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AP World History:
An Introduction
Four Historical Thinking Skills
Skill 1: Crafting Historical Arguments
from Historical Evidence
Skill 2: Chronological Reasoning
Skill 3: Comparison and
Contextualization
Skill 4: Historical Interpretation and
Synthesis
Skill 1: Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical
Evidence
Historical argumentation
Historical thinking involves the ability to define and frame a question about the
past and to address that question by constructing an argument. A plausible and
persuasive argument requires a clear, comprehensive and analytical thesis,
supported by relevant historical evidence—not simply evidence that supports a
preferred or preconceived position. Additionally, argumentation involves the
capacity to describe, analyze and evaluate the arguments of others in light of
available evidence.
Appropriate use of relevant historical evidence
Historical thinking involves the ability to identify, describe and evaluate evidence
about the past from diverse sources (including written documents, works of art,
archaeological artifacts, oral traditions and other primary sources), with respect to
content, authorship, purpose, format and audience. It involves the capacity to
extract useful information, make supportable inferences and draw appropriate
conclusions from historical evidence while also understanding such evidence in
its context, recognizing its limitations and assessing the points of view that it
reflects.
Skill 2: Chronological Reasoning
Historical causation
Historical thinking involves the ability to identify, analyze and evaluate multiple
cause-and-effect relationships in a historical context, distinguishing between the
long-term and proximate. Patterns of continuity and change over time
Historical thinking involves the ability to recognize, analyze and evaluate the
dynamics of historical continuity and change over periods of time of varying
lengths, as well as relating these patterns to larger historical processes or themes.
Periodization
Historical thinking involves the ability to describe, analyze, evaluate and
construct models of historical periodization that historians use to categorize
events into discrete blocks and to identify turning points, recognizing that the
choice of specific dates favors one narrative, region or group over another
narrative, region or group; therefore, changing the periodization can change a
historical narrative. Moreover, the particular circumstances and contexts in
which individual historians work and write shape their interpretations and
modeling of past events.
Skill 3: Comparison and Contextualization
Comparison
Historical thinking involves the ability to describe, compare and evaluate
multiple historical developments within one society, one or more
developments across or between different societies, and in various
chronological and geographical contexts. It also involves the ability to
identify, compare and evaluate multiple perspectives on a given historical
experience.
Contextualization
Historical thinking involves the ability to connect historical developments to
specific circumstances in time and place, and to broader regional, national or
global processes.
Skill 4: Historical Interpretation and Synthesis
Interpretation
Historical thinking involves the ability to describe, analyze, evaluate and create
diverse interpretations of the past — as revealed through primary and
secondary historical sources — through analysis of evidence, reasoning,
contexts, points of view and frames of reference.
Synthesis
Historical thinking involves the ability to arrive at meaningful and persuasive
understandings of the past by applying all the other historical thinking skills,
by drawing appropriately on ideas from different fields of inquiry or
disciplines, and by creatively fusing disparate, relevant (and perhaps
contradictory) evidence from primary sources and secondary works.
Additionally, synthesis may involve applying insights about the past to other
historical contexts or circumstances, including the present.
Five Course Themes
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 Interaction of Economic
Systems
Theme 5: Development and Transformation of Social Structures
Theme 1: Interaction Between Humans and the Environment
• Demography and disease
• Migration
• Patterns of settlement
• Technology
Theme 2: Development and Interaction of Cultures
• Religions
• Belief systems, philosophies, and ideologies
• Science and technology
• The arts and architecture
Theme 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
Theme 4: Creation, Expansion, and Interaction of Economic
Systems
• Agricultural and pastoral production
• Trade and commerce
• Labor systems
• Industrialization
• Capitalism and socialism
Theme 5: Development and Transformation of Social
Structures
• Gender roles and relations
• Family and kinship
• Racial and ethnic constructions
• Social and economic classes
Six Chronological Periods
*Course themes and key concepts studied within time periods
Period 1: Technological and Environmental Transformations,
to c. 600 BCE
Key Concept 1.1 Big Geography and the Peopling of the
Earth
Key Concept 1.2 The Neolithic Revolution and Early
Agricultural Societies
Key Concept 1.3 The Development and Interactions of
Early Agricultural, Pastoral, and Urban
Societies.
Period 2: Organization and Reorganization of Human
Societies, c. 600 BCE-c. 600 CE.
Key Concept 2.1 The Development and Codification of
Religious and Cultural Traditions
Key Concept 2.2 The Development of States and
Empires
Key Concept 2.3 Emergence of Transregional Networks
of Communication and Exchange.
Period 3: Regional and Transregional Interactions, c. 600
to c. 1450 CE.
Key Concept 3.1 Expansion and Intensification of
Communication and Exchange Networks
Key Concept 3.2 Continuity and Innovation of State
Forms and Their Interactions
Key Concept 3.3 Increased Economic Productive Capacity
and Its Consequences.
Period 4: Global Interactions, c. 1450 to c. 1750.
Key Concept 4.1 Globalizing Networks of
Communication and Exchange
Key Concept 4.2 New Forms of Social Organization and
Modes of Production
Key Concept 4.3 State Consolidation and Imperial
Expansion
Period 5: Industrialization and Global Integration,
c. 1750 to c. 1900.
Key Concept 5.1 Industrialization and Global
Capitalism.
Key Concept 5.2 Imperialism and Nation-State
Formation.
Key Concept 5.3 Nationalism, Revolution, and
Reform.
Key Concept 5.4 Global Migration
Period 6: Accelerating Global Change and Realignments,
c. 1900 to present.
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, & Culture.
Habits of Mind
The AP World History course addresses habits of mind
in two categories: (1) those addressed by any rigorous
history course, and (2) those addressed by a world
history course.
Four habits of mind are in the first category:
• Constructing and evaluating arguments: using
evidence to make plausible arguments
• Using documents and other primary data: developing
the skills necessary to analyze point of view and
context, and to understand and interpret information
• Assessing continuity and change over time and over
different world regions
• Understanding diversity of interpretations through
analysis of context, point of view, and frame of
reference
Five habits of mind are in the second category:
• Seeing global patterns and processes over time and
space while connecting local developments to global
ones
• Comparing within and among societies, including
comparing societies' reactions to global processes
• Considering human commonalities and differences
• Exploring claims of universal standards in relation to
culturally diverse ideas
• Exploring the persistent relevance of world history to
contemporary developments
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)