Second half of World Civilizations.
• Why did the Aztec Empire fall to the Spanish?
• Did the Industrial Revolution improve people’s lives or not?
• Was the French Revolution worth the human cost?
• Was the Meiji Restoration in Japan really a revolution?
• Why did the Ottoman Empire fall?
• What was the cause of the Boxer Rebellion in China?
• What was the single most important cause of World War I?
• The Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918 was the last world-wide pandemic. Why
did it happen? Why did it kill so many people (about 50 million world-wide)?
• Why did the Great Depression happen?
• What was the single most important cause of World War II?
• Could Hitler have maintained control of his conquests in World War II? If so,
how?
• Was the Cold War America’s fault?
• Was the Cold War the Soviet Union’s fault?
• Why did the Soviet Union collapse?
• Were ethnic problems responsible for the disintegration of Yugoslavia?
• Was Ethnic Hatred the primary reason for Rwandan Genocide in 1994?
Sample Solution
The Spanish defeat of the Aztec Empire or the Conquest of Mexico (1519–21) was one of most significant events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. There are several 16th-century chronicles of the events by Spanish conquerors, their home-grown associates, and the defeated Aztecs. It was not solely a contest between a small contingent of Spaniards defeating the Aztec Empire but rather the creation of a coalition of Spanish invaders with tributaries to the Aztecs, and most especially the Aztecs’ indigenous enemies and rivals. They advanced under a single command to rout the Mexica of Tenochtitlan over a two-year period.
