AP World History

Unit of Study Outline

600 C.E. – 1450 C.E.

600 C.E. to 1450 C.E.

What students are expected to know:

 Major Developments

1.      Questions of Periodization

a.       Nature and causes of changes in the world history framework leading up to 600 C.E. – 1450 C.E. as a period

b.      Emergence of new empires and political systems

c.       Continuities and breaks within the period (e.g., the impact of the Mongols on international contacts and on specific societies)

2.      The Islamic World

a.       The rise and role of Dar al-Islam as a unifying cultural and economic force in Eurasia and Africa

b.      Islamic political structures, notable the caliphate

c.       Arts, sciences, and technologies

3.      Interregional networks and contacts

a.       Development and shifts in interregional trade, technology, and cultural exchange

                                     i.      Trans-Saharan trade

                                     ii.      Indian Ocean trade

                                     iii.      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

4.      China’s internal and external expansion

a.       The importance of the Tang and Song economic revolutions and the initiatives of the early Ming dynasty

b.      Chinese influence on surrounding areas and its limits

c.       Arts, sciences, and technologies

5.      Developments in Europe

a.       Restructuring of European economic, social, and political institutions

b.      The division of Christendom into eastern and western Christian cultures

6.      Social, cultural, economic, and political patterns in the Amerindian world

a.       Maya

b.      Aztec

c.       Inca

7.      Demographic and environmental changes

a.       Impact of nomadic migrations on Afro-Eurasia and the Americas (e.g., Aztecs, Mongols, Turks, Vikings, and Arabs)

b.      Consequences of plague pandemics in the fourteenth century

c.       Growth and role of cities (e.g., the expansion of urban commercial centers in Song China and in the Aztec Empire)

8.      Diverse interpretations

a.       What are the issues involved in using cultural areas rather than states as units of analysis?

b.      What are the sources of change:  nomadic migrations versus urban growth?

c.       Was there a world economic network in this period?

d.      Were there common patterns in the new opportunities available to and constraints placed on elite women in this period?

Major Comparisons and Snapshots

·        Compare Japanese and European feudalism

·        Compare developments in political and social institutions in both eastern and western Europe

·        Analyze the role and function of cities in major societies

·        Compare Islam and Christianity

·        Analyze gender systems and changes, such as the impact of Islam

·        Compare Aztec Empire and Inca Empire

·        Compare European and sub-Saharan African contacts with the Islamic world

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:

• Arab caliphate, but not the transition from Umayyad to Abbasid
• Mamluks, but not Almohads
• Feudalism, but not specific feudal monarchs such as Richard I
• Manorialism, but not the three-field system
• Crusading movement and its impact, but not specific crusades
• Viking exploration, expansion, and impact, but not individual explorers
• Mongol expansion and its impact, but not details of specific khanates
• Papacy, but not particular popes
• Indian Ocean trading patterns, but not Gujarati merchants