Advanced Placement World History Syllabus

Course Overview
The advanced placement World History course is designed as a college level class that is based on a global
perspective of World History. As a college level course, it will require extensive reading and numerous writing
activities throughout the year. Major writing assignments will include a minimum of one essay each six weeks in
addition to a major research project each semester. The scope of the course covers the period of time from the
Neolithic Revolution to the present. That time is divided, according to the AP World History Course Description
as follows:

Foundations (Neolithic Revolution to 600 C.E.) 19-20% or 7 weeks

600 C.E. – 1450 22% or 8 weeks
1450 – 1750 19-20% or 7 weeks
1750 – 1914 19-20% or 7 weeks
1914 – Present 19-20% or 7 weeks

No more than 30% of the course will be devoted to European History and the United States will be covered only
as it pertains to “involvements in the global process.”

We will use the six overarching themes of World History as described by the AP World History Course
Description:

1. The dynamics of change and continuity (CCOT) across the world history periods covered in the 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. Impact 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 addressing 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)

Students will develop the “Habits of the Mind” that address the skills necessary in this or any rigorous history
course:
 Constructing and evaluating arguments
 Using demulcents and other primary data
 Assessing issues of change and continuity over time (CCOT)
 Understanding diverse interpretations of history through analysis
 Seeing global patterns while connecting local developments to global ones
 Comparing within and among societies
 Being aware of human commonalities and differences while assessing universal standards, and
understanding culturally diverse ideas and values in an historical context

Textbook
Bulliet, Richard, Pamela Kyle Crossley, et al. The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History. 2nd. Boston Houghton
Mifflin, 2001.

Bentley, Jerry H., Herbert F. Ziegler. Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past. 4th. Boston
McGraw-Hill, 2008.
*Supplemented with primary documents, historical essays and reprinted readings from college level texts.
Scope and Sequence:
I Foundations-The World before 600 C.E. 7 weeks
A. The Nature of History
1. The World and a Very Small Place in Africa- seeing history as global
2. POV—frame of reference and historic context—a collage
B. Civilizations
a. Usefulness of the word "civilization"
2. Neolithic Revolution-Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel
a. Catal Huyuk
3. Characteristics of early river valley societies as well as Mesoamerica and Andean South America

a. Metal use in Shang China and Ur

4. Nomads, migration , pastoralism
a. Bantu
b. Indo-European
c. Huns
d. Germans
e. Polynesians
5. Revolutionary Breakthroughs in Religion and Thought—A Comparative Look-- Polytheism, Hinduism,
Buddhism, Judaism, Confucianism, Daoism, Christianity, Hellenic Philosophy (charts, dialectal
journals, inside-outside seminar)
C. The Classical World (A comparative study)
1. Early Empires (Snapshot comparison with emphasis on Social, Politics, Economics and Culture)
a. Persia
b. Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World
c. Classical India
d. Han China
e. Roman Empire
2. Cross Cultural connections in the Classical World (mental mapping)
a. Indian Ocean and Silk Road
b. Spread of Buddhism and Christianity
c. Effects of epidemics and nomadic invasions
3. Fall and Decline of the Han, Gupta and Roman Empires (In Class Essay)

Assignments:
Analyzing POV, VENN Bronze and Iron Age, World Religions (Chart and journal), Hellenistic Readings,
Snapshot of Classical World, Mental Map of Classical World, Introduction of Comparative Essay, Decline of
Han, Rome and Gupta VENN, CCOT Charts, Gender Jigsaw
Major Assessments:
Comparative Essay on Fall of Empires, Foundation Exam

II Global Connections of the Middle Ages (600-1450) 8 weeks

A. Snapshot of the Post-Classical World(Tang, Mayan, Byzantine, Charlemagne’s Europe, Feudal Japan,
Ghana, Abbasid Empire)
B. Medieval Travelers—A Document Study
1. Crusaders
2. Marco Polo
3. Mansa Musa
4. Mongols
5. Ibn Battuta
6. Zheng He
7. Black Death
 C. The Islamic World – Abbasids to Ottomans
D. China-Song and early Ming
E. Africa-West and East—Mali, Swahili Coast, Great Zimbabwe
F. Medieval Europe
G. Mongols
H. Cross-Cultural trade in the Medieval World
1. trade
2. migration (Aztec, Mongols, Turks, Vikings and Arabs)
3. missionaries
4. warfare
5. epidemics
I. Comparisons and snapshots
1. Medieval cities
2. European vs. Japanese Feudalism
J. The Changing West
1. division of Christian world
2. rise of national monarchies
3. Renaissance
K. The Americans (A comparative study)
1. Aztec
2. Inca
Assignments:
Dar al Islam Readings, Ibn Battuta Primaries and Map, Snapshot: Middle Ages, How to do a DBQ, Age of Faith
Readings, Mansa Musa Primaries and Map, Feudalism Compared Group Activity, Africa DBQ, Mongols and
Marco Polo Primaries and Map, Zheng He and Ming Primaries and Map, Black Death Readings, CCOT Charts,
Mental Map Southernization, Gender Jigsaw, National Monarchs Readings, Inca and Aztec Readings and
comparison chart and essay, CCOT Essay
Major Assessments:
DBQ on Comparative Feudalism, Fall Research Project, Middle Ages Exam I and II, Quest:
Middle Ages III

III Era of European Expansion and Empire Building (1450-1750) 7 weeks

A. The Encounter and Columbian Exchange
1. Why the West wins—diverse interpretations (Encounter between Pizarro and Atahuallpa)
2. Effects of the Encounter on Conquerors and the Conquered
3. Transatlantic Slave Trade (jigsaw group activity)
a. African connection
b. European connection
c. American connection
4. Labor systems in the Americas
5. Economic shift from old to new world
B. The Transformation of Europe
1. Reformation
2. Scientific Revolution
3. Enlightenment – simulated salon
C. Development of absolutism and the Gunpowder Empires (Snapshot comparison with emphasis on
Social, Politics, Economics and Culture)
1. A model: France under Louis XIV
2. Russia under Peter and Catherine
3. Ottoman Empire
4. Mughal Empire
5. Ming/Qing China
6. Tokugawa Shogunate
 7. Characteristics of African Empires (Kongo, Benin, Oyo or Songhay)
8. Comparison of how above empires interact with the West
Assignments:
Exploration Readings, The Encounter: Primaries, Jigsaw on Columbian Exchange, Mental Map: Atlantic
World, Comparative African Kingdoms and European Monarchs Mini-Essay, Snapshot: Absolutism and
Gunpowder Empires, Martin Luther Readings, Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment Readings, CCOT
Charts, Gender Jigsaw
Major Assessments:
Spring Research Project, Age of Exploration Exam

IV Age of Revolutions and Imperialism (1750-1914) 7 weeks

A. Liberalism and Political Change (a comparative study)
1. Who are they?--A look at Simon Bolivar and the nature of classical liberalism
2. British Constitutionalism and the Glorious Revolution
3. American Independence
4. French Revolution
5. Haitian Revolution: Compared to France
6. Latin American Independence
7. South American and Mexican Revolutions
8. Limits of Revolutions (reform, women, voting rights, racism, end of Atlantic Slave Trade, causes for
end of slavery)
B. Nationalism, nation states and unification in 19 th century Europe
1. Compare China and Japan
2. Compare Cuba and the Philippines
3. Compare Egypt and Nigeria
C. Industrial Revolution
1. Topics for discussion
a. causes and factors of
b. demographic changes
c. impact on the environment
d. conditions for workers
e. impact on society (Marxism)
f. diverse interpretations
i. changing labor systems
ii. place of women (upper class and lower class)
iii. nature of modernization
2. Non western experiences—Japan, Russia (causes and results of emancipation of serfs), and Egypt
(Suez canal and Muhammad Ali)
D. Global Implications
E. Imperialism
1. Causes and comparisons (Social Darwinism, "White Man's Burden")
2. Response of China (events leading up to Revolution of 1911)
3. Response of Japan (Meiji Restoration)
4. Response of Ottoman—Middle East and Balkans
5. Response of Africa
6. Response of Latin America
7. Compare intervention in Latin America to Africa
8. Reaction in India
9. Women in industrial areas compared to colonial societies.
F. Cultural and artistic interactions among societies during this time period

Assignments:
 Atlantic Revolutions Readings and Comparative Chart, Nationalism Readings, Comparative Essay on Atlantic
Revolutions, Early Industrialism: Demand for Cotton, Trigram: Global Industrialization, Social Consequences
Readings, Snapshot: Non-Western Societies, Imperialism Chart and Primaries, Mental Map: Imperialism,
Gender Jigsaw, CCOT Charts
Major Assessments:
Early Revolutions Exam, Revolutions Exam, DBQ Essay on Imperialism

V The 20th and 21st Century (1914-present) 7 weeks

A. World War I
1. Causes
2. League of Nations
3. Non-Europe effects
4. Cultural and political results
B. 20th Century Revolutions
1. Mexico
2. China
3. Russian
4. Cuban
5. Iranian
C. Women and the Revolution—China, Russia, Cuba, Iran
D. Social Reform
1. Gender roles and family structure
2. Feminism
3. Peasant protest
4. Religious fundamentalism
E. Fascism vs. Communism and the Age of the Dictators
F. Impact of World Wide Depression
G. World War II
1. Causes
2. Holocaust
3. Cultural and political results
4. United nations
5. Effects on non-Europe
H. Cold War
1. Analyze the notion of the West and the East
2. Nuclear Weapons
3. Globalization of conflict (Guerrilla vs. high tech warfare)
4. Non-Aligned Nations
5. Collapse of USSR)
I. Decolonization and the New Nationalism—India and Africa
1. Legacies of colonialism in Africa, Asia and Latin America
2. Nationalist ideologies in European and colonial environments
3. Compare independence in Settled and non-settled colonies
J. Genocides and Racism
K. International Organizations, Globalization of diplomacy, reduction of European power, proposal for
economic growth in the developing world and the social and political consequences of that growth, and
problems of the modern world
L. Globalization
1. Consumerism [Multi-National Corporations]
2. Technology
3. Culture, pop-culture and art
4. Patterns of resistance to globalization
5. Increased intercultural contact - divergence or diversity?
 M. Rise of Pacific Rim
N. Demographic and Environmental Changes
6. Migrations
7. Urbanization
8. Deforestation and environmental movements
O. Impact of Technology throughout this time period
P. Analysis of the world becomes more complex in the 20 th century
Assignments:
World War I and II Charts, Global Implications Readings, 20 th Century Comparative Revolutions Chart, Great
Depression Readings, Dictators Readings and Charts, Comparative Genocide Reading and Chart, CCOT
Charts, Gender Jigsaw
Major Assessments:
Imperialism to World War I Exam, CCOT Essay

*This is only a partial list of assignments; students participate in weekly graded discussions, lectures, reading
quizzes and group activities too numerous and changing to list here in their entirety. Those listed are the core of
the course.