Themes Of World History

                    AP World History highlights six overarching themes that should receive approximately equal attention throughout the course beginning with the Foundations section:
 

1)      The dynamics of change and continuity across the world history periods covered in this course, and the causes and processes involved in major changes of these dynamics

2)      Patterns and effects of interaction among societies and regions: trade, war, diplomacy, and international organizations

3)      The effects of technology, economics and demography on people and the environment (population growth and decline, disease, labor systems, manufacturing, migrations, agriculture, weaponry)

4)      Systems of social structure and gender structure (comparing major features within and among societies and assessing change and continuity)

5)      Cultural, intellectual and religious developments, including interactions among and within societies

6)      Changes in functions and structures of states and in attitudes toward states and political identities (political culture), including the emergence of the nation-state (types of political organization).


"Why the Thematic Approach?"
The themes serve throughout the course as unifying threads, helping students to put what is particular about each period or society into a larger framework. The themes also provide ways to make comparisons over time. The interaction of themes and periodization encourage cross-period questions such as "To what extent have civilizations maintained their cultural and political distinctiveness over the time periods the course covers"; "Compare the justification of social inequality in 1000 with that at the end of the twentieth century"; and "Select four turning points in world history since 1000 and explain why you so designated them."
 
Units of Study and Periodization
 
UNIT I:
Foundations- 1000 C.E.
 
What students are expected to know:
 
Major Developments
1. Basic features of world geography
          Location of continents
          Location of oceans, seas, and major rivers
          Location of key political units prior to 1000 (Roman                                                   
                    Empire at its height, 'Abbasid caliphate, Sudanic           
                    kingdoms of Ghana and Nubia, Chinese empire                                                                       
                    [Han and Tang dynasties], Byzantine Empire, Mayan
                    civilization)
2. Definitions of basic economic systems
          Agricultural, pastoral, and foraging societies and their
                    demographic characteristics
          Basic characteristics of economic structures including
          Technological patterns
3. Crises of late antiquity (third to eighth centuries)
          Movements of peoples (Huns, Germans, Arabs)
          Collapse of empires (Han China, loss of European
                    portion of the Roman Empire)
          Emergence of new empires and political systems (Tang           
                    China, Arab caliphates, Byzantine Empire, early
                    European and Japanese feudal systems)
4. Key cultural and social systems
          Basic features of major world belief systems prior to
                    1000 and where each belief system applied by
                    1000.
          Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Daoism,                                                   
                    Hellenism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Polytheism
          Major developments in the arts and sciences
          Basic characteristics of social structures as they
                    developed by 1000
          The caste system
          The nature and location of major slave systems
          Confucian social hierarchy
          Patriarchal family structures and trends
5. Principal international connections that had developed
          between 700 and 1000
          Missionary outreach (Buddhist, Christian, and Islamic)
          Leading international trading patterns (Middle Eastern,
                    Chinese, East European, trans-Saharan)
          The role of nomadic groups in Central Asia
          The impact of Bantu migrations in Africa
6. Diverse interpretations
          What are the issues involved in using "civilization" as an                                                   
                    organizing principle in world history?
          What is the most common source of change: connection
                    or diffusion versus independent invention?

Major Comparisons and Snapshots
          Comparisons of the major religious and philosophical
                    systems including some underlying similarities in
                    cementing a social hierarchy, e.g., Hinduism
                    contrasted with Confucianism; Christianity
                    compared with Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism
          Trace and explain the diffusion of major religious and
                    philosophical belief systems by 1000 C.E.
          Role of women in different belief systems  Christianity,                     
                    Confucianism, Hinduism, and Islam
          Understanding of how and why the collapse of empire
                    was more severe in Western Europe than it was in
                    the Eastern Mediterranean or in China
          Role of nomadic groups in the collapse of empires
          Compare the caste system to other systems of social
                    inequality devised by early and classical
                    civilizations, including slavery
          Compare early societies and cultures that include cities
                    with those without cities (e.g., pastoral)
          Compare the development of political systems in major
                    early civilizations, e.g.,
          Indian compared with Chinese political traditions and
                    institutions; caliphate with Roman Empire
          Know the location of the major political units and trade
          routes by ***1000 C.E.
          Compare international trading systems, e.g., the
                    trans-Saharan trading system with the Silk Road
                    trading system

**Examples of the types of information students will be expected to know contrasted with examples of those things students will not be expected to know:
          Nature of early civilizations, but not the specific features
                    of a particular river valley civilization
          Political heritage of classical China (emperor,
                    bureaucracy), but not the transition from Qin to Han
          Greek approach to science, including Aristotle, but not           
                    Socrates or Plato
          Hellenistic philosophies, but not the specific
                    philosophers Early European feudalism, but not
                    Charlemagne
          Arab caliphate, but not the transition from Umayyad to
                    Abbasid
UNIT II:
10001450 C.E.
 
What students are expected to know:
 
Major Developments
          1. Questions of periodization
                    Nature and causes of changes in the world history
                    framework leading up to 10001450 as a period           
                    Continuities and breaks within the period (e.g., the
                    impact of the Mongols)
          2. Interregional networks
                    Development and shifts in an interregional network
                    of trade, technology, cultural exchange, and
                    communication
          3. Nature of philosophy and knowledge
          4. China's internal and external expansion
                    The importance of the Song economic revolution
                    Chinese influence on Japan and its limits
          5. The Islamic world
                    The role of Islam as a unifying cultural force in
                    Eurasia and Africa; Islamic impact on the Sudanic
                    kingdoms and East Africa; the Delhi Sultanate
                    The impact of migrations and religious reform
                    movements in expanding Islamic society
                    The impact of Islam on the arts and sciences
          6. Changes in Christianity
                    Restructuring of European society, including the
                    growth of central monarchies in the west
                    Role of Arab thought in the twelfth-century           
                    "Renaissance" in the West
                    The division of Christendom into Eastern and
                    Western Christian cultures
          7. Non-Islamic Africa
                    Great Zimbabwe
          8. Demographic and environmental changes
                    Impact of the nomadic migrations on Afro-Eurasia
                    (Mongols, Turks, and Arabs)
                    Migration of agricultural peoples (e.g., European
                    peoples to East/Central Europe)
                    Consequences of plague pandemics in the 14th           
                    century
          9. Amerindian civilizations
                    Toltec and Mayan, Aztec, Inca
     10. Diverse interpretations
                    What are the issues involved in using cultural areas
                              rather than states as units of analysis?
                    What are the sources of change: nomadic
                              migrations versus urban growth?
                    Was there a world economic network in this period,
                              and how does it compare with the world
                              economic system that emerges in the next
                              period?
Major Comparisons and Snapshots
          Japanese and European feudalism
          Western Europe or one of the major European
                    monarchies and one of the African empires
          Contrast the economic, social, cultural, and political role
                    of cities such as Guangzhou   
          (Canton), Samarkand, Timbuktu, Cairo, and Venice
          Gender systems and changes
          Aztec Empire and Inca Empire
 
**Examples of the types of information students are expected to know contrasted with examples of those things students are not expected to know: 
          Mamluks, but not Almohads
          Feudalism, but not specific feudal monarchs such as
                    Richard I
          Crusading movement and its impact, but not specific
                    crusades
.          Viking exploration, expansion, and impact, but not           
                    individual explorers
          Manorialism, but not the three-field system
          Mongol expansion, but not details of specific khanates
          Papacy, but not particular popes
          Indian Ocean traders, but not Gujarati merchants
UNIT III:
14501750 C.E.
 
What students are expected to know:
 
Major Developments
          1.  Questions of periodization Continuities and breaks,
                    causes of changes from the previous period and
                    within this period
          2. Change in global interactions, trade, and technology
          3. Knowledge of major empires and other political units
                    and social systems
                              Aztec, Ottoman, Inca, Ming, Qing (Manchu),
                              Portugal, Spain, Russia, France, England,
                              Mongol, Tokugawa, Mughal, characteristics of
                              African empires in general but knowing one
                              (Kongo, Benin, Oyo, or Songhay) as illustrative
                              Territorial and commercial aspects of the above
                              Gender and empire (gender systems at the elite
                              level, alliances, women and households in
                              politics)
                              Slave systems and slave trade
          4. Demographic and environmental changes: diseases,
                    animals, new crops, and comparative population                               
                    trends
          5. Cultural and intellectual developments
                    Scientific Revolution
                    The Enlightenment
                    Comparative global causes and impacts of cultural .                    
                              change
                    Neoconfucianism
                    Major developments and exchanges in the arts (e.g.,
                              Mughal)
          6. Diverse interpretations
                    What are the debates about the timing and extent of                                         
                    European predominance in the world economy?
Major Comparisons and Snapshots
          Imperial systems: European monarchy compared with a
                    land-based Asian empire
          Coercive labor systems: slavery and other coercive labor
                    systems in the Americas
          Comparative knowledge of empire (i.e., general empire
                    building in Asia, Africa, and Europe)
          Compare Russia's interaction with the west with the
                    interaction of one of the following (Ottoman Empire,                     
                    China, Tokugawa Japan, Mughal India) with the
                    West

**Examples of the types of information students are expected to know contrasted with examples of those things students are not expected to know:
          Neoconfucianism, but not specific Neoconfucianists
          Importance of European exploration, but not individual
                    explorers
          Characteristics of European absolutism, but not specific
                    rulers
          Reformation, but not Anabaptism or Huguenots
          Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, but not Safavid
                    Empire
          Siege of Vienna (168889), but not the Thirty Years' War
          Slave plantation systems, but not Jamaica's specific
                    slave system Institution of the harem, but not Hurrem
                    Sultan
UNIT IV:
17501914 C.E.
 
What students are expected to know:
 
Major Developments
          1. Questions of periodization
                    Continuities and breaks, causes of changes from
                    the previous period and within this period
          2. Changes in global commerce, communications, and
                    technology
                    Changes in patterns of world trade
                    Industrial Revolution (transformative effects on and
                    differential timing in different societies; mutual
                    relation of industrial and scientific developments;
                    commonalities)
          3. Demographic and environmental changes (migrations,
                    end of the Atlantic slave trade, new birthrate
                    patterns; food supply)
          4. Changes in social and gender structure (Industrial
                    Revolution; commercial and demographic
                    developments; emancipation of serfs/slaves; and
                    tension between work patterns and ideas about 
                gender)
          5. Political revolutions and independence movements;
                    new political ideas
                    Latin American independence movements
                    Revolutions (United States, France, Haiti, Mexico,
                    China)
                    Rise of nationalism, nation-states, and movements
                    of political reform
                    Overlaps between nations and empires
                    Rise of democracy and its limitations: reform;
                    women; racism
          6. Rise of Western dominance (economic, political,
                    social, cultural and artistic, patterns of expansion;
                    imperialism and colonialism) and different cultural
                    and political reactions (reform; resistance; rebellion;
                racism; nationalism)
          7. Diverse interpretations
                    What are the debates over the utility of
                    modernization theory as a framework for interpreting
                    events in this period and the next?
                    What are the debates about the causes of serf and
                    slave emancipation in this period, and how do these debates fit into broader comparisons of labor           
                    systems?
                    What are the debates over the nature of women's
                    roles in this period, and how do these debates apply
                    to industrialized areas, and how do they apply in
                    colonial societies?
Major Comparisons and Snapshots
          Compare the causes and early phases of the industrial
                    revolution in Western Europe and Japan
          Comparative revolutions (compare two of the following:
                    Haitian, American, French, Mexican, and Chinese)
          Compare reaction to foreign domination in: the Ottoman
                    Empire, China, India, and Japan
          Comparative nationalism
          Compare forms of western intervention in Latin America
                    and in Africa
          Compare the roles and conditions of women in the
                    upper/middle classes with peasantry/working class
                    in Western Europe

**Examples of the types of information students are expected to know contrasted with examples of those things students are not expected to know:
          Women's emancipation movements, but not specific
                    suffragists
          The French Revolution of 1789, but not the Revolution of
                    1830
          Meiji Restoration, but not Iranian Constitutional
                    Revolution
          Jacobins, but not Robespierre
          Causes of Latin American independence movements,
                    but not specific protagonists
          Boxer Rebellion, but not Crimean War
          Suez Canal, but not the Erie Canal
          Muhammad Ali, but not Isma'il
          Marxism, but not Utopian socialism
          Social Darwinism, but not Herbert Spencer
UNIT V:
1914-Present C.E.
 
What students are expected to know:
 
Major Developments
          1. Questions of periodization
                    Continuities and breaks, causes of changes from
                    the previous period and within this period
          2.  The World Wars, the Cold War, nuclear weaponry,
                    international organizations, and their impact on the
                    global framework globalization of diplomacy and
                    conflict; global balance of power; reduction of
                    European influence; the League of Nations, the
                    United Nations, the Non-Aligned Nations, etc.)
          3.  New patterns of nationalism, especially outside of the           
                    West (the interwar years; de-colonization; racism,
                    the Holocaust, genocide; new nationalisms,
                    including the breakup of the Soviet Union)
          4.  Impact of major global economic developments (the
                    Great Depression; technology; Pacific Islands;
                    multinational corporations)
          5. New forces of revolution and other sources of political
                    innovations
          6.  Social reform and social revolution (changing gender
                    roles; family structures; rise of feminism; peasant
                    protest international Marxism)
          7.  Internationalization of culture and reactions          
                    Developments in global and regional cultures
                    Interactions between elite and popular culture and
                              art
                    Global cultural forces and patterns of resistance
                              (consumer culture; religious responses)
          8.  Demographic and environmental changes
                    (migrations; changes in birthrates and death rates;                     
                    new forms of urbanization; deforestation;
                    green/environmental movements)
          9. Diverse interpretations
                    Is cultural convergence or diversity the best model
                    for understanding increased intercultural contact in
                    the twentieth century?
                    What are the advantages and disadvantages of
                    using units of analysis in the twentieth century such
                    as the nation, the world, the West, and the Third
                    World?
Major Comparisons and Snapshots
          Patterns and results of decolonization in Africa and India
          Pick two revolutions (Russian, Chinese, Cuban, Iranian)
                    and compare their effects on the roles of women
          Compare the effects of the World Wars on areas outside
                    of Europe
          Compare legacies of colonialism and patterns of
                    economic development in two of three areas (Africa,
                    Asia, and Latin America)
          The notion of "the West" and "the East" in the context of
                    Cold War ideology
          Compare nationalist ideologies and movements in
                    contrasting
          European and colonial environments
          Compare the different types of independence struggles
          Compare the impacts of Western consumer society on
                    two civilizations outside of Europe
 
**Examples of the types of information students are expected to know contrasted with examples of those things students are not expected to know:
          Causes of the World Wars, but not battles in the wars
          Cultural and political transformations resulting from the
                    wars, but not French political and cultural history
          Fascism, but not Mussolini's internal policies
          Feminism and gender relations, but not Simone de                                         
                    Beauvoir or Huda Shaarawi
          The growth of international organizations, but not the
                    history of ILO (International Labor Organization)
          Colonial independence movements, but not the details of
                    a particular struggle
          The issue of genocide, but not Cambodia, Rwanda, or
                    Kosovo
          The internationalization of popular culture, but not the
                    Beatles
          Artistic Modernism, but not Dada