Modern World History  Fall 2001

STUDY QUESTIONS on BULLIET, et. al., The Earth and Its Peoples, vol. 2.

Exams in this course will include questions on this textbook, selected from the study questions below.  It is a good idea write down answers to these questions as you read the assignments, so that you can study more effectively for the exams.  Be sure that you can provide examples that support your answers.  

The textbooks’ interpretations often will differ from those of my lectures.  That is normal—different historians often interpret the same evidence in different ways.  But interpretations are more than just "opinions"--they must be based upon evidence.  Historians have to defend their interpretations by proving that the evidence supports their arguments, just as you must give evidence to support your answer on an essay exam.

Look for places where the arguments made in the textbook differ from those made in the lecture. Compare and contrast the different interpretations; weigh them against each other. Decide which interpretation seems to fit the evidence better and makes more sense to you and why. Then you can use the evidence to develop your own interpretation.  That is how historians work, and that is what I want you to do when you answer essay questions.

How did the political, technological, and economic revolutions of the period 1750-1870 transform material life, political life, and social life?

CHAPTER 19 (Week 1)

1. Where did the Industrial Revolution begin, and why did it begin there? What sorts of innovations and inventions aided this process and why? And why were other parts of Europe slower to industrialize than England had been?

2. What roles did governments play in the process of industrialization? Did all governments in Europe and

North America follow the same industrial policies? Explain.

3. How and why did the Industrial Revolution contribute to the process of urbanization, and what problems

arose in the rapidly-growing cities?

4. What impacts did the Industrial Revolution have on population growth, work conditions, family life, and

living standards? Was the impact the same for all social groups and classes? Explain.

5. What was the main idea behind the concept of "Laissez Faire," and why did people like Charles Fourier and Robert Owen oppose it?

6. Why were efforts at industrialization in Russia and Egypt not successful in the early 1800s?

7. What were the major benefits of the Industrial Revolution, and what types of conflicts and divisions did it create?

CHAPTER 20 (Week 2 and Week 3)

1. What common causes linked the revolutions of the period 1776-1799, and how did these revolutions transform the social order in European and North American society?

2. Why did the British colonies in North America rebel, why did the rebellion succeed, and why were the institutions of the new American republic based upon compromises?

3. How was French society organized in the mid-1700s, what social pressures and conflicts divided this society, and what factors caused that society to erupt in revolution in 1789?

4. What were the three main "phases" of the French Revolution of 1789-1799, and what kinds of political changes and policies characterized each phase? What were the most important long-term effects of the French Revolution?

5. How was the revolution in Haiti related to the American and French revolutions, and what were the major differences between this revolution and those that had preceded it?

6. What were the aims of the various revolutionary and reform movements of 1848, and what were the results of the 1848 revolutions? Did they succeed in achieving their aims? Explain!

7. What were the long-term and immediate causes of the Latin American wars of independence, and what were the results of these struggles in Spanish South America, Mexico, and Brazil? Did independence in Latin America lead to prosperity and democracy? Explain.

8. In what ways did the lives of native peoples and African slaves in North, Central, and South America change in the period 1800-1870? Did the end of slavery mean that all peoples in the Americas had equal rights? Explain.

9. What do the authors mean when they say that there were "two distinct economic tracks" in the economies of the Western world by 1900?

CHAPTER 21 (Week 3 and Week 4)

1. What factors allowed Great Britain to build and dominate the world’s largest empire in the period 1750-1870?

2. What allowed the Zulu Kingdom and the Sokoto Caliphate to rise in power in the early 1800s? How and did the development of Egypt and Ethiopia in this period differ from that of the Zulu Kingdom or the Sokoto Caliphate?

3. What forces and groups gained from and supported the slave trade in Africa in the 1800s and what impacts did the slave trade have on African societies? What impacts did the end of the European-American related slave trade have on African economies and cultures, and were all African slaves shipped to the Americas?

4. What was the "Raj"? How did Great Britain maintain its rule over India in the early 1800s and how did this change Indian life? Why was the 1857-58 "Great Rebellion" a turning point in India’s history, and how did government and the economy in India change after the rebellion?

5. How and why had the British Empire change between 1750 and 1850? And how did the British prevent an "American" style rebellion in their settler colonies in the South Pacific?

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Questions for Exam Three

CHAPTER 22 (Week 4)

1. What problems led the great Eurasian empires toward crisis in the early 1800s? How and why did the responses to these crisis differ in the Ottoman Empire, the Chinese Qing Empire, and Japan?

2. What were the Tanzimat reforms and why were the Ottoman Empire’s rulers trying to secularize and modernize their society? What factors undermined efforts at reform in the Ottoman Empire and why?

3. What indications are there that the Chinese Qing Empire was in crisis in the early 1800s and what factors were causing this crisis? How did European incursions and domestic rebellions aggravate and feed into China’s crisis? How did reformers in China respond to these problems in the late 1800s, and what were the results?

4. How did the organization of the Tokugawa Shogunate differ from the organization of the Chinese and Ottoman Empires, and why did this prove an advantage in Japan’s efforts to respond to western power in the mid-1800s? What was the Meiji Restoration, and how and why did the Meiji oligarchs transform Japan?

5. Why was Japan better able to reform than the Ottoman or Chinese Empires, and why were the Ottomans more effective in their reform elements than were the Chinese?

What two main causes do the authors see for the dominance of Europe, the USA, and Japan over the rest of the world in 1850-1945, and what developments and events destabilized this "world order" in 1918-1945?

CHAPTER 23 (Week 5)

1. In the second paragraph on page 479, the authors tell you the main point of this chapter. What is this main point, and how do they demonstrate it in this chapter?

2. How did changes in the steel and chemical industries, shipping, communications, and transportation in the late 1800s shape the world capitalist economy? Did the capitalist economy grow without interruptions, and what impact did these patterns have on people around the world?

3. How did urban life change during the later 1800s and did these changes have an equal effect on all urban residents? For instance, how did the lives of urban middle-class women change, and how did that compare to changes in the lives of urban working-class women?

4. What were Karl Marx’s main criticisms of capitalism and what political conclusion did he draw from these criticisms? In contrast, how did labor unions hope to reduce the burdens of capitalism on the working class? And how universal male suffrage effect the strategy of the socialist and labor movements?

5. Why did conservative and authoritarian regimes before the 1848 Revolutions fear nationalism and how did their view of nationalism change after 1848? How did conservative leaders manipulate and use a mass-politics based upon nationalism to keep control over their societies? In particular, discuss the example of Otto von Bismarck and his policies in the German Empire.

6. Did nationalism effectively unify society in all of the great European states? Explain examples of where nationalism had a unifying effect and examples in which it led to greater social divisions.

7. What was the relationship between government and business in the USA in 1865-1914? Who gained most from the growth of the US economy, who did not gain much, and why?

8.How did Japan’s response to the West differ from that of China in the 1850s-1900.

CHAPTER 24 (Week 5, Week 6, Week 8)

1. What were the motives behind the "new imperialism" (give details), and what methods and "agents" did the imperialist countries commonly use to gain their aims. Be ready to give examples from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

2. What basic patterns distinguished European conquest and rule in Egypt, Western Africa, Equatorial Africa, and Southern Africa? Be ready to compare and contrast developments in these four regions. What were the most common political and social consequences and social responses to European imperialism in Africa? (In particular, be ready to use the document on page 508 as evidence related to this question.)

3. What were the basic characteristics and patterns of imperialism in Central Asia (by the Russians), in Southeast Asia and Indonesia (by the British, French, and Dutch), and in Hawaii and the Philippines (by the USA)? How did imperialism change traditional cultures in each region?

4. In what two ways did the new imperialism manifest itself in Latin America? Give and explain examples of both.

5. How was the new imperialism related to the growth of the world capitalist economy? Use and explain examples from Africa, Asia, and Latin America in answering this question.

CHAPTER 25 (Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, and Week 13)

1. What were the causes of the First World War and how did the war change life on the home-front? What were the main economic, social, and political consequences of the war?

2. What led to the Bolshevik (Communist) seizure of power in Russia and how did the Bolsheviks hold on to power? What sort of policies did they institute after they had secured power by winning the Russian Civil War?

3. How was the Ottoman Empire involved in the First World War? What major social and political changes took place in the former Ottoman territories after the war and why?

4. The 1920s in Europe can be divided into three phases: an initial period of mass instability; a period of relative calm and rapid economic growth; and the period of economic and political crisis associated with the onset of the Great Depression. Explain the causes of these three phases and give examples that illustrate each phases. Also, describe the basic economic and social changes that took place in Europe in the 1920s.

5. Why did the 1929 New York Stock Market crash lead to a world-wide depression? Compare and contrast the economic policies implemented by the USSR, Nazi Germany, and Japan during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

6. Was Hitler an "ordinary" nationalist? What kind of racial policies did the Nazis follow and why?

7. World War One and World War Two are often described as "total" wars, in which countries’ entire populations and all of their resources (not just soldiers and the army) were mobilized for war, and in which civilians (and not only soldiers) were considered targets of war. Using examples from the war in Europe and the war in Asia, explain how and why World War Two was a "total war."

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Questions for Final Exam

1. What were the three main causes "sparking" revolutions and nationalist movements outside of Europe and the USA in 1900-1950? Give examples illustrating each of these causes for the cases of China, India, and Mexico.

2. What were the main social and political tensions in China around 1910? What factors prevented China from achieving stability after the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911? What factors contributed to the strength

and the popularity of Mao Zedong’s Communist movement in the 1920s-1940s, and why were the Communists able to defeat the Nationalists in China’s civil war?

3. What main social and political conflicts and tensions existed in India around 1900? What were the main goals of the National Congress Party, and what in particular were the key ideas of M. K. Gandhi? Why, despite Gandhi’s message of non-violence, did India erupt into ethnic violence in 1947?

4. What were the main causes of social and political conflict in Mexico around 1910? How were these tensions manifest in the various revolts and rebellions of 1911-1923, and what steps did the revolutionary government in Mexico take to solve these problems in 1917-1940? Were they successful?

Why do the authors think that the period 1945-1991 are better described as the "ear of the Cold War and de-colonization" instead of as the "post-war era"? Be prepared to use examples from chapters 27-29.

CHAPTER 27 (Week 14 and Week 15)

1. Compare and contrast the basic patterns by which former colonies gained their independence in Asia and Africa after World War Two. What common problems seemed to confront most of these newly independent states?

2. How did struggles for independence in Asia, Africa, and Latin America intersect with the Cold War between the USA and the USSR? Explain examples of cases in which the Cold War clearly influenced domestic politics in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

3. What were the basic causes of the Cold War, and how did the following heighten Cold War tensions: the Marshal Plan, the creation of NATO and of the Warsaw Pact, the Korean War, Soviet intervention in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968), and the nuclear arms race?

4. Explain how the following demonstrated that the power and influence of the USSR and the USA were limited during the Cold War: the non-aligned movement, the war in Vietnam, Mao’s policies in China, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Iranian Revolution, and the war in Afghanistan.

5. What factors helped bring an end to the Cold War?

1. While the Cold War was the focus of so much worry and attention, other serious challenges threatened the world. What do the authors identify as three of the most important challenges facing the world? Provide examples that illustrate each.

2. What structural changes (changes in basic economic and political-economic organization) helped create prosperity in the industrialized nations, and how did this prosperity change society in Western Europe and on the Pacific Rim? Has the growth of the world capitalist economy since World War Two meant prosperity for all countries? Explain,

3. How have demographic (population) patterns changed world-wide since the 1940s? What has been the pattern in the industrialized countries and what have been the patterns in developing countries? How have patterns of population growth effected government policies and priorities? (For example, what has China done to limit population growth, and how has Japan coped (so far) with problems posed by an aging population?

4. What have been the main patterns in population movement (migrations) since 1945, and what dangers and perceived dangers has migration created (give specific examples)?

5. In what ways have specific technologies altered the nature of work and contributed to the globalization of the economy?

6.Has the growth of the world capitalist economy since 1945 reversed the pattern of environmental damage that began with the industrial revolution? Give evidence to support your position.

CHAPTER 29 (Week 15)

1.What elements of the entertainment industry and of the popular cultures spawned by the advanced capitalist countries (and especially the USA) have become global and how have they helped to "globalize" world culture?

2.In what ways has government become "global" since 1945, and what progress has been made in "globalizing" ideas about rights of individuals and groups that are at the basis of contemporary democracies?

3.In contrast to "globalization," there are many forces that seem to be creating greater fragmentation around the world. What sort of particularistic (non-universalistic) loyalties and identifications have remained strong and even grown in the last 20 years?