South 고등학교 2학년 World History
Chapters: 4
1. Formation of regional worlds
Early humans and civilisations · East Asian and Indian worlds · West Asia, the Mediterranean and Europe
- 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.
- Ancient Empires: Persia, Greece, Rome, India and China – An empire is a very large realm where one ruler governs many lands and peoples. In the ancient world, Persia (about 550 BCE) built roads and provinces run by governors. Alexander of Macedon carried Greek ideas east to the Indus. Rome grew from a city to an empire held together by law, roads and legions. In India the Maurya empire, under Ashoka, spread a message of kindness; in China, Qin joined many states and the Han empire ran the Silk Road. These empires shaped trade, law, religion and ideas that connect Europe, West Asia, India and China.
2. Expansion of trade networks
Islamic world and Mongol expansion · New sea routes and fiscal-military states · Effects of global commodity trade
- Trade Networks of the World, c. 1200–1450 – Between about 1200 and 1450, three great networks linked Afro-Eurasia: the overland Silk Roads, the sea routes of the Indian Ocean and the camel routes across the Sahara. Trade grew because regions had different goods, new technology made travel safer and cheaper, and strong states (the Song and Ming in China, the Mongol Empire, Mali, the Swahili city-states and Muslim sultanates) protected merchants. Along these routes moved not only silk, spices, gold and salt, but also religions, technologies, crops and disease. Meanwhile, states in East Asia, Dar al-Islam, South and Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas grew in their own ways.
- 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.
3. Formation of nation states
Qing, Mughal and Ottoman rule · American and French revolutions · First and second industrial revolutions · Nation-building in Asia and Africa
- The Age of Revolutions (c. 1770–1850) – Between about 1770 and 1850, people in the Americas and Europe overthrew or challenged kings, colonial rulers and old privileges. New ideas of liberty, equality and rights met real problems: unfair taxes, debt, hunger and slavery. The American Revolution (1776) created a republic with a written constitution. The French Revolution (1789) ended feudal privilege and declared the rights of citizens. The wave spread to Haiti, Latin America and Europe in 1848. Kings pushed back at Vienna in 1815, but ideas of citizenship, constitutions and the nation lasted.
- 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.
4. Challenges of the contemporary world
World wars, human rights and technology · Cold War and its effects · Tackling today's global problems
- The Two World Wars Compared: Causes, Costs and the New World Order – World War I (1914–1918) grew out of militarism, rival alliances, imperial competition and nationalism, set off by one assassination in 1914. Its peace settlement, the Great Depression and the rise of dictators led to World War II (1939–1945). Both were total wars that used whole economies and new technology, and WWII killed about four times as many people, more than half of them civilians, including the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. After WWI the League of Nations failed; after WWII the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and decolonisation reshaped the world.
- 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.
- Global Citizenship – A global citizen belongs to local, national and world communities at the same time. The world is interconnected, and problems such as poverty, hunger, conflict and climate change are shared. Global citizens know their rights and duties, care about people far away, reduce their ecological footprint, and act locally while thinking globally.