AP Exams (Advanced Placement) AP History and Social Sciences Syllabus

AP History and Social Sciences syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for AP History and Social Sciences in AP Exams (Advanced Placement), not a summary of it.

1. 1

   AP United States History (APUSH)

   6 topics

   • Colonial and Revolutionary Era (1491-1800)
     • Contact and colonization
     • Road to revolution and founding
   • Expansion and Sectionalism (1800-1865)
     • Market revolution and reform
     • Civil War causes and outcomes
   • Reconstruction and Industrialization (1865-1900)
   • Progressivism and World Wars (1900-1945)
     • Great Depression and New Deal
     • WWI and WWII
   • Cold War and Modern America (1945-Present)
   • Historical Thinking Skills
     • Causation and continuity
     • Document-based analysis
2. 2

   AP World History: Modern

   5 topics

   • Global Tapestry and Networks of Exchange (1200-1450)
   • Land-Based and Maritime Empires (1450-1750)
   • Revolutions and Industrialization (1750-1900)
     • Political revolutions
     • Industrial transformation and imperialism
   • Global Conflict and Decolonization (1900-Present)
   • Globalization and the Contemporary World
3. 3

   AP European History

   5 topics

   • Renaissance and Reformation (1450-1648)
   • Absolutism and Scientific Revolution
   • Enlightenment and French Revolution
   • Industrialization and Nationalism (1815-1914)
   • World Wars and Cold War Europe
4. 4

   AP US Government and Politics

   5 topics

   • Foundations of American Democracy
     • Constitution and federalism
     • Foundational documents
   • Interactions Among Branches of Government
   • Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
     • Bill of Rights and landmark cases
   • American Political Ideologies and Beliefs
   • Political Participation
     • Elections, parties, and media
5. 5

   AP Comparative Government and Politics

   4 topics

   • Political Systems and Regimes
   • Political Institutions of Six Core Countries
     • UK, Russia, China
     • Mexico, Iran, Nigeria
   • Citizens, Society, and the State
   • Party and Electoral Systems
6. 6

   AP Human Geography

   7 topics

   • Thinking Geographically
   • Population and Migration
   • Culture, Language, and Religion
   • Political Geography
     • States, boundaries, and devolution
   • Agriculture and Rural Land Use
   • Cities and Urban Land Use
   • Industrialization and Economic Development

AP History and Social Sciences flashcards for AP Exams (Advanced Placement)

23 of 51 cards from the AP History and Social Sciences deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. In APUSH periodization, what does the Columbian Exchange refer to, and which era does it open (post-1491)?

   The transatlantic transfer of plants, animals, people, and diseases between the Old and New Worlds after 1492. It opens the Colonial era (1491-1800), reshaping demographics, diets, and economies on both continents.

2. What was the central economic doctrine governing Britain's relationship with its colonies before the Revolution?

   Mercantilism: colonies existed to enrich the mother country by supplying raw materials and buying finished goods, enforced through the Navigation Acts.

3. What principle did the 1776 Declaration of Independence assert as justification for separation from Britain?

   That governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed and may be altered or abolished when they violate unalienable rights (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness).

4. What was the key weakness of the Articles of Confederation regarding national finance?

   Congress could not levy taxes; it could only request funds from states, leaving the central government chronically unable to pay debts.

5. What 1803 event doubled the size of the United States and what constitutional question did it raise for Jefferson?

   The Louisiana Purchase from France. It troubled the strict-constructionist Jefferson because the Constitution did not explicitly authorize the president to acquire territory.

6. Define 'Manifest Destiny' as used in the Expansion era (1800-1865).

   The 19th-century belief that the United States was divinely destined to expand its territory and democratic institutions across the North American continent.

7. What did the Missouri Compromise (1820) establish regarding slavery?

   It admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as free, and banned slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36 degree 30' parallel.

8. What constitutional doctrine did the South invoke to justify resisting federal tariffs and, later, secession?

   States' rights / nullification: the claim that states could nullify or refuse to enforce federal laws they deemed unconstitutional.

9. What did the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments accomplish during Reconstruction?

   13th abolished slavery; 14th granted citizenship and equal protection/due process; 15th prohibited denying the vote based on race.

10. What was 'sharecropping' and why did it trap many freedpeople after the Civil War?

    A system where landless farmers worked a landowner's land for a share of the crop; chronic debt to landlords and merchants kept them in a cycle of poverty resembling bondage.

11. Name the major business strategies of Gilded Age industrialists like Rockefeller (horizontal) and Carnegie (vertical).

    Horizontal integration: buying out competitors in the same industry to form monopolies. Vertical integration: controlling all stages of production from raw materials to distribution.

12. What did the Supreme Court's Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) establish?

    The 'separate but equal' doctrine, ruling that racial segregation was constitutional, legitimizing Jim Crow laws.

13. What were the main goals of the Progressive movement (1900-1920)?

    Curbing corporate monopolies, ending political corruption, protecting consumers and workers, and expanding democracy (e.g., direct election of senators, women's suffrage).

14. What did the 19th Amendment (1920) guarantee?

    The right to vote regardless of sex, granting women's suffrage nationwide.

15. What were the 'Three R's' of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal?

    Relief (immediate help for the unemployed/poor), Recovery (restoring the economy to normal), and Reform (long-term structural changes to prevent another depression).

16. What U.S. policy of giving aid to Allies before formally entering WWII was enacted in 1941?

    Lend-Lease, which allowed the U.S. to supply weapons and materiel to Britain, the USSR, and others while officially neutral.

17. Define the Cold War policy of 'containment' associated with George Kennan and the Truman Doctrine.

    The strategy of preventing the spread of communism beyond its existing borders through political, economic, and military means rather than rolling it back.

18. What was the significance of Brown v. Board of Education (1954)?

    It overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, ruling that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional and violated the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

19. Name the three historical reasoning skills emphasized across AP History courses.

    Causation, comparison, and continuity and change over time (CCOT).

20. In historical analysis, what does 'sourcing' a document require you to evaluate?

    The author's point of view, purpose, historical situation, and intended audience to assess the document's reliability and meaning.

21. In AP World History, what role did the Silk Roads play during the period 1200-1450?

    They were overland trade networks connecting Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, facilitating exchange of luxury goods (silk, spices), technologies, religions, and diseases.

22. What was the Mongol Empire's contribution to networks of exchange (c. 1200-1450)?

    The Pax Mongolica created a unified, secure trade zone across Eurasia, boosting Silk Road commerce and transferring technology and ideas between East and West.

23. What two major land-based 'gunpowder empires' arose in the period 1450-1750, and where?

    Examples: the Ottoman Empire (Anatolia/Middle East), the Safavid Empire (Persia), and the Mughal Empire (South Asia)—all using gunpowder weapons to consolidate power.

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