How did movements after 1900 demand rights, equality, and reform on a global scale?
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.
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What this topic is asking
Topic 9.6 covers the calls for reform after 1900 and the responses they provoked. It asks you to explain the major rights and reform movements of the modern era - feminist, civil and human rights, environmental, and others - the goals they pursued, the global human-rights framework that emerged, and the mixture of reform and backlash they generated.
What "calls for reform" means
Feminist movements
The largest reform movement targeted gender inequality.
Civil rights, human rights, and other movements
Reform extended across many causes.
- Civil and human rights. Movements challenged racial and other discrimination (the civil rights and anti-apartheid struggles of Topic 8.7), and the world articulated a framework of universal human rights, most famously the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
- Environmental movements. Activists demanded protection of the planet from pollution and climate change (Topic 9.4).
- Other movements. Labor, indigenous, and later other rights movements pressed claims for justice, dignity, and recognition.
Global communication (Topic 9.1) helped these movements spread ideas and tactics across borders.
Reform and backlash
The movements met mixed responses.
Calls for reform provoked a range of responses. On one side came genuine reform: women's suffrage and equality laws, civil-rights legislation, environmental regulation, and a growing human-rights framework. On the other came backlash and resistance: defenders of traditional gender roles, racial hierarchies, or established economic interests opposed change, sometimes violently. Many reforms were partial or contested, and the struggle continued. So the era's calls for reform achieved real, transformative change while also generating ongoing conflict over how far rights and equality should extend.
Try this
Q1. Name the 1948 document that articulated a framework of universal human rights. [Recall]
- Cue. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Q2. Explain one way feminist movements changed the position of women after 1900. [Short explanation]
- Cue. Feminist movements first won women the vote, then pursued equality in education, work, and law and reproductive rights, transforming the legal and social position of women, though they also provoked backlash from defenders of traditional gender roles.
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 2021 (style)3 marksBriefly identify ONE reform movement after 1900. Briefly explain ONE goal it pursued. Briefly explain ONE response it provoked, supportive or hostile.Show worked answer →
A Short Answer Question (SAQ), 3 points, one per bullet.
A. Identify: the feminist movement demanded equal rights for women.
B. Goal: feminists pursued the vote, equal access to education and work, legal equality, and reproductive rights.
C. Response: these movements provoked both reforms, such as women's suffrage and equality laws, and backlash from those defending traditional gender roles.
Each bullet must be concrete.
AP 2023 (style)6 marksEvaluate the most significant reform movement of the period c. 1900 to the present.Show worked answer →
A Long Essay Question (LEQ), scored on the 6-point causation rubric.
Thesis (1): "The most significant reform movement was the global movement for women's rights, which transformed the legal and social position of half of humanity, though civil-rights and human-rights movements were also profoundly important."
Contextualization (1): situate the movements in the spread of rights ideals and global communication.
Evidence (2): feminist movements and suffrage; civil and human rights; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; environmental and other movements."
Analysis (2): explain HOW reform movements won major changes, then add complexity by comparing women's rights to civil and human rights movements and noting the backlash they provoked."
Related dot points
- 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.
- Topic 5.9 Society and the Industrial Age: the social and cultural effects of industrialization, including new social classes, changing gender roles and family structures, urbanization, and rising standards of living over time.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 5.9, explaining the social effects of industrialization: the rise of the industrial middle and working classes, changing gender roles and the separation of home and work, urbanization, and the slow rise in living standards.
- Topic 9.7 Globalized Culture After 1900: the spread and blending of culture in a connected world, including global media, consumer culture, sport, and the tension between global and local identities.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 9.7, explaining globalized culture: the spread of global media and consumer culture, the worldwide reach of sport and brands, cultural blending and hybrid identities, and the tension between global homogenization and local cultures.
- 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.
- Topic 9.9 Institutions Developing in a Globalized World: the international institutions that developed to govern a connected world, including the United Nations, the IMF and World Bank, the WTO, NGOs, and regional bodies.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 9.9, explaining the institutions of a globalized world: the United Nations for peace and rights, the IMF, World Bank, and WTO for the global economy, NGOs and multinational corporations, and regional bodies like the European Union, with their powers and limits.
Sources & how we know this
- AP World History: Modern Course and Exam Description — College Board (2020)