World History: Major Revolutions and 20th-Century Developments
World history covers revolutions and 20th-century developments: the American and French revolutions, industrialisation, the Russian Revolution, the World Wars, fascism, decolonisation, the Cold War and globalisation. The exam tests causation, comparison and the ability to distinguish ideology from outcome.
Revolutions and wars
- American Revolution (1776): taxation without representation, colonial assemblies, Declaration of Independence.
- French Revolution (1789): Estates-General, Bastille, Declaration of the Rights of Man, Terror, Napoleon; social and fiscal crisis plus Enlightenment critique.
- Industrial Revolution: coal, steam, factory system, urbanisation, labour movements.
- Russian Revolution (1917): February abdication, October Bolshevik takeover; war, food crisis, autocracy.
- WWI and WWII: alliance systems, total war, Versailles, appeasement, Holocaust, atomic bombings; League of Nations and UN.
Worked example
Explain a major cause of the French Revolution. Reasoning: France’s fiscal system exempted privileged orders while war debt mounted; harvest failure raised bread prices; Enlightenment ideas questioned absolutism; the Estates-General gave organised expression to grievance. A strong answer links structural crisis to contingency, not one slogan.
Traps
Avoid monocausal explanations; do not conflate February and October 1917; do not treat the Treaty of Versailles as the sole cause of WWII; distinguish Cold War proxy conflicts from direct superpower war.