MTTC History (009) cheat sheet

Neolithic Revolution (~10,000 BCE, Fertile Crescent): shift from foraging to settled agriculture; surplus food enables specialization, social stratification, and cities.

River-valley civilizations: Mesopotamia (Tigris-Euphrates, cuneiform, Hammurabi's Code), Egypt (Nile, hieroglyphs, pharaoh as god-king), Indus (planned cities, undeciphered script), Shang China (oracle bones, bronze).

Classical Greece: Athenian democracy (limited to adult male citizens), Persian Wars (Marathon 490 BCE, Salamis 480 BCE), Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE, Sparta defeats Athens).

Rome: Republic (509-27 BCE, Senate, consuls, tribunes) to Empire (Augustus 27 BCE); Twelve Tables codified law; Edict of Milan 313 CE tolerates Christianity; western empire falls 476 CE.

Major belief systems: Hinduism (Vedas, reincarnation, caste dharma), Buddhism (Siddhartha Gautama, Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Path), Confucianism (ren, li, filial piety), Daoism (wu wei), Judaism, Christianity, Islam (Hijra 622 CE).

Silk Roads, Indian Ocean, and trans-Saharan trade networks moved goods, technology, and religion; diffusion spread Buddhism to East Asia and Islam across Africa and Asia.

Islamic Golden Age (8th-13th c.): House of Wisdom in Baghdad, algebra (al-Khwarizmi), medicine (Ibn Sina), preservation of Greek texts.

Mongol Empire (1206-1368): Genghis Khan unifies steppe tribes; Pax Mongolica secures trade; successor khanates (Yuan, Ilkhanate, Chagatai, Golden Horde).

Black Death (1347-1351): bubonic plague kills roughly one-third of Europe; labor shortages weaken serfdom and fuel social unrest.

Columbian Exchange (post-1492): transfer of crops, animals, and diseases; Old World diseases devastate Americas; American crops (maize, potato) boost Eurasian populations.

Reformation begins 1517 (Luther's 95 Theses); Peace of Augsburg 1555 allows cuius regio, eius religio; Counter-Reformation via Council of Trent (1545-1563).

Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment: Copernicus, Galileo, Newton (Principia 1687); Locke's natural rights, Montesquieu's separation of powers, Rousseau's social contract.

Political revolutions: American (1776), French (1789, Declaration of the Rights of Man), Haitian (1791-1804, first successful slave revolt creating a state), Latin American independence (Bolívar, San Martín).

Industrial Revolution (c. 1760 Britain): coal, steam, textile mills, urbanization; later phases add steel, chemicals, electricity; responses include unions and Marxism (Communist Manifesto 1848).

Imperialism and nationalism: Berlin Conference 1884-85 partitions Africa; Meiji Restoration 1868 industrializes Japan; Italian and German unification (1870-71).

World War I (1914-1918): alliance systems, trench warfare, Treaty of Versailles 1919; Russian Revolution 1917 creates the Soviet Union.

World War II (1939-1945): fascism, appeasement, Holocaust, atomic bombings; postwar institutions include the UN (1945) and Bretton Woods (IMF, World Bank).

Cold War (1947-1991): containment, NATO/Warsaw Pact, decolonization, non-aligned movement; ends with Soviet collapse 1991; globalization follows.

Colonial era: Jamestown 1607, Mayflower Compact 1620, mercantilism, triangular trade; causes of Revolution include taxation without representation (Stamp Act 1765).

Founding documents: Declaration of Independence 1776; Constitution 1787 with separation of powers, federalism, checks and balances, Bill of Rights 1791.

Early republic debates: Federalists (Hamilton, strong central bank) vs. Democratic-Republicans (Jefferson, states' rights); Marbury v. Madison 1803 establishes judicial review.

Antebellum and Civil War: Missouri Compromise 1820, Compromise of 1850, Dred Scott 1857, Emancipation Proclamation 1863, Reconstruction Amendments 13-15.

Gilded Age and Progressive Era: industrialization, railroads, immigration; antitrust (Sherman Act 1890), muckrakers, 16th-19th Amendments (income tax, direct Senate election, Prohibition, women's suffrage 1920).

Great Depression and New Deal: stock crash 1929, FDR's relief-recovery-reform programs (Social Security Act 1935), Keynesian deficit spending.

Cold War America: containment (Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan), Korean War, Cuban Missile Crisis 1962, Vietnam War, détente.

Civil rights: Brown v. Board 1954, Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955, Civil Rights Act 1964, Voting Rights Act 1965, strategies of litigation, nonviolent protest, and legislation.

Native peoples include the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi) and the Three Fires Confederacy; French fur trade begins with Étienne Brûlé and Samuel de Champlain's era.

Founded 1701 by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac as Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit; French and British rivalry shapes the Great Lakes region.

British take control after the French and Indian War (Treaty of Paris 1763); Pontiac's War 1763; Michigan becomes U.S. territory under the Northwest Ordinance 1787.

War of 1812: Detroit surrenders to the British (Hull, 1812); Battle of Lake Erie 1813 restores U.S. control; Michigan Territory organized 1805.

Statehood 1837 as the 26th state, following the Toledo War with Ohio; Upper Peninsula awarded as compensation.

Economic engines: fur trade, lumber boom (mid-1800s), copper and iron mining, then automobile manufacturing centered in Detroit (Ford's Model T 1908, assembly line 1913).

Labor and reform: sit-down strikes (Flint 1936-37) lead to UAW recognition; Progressive Era and New Deal programs reshape the state.

Great Migration brings African American workers to Detroit; 1943 and 1967 racial unrest; Coleman Young elected first Black mayor 1973.

Twentieth-century milestones: Mackinac Bridge opens 1957; Sojourners and civil rights activism; auto industry decline and diversification in the late 20th century.

Primary source: created at the time by participants or witnesses; secondary source interprets primary evidence afterward. Classification depends on the question asked, not the format.

Sourcing heuristic: examine author, audience, purpose, date, and bias before using a document; corroborate across independent sources.

Contextualization places a source in its political, social, and economic setting; close reading analyzes word choice, tone, and omissions.

Chronology and periodization: eras are constructed by historians; period labels reflect interpretive choices and can be contested.

Cause and effect: distinguish long-term structural causes from short-term triggers; recognize multiple causation and contingency.

Continuity and change over time: identify what persists and what shifts, and evaluate the pace and significance of change.

Historical empathy/perspective: understand past actors' choices within their own values rather than present-day assumptions (presentism).

Evidence-based argument: thesis, use of specific evidence, and reasoning; compare interpretations and evaluate historians' differing claims.

Visual and quantitative evidence: maps, charts, political cartoons, and artifacts require the same sourcing and contextualization as texts.

Five themes: location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and region; use them to frame how geography shapes historical events.

River valleys and coasts supported early agriculture and trade; access to water routes correlates with urban and commercial growth.

Climate zones and topography influence settlement, agriculture, and migration; mountain ranges and deserts act as barriers or corridors.

Natural resources (coal, iron, oil) shape industrialization; Great Lakes iron ore and Appalachian coal fed U.S. steel production.

Map skills: latitude/longitude, scale, legend, and projections; all projections distort shape, area, distance, or direction.

Human migration patterns: push factors (famine, persecution) and pull factors (jobs, land); the Great Migration moved African Americans from the rural South to northern cities.

Geopolitics: control of chokepoints and sea lanes (Bosporus, Strait of Hormuz, Suez) shapes trade and conflict; Mackinac Straits connect Lakes Michigan and Huron.

Cultural geography: language, religion, and ethnicity diffuse through trade, conquest, and migration; borders rarely match cultural boundaries.

Scarcity forces choices; opportunity cost is the value of the next-best alternative forgone.

Supply and demand: equilibrium price clears the market; surpluses push prices down, shortages push them up; elasticity measures responsiveness.

Economic systems: traditional, command, market, and mixed; most modern economies mix markets with government regulation.

Mercantilism (colonial era) sought favorable trade balances and colonies; Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776) argued for markets and division of labor.

Industrialization raises productivity via capital, technology, and specialization; it also produces business cycles, urbanization, and labor conflict.

Money and banking: functions of money (medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value); central banks manage money supply and interest rates.

Government tools: fiscal policy (taxing and spending) and monetary policy (interest rates, money supply); tariffs tax imports and can trigger retaliation.

Trade: comparative advantage explains gains from specialization and exchange; globalization integrates markets and increases interdependence.

Forms of government: monarchy, oligarchy, democracy, republic, authoritarianism, and totalitarianism; legitimacy can rest on tradition, charisma, or law.

U.S. constitutional principles: popular sovereignty, limited government, federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and individual rights.

Federalism divides power between national and state governments; the Supremacy Clause and the 10th Amendment frame the balance.

Civil liberties (Bill of Rights limits on government) versus civil rights (equal protection under law, 14th Amendment).

Citizenship: naturalization process, rights and responsibilities (voting, jury service, paying taxes), and civic participation.

Amending process: proposal by two-thirds of Congress or a convention; ratification by three-fourths of states.

Landmark cases: Marbury v. Madison (judicial review), McCulloch v. Maryland (implied powers), Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), Brown v. Board (1954).

Voting rights expansion: 15th (race), 19th (sex), 23rd (D.C. presidential), 24th (poll tax abolished), 26th (age 18) Amendments.

Historiography is the study of how history is written; interpretations shift with new evidence, methods, and the historian's perspective.

Schools of thought: Rankean empiricism (archives, 'as it actually was'), Marxist class analysis, Annales (long-term structures), social history, cultural history, and postcolonial theory.

Whig/progressive interpretation reads history as a march toward greater liberty; critics note teleology and selective evidence.

Consensus vs. conflict interpretations of U.S. history: consensus stresses shared values; conflict stresses class, race, and power struggles.

Debates over the Constitution: economic-interest interpretation (Beard) versus ideological/republican synthesis readings.

Causes of the Civil War: slavery as the central cause versus state-rights and economic interpretations; primary sources (secession declarations) support slavery's centrality.

Debates over Reconstruction: Dunning School (negative) versus revisionist and post-revisionist views emphasizing Black agency and political gains.

Cold War origins: orthodox (Soviet expansion), revisionist (U.S. economic expansion), and post-revisionist (mutual misperception) accounts.

Evaluating interpretations: check evidence, source base, assumptions, and whether the argument accounts for counterevidence.