Global Conflict
What this unit covers
The topics below follow the published World History course framework for Unit 7. This unit is worth 8–10% of the exam, so budget your time against that rather than against how long the unit takes to teach.
Lessons in this unit
- World War I: Causes and Total War14 min · 3 objectivesExplain the long-term and immediate causes of World War I · Analyze how industrial technology produced a new kind of total war · Assess the global scope and consequences of the conflict
- The Interwar Crisis and Totalitarianism14 min · 3 objectivesExplain the causes and global impact of the Great Depression · Analyze the rise of totalitarian regimes between the wars · Compare fascist and communist forms of authoritarian rule
- World War II and Mass Mobilization14 min · 3 objectivesExplain the causes and global course of World War II · Analyze how states mobilized populations and economies for total war · Assess the human costs of the war, including genocide and mass violence
Every term in Unit 7
All 14 terms we publish for Global Conflict, with definitions. Reading them through is the fastest way to find the ones you cannot define — then drill those in cram mode until you can produce them without the prompt.
- Total war
- Whole societies mobilized: conscription, rationing, war industry, propaganda and women entering the workforce. War as an economic contest.
- Causes of the First World War
- Militarism, alliances, imperial rivalry and nationalism, ignited by the assassination at Sarajevo — the MAIN framework.
- Trench warfare
- Machine guns and artillery gave defense the advantage, producing static lines and enormous casualties for negligible gains.
- Treaty of Versailles
- Imposed war guilt, reparations and territorial loss on Germany. Its grievances became a central resource for Nazi mobilization.
- Mandate system
- Former Ottoman and German territories administered by victors under League supervision — imperialism with a new legal vocabulary.
- Russian Revolution
- War strain toppled the tsar; the Bolsheviks seized power promising peace, land and bread, creating the first communist state.
- New Economic Policy and Five-Year Plans
- Lenin's partial market retreat, then Stalin's forced collectivization and heavy industry, which industrialized the USSR at catastrophic human cost.
- Great Depression
- Global collapse after 1929 discrediting liberal economics and strengthening both fascist and communist alternatives.
- Fascism
- Ultranationalist, anti-communist, authoritarian rule fusing state and corporate power behind a leader, in Italy, Germany, Spain and Japan.
- Causes of the Second World War
- Versailles grievance, Depression, expansionism by Germany, Italy and Japan, and the failure of appeasement and the League.
- Holocaust
- Systematic murder of six million Jews and millions of others, industrialized genocide organized by a modern bureaucratic state.
- Atomic bombings
- Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the Pacific war and opened the nuclear age, immediately reframing what great-power conflict meant.
- United Nations
- Founded 1945 with a Security Council of veto-wielding powers, designed to correct the League's lack of enforcement.
- Effects of the world wars on empire
- Colonial troops fought for powers that claimed to defend freedom, and the wars exhausted the imperial states — accelerating decolonization.
What examiners penalize here
- For total-war questions, show the collapse of the soldier/civilian line: economic conversion, rationing, women in war industry, propaganda, and the deliberate targeting of civilians (strategic bombing, atomic bombs, genocide). Mass mobilization is the through-line of this unit.
Practice World History
Our practice bank is drawn from across the whole course rather than filtered to one unit, which is closer to how the exam asks anyway — it will not tell you which unit a question is testing.
Questions about this unit
How much of the AP World History: Modern exam is Unit 7?
Unit 7, Global Conflict, is worth 8–10% of the World History multiple-choice section according to the published course framework. Across all 9 units that makes it a middling share, roughly what an even split across units would give.
What topics are covered in World History Unit 7?
Global Conflict covers World Wars, Totalitarianism, Global economy and Mass mobilization. We publish 14 terms with definitions for this unit, all of them on this page.
How should I study World History Unit 7?
Read the 3 lessons below first — about 40 minutes — then drill the 14 terms in cram mode until you can produce each definition from memory rather than just recognize it. Recognition is what makes a unit feel finished when it is not. Finish with practice questions and read the explanation for every one you get right by elimination as well as the ones you miss.
All 9 units of AP World History: Modern
Unit names, topics and exam weights follow the published College Board course framework for AP World History: Modern. AP® is a trademark registered by the College Board, which does not endorse this site.