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.
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What this topic is asking
Topic 8.7 covers global resistance to established power structures after 1900. It asks you to explain the movements that challenged oppression, inequality, and authority worldwide - the United States civil rights movement, the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, feminist movements, and others - the methods they used (both nonviolent and violent), and how these movements shared goals and learned from one another across the globe.
What "resistance to established order" means
The civil rights and anti-apartheid movements
Two great struggles fought racial oppression.
Feminist and other movements
Resistance extended to gender and authority.
- Feminist movements. Women's movements demanded equal rights - suffrage early in the century, then equality in work, law, education, and reproductive rights later. These movements transformed gender norms in many societies (connecting to Topics 9.6 and calls for reform).
- Movements against authoritarian rule. People challenged repressive governments, as in the Tiananmen Square protests in China in 1989, where demonstrators demanded reform before a violent crackdown.
- Other rights movements. Indigenous-rights, labor, and later other movements pressed claims for justice and recognition.
Shared goals, shared methods, mutual influence
The movements form a connected global story.
A striking feature is how much the movements shared and learned from one another. Many pursued similar goals - equality, rights, and dignity - and used similar methods, especially nonviolent mass action: boycotts, marches, and civil disobedience. They also influenced one another across borders: Gandhi's nonviolent resistance in India inspired Martin Luther King Jr and the United States civil rights movement, which in turn inspired anti-apartheid and other activists. Where peaceful methods failed against intransigent regimes, some movements turned to armed resistance. This global circulation of ideals and tactics is high-value analysis for the comparison skill.
Try this
Q1. Name the leader of the anti-apartheid movement who became South Africa's president in 1994. [Recall]
- Cue. Nelson Mandela.
Q2. Explain one way resistance movements after 1900 influenced one another. [Short explanation]
- Cue. Gandhi's nonviolent resistance in India inspired Martin Luther King Jr and the United States civil rights movement, whose methods in turn inspired anti-apartheid and other activists, showing how movements shared tactics across borders.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of College Board exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AP 2020 (style)3 marksBriefly identify ONE movement that resisted an established power structure after 1900. Briefly explain ONE method such movements used. Briefly explain ONE way these movements influenced one another.Show worked answer →
A Short Answer Question (SAQ), 3 points, one per bullet.
A. Identify: the United States civil rights movement challenged racial segregation and discrimination.
B. Method: many movements used nonviolent resistance - boycotts, marches, and civil disobedience - to pressure those in power, as in the civil rights and anti-apartheid struggles.
C. Influence: Gandhi's nonviolent methods in India inspired Martin Luther King Jr and the United States civil rights movement, showing how resistance movements learned from one another globally.
Each bullet must be concrete.
AP 2022 (style)6 marksEvaluate the extent to which resistance movements after 1900 shared common methods and goals in the period c. 1900 to the present.Show worked answer →
A Long Essay Question (LEQ), scored on the 6-point comparison rubric.
Thesis (1): "Resistance movements after 1900 often shared the goals of equality and rights and the method of nonviolent mass action, though they targeted different power structures and some turned to violence when peaceful means failed."
Contextualization (1): situate the movements in the spread of rights ideals and decolonization.
Evidence (2): the civil rights movement; the anti-apartheid struggle; feminist movements; nonviolent and armed methods.
Analysis (2): explain HOW movements shared goals and methods and learned from one another, then add complexity by noting differences in their targets and tactics.
Related dot points
- 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.
- 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.
- Topic 9.6 Calls for Reform and Responses After 1900: the rights and reform movements after 1900, including feminist, civil rights, environmental, and other movements, and the responses they provoked.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 9.6, explaining calls for reform after 1900: feminist movements for women's rights, civil and human rights movements, environmental and economic-justice movements, the human-rights framework, and the responses these movements provoked.
- 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.
- Topic 5.1 The Enlightenment: the ways Enlightenment philosophy applied new ways of understanding and using reason to challenge traditional social, political, and religious authority.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 5.1, explaining the Enlightenment: the eighteenth-century application of reason to society and government, the ideas of natural rights, the social contract, and popular sovereignty, and how those ideas challenged absolutism and inspired later revolutions and reform movements.
Sources & how we know this
- AP World History: Modern Course and Exam Description — College Board (2020)