World History / Andrews
Spring 2019
Final Study Guide
If you can write 6-minute answers on the following questions / topics, you should do well on the final.
1) Some who want to run for US President in our next election cycle are proposing the US initiate a reparations program to compensate descendants of slaves for African American slavery. What would be some arguments in favor of a reparations proposal? Cite concrete historical details and examples in your reasoning.
1b) What was the Atlantic slave trade? How many people were affected by it? Where? What were the living conditions like for African slaves during their transit to the Americas and once they arrived? How did slavery make some regions of the Americas more wealthy and at the same time make some regions of Africa more poor?
2) Compare and contrast the two phases, or “waves,” of colonialism as described by Strayer. Who were the colonizers? Why did they spread their influence? What parts of the world were colonized? What was the impact on the colonized?
3) What was the Scramble for Africa? What were the short- and long-term impacts of this phase of colonial rule?
4) Describe western intrusions in China in the 19thcentury and China’s response. Cite specific examples of intrusive pressure from the west.
5) How might we use our historical knowledge of early Western influence in the Ottoman Empire to better understand the tensions between Muslims and Christians today?
5b) Describe internal conflicts & weakness in the 19thcentury Ottoman Empire which resulted from external pressures to modernize and/or catch up with global western-style modernization.
6) Discuss the responses of China, Japan and the Ottoman Empire to what they considered to be intrusive western imperialism during the 19thand early 20thcenturies.
7) What was / is fascism? Describe several key indicators one might see in a society if fascism was on the rise. Why would this be considered a negative development? In what ways is democracy vulnerable to the development of fascism? Cite concrete details and examples from our textbook and primary sources.
8) How did the Enlightenment value of “equality” influenced global history during the Modern era?
9) What was the Industrial Revolution? Describe its impact on people and on the planet during the late Modern era.
10) Strayer and others argue that we are moving into a new historical era called the “Anthropocene.” What do they mean by this?
11) What does Strayer mean by “collapse at the center”? What collapsed? What was the center?
