A P World History
Syllabus
Kingston High School
AP World History is for the exceptionally studious high school student who wishes to
earn college credit in high school through a rigorous academic program. This class
approaches history in a nontraditional way in that it looks at the common threads of
humanity over time—trade, religion, politics, society, and technology—and it
investigates how these things changed and continued over time in different places.
Program Objectives:





I will acquire fundamental and advanced knowledge of World political, social,
economic, geographic and intellectual history.
I will develop mastery of the process skills: analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and
critical reading necessary for mastery of World History.
I will develop the ability to recognize the significance of change over time and cause
and effect.
I will develop historically accurate interpretation of world events.
I will develop the ability to think and reason analytically as demonstrated through
essay and expository writing.
Specifically, the following AP World History themes will be used throughout the
course to identify these broad patterns and processes that explain change and
continuity over time.
The Six AP World History Themes:
1. The relationship of change and continuity from 8000 BCE to the present.
2. Impact of interaction among and within major societies.
3. Impact of technology, economics, and demography on people and the
environment.
4. Systems of social structure and gender structure.
5. Cultural, religious, and intellectual developments.
6. Changes in function and structures of states and in attitudes toward states and
political identities, including the emergence of the nation-state.
Main Textbook:
Jerry H. Bentley, Herbert F. Ziegler. Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on
the Past. 3rd ed. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2006.
Document Reader: Kevin Reilly, Raritan Valley College, Worlds of History: A
Comparative Reader, Vol. 1&2, 3rd ed.
Outside Reading and Resources used in the course:
AP World History Released Exams (College Board)
2002-2007 AP World History Essay Questions, Rubrics and Student Samples (AP
Central)
Cracking The AP World History Exam: Student Study Guide (Princeton Review, 2006)
Elements of Literature: World Literature; Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Harcourt
Education Company, 2006
Things Fall Apart by Achebe (Anchor, 1994)
Nectar in Sieve by Markandaya (Signet Classic, 1954)
The Underdogs by Azuela (Signet Classic, 1963)
In the Time of the Butterflies by Alvarez (Plume, 1995)
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Diamond (Norton, 2005)
Document-Based Assessment Activities for Global History Classes by Noonan (J.,
Weston Walch, 1999)
DBQ Practice: 10 AP-Style DBQs, Williams, ed., (Social Studies School Services, 2004)
Unit One: Foundations—c. 8000 BCE to 600 CE
1. World History in Place and Time
a. Interactions of geography and climate with the development of human
society
b. Major population changes resulting from human and environmental
factors
c. Nature and causes of changes
d. Continuities and breaks within the course—what “works” and doesn’t
2. Developing Agriculture and Technology
a. Agricultural, pastoral, and foraging societies and their characteristics
b. Emergence of agriculture and other technological change
c. Nature of villages
d. Effects of agriculture on the environment and peoples
3. Basic Features of Early Civilizations in Different Environments
a. Political and social structures of: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus, Shang,
Mesoamerican and Andean South America
4. Classical Civilizations
a. Major political developments in China, India, and the Mediterranean
b. Social and gender structures
c. Major trading patterns within and among Classical civilizations
d. Arts, sciences, and technology
5. Major Belief Systems
a. Basic features of major world belief systems prior to 600 CE
b. Physical place of each belief systems by 600 CE: Polytheism,
Hinduism, Judaism, Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, Christianity
6. Late Classical period (200 CE to 600 CE)
a. Collapse of empires (Han, Western Roman Empire, Gupta)
b. Movements of peoples (Huns, Germans)
c. Interregional networks by 600 CE: Trade and religious diffusion
Unit Two: 600 -1450
1. The Islamic World
a. The rise and role of Dar al-Islam in Eurasia and Africa
b. Islamic political structures
c. Arts, sciences, and technologies
2. Interregional networks and contacts
a. Development and shifts in interregional trade, technology, and cultural
exchange: Trans-Sahara trade, Indian Ocean trade, Silk routes
b. Missionary outreach of major religions
c. Contacts between major religions, e.g., Islam and Buddhism, Christianity
and Islam
d. Impact of the Mongol empires
3. China’s Expansion
a. The Tang and Song economic revolutions and the early Ming dynasty
b. Chinese influence on surrounding areas and its limits
4. Developments in Europe
a. Restructuring of European economic, social, and political institutions
b. The division of Christendom into eastern and western cultures
5. Social, Cultural, Economic, and Political Patterns in the Amerindian World:
a. Maya, Aztec, Inca
6. Demographic and Environmental Changes
a. Causes and effects of the nomadic migrations of Afro-Eurasia
b. Bantu migrations
c. Consequences of plague in the fourteenth century
d. Growth and role of cities
Unit Three: 1450-1750
1. Changes in Trade, Technology and Global Interactions
2. Knowledge of Major Empires and Other Political Units and Social Systems
a. Ottoman, China, Portugal, Spain, Russia, France, England, Tokugawa,
Mughal
b. African empires: Kongo, Benin, Oyo, Songhay
c. Gender and empire
3. Slave Systems and Slave Trade
4. Demographic and Environmental Changes:
a. Diseases, animals, new crops, and comparative population trends
5. Cultural and Intellectual Developments
a. Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
b. Comparative global causes and effects of cultural change
c. Changes and continuities in Confucianism
Unit Four: 1750-1914
1. Changes in Global Commerce, Communications, and Technology
a. Changes in patterns of world trade
b. Causes and effects of the Industrial Revolution: political, economic,
social, and environmental
2. Demographic and Environmental Changes
a. Migrations, end of the Atlantic slave trade, new birthrate patterns; food
supply
3. Changes in Social and Gender Structure, Especially as related to the Industrial
Revolution
4. Political revolutions and independence movements and new political ideas
a. Revolutions in the United States, France, Haiti, Mexico, China, Latin
America
b. Rise of nationalism, nation-states, and movements of political reform
c. Rise of democracy and its limitaions
5. Rise of western Dominance
a. Imperialism
b. Cultural and political reactions
Unit five: 1914-1990s
1. Wars and Diplomacy
a. The World Wars, Holocaust, Cold War, international organizations
b. Globalization of diplomacy and conflict
c. Reduction of European influence
d. League of Nations, United Nations, European Union, non-aligned nations
2. Patterns of Nationalism
a. Decolonization: its political, economic, and social causes and effects
b. Genocide
c. Rise and fall of the USSR
3. Effects of Major Global Economic Developments
a. The Great Depression: Political, social and economic causes and effects
b. Developments of the Pacific Rim and multinational corporations
4. Social Reforms and Social Revolutions:
a. Changing gender roles; family structures; rise of feminism
b. Marxism in its various forms
5. Globalization of Science, Technology and Culture
a. Developments in global cultures and regional reactions
b. Patterns of resistance against technology
6. Demographic and Environmental Changes
a. Migrations, explosive population growth
b. New forms of urbanization; deforestation; environmental movements
Assessments:
Quizzes:
Homework:
On readings from each chapter of Bentley
Assigned readings from various sources, Historical map
assignments, Outline and Essay writing practice.
Tests:
Midterm and Pre AP Exam Final (this will simulate the
actual AP Exam)
In place of a term paper students will create an AP World
History-style DBQ and sample response
DBQ Project: