AP World History: Modern, AP exams, 8–10%

Unit 7: Global Conflict (c. 1900 to the present)

Unit 7 covers the collapse of old empires, the two world wars, the interwar economic crisis, and mass atrocities of the twentieth century. Total war and its demands on civilian populations are the organizing concept. The unit asks students to explain both the causes of conflict and the ideologies that intensified it.

Position: 7 of 9 units
Published weighting: 8–10% in the official framework
Topics covered: 6 topics in this guide

What is covered

Topics inside this unit.

These topics describe the scope students most often review for this part of AP World History: Modern. Treat them as a study checklist rather than an exhaustive list of what a single exam form can sample.

Shifting power after 1900: The fall of the Qing and Ottoman empires and the Russian Revolution as breaks with imperial order.
Causes and conduct of World War I: Alliances, nationalism, imperial rivalry, and the total-war mobilization of economies and colonies.
The interwar economy: The Great Depression's global reach and the varied government responses to economic collapse.
Fascism, communism, and mass mobilization: Authoritarian ideologies, propaganda, and state control of economies in the interwar decades.
Causes and conduct of World War II: Expansionist aggression, appeasement, the global theaters of war, and the use of atomic weapons.
Mass atrocities after 1900: The Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, and other twentieth-century atrocities and their aftermath.

Study tips

How to practice Global Conflict.

Section-specific guidance that follows from how this material is usually tested.

Compare the two world wars on causes, participants, and effects rather than studying them separately.
Define total war precisely and collect three examples of civilian mobilization.
Connect interwar economic distress to the rise of authoritarian movements in one causal paragraph.

Where this fits

Unit 7: Global Conflict (c. 1900 to the present) is 7 of 9 units in the AP World History: Modern guide, and it carries a published weighting of 8–10% in the official framework. Use the full guide to balance it against everything else you have to review.

Back to the AP World History: Modern guide Official exam information

Sample Global Conflict questions

Practice questions, not yet expert-reviewed

Original practice questions written to the published framework for this section. No expert has reviewed them, and they are not taken from any official exam. Try each one before you open the answer.

Question 1Foundational
Whose assassination in Sarajevo in June 1914 set off the diplomatic crisis that began World War I?
1. AArchduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
2. BTsar Nicholas II of Russia
3. CKaiser Wilhelm II of Germany
4. DKing Peter I of Serbia
Show answer
Answer: A. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
The heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was killed by a Bosnian Serb nationalist, and the alliance system turned a regional quarrel into a continental war within six weeks. Tsar Nicholas II is the tempting distractor because he also died violently during the war years, but he was executed in 1918 after the Russian Revolution.
Key insight: The assassination was the trigger; alliances, nationalism, and imperial rivalry were the underlying causes.
Question 2Foundational
Which term describes a war in which governments mobilize entire economies and civilian populations, as in both world wars?
1. ATotal war
2. BLimited war
3. CGuerrilla war
4. DProxy war
Show answer
Answer: A. Total war
Total war meant conscription, rationing, state direction of industry, propaganda, and the deliberate targeting of civilian morale and production. Proxy war is the tempting distractor because it also names a twentieth-century pattern, but it describes Cold War conflicts fought by clients on behalf of the superpowers.
Key insight: Define total war precisely and collect three concrete examples of civilian mobilization to use as evidence.
Question 3Intermediate
Which 1917 revolution overthrew Russia's provisional government and brought Lenin's Bolsheviks to power?
1. AThe October Revolution
2. BThe February Revolution
3. CThe Revolution of 1905
4. DThe Decembrist revolt
Show answer
Answer: A. The October Revolution
The Bolsheviks seized power from the provisional government in October, promising peace, land, and bread, and then fought a civil war to hold it. The February Revolution is the tempting distractor because both happened in 1917, but it was the earlier rising that forced the tsar to abdicate and created the provisional government.
Key insight: Russia had two revolutions in one year, and confusing them costs evidence points on essays.
Question 4Intermediate
Which treaty ended World War I with Germany, assigning responsibility for the war and requiring reparations payments?
1. AThe Treaty of Versailles
2. BThe Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
3. CThe Locarno treaties
4. DThe Munich Agreement
Show answer
Answer: A. The Treaty of Versailles
Versailles stripped Germany of territory and colonies, capped its army, and included the war guilt clause used to justify reparations, terms Germans across the political spectrum resented. Brest-Litovsk is the tempting distractor because it also ended fighting for one belligerent, but it was the 1918 treaty by which Bolshevik Russia left the war on harsh German terms.
Key insight: The peace settlement is the hinge between the two world wars, so learn its terms rather than its mood.
Question 5Advanced
Which term, defined by a United Nations convention in 1948, names acts committed with intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group?
1. AGenocide
2. BTotal war
3. CCollectivization
4. DEthnic nationalism
Show answer
Answer: A. Genocide
The word was coined during the Second World War and written into international law in the 1948 convention, and it is applied to the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, and later atrocities. Ethnic nationalism is the tempting distractor because it often supplied the motive, but it names a political ideology rather than the acts themselves.
Key insight: Use precise terminology when writing about atrocities; accuracy carries more weight than adjectives.

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Unit 7: Global Conflict (c. 1900 to the present)