Political History - AP World History: Modern

While the Zulu proved to be much fiercer opponents than originally thought, the British did eventually win. The Zulu won many early engagements thanks to their speed of movement and expert use of the terrain to ambush the British; however, the superior firepower of the British eventually led to victory in pitched battles.

The Boers were the next target of the British Empire following the Anglo-Zulu War. The British were driving farther inland to lay claim to regions that had resisted them since their claiming of land at the Berlin Conference in 1884.

Despite being born and raised in Africa, the Boers were actually Dutch by heritage. Their ancestors were traders based in ports along the eastern coast of what is now South Africa. They were stationed there as part of their service in the Dutch East India Trading Company. However, when the British came along and took over the region these Dutch settlers were forced to flee inland to escape the British, where they formed two nations, The Orange Free State, and Transvaal.

The Boer won a decisive victory against the British. The casualty rate was 10 British for every one Boer. The Boer were just as well equipped as the British with the same level of technology. The Boer also had a vast advantage when it came to the terrain and using it to their advantage. The British were soundly defeated and they retreated back the the South African Colony.

Though it began as a fight over Spanish control in the Caribbean, the Spanish-American War extended to the Pacific where American forces drove Spain out of the Philippines, effectively destroying the Spanish Empire. Originally intending to aid the Philippine fight for independence, the end result was American control of the island nation.

With the spread of Western cultural and political influence many traditional territories were broken up by competing European powers. Most notably, the Berlin Conference broke up the African continent into arbitrary territories that ignored the local tribal boundaries and conflicts.

The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 saw Japan defeat Russia to become the dominant power in East Asia. The First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 saw Japan defeat China and emerge as one of the major powers in the region, but not the dominant one. World War I was fought after Japan had emerged as a major world power. The Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901 was simply an internal conflict in China in which foreign nations, including Japan, intervened, and did not have any direct major effect on Japan's status. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945 was fought long after Japan emerged as a major world power, and in fact became part of the larger conflict of World War II, in which Japan was totally defeated.

The Ottoman Empire, which lasted from 1500 until the end of World War I, grew from a small state west of modern day Turkey into a major player in global politics. At its height the Ottomans controlled the Balkans, the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of what are now Southern Russia and the Ukraine. Upon its dissolution after World War I in 1923 the Ottoman Empire was replaced by the Republic of Turkey.

Imperialism is the extension of an empire into foreign lands. It is using political and/or military power to dictate policy and governing decisions emanating from the home empire. Imperialism can be achieved through means such as colonialism or economic manipulation.

Colonialism is the practice of settling one's own people in a foreign land. The word "colony" refers to an extension of the home empire, thus implying the empire has power to govern the colonized land. By placing citizens on the ground in foreign lands, the home empire has a greater ability to manage economic and political affairs.

Economic Imperialism refers specifically to resource extraction and wealth generation in a foreign land for the benefit of the home empire. Economic Imperialism in the 19th century led to harsh mining conditions in places such as South Africa and slave-like treatment in the rubber plantations of Brazil. Many argue the practice of economic imperialism continues today with resource extraction from the Global South for the benefit the Global North.

European imperialism and colonization came at great detriment to the indigenous people of the land they conquered. The justification for this practice was that they were bringing "civilization" to these "backward," "savage" people. This led to the use of missionaries and religious conversion, the use of European legal systems, forced cultural integration, and new technologies. Unfortunately, the "civilization" brought by the Europeans had no reasonable place in it for the inhabitants of the land they conquered, indigenous groups were violently oppressed, and in many cases murdered on a large scale.

During the High Middle Ages, the Catholic church was locked in an interminable battle with the various monarchs of Europe over who should have ultimate secular authority. The Catholic church argued that Europe was one Christian civilization and that the Pope should have supreme power over Christendom, and thus, all the monarchs of Europe. This, naturally, led to a great deal of conflict and squabbling between Europe’s monarchs and the Papacy.

During the Medieval period, Italy was a highly decentralized and urbanized part of Europe. People in that time period would not have recognized the concept of “Italy” and would instead have viewed themselves as members of independent city-states. The most influential during this period were Florence and Venice in the northeast, Milan in the northwest, and Naples in the south.

Excommunication was a potent political tool wielded by the Papacy during the medieval period. Through excommunication, the Papacy could exclude an individual, or a whole country, from the practice of Catholicism and the promise of eternal salvation. It was used throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period to reinforce the authority of the Papacy and to manipulate the decisions of secular rulers.

The Estates General had long been the governing parliamentary body of the French Kingdom, but unlike their English counterpart, the Estates General had limited power and could only be convened at the discretion of the monarch. At the beginning of the French Revolution the Estates General was replaced with the National Assembly (after the Third Estates - the common people - broke from the Estates General).

The Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) was the last ruling dynasty in Chinese history before the formation of the Republic of China.

Muhammad Ali was a general in the Ottoman army who eventually gained control over the territory of modern-day Egypt. His authority was temporarily approved by the Ottoman Empire and Ali set about establishing, reforming, and modernizing the Egyptian state.

The Zulu kingdom was a 19th-century state based in South Africa that fought a series of wars with expansionist Boer and British forces primarily during the 1860s. The label of pre-Columbia society is reserved for societies that existed in the Americas before colonial expansion and contact. The Zulu kingdom, while a society that existed prior to colonial European expansion, is excluded from this definition due to simple geography.