New York State Regents Examinations Global History and Geography II (Regents Examination) Syllabus

List the main motives for 19th-century European imperialism.

Economic (raw materials and markets), political/military (national prestige and bases), and cultural/social (Social Darwinism and the 'White Man's Burden' mission to 'civilize').

What was the Berlin Conference (1884-1885)?

A meeting where European powers divided up and set rules for colonizing Africa without African input, leading to the 'Scramble for Africa.'

Compare direct rule and indirect rule as colonial methods.

Direct rule used the colonizer's own officials to govern (e.g., French); indirect rule governed through existing local rulers and institutions (e.g., British).

What was the 'spheres of influence' system in China?

Areas where individual foreign powers held exclusive trading and investment rights, weakening Chinese sovereignty after the Opium Wars.

What was the Sepoy Mutiny / Indian Rebellion of 1857?

An uprising of Indian soldiers against the British East India Company that led the British Crown to take direct control of India (the British Raj).

Define global economic interdependence.

The condition in which the economies of nations rely on one another through trade, investment, and the exchange of goods, services, and resources.

How did colonial economies create economic dependence?

Colonies were made to produce raw materials and cash crops for the mother country and buy its manufactured goods, leaving them dependent and underdeveloped.

List the four MAIN long-term causes of World War I.

Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism (MAIN).

What event sparked the outbreak of World War I in 1914?

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip.

What were the two main alliance blocs in World War I?

The Allied Powers (France, Britain, Russia, later Italy and the U.S.) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire).

What were the key terms imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles (1919)?

The 'war guilt' clause blaming Germany, heavy reparations, loss of territory and colonies, and severe limits on its military.

What caused the Russian Revolution of 1917 and who led the Bolsheviks?

WWI losses, food shortages, and worker/peasant discontent under the Tsar; Vladimir Lenin led the Bolsheviks to establish a communist state.

What was the worldwide economic event of the 1930s that fueled extremism?

The Great Depression, a global economic collapse that created mass unemployment and helped totalitarian leaders gain power.

Define totalitarianism and name three interwar totalitarian leaders.

A system of total government control over political, economic, and social life; examples include Joseph Stalin (USSR), Benito Mussolini (Italy), and Adolf Hitler (Germany).

What was fascism as practiced by Mussolini and Hitler?

An authoritarian, nationalist ideology emphasizing one-party dictatorship, militarism, suppression of opposition, and the supremacy of the state/nation over the individual.

What were Stalin's Five-Year Plans and collectivization?

Government plans to rapidly industrialize the USSR by setting production quotas; collectivization combined private farms into state-run collectives, causing famine and millions of deaths.

What policy did Britain and France use toward Hitler's aggression in the 1930s, and at what conference?

Appeasement—giving in to demands to avoid war—exemplified by the Munich Conference (1938) allowing Germany to take the Sudetenland.

What event marked the start of World War II in Europe?

Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, after which Britain and France declared war on Germany.

What was the Holocaust?

The Nazi systematic, state-sponsored genocide of about six million Jews, along with millions of Roma, disabled people, and others, during World War II.

Define genocide and name three 20th-century examples.

The deliberate destruction of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group; examples include the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, and the Rwandan Genocide.

What two events led to Japan's surrender and the end of World War II in 1945?

The U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

What was the Cold War?

A period of political, economic, and military tension (roughly 1945-1991) between the capitalist U.S. and communist USSR, without direct large-scale war between them.

What was the policy of containment and the Truman Doctrine?

Containment aimed to stop the spread of communism; the Truman Doctrine (1947) pledged U.S. aid to nations resisting communist takeover.

Compare the Cold War conflicts of Korea and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The Korean War (1950-53) was a 'hot' proxy war that divided Korea at the 38th parallel; the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) was a 13-day standoff over Soviet missiles in Cuba that nearly caused nuclear war.

What was decolonization, and when did it peak?

The process by which colonies in Asia and Africa gained independence from European powers, peaking after World War II in the 1940s-1960s.

How did Mohandas Gandhi pursue Indian independence?

Through nonviolent resistance (satyagraha), civil disobedience, and boycotts such as the Salt March, achieving independence from Britain in 1947.

What was the partition of India in 1947?

The division of British India into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan, causing mass migration and widespread religious violence.

What were the main causes of the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East?

Competing Jewish and Arab claims to the same land, the 1948 creation of Israel, displacement of Palestinians, and disputes over borders and Jerusalem.

What was the 1979 Iranian Revolution and its outcome?

A revolution that overthrew the Western-backed Shah and established an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Khomeini, increasing tension between tradition and modernization.

What is the tension between tradition and modernization in developing nations?

The conflict between preserving traditional cultural/religious values and adopting Western-style technology, industrialization, and social change.

Define globalization and economic integration, naming one institution that promotes it.

Globalization is the increasing interconnection of economies and cultures worldwide; economic integration links national economies (e.g., the European Union or World Trade Organization).

What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)?

A United Nations document setting out fundamental rights and freedoms to which all people are entitled, created in response to WWII atrocities.

In sourcing and contextualization, what does it mean to evaluate a source's reliability?

Considering the author's point of view, purpose, audience, and historical context to judge how trustworthy and useful the source is as evidence.

When constructing a historical argument, what is a strong thesis and how is it supported?

A clear, debatable claim that answers the question, supported by relevant, accurate evidence and reasoning that connects the evidence back to the claim.

In historical thinking, distinguish a cause from an effect.

A cause is a condition or event that brings something about; an effect is the result or consequence that follows from that cause.