World History Reference Sheet

It is where the earliest known cities, writing, and organized governments developed, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers

The earliest known writing system, using wedge-shaped marks pressed into clay tablets by the Sumerians

One of the earliest written legal codes (c. 1754 BC), establishing laws and punishments for Babylon

Massive stepped temple towers built by the Sumerians and Babylonians as places of worship

The Neo-Babylonian Empire under King Nebuchadnezzar II (c. 600 BC)

They developed the first widely-used alphabet and were master seafarers and traders across the Mediterranean

Cyrus the Great of Persia, who captured Babylon in 539 BC and absorbed it into the Achaemenid Empire

Its annual floods deposited fertile soil for farming, making Egypt the 'gift of the Nile'

The ruler of ancient Egypt, considered a living god and intermediary between the gods and people

The ancient Egyptian writing system using pictorial symbols representing sounds and ideas

A stone inscribed in three scripts (hieroglyphics, Demotic, Greek) that enabled scholars to decode hieroglyphics

They believed preserving the body was essential for the soul (ka) to live on in the afterlife

Old Kingdom (pyramids), Middle Kingdom (expansion), and New Kingdom (empire)

Ramesses II (the Great), who ruled for 66 years and built many of Egypt's greatest monuments

Planned cities such as Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, with drainage systems, standardized weights, and long-distance trade

It remains undeciphered, so historians rely heavily on archaeology rather than readable royal records

Bronze ritual vessels, oracle-bone writing, and royal centers such as Anyang

The Mandate of Heaven: a ruler's authority depended on just rule and could be lost through corruption or disorder

Cultivating virtue, honoring family and social duties, and governing through moral example

He unified the warring states of China and standardized key systems such as writing, measures, and administration

It strengthened imperial bureaucracy, promoted Confucian learning, and expanded trade links along Silk Road routes

Chandragupta Maurya, who built a large empire in northern India in the late 4th century BC

He promoted moral rule, public welfare, and Buddhism through inscriptions across the Mauryan Empire

It saw major achievements in Sanskrit literature, mathematics, astronomy, art, and temple culture

An independent city-state, the basic political unit of ancient Greece (e.g., Athens, Sparta)

A system where adult male citizens directly participated in lawmaking and governance — the world's first democracy

Sparta was a militaristic society focused on warrior training from age 7, while Athens valued education, arts, and democracy

Conflicts (490-479 BC) where Greek city-states united to defeat the Persian Empire's invasions

He conquered an empire stretching from Greece to India, spreading Greek culture (Hellenism) throughout the ancient world

The spread of Greek language, culture, philosophy, and art throughout the ancient world after Alexander's conquests

A war between Athens and Sparta (431-404 BC) that weakened all Greek city-states; Sparta won

Monarchy, Republic, Empire

Two consuls, a Senate of patricians, and assemblies of citizens — with checks and balances

A Roman general and dictator who expanded Rome's territory but was assassinated in 44 BC for concentrating power

The first Roman Emperor (27 BC), who established the Pax Romana — a 200-year period of peace and prosperity

A roughly 200-year period (27 BC - 180) of relative peace, stability, and prosperity across the Roman Empire

Military pressures from barbarian invasions, economic decline, political instability, and overextension of the empire

Emperor Constantine granted religious tolerance, making Christianity legal throughout the Roman Empire

A political and economic system where lords granted land (fiefs) to vassals in exchange for military service and loyalty

It was the unifying institution — providing education, preserving learning, guiding morals, and wielding political influence

A series of religious wars (1096-1291) launched by European Christians to recapture the Holy Land from Muslim control

A bubonic plague pandemic (1347-1351) that killed roughly one-third of Europe's population

A charter forced on King John of England, limiting royal power and establishing that even the king is subject to law

Foundation for constitutional government

King of the Franks who united much of Western Europe and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope in 800

They preserved classical learning, copied manuscripts, ran schools and hospitals, and advanced agriculture

It guarded trade routes between Europe and Asia and served as the capital of the Byzantine Empire for centuries

A sixth-century organization of Roman law that influenced later legal systems in Byzantium and Europe

Imperial patronage, Christian worship, engineering skill, and the artistic confidence of Constantinople

They united large regions from Arabia across North Africa, Southwest Asia, and parts of Europe under new political and religious leadership

Scholarship, translation, mathematics, medicine, philosophy, and a flourishing urban culture centered especially on Baghdad

It became a center for translating and studying Greek, Persian, and Indian learning in Abbasid Baghdad

His mathematical works helped shape algebra and transmitted useful calculation methods across cultures

The end of the Byzantine Empire and the rise of Ottoman power at a major crossroads of Europe and Asia

It reunified China after centuries of division and expanded the Grand Canal to connect major regions

A cosmopolitan empire with strong administration, poetry, Buddhist influence, and Silk Road connections

They helped recruit scholar-officials through mastery of classical texts rather than only family rank

Economic growth, urban life, Neo-Confucian learning, printing, paper money, and advances in technology

Woodblock and movable-type printing helped texts, examinations, religious works, and practical knowledge circulate more widely

The Mongol-ruled dynasty in China founded by Kublai Khan, linking China more tightly to Eurasian exchange

His account of Yuan China helped Europeans imagine Asian wealth, cities, and trade routes more vividly

They showed large-scale maritime organization and diplomatic reach across the Indian Ocean world

They controlled important West African trade routes, especially gold and salt moving across the Sahara

He ruled Mali, made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca, displayed great wealth, and supported learning in places such as Timbuktu

It became a center of trade, Islamic learning, manuscript culture, and scholarship in West Africa

A major stone-built city and trading center in southeastern Africa connected to regional and Indian Ocean exchange

A large West African empire that controlled trade cities such as Gao and Timbuktu after Mali's power declined

Urban centers, writing, mathematics, calendars, astronomy, and temple architecture in Mesoamerica

Tenochtitlan, a powerful city in central Mexico that ruled through tribute and military alliances

They used roads, storehouses, local administrators, and quipu record keeping to manage mountain territories

A cultural rebirth (14th-17th century) beginning in Italy, reviving interest in classical Greek and Roman learning, art, and humanism

An intellectual movement emphasizing human reason, classical learning, and individual potential, while often remaining within a Christian framework

Michelangelo (1508-1512)

Revolutionized communication by making books affordable and widely available, spreading ideas rapidly across Europe

Niccolo Machiavelli — arguing that rulers should use cunning and force to maintain power, separating politics from morality

Italy's wealthy trading cities (Florence, Venice), classical Roman heritage, and patronage by families like the Medici

A 'Renaissance man' — painter (Mona Lisa, Last Supper), scientist, engineer, anatomist, and inventor

Atlantic kingdoms sought sea routes to Asian trade, wealth, allies, and prestige as older land routes became harder to control

He sponsored navigation, mapmaking, and voyages along the African coast that helped Portugal build Atlantic and Indian Ocean routes

His 1497-1499 voyage around Africa to India opened a direct European sea route into Indian Ocean trade

It linked Europe and the Americas in sustained contact, beginning centuries of exchange, colonization, and conflict

A 1494 agreement that divided Spanish and Portuguese claims across newly reached Atlantic lands by an imaginary north-south line

The movement of plants, animals, peoples, diseases, and ideas between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres after 1492

Spanish expeditions, Indigenous alliances, epidemic disease, and imperial rivalry brought down the Aztec and Inca empires and reshaped American societies

Although Magellan died en route, his crew completed the first circumnavigation and showed that global ocean routes were connected

It forcibly moved millions of Africans into slavery, supported plantation economies, and caused deep human suffering with long consequences

An economic system in which governments tried to increase national wealth by controlling trade, colonies, and valuable resources

Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses (1517) challenging the sale of indulgences and other Church practices

Sola fide (faith alone), sola scriptura (Scripture alone), sola gratia (grace alone)

His Institutes of the Christian Religion systematized Reformed theology, emphasizing God's sovereignty and predestination

The Catholic Church's response to Protestantism, including the Council of Trent, Jesuits, and internal reforms

The Pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon; Henry declared himself head of the Church of England

Treaties ending the Thirty Years' War that established the principle of state sovereignty and religious tolerance in Europe

An 18th-century intellectual movement emphasizing reason, science, individual rights, and skepticism of traditional authority

All people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property; government exists to protect these rights

The separation of powers into legislative, executive, and judicial branches to prevent tyranny

Overthrew monarchy; inspired by Enlightenment but led to Terror

Government by consent through social contract and general will

It established the scientific method and transformed understanding of nature through figures like Galileo, Newton, and Copernicus

A transformation (c. 1760-1840) from agrarian economies to machine-based manufacturing, beginning in Britain

The steam engine, particularly James Watt's improvements (1769)

Urbanization, rise of a factory working class, child labor, pollution, and eventually labor reform movements

Free-market capitalism with limited government intervention, described in 'The Wealth of Nations' (1776)

Marx argued that capitalism exploited workers and that history moved through class struggle toward socialist revolution and communism

Britain had coal and iron, capital from trade, inventors, navigable waterways, stable institutions, and markets for manufactured goods

Machines such as the spinning jenny, water frame, and power loom increased thread and cloth production and pushed work into factories

A way of organizing labor in which machines, power sources, managers, and wage workers were gathered in one workplace on a regular schedule

Coal powered steam engines and factories, while iron supplied machinery, tools, rails, bridges, and stronger infrastructure

They moved people, raw materials, and finished goods faster and more cheaply, linking cities, mines, farms, ports, and markets

Factory acts, labor unions, public health reforms, and wider education efforts tried to limit abuses and protect workers and families

A later wave of industrial growth using steel, electricity, chemicals, oil, telephones, and mass production, spreading beyond Britain

It restored monarchies, redrew European borders, and built a balance of power meant to prevent another continent-wide war

It taught that peoples with shared language, culture, or history should form or control their own nation-states

Colonies across Spanish and Portuguese America became independent nations, often led by figures such as Bolivar and San Martin

Liberal, nationalist, and social reform pressures were growing across Europe, even where uprisings were defeated

They forced Qing China into unequal treaties, opened treaty ports, and exposed the pressure of Western imperial power

The Italian unification movement that created the Kingdom of Italy in the 1800s

He used Prussian leadership, diplomacy, and wars against Denmark, Austria, and France to form the German Empire in 1871

Japan's 1868 political restoration that centralized power under the emperor and launched rapid modernization

European powers rapidly claimed African territories in the late 1800s, disrupting African states, economies, and communities

They sped travel, communication, trade, government control, migration, and military movement across long distances

Militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism (MAIN), triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Ended WWI; heavy penalties on Germany; seeds of WWII

Economic depression and resentment led to fascist dictators (Hitler, Mussolini) and communist expansion (Stalin)

The systematic genocide of six million Jews and millions of others by Nazi Germany during WWII

Allied victory; the United Nations was founded; the U.S. and Soviet Union emerged as rival superpowers

The first international war crimes tribunal, holding Nazi leaders accountable and establishing the principle that 'following orders' is not a defense

Modern weapons made open attacks costly, so armies dug defensive trench systems and fought a long war of attrition

Governments mobilized soldiers, industry, food, money, and public morale so whole societies supported the war effort

Military strain, shortages, and political anger weakened the tsar, and the Bolsheviks later took power and pulled Russia from the war

A post-WWI organization for international cooperation that aimed to prevent war but lacked enough power and support to stop aggression

Economic crisis weakened confidence in liberal democracy and helped extremist movements gain support in several countries

Britain and France allowed Germany to take the Sudetenland hoping to preserve peace, but concessions did not stop Hitler's expansion

Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939; Britain and France declared war two days later

Britain resisted Germany's air campaign in 1940, preventing an invasion and keeping an Allied base in western Europe

Japan's December 7, 1941 attack brought the United States into World War II and widened the Pacific War

Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union opened a vast front, and Soviet resistance helped turn the war against Nazi Germany

The Allied landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944, opening a western front to liberate France and press toward Germany

After devastating atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Soviet entry against Japan, Japan surrendered in 1945

A geopolitical struggle (1947-1991) between the U.S. (capitalism/democracy) and Soviet Union (communism) fought through proxy wars, nuclear arms race, and ideological competition

The U.S. strategy of limiting the spread of communism through alliances, aid, and military support where leaders thought expansion was threatened

A U.S. program that gave economic aid to help rebuild Western Europe after World War II and strengthen democratic stability

After the Soviet Union blocked land routes to West Berlin, the U.S. and Britain supplied the city by air until the blockade ended

Rival military alliances: NATO led by the United States and its allies, and the Warsaw Pact led by the Soviet Union

Mao's communists founded the People's Republic of China in 1949, while the defeated Nationalists fled to Taiwan

North Korea, backed by communist powers, invaded South Korea; U.N. and U.S.-led forces defended the South, leaving Korea divided after an armistice

Many Asian and African peoples gained independence from European empires, creating new nations and changing global politics

A group of mostly newly independent states that tried to avoid formal alignment with either the U.S.-led or Soviet-led bloc

The United States and Soviet Union came close to nuclear war in 1962 over Soviet missiles placed in Cuba

The conflict became tied to containment as communist North Vietnam fought South Vietnam, which received major U.S. support

It showed the weakening of communist control in Eastern Europe and became a powerful sign that the Cold War order was ending

The USSR broke apart into independent republics, ending the Cold War superpower rivalry and reshaping Europe and Asia

The old U.S.-Soviet rivalry ended, leaving a more interconnected world shaped by new institutions, regional conflicts, and American influence

It brought the European Union into being in 1993, deepening economic and political cooperation among European nations

Negotiations ended legal apartheid, South Africa held multiracial democratic elections in 1994, and Nelson Mandela became president

Created at CERN by Tim Berners-Lee, it made internet information easier to publish, link, search, and share across the world

Deeper worldwide connections through trade and technology

Economic reforms and China's 2001 WTO entry tied Chinese manufacturing and markets more deeply to world trade

Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks in the United States killed nearly 3,000 people and led to major changes in security and foreign policy

A U.S.-led international campaign after September 11 against al-Qaeda and related groups, including wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

More missions tried to monitor ceasefires, protect civilians, and support elections, though local conflicts often remained difficult

They show nations trying to cooperate on climate change through international agreements, targets, and national plans

They sped communication, news, learning, business, and civic organizing, while also raising questions about privacy and misinformation

A wave of protests beginning in 2010-2011 across parts of North Africa and the Middle East, with varied results in different countries