The Ultimate AP World Timeline

Full Course Review for AP World History

Join the AP World History 5-Hour Cram Finale for a comprehensive last minute cram session for a broad chronological review of major AP World History themes, periods, and exam skills. This session highlights many key developments, but students should still review each unit's major concepts and practice all AP question types separately. After the stream, invite your friends to a study with me online session to discuss any of your last-minute questions to help you feel more confident before the big day!

Current AP World History: Modern exam format: Section I, Part A has 55 multiple-choice questions in 55 minutes (40% of the score). Section I, Part B has 3 short-answer questions in 40 minutes (20%): SAQ 1 uses a secondary source, SAQ 2 uses a primary source, and students choose either SAQ 3 (1200-1750) or SAQ 4 (1750-2001). Section II has 1 document-based question in 60 minutes, including a 15-minute reading period (25%), and 1 long essay in 40 minutes (15%), with students choosing 1 of 3 LEQ prompts tied to different time periods.

Here is a breakdown of the review schedule and timeline:

• 30 min - Overview (Sorting by theme, region, and time periods)
• 1 hour - 1200-1450 CE
• 1 hour - 1450-1750 CE
• 1 hour - 1750-1900 CE
• 1 hour - 1900-Present
• 30 min - Final thoughts (Time management, strategies, and pep talk)

more resources to help you study

cheatsheetsscore calculatorAMSCO guided noteskey terms

Historical Period 1: Units 1 and 2 (1200 to 1450)

• 750-1258 -- Abbasid Caliphate
• ⚡ Watch: AP World History - 🎥 Dar-al-Islam in the Global Middle Ages
• 960-1279 -- Song Dynasty
• Filial piety, Neo-Confucianism, Buddhism.
• Grand Canal expanded.
• Heavy use of champa rice, which was resistant to drought.
  • This supported population growth and urbanization.
• Lots of steel and porcelain exports.
  • Artisans made porcelain.
• Used paper money.
• c. 1200-1450 -- East Asia also includes Korea, Japan, and regional tributary relationships centered on China.
• 1095-1291 -- Crusades
• Series of "holy wars" where Christians tried to take back Muslim-controlled holy land.
• c. 1200-1450 -- Feudalism and manorialism continue shaping much of Europe.
• 1206-1526 -- Delhi Sultanate
• Mostly Turkish people who had converted to Islam (outside of the caliphate).
• Some blending of Hindu and Islamic traditions.
• c. 1200-1450 -- Srivijaya declines while Majapahit rises in Southeast Asia; both are important examples of states tied to Indian Ocean trade.
• 1206-1277 -- Genghis Khan rules
• 1215 -- Magna Carta signed
• Guaranteed elites protections and limited royal power; often remembered as a step in the development of rule of law.
• 1235-c. 1600 -- Mali grows as a major West African state tied to trans-Saharan trade in gold and salt.
• c. 1200-1450 -- Great Zimbabwe develops in southern Africa through regional trade and political power.
• 1258 -- Mongols sack Baghdad, which was the end of the Abbasid Caliphate
• 1271-1285 -- Failed Mongol invasions of Japan
• 1271-1295 -- Marco Polo's travels
• c. 1250-1350 -- Pax Mongolica facilitates trade, travel, and cultural exchange across much of Eurasia under Mongol rule. 1279 specifically marks the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty after the Mongol defeat of the Song.
• ⚡ Watch: AP World History - 🎥 Mongols
• 1279-1368 -- Yuan Dynasty in China (Mongol rule)
• Practiced religious tolerance.
• Traditional Chinese arts and literature grew.
• c. 1200-1450 -- Silk Roads, Indian Ocean trade, and trans-Saharan routes all expand and connect Afro-Eurasia.
• These trade systems spread luxury goods, religions, technologies, crops, and diseases.
• c. 1200-1450 -- Caravanserai, camel saddles, lateen sails, and improved commercial practices help facilitate trade.
• c. 1200-1450 -- Diasporic merchant communities thrive, especially in Indian Ocean port cities and along major land routes.
• c. 1200-1450 -- Cultural effects of trade include the spread of Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity, as well as artistic and literary exchange.
• c. 1200-1450 -- Environmental effects of connectivity include deforestation, increased farming, and especially the spread of epidemic disease such as the bubonic plague.
• ~1300-1600 -- Italian Renaissance
• 1324 -- Mansa Musa's pilgrimage
• 1325 -- Tenochtitlan founded
• 1325-1354 -- Ibn Battuta's travels
• 1340s -- The bubonic plague spreads across Afro-Eurasia through trade networks, especially during the era of Mongol connectivity. 1347-1351 -- The Black Death devastates many parts of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.
• 1351-1368 -- Red Turban Rebellion in China
• 1368-1644 -- Ming Dynasty
• Built the Forbidden City.
• Revived civil service exam.
• 1405-1433 -- Zheng He's voyages
• 1428-1521 -- Aztec Empire
• ⚡ Watch: AP World History - 🎥 Continuities in the Americas After 1200 CE
• Built chinampas -- "floating gardens" or islands for agriculture over their swampy land.
• Human sacrifice.
• Advanced economy, trade, and governmental systems.
• Gender parallelism.
• 1438-1533 -- Inca Empire
• Used quipus (knotted cords) in place of writing.
• Extensive road system.
• Terrace farming.
• Used mita system as labor system -- everyone had to work periodically for the state in some form (later taken by Spanish).
• Gender parallelism.
• c. 1200-1500 -- Swahili city-states flourish along the East African coast as major Indian Ocean trading centers blending African, Islamic, and merchant cultural influences.
• c. 1450 -- Gutenberg's movable-type printing press spreads in Europe, accelerating the circulation of ideas. (Printing technologies had existed earlier in East Asia.)
• 1400s -- Caravel invented
• 1441 -- Portuguese begin transporting some enslaved Africans from the West African coast; over the following centuries this develops into the larger transatlantic slave trade connected to plantation economies in the Americas.
• c. 1200-1450 -- Comparison tip: states built power in very different ways across regions, but many relied on religion, tribute, taxation, and control of trade.

Historical Period 2: Units 3 and 4 (1450 to 1750)

• 1453 -- Ottoman conquest of Constantinople
• c. 1450-1750 -- The Ottoman Empire is a major land-based gunpowder empire in AP World History: Modern, especially important for its expansion, use of janissaries/devshirme, and rivalry with the Safavids.
• 1450s-1480s -- Russia overthrows Mongol rule in Moscow
• 1464-1591 -- Songhai Empire
• 1469 -- Guru Nanak is born; Sikhism emerges in the late 15th and early 16th centuries in Punjab as a new religious tradition influenced by both Hindu and Islamic contexts.
• 1492 -- Completion of the Reconquista with the fall of Granada in Spain.
• 1492 -- Columbus sails to the Americas / Spain begins to colonize the Americas / Columbian Exchange begins
• Spanish Empire used the hacienda and encomienda system, as well as a caste system based on race.
• Columbian Exchange
  • ⚡ Watch: AP World History - 🎥 Columbian Exchange
  • The Americas contribute crops such as maize, potatoes, and tomatoes to Afro-Eurasia.
  • Afro-Eurasia contributes livestock, sugarcane, and diseases such as smallpox to the Americas.
  • This exchange reshapes demography, labor systems, diets, and environments.
• 1498 -- Vasco da Gama reaches India
• 1500 -- Portugal claims Brazil after Cabral's voyage, beginning Portuguese colonization in the Americas.
• 1501-1722 -- Safavid Empire
• Largest Shi'a empire at the time -- at odds with the Sunni Ottoman Empire.
• 1509-1542 -- Nzinga Mbemba (Afonso I) rules the Kongo Empire
• 1517 -- Protestant Reformation begins with Martin Luther's 95 Theses
• 1519-1522 -- Magellan expedition completes the first circumnavigation of the globe (Magellan himself dies in the Philippines)
• 1526-1748 -- Mughal Empire
• Two most notable rulers: Akbar and Aurangzeb.
  • Akbar practiced religious tolerance, inviting people of different religions to debate with him and removing the jizyah tax. He also supported the arts.
  • Aurangzeb, on the other hand, persecuted many non-Muslims and contributed to the empire's decline.
• Taj Mahal built during this time.
• 1530s onward -- Growth of Spanish colonial rule in the Americas increases demand for coerced labor and enslaved labor.
• 1534 -- France begins to colonize the Americas
• 1543 -- Copernicus shares ideas about a heliocentric universe
• 1545 -- Discovery of silver at Potosí mine
• 1550-1700 -- Scientific Revolution
• 1552 -- Russia begins major imperial expansion under Ivan IV
• 1556-1605 -- Akbar the Great rules the Mughal Empire
• 1571 -- Founding of Manila and beginning of major Pacific silver trade linking the Americas and Asia
• 1595 -- Fluyt invented
• 1600 -- British East India Company founded
• 1600-1826 -- Tokugawa shogunate
• 1602 -- Dutch East India Company founded
• 1607 -- Britain begins colonizing the Americas with Jamestown
• 1623-1641 -- Tokugawa Iemitsu rules Japan and strengthens policies of controlled foreign contact
• 1632-1653 -- Taj Mahal constructed
• 1643-1715 -- Louis XIV rules France; absolute monarchy in France
• 1652 -- Dutch Boers colonize South Africa
• 1687 -- Newton's Principia published
• 1688-1912 -- Qing (Manchu) Empire. The Qing were founded by the Manchus, a non-Han ruling group from northeast of the Great Wall, who conquered China and governed it through a mix of Manchu and Chinese political traditions.
• Enforce a single hairstyle and dress.
• Largest of the Chinese empires.
• 1689-1725 -- Peter the Great rules and westernizes Russia
• 1689 -- Glorious Revolution in England
• 1698 -- Early steam engine invented
• 1715-1789 -- The Enlightenment
• ⚡ Watch: AP World History - 🎥 The Age of Revolutions
• c. 1450-1750 -- Land-based empires such as the Ottomans, Safavids, Mughals, Qing, and Russians expand using gunpowder weapons and more centralized administration.
• c. 1450-1750 -- Imperial administration matters: examples include Ottoman janissaries and devshirme, Qing banner system, Mughal mansabdars and zamindars, and Russian bureaucracy.
• c. 1450-1750 -- Maritime empires are not just established; they are maintained through joint-stock companies, monopolies, navies, and trading-post empires.
• c. 1450-1750 -- Social hierarchies shift with the growth of caste-like racial systems in the Americas, mestizo/mulatto categories, and the expansion of chattel slavery.
• c. 1450-1750 -- Comparison tip: land-based empires often expanded through armies and taxation, while maritime empires relied more on sea power, commerce, and colonies.

Historical Period 3: Units 5 and 6 (1750 to 1900)

• 1756-1763 -- 7 Years' War
• 1757 -- Battle of Plassey marks a major turning point in British East India Company power in India, especially in Bengal, and helps expand British political control.
• 1760-1789 -- First Industrial Revolution
• 1765-1783 -- American Revolution
• Declaration of Independence would inspire others for many years.
• 1776 -- Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith published
• 1789-1795 -- French Revolution
• Incredibly gruesome.
• ⚡ Watch: AP World History - 🎥 Atlantic Revolutions
• 1791-1804 -- Haitian Revolution
• Complete upheaval of social structure.
• 1792 -- Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft published
• Beginning of feminism.
• 1793 -- Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin
• 1799-1815 -- Napoleonic era in France
• 1806-1826 -- Latin American Revolutions
• Many led by Simón Bolívar.
• 1815 -- Congress of Vienna
• 1839-1860 -- Opium Wars
• Establishes immense European influence over China.
• 1839-1876 -- Tanzimat reforms in the Ottoman Empire
• 1845-1849 -- Irish Potato Famine
• Cause of much Irish immigration west.
• 1848 -- Communist Manifesto published
• 1848 -- Seneca Falls Convention
• 1850-1864 -- Taiping Rebellion
• 1854 -- Commodore Perry opens Japan
• 1857 -- Sepoy Rebellion in India
• 1859-1869 -- Suez Canal constructed in Egypt under French leadership; it opened in 1869. Britain later bought major shares in the canal and increased its control over Egypt.
• 1861 -- Russian serfs emancipated
• 1863 -- Emancipation Proclamation in U.S.
• 1868 -- Meiji Restoration in Japan
• 1870-1914 -- Second Industrial Revolution
• 1871 -- Germany unified under Otto von Bismarck
• 1884-1885 -- Berlin Conference
• Accelerates the European "Scramble for Africa."
• 1890s -- European spheres of influence in China
• 1896 -- Battle of Adowa (Ethiopians defeat Italians)
• 1898 -- Spanish-American War
• U.S. acquires Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines; Cuba becomes formally independent but heavily influenced by the U.S.
• 1899 -- Boer War begins
• 1899 -- United Fruit Company founded, illustrating economic imperialism in Latin America.
• 1899-1901 -- Boxer Rebellion
• c. 1750-1900 -- Governments often play a direct role in industrialization: Meiji reforms in Japan, state-sponsored railroads, imperial expansion, and tariff/protection policies are all important.
• c. 1750-1900 -- Economic developments include industrial capitalism, labor unions, socialism, and new banking/corporate systems.
• c. 1750-1900 -- Imperialism is justified by nationalism, racism, Social Darwinism, and economic motives.
• c. 1750-1900 -- Economic imperialism matters too: states could dominate weaker regions through investment, debt, and trade pressure without fully annexing them.
• c. 1750-1900 -- Global migration expands because of industrial labor demand, famine, poverty, and imperial networks; migrants include indentured laborers from India and China.
• c. 1750-1900 -- Effects of migration include ethnic enclaves, xenophobia, anti-immigrant laws, remittances, and the spread of cultural traditions.
• c. 1750-1900 -- Comparison tip: revolutions challenged old political systems, while industrialization transformed class structures, labor, and global inequality.

Historical Period 4: Units 7, 8 and 9 (1900 to Present)

• 1904 -- U.S. begins building the Panama Canal after backing Panamanian independence; the canal opens in 1914
• 1904-1905 -- Russo-Japanese War
• 1906 -- Muslim League founded
• 1910-1920 -- Mexican Revolution
• 1914-1918 -- World War I
• ⚡ Watch: AP World History - 🎥 World Wars I & II
• 1915 onward -- Armenian Genocide carried out by Ottoman authorities during and after World War I.
• 1917 -- Russian Revolution
• 1917 -- Zimmermann Telegram
• Generated widespread American support for getting involved in WWI.
• 1920 -- League of Nations founded
• 1922 -- Mussolini comes to power in Italy; fascism rises in Europe
• 1923 -- Turkey founded
• 1927-1936 -- Chinese Civil War
• 1929-1933 -- Great Depression
• 1931 -- Japanese invasion of Manchuria
• 1933 -- New Deal by FDR introduced in U.S.
• 1933 -- Hitler comes to power in Germany
• 1936-1938 -- Great Purge in the USSR. Stalin's regime arrested, imprisoned, exiled, and executed large numbers of perceived political enemies, helping consolidate authoritarian power.
• Put many in labor camps (gulags).
• 1939-1945 -- World War II
• Pearl Harbor attack -- 1941
• 1941-1945 -- The Holocaust
• ⚡ Watch: AP World History - 🎥 Mass Atrocities After 1900
• late 1920s-1953 -- Stalin consolidates and maintains power in the USSR; his authoritarian rule, industrialization policies, purges, and wartime leadership shape Soviet policy through World War II and the early Cold War.
• 1943-1970s -- Green Revolution
• 1945-1949 -- Chinese Communist Revolution concludes with Communist victory
• 1945 -- Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings
• 1945 -- United Nations created
• 1946 -- Philippines gains independence from the United States.
• 1947 -- Partition of India; independence for India and Pakistan
• Gandhi leads peaceful protests for independence.
• Partition itself was bloody.
• 1947 -- Truman Doctrine
• 1947-1991 -- Cold War
• Capitalism (U.S./Western Europe) against communism (USSR and allies).
• Lots of suspicion about motives of the other side.
• Tensions in proxy wars, like in Korea and Vietnam.
• ⚡ Watch: AP World History - 🎥 The Cold War
• 1948 -- Israel founded
• 1949 -- NATO established
• 1950-1953 -- Korean War
• 1953-1959 -- Cuban Revolution
• 1955 -- Warsaw Pact
• 1955 -- Bandung Conference
• 1955-1975 -- Vietnam War
• 1955 -- Polio vaccine approved for use
• 1956 -- Khrushchev gains power in USSR; begins de-Stalinization
• 1958-1962 -- Great Leap Forward
• Mao Zedong's idea to boost Chinese economy.
• Combined farmers into large communes; peasants were not allowed to own private plots in the way they had before.
• Economic downturn.
• Millions died, mostly from famine.
• 1960 -- "Year of Africa"
• Many African colonies gain independence, showing the scale of decolonization after World War II.
• 1961 -- Dwight D. Eisenhower uses term "military-industrial complex"
• 1962 -- Cuban Missile Crisis
• 1966-1976 -- Cultural Revolution in China
• Mao Zedong's attempt to stop influence of capitalism and perceived political enemies.
• Shipped many off to the countryside for "re-education."
• 1973-1990 -- Pinochet in Chile
• 1978 onward -- Deng Xiaoping leads market-oriented economic reforms in China, expanding special economic zones and opening China more to the global economy.
• 1979 -- Iranian Revolution
• 1989 -- Tiananmen Square Protests
• 1989 -- Fall of the Berlin Wall
• 1990 -- Nelson Mandela released and negotiations to end apartheid accelerate in South Africa; apartheid is formally dismantled in the early 1990s, with democratic elections held in 1994.
• 1991 -- Dissolution of the Soviet Union.
• ⚡ Watch: AP World History - 🎥 Decolonization
• 1994 -- Rwandan genocide
• 2001 -- 9/11 terrorist attacks. (Some teachers also reference later developments such as the 2011 Arab Spring for broader modern context, but students should prioritize course content and examples commonly taught within the AP framework.)
• ⚡ Watch: AP World History - 🎥 Globalization
• c. 1900-present -- Interwar ideologies include fascism, communism, and intensified nationalism.
• c. 1900-present -- Decolonization stretches far beyond India: major cases include Algeria, Ghana, Kenya, Vietnam, Indonesia, and many other states in Africa and Asia.
• c. 1900-present -- Newly independent states face border conflicts, economic dependency, ethnic tensions, and debates over modernization.
• c. 1900-present -- Cold War effects include proxy wars, nuclear arms competition, aid competition, coups, and influence in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
• c. 1900-present -- Advances in technology and exchange include airplanes, automobiles, container shipping, satellites, computers, and the internet.
• c. 1900-present -- Disease remains a major global issue, including the 1918 influenza pandemic and HIV/AIDS.
• c. 1900-present -- Environmental debates include concerns over fossil fuels, deforestation, climate change, and international environmental activism.
• c. 1900-present -- Global culture spreads through movies, music, sports, tourism, and social media, while local cultures also adapt and resist.
• c. 1900-present -- Resistance to globalization includes religious fundamentalism, anti-globalization protests, and protectionist political movements.
• c. 1900-present -- International institutions such as the UN, World Bank, IMF, and WTO shape diplomacy, development, and the global economy.

Final Reminder

This timeline is best used as a big-picture review tool, not as a substitute for unit-by-unit study. If you want the best results, pair this with practice on:

• MCQs with stimulus analysis
• SAQs with precise evidence
• DBQs with sourcing and outside evidence
• LEQs with strong thesis, context, and historical reasoning

Also review the core AP World skills the exam actually tests: explaining historical developments and processes, analyzing a source's point of view/purpose/historical situation/audience, identifying claims and evidence in sources, contextualizing events, making connections through comparison/causation/continuity and change, and building defensible arguments with specific evidence.

You’ve got this.