1. science
2. social science
3. history

AP World History: 2015-16 Syllabus
Course Overview:
In AP® World History students will develop a greater understanding of the evolution of global processes
and contacts including interactions over time. The course highlights the nature of changes in international
frameworks and their causes and consequences, as well as comparisons among major societies.
Advanced Placement World History is a course that is designed to provide the opportunity to challenge
students who want to explore a world that is complex and interconnected. This class offers the chance to
receive college credit through a meticulous process of “doing history.” Students will have to approach
history in a new and exciting way that helps them understand not only what, whom, and when in history,
but how and why. The general guideline of the course will follow the AP World History Course
Description found at http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/, and will include the five AP World History
Course Themes, as well as the four Historical Thinking Skills, throughout the course.
Specifically students will look at the processes of history that show changes in human development and
culture over time, including religion, technology, development of and changes in societies, technology,
politics, trade, and the role of women. Students will also compare societies and cultures to explore
similarities and differences due to interaction across time and distance. Finally, students will improve
analytical, reading, and writing skills by reviewing primary source documents to understand key concepts
of historical research. Students will engage in dozens of analytical writing assignments not limited to
DBQ essays, continuity and change essays, and comparison essays. Students will also be required to
engage in other writing and speaking formats as part of the development of historical argumentation
skills.
Resources
Textbook:

Bentley, Herry and Herbert Ziegler. Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past, 4th ed.
New York: McGraw-Hill. 2008. [CR1a]
Primary sources:
Text sources:
 Noonan, Theresa. Document-Based Assessment Activities for Global History Classes. Portland, Maine: J.
Weston Walch Publisher. 1999.

Reilly, Kevin. Worlds of History, a Comparative Reader. 3rd ed., Bedford/St. Martin's. 2009.

Other materials are and will be used. Primary source documents, DBQ practice guides, and works of
art are provided throughout the course but change year to year.
Visual sources:

Images for student analysis will originate from the textbook, readers, and the internet.

Images will include but are not limited to art, political cartoons, and photos; see the course outline
below for specific examples.
Secondary sources:
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History, 7th & 8th ed. Boston & New York: Bedford/St.
Martin’s: 2001.


Guns, Germs, and Steel. Dir. Tim Lambert. Jared Diamond. National Geographic, 2005.

Historical Atlas of the World. Skokie, Illinois: Rand McNally. 1992, 1999, 2003.

McNeill, J.R. “Of Rats and Men: A Synoptic Environmental History of the Island Pacific.” Journal of
World History, Vol 5.. No 2.(Fall, 1994): 299-349.

Mitchell, Joseph, and Helen Buss Mitchell. Taking Sides: Clashing Views in World History. 3rd ed. Vols. I
and II. New York: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, 2006.

Pomeranz, Kenneth and Topik, Stepen. The World that Trade Created. 2005.

Shaffer, Lydia. “Southernization.” Journal of World History. Vol 5. (Spring 1994): 1-21.

Strayer, Robert W. Ways of the World: A Global History with Sources. Boston, MA: Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2011.

Wolf, Ken. Personalities and Problems: Interpretive Essays in World Civilizations. 3rd ed. Vols 1 & 2. New
York: McGraw Hill. 2005.

Wood, Ethel. Multiple-Choice and Free Response Questions with DBQ in Preparation for the AP World History
Examination. New York: D & S Marketing Systems Inc. 2004.

Other works of historical interpretation used in the course are taken from the historians’
articles in Reilly. See course outline below for specific examples.
Quantitative sources:

Christian, David. Tables and Graphs in Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History.

National Endowment for the Humanities. “Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database.”

Other works of historical interpretation used in the course are taken from a variety of
sources. See course outline below for specific examples.
The Five Themes of AP World History





Theme 1 – Interaction between humans and the environment
Theme 2 – Development and Interaction of Cultures
Theme 3 – State-building, expansion and conflict
Theme 4 – Creation, expansion and interactions of Economic Systems
Theme 5 – Development and transformation of social structures
Historical Thinking Skills Developed and Assessed in this Course:

Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical Evidence
o Historical Argumentation
o Appropriate Use of Historical Evidence

Chronological Reasoning
o Historical Causation
o Patterns of Continuity and Change Over Time
o Periodization

Comparison and Contextualization

Historical Interpretation and Synthesis
Course Schedule
Period I – Technological and Environmental Transformations to 600 B.C.E.



Key Concept 1.1.
Key Concept 1.2.
Key Concept 1.3.
5% (2 weeks)
Big Geography and the Peopling of the Earth
The Neolithic Revolution and Early Agricultural Societies
The Development and Interactions of Early Agricultural, Pastoral and
Urban Societies
Sources




Bentley & Ziegler, Excerpts from Ch. 1-6
Guns, Germs and Steel, Episode 1: “Out of Eden”
Hammurabi’s Code
Epic of Gilgamesh
Selected Activities/Assessments



Analyze Jared Diamond’s argument in Guns, Germs and Steel and compare the development of
agricultural societies in Eurasia, the Americas, and Oceania.
Analyze maps of early human migrations and of the early core and foundational civilizations.
THEME 3 EXPLORATION: Case Study of the early states of Mesopotamia. Students will
analyze each of the following: geography, state-building, weaponry, transportation, architecture
and urban planning, arts and artisanship, cuneiform, laws, religious beliefs, local and regional
trade networks, gender and social hierarchy, and literature. Includes analysis of Hammurabi’s
Code and the Epic of Gilgamesh as primary sources
Period II – Organization and reorganization of Human Societies, 600 B.C.E to 600
weeks)



Key Concept 2.1.
Key Concept 2.2.
Key Concept 2.3.
C.E.15% (6
The Development and Codification of Religious and Cultural Traditions
The Development of States and Empires
Emergence of Transregional Networks of Communication and Exchange
Sources






Bentley & Ziegler, Excerpts from Ch. 7-12
Images of sculptures of Buddha from Gandhara
Diamond, Jared. Collapse. (Excerpts)
Rig Veda
Ramayana
Images of classical architecture
Selected Activities/Assessments

Analyze and compare classical religions in a roleplaying “talk show” activity, emulating religious
figures and worshippers, including Moses, a Hindu god, the Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tsu, and
Jesus Christ, Socrates/ Aristotle, Zoroastrian, an ancestor venerator and an animist, and
discussing events in the codification and/or development of these religions, and various issues
such as core beliefs, positions on political and military conflict, position on suffering and the
afterlife, gender roles, and cultural traditions.

Analyze and compare secondary sources from a variety of classical cultures, including Greek
plays, Indian epics, art and architecture from Greece, Rome, India, China, and Mesoamerica,
emphasizing cultural diffusion including Greek sculpture on India and Daoist influence on
Chinese poetry.

THEME 3 EXPLORATION: Analyze a map of the major classical states and empires,
leading to a comparison of the Achaemenid Empire, Qin and Han Empires, Maurya and Gupta
Empires, Greek city-states, Roman Empire, Teotihuacan and Mayan city states, and Moche in
terms of political structures, military techniques, economic networks, social and gender
structures, agricultural infrastructures.

Essay: Analyze similarities and differences in techniques of imperial administration and
techniques of military projection in two of the following empires: Han China, Imperial Rome,
and Maurya/Gupta India.

Complete ESPRIT chart on the Roman Empire (including Constantinople). This chart requires
the students to analyze of the Economic, Social, Political, Religious, Intellectual and Technical
characteristics of the Roman Empire.

Interpretation of diverse historical perspectives: Read, compare, and evaluate Jared Diamond’s
thesis in Collapse with Arnold Toynbee’s thesis in A Study of History over factors are primary
factors in the collapse of societies, and application of those theories to the cases of the Roman
Empire, Han Empire, Persian Empires, Mauryan Empire, and Gupta Empires.

Essay: Analyze continuities and changes in the cultural and political life of one of the following
societies: Chinese, Roman, or Indian.

Read and discuss the development and importance of new transportation technologies and
economic incentives for long-distance trade.

THEME 1 EXPLORATION: Mapping activity of the classical trade routes, including
Eurasian Silk Roads, Trans-Saharan caravans, Indian Ocean sea trade, and Mediterranean Sea
trade. Maps will include migration, exchange of technology, religious and cultural beliefs, food
crops, domesticated animals, and disease pathogens.

Document Based Question Essay: Analyze the responses to the spread of Buddhism in China.
Using available sources, students will identify intended audience, author’s point of view, type of
source, and argument/tone.
Period III: Regional and Transregional Interactions, c. 600 C.E. to 1450

Key Concept 3.1.


Key Concept 3.2.
Key Concept 3.3.
20% (7 weeks)
Expansion and Intensification of Communication and Exchange
Networks
Continuity and Innovation of State Forms and Their Interactions
Increased Economic Productive Capacity and Its Consequences
Sources









Bentley & Ziegler chapters 13 -22
Stearns, Peter: “Comparing Feudalisms”
Aslan, Reza No God But God ( Selected Excerpts)
The Sundiata
Video: “Mongols; Storm From the East”
Video: “The Day The Universe Changed: Printing Transforms Knowledge”
Guzman, Gregory, “Were the Barbarians a Negative or Positive Factor in Ancient and Medieval
History?
Reilly, Kevin. Worlds of History, a Comparative Reader. 3rd ed., Bedford/St. Martin's. 2009.
Maps (in text)

Images of mosque architecture in Cordoba, and Timbuktu.
Selected Activities/Assessments


Simulation: Silk Roads Game II
In this activity students explore the advantages and difficulties of long distance trade as well as the
emergence of large trade cities such as Samarkand.
o
Students will identify key luxury goods traded along the Silk Roads as well as innovations
such as caravan organization, minting of coins, bills of exchange and the use of horses.

Mapping Activity: Students will map Mediterranean Sea, Trans Saharan Africa, Indian Ocean,
Mesoamerican and Andean trade routes.

2009 CCOT Essay: Analyze continuities and changes in patterns of interactions along the Silk Roads
from 200 B.C.E. to 1450 C.E. Connect these changes and continuities to global context, e.g., rise of
Islam, improved maritime technologies, rise of new empires.

2008 CCOT Essay: Analyze the changes and continuities in Indian Ocean region from 650 C.E to
1750 C.E.

2011 C&C Essay: Analyze similarities and differences in the rise of two of the following empires:



A West African Sudanic empire (Mali or Ghana or Songhay)
The Aztec Empire
The Mongol Empire

THEME 1 EXPLORATION: Venn Diagram Activity: Compare and contrast the migrations and
environmental impacts of Bantu speaking peoples and Polynesian peoples, including the diffusion of
language.

Class Discussion: Muslims throughout the Old World: The significance of the travels of Ibn Battuta
and Zheng He.

Class Discussion: Impacts of technological innovations in age of regional and transregional
interactions such as the printing press and military technology which aid in the spread of ideas,
beliefs and the expansion of empires.

ESPRIT analysis charts on Ming China and the Byzantine Empire
o
This chart requires the students to analyze of the Economic, Social, Political, Religious,
Intellectual and Technical characteristics of Ming China and the Byzantine Empire.

Analyze the causes and effects of Islamic expansion in various world regions.

Considering the evidence: The Black Death and Religion from Western Europe (images and selected
readings from Strayer)

Class Discussion: Belief Systems and the State: Chinese Empires and the Byzantine Empire

Read and analyze excerpts from Peter Stearns comparing European and Japanese Feudal systems.

Venn Diagram: Forms of Islamic rule in the Delhi Sultanates and the Swahili Coast.

CCOT Chart: Persian foundations in new Islamic Empires.

Lecture: Emerging state systems in Mesoamerica and South America.

Mapping Activity: Utilizing the same map…
Students will note the diffusion of technological innovations and cultural transfers from 600
C.E to 1450 C.E
o Students will note the spread of disease pathogens including the Black Plague
o Students will note the various Germanic, Mongol and Islamic invasions leading to the
decline of urban areas and agricultural productivity in different regions of the world.
COT Analysis: Impacts of agricultural and climate change form 600 C.E. to 1450 C.E.
o


Cause and Effect Chart: Urbanization in different regions of the world. (Includes analysis of the
Hanseatic League)

Jigsaw Activity: Forms of labor organization
o

Working in groups students will describe, analyze and evaluate the impacts one of the
following forms of labor organization…
 Free peasant agriculture
 Nomadic pastoralism
 Craft production and guild organization
 Various forms of coerced and unfree labor (e.g. serfdom, Mita)
 Government imposed labor taxes
 Military obligations
Confucian Scavenger Hunt (Textbook): Continuities and Changes over Time in Confucian Views on
Gender and the Family.

Lecture: Chinese Peasant Revolt

Periodization discussion: What separates the era of Regional and Transregional Interactions (600
C.E.-1450C.E. from earlier and later eras of study?
Period IV: Global Interactions 1450 to 1750



Key Concept 4.1.
Key Concept 4.2.
Key Concept 4.3.
20% (7 weeks)
Globalizing Networks of Communication and Exchange
New Forms of Social Organization and Modes of Production
State Consolidation and Imperial Expansion
Sources













Textbook Chapters 23-28
Nzinga Mbemba from Basil Davidson, trans.
Guns, Germs, and Steel, Part Two: Conquest (DVD)
Christopher Columbus from Journal of the First Voyage to America Christopher Columbus Native American
Account of Cortés’s Conquest from Miguel Leon-Portilla in The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest
of Mexico
Amerigo Vespucci from The Letters of Amerigo Vespucci trans. by Clements R. Markham Martin
Strayer textbook
Luther’s 95 Theses
John Locke: Two Treatises on Government
Montesquieu: On the Spirit on Laws
Hobbes: Leviathan
Rousseau: Social Contract
McNeill: Of Rats and Men
Empires of Faith (DVD)
Selected Activities/Assessments

CCOT Essay: Students will write an essay that addresses the changes and continuities of new
global trade networks in the regions of Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Sahara, and overland Eurasia.

Map Activity: Class will discuss the new technological developments in cartography and navigation
and map the earth and diffusion of technologies around the world.

Jigsaw Activity: Students will research and present information to the class pertaining to the new
transoceanic maritime reconnaissance of their assigned region. Regions will include China,
Portugal, Spain, Vikings, Oceania/Polynesia and English.

THEME 4 EXPLORATION: Class discussion: Students will discuss the new economies and
trade networks created by exploration and the impact of exploration on native populations.

Map Activity: Students will illustrate on a map the goods, animals, products, economic ideas, and
diseases circulated between regions of the world.

Essay: Document Based Question, 2006. Analyze the social and economic effects of the global
flow of silver from the mid-16th century to the early 18th century. Using available sources, students
will identify intended audience, author’s point of view, type of source, and argument/tone.

Chart Analysis: Discuss the benefits of the introduction of global foods on native populations and
native environments

Comparative Essay: Compare the impact of European exploration on the environment of the
Americas and Oceania.

Case study on religions: Students will analyze documents pertaining to the spread of religion (i.e.
Islam and Christianity) and the development of syncretic and new religions.

Short Answer: The later Middle Ages was a period of great intellectual and artistic achievement
marked by what is often called the renaissance. What was the renaissance, and what were some of
its most important and lasting cultural and artistic achievements?

Periodization Discussion: Does the label “Renaissance” apply to members of the lower classes in
late medieval Europe? Are there other “Renaissances” in other parts of the world? If so, how might
this change our understanding of this term as a marker of a particular period in time?

Debate: Who was Christopher Columbus – hero or villain? Students will use primary sources listed
(see Supplemental Readings) to develop arguments for their case. Students will create a historical
argument, use relevant historical evidence, interpret, and synthesize data about Columbus to arrive at
a well-reasoned conclusion.

THEME 5 EXPLORATION: Comparative Essay: Compare and Contrast any two coercive
systems of labor: Caribbean Slavery, Slavery in the English North American colonies, Slavery in
Brazil, Spanish Mita system in South America, West African slavery, Muslim slavery in South West
Asia, India Hindu castes, or East European serfdom.

Contextualization activity: students will utilize the NEH website on transatlantic slave voyages to
connect this phenomena with specific circumstances in broader regional, national, and global
processes.

CCOT Essay: Students will write an essay analyzing the changes and continuities in the social
and political class systems the South and North America, China, Japan, or India.

Essay: Compare the process of empire-building of one European and one Afro-Asiatic empire (gunpowder empire): France, Portugal, Spain, England, Holland, Russia, Austria or Prussia, Ottoman
Empire, Safavid Empire, Mughal Empire, Ming (Chinese) Empire, West African Forest State, West
African Sahel State, Japan Shogunate

THEME 2 EXPLORATION: Essay: Analyze the changes and continuities in commerce in the
Indian Ocean region from 650 CE to 1750 CE

Essay: Trace the intellectual and artistic transformation from 600 to 1750 in any one region: East
Asia; South Asia; Southwest Asia, Western Europe; Eastern Europe

Class Discussion: Describe the disparities among the various social classes in European urban
society between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Who were the bourgeoisie? What conditions
did the poorer classes endure?

DBQ Essay. Art, Architecture, Tribute and Human Sacrifice: The Sources of Aztec Power.
o




Sources will include but not be limited to archeological and anthropological evidence,
images, literary sources, etc. Using available sources, students will identify intended audience,
author’s point of view, type of source, and argument/tone.
Contextualization:
o The Building of The Ottoman Empire
 Students will analyze the impacts of each of the following in creating a lasting
empire.
 Gunpowder technologies
 Territorial Expansion
 Systems of Taxation
 Bureaucratic Elites
 Janissaries
 Trade and trade networks
Mapping Activity: Land Based Empires
o Ottoman Empire
o Qing Empire
o Mughal Empire
o Russian Empire
Mapping Activity: Maritime Empires
o Portuguese
o Spanish
o Dutch
o French
o British
Historical Argument: Thesis Practice
o To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: The seven years war
should be considered the first “World” war.
 Responses to the above prompt must discuss…
 Competition over trade routes
 State rivalries
 Local resistance to state consolidation and expansion
Period V: Industrialization and Global Integration, 1750 to 1900




Key Concept 5.1.
Key Concept 5.2.
Key Concept 5.3.
Key Concept 5.4.
Industrialization and Global Capitalism
Imperialism and Nation—State Formation
Nationalism, Revolution and Reform
Global Migration
20% (7 weeks)
Sources












Bentley & Ziegler, Excerpts from Ch. 29-33
The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
The United States Declaration of Independence
Gandhi (DVD)
Karl Marx, Communist Manifesto
Jomo Kenyatta, Gentlemen of the Jungle
Rudyard Kipling, White Man’s Burden
The English Bill of Rights
Toussaint L’Ouverture, Letter to the Directory
Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative
Testimony for the Factory Act 1833
Símon Bolivar, Jamaican Letter
Selected Activities/Assessments

THEME 2 EXPLORATION: Analyze the factors that led to the origins, spread, and
changes of industrialization (i.e. transportation, textile manufacturing, and sources of energy)
in Western and Eastern Europe, United States, Russia, and Japan.

Case Study of Metals: Students will analyze the impact of metal acquisition and how it
affected native populations and industrial societies. Students will look at charts, graphs, and
primary sources to research the impact on both populations.

THEME 4 EXPLORATION: Comparison of Smith and Mill: Students will compare the
ideas of Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill and their ideological impact on global financial
institutions, businesses, and economies

Analyze the reactions to industrialization: Students will research and present various
alternative responses to industrialization. Topics will include: socialism, government
resistance (Qing and Ottoman), state-sponsored visions, and legislative measures for
improvement of conditions for industry

DBQ: students will read a variety of primary sources and write a DBQ to understand
socioeconomic impact of industrialization. Using available sources, students will identify
intended audience, author’s point of view, type of source, and argument/tone.

Venn Diagram: Compare the motives for imperialism and implementation of policies by the
British and Dutch

Read and discuss the imperialism impacted state formation and/or isolation. Discussion will
center around United States, Russia, Japan, and the Ottomans

Discussion: How did the spread of Social Darwinism in the 19th century influence
justifications for European imperialism?

DBQ: students will analyze a series of primary sources to learn the political, social, and
economic conditions that led to political revolutions in Europe and the Americas. Primary
sources include above mentioned sources, but are not limited to the above. Using available
sources, students will identify intended audience, author’s point of view, type of source, and
argument/tone.

Read and discuss the rise and global diffusion of Enlightenment thinkers and their ideas. Example
ideas to discuss are, but are not limited to, role of religion, women’s suffrage, abolition of slavery and
serfdom, and reformists movements in imperialized regions of the world.

Read and discuss primary documents covering the issues of liberalism, socialism, communism, and
feminism and their impact on changes in political ideologies.

CCOT: Students will write a CCOT analyzing the actions and reactions of large-scale migration
within populations in Southeast Asia, Africa, or the Caribbean.

THEME 5 EXPLORATION: Essay: Trace the demographic shift from 1450 to 1914 in any one
region: Latin America, Western Europe, North America, Sub-Saharan Africa, or East Asia; or, Trace
the changes and continuities in world trade from 1450 to 1914 CE in any one of the following
regions: Latin America, North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southwest Asia, SubSaharan Arica, South Asia, East and Southeast Asia.
Period VI: Accelerating Global Change and Realignments, 1900 – Present



20% (7 weeks)
Key Concept 6.1. Science and the Environment
Key Concept 6.2. Global Conflicts and Their Consequences
Key Concept 6.3. New Conceptualizations of Global Economy, Society and Culture
Sources








Bentley & Ziegler, Excerpts from Ch. 34-40
Selected posters from World War One
Sandor John, Steven, “Including Africa and Latin America in Teaching the Cold War” in Special Focus:
Teaching About Twentieth Century Latin America and Africa in World History
Johnson, David, and Anne Wohlcke. “Introducing the Cold War World 1943-1989.” Twentieth Century
World History: Lessons in World History.
Selected artifacts about attitudes about nuclear power and weaponry, including Duck and Cover
2011 AP World history Free Response Questions
Selected cultural artifacts in sports, film, and music
Barber, Benjamin. Jihad vs. McWorld.
Selected Activities/Assessments

Interpret selected posters from WWI. Analyze the images for their point of view and purpose.

Essay: Compare and contrast the impact and consequences of World War I on any two regions:
East Europe, Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa.

Essay: Analyze major changes and continuities in nationalist ideology and practice in ONE of
the following regions listed below from 1850 to the present: Middle East, Southeast Asia, and
Sub-Saharan Africa.

Case Study: the Atom in World History. Analyze the new scientific paradigms, advances, and
collaborations necessary for the development of nuclear power, and the political ‘fallout’ of
nuclear weapons in World War II, the Cold War, and the post-Cold War world.

Read and analyze medicine and medical challenges of the 20th century, including the persistence
of diseases associated with poverty, diseases emerging as new epidemics, and the medical
innovations that have responded, and the demographic effects associated with these changes.

Fishbowl Discussion: Africa and Latin America in the Cold War, by Sandor John. Includes
analysis of primary sources by Kennedy, Khrushchev, Allende, Lumumba, and postal stamps
and thesis-building activities.

Compare and contrast the causes and consequences of the dissolution of Eastern empires
(Qing, Ottoman, Russian) with Western empires (British, French, Portuguese).

Document Based Question Essay: analyze the causes and consequences of the Green
Revolution in the period from 1945 to the present. (2011 DBQ) Documents apply lessons,
findings and methods from environmental science to history.

Create a timeline analyzing the changes and continuities of government and NGO/IGO
policies of intervention in response to the changing economy, including the emergence of
MNCs, 1900 to present.

Read and analyze new problems regarding humans’ relationship with the environment, including
overpopulation, global warming, pollution, species extinction, and the changing attitudes toward
the environment.

Evaluate Benjamin Barber’s argument about democracy in a world of balkanization and
globalization in Jihad vs. McWorld. Applies lessons from the discipline of political science findings
to history.

Synthesize a variety of primary sources to create generalizations about the diffusion of popular
and consumer culture, including sports, music, and film throughout the world in the 20th
century.