Remember that the AP World History exam tests you on the depth of your knowledge, not just your ability to recall facts. While we have provided brief definitions here, you will need to know these terms in even more depth for the AP exam, including how terms connect to broader historical themes and understandings.
World War I
World War I: Initially known as the Great War, this total war officially began in 1914 with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, but it was rooted in secret alliances, nationalism, and militarism among the European powers. Its end in 1918 left Europe with many unresolved issues that would be settled in World War II.
Total war: Warfare in which the entire nation devotes its efforts to large-scale war, usually with the aim to completely eliminate an enemy threat. The two world wars are well-known examples.
League of Nations: As part of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s plans for postwar peace (the Fourteen Points), a multinational coalition was created to prevent further war through open negotiations. Ironically, the United States never became a member. The power of the League was delegitimized in the 1930s with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the Spanish Civil War, and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.
Mohandas Gandhi: Regarded as the most influential leader of the Indian Independence movement, the Mahatma (“Great Soul”) was known for his grassroots approach to protest. Using a combination of religious ideals, Gandhi and his followers used civil disobedience and nonviolence to help India gain its independence. Although Gandhi was murdered just five months after independence, his legacy influenced such leaders as Dr. Martin Luther King and the Dalai Lama.
Global Depression
World War II: Officially taking place from 1939–1945 (though some historians argue it started as far back as 1931), this total war pitted the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) against the Allied powers (Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States) in a truly global war that attempted to resolve post-World War I issues. The outcome of this war changed the world’s political and economic history.
Great Depression: Generally considered to have happened from 1929–1939, this global economic recession was caused by a variety of factors, including Europe’s relative inability to recover economically from World War I and the collapse of the American stock market in the wake of increased investment. Politically, this caused many around the world to favor government intervention in the economy.
Rise of Fascist and Totalitarian States
Benito Mussolini: Leader of Italy’s “Blackshirts” and key proponent of fascism as an anti-communist movement. In 1922, he and his followers successfully deposed King Vittorio Emmanuel II and established Italy as a military dictatorship.
Adolf Hitler: Austrian-born leader who, after witnessing Germany’s humiliating defeat in World War I, vowed to restore Germany to its former glory through militarism, ultranationalism, extreme violence, and anti-Semitism. Using propaganda and indoctrination, Hitler led the Nazi Party and became chancellor of Germany in 1933.
Fascism: In response to the rise of communism in Eastern Europe after World War I, this political and economic system emerged in Italy in the 1920s under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. Key ideas of fascism include extreme nationalism, militarism, dictatorship, and the “corporate state,” in which governments ally with big businesses to build themselves up economically.
Joseph Stalin: Successor to V. I. Lenin, this dictator solidified his rule and used an extreme form of communism (Stalinism) to rule the U.S.S.R. from 1927 to his death in 1953. His political ideology included centralized planning of the economy, collective farms, and purging of all dissent.
World War II
Firebombing: Use of incendiary bombs during warfare, particularly from airplanes. The bombs, filled with either thermite or napalm, cause massive burning of large areas at any given time and were particularly used in World War II and the Vietnam War.
Nuclear bomb: Developed in the United States in the 1940s, this weapon ended World War II when it was dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although it killed over 150,000 people, historians argue that it saved lives by forcing Japan’s immediate surrender. Although the following decades were marked by a race for nuclear supremacy, it should be noted that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the only times that nuclear bombs were used in warfare.
United Nations: Founded in 1945 with the intent of settling postwar concerns and recovering war-torn nations, this international organization is responsible for peacekeeping tasks around the world, with the cooperation of its member nations.
Cold War: Ideological struggle pitting the United States and the Soviet Union against each other for global political hegemony, 1949–1993.
The Cold War
Proxy wars: Particularly common during the Cold War, these are wars that are instigated or supported by a major power, but not fought by them. Instead, these are fought by proxy, or by another power in an attempt to help the major power achieve its aims.
Vietnam: Nation in Southeast Asia that, in the wake of France’s defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, was divided into two. The rise of Ho Chi Minh, a Marxist leader of nationalist forces, led to one of the longest, bloodiest military engagements of the Cold War: the Vietnam War. Ho’s victory caused Vietnam to turn communist.
Warsaw Pact: Formed in 1955 by the Soviet Union and seven Eastern Bloc countries, this defensive alliance sought to counteract the growing influence of NATO.
Non-Aligned Movement: In the wake of the Cold War, the nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America were ushered into alliances with the United States and the Soviet Union. Some nations chose not to ally. The first formal conference took place in 1955 and was led by Nehru of India and Nasser of Egypt. By the end of the Cold War, over 100 nations had announced that they would remain neutral in the context of the Cold War.
European Union: First formed in 1993, a continent-wide alliance of economic regulation that now has over 25 members, including several formerly communist countries. Originally formed as the European Economic Community by six European nations in 1957 as an economic alliance designed to eliminate trade barriers, end reliance on the United States, and ease tensions between former rivals.
Revolutions
Vladimir Lenin: Leader of the Bolsheviks in Russia during World War I, a society of radical communists whose aim was to overthrow the tsar. With his return to Russia in 1917 and the Russian Civil War in the years following, Lenin and his Bolsheviks seized power and transformed Russia into the Communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Mao Zedong: Leader of the Chinese Communist Party in the 1920s and 1930s, he reemerged in the 1940s as he and his followers fought the Nationalists (Kuomintang). In 1949, Mao declared victory and made himself leader of the People’s Republic of China, a position he held until his death in 1976. He was also known for radical national initiatives like the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.
Great Leap Forward: Mao Zedong’s ambitious plan, starting in 1958, to collectivize all aspects of the economy, most notably by having communal houses with backyard furnaces for steel production. After just five years and the deaths of millions of Chinese, the program was declared a failure, and Mao laid the groundwork for his Cultural Revolution in the 1960s.
Fidel Castro: Guerrilla leader of Cuba who, in 1959, deposed the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in an attempt to resolve income inequities. By 1961, he had made Cuba into a Soviet ally and caused great tensions between Cuba and its nearby neighbor, the United States. He led Cuba until he resigned in 2008, citing health concerns and handing over rule to his brother Raul.
Independence and Nationalist Movements
Indian National Congress: Founded in 1885 by British-educated Hindu leaders, this political party gained traction in 1919 when the failure of the Rowlatt Acts gave them more power. In the decades that followed, they became the political wing of the movement for Indian Independence and to this day, still play an influential role in India’s government.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah: Prior to 1920, this political leader had favored an alliance of Hindus and Muslims in the creation of one unified, independent India. However, in response to the popular rise of Mahatma Gandhi, Jinnah became leader of the Muslim League, a party devoted to the creation of a Muslim-led state in South Asia to prevent domination by the Hindu majority. In 1947, he became the first leader of his new nation, Pakistan, and led it for the last year of his life.
Indian/Pakistan Partition: In 1947, the nations of India and Pakistan both became independent from Great Britain. India was dominated by the Hindus, and Pakistan, divided into West and East Pakistan (modern-day Bangladesh), was Muslim dominated. Tensions between Hindus and Muslims in South Asia continue to this day, as evidenced by the continued conflict over the disputed region of Kashmir.
Algeria: Largest nation in Northwest Africa, this former French colony gained its independence in 1962 after a long war, in which nationalist troops fought against French leaders and their broken promises of better lives and freedom during the Anglo-American occupation of North Africa.
Ho Chi Minh: Vietnamese nationalist leader who fought against the Japanese during the Axis occupation of French Vietnam in World War II and then fought against the French after the war. When the Soviets and communist Chinese offered support to him and North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, the Americans responded by supporting anti-communist South Vietnam. The resulting war led to Ho’s leadership of North Vietnam.
Political Reform and Economic Changes
Deng Xiaoping: Premier of communist China from Mao Zedong’s death in 1976 to his own death in 1997, he instituted the Four Modernizations in an attempt to introduce capitalist reform in China. His non-democratic policies, though, drew the ire of educated Chinese, culminating in the Tiananmen Square uprising of 1989.
Tiananmen Square: Large public square in Beijing, China. Site of a 1989 conflict between students, protesting for democratic reform, and the Chinese military, defending the leadership of Deng Xiaoping.
NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Founded in 1949 by the nations of North America and Europe, this defensive alliance sought to contain the spread of communism in Eastern Europe.
Technology, Populations, and the Environment
Green Revolution: Beginning in the 1960s, this movement introduced new technologies and high-yield seed strains in an attempt to boost food production in developing countries. Initially successful in Mexico and India, its terminology has been called into question due to the increased use of chemical fertilizers that pollute the environment.
Cholera: Acute bacterial infection of the small intestine that was pandemic in the nineteenth century. Generally speaking, it affects people in developing nations more, since it spreads easily through contaminated drinking water.
HIV/AIDS: Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. The virus attacks the human body’s immune system, leaving patients susceptible to lethal diseases that slowly kill them. First reported in the United States in 1981, its unknown origins and rapid spread have made it one of the most recent epidemics and a symbol of the interconnected nature of today’s world.
Social and Cultural Changes
Pan-Africanism: The idea that people of the African continent have a shared heritage and should unify in that regard, despite the fact that they live in different nations. This attitude was the basis of many African independence movements after World War II.
Liberation theology in Latin America: A movement led by the Catholic Church beginning in the 1950s, this new religious movement emphasizes that the teachings of Christ can help liberate people from the political and economic injustices of poverty.