Unit 7: Global Warfare

C. 1900 - present
AP Exam Weighting: 8-10%

Topic 7.1 Shifting Power After 1900

Thematic Focus - Governance (GOV)

A variety of internal and external factors contribute to state formation, expansion, and decline. Governments maintain order through a variety of
administrative institutions, policies, and procedures, and governments obtain, retain, and exercise power in different ways and for different
purposes.

Learning Objective Historical Developments

Explain how internal and external factors The West dominated the global political order at the beginning of the 20th century, but both
contributed to change in various states after land-based and maritime empires gave way to new states by the century’s end.
1900.
The older, land-based Ottoman, Russian, and Qing empires collapsed due to a combination of
internal and external factors. These changes in Russia eventually led to communist revolution.

States around the world challenged the existing political and social order, including the
Mexican Revolution that arose as a result of political crisis.

Topic 7.2 Causes of World War I

Thematic Focus - Governance (GOV)
A variety of internal and external factors contribute to state formation, expansion, and decline. Governments maintain order through a variety of
administrative institutions, policies, and procedures, and governments obtain, retain, and exercise power in different ways and for different
purposes.

Learning Objective Historical Developments

Explain the causes and consequences of The causes of World War I included imperialist expansion and competition for resources. In
World War I. addition, territorial and regional conflicts combined with a flawed alliance system and intense
nationalism to escalate the tensions into global conflict.

Topic 7.3 Conducting World War I

Thematic Focus - Technology and Innovation (TEC)
Human adaptation and innovation have resulted in increased efficiency, comfort, and security, and technological advances have shaped human
development and interactions with both intended and unintended consequences.

Learning Objective Historical Developments

Explain how governments used a variety of World War I was the first total war. Governments used a variety of strategies, including political
methods to conduct war. propaganda, art, media, and intensified forms of nationalism, to mobilize populations (both in
the home countries and the colonies) for the purpose of waging war.

New military technology led to increased levels of wartime casualties.

 Topic 7.4 Economy in the Interwar Period
Thematic Focus - Economics Systems (ECN)
As societies develop, they affect and are affected by the ways that they produce, exchange, and consume goods and services.

Learning Objective Historical Developments

Explain how different governments Following World War I and the onset of the Great Depression, governments began to take a
responded to economic crisis after 1900. more active role in economic life.

Government intervention in the economy:

● The New Deal
● The fascist corporatist economy
● Governments with strong popular support in Brazil and Mexico

In the Soviet Union, the government controlled the national economy through the Five Year
Plans, often implementing repressive policies, with negative repercussions for the population.

Topic 7.5 Unresolved Tensions After World War I

Thematic Focus - Governance (GOV)
A variety of internal and external factors contribute to state formation, expansion, and decline. Governments maintain order through a variety of
administrative institutions, policies, and procedures, and governments obtain, retain, and exercise power in different ways and for different
purposes.

Learning Objective Historical Developments

Explain the continuities and changes in Between the two world wars, Western and Japanese imperial states predominantly maintained
territorial holdings from 1900 to the control over colonial holdings; in some cases, they gained additional territories through conquest
present. or treaty settlement and in other cases faced anti-imperial resistance.

Territorial gains:
● Transfer of former German colonies to Great Britain and France under the system of
League of Nations mandates
● Manchukuo/Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

Anti-imperial resistance:
● Indian National Congress
● West African resistance (strikes/congresses) to French rule

Topic 7.6 Causes of World War II

Thematic Focus - Governance (GOV)
A variety of internal and external factors contribute to state formation, expansion, and decline. Governments maintain order through a variety of
administrative institutions, policies, and procedures, and governments obtain, retain, and exercise power in different ways and for different
purposes.

Learning Objective Historical Developments

Explain the causes and consequences of The causes of World War II included the unsustainable peace settlement after World War I, the
World War II. global economic crisis engendered by the Great Depression, continued imperialist aspirations, and
especially the rise to power of fascist and totalitarian regimes that resulted in the aggressive
militarism of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler.

Topic 7.7 Conducting World War II

Thematic Focus - Governance (GOV)
A variety of internal and external factors contribute to state formation, expansion, and decline. Governments maintain order through a variety of
administrative institutions, policies, and procedures, and governments obtain, retain, and exercise power in different ways and for different
purposes.

Learning Objective Historical Developments

Explain similarities and differences in how World War II was a total war. Governments used a variety of strategies, including political
governments used a variety of methods to propaganda, art, media, and intensified forms of nationalism, to mobilize populations (both in the
conduct war. home countries and the colonies or former colonies) for the purpose of waging war. Governments
used ideologies, including fascism and communism to mobilize all of their state’s resources for
war and, in the case of totalitarian states, to repress basic freedoms and dominate many aspects of
daily life during the course of the conflicts and beyond.

Western democracies mobilizing for war:

● Great Britain under Winston Churchill
● United States under Franklin Roosevelt

Totalitarian states mobilizing for war:

● Germany under Adolf Hitler
● USSR under Joseph Stalin

New military technology and new tactics, including the atomic bomb, fire-bombing, and the
waging of “total war” led to increased levels of wartime casualties.

Topic 7.8 Mass Atrocities After 1900

Thematic Focus: Social Interactions and Organization SIO
The process by which societies group their members and the norms that govern the interactions between these groups and between individuals
influence political, economic, and cultural institutions and organization.

Learning Objective The rise of extremist groups in power led to the attempted destruction of specific populations,
notably the Nazi killing of the Jews in the Holocaust during World War II, and to other atrocities,
Explain the various causes and acts of genocide, or ethnic violence.
consequences of mass atrocities in the
period from 1900 to the present. Genocide, ethnic violence, or attempted destruction of specific populations:
● Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during and after World War I
● Cambodia during the late 1970s
● Tutsi in Rwanda in the 1990s
● Ukraine in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s

Topic 7.9 Causation in Global Conflict

The final topic in this unit focuses on the skill of argumentation and so provides an opportunity for your students to draw upon the key concepts
and historical developments they have studied in this unit. Using evidence relevant to this unit’s key concepts, students should practice the
suggested skill for this topic.

Learning Objective ● Rapid advances in science and technology altered the understanding of the universe and
the natural world and led to advances in communication, transportation, industry,
Explain the relative significance of the agriculture, and medicine.
causes of global conflict in the period ● Peoples and states around the world challenged the existing political and social order in
1900 to the present. varying ways, leading to unprecedented worldwide conflicts.
○ The West dominated the global political order at the beginning of the 20th
century, but both land-based and maritime empires gave way to new states by
the century’s end.
○ The older, land-based Ottoman, Russian, and Qing empires collapsed due to a
combination of internal and external factors. These changes in Russia eventually
led to communist revolution.
○ States around the world challenged the existing political and social order,
including the Mexican Revolution that arose as a result of political crisis.