Regional and Global Groups and Organizations - AP World History: Modern

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 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.

Tamil kingdoms arose in southern India at various times throughout the history of the subcontinent. They were particularly influential after the fall of the Gupta in the sixth century. They were an important part of the Indian Ocean trading network.

During the Middle Ages (before the emergence of the dominant Hapsburg family in the fifteenth century), the Holy Roman Emperor was elected by a committee of nobles from within the empire. This was in stark contrast to most other European states at this time where authority was hereditary.

The Delian League was founded by Athens and more than a hundred other Greek city-states in 477 BCE. Its original purpose was to provide for the mutual protection of Greek city-states against the threat of the Persian Empire. Over the years the Delian League morphed into an extension of Athenian power and hegemony, and a rival Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta, emerged to challenge the authority of Athens.

The Roman Empire started with the city of Rome. Greece was a nation containing multiple city states such as Sparta and Athens, which had risen and fallen before the expanding Romans conquered what remained of Greece and integrated its culture, history, and beliefs.

Despite the name of one of Britain's colonies being British Honduras, the nation that is now Honduras was never part of the British Empire. It was part of the Spanish Empire until its independence. British Honduras is actually what is known today as Belize.

Akbar the Great, whose name literally means Great, so Great the Great, was the third ruled of the Mughal empire and expanded it's influence over the majority o the Indian subcontinent and it' cultural importance well beyond the borders of India.

The League of Augsburg was formed in 1689 and consisted of several German states (the country of Germany did not yet exist), Sweden, the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and Spain. These countries came together to form the League in order to combine their armies to oppose King Louis XIV of France, who had taken over the city of Strasbourg (a German region) in 1681. The League was determined to keep Louis out of the German and Netherlands regions, despite past concessions and territorial gains that Louis had received by invading these areas in the recent past. The members of the League resolved to make a final stand and stop Louis’s territorial incursions once and for all. Louis’s army and the League’s forces fought each in the Nine Years’ War (1689-1697), with Leopold I, the Hapsburg Emperor, extending support to the League during the final years. By 1697, the League was able to achieve a decisive victory and force Louis out of the Netherlands and the German region for good. These terms were finalized in the Peace of Ryswick, which formally ended the conflict and was especially focused on banning Louis from ever again attempting to invade any German territories.

The concept of a European Balance of Power first emerged in the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War. Although it is worth noting it was reinforced by the Napoleonic Wars and was part of the cause for the Crimean War and for World War One. The European Balance of Power essentially states that in order to preserve peace and prosperity on the continent no one power can be allowed to grow more powerful than the other states. At various times France, Germany (and Prussia), Britain, Russia, Austria, and Spain have threatened to upset this balance.

During the 1860s and 1870s, the modern nations of Italy and Germany were established from a historical patchwork of polities, kingdoms, and states. Ethno-nationalism was a large factor in driving the creation of both of these states.

The Great Purge was a series of mass murders of people considered by Joseph Stalin to be threats to his power. The purges eliminated much of the leadership of the Communist Party, as well as many leading military figures. Nikolai Bukharin, a Politburo opponent of Stalin's prior to Stalin's rise to power, was executed in 1938. Mikhail Tukhachevsky was the Marshall General of the Soviet Army until his imprisonment and execution in 1937. Gregory Zinoviev was another member of the Politburo who was executed in 1936.

The Congress of Vienna was held in 1815, shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The purpose of the Congress of Vienna was to try and establish a post-war order in Europe that would preserve peace and address the issues of liberalism and republicanism raised by the French Revolution.

The Congress of Vienna was held in 1815, shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The primary goals of the Congress of Vienna were to restore the balance of power in Europe; and to limit the growth of nationalism and republicanism. The French Revolution was viewed as particularly troublesome by the conservative factions in attendance at the Congress of Vienna. The Bourbon monarchy was restored to the throne in France in one of many attempts to prevent the spread of republicanism and nationalism around the autocratic empires of Europe.

The following delegates were present at the Congress of Vienna: Prince Metternich, representing Austria; Tsar Alexander I, representing Russia; French foreign minister Charles Talleyrand; Prince Karl von Hardenberg, representing Prussia; and British foreign secretary Viscount Castlereagh.

The UN was formed as a result of WWII in an effort for international powers to cooperate and maintain international standards of peace and human rights, and to replace the ineffective League of Nations (which was founded after World War I). It was chartered in 1945. The Red Cross began in the late 19th century, NATO was formed in 1948 as a reaction to the growth of the USSR, and NAFTA was not negotiated until 1994.

Mao did not want China to be a satellite state under Moscow's tutelage; the Sino-Soviet split ensured Chinese independence.

Titoism was the Communist ideology named after Josip Tito, the leader of Yugoslavia, who broke away from Moscow's suzerainty, setting the example for Chinese independence, but not directly part of the process.

Watergate was a political scandal that resulted in President Richard Nixon leaving office. Nixon's administration opened relations with mainland China, but Watergate was an internal American issue that had nothing to do Chinese-Soviet relations.

The Great Leap Forward was a massive reorganizing of the Chinese economy that attempted to industrialize China. It had an effect on China's ability to be independent of the Soviet Union, but was more of an internal policy than external rebalancing of power.

The Cultural Revolution was a Maoist attempt at destroying Mao's perceived enemies within China; it was an internal Chinese policy and was not the process by which China attained independence from the Soviet Union.

Qatar has a ratio of men to women that is higher than 2-to-1. The number one reason for this is business—particularly, the oil industry that brings in migrant workers from all over, mostly male. Between 2011 and 2012, about 75% of the population consisted of migrants from other Middle Eastern countries.