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Unit 7: Global Conflict (c. 1900 to the present): the world wars, mass politics, and total war

9 dot points across 9 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do historians explain the causes and effects of the global conflicts of the twentieth century?

Topic 7.9 Causation in Global Conflicts: applying the historical reasoning skill of causation to the global conflicts of the twentieth century, including the world wars and their causes and consequences.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 7.9, the causation reasoning skill applied to Unit 7: explaining the causes and effects of the world wars, distinguishing long-term from immediate causes, and how to structure a causation essay on twentieth-century conflict.
11 min answer →

What long-term and immediate causes turned European rivalries into a world war in 1914?

Topic 7.2 Causes of World War I: the long-term and immediate causes of the First World War, including militarism, alliances, imperialism, nationalism, and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 7.2, explaining the causes of the First World War: the long-term MAIN factors (militarism, alliances, imperialism, nationalism) and the immediate trigger, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914.
11 min answer →

Why did the unresolved tensions of the interwar years erupt into a second world war?

Topic 7.6 Causes of World War II: the causes of the Second World War, including the legacy of the First World War, the Great Depression, fascist and militarist expansion, and the failure of appeasement and collective security.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 7.6, explaining the causes of the Second World War: the legacy of Versailles and the Great Depression, fascist and militarist expansion by Germany, Italy, and Japan, and the failure of appeasement and the League of Nations.
11 min answer →

How did total war and new technology change the conduct of the First World War?

Topic 7.3 Conducting World War I: the new technologies and the practice of total war that made the First World War uniquely destructive and global, including trench warfare, the mobilization of home fronts, and the global reach of the conflict.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 7.3, explaining how the First World War was fought: trench warfare and new technology like machine guns and poison gas, the practice of total war and home-front mobilization, the use of colonial troops, and the global reach of the conflict.
11 min answer →

How did total war, new technology, and the targeting of civilians make the Second World War so destructive?

Topic 7.7 Conducting World War II: the methods and technologies of the Second World War, including total war, the deliberate targeting of civilians, new weapons, and the use of the atomic bomb.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 7.7, explaining how the Second World War was fought: total war and total mobilization, new technologies like tanks, aircraft, and radar, the deliberate targeting of civilians through strategic bombing, and the use of the atomic bomb.
11 min answer →

How did the Great Depression reshape economies, governments, and ideologies between the wars?

Topic 7.4 Economy in the Interwar Period: the economic crises between the wars, especially the Great Depression, and the varied government responses, including increased state intervention and the rise of authoritarian regimes.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 7.4, explaining the interwar economy: the Great Depression and its global spread, the varied government responses from the New Deal and Keynesian intervention to Soviet command planning and fascist autarky, and the political consequences.
11 min answer →

What conditions made the twentieth century an age of genocide and mass atrocity?

Topic 7.8 Mass Atrocities After 1900: the genocides and mass killings of the twentieth century, including the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, and others, and the conditions that enabled them.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 7.8, explaining the mass atrocities and genocides of the twentieth century: the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, the Holodomor, the Cambodian and Rwandan genocides, and the conditions of ideology, total war, and state power that enabled them.
11 min answer →

How did the internal collapse of old empires and the rise of new ideologies shift global power after 1900?

Topic 7.1 Shifting Power after 1900: the collapse or transformation of land-based empires and the rise of new political ideologies and movements at the start of the twentieth century.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 7.1, explaining the shift in global power after 1900: the collapse of the Qing, Ottoman, and Russian empires, the Russian and Chinese revolutions, and the rise of new ideologies like communism and the end of dynastic rule.
11 min answer →

How did the peace settlement of 1919 and the rise of new ideologies leave the world's tensions unresolved?

Topic 7.5 Unresolved Tensions After World War I: the political and social tensions left by the peace settlement, including the Treaty of Versailles, the mandate system, anticolonial movements, and the rise of fascism and authoritarianism.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 7.5, explaining the tensions left after the First World War: the harsh Treaty of Versailles and German resentment, the mandate system and broken promises to colonized peoples, the rise of fascism and authoritarianism, and the weakness of the League of Nations.
11 min answer →