History & Culture
World History
GS Paper I
World History — Quick Revision
One-page UPSC revision of world history from the 18th century: revolutions, unification, ideologies, world wars, treaties, Cold War milestones and decolonisation.
SyllabusGS I · History of the world — events from the 18th century: industrial revolution, world wars, redrawal of boundaries, colonisation, decolonisation, political philosophies
A one-page sheet for GS I world history. Use the dates as value-addition in Mains answers — UPSC rewards accurate anchors, not long chronologies.
Revolutions and Nation-Building
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| c. 1760 onwards | Industrial Revolution begins in Britain |
| 1773 | Boston Tea Party |
| 4 July 1776 | US Declaration of Independence |
| 1783 | Treaty of Paris — US independence recognised |
| 1787 | US Constitution drafted (in force 1789) |
| 14 July 1789 | Storming of the Bastille |
| Aug 1789 | Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen |
| 1793–94 | Reign of Terror |
| 1799 | Napoleon’s coup |
| 1804 | Napoleonic Civil Code |
| 1814–15 | Congress of Vienna; Waterloo (1815) |
| 1848 | Revolutions across Europe; Communist Manifesto |
| 1861 | Kingdom of Italy proclaimed |
| 18 Jan 1871 | German Empire proclaimed at Versailles |
| 1917 | February and October Revolutions in Russia |
| 1922 | USSR formed |
| 1949 | People’s Republic of China |
Thinkers
| Thinker | Work / idea |
|---|---|
| John Locke | Two Treatises of Government (1689) — natural rights |
| Montesquieu | The Spirit of the Laws (1748) — separation of powers |
| Rousseau | The Social Contract (1762) — general will |
| Adam Smith | The Wealth of Nations (1776) — free markets |
| J.S. Mill | On Liberty (1859) |
| Marx and Engels | The Communist Manifesto (1848); Das Kapital vol. I (1867) |
| Robert Owen, Saint-Simon, Fourier | Utopian socialism |
World Wars
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1882 / 1907 | Triple Alliance / Triple Entente |
| 1884–85 | Berlin Conference |
| 28 June 1914 | Sarajevo assassination |
| 28 July 1914 | War begins |
| April 1917 | USA enters the war |
| 11 Nov 1918 | Armistice |
| 28 June 1919 | Treaty of Versailles |
| 1920 | League of Nations |
| Oct 1929 | Wall Street Crash |
| Jan 1933 | Hitler becomes Chancellor |
| Sept 1938 | Munich Agreement |
| Aug 1939 | Nazi–Soviet Pact |
| 1 Sept 1939 | Germany invades Poland |
| 7 Dec 1941 | Pearl Harbor |
| 6 June 1944 | D-Day |
| July 1944 | Bretton Woods Conference |
| 6 / 9 Aug 1945 | Hiroshima / Nagasaki |
| 24 Oct 1945 | UN Charter in force |
Peace Treaties after the First World War
| Treaty | Country |
|---|---|
| Versailles | Germany |
| Saint-Germain | Austria |
| Trianon | Hungary |
| Neuilly | Bulgaria |
| Sèvres (1920) → Lausanne (1923) | Ottoman Empire / Turkey |
Cold War and Decolonisation
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1947 | Truman Doctrine; India’s independence |
| 1948 | Marshall Plan; Israel; apartheid in South Africa |
| 1949 | NATO; FRG and GDR; PRC |
| 1950–53 | Korean War |
| 1954 | Dien Bien Phu; Geneva Accords |
| April 1955 | Bandung Conference |
| 1955 | Warsaw Pact |
| 1956 | Suez Crisis |
| 1957 | Ghana independent |
| 1960 | “Year of Africa”; UNGA Resolution 1514 |
| 1961 | NAM founded at Belgrade; Berlin Wall built |
| 1962 | Cuban Missile Crisis; Algeria independent |
| 1974–75 | Portuguese colonies independent |
| 9 Nov 1989 | Fall of the Berlin Wall |
| 3 Oct 1990 | German reunification |
| Dec 1991 | USSR dissolved |
| 1994 | South Africa’s first multiracial elections |
High-yield facts
- The USA never joined the League of Nations; India was a founding member.
- The German Empire was proclaimed (1871) and the Treaty of Versailles signed (1919) in the same Hall of Mirrors.
- The October Revolution fell on 7 November by the Gregorian calendar.
- Bandung (1955) preceded NAM (Belgrade, 1961).
- NAM founders: Nehru, Tito, Nasser, Sukarno, Nkrumah.
Traps
- Italy joined the Allies in 1915 despite its Triple Alliance membership.
- Sèvres (Ottoman) was replaced by Lausanne (1923).
- NEP was Lenin’s (1921); Five-Year Plans and collectivisation were Stalin’s (from 1928).
- Zollverein was a customs union, not a military alliance.
Related Topics
- Age of Revolutions and Political Ideologies
- World Wars, Colonisation and Decolonisation
- World History — practice questions
- All quick-revision sheets
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