ​ Liberty ​ Consent of the governed ​ Political equality ​ The right to private property ​ Equality before the law. ○​ Peasants and middle class join to achieve goals but after achieving their own goals, middle class leaves behind peasants ○​ Didn't give “stupid” people the vote = peasants turn to communism/revolution ​ Capitalism: ○​ Industrial rev. Paved the way for social and economic changes that led to capitalism? ○​ Large sums of money/capital to engage in large-scale commercial, manufacturing, or agricultural operations (private interest) Britain and the Industrial Revolution – Imperialism, trade, international relations ​ Imperialism: Establishing + enforcing the rule of a nation on outside peoples or countries (basically colonization?) ○​ Raw materials from colonies across the British Empire fuelled the Industrial Revolution ​ Trade: ○​ By the 1850s, Britain was exporting so many cotton textiles to both the other regions, (result of technologies brought by the Industrial Revolution) ○​ Able to pay for imports of food and tropical products primarily with net exports of “other” goods, and of woollens and other textiles = MERCANTILISM (self-reliance of a country)  ​ International relations: ○​ Increased international trade in many countries, including Britain ○​ Divided the world into developed, developing and underdeveloped countries?? ○​ Not totally sure on this one Nationalism – the unification of Germany and Italy GERMANY: Slideshow: ○​ Otto von Bismarck: ​ Wanted to unite German states under Prussian authority (Prime Minister of Prussia, founder of the German Empire) Strategies: ○​ 1. Blood and Iron Philosophy: ​ Achieve the unification of Germany = by military strength and bloody action ​ “Great questions are not resolved by speeches and majority resolutions but by blood and iron.” He used this principle as the reason for building Prussia’s power. ○​ 2. Strengthening the Prussian Military: ​ To build a strong and efficient army, Bismarck bypassed the Prussian parliament and illegally raised taxes. ​ Army = ensure victories against enemies that may have threatened the unification of Germany ○​ 3. To unify Germany, Bismarck used three key wars: ​ a) Danish War (1864): Gained Schleswig and Holstein (danish provinces), which geographically would help in a war with Austria ​ b) Austro-Prussian War (1866): Defeated Austria with the intention of preventing it from intruding in German affairs from then on. The war's outcome created the North German Confederation. ​ c) Franco-Prussian War (1870–71): Provoked France into war for the purpose of unifying northern and southern Germany against their common enemy, which successfully completed the unification. ○​ 4. Diplomatic Isolation of Enemies: ​ Strategic actions, Bismarck successfully isolated his enemies before the wars. ​ Ex: made sure Russia would remain neutral before the war against Austria and isolated France from their allies before their war against France ○​ 5. Use of a Common Enemy to Unite German States: ​ Used wars to unify the different states of Germany against a common enemy ​ In the war against Austria, he unified northern and southern German states under Prussia ​ In the Franco-Prussian War, he united Protestant Prussia with Germany’s  Catholic southern states ITALY: ​ Background? ○​ Kingdom of Sardinia was the most powerful Italian state ○​ Austria outpowered/dominated the region ○​ The collective hatred for Austria united Italian citizens fueled a desire for unification of nation-states (many of the nationalists in Italian states were also liberals who believed that once Austrians were thrown out, Italy (once it was formed) could have a more democratic government ​ How it came about ○​ Count Camillo di Cavour = leading minister of Sardinia (liberal who made many reforms) ○​ He strengthened Sardinia economically and militarily and looked for allies to help Sardinia expel Austria from the Italian states (/Italy?) ○​ Cavour made a deal with France to help Sardinia fight Austria in exchange for territories of Nice and Savoy ○​ Sardinia and allied Italian states went to war against Austria and lost = peace treaty gave them region of Lombardy + during war, Italian pop. in other regions had overthrown their rulers and voted to join Sardinia (strength in numbers) ○​ Giuseppe Garibaldi (known as one of the most romantic heroes!!), was a believer in Italian unification and democracy - exiled but returned to lead band of volunteers in revolt against Austria ○​ During this, Prussia and Austria go to war and Prussia insists that Austria give more land (Venetia) to Italy (Sardinia + allied states??) ○​ When Prussia and France go to war, the French troops in Rome are forced to retreat = now free for the Italian army to take power of the city (Successful unification now?!) ○​ In Rome, the pope withdrew behind the walls of the Vatican and remains as the spiritual head of the Roman Catholic Church Science and literature – Romanticism, Darwin, Marx, Dickens ​ Romanticism: ○​ In part about escaping from modern realities of industrial revolution ○​ Revolt against the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and also a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature ​ Charles Darwin: ○​ Theory of evolution & natural selection ○​ Building on enlightenment ideas of moving away from religion and towards scientific reasoning? ○​ Importance of these theories: Disproved/discredited the Church’s insistence on God’s control/impact on human evolution  ​ Karl Marx: ○​ German philosopher and advocate for communism (cowrote The Communist Manifesto) in the 19th century (late 1800s) ○​ Importance in industrial revolution/general: His theories and writing influenced working class (proletariat) people to revolt against the industrial and capitalist system that controlled them (bad working conditions, low pay, lack of liberty, etc.) ​ Charles Dickens: ○​ 1820-1870 ○​ English novelist and journalist (concerning class divide, social conditions, poverty, etc.) ○​ Seen as greatest writer of the industrial revolution ○​ Points out the effect of industrialization on society and the working poor in his novel "Hard. Times." THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION - March 8, 1917 – June 16, 1923 Russia pre-Revolution – the economy, the leadership, its role in Europe ​ Economy: ○​ Poor country (had resources but was locked in by the vast size of the country + extreme weather conditions) ○​ Produced cheap raw materials for other countries to manufacture ○​ DID NOT GO THROUGH INDUSTRIAL REV. (Drewery said??) ○​ = Economically underdeveloped in comparison to Western European countries ​ The Leadership: 1.​ Tsar Nicholas I (reigned 1825-1855) ​ Liberal ideas spreading in Russia (post-Napoleonic era/French Revolution) ​ Following a revolt by (liberal/radical) younger members of the aristocracy, called the Decemberists, Tsar Nicholas I introduced repressive measures: ○​ Censoring the press ○​ Restricting travel outside Russia ○​ Banning political organizations ​ Russia also loses a war and doesn’t expand their territory (this is bad) 2.​ Tsar Alexander II (reigned 1855-1881) ​ Following this defeat, Tsar Alexander II thinks it was because Russia is reliant on serfdom (indentured servants / debt bondage) ​ He was a reformist and emancipated the Russia serfs (set them free) ​ Introduced a number of reformist measures in education and judicial aspects; however, liberal reformers wanted to go further (!!) and plotted to overthrow the Tsar Alexander II to establish a liberal democratic state ​ So they (revolutionary group: People’s Will) assassinated him  3.​ Tsar Alexander III (reigned 1881-1894) ​ Father died from being a reformist = Tsar Alexander III does the OPPOSITE and reintroduces repressive policies like Tsar Nicholas I ​ Died naturally 4.​ Tsar Nicholas II (reigned 1894-1917) ​ Weak, no sense of direction, no prepared for the role ​ The one with Alexei with hemophilia and Rasputin ​ Reigns during time of frequent workers’ strikes and anti government protests (instability in Russia) ​ Tsar Nicholas II is forced to agree to some liberal reforms including establishing an elected assembly, the Duma ​ Him and his family, the Romanovs, were murdered by revolutionary group, the Bolsheviks ​ Russo-Japanese war ○​ Russia ​ Rasputin, ​ WW1 ​ Revolution – Impact of/on WW1, Lenin and impact on international relations ​ Communism: ○​ Absence of private property and social classes, and ultimately money and the state - self-governed country/nation ○​ German philosopher, Karl Marx, proposes communist ideology (The Communist Manifesto) - stating that workers (proletariat) being walked on, exploited by bourgeoisie (merchant class) ○​ He believes communism is possible (Germany, France?) through violent, radical revolution = new beginning, utopia, new Eden ○​ Revolution of class - first time we call middle class (powerful, centering force) ○​ Marx thinks communism rev. should not happen in Russia: there was no middle class, only peasants and rich (unlike England - factory workers and nobles) ​ Vladimir Lenin: ○​ Founder of the Russian Communist Party, leader of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917  ○​ Successful revolution - Romanov (royal) family toppled, Tsar Nicholas II and his family are murdered by the Bolsheviks during rev. ○​ Becomes leader of Soviet Union ○​ Died naturally/coma ​ Joseph Stalin ○​ Is part of Lenin’s communist party of the Soviet Union ○​ Stalin’s job was to put members of the party in positions - he puts his friends/allies in powerful roles ○​ Lenin dies = Stalin is elected (bc friends in powerful positions!) to lead the communist party CHINA, JAPAN AND IMPERIALIST FORCES - 1600s and 1700s??? ​ An overview of British Chinese relations in the 17th and 18th Centuries ​ The state, population and political clout of China in the 17 and 18th centuries ​ The Opium Wars ​ ‘Gun Boat Diplomacy’ and the opening up of trade with Japan ​ The ‘Meiji Restoration’ and Japan’s Rapid Industrialization ​ Japanese imperialism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries UNIT FIVE – WWI - 1914-1918 ​ Germany and the Treaty of Versailles ​ European geography before/after WWI