Historical Themes in World History | World History Project AP®
Historical Themes in World History | World History Project AP®
World history includes a lot of names, places, dates, events, and all kinds of other stuff. Historians use different tools to organize their narratives and make sense of all the complexity. The AP® World History course uses six themes to help guide students through the 800 years from 1200 to the present. Organizing past events into themes can help group different events together so we can tell what changed, helping us make comparisons and connections between different regions and time periods. This video introduces the six themes and shows students some tricks for decoding AP exam questions.
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Content
10.24 -> Humans are storytellers. And all good stories have
themes. Themes are broad ideas that run through a
16.72 -> story and give it meaning beyond the words. Many
of humanity's greatest stories share themes in
22.56 -> common: love, revenge, coming of age, the battle
between good and evil. Storytellers use themes
30.8 -> to make their stories more meaningful to their
audience. Ohhh, I get it. Like how Harry Potter is
36.4 -> about a wizard school! Or, how the Marvel Cinematic
Universe is about superheroes smashing aliens! Well...
43.84 -> not really. Harry Potter isn't about wands, wizards,
and dark lords, it's about friendship. And good and
50.48 -> evil. And coming of age. And the Marvel movies
aren't just flashy fight scenes. Black Panther
56.4 -> is about the tension between tradition and change,
and how we sometimes need to challenge authority.
62.96 -> Themes of fatherhood, motherhood, and sacrifice run
through many of the Marvel movies. In a similar way,
69.68 -> themes help historians make sense of the past
so it's not just one darn thing after another.
76.08 -> Themes help historians tie a bunch of different
people and events together into big, historical
82 -> narratives that tell us more about the world
than smaller, disconnected narratives ever could.
90.48 -> Alright, I get it. So why are we talking
about Harry Potter and superheroes?
95.2 -> Well, the people who made the AP world history
course structured it around six themes, which we're
100.88 -> going to describe in a minute. Some teachers use
these three-letter acronyms to refer to each theme,
107.52 -> but your teacher might use a different
set of words or a mnemonic device like
112.08 -> SPICE-T or PIECES, but they're all talking about
the same six themes. Without a tool like themes,
120.32 -> history kinda looks like just a bunch of different
dates and names. Organizing past events into themes
127.76 -> helps us group different events together so we
can tell what changed and what stayed the same.
133.36 -> That helps us make comparisons and connections
between different regions and time periods. We know
138.8 -> that the AP exam can be stressful, but learning
the themes will make the exam a lot easier.
144.56 -> Lots of AP exam questions reference the themes.
Some questions are obvious about it, but some are
150.72 -> downright sneaky, so you need to learn the themes,
and you need to practice decoding exam questions
157.52 -> to figure out which theme or themes they're asking
about. Think of the themes as six different threads
164.24 -> that run through the course, connecting different
parts of human history. As you read articles
169.92 -> and watch videos in this course, you should keep
pulling on these "threads," uncovering new linkages.
176.64 -> Let's take a tour of the six themes and get
a sense of what they're all about. And once
181.68 -> we're done with that, we promise, we'll get
back to how themes help with exam questions.
194.48 -> Let's start with Humans and the Environment. The
environments in which we live have always shaped
200.8 -> how we live, contributing to the great
diversity, and surprising commonalities,
205.6 -> among human groups in different places. For example,
natural resources and climate shape human culture.
213.52 -> There's a reason why religions like Christianity,
that arose in the Middle East, believe hell is
219.2 -> super hot. Well, the Vikings who came from frosty
Scandinavia, imagined it must be terribly cold.
227.44 -> In the Islamic holy book, the Quran, paradise
is described as an oasis, filled with flowing
233.6 -> rivers and verdant greens—a welcome site for the
peoples who lived in the arid lands of the Arabian
238.96 -> Peninsula, where Islam first developed. This theme
is about stuff like our methods of agriculture;
245.68 -> the places that people choose to settle; how
factors like geography and climate impact
250.88 -> society. It also covers topics like migration,
population growth, disease, and natural disasters.
258.4 -> But, it's also about how humans have
increasingly transformed our environment.
266.56 -> Culture is what makes us, us. It's the
fabric that ties our societies together
272.4 -> through shared ideas, beliefs, and traditions.
Culture differs dramatically from place to place,
278.8 -> but cross-cultural exchange has frequently
produced entirely new cultural practices.
286 -> Today we can exchange culture instantaneously over
the internet, but in the 14th century, it took a bit
293.36 -> more effort. Mansa Musa ruled the West African Mali
empire. He was Muslim, but he ruled a diverse people
302 -> who worshipped many different gods. In 1324, he
decided to complete the year-long pilgrimage to
309.12 -> the Islamic holy city of Mecca. He traveled with
60,000 servants and an astounding amount of gold.
316.8 -> He spent lavishly and donated generously. Though
he ruled a powerful empire that was rich beyond
323.76 -> measure, he wanted to recruit Muslim scholars
from the Middle East and North Africa to help him
329.92 -> spread Islam across West Africa. In his attempts
to bring Islamic culture back to Mali, he spent
337.12 -> so much gold, that he caused runaway inflation in
Egypt, sending the whole region into a recession.
345.12 -> The questions you'll see on this
theme will often relate to religions
349.2 -> and belief systems, but certainly music, art,
architecture, literature, language, and fashion
356.72 -> are all part of cultural
developments and interactions.
363.6 -> Who has the right to rule? Where does political
authority come from? Societies have produced
369.68 -> different answers to these questions as new states
emerged, expanded, and collapsed. Governments have
375.68 -> used a variety of methods to maintain and
justify their power. For example, consider
381.92 -> the mighty Mongol Empire. When we think about the
Mongols, we think about men with swords on horses
388.88 -> riding across the open plains of Eurasia. But, did
you know that the empire was mostly held together
395.68 -> by women? Mongol nobles and rulers married the
daughters of people they conquered, and these women
402.48 -> formed networks of sisters and cousins who formed
alliances with each other. Their alliances helped
408.16 -> stop the fighting between their husbands, and
sometimes, they decided who the next ruler would be.
413.76 -> Wife-power and sister-power ran the empire.
This theme is one of the easiest to identify,
420.48 -> just keep an eye out for words like, "empire,"
"governments," "politics," "nations," "revolutions,"
426.64 -> "military," "taxes," and "ideology." This theme is all
about how states form, expand, govern, and collapse.
438.16 -> Economics is a fancy Greek word used to describe
how we make, distribute, trade, and consume all our
445.76 -> stuff. Take, for example, the agricultural output
of the Aztec Empire. To feed the six million
453.12 -> people living in their empire, the Aztecs
developed an agricultural technology called
458.32 -> Chinampas. These were man-made islands that
floated on the shallow lakes of central Mexico.
464.56 -> The lakes kept the islands moist and Aztec farmers
covered them in mud, vegetable scraps, and night
471.2 -> soil. This method of fertilization allowed
these flotillas of feces to be so productive
477.92 -> that crops could be harvested up to six times a
year from each. This level of food production is
483.84 -> what kept the engine of empire running. This
theme often focuses on who does the labor,
490 -> and who makes the profit. To identify evidence
in this theme, keep an eye out for terms like
495.76 -> "money," "resources," "trade," "labor," "industry," and for
economic theories like capitalism and socialism.
507.36 -> All societies develop ideas about how
people ought to interact with each other.
512.24 -> These interactions influence political,
social, and cultural dynamics in every society.
518.64 -> This theme can help you understand how
these relationships have changed over time,
523.12 -> and how communities in different parts
of the world have organized themselves.
527.44 -> For example, I may or may not have had
an 80s workout clothing phase in college,
533.12 -> but... I never got arrested for it. Well, in 17th
century Japan, the stakes were a little higher.
541.12 -> You see, the ruling samurai classes were jealous
of how much money merchants made, so the samurai
547.76 -> passed laws that regulated the smallest
details of how fancy a merchant could dress.
553.44 -> And they limited how big their house
could be and how rich they could act.
557.76 -> There was even a law that forbade any merchant
from using a silver clasp on their tobacco pouch.
563.6 -> Too fancy. One woman was exiled just because
she wore an elaborate dress to court—
570.48 -> all because the samurai didn't want to be out
fancied! This theme is all about how society's
576.32 -> determine how people fit into groups: gender, class,
race, and ethnic hierarchies, as well as how family
583.76 -> and social life are organized in different places,
and how these relationships change over time.
593.12 -> Humans have always been problem solvers. Our
technological innovations have impacted all levels
598.96 -> of society, and these innovations often resulted
from interaction and exchange among societies.
607.04 -> For example, if you're using eyeglasses or contact
lenses to watch this video, you should thank the
613.84 -> ancient Greek astronomer, Ptolemy... Actually, you
should thank the 11th century Arab scholar, Ibn
621.36 -> al-Haytham, who corrected and improved Ptolemy's
ideas and revolutionized the field of optics.
628.88 -> Well... I mean, really you ought to thank the the 12th
century Italian who translated al-Haytham into
635.6 -> Latin... Or maybe the 13th century Catholic friars,
who probably made the first spectacles for reading.
643.44 -> Then, maybe give a shout out to Lenscrafters.
The point is: technologies change over time,
649.76 -> and innovations in one place, are usually built on
earlier innovations that spread from other places.
662.16 -> Phew. Six themes. Nine units. 800 years. That's a
lot to take in. The themes help you to make
669.28 -> sense of all that history, but it's still not a
simple job. But hey, they don't call it Advanced
676.08 -> Placement for nothing. It's not really all that
hard, I bet I can do it in 10 seconds. Watch:
682.24 -> the Industrial Revolution—steam-powered
machines, factories, and the telegraph—that's
688.64 -> obviously about technology and innovation. Boom.
Done with two seconds left over. What's next?
694.8 -> John—that's great, but come on. It's not always
so simple. For example, I'm going to describe
700.64 -> something, and you tell me which theme it belongs
to. In the Aztec Empire, a merchant class known as
707.04 -> pochteca, carried trade goods to markets hundreds
of miles away by foot, collecting tribute for the
712.48 -> Aztec emperor and spying on foreign governments.
Do they walk across any of those poop islands?
718.88 -> This one's easy—merchants, markets, trade? It's "Economic
Systems"—E-C-N. Not so fast. History is messy and
728.8 -> some things don't fit neatly into just one theme.
The Aztec pochteca were important to the economy,
735.52 -> but they also tell us about the environment,
technology, governance, and social organization.
742.4 -> Mesoamerican societies didn't have pack animals
like horses or oxen, and there weren't many rivers
748.8 -> you could sail. On on top of that, these societies
never developed sailing technologies. So, pochteca
756.32 -> had to carry everything themselves, on their
backs. Alright, so that's economics, humans and
762.08 -> the environment, and technology and innovation.
Wow, that's a lot of—the pochteca also played
767.76 -> political roles, helping the Aztec emperors collect
tribute—a sort of tax. They also spied on enemy
774.88 -> governments. And, pochteca were a class of people who—
like those Japanese merchants—made a lot of money.
783.44 -> But the nobility made laws to keep them
subservient, and limit how they spent their
788.56 -> wealth, no matter how much money they made. So, when
you see an exam question that asks you to compare
794.8 -> the growth of trade routes, the pochteca can serve
as a useful piece of evidence. But they're also
800.48 -> great for an exam question asking you to explain
how environmental factors shaped economic systems.
806.48 -> Or, for a discussion of how different
empires maintained their hold on power.
811.44 -> Wow. You're right, Rachel. History really is like
night soil—it's messy! The themes in this course
818.08 -> are all about perspective, and in that way, they
give you—a historian in training—a lot of power.
825.04 -> The six themes will help you interpret the
past, but they also give you some authority to
830.16 -> make choices about how to frame past events using
evidence you encounter in this course. By examining
837.36 -> and comparing many different perspectives across
multiple themes, you'll be better equipped to
842.4 -> support, extend, and challenge the historical
narratives you encounter in this course.
847.44 -> And, you'll be better equipped for the AP exam in
May. The key is to practice. As you read articles
854.48 -> in this course, use the Three Close Reads Tool to
take notes about which pieces of evidence relate
859.6 -> to the different themes. Remember, these six themes
are tools to help you make sense of world history,
866.4 -> learning them will help you build a usable past,
and—yes, John—it will also help you on the exam.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRhRLeKgZTc