World history

Units

1. 1

   The world before 1200

   6 lessons

   1. Early humans and the Neolithic RevolutionExplain how hunter-gatherers became farmers and how farming led to the first villages and cities.
   2. River-valley civilizationsCompare Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley and China in geography, government, writing and religion.
   3. Classical Greece and RomeExplain Greek democracy and philosophy, Alexander's empire and the growth, law and fall of Rome.
   4. Classical India and ChinaCompare the Maurya and Gupta empires with the Qin and Han dynasties in government, trade and culture.
   5. The world religions and their spreadDescribe the core beliefs of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and explain how traders, rulers and missionaries carried them across the world.
   6. Post-classical societies: Byzantium, Islam and AfricaDescribe the Byzantine Empire, the Islamic caliphates and the West African kingdoms, and explain how trade, faith and learning joined them.
2. 2

   Empires and exchange, 1200 to 1450

   4 lessons

   1. The Mongol EmpireExplain how the Mongols conquered most of Eurasia in the 1200s and how their rule joined East and West in trade and ideas.
   2. Trade networks: the Silk Road, Indian Ocean and trans-Saharan routesCompare the Silk Road, the Indian Ocean network and the trans-Saharan routes: what moved along each, who carried it and what changed because of it.
   3. The Black Death and its effectsExplain how plague spread along trade routes in the 1300s and how it changed life in Europe, Asia and Africa.
   4. Medieval Europe and the CrusadesDescribe feudalism and the manor, the power of the Catholic Church and the Crusades, and explain how they changed Europe and its neighbours.
3. 3

   Renaissance and Reformation

   3 lessons

   1. The Italian Renaissance and humanismExplain why the Renaissance began in the Italian city-states in the 1300s and 1400s and say what humanism valued.
   2. The ReformationDescribe Luther's ideas, how Protestantism spread across Europe and how the Catholic Church answered in the Counter-Reformation.
   3. The Scientific RevolutionExplain how Copernicus, Galileo and Newton replaced the Earth-centered picture of the universe with one based on observation, experiment and mathematical law.
4. 4

   Land and sea empires, 1450 to 1750

   4 lessons

   1. The Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empiresCompare the three Muslim gunpowder empires in how they were governed, how they treated religion and what culture they built.
   2. Ming and Qing China, and Tokugawa JapanDescribe the Ming and Qing dynasties and Tokugawa Japan, and explain how each state controlled its trade with the outside world.
   3. European exploration and the Columbian ExchangeExplain why Europeans sailed across the oceans from the 1400s and how the exchange of crops, animals and diseases between the Old and New Worlds changed both.
   4. Colonial empires and the Atlantic slave tradeDescribe the Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, British and French empires and explain how the Atlantic slave trade worked, who it harmed and how it shaped the world.
5. 5

   Enlightenment and the age of revolutions

   4 lessons

   1. The EnlightenmentExplain the political ideas of Locke, Montesquieu and Rousseau, and show how Enlightenment thinkers spread them and influenced governments.
   2. The American and French RevolutionsCompare the causes, ideas and results of the American Revolution and the French Revolution.
   3. Napoleon and the Congress of ViennaDescribe Napoleon's rise, rule and fall, and explain how the Congress of Vienna tried to restore order and keep the peace in Europe.
   4. The Haitian Revolution and Latin American independenceExplain how enslaved people in Haiti won their freedom and how creole leaders such as Bolívar and San Martín ended Spanish rule across Latin America.
6. 6

   Industrialization and its effects

   3 lessons

   1. The Industrial Revolution beginsExplain why industry began in Britain in the 1700s, name the key inventions and describe how the factory system changed work.
   2. Industrialization spreadsDescribe how industry spread from Britain to Belgium and Germany, the United States and Japan, and why each country followed its own road.
   3. Social effects and reformDescribe how industry crowded people into cities, changed working life and class, and led to reform laws, unions and socialism.
7. 7

   Imperialism and colonialism

   3 lessons

   1. Motives and methods of imperialismExplain the economic, political and ideological motives behind the new imperialism of the 1800s and how Europeans used technology, treaties and local rulers to take and keep control.
   2. The Scramble for AfricaDescribe how European powers divided almost all of Africa between about 1880 and 1914, what the Berlin Conference decided, and how Africans resisted.
   3. Imperialism in AsiaDescribe British rule in India, the Opium Wars and the pressure on China, and how Japan responded to the same pressure by changing itself.
8. 8

   World War I and the years between the wars

   3 lessons

   1. Causes of World War IExplain how militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism made Europe ready for war and how the assassination in Sarajevo in 1914 set it off.
   2. Fighting the warDescribe how the Western Front became a trench stalemate, how new weapons and total war changed fighting and life at home, and how the war ended in 1918.
   3. The peace and the interwar yearsExplain the Treaty of Versailles and the new map of 1919, the Russian Revolution, the Great Depression and how dictators rose to power in the 1920s and 1930s.
9. 9

   World War II and the Holocaust

   3 lessons

   1. The road to World War IIExplain fascism, the aggression of Germany, Italy and Japan in the 1930s, why Britain and France practised appeasement and how the invasion of Poland in 1939 began the war.
   2. Fighting the warDescribe the early Axis victories, how the war became global in 1941, the turning points of 1942 to 1944 and how it ended in Europe and the Pacific in 1945, including the atomic bombs.
   3. The HolocaustDescribe how the Nazi state persecuted and then murdered about six million Jews and millions of other people, how some resisted and rescued, and how the postwar trials and laws responded.
10. 10

    The Cold War

    3 lessons

    1. Origins of the Cold WarExplain why the United States and the Soviet Union, allies in World War II, became rivals after 1945, and describe containment and the Truman Doctrine.
    2. Conflicts of the Cold WarDescribe the arms race and the space race, the wars in Korea and Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the idea of a proxy war.
    3. The end of the Cold WarExplain why the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and describe what followed in Europe.
11. 11

    Decolonization and independence movements

    3 lessons

    1. Independence movements in AsiaDescribe how India, Indonesia and Vietnam won independence after World War II and compare the paths each one took.
    2. Independence in Africa and the Middle EastDescribe how Ghana, Algeria and Kenya won independence and how Israel and Palestine came to be a contested land after 1947.
    3. Challenges of new nationsExplain the problems new states faced after independence: borders, weak economies and pressure from the Cold War.
12. 12

    Globalization and the world today

    4 lessons

    1. What globalization isDefine globalization and describe the technology, trade and communication that connect the world's economies and peoples.
    2. Economic and cultural effectsExplain the benefits and costs of global trade and of cultural exchange, and weigh them with evidence.
    3. Global challenges todayDescribe climate change, migration, terrorism and health crises as problems that cross borders and explain how nations respond.
    4. International cooperationDescribe the United Nations and other international organizations, what they do and what they have achieved and failed to do.