AP World History

The Five Themes of AP World History

HISTORICAL THEME

DESCRIPTION
A)

#1Interaction b/w Humans & the

Environment
Demography & Disease
Migration
Patterns of settlement
Technology
#2Development & Interaction of
Cultures
Religions
Belief systems, philosophies, and ideologies
Science and technology
The arts and Architecture

#3State Building, Expansion, & Conflict

Political Structures and forms of Governance
Empires
Nations and Nationalism
Revolts and Revolutions
Regional, transregional, and global structures
and organizations

#4Creation, Expansion & Interaction of

Economic Systems
Agricultural & pastoral production
Trade and commerce
Labor systems
Industrialization
Capitalism & Socialism
#5Development & Transformation of
Social Structures
Gender roles and relations
Family and kinship
Racial and ethnic constructions
Social and economic classes

How the environment shaped human societies

1. Prehistoryhumans interacted with the environment as hunters, fishers and foragers, and human migrations led to the peopling of the earth.
2. Environmental factors such as rainfall patterns, climate, and available flora and fauna shaped the methods of exploitation used in different regions
B) How human societies also affected the environment
1. Neolithic revolutionhumans exploited their environments more intensively, either as farmers or pastoralists
2. Human exploitation of the environment intensified as populations grew and as people migrated into new regions.
3. Growth of population and citiesemergence and spread of new disease
4. Industrial Revolutionenvironmental exploitation increased exponentially.
5. Modernityincreased manipulation and exploitation of environment (more sophisticated technologies, the exploitation of new energy sources
and a rapid increase in human populations)
6. 20th centuryemergence of the green to protect and work with natural world instead of exploiting it
A) Development of culture
1. Origins, uses, dissemination, and adaptation of ideas, beliefs, and knowledge within and between societies.
2. Dominant belief system(s) or religions, philosophical interests, and technical and artistic approaches
B) Interaction of Cultures
1. Shared components of cultures, deliberately or not.
2. Cultural blendingadopting or adapting new belief and knowledge systems
3. Comparisonwhat is unique to a culture and what is shared with other cultures.
4. Analyze and trace particular cultural trends or ideas across human societies
A) Hierarchal systems of rule
1. Construction and maintenance of
2. Conflicts generated through those processes.
B) Compare various forms of state development and expansion
1. various productive strategiesagrarian, pastoral, mercantile
2. various cultural and ideological foundationsreligions, philosophies, ideas of nationalism
3. various social and gender structures & different environmental contexts
C) Continuity and change
1. Organizational and cultural foundations of long-term stability vs. internal and external causes of conflict
2. Types of stateskingdoms, empires, nation-states, autocracies and constitutional democracies
D) Interstate relations
1. Warfare & diplomacy
2. Commercial and cultural exchange
3. Formation of international organizations.
A) Development of Economic Systems
1. Diverse patterns and systems developed through exploitation of the environment
2. Diverse patterns and systems to produce, distribute, and consume desired goods and services across time and space.
B) Transitions in human economic activity
1. Growth and spread of agricultural, pastoral, and industrial production
2. Development of various labor systems associated with these economic systemsdifferent forms of household management and the use of
coerced or free labor)
3. Ideologies, values, and institutionscapitalism and socialism
C) Patterns of trade and commerce between societies
1. Relationship between regional and global networks of communication and exchange
2. Effects on economic growth and decline.
3. Influence cultural and technological diffusion, migration, state formation, social classes, and human interaction with the environment.
A) Social stratification
1. Distinctions based on kinship systems, ethnic associations, and hierarchies of gender, race, wealth, and class.
2. Processes through which social categories, roles, and practices were created, maintained, and transformed.
3. Connections between changes in social structures and other historical shiftstrends in political economy, cultural expression, and human
ecology.