1200-1450
This disease spread along trade routes and killed millions across Eurasia in the 1300s.
What is the Black Death (or bubonic plague)?
This precious metal from the Americas caused inflation in Europe and China.
What is silver?
This invention by James Watt dramatically increased the efficiency of engines, powering factories, trains, and ships during the Industrial Revolution.
What is the steam engine?
This 1914-1918 conflict involved most European powers and their colonies.
What is World War I (or the Great War)?
This trade route connected Asia to Europe in both 1200-1450 and 1450-1750.
What is the Silk Road?
This empire connected China to Europe and facilitated trade along the Silk Roads in the 1200s-1300s.
What is the Mongol Empire?
This empire controlled much of Eastern Europe and the Middle East from Istanbul.
What is the Ottoman Empire?
This ideology, articulated by Karl Marx, argued that industrial capitalism exploited workers and predicted inevitable class conflict leading to a communist society.
What is Marxism (or communism/socialism)?
This 1945-1991 rivalry divided the world between the US and USSR.
What is the Cold War?
This Chinese invention was used for navigation in 1200-1450 and remains essential today.
What is the compass?
This Chinese dynasty, known for its maritime expeditions under Zheng He, demonstrated advanced naval technology but ultimately turned inward and banned overseas voyages.
What is the Ming Dynasty?
This economic theory, practiced by European powers, held that colonies existed solely to benefit the mother country through favorable trade balances, leading to mercantilist policies and navigation acts.
What is mercantilism?
This Chinese rebellion against foreign influence lasted from 1899-1901
What is the Boxer Rebellion?
This 1919 treaty officially ended World War I but imposed harsh reparations on Germany, contributing to economic instability and the rise of fascism
What is the Treaty of Versailles?
This economic system of private ownership existed in both Period 3 and Period 4.
What is capitalism?
This West African empire grew wealthy from controlling trans-Saharan gold and salt trade routes, with its ruler Mansa Musa famously disrupting Cairo's economy during his hajj.
What is the Mali Empire?
This labor system forced indigenous peoples in Spanish America to work in silver mines and on plantations, devastating native populations through overwork and disease.
What is the encomienda system (or mita)?
The Berlin Conference of 1884-85 established rules for European colonization of Africa, leading to this pattern of borders that ignored ethnic and cultural boundaries, creating lasting conflicts.
What is the Scramble for Africa?
This process saw European colonies in Africa and Asia gain independence after WWII.
What is decolonization?
This demographic shift occurred in both the Industrial Revolution (1750-1900) and modern developing nations
What is urbanization?
This syncretic religion emerged in South Asia, blending Islamic monotheism with Hindu devotional practices, and was founded by Guru Nanak in the Punjab region.
What is Sikhism?
This Japanese policy isolated the country from most foreign contact from 1639 to 1853.
What is sakoku (or isolationism/closed-country policy)?
This 1857 rebellion against British rule in India was sparked by rumors that rifle cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat, offending both Hindu and Muslim soldiers.
What is the Sepoy Mutiny (or Indian Rebellion of 1857)?
This 1947 partition created two independent nations from British India.
What is India and Pakistan?
This method of collecting taxes existed in both the Mughal Empire (1450-1750) and modern nation-states.
What is bureaucracy?