AP World History Period 3 (1750–1900) is the most heavily tested period — roughly 30% of the exam. It covers the Industrial Revolution, the age of revolutions, and European imperialism: three of the most common DBQ and LEQ themes.
The Industrial Revolution
Why Britain first — coal and iron deposits, enclosure movement (drove farmers off land → factory labor supply), strong property rights, colonial raw material supply, navigable rivers and canals. Key technologies — steam engine (Watt), spinning jenny, power loom, steam-powered railroads (1830s). Social consequences — urbanization (Manchester grew from 25,000 to 300,000 in 50 years), child and female factory labor, 16-hour workdays, dangerous conditions; urban slums; rise of working class (proletariat). Global spread — uneven: Belgium, France, Germany, US by mid-1800s; Japan by 1880s; Latin America, Africa, Asia remained primary producers of raw materials for European industry.
Atlantic Revolutions
American Revolution (1776) — Enlightenment ideas (Locke, natural rights); first successful colonial independence movement; limited to propertied white men but established precedents. French Revolution (1789–99) — Declaration of Rights of Man; phases (moderate → radical Terror → conservative Directory → Napoleon); spread revolutionary ideas of liberty, equality, popular sovereignty across Europe. Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) — only successful slave revolution in history; Toussaint L'Ouverture; established Haiti as first Black republic; terrified slaveholders worldwide; France acknowledged Haiti's independence only after a crushing indemnity (paid until 1947). Latin American independence (1810s–1820s) — Simón Bolívar (South America), José de San Martín, Miguel Hidalgo (Mexico); creole elites led independence; didn't change social structures for mestizos, indigenous, enslaved populations.
Nationalism and State-Building
Nationalism — the idea that people sharing language, culture, and history should have their own state; reshapes European map in 1800s. German unification (1871) — Bismarck's "blood and iron" policy; Prussian military victories over Denmark, Austria, France → unified Germany as great power. Italian unification (1861) — Garibaldi (nationalist guerrillas), Cavour (Piedmont statecraft). Decline of Ottoman Empire — the "Sick Man of Europe"; nationalist uprisings by Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs; debt to European banks; "Eastern Question" = how to manage its collapse without triggering European war (eventually failed → WWI).
Imperialism
New imperialism (1870s–1914) — European (and US and Japan) formal colonial control over Africa and Asia; driven by industrial capitalism (raw materials, markets), Social Darwinism (racial hierarchy justification), nationalist competition, and technological superiority (Maxim gun, steamships). Berlin Conference (1884–85) — 14 European powers divided Africa among themselves without African participation; "Scramble for Africa"; ~90% of Africa under European control by 1914. Responses to imperialism — armed resistance (Zulu War, Boxer Rebellion in China), cultural resistance, Western education used to argue against colonialism (seeds of later independence movements). Meiji Restoration (1868) — Japan selectively modernized to avoid colonization: industrialized, reformed military (universal conscription), built a constitution; became imperialist power itself (Korea 1895, Taiwan 1895, Manchuria 1905).
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