AP World History: Modern Notes - Units 3&4

Make the most of your AP test prep with our AP World History: Modern Units 3&4 study notes. Review broad trends, important things to know, and more. Looking for additional AP test prep resources? Check out Barron’s AP World History: Modern Premium Test Prep Book and our AP World History Podcast.

AP World History: Modern - Overview of Units 3&4

Between 1450 and 1750, the world’s civilizations became truly connected for the first time in history. The most significant trend of this era was the emergence of fully globalized networks of communication and exchange. Regrettably, much of this interaction consisted of warfare, exploitation, and slavery. Nonetheless, trade, discovery, cultural interchange, and the faster and easier movement of peoples brought the world’s societies into greater proximity.

5 Things to Know About AP World History: Modern Units 3&4

1. One of the primary causes of this greater interaction was the massive European campaign of exploration and colonization. Driven by scientific curiosity, the quest for power, the hope of spreading Christianity, and a desire for wealth, European explorers during the 1400s and 1500s sought oceanic trade routes that would link them directly with China, India, and elsewhere in Asia. They also encountered the Americas: a “new world” that, for thousands of years, had lain outside the bounds of Afro-Eurasian knowledge.

3. Another trend of this era was the rise of Europe, caused by state rivalries and imperial expansion. Until the 1400s, Europe had been weak and backward compared with civilizations such as China and the Ottoman Empire. But during the 1500s and 1600s, Europe pulled even with China and the Islamic east’s gunpowder empires (Ottoman Turkey, Safavid Persia, and Mughal India) in terms of scientific and technological advancement, global power, and wealth, and it began overtaking them in the 1700s. By midcentury, Europe was poised to dominate the rest of the globe—which it went on to do in the 1800s.

4. Technological innovation and scientific knowledge increased in numerous parts of the world. Many societies based their economies increasingly on trade and commerce. In some places by the 1600s, protoindustrial practices were laying the foundation for fuller industrialization in the late 1700s and 1800s.

5. In addition, peasant labor intensified. In most societies, agricultural production increased, leading to a huge rise in population worldwide—from 350 million in 1400 to 610 million in 1700, the fastest rate of growth seen to that date. This period’s economic growth depended heavily on coerced labor in many forms.

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AP World History: Modern - Broad Trends in Units 3&4

Governance, 1450-1750

During the first centuries of this era—the 1500s and 1600s—global might was concentrated mainly in states like China and the Islamic world’s gunpowder empires: Ottoman Turkey, Safavid Persia, and Mughal India.

However, in a major geopolitical development, the nations of Europe grew more powerful. By the early 1700s, they were overtaking the places listed above in military, scientific, and technological aptitude. Much of this change had to do with the European campaign, starting in the 1400s, to explore the rest of the world. Between the 1500s and 1700s, numerous European states—including Portugal, Spain, the Dutch Republic, England, and France—created trading-post empires and maritime empires with a truly global reach.

Another key development involved the incorporation of gunpowder weaponry into warfare by a number of Eurasian states. Both state building at home and imperial expansion in both hemispheres depended on skill in deploying gunpowder in infantry units, cannons, and gunships as well as on the ability to build new fortresses and fortified cities capable of defending against gunpowder artillery.

Europe 

• Absolutist vs. parliamentary states (Louis XIV and divine right theory vs. English Bill of Rights)
• European age of exploration (Henry the Navigator, Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan)
• From Franco-Habsburg rivalry (1500s–1600s) to Anglo-French rivalry (1600s–1700s)
• Protestant-Catholic religious wars (1500s–early 1600s) + Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) + Seven Years’ War (1756–1763)

Middle East

• Gunpowder empires = Ottoman Empire (1299–1922) and Safavid Persia (1501–early 1700s)
• Ottoman-Safavid rivalry over trade and Sunni-Shiite disputes
• Ottoman conquest of Constantinople (1453) and campaigns of Suleiman the Magnificent (1520s)
• Ottoman siege of Vienna (1683)
• “Circle of justice” and Ottoman legal reforms (secular and Sharia law)

Africa

• Impact of European arrival (1410s+)
• Songhai (Askia Mohammed, 1400s–1500s) and military rivalry with Morocco
• Centralized kingdoms (Kongo, Ashanti, Dahomey)
• Omani Arabs in East Africa (1650s+)
• Arrival in 1600s of Dutch (Boer) colonists in South Africa (vs. Xhosa and Zulu)

East (and Central) Asia

• Impact of European arrival (1500s+)
• Ming dynasty (1368–1644) in China and Li Zicheng’s revolt (1630s–1640s)
• Manchu conquest and Qing dynasty (1644–1912) in China
• Mandate of heaven
• Daimyo feudalism in Japan (late 1100s–early 1500s)
• Reunification of Japan (late 1500s) and Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868)

South (and Southeast) Asia and Oceania

• Impact of European arrival (1490s+)
• Gunpowder empire = Mughal Empire (1500s–mid-1800s)
• Sikh and Maratha states (late 1600s–mid-1800s)
• Joint-stock companies = British East India Company, Dutch East India Company
• Spanish colonization of Manila (1571) and the Philippines

Americas 

• Impact of European arrival (1490s+) and colonies
• Conquistadors defeat Aztecs and Incas (early 1500s)
• Piracy in the Caribbean (1500s–1700s)
• Joint-stock company = Hudson’s Bay Company
• Native and slave resistance (Pueblo revolts, maroons)

Global and Interregional

• Greater political centralization and new bureaucratic elites
• Global impact of European age of exploration = trading-post and maritime empires (1400s+)
• Dutch and English rivalry with Portugal and Spain over trade routes and colonies (1500s–1600s)
• Omani-European rivalry over East Africa and Indian Ocean (1650s+)
• Global impact of Seven Years’ War (Canada and India, 1756–1763)

Cultural Developments and Interactions, 1450-1750

Cultural sophistication rose worldwide during these years. Artistic and literary traditions took deeper root in their respective states and regions, in some cases building on older traditions and in other instances taking advantage of new styles and innovations.

Other—and less gradual—departures from the previous era included the colossal effects of the encounter between Eurasia and the Americas. Especially in the Atlantic, new interactions led to a profound fusing and mixing of cultures. Also, significant religious changes occurred in several parts of the world, involving either the appearance of new syncretic faiths or major schisms and conflicts within established ones. Finally, the widening impact of the printing press and a corresponding growth in the infrastructure by which knowledge was spread (publication of books and newspapers, schools and other educational institutions, and so on) meant that general levels of literacy rose and also that art and ideas exercised much greater practical influence than ever before.

Europe

• Renaissance continues and spreads through Europe (1300s–early 1600s)
• Baroque style (1600s)
• Enlightenment begins (1700s)
• Protestant Reformation (1500s)
• Architecture (St. Peter’s, 1500s; Versailles, 1600s)

Middle East

• Widening of the Sunni-Shiite split
• Miniature painting in Persia and Ottoman Turkey
• Carpet weaving
• Architecture (Suleiman Mosque, 1500s; Blue Mosque, 1600s; Great Plaza of Isfahan, 1600s)

Africa

• Sculpture and carving (Benin and Oyo bronzes)
• Textile weaving and basketry
• Oral tradition (griots)
• Sundiata epic (1300s+)
• The Epic of Askia Mohammed (1500s+)

East (and Central) Asia

• Porcelain
• Qing imperial portraits
• Journey to the West (1500s)
• Kabuki theater
• Ukiyo-e woodblock prints
• Architecture (Beijing’s Summer Palace, 1700s)

South (and Southeast) Asia and Oceania

• Sikhism (1500s)
• Miniature painting in Mughal India
• Indo-Persian cultural fusion
• Architecture (Taj Mahal, Red Fort, both 1600s)

Americas

• Religious syncretism (vodun, Latin American cult of saints)
• Creole, mestizo, and other “mixed” traditions
• Florentine Codex and other Mesoamerican codices (1500s)
• Architecture (Mesoamerican pyramids; Machu Picchu and Incan sun temple in Cuzco)

Global and Interregional

• Growing impact of the printing press
• Increased availability of culture to non-elite classes
• Cultural impact of Europe’s age of exploration
• Global spread of Christianity

Technology and Innovation, 1450-1750

In parallel with the overall rise of political centralization, economic productivity, and cultural sophistication during this era, scientific knowledge and technological expertise increased virtually everywhere between the 1400s and 1700s.

It was in Europe, however, where this trend played out most dramatically. Building on the age of exploration and the experience of the Renaissance, European thinkers and inventors found themselves engaged in a process that historians have labeled the Scientific Revolution. This began in the mid-1500s and culminated with the career of Isaac Newton in the late 1600s and early 1700s.

The Scientific Revolution went beyond the simple absorption of new technologies and the discovery of isolated scientific concepts. It revived the scientific method and yielded a comprehensive understanding of fundamental scientific principles. In so doing, it laid the groundwork for European industrialization and the remarkable rise in global power—the so-called rise of the West—that Europe would undergo in the 1800s.

Europe

• Impact of Renaissance and printing press on growing scientific awareness
• Heliocentric theory (Copernicus and Galileo)
• Scientific Revolution (scientific method) and Newtonian physics
• Improvements in navigational and marine science and technology (magnetic compass, sailing ships)
• Innovations in gunpowder weaponry

Middle East

• Innovations in gunpowder weaponry (janissary musketeers)
• Astronomical expertise

Africa

• Importation of European technology and gunpowder expertise

East (and Central) Asia

• Stagnation in China’s use of gunpowder weaponry
• Limited influence of “Dutch learning” (European scientific knowledge) in Japan

South (and Southeast) Asia and Oceania

• Innovations in gunpowder weaponry

Americas

• Importation of European technology and gunpowder expertise

Global and Interregional

• Shift in balance of scientific and technological expertise from Islamic world and China to Europe
• Growing impact of printing press in spreading scientific and technological expertise
• Gunpowder revolution in Eurasian states

Economic Systems, 1450-1750

The incorporation of the Americas into Afro-Eurasia’s existing networks of exchange led to the emergence, for the first time in history, of a truly global economy. Raw materials and finished products now circulated to meet a growing worldwide demand.

Among the world’s settled societies, the vast majority of people worked as agriculturalists and lived in rural settings. This continued until well into the industrial era, and agricultural production increased. At the same time, other sectors of the economy expanded. Trade, banking, and manufacturing generated a great deal of wealth and encouraged significant growth among urban populations.

Interregional trade and agricultural production were both affected during these years by the global cooling that caused the Little Ice Age.

Europe

• Mercantilism
• Joint-stock companies (including Dutch East India Company, Hudson’s Bay Company, British East India Company)
• Investment disasters (“bubbles”): tulipmania, Mississippi Bubble, South Sea Bubble
• Silver glut and inflation
• Cottage industry and protoindustrialization

Middle East

• Relative decline of Silk Road
• Omani-European rivalry in Indian Ocean and East Africa
• Ottoman-Persian competition over Indian Ocean trade
• Carpets and textiles
• Silver glut and inflation

Africa

• Arrival of European traders and trading-post empires
• Omani-European rivalry in Indian Ocean and East Africa
• Arab slave trade continues
• Atlantic slave trade begins and intensifies

East (and Central) Asia

• Relative decline of Silk Road
• Appearance of European traders
• Chinese and Japanese restrictions on European traders
• Porcelain and tea
• Silver glut and inflation

South (and Southeast) Asia and Oceania

• Appearance of European traders and trading-post empires
• Omani-European rivalry in Indian Ocean
• Ottoman-Persian competition over Indian Ocean trade
• Cotton and spices

Americas

• European piracy and privateering in Caribbean
• Rise of plantation and cash-crop agriculture
• Increased reliance on slavery and coerced labor
• Sugar, cotton, tobacco, coffee, silver

Global and Interregional

• Global circulation of trade goods (finished products and raw materials)
• Piracy, privateering, and state competition over trade routes
• Triangular trade in the Atlantic
• Influx of New World silver into world economy
• Increased agricultural production (plantation agriculture)
• Increased manufacturing and the emergence of protoindustrial production
• Increased resource extraction (mining, fishing, hunting)

Social Interactions and Organizations, 1450-1750

Many of the main social trends from the previous era continued. These included a high degree of social stratification, a steady move toward greater urbanization, continued reliance on coerced labor, and the perpetuation of a secondary status for women.

Certain changes were afoot as well. New economic complexities led to greater class diversification. This, along with a general tendency toward political centralization, forced elite classes to adapt to new realities or risk losing their power. Literacy rates improved, especially in urban settings, as did greater accessibility of art and culture. Unfortunately, more varieties of coerced labor appeared during this period, and the number of people forced into it increased significantly.

Europe

• Serfdom (declining in Western Europe, increasing in Russia)
• German Peasants’ War (early 1500s) + Russian serf and Cossack uprisings (1600s–1700s)
• Rise of the burgher and bourgeoisie (middle) classes
• Elite adjustments for European nobles (nobility of the sword vs. nobility of the robe; Russia’s Table of Ranks)
• Protestant-Catholic religious strife
• Anti-Semitism
• Patriarchy continues, with slightly improved opportunities for women of middle and upper classes

Middle East

• Elite adjustments (janissaries and devshirme civil servants)
• Devshirme (Ottoman slave-recruiting system)
• Celali revolts (1590s–1610s)
• Arab slave trade
• Jizya tax for subject nonbelievers (dhimmi)
• Mudarra (“moderation”) policy and the millet (Ottoman system for religious minorities)
• Islam and patriarchy (veiling, seclusion, polygamy, the harem)

Africa

• Arab slave trade in North and East Africa
• Growth of Atlantic slave trade (1400s–1800s; Middle Passage, triangular trade)
• Matrilineal social organization in certain areas
• Impact of Arab and Atlantic slave trades on family structure

East (and Central) Asia

• Intensification of peasant labor (silk)
• Elite adjustments (mandarin bureaucrats in China; salaried samurai in Japan)
• Li Zicheng’s peasant revolt and the fall of China’s Ming dynasty (1630s–1640s)
• Serfdom and social stratification in Tokugawa Japan
• Neo-Confucianism and patriarchy (foot binding)
• Samurai patriarchy and geisha courtesans

South (and Southeast) Asia and Oceania

• Intensification of peasant labor (cotton)
• Elite adjustments (zamindar landowners)
• Tolerance and tensions among India’s Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs (Akbar the Great vs. Aurangzeb)
• Hinduism and patriarchy (sati, seclusion)
• Islam and patriarchy (veiling, seclusion, and polygamy)
• Role of Southeast Asian women in early encounters between European traders and Asian populations

Americas

• Encomienda system (1500s)
• Spanish adaptation of mit’a system
• Plantation and hacienda monoculture (sugarcane, cotton, tobacco)
• Atlantic slave trade (1400s–1800s; Middle Passage, triangular trade)
• Indentured servitude in North America
• Creole and mixed populations (República de Indios and race-based hierarchies in Latin America)
• Role of women in encounters between European arrivals and native
• Populations (Malinche, Pocahontas)

Global and Interregional

• Increased agricultural production and greater tax and conscription burdens on peasants
• Urbanization and class diversification
• Growth of artisan (craftsman) and urban working classes
• Growth and ambiguous status of middle and merchant classes
• Political and economic adjustments for elite classes
• Coerced labor and chattel slavery become increasingly common
• Patriarchy continues

Humans and Environments, 1450-1750

Because of technological advances and the worldwide expansion of trade, human impact on the environment increased substantially. Reinforcing this trend was the intensification of certain economic activities, including new forms of agricultural production, the rise of manufacturing, and resource extraction on a greater scale than ever before. Worldwide population growth added to this impact.

Even more dramatically, the ecosystems of Afro-Eurasia and the Americas were brought into contact with each other in the late 1400s by the European campaigns of exploration. The environmental impact of this encounter on both hemispheres was monumental, and the resulting two-way transmission of foodstuffs, animal species, disease pathogens, and human populations is known as the Columbian Exchange.

With respect to climate, the Little Ice Age—after a gradual cooling during the 1300s and 1400s—hit its peak between the early 1500s and the mid-1800s. This affected agricultural practices, trade routes, and patterns of animal migration and human settlement, especially in the Northern Hemisphere

Europe

• Arrival of corn/maize, potatoes, and other crops via Columbian Exchange
• Fur hunting increases (especially in Siberia)

Middle East

• Coffee spreads throughout region (1400s–1500s)

Africa

• Arrival of corn/maize, manioc, and other crops via Columbian Exchange
• Enlargement of Sahara Desert due to Little Ice Age

East (and Central) Asia

• Arrival of corn/maize, potatoes, and other crops via Columbian Exchange

South (and Southeast) Asia and Oceania

• Arrival of corn/maize, potatoes, chili peppers, and other crops via Columbian Exchange

Americas

• Arrival of horses, pigs, cattle, and other animals via Columbian Exchange
• Arrival of sugarcane, cotton, okra, rice, coffee, and other crops via Columbian Exchange
• Afro-Eurasian diseases (smallpox, measles, and influenza) kill at least 50 percent of indigenous Americans
• Plantation and monoculture agriculture (sugarcane, cotton, coffee, tobacco)
• Silver mining (Potosí)
• Fur hunting in North America

Global and Interregional

• Little Ice Age reaches its peak (ca. 1500–mid-1800s)
• Environmental impact of mining, manufacturing, and urbanization increases in many regions
• Environmental impact of fishing and whaling increases, especially in the Atlantic
• Environmental impact of fur hunting increases