AP World: Unit 5 Learning Objectives

The Enlightenment was the spread of ideas like that the universe is rational, and can be discovered through reasoning and experiments. Human experience is the foundation of human understanding through truth rather than blindly following authority. This led to people forming their own ideas and questioning their leaders, pushing the ideas of revolution.

Enlightenment ideas led to various reform movements resulting in the abolition of slavery and the end of serfdom. This period also saw the emergence of women’s rights movements, expanded suffrage, and the introduction of John Locke’s Natural Rights (you are born with rights the government cannot intervene).

The Haitian Revolution was a result of the fact that most enslaved Africans had been free before, and they were able to communicate through Vodou, giving cultural expression and rallying point to protest, led by Toussaint L’Overture. ***slaves were also dying at extreme rates, making the country unstable. The slaves won and Haiti became a free nation, and led to Latin American Revolutions. The Spanish had implemented the Casta system and the Creoles who were natively Spanish were angered because they did not have all the rights that the Peninsulares had, and the lower class (ex. Black and Natives) did all the labor for not much benefit. The result was revolts and mixed race children, further adding to the social hierarchy based on race and birth location.

Environmental factors contributed to the Industrial Revolution because of new methods of agriculture that used machines, meaning greater production with less effort. Another factor was Britain’s availability to natural resources such as coal, iron, steel, and timber from their colonies and their access to waterways.

There was a development of a factory system and concentrated production in a single location instead of cottage industries. Middle Eastern and Asian countries continued to produce goods but their share in global manufacturing declined. Now, most production such as textile production are in Europe and spread to the U.S.

The development of the steam engine played a major role in transferring production and transportation because it replaced water and wind as the primary source of energy so factories didn’t have to be so close to a water source. Consequently, more factories were built in the cities (urbanization), fueling increased production.

Japan went through their industrial revolution later than many western powers, and they began to get intimidated so during the Meiji Restoration, they shifted towards state-sponsored industrialization, promoting industrial growth and sending students abroad to aquire technological knowledge. The result was that Japan was able to rapidly and successfully industrialize and became a major player in global economy.

During 1750-1950, Capitalism was emerging which emphasized free markets which was thought to lead to growth and societal prosperity with help of laissez-faire ideologies. This contributed to different classes, making the rich richer and the poor exploited. The drive/motivation to open up businesses facilitated global operations and made it easier for businesses to expand globally.

During this time period, Capitalism was on the rise and believed in free market. However, Karl Marx saw the faults of a capitalist society firsthand, and claimed that it was unstable because of the class divisions (Bougeoisie: Rich, Proletariat: Poor). As a result, he responded with a communist manifesto, pushing for an overthrow of the government and a rejection of social hierarchies (everyone equal and distributing everything evenly).

Industrialization caused a rise in social classes, consisting of primarily factory workers. As factories became more widespread, they made their way towards the city where everything was crowded. There was pollution due to coal smoke and poor sanitation in work environments. However, since there were a lot of people coming in due to the job opportunities, there began to be a lack of housing so a large amount of people were in tenements with poor ventilation, leading to the spread of disease.