China 九年级（初三） History

Chapters: 13

1. Sem.1 U1 Birth of civilisation; ancient Asia and Africa

From primitive to slave society · Mesopotamia · Ancient Egypt · Ancient India

From Early Humans to Classes and States – Early humans lived in small bands that shared food. Farming made a surplus (spare food). Surplus allowed new jobs, then unequal wealth, then social classes with rulers on top and enslaved people at the bottom. To keep order and collect tax, rulers built states with laws, armies and officials.
Early Humans and the Beginning of Civilisation – Modern humans (Homo sapiens) first appeared in Africa about 3 lakh years ago and slowly spread across the world, reaching India tens of thousands of years ago. Historians split this long past into ages by the tools people used: Palaeolithic (old stone), Mesolithic (middle stone, tiny tools), Neolithic (new stone, farming), then copper, bronze and iron. When people learned farming, they settled in villages, stored grain and made pots. Some villages grew into planned cities, like the Harappan cities on the Indus and Ghaggar rivers. At about the same time, river-valley civilisations rose in Mesopotamia, Egypt and China.
State and Society in India (up to 1000 CE) – The Vedas are India's oldest texts, kept alive for centuries by memory. In the Vedic age a chief (rajan) ruled with assemblies called sabha and samiti, and society was described through varnas and four life stages (ashramas). Small tribal areas grew into janapadas and then 16 big mahajanapadas, some ruled by kings and some by assemblies (ganas). Magadha grew into the Mauryan empire, run by provinces, officials, taxes and spies, as described in Kautilya's Arthashastra; Ashoka spread dhamma through edicts. Later empires (Guptas, Cholas and others) kept this system, with village assemblies in the south. Learning grew in gurukulas and great centres like Takshashila and Nalanda. Traders moved goods on long routes, and craftsmen organised in guilds called shrenis.

2. Sem.1 U2 Ancient Europe

Ancient Greece · Ancient Rome

Ancient Greece: City-States, Democracy and a Lasting Legacy – Ancient Greece grew up around the Aegean Sea, in a land of mountains, small valleys and many islands. Mountains kept communities apart, so Greeks lived in hundreds of independent city-states (poleis), each with its own laws, army and gods, while the sea linked them through trade. The two best known were Athens, a trading city that developed the first democracy around 508 BCE, and Sparta, a military state. The Greeks united to defeat Persian invasions in 490 and 480 BCE, then fought one another in the Peloponnesian War. Alexander of Macedon later led an army from Greece to Egypt and as far as the Indus, spreading Greek culture in the Hellenistic age. Greek ideas in politics, philosophy, history writing, science, mathematics, theatre, sport and architecture still shape the world.
An Empire Across Three Continents: the Roman Empire – The Roman Empire ruled the lands around the Mediterranean Sea: parts of Europe, West Asia and North Africa. Power was shared, often unequally, among the emperor, the senate and the army. Its economy ran on farming, towns, ships, money and trade in olive oil, wine and grain. Society had layers, from rich senators down to a large number of slaves. Roman traders sailed with the monsoon winds to ports in India. From the 4th century, the empire changed: Christianity became the main religion, Constantinople became a new capital, and the western half broke up in 476 CE. Historians call this time of change 'late antiquity'.

3. Sem.1 U3 Feudal Europe

Frankish kingdom and feudalism · Towns and universities · Byzantine Empire

The Three Orders: Feudal Society in Europe – From about the 9th to the 16th century, western Europe was a feudal society. People were seen as three orders: the clergy who prayed, the nobles who fought, and the peasants who worked. Lords held land from the king and ran manors where serfs worked. New tools and trade helped towns grow, but in the 14th century colder weather, famine and the Black Death caused a crisis. Afterwards kings of France, England and Spain built standing armies and tax systems, starting the rise of nation states.
Towns and Universities in Medieval Europe – Around 1000 to 1300, better farming and trade made people move to markets. Markets grew into walled towns with guilds of craft workers. In these towns teachers and students joined together and formed the first universities, such as Bologna, Paris and Oxford.
The Byzantine Empire – In 395 the Roman world split into West and East. The East, called the Byzantine Empire, had its capital at Constantinople and lasted until 1453. Emperor Justinian (527–565) collected the laws, built Hagia Sophia and won back land. Its Greek, Christian and artistic culture shaped Eastern Europe and saved ancient books.

4. Sem.1 U4 Medieval Asia, Africa and the Americas

Feudal Japan · Arab Empire · Medieval Africa and Americas

Feudal Japan: Taika Reforms, Samurai and the Shogunate – In 645 the Taika reforms placed Japan's land under the emperor. Over time powerful clans and warriors took real power. From 1192 a shogun at Kamakura ruled as military leader while the emperor stayed in Kyoto. Lords called daimyo kept samurai, and farmers worked the land: a feudal pyramid.
The Rise of Islam and the Arab Empire – Islam began in Arabia with the Prophet Muhammad (born about 570 CE). After his death in 632 the caliphs led fast expansion. The Umayyads ruled from Damascus (661–750) and the Abbasids from Baghdad (750–1258). Trade, translation and science made this a golden age of learning.
Medieval Africa and the Americas – While Europe and Asia had their own empires, Africa had rich kingdoms like Ghana, Mali, the Swahili ports and Great Zimbabwe, built on gold, salt and sea trade. In the Americas the Maya, Aztec and Inca built cities, roads, calendars and maths without contact with the old world.

5. Sem.1 U5 Towards the modern age

Renaissance · New sea routes · Early colonialism

Changing Cultural Traditions: Renaissance, Reformation and Science – From the 14th to the 17th century, rich Italian trading cities led a new interest in Greek and Roman learning called humanism. Artists aimed for realism, using perspective and the study of the body; architects built great domes. Printing spread ideas. Some educated women wrote and ruled. Luther's challenge in 1517 split the Western Church into Catholic and Protestant groups, and the Catholic Church reformed itself. Copernicus, Galileo and Newton changed how people saw the universe, and sailors found sea routes to the Americas and India.
The Age of Exploration (c. 1400–1600) – Between about 1400 and 1600, sailors from Portugal and Spain, and later other European countries, opened new sea routes across the world's oceans. They wanted spices and gold without paying many middlemen, they wanted to spread Christianity, and they wanted fame. New ships (the caravel), the compass, the astrolabe and better maps made long trips possible. Dias reached the southern tip of Africa (1488), Columbus reached the Americas (1492), da Gama reached India (1498) and Magellan's fleet sailed round the world (1519–22). Earlier, Zheng He of China had led huge fleets to Africa (1405–33). The voyages linked the whole world for the first time. They brought trade, new foods and wealth to Europe, but also conquest, deadly disease and the Atlantic slave trade.
Imperialism: Why Empires Grew and How People Resisted – Imperialism is when a powerful state takes control over other lands and peoples, by war, treaties or money. Colonialism is one form: ruling a colony directly. Between about 1870 and 1914 ('New Imperialism') industrial powers raced for colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. They wanted raw materials, markets, places to invest, ports and prestige, and excused it with racist ideas. Control grew from trading posts to unequal treaties to full colonies. The colonies were drained: raw materials left cheap, factory goods came back, local industry fell. People resisted with revolts, reforms and mass movements, and most colonies were free by the 1970s. The borders and inequalities left behind still shape the world.

6. Sem.1 U6 Establishing capitalism

English Revolution · American independence · French Revolution and Napoleon

The American Revolution (1763–1791) – Thirteen British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America broke away from Britain and formed the United States. After the Seven Years' War (1756–63), Britain was deeply in debt and tried to tighten control: the Proclamation of 1763 limited westward settlement, and new taxes (Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Townshend Acts, Tea Act) were passed by a Parliament in which the colonists had no members. Colonists protested with the slogan "no taxation without representation", boycotts, the Sons of Liberty and the Boston Tea Party. Britain replied with the Coercive ("Intolerable") Acts, and fighting began at Lexington and Concord in 1775. Enlightenment ideas of natural rights and government by consent, spread by Thomas Paine's Common Sense, led to the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776. With help from France, Spain and the Dutch Republic, the Continental Army under George Washington won at Saratoga and Yorktown, and the Treaty of Paris (1783) recognised independence. The weak Articles of Confederation were replaced by the Constitution of 1787, with separation of powers, checks and balances and federalism, plus the Bill of Rights (1791). The new republic under Washington and Adams saw the first political parties. The Revolution inspired others, but rights were limited: slavery continued, Native nations lost land and women could not vote.

7. Sem.1 U7 Industrial Revolution and Marxism

First Industrial Revolution · Birth of Marxism; First International and Paris Commune · History skills: horizontal links; reading classics

The Age of Industrialisation – Before factories, merchants gave raw material to peasant families who spun and wove at home (proto-industrialisation). From the 1760s Britain built cotton mills, machines like the spinning jenny and James Watt's improved steam engine. Change was slow: hand labour stayed cheap and common. In India, weavers once supplied world markets; the East India Company controlled them through gomasthas, and Manchester cloth later flooded India. From 1854 Indian mills grew in Bombay and elsewhere, and small workshops also grew. Makers sold goods through labels, calendars and adverts, and swadeshi adverts appealed to national pride.
The Birth of Marxism: Manifesto, First International and Paris Commune – Marxism is a set of ideas about society, first spelled out by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. They said that in a factory society there are two big classes with opposite interests: owners and workers. In 1848 they published the Communist Manifesto, which said that history moves through struggles between classes and called on workers of all countries to unite. In 1864 workers' groups from many cities formed the First International in London to work together across borders. In 1871 the workers and citizens of Paris ran their own city for 72 days (the Paris Commune) before government troops crushed it. Together these three events show how a new idea about work, wealth and power grew from the factory age into a world-wide movement.

8. Sem.2 U1 Colonial resistance and spread of capitalism

Colonial resistance · Russian reform · American Civil War · Meiji Restoration

Colonial Resistance: The 1857 Uprising in India and Latin American Independence – A colony is a land ruled by a distant power that takes its goods and taxes. In the 1800s people in many colonies resisted. In India, soldiers of the East India Company rose at Meerut on 10 May 1857, and many civilians joined. The revolt spread to Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Jhansi and other places, but it lacked one plan and was put down by 1858; afterwards Company rule ended and the British Crown ruled India directly. In Latin America, the enslaved people of Haiti won freedom in 1804. After Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808 the Spanish and Portuguese empires weakened, and leaders such as Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin helped most colonies become independent by the 1820s. Comparing the two shows why some resistance succeeded and some did not.
The American Civil War and Reconstruction (1845–1877) – Between 1845 and 1877 the United States grew west, split over slavery, fought a civil war and then tried to rebuild. The North had factories and free labour; the South grew cotton with about 4 million enslaved people. New western land raised one question again and again: would new states allow slavery? Compromises (1820, 1850) failed, and after Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election, 11 Southern states left the Union. The war (1861–65) killed about 620,000 soldiers. The North won with more people, factories and railways, and slavery was ended by the 13th Amendment. Reconstruction (1865–77) gave citizenship and the vote to Black men, but when federal troops left in 1877, many of these rights were taken away for almost a century.
Paths to Modernisation: Japan, China and Korea – Japan, China and Korea all became modern, but by different paths. Japan, opened by US ships in 1853, began the Meiji reforms in 1868: railways, factories, schools and a strong army under the emperor. It then grew into an empire, fought the Second World War and was defeated in 1945. Under US occupation it got a peaceful constitution and rebuilt into a rich country (1964 Olympics). China ended the rule of emperors in 1911 under Sun Yat-sen; after years of civil war and Japanese invasion Mao's Communist Party won in 1949. Mao's Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution hurt the economy. From 1978 Deng Xiaoping opened markets under the Four Modernisations, and China grew fast. Korea was a Japanese colony (1910–45), was split in two and suffered a war (1950–53); South Korea then grew through export factories and became a democracy in 1987.

9. Sem.2 U2 Second Industrial Revolution

Second Industrial Revolution · Social change in industrial countries · Modern science and culture

The Age of Industrialisation – Before factories, merchants gave raw material to peasant families who spun and wove at home (proto-industrialisation). From the 1760s Britain built cotton mills, machines like the spinning jenny and James Watt's improved steam engine. Change was slow: hand labour stayed cheap and common. In India, weavers once supplied world markets; the East India Company controlled them through gomasthas, and Manchester cloth later flooded India. From 1854 Indian mills grew in Bombay and elsewhere, and small workshops also grew. Makers sold goods through labels, calendars and adverts, and swadeshi adverts appealed to national pride.
The Industrial Revolution: Causes, Effects and Reform (1760–1914) – Between about 1760 and 1914 work moved from hand tools at home to machines in factories. A first wave (about 1760–1840) began in Britain with coal, iron, steam power and cotton mills. A second wave (about 1870–1914) brought steel, electricity, chemicals and oil, and spread to Western Europe, the United States, Japan and Russia. Towns grew fast; workers faced long hours, child labour and dirty housing. Workers organised in unions, new ideas (liberalism, socialism, conservatism) argued about what to do, and governments slowly passed factory, health and voting reforms.
Modern Science and Culture: Darwin, Einstein, Literature and Art (1830–1920) – In the 1800s and early 1900s, factories, railways and growing cities changed life, and people began to ask new questions about nature and society. In science, Charles Darwin explained in 1859 how living things change slowly through natural selection, Gregor Mendel found patterns of heredity, Marie and Pierre Curie studied radioactivity, and Albert Einstein showed in 1905 and 1915 that time, space, mass and energy are linked. In literature, writers such as Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo and Leo Tolstoy described poverty, justice and everyday life, and in 1913 Rabindranath Tagore became the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. In art, photography pushed painters towards light, feeling and new ways of seeing, giving us Impressionism and then Cubism. Together these changes built the modern way of thinking.

10. Sem.2 U3 WWI and after

World War I · October Revolution · Versailles and Washington treaties · Soviet socialist construction · National movements in Asia, Africa, Latin America

World War I (1914–1918): Causes, Course and Consequences – World War I was fought from 1914 to 1918 between the Allies (France, Britain, Russia, later Italy, the USA and others) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria). Four long-term causes built tension: militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism (MAIN). The spark was the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. On the Western Front the war became a stalemate of trenches; new weapons made it very deadly. It was a total war: whole economies, women workers and colonies were mobilised, including about 1.3 million Indians. Russia left after its 1917 revolution, the USA joined in 1917, and fighting stopped with the armistice of 11 November 1918. The peace treaties of 1919–1920, including Versailles, redrew Europe, ended four empires, created the League of Nations and left anger that helped cause World War II.
Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia and Stalin's Soviet Union (1917–1953) – In 1917 war defeats, hunger and anger at Tsar Nicholas II led to the February Revolution; the Tsar abdicated and a weak Provisional Government took over. In October Lenin's Bolsheviks seized power. They closed the elected Constituent Assembly, made peace with Germany, won a civil war against the Whites (1918–21) and built a one-party state with a secret police (Cheka). War Communism caused hunger and revolt, so Lenin switched to the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921. After Lenin died in 1924, Stalin used his post as General Secretary to defeat Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin by 1929. He then forced fast industrialisation through Five-Year Plans and collectivised farming, which brought big gains in heavy industry but a terrible famine in 1932–33. Through purges, show trials and the Great Terror (1936–38), the Gulag and a personality cult, Stalin ruled by fear. The USSR survived the German invasion of 1941 and won the Great Patriotic War at a huge cost, becoming a superpower. Stalin's harsh rule continued until his death in 1953.
The Interwar Period (1918–1939) – Between the end of the First World War (1918) and the start of the Second (1939), four empires collapsed and many new states appeared in Central and Eastern Europe. The Versailles–Washington peace system and the League of Nations tried to keep order. After unrest in the early 1920s came a short period of stability, but the 1929 crash started the Great Depression. Mass unemployment weakened democracies; most new states turned authoritarian, while fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and the Stalinist USSR became totalitarian. Governments began to manage the economy, the League failed to stop aggression, and the Spanish Civil War and appeasement led towards war in 1939.

11. Sem.2 U4 Great Depression and WWII

New Deal · Fascist aggression · World War II

The Great Depression (1929–1939) – The Great Depression was the worst economic slump of the 20th century. It started in the USA with the Wall Street Crash of October 1929. Share prices fell, banks failed, factories closed and by 1933 about one in four American workers had no job. Countries raised taxes on imports, so world trade shrank by about two-thirds and the crisis spread to Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. Governments answered in different ways: the New Deal in the USA, public works and welfare in some democracies, and in Germany and Japan the crisis helped extreme nationalist parties grow, which led towards the Second World War.
The Interwar Period (1918–1939) – Between the end of the First World War (1918) and the start of the Second (1939), four empires collapsed and many new states appeared in Central and Eastern Europe. The Versailles–Washington peace system and the League of Nations tried to keep order. After unrest in the early 1920s came a short period of stability, but the 1929 crash started the Great Depression. Mass unemployment weakened democracies; most new states turned authoritarian, while fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and the Stalinist USSR became totalitarian. Governments began to manage the economy, the League failed to stop aggression, and the Spanish Civil War and appeasement led towards war in 1939.
World War II (1939–1945) – World War II was the deadliest war in history. Its roots were the anger left by World War I, the Great Depression and the rise of dictators in Germany, Italy and Japan. It began when Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. The Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan) fought the Allies (Britain and its empire, France, the USSR, the USA, China and others). It was a total war and a war of annihilation: about 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and 70–85 million people died. Germany surrendered in May 1945 and Japan in September 1945. The war led to the United Nations, the Cold War and the end of empires.

12. Sem.2 U5 Post-war world

Cold War · Changes in capitalism; socialism's development · New development of Asia, Africa, Latin America

The Cold War (1945–1991) – The Cold War was a long contest (1945–1991) between two superpowers: the USA with its Western allies (capitalism, multi-party elections) and the USSR with its Eastern allies (communism, one-party rule). They never fought each other directly. Instead they formed rival alliances (NATO, Warsaw Pact), raced to build nuclear weapons and reach space, backed opposite sides in proxy wars (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan) and came close to nuclear war in Cuba in 1962. Many new nations, led by India and others, stayed non-aligned. Détente eased tension in the 1970s. Reforms in the USSR, the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the break-up of the USSR (1991) ended it.
The Collapse of the Soviet Union and Its Empire (1953–2000) – After Stalin died in 1953, the USSR tried to reform without losing control. Khrushchev denounced Stalin and eased terror, but crushed Hungary in 1956. Under Brezhnev (1964–82) growth slowed and leaders grew old: the 'years of stagnation'. The satellite states of Eastern Europe were kept in line by force (Prague 1968) and by a promise of a quiet life paid for with Western loans. Protest grew, above all Poland's Solidarity union (1980). Gorbachev (1985–91) tried glasnost and perestroika and stopped using force abroad. In 1989 the satellites threw off communism, and in 1991 the USSR split into 15 states. Yeltsin's Russia then went through painful 'shock therapy' until Putin took over in 2000.
Decolonisation: How Empires Ended and New Nations Were Born – Decolonisation is the process by which colonies became independent states. It happened mostly between 1945 and the 1970s. The Second World War weakened the ruling countries, freedom movements grew strong, and the United Nations backed the right of peoples to rule themselves. Some colonies won freedom through talks and mass movements (India 1947, Ghana 1957); others through long wars (Algeria 1962). New states then faced poverty, one-crop economies, unfair borders and Cold War pressure, and many chose non-alignment.

13. Sem.2 U6 A world of peace and development

UN and WTO · Post-Cold War world · Modern society

International Organisations – International organisations help countries co-operate on peace, money, trade and rights. The UN was set up in 1945 after the League of Nations failed; it has six main organs, and the Security Council's five permanent members hold a veto. Reform of the UN, especially the Security Council, is needed because the world has changed since 1945, and India claims a permanent seat. The IMF, World Bank, WTO, ILO and IAEA handle money, development, trade, workers and nuclear safety, while NGOs like Amnesty International watch over human rights.
The Post-Cold War World – The Cold War ended in 1991 when the USSR broke up. For a short time one superpower stood alone (a unipolar world). Soon many centres of power rose, such as the EU, China, Russia, India and ASEAN, so the world became multipolar. Old pressures eased, but regional conflicts, terrorism and unequal growth stayed. Peace now depends on trade, talks and shared rules.
The Making of a Global World – People, goods, ideas and germs have moved across the world for thousands of years: on the silk routes, with food crops like potato and maize, and with diseases like smallpox. Between 1815 and 1914 the world economy grew through three flows: goods, labour and capital, helped by railways, steamships and refrigerated ships. Colonies paid a price: rinderpest in Africa and indentured labour from India. After the First World War came mass production in the USA and then the Great Depression of 1929, which hit India's farmers hard. After 1945, the Bretton Woods system, the IMF and the World Bank rebuilt the world economy.