World History
Antiquity to Middle Ages
Know Greek polis and democracy limits, Roman law and citizenship, feudalism (vassalage, benefice, manorialism), and the role of the Church. Trap: presenting the Magna Carta (1215) as a modern bill of rights; it was a baronial charter.
Early modern
Renaissance humanism, Reformation (1517) and Counter-Reformation, absolutism (Louis XIV), mercantilism, and the Enlightenment. Traps: conflating Mercantilism with capitalism, and dating the Peace of Westphalia (1648) as the origin of sovereignty without noting its limits.
Modern
Industrial Revolutions, French Revolution phases (1789, Terror, Directory, Napoleon), Congress of Vienna (1815), unifications of Italy and Germany, imperialism and the Berlin Conference (1884–85), WWI causes (alliances, nationalism, militarism, imperialism, Sarajevo), Russian Revolution, interwar crisis, WWII, Cold War, decolonization, post-1989 order.
Traps
Questions invert causes and triggers (Sarajevo was a trigger, not a cause) and misdate the Marshall Plan (1948).
Worked example
Asked which element best explains European imperialism, the strongest answer combines industrial demand for raw materials and markets with strategic rivalry, not a single cause.