Lonnie Barnes
AP World History 2014-2015
Montgomery High School, Montgomery, Texas
AP World History is designed to provide students with the skills and information needed to analyze the experiences of cultures and individuals across time and geographic space.
To accomplish this, students will learn how to:
A. Craft historical arguments from primary documents by writing essays that reflect the AP World
History course themes
B. Read for analysis and write interpretations of the political, social and economic patterns that develop in each period of World History
C. Compare cultures across place and time and analyze local events, placing them in proper historical context (Contextualization)
D. Analyze historical interpretations made over time and synthesize these and other interpretations into coherent written arguments
Analysis of primary documents with emphasis on discovering Point Of View (POV) will be a major focus of student skill development. By the exam in May, students will be able to place major figures, events and movements from around the globe into a broader historical contexts.
The AP World History curriculum is organized around five themes designed to serve as unifying threads throughout the course. The goal of these themes is for students to relate events and societies across and within time periods to a larger understanding of human history. These five themes also help students compare and analyze continuities and changes over time.
The APWH Themes:
SOCIAL – Development and transformation of social structures
• Gender roles and relations
• Family and kinship
• Racial and ethnic constructions
• Social and economic classes
POLITICAL
– State-building, expansion, and conflict
• Political structures and forms of governance
• Empires
• Nations and nationalism
• Revolts and revolutions
• Regional, trans-regional, and global structures and organizations
ENVIRONMENTAL
– Interaction between humans and the environment
• Demography and disease
• Migration
• Patterns of settlement
• Technology
CULTURAL – Development and interaction of cultures
• Religions
• Belief systems, philosophies, and ideologies

• Science and technology
• The arts and architecture
ECONOMIC – Creation, expansion, and interaction of economic systems
• Agricultural and pastoral production
• Trade and commerce
• Labor systems
• Industrialization
• Capitalism and socialism
Student mastery of content of historical knowledge and synthesis of historical patterns will be assessed by frequent reading quizzes based on assigned textbook readings ( consisting of multiple choice questions), tests after every 2-3 chapters (also multiple choice questions) and by peer-graded APstyle essay writing assignments. In the essay section of the examination, the Document Based
Question (DBQ) asks students to construct historical arguments using primary documents, group the documents into logical categories, and analyze point of view. The Continuity and Change Over Time
(CCOT) essay asks students to analyze patterns of human behavior over periods of history. The
Comparative essay requires students to analyze similarities and differences in various civilizations in history.
 Strayer, Robert. Ways of the World, with Resources, Bedford/St. Martins, New York, 2011
• Bulliet, Richard W., et al. The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History - AP Edition (3rd Edition)
Houghton Mifflin, New York, 2001
• Bentley, Jerry H. & Herbert F. Ziegler Traditions & Encounters (2nd Edition) McGraw Hill, New York,
2003
• Hansen, Valerie & Kenneth Curtis Voyages in World History Wadsworth, Boston, 2010
• McKay, John P. et al. A History of World Societies (8th Edition) Bedford/St. Martin’s, New York, 2009
• Spodek, Howard The World’s History (3rd Edition) Pearson/Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ,
2006
• Stearns, Peter N. et al. World Civilizations: The Global Experience (4th Edition) Pearson Longman,
New York, 2005
Primary Source Reader
Students will analyze primary sources (documents, images, maps) and analyze quantitative sources of graphs, charts, and tables in:
• Andrea, Al and Overfield, Ken, et al. The Human Record (Volumes 1 & 2) Houghton Mifflin, New York,
2005
Other resources:
• Johnson, Oliver A. Sources of World Civilization (Volume 1) Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ,
2000
• Kishlansky, Mark A. Sources of World History (Volumes 1 & 2) West/Wadsworth, Belmont, CA, 1999
• Schwartz, Stuart B. et al. The Global Experience: Readings in World History (Volumes 1 & 2)
Longman, New York, 1997
• Stearns, Peter N. et al. Documents in World History (Volumes 1 & 2) Longman, New York, 2003
• Stearns, Peter N. World History in Documents New York University Press, New York, 1998
• Wiesner, Merry E. et al. Discovering the Global Past (Volumes 1 & 2) Houghton Mifflin, New York,
2002
• Document Based Questions released by the College Board from AP World History exams







• Textual o The Judgments of Hammurabi on Marriage and the Family o Chinggis Khan, “Letter to Changchun” o “Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen”
• Visual o “Images along the Silk Road” from The Human Record o “Three images of Buddha” from The Human Record
• Quantitative o Charts from 2003 released DBQ including: “Selected Intercontinental Flows of Indentured or
Contract Labor, Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries” and “Former Slaves and Asian Indians in Mauritius, 18351891” o Chart from 2008 released DBQ: “Fees Paid to the International Olympic Committee from Media
Sources, 19802000”
Secondary Sources
Students will read and analyze specific selections chosen from among the following representative list:
 Archaeology magazine, 2003 —present



The Columbian Exchange Crosby Praeger 2003
Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World Kurlansky Penguin, New York, 1998
Cracking the APWH Exam (Student Study Guide) 2011, Princeton Review


Crash Course in APWH (Student Study Guide) 2011, REA Publishers
Cultures in Motion: Mapping Key Contacts and Their Imprints in World History Stearns. Yale
Press, 2001
Experiencing World History Adams, Paul V. et al. New York University Press New York, 2000
Guns, Germs and Steel Diamond, Jared W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1999
King Leopold’s Ghost Hochschild Mariner 1999
Longitude Sobel Walker & Company New York 2007
Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces 1997
Old World Encounters Bentley Oxford press, 1993



Rand McNally Historical Atlas of the World 2003
Readings in Ancient History: From Gilgamesh to Diocletian Bailkey DC Heath, 1992
Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the 20th Century World JR
McNeill Norton 2000
Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy Gaardner Berkley Press 1996 
 Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants and Intoxicants Schivelbusch
Vintage books, 1993
Technology in World Civilizations Pacy M.I.T. Press 1998 


Things Fall Apart Achebe Anchor 1994
The World That Trade Created Pomeranz, Kenneth & Steven Topik M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY,
2006
Period One: Technological and Environmental Transformations, to c. 600 BCE

Key Concepts
1.1 Big Geography and the Peopling of the Earth
1.2 The Neolithic Revolution and Early Agricultural Societies
1.3 The Development and Interactions of Early Agricultural, Pastoral and Urban
Societies
Topics for Overview:
• Hunting-gathering bands
• Transition from hunting and gathering to Agriculture and/or Pastoralism
• Development of Early Civilizations in the Middle East, Africa, East Asia, South Asia,
The Americas, & Oceania
Topics for Special Focus


The spread of agriculture at different times around the world
Issues Regarding the term, “Civilization”
 Beginnings of counting and writing systems
Activities and Skill Development
• The summer reading assignment is Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy.
Students will complete a reading guide based on the novel and turn in on the first day of class.
 The class will engage in a discussion on the impact the physical landscape has had on human migration and cultural diffusion. Students will analyze how geography affected the political, social, and economic development of early civilizations in:
Mesopotamia, Egypt, South Asia, East Asia, Oceania, Mesoamerica, and the Andes.
• Students will create charts comparing political, social, and economic developments in Mesopotamia, Egypt, South Asia, East Asia,
Mesoamerica, and the Andes.
• The students will identify and analyze the causes and consequences of the Neolithic
Revolution in the major river valleys as well as Papua New Guinea using selections from Guns, Germs, and Steel .
• Students will discuss changes in social and political roles as a result of the rise of agriculture.
 Students will review the generic rubrics of the DBQ, CCOT and Comparative essay questions and read essays and scoring rationales found at apcentral.collegeboard.com
 Students will write a “Personal CCOT” essay in which they discuss changes and continuities in their family from age 5 to 15, using the generic CCOT rubric as a guide.
Period Two: Organization and Reorganization of Human Societies, c. 600 BCE to c. 600 CE
Key Concepts
2.1 The Development and Codification of Religious and Cultural Traditions
2.2 The Development of States and Empires
2.3 Emergence of Transregional Networks of Communication and Exchange
Topics for Overview
• Major Belief Systems of the era
• Classical Civilizations of Eurasia and the Americas
• Early Trading Networks in Eurasia and the Americas
Topics for Special Focus
• World Religions in Historical Context:



Daoism and Confucianism
Judaism and Christianity
Hinduism and Buddhism
Confucianism ’s influence in society and government in China
Bantu migrations
Activities and Skill Development
• Comparison Essay: Analyze the similar and different roles played by major belief systems in establishing social hierarchy in Gupta India and Han China.
• In small groups, students will evaluate the causes and consequences for the decline of
Classical Empires in the Mediterranean, South Asia, and East Asia respectively.
Groups will present their information to compare the causes and consequences of the declines of
Classical Empires
• Groups will present information on the major belief systems focusing on: origins, beliefs, and diffusion
 Students will go on a virtual field trip to Museums of Fine Arts, Online to view and write their impressions of classical Greek, Roman and Mayan art and artifacts
Period Three: Regional and Transregional Interactions, c. 600 CE to c. 1450 CE
Key Concepts
3.1 Expansion and Intensification of Communication and Exchange Networks
3.2 Continuity and Innovation of State Forms and Their Interactions
3.3 Increased Economic Productive Capacity and Its Consequences
Topics for Overview
• Byzantine Empire, Dar-al-Islam, and the Germanic States
• Crusades
• Sui, Tang, Song, and Ming Dynasties
• Delhi Sultanate
• The Americas: Andean, Mesoamerican and Mississippian cultures
• The Turkish Empires
• Italian City-States
• Kingdoms and Empires in Africa—focus: Sudanic kingdoms
• The Mongol Khanates
• Indian Ocean, Trans-Saharan, American and Silk Roads Trading Networks
Topics for Special Focus
• Islam and Its Spread
• Swahili Coast
• Empires in the Americas: Aztec and Inca
• The Growth and Role of Cities in the Post-Classical World



Heian Court, Japan
Foot binding practices in China
Sinification of Korea, Japan and Vietnam
Activities and Skill Development
• Students will read selections from Travels in Africa and Asia 1325-1354 by Ibn
Battuta. Students will place it in the historical context of the spread of Islam to Sub-Saharan Africa and analyze the author’s social points of view.
• Students will discuss how the practice of Islam was affected by the geographic, cultural, and social contexts of Dar Al-Islam from 700 to c.1450 CE.
• Students will discuss the theories of linguists and anthropologists in tracing the migrations of Bantu and Polynesian speakers.

• Students will respond to the following essay prompt from the 2009 APWH CCOT Question:
Analyze the continuities and changes in the commercial life of the Indian Ocean region from c. 200 BCE to 1450 CE.
• Students will read selections from The Pillow Book and watch a clip from
CNN’s Millennium series and compare life in the Heian court to Western society in the early 21 st century.
 Students will write a comparison essay analyzing similarities and differences in
Japanese and European feudalism of this era.
• Students will debate this periodization topic: Is 1450 is an appropriate cut-off point for the
Post-Classical Period or is another date more appropriate?
Key Concepts
4.1 Globalizing Networks of Communication and Exchange
4.2 New Forms of Social Organization and Modes of Production
4.3 State Consolidation and Imperial Expansion
Topics for Overview
• Ming and Qing Dynasties in China
• Japanese Shogunates
• The first global trading networks
• Effects of the Columbian Exchange
Topics for Special Focus
• Three Islamic Empires: Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal
• The Columbian Exchange and European colonization of the Americas, Oceania, South Africa and South Asia
• Slave trade in the Atlantic World
• Racial ideologies in the Colonial Americas
• Changes in Western Europe – political, economic and social roots of “The Rise of the West”
Activities and Skill Development
• Students will write an essay evaluating the causes and consequences of European contact and colonization in the Americas.
• Using their laptops, students will create powerpoint presentations and peer-teach transformations brought about in the Americas as a result of the Columbian Exchange.
• Comparison Essay: Compare the historical processes of empire building in the
Spanish maritime empire during the period 1450 to 1800 with the historical processes of empire building in one of the following land-based empires: The Ottoman Empire or The Russian Empire. (2007 Comparative Question)
• Students will compare the development in racial ideologies in colonial Latin America with the development of racial ideologies in colonial British North America.
• Students will debate whether 1450, 1453, 1492 or 1498 is an appropriate beginning to the period.
 Students will read “Collision at Cajamarca” from Guns, Germs and Steel and analyze social and political causes of the Incan defeat at the hands of Pizarro’s conquistadors.
 Students will research graphs of population charts in the Americas after the arrival of Europeans and analyze the demographic effects of disease epidemics
Key Concepts
5.1 Industrialization and Global Capitalism
5.2 Imperialism and Nation-State Formation
5.3 Nationalism, Revolution, and Reform

5.4 Global Migration
Topics for Overview
• The Age of Revolutions: American Revolution, French Revolution, Haitian
Revolution, and Latin American Independence Movements
• Global Transformations: End of the Atlantic Slave Trade, Industrial Revolution and
Its Impact, Rise of Nationalism, Imperialism and Its Impact on the World
Topics for Special Focus
• Comparison of the French Revolution and the Latin American Wars of Independence
• Global political, social and economic effects of the Industrial Revolution
• Decline of Imperial China and Rise of Imperial Japan
• Imperialism and its effects in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia
Activities and Skill Development
• Students will read the “Declaration of the Rights of Man” and Simon Bolivar’s
“Jamaica Letter,” and analyze the arguments of both documents.
• Utilizing a series of documents, charts, and maps in the released DBQ about indentured servitude in the 19th and 20th centuries (2003), students will assess the connections between abolition of plantation slavery and increased migrations from
Asian countries to the Americas.
• Students will analyze maps of imperial expansion in Asia and Africa and identify the long-term political ramifications of said expansion
• Students will compare the role of Australian policies in displacing native Australian
Aborigines to the role of United States’ policies in displacing Native Americans
• Students will debate whether 1900 or 1914 is a more-appropriate end-point for this era.
 Students will analyze letters, diaries and songs from young women who worked in cloth and silk factories in Japan.
 DBQ Project: In teams of 2, students will research documents and create a DBQ based on a list of APWH essay prompts provided by the teacher
Key Concepts
6.1 Science and the Environment
6.2 Global Conflicts and Their Consequences
6.3 New Conceptualizations of Global Economy, Society, and Culture
Topics for Overview
• Crisis and Conflict in the Early 20th Century: Anti-Imperialism Movements, Global Wars,
Russian Revolution, Mexican Revolution, Chinese Revolutions, Great Depression,
Rise and fall of Militaristic & Fascist Societies
• Internationalization: Decolonization, the Cold War, International Organizations, the


Post-Cold War World, Globalization and their effects
Topics for Special Focus
• World War I and World War II: Political, Economic and Social Causes and Consequences around the globe, particularly Oceania, Asia, Latin America and Europe.
• Global causes and Consequences of the Great Depression
• Development of communism in Russia and China and fascism in Italy, Spain and Germany
• Decolonization movements in Africa, Latin America and Asia
Global resurgence of democracies and free markets after the 1980s
Economic and political unity movements: WTO, EU, NAFTA

Activities and Skill Development
• Students will write a Comparison Essay on this topic: Compare effects of
World War I in countries outside Europe up to 1939.
• Students will write a DBQ analyzing the causes and consequences of the Green Revolution
• CCOT Essay: Analyze continuities and changes in nationalist ideology and practice in one of the following regions from the First World War to the present: Middle East,
Southeast Asia, or Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Students debate the positive and negative consequences of the rapid advances in science during the 20 th century.
• Students will compare the role local elites played in the decolonization movements in
Latin America, Asia and Africa.
• Students research and present an example of global popular culture in the 20th century (e.g., Elvis,
“The Twist”, The Beatles, James Bond)
• Students will debate whether 1989 marks a turning point in global history.
 Students will take memory quizzes on the generic rubrics of each of the 3
APWH essay formats: DBQ, CCOT and Comparative.
 Students will work in groups to develop review materials for their class in preparation for the APWH exam in May.
 Students will write a comparative essay on major pandemics of the 20 th and early 21 st centuries