AP World History

Course Description

In AP World History: Modern, students investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes from 1200 to the present. Students develop and use the same skills, practices, and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; developing historical arguments; making historical connections; and utilizing reasoning about comparison, causation, and continuity and change over time. The course provides six themes that students explore throughout the course in order to make connections among historical developments in different times and places: humans and the environment, cultural developments and interactions, governance, economic systems, social interactions and organization, and technology and innovation. 

Summer work: I do NOT require any reading or assignments over the Summer for AP World. We will have a busy school year, so enjoy your time off while you can!

2023-2024 Materials List

Pencils with erasers

Blue or black ink pens

Highlighter(s)

Pack of colored pencils/markers

Loose-leaf college ruled notebook paper

3 in. Binder/ 10 dividers we will label these together in class

Headphones that you can plug into your computer (no Airpods)

***Other materials may be required throughout the year; students will be given advance notice

Unit 1: The global tapestry

Chapter 17: Mongols, Turks, Ottomans 1000-1450ish


Chapter 18: African Kingdoms (Mali/ Zimbabwe), Christianity/ Islam in Africa, Storytelling Traditions


Chapter 19: Medieval Europe (fall of Byzantine Empire, HRE), Christianity in Medieval Europe, The Crusades, Reform Movements


Chapter 20: Toltecs, Mexica, Tenochtitlan, Aztecs, Iroquois, Incas, Australian Nomadic Society, Pacific Islands

Unit 2: Networks of Exchange

Chapter 21: Marco Polo, Missionaries, John of Montecristo, Cross-Cultural Trade, Black Death, Ming Dynasty, Renaissance, Age of Exploration (colonization of American islands)

Unit 3: Land based empires

Chapter 23: Protestant/ Catholic Reformations, Witch hunts/ Religious Wars, Capitalist society, Scientific Revolution


Chapter 26: Ming/ Qing Dynasties, Scholar-Bureaucrats, Family in Asia, Neo-Confuciansim, Tokugawa Shogunate


Chapter 27: Islamic Empires (Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal), Transition of Empires

Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections

Chapter 22: Age of Exploration, Trading Post Empires, The Columbian Exchange, Seven Years’ War, Epidemic Diseases/ Population Decline


Chapter 24: North/ South American colonies and conquests, Australia/ Pacific Islands


Chapter 25: African Politics/ Slave Trade - African-American Cultural Traditions (syncretism)

Unit 5: revolutions

Chapter 28: American, French, Haitian, Other Latin American Revolutions, Conservatism v. Liberalism, Slavery, Women’s Rights, Nationalism, Unification of Italy and Germany



Chapter 29: Introduction of Industrialization/ Capitalism, Urbanization/ Migration, Global Effects of Industrialization

Unit 6: consequences of industrialization

Chapter 30: US Westward Expansion/ Civil War, Canadian Dominion, Political Experimentation in LA, Migration to America, Identity in LA


Chapter 31: Decline of Ottoman Empire, Russian Revolution, Opium Wars, Taiping Rebellion, Meiji Restoration


Chapter 32: Imperialism, Motivations, Scramble for Africa, US Imperialism in LA/ Pacific, Nationalism and Anticolonial movements

Unit 7: global conflict

Chapter 33: WWI


Chapter 34: Post-war changes, Great Depression, Communism in Russia, Fascism in Italy/ Germany


Chapter 35: India/ China restructuring, Imperial Japan, African Nationalism, Impact of WWI and Great Depression


Chapter 36 pt. 1: Second Sino-Japanese War, WWII abroad and at home, Holocaust, Women and war 

Unit 8: Cold war and decolonization

Chapter 36 pt. 2: The Cold War


Chapter 37: Independence in Asia/ Africa, Lasting problems after colonialism, Communism in Asia

Unit 9: Globalization

Chapter 38: Collapse of Soviet Union, Terrorism, International organizations