Download AP World History 2 year course

AP World History
2 year course
Mountain Empire High School
Mrs. Nichols
In AP World History you will develop a greater understanding of the evolution of global processes and
contacts including interactions and connections over time. The course highlights the nature of changes in
international frameworks and their causes and consequences, as well as comparisons among major
societies. AP World History is a 9-10th grade class but it is taught as a college-level introductory course
to World History. Expectations, curriculum, reading difficulty and class behavior norms are similar to
what is expected for freshmen in college. An hour of homework per night is normal. This class is only for
self-motivated, curious, hardworking students who already have self-discipline. It is not for students
who show promise but don’t apply themselves. If you know that you have reading difficulties or cannot
make the time commitment, maybe this class is not a good fit. The reading level is quite high and
students can’t just get by on what is covered in class.
Periodization in AP World History:
Foundations 8000 CE – 600 CE
600 – 1450
1450 – 1750
1750 – 1914
1914 – present
Objectives, Themes, and “AP World History Habits of the Mind or Skills”
Objectives:
1. To study world history by using a mixed chronological and thematic approach
2. To understand the influence of geography upon history
3. To see cause and effect relationships over time and across civilizations
4. To understand similarities and differences between and among world civilizations
5. To recognize major turning points in world history
6. To understand the difference between primary and secondary sources
7. To improve thesis development and writing skills
8. To encourage interest and understanding of global lifestyles, views and cultures
Themes
The AP World History course requires students to engage with the dynamics of continuity and change
across the historical periods that are included in the course. Students should analyze the processes and
causes involved in these continuities and changes. In order to do so, students should focus on FIVE
overarching themes which serve throughout the course as unifying threads, helping students to put
what is particular about each period or society into a larger framework. The themes also provide ways to
make comparisons over time and facilitate cross-period questions. Each theme should receive
approximately equal attention over the course of the year.
1. Interaction between humans and the environment
• Demography and disease
• Migration
• Patterns of settlement
• Technology
2. Development and interaction of cultures
• Religions
• Belief systems, philosophies, and ideologies
• Science and technology
• The arts and architecture
3. State-building, expansion, and conflict
• Political structures and forms of governance
• Empires
• Nations and nationalism
• Revolts and revolutions
• Regional, transregional, and global structures and organizations
4. Creation, expansion, and interaction of economic systems
• Agricultural and pastoral production
• Trade and commerce
• Labor systems
• Industrialization
• Capitalism and socialism
5. Development and transformation of social structures
• Gender roles and relations
• Family and kinship
• Racial and ethnic constructions
• Social and economic classes
“AP World History Habits of the Mind or Skills”
The AP World History course addresses habits of mind or skills in two categories:
1) those addressed by any rigorous history course,
2) those addressed by a world history course.
Four habits of mind are in the first category:
1. Constructing and evaluating arguments: using evidence to make plausible arguments
2. Using documents and other primary data: developing the skills necessary to analyze point of
view and context, and to understand and interpret information
3. Assessing continuity and change over time and over different world regions
4. Understanding diversity of interpretations through analysis of context, point of view, and frame
of reference
Five habits of mind are in the second category:
1. Seeing global patterns and processes over time and space while connecting local developments
to global ones
2. Comparing within and among societies, including comparing societies’ reactions to global
processes
3. Considering human commonalities and differences
4. Exploring claims of universal standards in relation to culturally diverse ideas
5. Exploring the persistent
Every part of the AP World History Exam assesses habits of mind as well as content. For example, in the
multiple-choice section, maps, graphs, artwork, and quotations may be used to judge students’ ability to
assess primary data, while other questions focus on evaluating arguments, handling diversity of
interpretation, making comparisons among societies, drawing generalizations, and understanding
historical context. In Part A of the essay section of the exam, the document-based question (DBQ)
focuses on assessing students’ ability to construct arguments, use primary documents, analyze point of
view and context, and understand global context. The remaining essay questions in Parts B and C focus
on global patterns over time and space with emphasis on processes of continuity and change (Part B)
and on comparisons within and among societies (Part C).
Texts
Text: Ways of the World: A Global History, Robert W. Strayer, Bedford/St.Martin’s, Boston,
2009
Additional Text: AP* World History: An Essential Coursebook Ethel Wood, Woodyard Publications, 2008
A variety of other primary and secondary sources will be used during the course. Check the my website
for electronic versions of those sources or links to relevant websites.
Purpose and Organization of Course Activities
The two year AP World History for 9th and 10th graders is the equivalent of a college-level survey course
in world history. Like college students, you are expected to read the assigned pages in the textbook as
listed in the unit calendars and take notes in the charts and types of
graphic organizers provided by the teacher. In designing this course, we have aimed to help you gain the
higher-order thinking skills you will need to be successful. For example, almost every day in class we
will analyze primary sources both texts and visuals. This primary source analysis will help you directly
with the tasks required for the Document-Based Question (DBQ) essay on the exam, but the daily use of
historical materials also will help you practice using evidence to make plausible arguments. You also will
become expert at identifying point of
view, context, and bias in these sources. The course includes extensive instruction in analysis and
interpretation of a wide variety of primary sources, such as documentary material, maps, statistical tables,
works of art, and pictorial and graphic materials.
A second important habit of mind you will develop over the year is assessing issues of change and
continuity over time, including the capacity to deal with change as a process and with questions of
causation. You will constantly be keeping track of changes in history through the annotated timelines and
maps you will construct both in class and for homework in all fourteen units. Moreover, these timelines
and maps will help you see global patterns and processes over time and space while also connecting local
developments to global ones and moving through levels of generalizations from the global to the
particular. This skill will be especially useful for writing the Change Over Time essay.
About two or three times in each semester, we will conduct whole-class seminars where you will discuss
diversity of interpretations that historians present in your textbook and in other secondary sources. We
also will do simulations and debates that challenge you to address questions about human commonalities
and differences and the historical context of culturally diverse ideas and values.
As freshmen in high school, you will continue to develop the skill of comparison. You will improve that
skill by practicing comparing within and among societies, including comparing societies’ reactions to
global processes. On all of the graphic organizers, annotated timelines, and annotated maps you create
there will be directions to write a thesis statement that generalizes the data you presented. An easy thesis
statement can be simply a comparison, a statement of the similarities and differences. One essay you will
write is the comparative essay, so this skill is extremely important.
The course teaches students to analyze evidence and interpretations presented in historical scholarship.
Periodization guidelines are used to select relevant course content from 8000 bce to the present.
General Outline of Course Content
The following course outline provides information about what students are expected to know for the AP
World History Exam. The course begins with Foundations, focusing on setting the historical and
geographical context and the world historical patterns that form the basis for future developments. For
each part of the course there is an outline of Major Developments that students are expected to know
and be able to use in making comparisons across cultures. These developments and comparisons relate
to the five overarching themes previously discussed. The ordering of the developments suggests
chronology and depth of coverage. For each period after Foundations, “periodization” is the first major
task: to explain differences from the period just covered and from the period to come. For all periods,
examples of major interpretative issues, alternative historical frameworks, and historical debates are
included. Many examples of the people, events, and terms that students are expected to know and use
accurately in their work for the course and the exam appear under Major Developments in the pages
that follow. The Major Comparisons or Analyses listed here are suggested by way of example; many
other com par i sons are possible and relevant. There are also selected examples of the types of
information that students should know, in contrast to what they are not expected to know, for the
multiple choice section of the AP World History Ex am. The list is illustrative and not exhaustive, nor is it
meant to prohibit teachers and students from studying topics not included on the exam.
This outline lists the general historical periods, ideological eras, and/or geographic areas that our course
is required to cover by the AP World History program.
First and Second year Plans and Assignments, 2011-2012
World History, from 8000 B.C.E to the Present
PART I. FOUNDATIONS: C. 8000 B.C.E.–600 C.E. 18 WEEKS (19–20%)
What students are expected to know:
Subject 1: Early Peoples
How to succeed in AP World History (note taking, reading notes, group activities, debates, simulations,
etc.)
Subject 2: Neolithic Revolution/1st socieities introduction
Subject 3: Revolution in Agriculture
Subject 4: Early River Civilizations (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus, Huang He, Olmec)
Compare/Contrast Essay
Subject 5: Classical Civilizations (China, India, Mediterranean)
Subject 6: Continuity and Change Over Time Essay
C and C Essay on Chinese economy and government between Shang and Han dynasties
Period Review and Unit Test
Unit Project: Group research and presentation on major world religions (Major beliefs, figures, and
effects on world areas required, outline, works citied, visual aid, and presentation required)
Major Developments
1. Locating world history in the environment and time
1 Environment: Interaction of geography and climate with the development of human society; the
environment as historical actor
2 Demography: major population changes resulting from human and environmental factors
3 Time: Periodization in early human history; nature and causes of changes associated with the
time span; continuities and breaks within the time span; e.g., the transition from river valley
civilizations to classical civilizations
4 Diverse interpretations: What are the issues involved in using “civilization” as an organizing
principle in world history? What is the most common source of change: connection or diffusion
versus independent invention? What was the effect of the Neolithic Revolution on gender
relations?
2. Developing agriculture and technology
1 Agricultural, pastoral, and foraging societies and their demographic characteristics (Africa, the
Americas, Europe, and Asia)
2 Emergence of agriculture and technological change
3 Nature of village settlements
4 Impact of agriculture on the environment
5 Introduction of key stages of metal use
3. Basic features of early civilizations in different environments: culture, state, and social structure. In
addition, students should know enough about two early civilizations to compare them:
1 Mesopotamia
2 Egypt
3 Indus Valley or Harrapan civilization
4 Shang or Huang He (Yellow River) valley civilization
5 Mesoamerica and Andean South America
4. Classical civilizations
1 Major political developments in China, India, the Mediterranean, and Mesoamerica
2 Social and gender structures
3 Major trading patterns within and among classical civilizations; contacts with adjacent regions
4 Arts, sciences, and technology
5. Major belief systems: Basic features and locations of major world belief systems prior to 600 C.E.
1 Polytheisms
2 Hinduism
3 Judaism
4 Confucianism
5 Daoism
6 Buddhism
7 Christianity
6. Late classical period (200 C.E.–600 C.E.)
8 Collapse of empires/states (Han China, western portion of the Roman Empire, Gupta)
9 Movements of peoples (Bantu, Huns, Germans, Polynesians)
10 Interregional networks by 600 C.E.: trade and the spread of religions
Major Comparisons and Analyses: Examples
11 Compare major religious and philosophical systems including some underlying similarities in
cementing a social hierarchy, e.g., Hinduism contrasted with Confucianism
12 Compare the role of women in different belief systems—Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism,
and Hinduism
13 Understand how and why the collapse of empire was more severe in western Europe than it was
in the eastern Mediterranean or in China
14 Compare the caste system to other systems of social inequality devised by early and classical
civilizations, including slavery
15 Compare societies that include cities with pastoral and nomadic societies
16 Compare the development of traditions and institutions in major civilizations, e.g., Indian,
Chinese, and Greek/Roman
17 Describe interregional trading systems, e.g., the Silk Roads
18 Compare the political and social structures of two early civilizations:
19 Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley, Shang, and Mesoamerica and Andean South America
20 Analyze the role of technologies in the growth of large state structures
Examples of the types of information students are expected to know contrasted with examples of
what students are not expected to know for the multiple-choice section:
21 Nature of the Neolithic revolution, but not characteristics of previous stone ages, e.g.,
Paleolithic and Mesolithic
22 Economic and social results of the agricultural revolution, but not specific dates of the
introduction of agriculture to specific societies
23 Nature of patriarchal systems, but not specific changes in family structure within a single region
24 Importance of the introduction of bronze and iron, but not specific inventions or implements
25 Political structure of classical China (emperor, bureaucracy), but not specific knowledge of
dynastic transitions, e.g., from Qin to Han
26 Greek approaches to science and philosophy, including Aristotle, but not details about other
specific philosophers
27 Diffusion of major religious systems, but not the specific regional forms of Buddhism or Aryan or
Nestorian Christianity
PART II. 600 C.E.–1450 18 WEEKS (22%)
What students are expected to know:
Subject 6: New Empires (Africa and Americas)
Subject 7: Cultural Connections politics and culture; inter-regional trade and networks (Silk Trade)
Subject 8: Golden Age of China
Han/Rome DBQ 2007
Subject 9: Byzantine Empire
Compare & Contrast Essay
,Byzantine, Dark Ages Europe, MesoAmerica, Tang & Song
Subject 10: Rise of Islam as a regional influence. New Civilizations (Abbasid, Umayyad, Delhi Sultanate,
Swahili Coast, and N. Africa)
DBQ 2002 Christianity/Islam
Subject 11: Mongol & Pastoralist
Compare & Contrast Essay
Islam & Mongols as inter-connections
Unit Review and Exam
Mongol Trial Simulation with document based internet resources
Major Developments
1. Questions of periodization
1 Nature and causes of changes in the world history framework leading up to 600 C.E.–1450 as a
period
2 Emergence of new empires and political systems (e.g., Umayyad, ‘Abbasid, Byzantium, Russia,
Sudanic states, Swahili Coast, Tang, Song, and Ming China, Delhi Sultanate, Mongol, Turkish,
Aztec, Inca)
3 Continuities and breaks within the period (e.g., the effects of the Mongols on international
contacts and on specific societies)
2. The Islamic world
1 The rise and role of Dar al-Islam as a unifying cultural and economic force in Eurasia and Africa
Islamic political structures, notably the caliphate
2 Arts, sciences, and technologies
3. Interregional networks and contacts
1 Development and shifts in interregional trade, technology, and cultural exchange
2 Trans-Sahara trade
3 Indian Ocean trade
4 Silk Roads
5 Economic innovations (e.g., Tang, Song, and early Ming China, Swahili Coast trade, economic
systems in the Americas)
6 Missionary outreach of major religions
7 Contacts between major religions, e.g., Islam and Buddhism, Christianity and Islam
8 Impact of the Mongol empires
4. Political systems and cultural patterns
East Asia
1 China’s expansion
2 Chinese influence on surrounding areas and its limits (Japan, Vietnam, and Korea)
3 Change and continuities in Confucianism
The Americas
4 Apex and decline of the Maya
5 Rise of the Aztec
6 Rise of the Inca
Restructuring of Europe
1 Decentralization—medieval society
2 Division of Christianity
3 Revival of cities
Africa
4 Sudanic empires (Mali, Ghana, Songhay)
5 Swahili coast
South Asia and Southeast Asia
6 Delhi Sultanate
7 Vietnam
8 Arts, sciences, and technologies
5. Demographic and environmental changes
9 Impact of migrations on Afro-Eurasia and the Americas (e.g., Aztecs, Mongols, Turks, Vikings,
and Arabs)
10 Consequences of plague pandemics in the fourteenth century
11 Growth and role of cities (e.g., the expansion of urban commercial centers in Song China and
administrative centers in Africa and the Americas)
6. Diverse interpretations
12 What are the issues involved in using cultural areas rather than states as units of analysis?
13 What are the sources of change: nomadic migrations versus urban growth?
14 Was there a world economic network in this period?
15 Were there common patterns in the new opportunities available to and constraints placed on
elite women in this period?
16 To what extent was Dar al-Islam a unified cultural/political entity?
Major Comparisons and Analyses: Examples
17 Compare the role and function of cities in major societies
18 Analyze gender systems and changes, such as the effects of Islam
19 Analyze the interactions between Jews, Christians, and Muslims
20 Compare developments in political and social institutions in both eastern and western Europe
21 Compare Japanese and European feudalism
22 Compare European and sub-Saharan African contacts with the Islamic world
23 Analyze the Chinese civil service exam system and the rise of meritocracy
Examples of the types of information students are expected to know contrasted with examples of
what students are not expected to know for the multiple-choice section:
24 Arab caliphate, but not the transition from Umayyad to ‘Abbasid Mamluks, but not Almohads
25 Feudalism, but not specific feudal monarchs such as Richard I
26 Land management systems, but not the European three-field system
27 Crusading movement and its impact, but not specific crusades
28 Viking exploration, expansion, and impact, but not individual explorers
29 Mongol expansion and its impact, but not details of specific khanates
30 Papacy, but not particular popes
31 Indian Ocean trading patterns, but not Gujarati merchants
32 Neoconfucianism, but not the specific contribution of Zhu Xi
Part III. 1450–1750 18 WEEKS (19–20%)
What students are expected to know:
Subject 12: Changes from Age of Exploration (tech., Columbian exchange, Triangle Trade)
Subject 13: Changes in areas benefiting from colonization (Europe, Russia)
Cultural and intellectual developments (Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment, new religions)
Continuity and Change essay-Absolute vs. enlightened monarchs
Subject 13: Changes in areas losing out to colonization (Latin America, Africa, Middle East,
Asia
Comparative Essay on slavery in New World and Africa
DBQ on Silver Production and trade
Unit Review and test
Unit Projects: Colombian Exchange Activity
--lists of exchanged items and origins
--follow-up essay on predicted changes in world economy/demography
Group Research Project on Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires
--multi-part visual and presentation with outline and works cited
--follow-up comparative essay between the empires and continuity and change essay based on
Time Period 2 Muslim Empires
Major Developments
1. Questions of periodization
33 Continuities and breaks, causes of changes from the previous period and within this period
2. Changes in trade, technology, and global interactions; e.g., the Columbian Exchange, the impact of
guns, changes in ship building, and navigational devices
3. Knowledge of major empires and other political units and social systems
34 Aztec, Inca, Ottoman, China, Portugal, Spain, Russia, France, Britain,
35 Tokugawa, Mughal
36 Characteristics of African kingdoms in general but knowing one (Kongo, Benin,
37 Oyo, Dahomey, Ashanti, or Songhay) as illustrative
38 Gender and empire (including the role of women in households and in politics)
4. Slave systems and slave trade
5. Demographic and environmental changes: diseases, animals, new crops, and comparative population
trends
6. Cultural and intellectual developments
39 Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
40 Comparative global causes and impacts of cultural change (e.g., African contributions to cultures
in the Americas)
41 Major developments and exchanges in the arts (e.g., Mughal, the Americas)
42 Creation of new religions (Vodun, Zen, Sikhism, Protestantism)
7. Diverse interpretations
43 What are the debates about the timing and extent of European predominance in the world
economy?
44 How does the world economic system of this period compare with patterns of interregional
trade in the previous period?
Major Comparisons and Analyses: Examples
45 Compare colonial administrations
46 Compare coercive labor systems: slavery and other coercive labor systems in the Americas
47 Analyze the development of empire (i.e., general empire building in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the
Americas)
48 Analyze imperial systems: a European seaborne empire compared with a land-based Asian
empire
49 Compare Russia’s interaction with two of the following (Ottoman Empire, China, western
Europe, and eastern Europe)
50 Compare Mesoamerican and Andean systems of economic exchange
Examples of the types of information students are expected to know contrasted with examples of
those things students are not expected to know for the multiple-choice section:
51 Extent of Ottoman expansion, but not individual states
52 Slave plantation systems, but not Jamaica’s specific slave system
53 Institution of the harem, but not Hurrem Sultan
54 Relations between the Kongo and Portugal, but not individual rulers
55
56
57
58
Tokugawa Japan’s foreign policy, but not Hideyoshi
Importance of European exploration, but not individual explorers
Characteristics of European absolutism, but not specific rulers
Protestant Reformation, but not Anabaptism or the Huguenots
Part IV. 1750–1914 9 WEEKS (19–20%)
What students are expected to know:
Subject 14: Revolution: socio-political and economic (US, France, Haiti, Industrial
Revolution and effects)
Haitian Revolution DBQ
Subject 15: Continuing effects of European Dominance (India, Africa, Java)
British racism DBQ
Subject 16: Reaction of the world to Western Dominance-resistance (Latin America,
Muslim empires and China, Russia and Japan
Comparative and Continuity Essays on various civilizations
DBQ on Ottoman Turks
DBQ on indentured servitude
Unit review and test
Unit Projects: Brinton's Stages of Revolution
--students split each covered revolution (including Industrial) into the stages
--comparative AP essays are written based on these ideas
Haiti Revolution case study
--DBQ and essays on case study packet created as part of revolution study
Research Groups and role-play on independent Latin American countries
--Argentina, Mexico, Brazil groups will develop role-plays analyzing the changes brought about
by independence and assessing the influence of colonization on the areas
Major Developments
1. Questions of periodization
59 Continuities and breaks; causes of changes from the previous period and within this period
2. Changes in global commerce, communications, and technology
60 Industrial Revolution (transformative effects on and differential timing in different societies;
mutual relation of industrial and scientific developments; commonalities)
61 Changes in patterns of world trade
3. Demographic and environmental changes (migrations; end of the Atlantic slave trade; new birthrate
patterns; food supply; medicine)
4. Changes in social and gender structure (Industrial Revolution; commercial and demographic
developments; emancipation of serfs/slaves; tension between work patterns and ideas about gender;
new forms of labor systems)
5. Political revolutions and independence movements; new political ideas
62 United States and Latin American independence movements
63 Revolutions (France, Haiti, Mexico, China)
64 Rise of nationalism, nation-states, and movements of political reform
65 Rise of democracy and its limitations: reform; women; racism
6. Rise of Western dominance (economic, military, political, social, cultural and artistic, patterns of
expansion; imperialism, colonialism, and neocolonialism) and different cultural and political reactions
(dissent; reform; resistance; rebellion; racism; nationalism; impact of changing European ideologies on
colonial administrations)
7. Patterns of cultural and artistic interactions among societies in different parts of the world (African
and Asian influences on European art; cultural policies of Meiji Japan)
8. Diverse interpretations
1 What are the debates about the causes and effects of serf and slave emancipation in this period,
and how do these debates fit into broader comparisons of labor systems?
2 What are the debates over the nature of women’s roles in this period? How do these debates
apply to industrialized areas, and how do they apply in colonial societies?
3 What are the debates over the causes of European/British technological innovation versus
development in Asia/China?
Major Comparisons and Analyses: Examples
1 Compare the causes and early phases of the Industrial Revolution in western Europe and Japan
2 Compare the Haitian and French Revolutions
3 Compare reaction to foreign interference in the Ottoman Empire, China, India, Southeast Asia,
and Japan
4 Compare nationalism in the following pairs: China and Japan, Egypt and Italy, Pan Africanism
and the Indian Congress Movement
5 Explain forms of Western intervention in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia
6 Compare the roles and conditions of elite women in Latin America with those in western Europe
before 1850
Examples of the types of information students are expected to know contrasted with examples of
what students are not expected to know for the multiple-choice section:
1 Causes of Latin American independence movements, but not specific protagonists
2 The French Revolution of 1789, but not the Revolution of 1830
3 Meiji Restoration, but not Iranian Constitutional Revolution
4 Boxer Rebellion, but not the Crimean War
5 Suez Canal, but not the Erie Canal
6 Muhammad Ali, but not Isma’il
7 Marxism, but not Utopian socialism
8 Social Darwinism, but not Herbert Spencer
9 Women’s emancipation movements, but not specific suffragists
Part V. 1914–PRESENT 9 WEEKS (19–20%)
What students are expected to know:
Subject 17: Global War and Peace part 1 (WWI, Great Depression and effects, rise of
socialism/communism)
Subject 18: Global War and Peace part 2 (WWII, Cold War and effects, independence
movements)
Subject 19: Social Reform and Revolution; Economic and Technological Globalization and final
"World Tour" (Latin America, Africa, Asia, Middle East)
Subject 20: Period Review; Final Review of periods and essays for Semester Final
Major Developments
1. Questions of periodization
10 Continuities and breaks; causes of changes from the previous period and within this period
2. War and peace in a global context (the World Wars; colonial soldiers in the First
11 World War; the Holocaust; the Cold War; nuclear weaponry; and international organizations and
their effects on the global framework, e.g., globalization of diplomacy and conflict; global
balance of power; reduction of European influence; the League of Nations, the United Nations,
the Nonaligned Nations)
3. New patterns of nationalism (fascism; decolonization; racism, genocide; the breakup of the Soviet
Union)
4. Effects of major global economic developments (e.g., the Great Depression in Latin America;
technology; Pacific Rim; multinational corporations)
5. New forces of revolution and other sources of political innovations
6. Social reform and social revolution (changing gender roles; family structures; rise of feminism;
peasant protest; international Marxism; religious fundamentalism)
7. Globalization of science, technology, and culture
12 Developments in global cultures and regional reactions, including science and
13 consumer culture
14 Interactions between elite and popular culture and art
15 Patterns of resistance including religious responses
8. Demographic and environmental changes (migrations; changes in birthrates and death rates; new
forms of urbanization; deforestation; green/environmental movements; rural to urban shifts)
9. Diverse interpretations
16 Is cultural convergence or diversity the best model for understanding increased intercultural
contact in the modern world?
17 What are the advantages and disadvantages of using units of analysis for the modern world,
such as the nation, the world, the West, and the developing world?
Major Comparisons and Analyses: Examples
1 Compare patterns and results of decolonization in Africa and India
2 Pick two revolutions (Russian, Chinese, Cuban, Iranian) and compare their effects on the roles of
women
3 Compare the effects of the World Wars on areas outside of Europe
4 Compare legacies of colonialism and patterns of economic development in two of three areas
(Africa, Asia, and Latin America)
5 Analyze nationalist ideologies and movements in contrasting European and colonial
6
7
8
9
10
environments
Compare the different types of independence struggles
Examine global interactions in cultural arenas (e.g., reggae, art, sports)
Analyze the global effects of the Western consumer society
Compare major forms of twentieth-century warfare
Assess different proposals (or models) for economic growth in the developing world and the
social and political consequences
Examples of the types of information students are expected to know contrasted with examples of
what students are not expected to know for the multiple-choice section:
1 Effects of global wars, but not specific battles in the World Wars
2 Cultural and political transformations resulting from the wars, but not French political and
cultural history
3 Authoritarian regimes, but not Mussolini’s or Vargas’s internal policies
4 Feminism and gender relations, but not Simone de Beauvoir or Huda Shaarawi
5 The growth of international organizations, but not the history of the ILO
6 Colonial independence movements, but not the resolutions passed by the Indian National
Congress
7 The issue of genocide, but not Cambodia, Rwanda, or Kosovo
8 The internationalization of popular culture, but not the Beatles
End of Year Assessment after May AP Exam
Topics for PowerPoint Project or Film Documentary:
1) The history of conflict in Palestine/Israel--Is anyone to blame and can a solution be reached?
2) The collapse of the Soviet Union—What was the impact on the eastern European countries,
such as Germany and Poland?
3) Globalization, world energy use and crisis—What alternative sources of energy should the
world research, develop and use?
4) Global terrorism and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—How are terrorism and these wars
linked and how should the United Nations and the world respond?
5) Nuclear development and dictatorships in North Korea and Iran—How should the West and
the world respond?
6) The history of genocide, 1945-present (Note: Do not focus on the Holocaust). Has the United
Nations and the world effectively acted against such violations of human rights? You
should especially focus on “ethnic cleansing” in Bosnia and Rwanda.
7) Modern Latin American dictators, such as Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Should the United
Nations and the world respond with economic sanctions or something more?
8) The issue of guest workers and immigrants in Europe—What rights do they deserve and
should their services and numbers be limited in countries with strained economies?
9) The digital age—What is the Digital Age, and what are its products, results and dangers?
10) India Vs. Pakistan since 1947—What are some solutions to terrorism or the nuclear
standoff?
11) Other topic(s)? Please see me, with a proposed thesis statement and your preliminary
research.
Project Requirements:
PowerPoint: Twelve-fifteen (12-15) slides with an introduction and thesis statement, body,
conclusion and a bibliographic list of sources. Your thesis statement should address the
central question that I provided for your topic, and you should use a wealth of evidence to
back up your arguments. Yes, a PowerPoint presentation is a lot like a well-organized research
paper, except that it also involves the creative use of visuals, subtitles and probing questions
to get us to think! Your bibliography must contain at least five credible sources. Please see
me with questions.
Video Documentary: Basically, the same requirements as listed above, with a movie length of
5-10 minutes. Your documentary must take a clear position on the issue and use reliable
sources and images to back up your argument. Please see me with questions.
NOTE: For 2-3 weeks prior to the AP World History exam in May, I will require you to form study
groups and to create PowerPoint Jeopardy review games or other study activities on the content from
Units 1-5. We will also engage in some final skill-based activities, focusing on thesis development,
essay writing, use of higher orders of critical thinking, and effective test-taking strategies. Following
the AP exam, you will be given several projects on issues in the Contemporary World up until the last
day of school.