AP World History: Modern

Learning objectives

• Analyze the causes, routes, and effects of Silk Road trade networks on the societies they connected
• Evaluate the role of monsoon winds, maritime technology, and merchant diasporas in Indian Ocean commerce
• Explain the impact of trans-Saharan trade on the rise of West African states like Mali and Ghana
• Assess how trade networks facilitated the spread of religions, diseases, technologies, and cultural practices
• Trace how the Black Death traveled along trade routes and compare its effects across Afro-Eurasia

Learning objectives

• Compare methods of imperial administration -- bureaucracies, tax systems, legal codes -- across land-based empires
• Analyze how rulers used religion, art, and architecture to legitimize and consolidate power
• Evaluate how empires managed ethnic and religious diversity through policies like the Ottoman millet system and Mughal religious tolerance
• Explain the economic foundations and military innovations of gunpowder empires
• Assess the internal and external pressures that challenged imperial stability by the 18th century

Learning objectives

• Analyze the causes and consequences of European maritime exploration including technological, economic, and religious motivations
• Evaluate the biological, economic, and cultural impacts of the Columbian Exchange on all connected hemispheres
• Explain the development, scale, and effects of the Atlantic slave trade on African, American, and European societies
• Assess how colonial systems -- encomienda, plantation, mercantilism -- transformed indigenous societies and global economics
• Compare European colonial models in the Americas and analyze indigenous and African resistance to colonial rule

Learning objectives

• Analyze how Enlightenment ideas about natural rights and popular sovereignty inspired political revolutions across the Atlantic world
• Compare the causes, processes, and outcomes of the American, French, Haitian, and Latin American revolutions
• Evaluate the role of social class, race, and gender in shaping who benefited from revolutionary movements
• Explain how the Industrial Revolution transformed economies, family structures, and labor conditions in Britain and beyond
• Assess the connections between political revolution and industrial change as mutually reinforcing forces

Learning objectives

• Analyze the relationship between industrialization, technological superiority, and the new imperialism of the 19th century
• Evaluate the social, environmental, and human consequences of industrialization in both industrializing and colonized nations
• Explain how nationalism reshaped political boundaries through unification movements and independence struggles
• Assess reform and resistance movements -- from labor organizing to anti-colonial revolt -- across the globe
• Compare the experiences of colonizers and colonized peoples using primary and secondary sources

Learning objectives

• Analyze the interconnected causes of World War I including imperialism, nationalism, militarism, and alliance systems
• Evaluate the rise of totalitarian regimes -- fascism, Nazism, Stalinism -- and how they mobilized entire societies
• Explain the causes, global scope, and consequences of World War II including the Holocaust and atomic warfare
• Assess the impact of total war on civilians, colonial subjects, and the global balance of power
• Compare how different societies experienced and remember the world wars using diverse source perspectives

Learning objectives

• Analyze the origins, ideological foundations, and global reach of the Cold War
• Evaluate decolonization movements across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East and the challenges new nations faced
• Explain the role of proxy wars, nuclear deterrence, and espionage in Cold War geopolitics
• Assess the significance of the Non-Aligned Movement and third-world solidarity as alternatives to Cold War binaries
• Trace how the end of the Cold War reshaped global power structures and created new conflicts

Learning objectives

• Analyze the causes and effects of economic globalization including free trade, multinational corporations, and financial interconnection
• Evaluate the role of technology -- from container shipping to the internet -- in accelerating global interconnection
• Explain environmental challenges like climate change and resource depletion in a globalized world
• Assess movements resisting or reshaping globalization, from anti-globalization protests to economic nationalism
• Synthesize the entire course by tracing long-term patterns of trade, migration, and cultural exchange from 1200 to the present