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AP World History: Modern

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AP World History: Modern covers roughly 1200 CE to the present in nine units - the global tapestry of societies around 1200, networks of exchange, land-based empires, transoceanic connections, revolutions, the consequences of industrialisation, global conflict, the Cold War and decolonisation, and globalisation.

The scale is global, and so is the thinking. Questions rarely ask about one country alone. They ask you to compare regions, trace a network across continents, or explain why a similar pressure produced different outcomes in different places.

Themes carry across the whole course: governance, economic systems, cultural developments, social interactions and organisation, technology and innovation, and humans and the environment. Each topic names the theme it belongs to, which is the fastest way to see how distant units connect.

Learn processes, not just events. Trade networks, state formation, industrialisation and migration are processes with causes, mechanisms and effects - and that structure is what written answers are built on.

The notes below follow the College Board framework unit by unit, with the key concepts and the illustrative examples the framework itself offers.

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Past Papers
  • 1

    The Global Tapestry

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    • 1.1 Reading the World in 1200
    • 1.1 East Asia
    • 1.2 Dar al-Islam
    • 1.3 South and Southeast Asia
    • 1.4 1.5 The Americas and Africa
    • 1.6 Europe
    • 1.7 Comparison in the Period
    • 1.7 Worked example: a short-answer question
    • 1.7 Exam tips
  • 2

    Networks of Exchange

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    • 2.1 What Made the Networks Grow
    • 2.1 The Silk Roads
    • 2.2 The Mongol Empire
    • 2.3 The Indian Ocean
    • 2.4 Trans-Saharan Trade
    • 2.5 2.6 Cultural and Environmental Consequences
    • 2.7 Comparison of Economic Exchange
    • 2.7 Worked practice
    • 2.7 Worked example: a short-answer question
    • 2.7 Exam tips
    • 2.7 Sources and demand grounding
  • 3

    Land-Based Empires

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    • 3.1 How the Land Empires Expanded
    • 3.2 Administration
    • 3.3 Legitimacy and Belief
    • 3.4 Comparison in Land-Based Empires
    • 3.4 Worked example: a short-answer question
    • 3.4 Exam tips
  • 4

    Transoceanic Interconnections

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    • 4.1 4.2 Why Europeans Sailed
    • 4.3 The Columbian Exchange
    • 4.4 Maritime Empires Established
    • 4.5 4.7 Maritime Empires Maintained
    • 4.6 Internal and External Challenges
    • 4.8 Continuity and Change from 1450 to 1750
    • 4.8 Worked example: a short-answer question
    • 4.8 Exam tips
  • 5

    Revolutions

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    • 5.1 The Enlightenment
    • 5.2 Nationalism and Revolution
    • 5.3 The Industrial Revolution Begins
    • 5.4 5.5 Industrialisation Spreads
    • 5.6 5.7 5.8 Government, Economy, and Reaction
    • 5.9 Society in the Industrial Age
    • 5.10 Continuity and Change in the Industrial Age
    • 5.10 Worked example: a short-answer question
    • 5.10 Exam tips
  • 6

    Consequences of Industrialization

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    • 6.1 Justifying Empire
    • 6.2 State Expansion
    • 6.3 Resistance
    • 6.4 6.5 The Global Economy
    • 6.6 Migration
    • 6.7 Effects of Migration
    • 6.8 Causation in the Imperial Age
    • 6.8 Worked example: a short-answer question
    • 6.8 Exam tips
    • 6.8 Sources for this lesson
  • 7

    Global Conflict

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    • 7.1 Shifting Power After 1900
    • 7.2 Causes of World War I
    • 7.3 Conducting World War I
    • 7.4 Economy in the Interwar Period
    • 7.5 Unresolved Tensions After World War I
    • 7.6 Causes of World War II
    • 7.7 Conducting World War II
    • 7.8 Mass Atrocities After 1900
    • 7.9 Causation in Global Conflict
    • 7.9 Worked example: a short-answer question
    • 7.9 Exam tips
  • 8

    Cold War and Decolonization

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    • 8.1 Setting the Stage for the Cold War
    • 8.2 The Cold War
    • 8.3 Effects of the Cold War
    • 8.4 Spread of Communism After 1900
    • 8.5 Decolonization After 1900
    • 8.6 Newly Independent States
    • 8.7 Global Resistance to Established Power Structures
    • 8.8 End of the Cold War
    • 8.9 Causation in the Age of the Cold War
    • 8.9 Worked practice
    • 8.9 Worked example: a short-answer question
    • 8.9 Exam tips
    • 8.9 Sources and demand grounding
  • 9

    Globalization

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    • 9.1 Advances in Technology and Exchange
    • 9.2 Technological Advances and Limitations: Disease
    • 9.3 Debates About the Environment
    • 9.4 Economics in the Global Age
    • 9.5 Calls for Reform and Responses
    • 9.6 Globalized Culture
    • 9.7 Resistance to Globalization
    • 9.8 Institutions in a Globalized World
    • 9.9 Continuity and Change in a Globalized World
    • 9.9 Worked example: a short-answer question
    • 9.9 Exam tips

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