WHAP: Periodization

Periodization for WHAP: The 6 Periods and their Major Events

The AP World History curriculum divides World History chronology into 6 periods (listed below).
Beside each period is the percentage of the multiple choice questions which come from each period.
Period 1: Neolithic Revolution to 600 BCE [ 5%]
- Neolithic Revolution (c. 8000 BCE)
- first civilizations/ river civilizations (c. 5000 BCE)
- development of major religious traditions:
Hinduism (in India, c. 1500 BCE, from Aryan Vedic traditions)
Buddhism (in N. India, c. 500 BCE, by Siddhartha Gautama)
Judaism (in the Near East, c. 1000-600 BCE, by Abraham/Moses)
- first empires in Mesopotamia, Egypt (c. 3000 BCE)
- biggest world power(s): Mesopotamia, Egypt
Period 2: 600 BCE - 600 CE [15%]
- expansion of interregional trade routes & empires based on trade
Phoenician Empire in the southern and eastern Mediterranean
Mediterranean Sea trade intensifies
Silk Road intensifies
Indian Ocean basin trade begins
- learning & technological innovations
China: military weaponry (crossbow), astronomy
India: mathematics (the zero)
Ancient Greece: philosophy, astronomy
Hellenic states: mathematics (geometry), astronomy
Rome: engineering
Americas: mathematics (the zero), astronomy
- rise and fall of the first superpower empires
Han China (c. 200 BCE to c. 200 CE)
Imperial Rome (c. 27 BCE/14 CE to 476 CE)
Gupta India (320 - 550 CE)
- development of Christianity (in the Near East, 1st century CE, by disciples of Jesus of
Nazareth, esp. Paul, Peter)
- biggest world power(s): Rome, China
Period 3: 600 - 1450 CE [20%]
- continued expansion of interregional trade routes
development of trade-based cities (e.g., Novgorod, Timbuktu, etc.)
land-based trade routes across Europe intensify (thanks to Roman roads)
land-based trade routes across the Americas intensify (link N and S)
Indian Ocean basin trade intensifies
foundation of trading city-states in east Africa (e.g. Mogadishu, etc.)
gold-salt trade of Africa begins and intensifies
- learning & technological innovations
China: navigation (magnetic compass, junk), military (gunpowder), economics
(paper money); printing press
Middle East: navigation (dhow, astrolabe), mathematics (algebra), economics
(caravans,
sakk
= check)
Europe: agriculture (heavy mouldboard plow), military (gunpowder, cannon),
printing press

WHAP: Periodization

Americas: engineering
-development of new states & state forms
feudal states in Japan and Europe (in response to political instability)
Islamic caliphates (Umayyads, Abbasids, etc.; via military conquest)
American empires (Aztec, Inca; via military conquest)
Mongol khanates (tributary empire; via military conquest)
- development and diffusion of Islam (in Middle East, c. 600 CE, by Muhammad)
- diffusion of Christianity across Europe
- biggest world power(s): Islamic states, China
Period 4: 1450 - 1750 CE [20%]
- Age of Exploration (Europe, China)
- Age of Colonialism (creation of overseas empires; Europe in the Americas)
creation of a true global economy (exploitation of colonies natural resources)
introduction of labor systems to exploit resources: encomienda, mita,
slavery, indentured servitude
beginning of tensions between traditional participants of Indian Ocean
trade (Asian empires) and the Europeans
introduction of Old World flora and fauna to New World and vice versa
diffusion of Christianity to the Americas, East Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa
- learning and technological innovations
Europe: naval technology (caravel ships, cartography), agriculture
(Agricultural Revolution, three-field crop rotation), Renaissance,
Scientific Revolution
- development of new states and state forms:
absolutist monarchies in Europe
constitutional monarchies in Europe (England)
overseas colonial empires (England, France, Spain, Portugal)
Japanese shogunate
- challenge to Catholic Christianity: the Protestant Reformation in Europe
- development of new religious practices: Vodun (blend of Christianity and African
animism) in Latin America and the Caribbean
- biggest world power(s): Europe
Period 5: 1750 - c. 1900 CE [20%]
- Industrial Revolution (primarily in the West, Europe and the U.S.)
- Age of Imperialism (c. 1860s - c. 1900)
- learning and technological innovations
the West: Industrial Revolution brings in steam power, the telegraph, and
LOTS of other innovation/invention
- development of new states and state forms:
imperial overseas empires
democracies/representative governments (primarily in the Western
hemisphere)
- biggest world power(s): Europe
Period 6: c. 1900 - the present [20%]
- Global Wars (WWI, WWII) beginning in Europe but encompassing the world
- Cold War (capitalist West v. communist East)
- decolonization (Asian and African nation-building and state-building)