The AP World History: Modern section features cross-links of pages from the Massachusetts History & Social Science Curriculum Framework as well as the AP World History Legacy Course. 

Link to AP World History Legacy Course pages here.

 

 

Unit 1: The Global Tapestry (1200 - 1450)

 

East Asia

 

• The Great Wall and the Grand Canal

 

• Chinese Ideographic Writing System

 

• Technologies and Inventions of Ancient China

 

• Confucius and His Teachings

 

• The First Emperor of China
  

 

• Buddhism

 

• Indus Valley Civilization

 

Origins of Islam

 

• Impacts of Islamic Expansion 

 

• Origins of Islam 

 

• Islamic Belief and the Teaching of Muhammad

 

• The Islamic Golden Age

 

The Americas

• Maya, Aztec and Inca in Central and South America

 

• Decline of Aztec and Inca Civilizations

 

Africa

• Geography of Africa 

 

• Kingdom of Axum 

 

• The Swahili Coast and Swahili Coastal Societies 

 

• Ancient African Empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai

 

Europe

 

• Medieval English Legal and Constitutional History 

 

• Church and Society in Medieval Europe

 

• English Peasants Revolt of 1381 

 

• Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales

 

• Dante and the Divine Comedy

  

 

Unit 2: Networks of Exchange (1200 - 1450)

 

Silk Roads

 

• Zheng He and the Chinese Treasure Fleets

 

• Trade Along the Silk Roads

 

• Zhang Qian and the Beginnings of the Silk Road

 

Mongol Empire

 

• The Mongols and the Rise and Fall of the Moghul Empire

 

Indian Ocean

 

• Indian Ocean World System

 

Trans-Saharan Trade

 

• The Trans-Saharan Trade

 

 

Connections and Exchanges

 

• Crusades and Conflicts Between Islam and Christianity 

 

• Bubonic Plague and Its Social and Economic Effects

 

• Svalbard Seed Bank and Global Food Histories

 

 

Unit 3: Land-Based Empires (1450- 1750) 

 

Empires Expand

• Precolumbian Civilizations in Central and South America
• Maya, Aztec and Inca in Central and South America 

 

• The Byzantine Empire

 

• Expansion of the Ottoman Empire

 

Empires Belief Systems

 

• Political and Cultural Aspects of Chinese Civilization

 

• Confucius and His Teachings

 

 

Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections (1450- 1750)

 

Technological Innovations

 

• Arabic and Islamic Mathematicians and Scientists

 

• The Scientific Revolution and the Scientific Method 

 

 

Explorations

 

• European Exploration and the Atlantic Slave Trade

 

• European Explorers and Encounters in the Americas

 

Columbian Exchange

 

• The Columbian Exchange

 

• Origins of the Atlantic Slave Trade 

 

Maritime Empires

 

• Historical Biography Page on Queen Victoria

 

Challenges to State Power

 

 

Changing Social Hierarchies

 

 

Continuity and Change

 

• African History in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

 

• Imperialism in China in the 19th and early 20th Centuries

 

Unit 5: Revolutions (1750 - 1900)

 

The Enlightenment

 

• Main Ideas of Men and Women Enlightenment Thinkers

 

 

Nationalism & Revolutions

 

• Events of the French Revolution

 

Iron and Coal. William Bell Scott (1855)

Industrial Revolution

 

• Impacts of the Industrial Revolution 1730 to 1830

 

Spread of Industrialization

 

• From the Agricultural to the Industrial Revolution

 

Technology

 

 

Role of Governments

 

 

Economic Developments

 

 

Reactions and Responses

 

• Luddites and the Luddite Rebellion of 1811-1813

 

• Socialism, Communism, Robert Owen Karl Marx 

 

• Impressionism

 

Society

 

 

Continuity and Change

 

 

Unit 6: Consequences of Industrialization (1750 - 1900)

 

Imperialism

 

• 19th Century European Imperialism

 

• European Imperialism Map

 

State Expansion

 

 

Indigenous Responses

 

• African History in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

 

• Mohandas Gandhi, Indian Independence Leader

 

 

Global Economic Development

 

 

Economic Imperialism

 

• Imperialism in India and South Asia

 

• Imperialism in China in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries 

 

• Imperialism in Japan in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

 

Migration

 

 

Causation

 

 

Unit 7: Global Conflicts (1900 - Present)

 

Shifting Power

 

• Fascism and Totalitarianism

 

 

Causes of World War I

 

 

Conducting World War I

 

 

Interwar Economics

 

 

Unresolved Tensions

 

• Totalitarian Leaders: Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin

 

Causes of World War II

 

 

Conducting World War II

 

• Key Battles of World War II

 

• The Tuskegee Airmen 

 

• Women in World War II

 

Mass Atrocities

 

• The Holocaust

 

• Anne Frank and the Diary of a Young Girl

 

• Stalin's Great Purges

 

• Atomic Bombs in World War II

 

• The Nuremberg and Tokyo War Crimes Trials

 

Causation

 

• Global Conflicts and Their Consequences

 

 

Unit 8: Cold War and Decolonization (1900 - Present)

 

Setting the Stage

 

• Sources of Cold War Conflict

 

The Cold War

 

• The Cold War between the US and the USSR

 

Effects of the Cold War

 

• Post Cold War American Foreign Policy 

 

Spread of Communism

 

 

Decolonization

 

• Independence for Caribbean and Central American Nations - Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico

 

• Independence for South American Nations

 

• Independence for African Nations

 

• Independence for Countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania - Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines

 

• Independence for Middle East Countries - Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran

 

• Independence for Central Asia Countries - India, Pakistan

 

• Independence for Northeast Asia Countries - South Korea, North Korea and Mongolia

 

 

Newly Independent States

 

• Nationalist Movements and Leaders

 

• African Nationalism in the 20th Century

 

Global Resistance

 

• Causes and Consequences of the Vietnam War

 

• Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese Independence Leader

 

• Causes and Consequences of the Vietnam War

 

End of the Cold War

 

• Decline and Collapse of the Soviet Union

 

Causation

 

 

Unit 9: Globalization (1900 - Present)

 

Technology and Exchange 

 

Disease

 

• Population and Pandemics

 

Environment

 

• Science and the Environment

 

 

Economics

 

 

Reform

 

 

Globalized Culture

 

• New Conceptualizations of Economy, Society and Culture

 

 

Resistance to Globalization

 

• Events in the Modern Middle East and Islamic Fundamentalism

 

 

Institutions

 

 

Continuity and Change

 

• China in the 21st Century and the 5 Themes of Geography