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Unit 8: Cold War and Decolonization (c. 1900 to the present): a divided world and the end of empire

8 dot points across 8 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How did colonized peoples win independence after 1900, and why did methods differ?

Topic 8.5 Decolonization After 1900: the processes and methods of decolonization after the Second World War, including negotiated and armed independence, partition, and the role of nationalism.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 8.5, explaining decolonization after 1900: the negotiated independence of India under Gandhi, armed struggles in Algeria and Vietnam, the role of nationalism, partition and its violence, and how methods of decolonization differed.
12 min answer →

How did the Cold War reshape the wider world beyond the two superpowers?

Topic 8.3 Effects of the Cold War: the global effects of the Cold War, including military alliances, nuclear proliferation, the Non-Aligned Movement, and superpower intervention in the decolonizing world.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 8.3, explaining the effects of the Cold War: military alliances like NATO and the Warsaw Pact, nuclear proliferation, the Non-Aligned Movement of nations refusing to take sides, and superpower intervention in newly independent states.
11 min answer →

Why did the Cold War end, and what reshaped global power as a result?

Topic 8.8 End of the Cold War: the causes and consequences of the end of the Cold War, including the collapse of the Soviet Union, reforms like glasnost and perestroika, and the emergence of a new global order.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 8.8, explaining the end of the Cold War: Gorbachev's reforms of glasnost and perestroika, the fall of the Berlin Wall and Soviet collapse in 1991, economic and military strain, and the consequences for the new global order.
11 min answer →

How did movements around the world challenge oppression and established power after 1900?

Topic 8.7 Global Resistance to Established Order After 1900: the movements that challenged existing power structures after 1900, including civil rights, anti-apartheid, feminist, and other movements, both peaceful and violent.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 8.7, explaining global resistance to established orders after 1900: the United States civil rights movement, the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, feminist movements, Tiananmen, and the spread of both nonviolent and violent resistance.
11 min answer →

What challenges and choices faced the new states that emerged from decolonization?

Topic 8.6 Newly Independent States: the political and economic challenges faced by newly independent states and the varied paths they took, including new economic policies, migration, and the creation of new nations.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 8.6, explaining the challenges of newly independent states: building stable governments and economies, choosing between state-led and market models, the migrations and new states like Israel and Pakistan, and the legacy of colonial borders.
11 min answer →

How did the Second World War set the stage for a Cold War between two superpowers?

Topic 8.1 Setting the Stage for the Cold War and Decolonization: the emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as rival superpowers after the Second World War and the start of decolonization.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 8.1, explaining how the Second World War set the stage for the Cold War: the rise of the United States and Soviet Union as rival superpowers, their opposing ideologies of capitalism and communism, the division of Europe, and the start of decolonization.
11 min answer →

How and why did communism spread across the twentieth-century world?

Topic 8.4 Spread of Communism After 1900: the spread of communism through revolution and the varied paths and effects of communist movements, including the Russian and Chinese revolutions and their economic and social policies.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 8.4, explaining the spread of communism: the Russian and Chinese revolutions, the policies of Stalin and Mao including collectivization and the Great Leap Forward, the human costs, and communism's varied paths and effects worldwide.
12 min answer →

How was the Cold War fought without the superpowers directly fighting each other?

Topic 8.2 The Cold War: the strategies and confrontations of the Cold War, including containment, the arms and space races, proxy wars, and crises such as Berlin and Cuba.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 8.2, explaining the Cold War: the policy of containment, the nuclear arms race and mutually assured destruction, the space race, proxy wars in Korea and Vietnam, and crises like the Berlin Blockade and Cuban Missile Crisis.
12 min answer →