🌍AP World History: Modern Review
Study Guides for Every AP World History Unit
Study Guides for Every AP World History Unit
AP World History: Modern may seem like a daunting class to take with the amount of historical figures, events, and concepts covering world history from c. 1200 to the present, but worry not! These study guides will help you not only do well on the AP exam but also understand the foundations of what we see today in global politics, society as a whole, the environment, culture, economics, and technology. This post shares unit study guides specifically, but check out all of Fiveable's AP World History content.
These study guides were created by AP World teachers and students who performed well on the exam. They cover the major content and themes for each AP World History: Modern unit, but students should also practice the current historical thinking skills and exam tasks—Developments and Processes, Sourcing and Situation, Claims and Evidence in Sources, Contextualization, Making Connections, and Argumentation—especially as they apply to the SAQ, DBQ, and LEQ. The current AP World History: Modern exam is 3 hours and 15 minutes long and includes 55 multiple-choice questions, 3 short-answer questions, 1 document-based question, and 1 long essay question. After studying on your own, invite some friends to a study with me online session to discuss the main points of each unit and review anything that you may be confused on. It is a great way for everyone to feel supported when studying!
🐎 Unit 1: Global Tapestry
🔥 Quick Tip: Unit 1 is 8–10% of the exam, so prioritize the major political, cultural, and economic developments in each region and be ready to compare them across societies from c. 1200 to c. 1450.
1.0 - Overview of Unit 1
1.1 - East Asia from 1200-1450
1.2 - Dar-al-Islam from 1200-1450
1.3 - South and Southeast Asia from 1200-1450
1.4 - The Americas from 1200-1450
1.5 - Africa from 1200-1450
1.6 - Europe from 1200-1450
1.7 - Comparisons in the Period from 1200-1450
🐪 Unit 2: Networks of Exchange
🔥 Quick Tip: Know the trade networks and their impact on local and regional trade, empire-building, and cultural diffusion! Networks like the Silk Roads and the Indian Ocean allowed states and societies to interact, grow economically, and spread ideas, religions, and technologies.
2.0 - Overview of Unit 2
2.1 - Silk Roads
2.2 - The Mongols
2.3 - Indian Ocean Trade Routes
2.4 - Trans-Saharan Trade Routes
2.5 - Cultural Effects of Trade
2.6 - Environmental Effects of Trade
2.7 - Comparison of Trade from 1200-1450
🕌 Unit 3: Land-Based Empires
🔥 Quick Tip: Identify the major similarities and differences in the different empires mentioned in this unit. That way, you'll be able to make comparisons and at the same time connect how empires were built and administered during this time period (1450-1750).
3.0 - Overview of Unit 3
3.1 - Expansion of Land-Based Empires
3.2 - Governments of Land-Based Empires
3.3 - Belief Systems of Land-Based Empires
3.4 - Comparison of Land-Based Empires
🍕 Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections
🔥 Quick Tip: Understand the reasons behind the Age of Exploration, the long-term consequences of the Columbian Exchange, and the rise of maritime empires and global trade connections after 1450.
4.0 - Overview of Unit 4
4.1 - New Technologies from 1450-1750
4.2 - Exploration from 1450-1750
4.3 - Columbian Exchange
4.4 - Maritime Empires Established
4.5 - Expansion of Maritime Empires
4.6 - Resistance to European Expansion
4.7 - Class and Race from 1450-1750
4.8 - Continuity & Change from 1450-1750 (review this skill/theme within the Unit 4 overview and topic guides)
✊ Unit 5: Revolutions
🔥 Quick Tip: Don't stop at knowing what happened in each of the four main revolutions. How are they connected to each other? (Trust me, they are.) When looking at industrialization, focus on its economic, political, and social impact on societies.
5.1 - The Enlightenment
5.2 - Revolutions from 1750 to 1900
5.3 - Industrial Revolution
5.4 - Spread of Industrialization
5.5 - Technology in the Industrial Age
5.6 - State-Led Industrialization
5.7 - Economic Effects of Industrialization
5.8 - Responses to Industrialization
5.9 - Social Effects of Industrialization
🚂 Unit 6: Consequences of Industrialization
🔥 Quick Tip: Industrialization directly led to two key developments between 1750 and 1900: more imperialism and mass migrations!
6.0 - Overview of Unit 6
6.1 - Rationales for Imperialism
6.2 - Expansion of Imperialism
6.3 - Indigenous Responses to Imperialism
6.4 - Global Economic Development from 1750 to 1900
6.5 - Economic Imperialism
6.6 - Causes of Migration from 1750 to 1900
6.7 - Effects of Migration from 1750 to 1900
6.8 - Causation in the Imperial Age
💣 Unit 7: Global Conflict
🔥 Quick Tip: In Unit 7, students trace how industrialized warfare, nationalism, imperial rivalries, and alliance systems contributed to global conflict on an unprecedented scale in the 20th century.
7.1 - Shifting Power Post-1900
7.4 - Economy in the Interwar Period
7.5 - Politics in the Interwar Period
7.8 - Mass Atrocities after 1900
7.9 - Causation in Global Conflict
🥶 Unit 8:Cold War & Decolonization
🔥 Quick Tip: This unit looks like it is about economics and war, but it is so much more than that! In Unit 8, you see all kinds of contemporary conflicts and political change across the world. Focus on causes and effects, connections among events, and how Cold War competition and decolonization shaped political, economic, and social change across the 20th century.
8.4 - Spread of Communism after 1900
8.5 - Decolonization after 1900
8.6 - Newly Independent States
8.7 - Global Resistance in the 20th Century
8.9 - Causation in the Age of Cold War and Decolonization
🌐 Unit 9: Globalization
🔥 Quick Tip: Focus on how technology, economics, environmental issues, reform movements, global culture, resistance to globalization, and international institutions shaped the world after 1900.
9.0 - Overview of Unit 9
9.1 - Advances in Technology & Exchange after 1900
9.2 - Disease in the 20th Century
9.3 - Debates about the Environment after 1900
9.4 - Economics in the Global Age
9.5 - Calls for Reform & Responses after 1900
9.6 - Globalized Culture after 1900
9.7 - Resistance to Globalization after 1900