UEE History cheat sheet

Neolithic Revolution (c. 10,000 BCE): sedentary agriculture, domestication of wheat, barley, sheep, and goats in the Fertile Crescent; surplus production enables specialization, social hierarchy, and writing.

Cuneiform (Sumer, c. 3200 BCE) begins as accounting notation; Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Rosetta Stone (deciphered by Champollion, 1822) enable translation of multilingual decrees.

Code of Hammurabi (c. 1754 BCE, Babylon): 282 laws on stele; lex talionis applied by social class (awilum, mushkenum, wardum), a decision rule distinguishing status-based from equal punishment.

Indus Valley (Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, c. 2600–1900 BCE): standardized baked bricks, grid streets, covered drains; the script remains undeciphered, so interpretation relies on archaeology, not texts.

Mandate of Heaven (Zhou, 1046 BCE): rulers justify overthrow of a corrupt dynasty by claiming divine sanction; used to explain dynastic cycles in Chinese historiography.

Athenian democracy (Cleisthenes, 508 BCE): demes replace tribes; Council of 500 chosen by lot; only adult male citizens vote, excluding women, slaves, and metics - a key limit on 'democracy'.

Roman Republic offices (cursus honorum): quaestor, aedile, praetor, consul, censor; consuls hold imperium for one year, with a colleague holding veto power (intercessio).

Pax Romana (27 BCE–180 CE): c. 200 years of relative stability; roads, aqueducts, and Roman law (Twelve Tables, 451 BCE) spread across the Mediterranean.

Feudalism: lord grants fief (land) to vassal in exchange for military service; manorialism organizes peasant labor (serfs bound to land) - distinguish political (fief) from economic (manor) systems.

Magna Carta (1215): barons force King John to accept limits; clauses 39–40 establish due process and no sale of justice - cited later as a foundation of rule of law.

Black Death (1347–1351): plague kills roughly one-third to one-half of Europe's population; labor shortages raise peasant wages and weaken serfdom, a demographic driver of social change.

Islamic Golden Age (8th–13th c.): House of Wisdom in Baghdad; translations of Greek texts; advances in algebra (al-Khwarizmi), optics (Ibn al-Haytham), and medicine (Ibn Sina).

Mongol Empire (1206–1368): Genghis Khan unifies steppe tribes; the Pax Mongolica secures Silk Road trade, enabling the spread of the Black Death and gunpowder technology westward.

Renaissance humanism (14th–16th c.): study of classical texts (ad fontes); patronage by Medici; printing press (Gutenberg, c. 1450) accelerates the spread of Reformation ideas.

Protestant Reformation (1517): Luther's 95 Theses challenge indulgences; Peace of Augsburg (1555) applies cuius regio, eius religio, letting rulers set their territory's religion.

Columbian Exchange (post-1492): transfer of crops (maize, potatoes), animals, and diseases (smallpox) between hemispheres; disease causes catastrophic Indigenous population collapse.

Industrial Revolution (c. 1760–1840, Britain): coal, steam power, and textile mechanization; enclosure and agricultural surplus supply urban labor; factory system reshapes class structure.

French Revolution phases: Estates-General (1789) → National Assembly → Terror (1793–94, Robespierre) → Directory → Napoleon's coup (1799); Napoleon's Code (1804) spreads legal equality.

Congress of Vienna (1815): Metternich's balance-of-power settlement; restores monarchies and redraws borders, establishing a conservative order that lasts until 1848 revolutions.

Unification: Italy (Cavour, Garibaldi, 1861) and Germany (Bismarck, 1871) - Bismarck's 'blood and iron' and the Franco-Prussian War create a unified German Empire.

Causes of WWI (1914): alliance systems (Triple Alliance/Triple Entente), militarism, imperialism, and nationalism; the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is the trigger, not the cause.

Russian Revolution (1917): February revolution ends tsardom; October Bolshevik coup under Lenin; Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918) cedes territory; civil war (1918–21) follows.

Treaty of Versailles (1919): Article 231 war-guilt clause, reparations, territorial losses, and military limits on Germany; a key grievance exploited by the Nazis.

Great Depression (1929): US stock market crash, bank failures, and protectionism; mass unemployment fuels fascist and authoritarian movements across Europe and Latin America.

Cold War (1947–1991): Truman Doctrine (1947) and Marshall Plan (1948) contain communism; NATO (1949) vs Warsaw Pact (1955); MAD doctrine deters direct superpower conflict.

Decolonization: Indian independence (1947, partition), Ghana (1957), and the 1960 'Year of Africa'; newly independent states often face artificial borders and Cold War alignment.

Cuban Missile Crisis (1962): 13-day standoff; secret deal includes US pledge not to invade Cuba and withdrawal of missiles from Turkey; leads to the Moscow–Washington hotline.

Chinese Communist Revolution (1949): Mao Zedong proclaims the PRC; Great Leap Forward (1958–62) and Cultural Revolution (1966–76) cause mass suffering; Deng Xiaoping's reforms (1978) open markets.

European integration: European Coal and Steel Community (1951), Treaty of Rome (1957), Maastricht (1992) creates the EU; the euro enters circulation in 2002.

End of the Cold War: Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika; Berlin Wall falls (1989); USSR dissolves (1991), leaving the US as the sole superpower.

Post-1945 globalization: Bretton Woods institutions (IMF, World Bank, GATT/WTO); 1990s internet expansion and 2008 financial crisis reshape global economic governance.

Contemporary challenges: climate change (Paris Agreement, 2015), terrorism (9/11, 2001), pandemics (COVID-19, 2020), and rising multipolarity with China's economic growth.

US founding documents: Declaration of Independence (1776), Constitution (1787) with separation of powers and checks and balances; Bill of Rights ratified 1791.

US Civil War (1861–65): slavery and states' rights; Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments (1865–70) abolish slavery and extend rights.

Latin America: Bolívar and San Martín lead independence (1810s–1820s); caudillo politics and export economies shape the 19th and 20th centuries.

Meiji Restoration (1868): Japan industrializes and centralizes under the emperor; victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1905) marks an Asian power defeating a European one.

Indian independence movement: Gandhi's satyagraha (nonviolent resistance), Salt March (1930), and Quit India (1942); independence and partition in 1947.

African independence: Nkrumah (Ghana, 1957) and Mandela (South Africa, first democratic election 1994) mark key milestones against colonial and apartheid rule.

Middle East: Sykes-Picot (1916) and the Balfour Declaration (1917) shape mandates; the 1948 founding of Israel and subsequent Arab-Israeli conflicts reshape the region.

Ottoman Empire ends (1922); Turkish Republic founded by Atatürk (1923) with secularizing reforms - a model of state-led modernization.

Primary vs secondary sources: primary is produced at the time by participants; secondary interprets primary evidence later - classify by origin, not by reliability alone.

Source criticism (external and internal): assess provenance, authorship, audience, purpose, date, and consistency; a biased source can still yield reliable facts about its author's views.

Corroboration: cross-check a claim against independent sources; a single source cannot establish a fact, especially for contested events.

Chronology and periodization: use BCE/CE correctly (BCE counts down; no year zero); distinguish cause, context, and consequence in timelines.

Bias and perspective: identify selection, omission, and framing; distinguish explicit opinion from implied stance in speeches, diaries, and propaganda.

Quantitative evidence: population, trade, and casualty figures require attention to units, base years, and definitions (e.g., 'battle deaths' vs 'total war dead').

Maps and material evidence: changing borders and place names require dating; archaeology supplements texts where written records are absent or elite-centered.

Historiographical use of sources: distinguish eyewitness testimony from later recollection; memory can distort, so corroborate oral histories with documents.

Ranke (19th c.): 'wie es eigentlich gewesen' - history should show the past as it was, based on archival primary sources; associated with empiricist, state-centered narrative.

Marxist historiography: interprets change through class conflict and modes of production (slavery, feudalism, capitalism); economic base shapes political superstructure.

Annales School (Bloch, Febvre, Braudel): long-duration structures (longue durée), geography, and mentalities; shifts focus from events to deep social patterns.

Social history 'from below' (E.P. Thompson, 1960s): recovers lives of ordinary people, workers, and marginalized groups; challenges elite-focused political narrative.

Postcolonial and subaltern studies (Said's Orientalism, 1978; Guha): critiques Eurocentric framing and colonial knowledge production; asks who is silenced in archives.

Feminist historiography: challenges male-centered periodization and public/private divide; gender as an analytic category (Scott, 1986).

Postmodern critique (e.g., Hayden White): history as narrative construction with literary tropes; raises questions about objectivity and representation.

Comparative method: compare cases to isolate causes (e.g., why industrialization began in Britain); guard against selection bias and anachronism.

Revolutions compared: political (France, 1789), industrial (Britain, 18th c.), and social (Russia, 1917) - distinguish causes, participants, and outcomes rather than treating 'revolution' as one type.

Empire comparison: territorial (Rome, Qing) vs maritime/commercial (Britain) empires; compare administration, extraction, and resistance to identify structural differences.

Trade networks: Silk Road (overland), Indian Ocean (monsoon), and Atlantic triangle trade; each shapes cultural exchange and the spread of goods and disease.

Technology diffusion: printing, gunpowder, and steam power spread unevenly; adoption depends on political stability, institutions, and access to resources.

Nationalism: civic (France, based on citizenship) vs ethnic (Germany, based on descent); compare how each shapes state-building and exclusion.

Migration and labor: coerced (Atlantic slave trade, indenture) vs voluntary migration; compare economic drivers and consequences for sending and receiving societies.

Religion and state: theocracy, caesaropapism, and secularism; compare how each resolves authority between religious and political institutions.

Comparative economic systems: mercantilism, capitalism, and command economies; compare allocation mechanisms, property rights, and outcomes across periods.