Master AP Prep — World History from first principles
Free background-reading lessons for world history — concept and vocabulary support, not a graded question bank. Independently authored AP® World History content; not affiliated with the College Board.
AP World History: Modern — What the Course Covers
A map of all nine AP World History: Modern units, their time periods, and which four carry the most exam weight.
Unit 1.1 — East Asia, c. 1200–1450
Topic 1.1: Song China's economic/tech peak, the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, the Ming restoration, Japan's Kamakura shogunate, and Goryeo Korea — c. 1200–1450.
Unit 1.2 — Dar al-Islam, c. 1200–1450
Topic 1.2: the Abbasid collapse, Seljuk/Mamluk/Delhi successor states, and the three ways Islam spread — trade, Sufism, and conquest — c. 1200–1450.
Unit 1.3 — South and Southeast Asia, c. 1200–1450
Topic 1.3: the Delhi Sultanate and Vijayanagara in South Asia, the Khmer Empire and Majapahit in Southeast Asia, and how trade — not conquest — spread Islam through the maritime world.
Unit 1.4 — The Americas, c. 1200–1450
Topic 1.4: the Aztec tribute empire and chinampas, the Inca's road/mit'a/quipu administrative state, and Cahokia — three American state-building models, developed with zero Afro-Eurasian contact.
Unit 1.5 — Africa, c. 1200–1450
Topic 1.5: Mali's gold-and-salt trade and Mansa Musa's famous hajj, Great Zimbabwe's gold-and-cattle economy, the independent Swahili coast city-states, and Christian Ethiopia's ties to Dar al-Islam.
Unit 1.6 — Europe, c. 1200–1450
Topic 1.6: European feudalism as decentralized power, the Catholic Church as Western Europe's real unifying institution, and how Byzantine/Orthodox Christianity ran on a very different Church-state model.
Unit 2.1 — The Silk Roads
Topic 2.1: the Silk Roads' geography (Kashgar, Samarkand), the goods that moved on them, caravanserai infrastructure, and how Buddhism and Islam spread along the same routes as silk and spices.
Unit 2.2 — The Mongol Empire and the Making of the Modern World
Topic 2.2: how a century of unified Mongol control (the Pax Mongolica) made Silk Road trade safer, what administrative tools (standardized currency, the yam relay system) made that possible, and why religious tolerance was practical governance strategy.
Unit 2.3 — Exchange in the Indian Ocean
Topic 2.3: how monsoon winds made Indian Ocean voyages predictable, the dhows/junks/compass/astrolabe that made the trade possible, port cities like Calicut and Malacca, and Zheng He's state-sponsored voyages.
Unit 2.4 — Trans-Saharan Trade Routes
Topic 2.4: the gold-for-salt exchange, how the camel and camel saddle made desert crossing possible, Timbuktu's growth from caravan stop to Islamic learning center, and how trade (not conquest) spread Islam into West Africa.
Unit 2.5 — Cultural Consequences of Connectivity
Topic 2.5: Marco Polo's journey to the Mongol court and Ibn Battuta's decades-long travels across Dar al-Islam, plus how technology (gunpowder, paper) and architecture spread along the same trade networks.
Unit 2.6 — Environmental Consequences of Connectivity
Topic 2.6: the Black Death spread along the same Mongol-secured trade routes that carried culture in Topic 2.5, killing an estimated 75–200 million people and weakening serfdom through labor shortages.
Unit 2.7 — Comparison of Economic Exchange
Topic 2.7 closes Unit 2 by comparing the Silk Roads, Indian Ocean, and trans-Saharan networks: shared causes and trading-city hubs, but different geography, cargo (bulk vs. luxury), and political dependence (Mongol stability vs. merchant independence).
Unit 3.1 — Empires Expand
Topic 3.1 opens Unit 3: the Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal, and Qing empires expanded c. 1450–1750 using gunpowder weapons, bureaucracy, and religious justification — with real rivalries like Safavid-Mughal and Morocco's 1591 defeat of Songhai.
Unit 3.2 — Empires: Administration
Topic 3.2: how gunpowder empires actually governed — Ottoman devshirme/Janissaries and the millet system, the Mughal mansabdar rank-for-service system, and Songhai's use of Islam as an administrative tool.
Unit 3.3 — Empires: Belief Systems
Topic 3.3: how gunpowder empires used religion to justify rule — the Sunni Ottoman vs. Shi'a Safavid rivalry (Battle of Chaldiran, 1514), Mughal religious pluralism, and Qing emperors performing Neo-Confucian legitimacy as ethnic outsiders.