World History
World History Studies is the only course offering students an overview of the entire history of humankind. The major emphasis is on the study of significant people, events, and issues from the earliest times to the present. Traditional historical points of reference in world history are identified as students analyze important events and issues in western civilization as well as in civilizations in other parts of the world. Students evaluate the causes and effects of political and economic imperialism and of major political revolutions since the 17th century. Students examine the impact of geographic factors on major historic events and identify the historic origins of contemporary economic systems. Students analyze the process by which democratic-republican governments evolved as well as the ideas from historic documents that influenced that process. Students trace the historical development of important legal and political concepts. Students examine the history and impact of major religious and philosophical traditions. Students analyze the connections between major developments in science and technology and the growth of industrial economies, and they use the process of historical inquiry to research, interpret, and use multiple sources of evidence.
To support the teaching of the essential knowledge and skills, the use of a variety of rich primary and secondary source material such as biographies and autobiographies; novels; speeches and letters; and poetry, songs, and artworks is encouraged. Selections may include excerpts from Hammurabi's Code. Motivating resources are also available from museums, art galleries, and historical sites.
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1066 In 1066 the Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror, became the first Norman king of England after defeating the English at the Battle of Hastings. He extended feudalism into his new kingdom by demanding loyalty from the lords of England and giving them estates in return for their pledge to provide military support for his causes. He also appointed sheriffs to administer laws of the royal court throughout the nation.
1215 The Magna Carta, the cornerstone of English justice and law, was signed in 1215. King John, who ruled between 1199 and 1216 AD, angered the English nobility and commoners alike for his lack of military prowess and his heavy taxation to pay a large national debt. Members of the nobility, the archbishop of Canterbury, and the Earl of Pembroke forced King John to sign the charter to confirm the rights of nobility against the claims of the monarch. John agreed to seek permission from the lords before increasing taxes, and to seek permission from the Church before appointing bishops. The charter asserted the right of citizens to a trial by a jury of one's peers, no imprisonment without a trial, and no taxation except by legal means. One of the great documents of liberty, the Magna Carta clarified the mutual obligations of the king and the nobility.
1492 In 1492 the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus, who sailed with the support of the Spanish crown, arrived in the Americas. His original intention was to reach the Indies by sailing west instead of east. This would ensure the Spanish crown a new trade route to the lucrative markets of the East. Instead of reaching the Indies, his first expedition sighted land in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492. He named the first island San Salvadore (Holy Savior).
1789 The concentration on individual liberties and natural rights expressed by Thomas Paine in Common Sense and played out through the American Revolution set the stage for a peasant revolt in France in 1789. Frenchmen sought to limit the powers of the Catholic church, to weaken the power of the nobility and the monarch and, by doing so, to strengthen the political voice of the common man. An economic recession contributed to the unrest as did the election of a new
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World History
assembly with a majority of members representing middle class interests. The assembly published a "Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen" in the summer of 1789. On July 14 the French Revolution began in earnest when peasants stormed the Bastille, a political prison. Peasants also seized manors in an attempt to gain title to land and establish their equality under the law. Peasants were freed from serfdom, the power of the aristocracy diminished as a result, and a strong parliament was established which limited the power of the king.
1914-1918 On July 14, 1914, World War I began in Europe, triggered by the Serb assassination of the heir to the Austria-Hungary throne. Unrest had been building for some time prior to 1914 as diplomatic relations between the major European powers — Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary — became more tense. After the assassination the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and later Turkey and Bulgaria faced off against the Allies including France, Britain, and later Japan and Italy.
President Woodrow Wilson declared neutrality but both the Central Powers and the Allies sought the support of the United States. England and France benefited from American products which aided their war efforts and businessmen in the United States prospered even as anti-German sentiment increased. Two major fronts developed, one in France and the other in Russian Poland. Control of the seas also played a role. German U-boats (submarines) sank the British passenger liner Lusitania onMay 7,1915, at the cost of 128 American lives. In 1917 Germany announced the plan to wage unlimited submarine warfare.
The declaration was partly prompted by the need to end the deadlocked warfare on the western front. Trench warfare, the technology of modern warfare, barbed-wire fences, and the use of poison gas became synonymous with the stalemate. German attacks on shipping prompted U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to ask Congress to declare war in April 1917. After the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) arrived in France, the German threat increased, and the Allied forces united under French Marshal Foch. By September, General John J. Pershing demanded separate command. The U.S. troops under Pershing participated in the last major offensive of the war, the Meuse-Argonne which lasted 42 days and involved 1.2 millionU.S. troops. In the battle of Argonne Forest, one-tenth of all U.S. troops died in the heavy fighting. Germans surrendered on November 11, 1918. Peace negotiations began late in 1918 and continued into 1919.
1939-1945 The deadliest war in history, World War II, began in 1939 and ended in 1945. A series of international conflicts occurred throughout the 1930s as Japan and Germany expanded militarily on two fronts, in the Pacific Ocean and in Europe. For a variety of reasons including national interests and internal unrest, the European powers and the United States did little to intercede as dictators first amassed internal power in the 1920s and then threatened republican governments in the 1930s.
Militarism emerged and gained strength in Japan, Germany, and Italy as leaders sought to reverse the economic crises each government experienced in the 1920s and 1930s. Benito Mussolini sought to unite Italians under fascism, a form of belligerent nationalism. He became prime minister in 1922. The harsh peace imposed after World War I also contributed to the appeal of fascism in Germany. Adolf Hitler became its leading spokesman through the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei (later shortened to Nazi) which he led by 1921. While the League of Nations condemned Japan for invading Manchuria in 1931 it could do little more than express displeasure, nor did it act in 1935 when Hitler withdrew from the League and began rearming Germany.
On September 1,1939, Hitler attacked Poland. England and France responded with declarations of war. The Japanese engaged the Chinese at Beijing earlier, in 1937. In September 1940 the conflicts in Europe and the Pacific coalesced when Germany and Italy signed the Tripartite Pact with Japan. Until 1941 the Axis powers expanded unchallenged but then the Allies began a concerted effort to ward off further Axis offensives, particularly the German blitzkrieg or "lightning war" in which German troops and tanks quickly pushed into Poland, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and France. England was more powerful economically and demographically than the European belligerents and it stolidly opposed Axis aggression.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. This infuriated Americans who called for a war of vengeance. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan, and Germany responded by declaring war on the United States. Industrial and agricultural output in the United States increased for the war effort. Nearly 15 million men and more than 200,000 women enlisted in the U.S. armed forces and more than six million women worked outside the home to keep the economy going. In 1942 U.S. troops invaded North Africa to thwart German forces, and in 1943 the Allied troops invaded Italy. Also in 1943, the Japanese were driven from Guadalcanal. On June 6, 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower led 3 million Allied troops in the cross-channel invasion of France, landing at Normandy and pushing German forces out of France, liberating Paris in August. Hitler countered with a concentrated attack on American forces in the Ardennes forest on December 16, 1944. Over ten days, the German advance was stalled and then repulsed in the Battle of the Bulge. Eisenhower's troops advanced through Germany, meeting Soviet troops at the river Elbe in April 1945, and pushed on to Berlin. Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin on April 30 and German officials surrendered unconditionally on May 7. May 8 is designated V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day).
War with Japan continued with the United States dropping fire bombs on Tokyo on March 9-10, 1945, in an effort to force their unconditional surrender. On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on the military-base city of Hiroshima. A total of 180,000 were killed or missing. A second bomb fell on the naval-base city of Nagasaki on August 9 with 80,000 killed or missing. The Japanese agreed to surrender on August 10 if their emperor Hirohito remained. The surrender ceremony occurred on the U.S.S. Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.
Andean South America The Andes Mountain range extends over 5,000 miles along the western coast of South America from Tierra del Fuego to Venezuela. The tallest peaks are more than 6.5 miles above sea level. South American nations within the Andes range include Chile, Peru, Bolivia, and part of Argentina. The Inca created a civilization concentrated at Cuzco, c. 1438 A.D.
Buddhism Buddhism evolved from Hinduism in northern India and Nepal and diffused from this core area. The founder was Siddhartha Gautama (563 B.C-483 B.C.) who left his rich Hindu existence to seek understanding. Buddha means "the Enlightened One." The Buddhist way to salvation is through self-discipline and poverty. It is a religion and philosophy of "Four Noble Truths": that suffering and misery are universal, that the cause of suffering is desire, that the end of suffering is realized when desire is controlled, and that the way to escape pain and suffering is to follow the Middle Way. Nirvana is the state of wanting nothing. The Middle Way is virtuous and marked by compassion for all living things. Today, Buddhism is practiced in different forms throughout the world. The largest concentrations of Buddhists occur in Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, Tibet, and Japan.
Capitalism Capitalismis an economic systemin which the factors of production are privately owned. Competition is based on free enterprise. Supply, demand, and prices, not politics, determine the answers to economic questions of how, what, and for whom to produce. The free competition fosters efficiency as companies compete for profits. Capitalism shares the characteristics of a free-enterprise system: economic freedom, voluntary exchange, private property, and the profit motive. The concepts of private property, negotiation, and cooperation were important developments in western Europe and contributed to the sustained Industrial Revolution, particularly in Britain. Capitalism does reward some but it also penalizes those who are not able to compete.
Christianity Christianity is a religion and philosophy with a belief in one God and in Jesus Christ as the messiah who freed followers from Roman rule and fulfilled the prophesy of the scriptures. (The Greek word for messiah is Christos and followers of Jesus became known as Christians). The Christian Bible incorporates the Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament chronicles the life of Jesus Christ in four books, the Gospels, written by his disciples after his death. Christianity was influenced by the ancient philosophy of the Greek Stoics who stressed serf-discipline, courage, and moral conduct. Christian teachings were heavily influenced by the Hebrew faith. Jesus taught followers to believe in one God, obey the Ten Commandments, adhere to the Old Testament, and feel compassion for others. All were central to the ethical world view of Judaism.
The 12 apostles of Jesus spread his teachings through expansion diffusion. They were persecuted by officials of the Roman Empire because they refused to worship the emperor. Many suffered and died for their beliefs, becoming martyrs, but this strengthened, instead of weakened, the new faith. A hierarchical church structure evolved with the pope as "father of the Church." This hierarchy was challenged by Henry VIII when he created the Church of England. Others revised doctrines and formed new denominations of Christianity. These include the Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist churches, as well as other evangelical faiths. Christianity in its different forms has spread worldwide through both expansion and relocation diffusion.
Cold War Following World War II the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as superpowers. The two unions of states faced off in an arms race which last nearly 50 years. Instead of fighting a military war, they used diplomacy and nerves to compete for resources, markets and political strength in a world economy. In the United States the threat of nuclear attack prompted private citizens to build bomb shelters and worry about nuclear disaster. The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 created an atmosphere of fear as President John F. Kennedy warned Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that an attack launched from Cuba on the United States would be considered an attack from the Soviet Union. In 1963 Kennedy secured a nuclear test-ban treaty with the Soviets and direct communication between the White House and the Kremlin ensured that national leaders could communicate in times of crisis.