South 고등학교 3학년 World History
Chapters: 6
1. Human origins and civilisations
What world history is · Human origins · Early civilisations
- Historical Thinking: How Historians Work – History is the study of the past using evidence. Put events in order on a timeline and read them in their context. Use primary sources (made at the time) and secondary sources (made later). Judge each source: who made it, when, why, and what is missing. Events have many causes: slow long-term causes and a short trigger. Look for both change and continuity, decide what was significant, and build an argument backed by evidence.
- 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.
2. East Asia
Spring and Autumn to Sui-Tang · Song dynasty · Ming, Qing and Edo
- East Asian History: How China, Korea and Japan Shaped Each Other – East Asia (China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia and nearby lands such as Vietnam) shares a long history. Steppe herders and river-plain farmers met and clashed. Early states grew into empires. A tribute system, Chinese characters, Confucian ideas, Buddhism and law codes linked the region. Trade, Mongol conquest and the wars of the 1590s–1640s changed it, and the Qing, Joseon and Edo orders followed.
3. West Asia and India
West Asian empires · Indian dynasties
- 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.
4. Europe and the Americas
Greece and Rome · Feudal Europe · New sea routes · Revolutions and nation states
- 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.
- Medieval Europe: A Thousand Years from Rome to the Renaissance – The Middle Ages in Europe lasted about 1,000 years, from the end of the Western Roman Empire (476 CE) to around 1500. In the early period, migrating peoples set up new kingdoms in the west, the Franks grew strong under Charlemagne, and the Byzantine Empire carried on Roman rule in the east. Society was organised by feudalism: land given in return for loyalty and service. The Church shaped daily life through monasteries, cathedrals and the crusades. From about 1000, trade revived, towns, guilds and universities grew, and kings gained power. In the 1300s the Black Death and long wars brought a crisis that helped end the medieval world.
- 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.
- 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.
5. Imperialism and world wars
Imperialism and resistance · The world wars
- 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.
- 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.
6. The contemporary world
Cold War · Globalisation and technology
- 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.
- Globalisation and Global Governance – Globalisation is the growth of flows of goods, capital, information and labour that tie places together. Technology, transport and trade deals drive it. The flows are unequal: rich economies hold more power, poorer ones have weaker market access. TNCs spread production of one product across many places. Agencies like the UN, WTO, IMF and World Bank try to govern these flows, and treaties protect global commons such as Antarctica. Globalisation brings growth and cheaper goods but also inequality, conflict and environmental harm.