Unit 6: Consequences of Industrialization (1750–1900)
AP World History: 58 practice questions with detailed explanations.
Unit Study Guide
Executive Summary
Industrial power fueled a new wave of empire. Europeans (and later Japan and the US) carved up Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, justifying conquest with racial "science" — and provoking resistance everywhere.
Rationales
Social Darwinism (misapplied evolution), the "civilizing mission," and the "white man's burden" dressed economic interest in moral language. National prestige demanded colonies.
Imperialism in Asia and Africa
Britain took India (crown rule after 1858), fought the Opium Wars to open China, and dominated Egypt (Suez Canal, 1869). The Berlin Conference (1884–85) partitioned Africa among European powers without African consent. King Leopold's Congo Free State became the era's worst atrocity.
New imperial powers
Japan seized Taiwan and Korea, defeating Russia (1905) — the first Asian power to beat a European one. The US took the Philippines, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico after the Spanish-American War (1898).
Resistance
Indians rebelled in 1857 (the Sepoy Mutiny); Chinese rose in the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions; Zulus, Ethiopians (Adwa, 1896 — a decisive victory), and others fought back. Some resistance was armed; some was cultural (the Ghost Dance, millenarian movements).
Global migration
Millions moved: Indians to Africa and the Caribbean (indentured labor), Chinese to the Americas and Southeast Asia, Italians and Irish to the Americas. Migration created diaspora communities and spread culture — often in the face of racial barriers (Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882).
Exam traps
The Berlin Conference divided Africa without Africans present. Ethiopia defeated Italy and stayed independent — the exception. Imperialism was economic as much as political — spheres of influence and unequal treaties count. Indentured servitude after slavery's abolition was often little better than slavery.