World History II 1500-present: A Milestone Documents E-text is a peer-reviewed textbook originally created for the Milestone Documents course service. The book contains 15 chapters arranged in roughly chronological order. Together, the chapters offer a comprehensive textbook covering the period from the Renaissance through the twenty-first century. It is suitable for instructors and students from high school through lower undergraduate levels.

Contents

Unit 1: A Survey of the Premodern Worlds

The Latin West and the Americas

China and Its Periphery

Islam and India

Unit 1 Review

Unit 2: Crisis and Recovery in Eurasia

New Asian Empires

The Collapse of the Mongol World

From Crisis to Reformation in Christendom

Unit 2 Review

Unit 3: Contact and Conquest

The Spanish Conquest of Mexico

Sugar and Slavery

Spain and Portugal “Open” the Atlantic

Unit 3 Review

Unit 4: Worlds Entangled

Mercantilism and World Trade

Emergence of the Atlantic World

Jesuits in the Ming World

Unit 4 Review

Unit 5: Empires of Splendor and Might

Gunpowder Empires

Unification of Japan

The Rise of the Qing

Unit 5 Review

Unit 6: The Birth of Modern Knowledge

From Enlightenment to Revolution

Destabilization of the Spiritual Worldview

The Scientific Revolution

Unit 6 Review

Unit 7: Reordering the World

Modern Revolutions in North America

Modern Revolutions in France and Latin America

Napoléon and the Birth of a Nation

Unit 7 Review

Unit 8: Non-European Appropriations of Modernity

The Late Ottoman Empire

The Meiji Restoration

Opium and Diplomacy

Unit 8 Review

Unit 9: Industrialism and Its After-effects

Intellectual Responses to Industrial Modernity

From Textiles to Steam Engines

Karl Marx and the Communist Manifesto

Unit 9 Review

Unit 10: Nations and Empires in the Americas

Taming a Savage Continent

Banana Republics

The Democratic Experiment

Unit 10 Review

Unit 11: The Triumph of Bourgeois Consciousness

Modernism versus Modernity

Science and Its Discontents

Nationalism and Bourgeois Culture

Unit 11 Review

Unit 12: New Imperialism

Origins and Modes

Case Studies in New Imperialism

Prelude to War

Unit 12 Review

Unit 13: Competing Visions of Modernity

Fascism

The Great War

Soviet Communism

Unit 13 Review

Unit 14: A Divided Postwar World

The Cold War in Latin America

The Ideological Legacy of World War II

The Middle East Crisis

Unit 14 Review

Unit 15: Globalization

World History II 1500-present

Crises of Climate, Credit, and Historical Consciousness

The Resurgence of East Asia

Terrorism and Popular Culture

Unit 15 Review