History - World
History - World
This domain covers world history from early civilizations through the modern era, testing chronology, belief systems, revolutions, wars and global connections.
Core rules and concepts
- River civilizations: Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates with cuneiform; Egypt on the Nile with hieroglyphs; the Indus civilization; and the Yellow River civilization.
- Greece developed Athenian democracy; Rome developed republicanism and Roman law, which influenced later Europe.
- Buddhism arose in India; Christianity in the Roman Empire; Islam in Arabia. Islamic scholars preserved and extended Greek learning during the Golden Age.
- The Renaissance revived classical learning; the Reformation challenged papal authority; the Age of Exploration linked continents and began colonial empires.
- The American and French Revolutions spread ideas of popular sovereignty and rights. The Industrial Revolution began in Britain with coal, iron, capital, agricultural change and the steam engine.
- The two World Wars, the Cold War and decolonization reshaped the modern world.
Worked example
Why did industrialization begin in Britain? Britain had coal and iron near each other, capital from trade and colonies, an agricultural revolution that freed labor, and inventors such as James Watt who improved the steam engine. Textile demand encouraged mechanization. The reasoning combines resources, capital, labor and technology rather than naming one cause.
Traps
Conflating Greek and Roman political systems; mixing Renaissance and Reformation; confusing the American and French Revolutions; assigning Cold War alliances incorrectly; ignoring non-European civilizations.