Unit 1: The Global Tapestry (1200–1450)
AP World History: 59 practice questions with detailed explanations.
Unit Study Guide
Executive Summary
Around 1200 the world was a patchwork of mature states and belief systems — no single dominant power. This unit surveys each major region's political, economic, and cultural patterns.
Dar al-Islam
The Abbasid Caliphate fragmented politically even as Islamic culture flourished. New Turkic and Persian states (Mamluks, Seljuks, Delhi Sultanate) carried Islamic governance. Trade, scholarship, and Sufi mysticism spread the faith beyond political borders.
East Asia
Song China was the most urbanized and commercialized region on earth — paper money, porcelain, the Grand Canal, and Neo-Confucianism's revival. Japan, Korea, and Vietnam adapted Chinese institutions selectively (feudalism in Japan, civil service exams elsewhere).
South and Southeast Asia
The Delhi Sultanate ruled northern India; Hinduism and Buddhism shaped southern and mainland Southeast Asian states (Khmer, Srivijaya). The Indian Ocean trade network connected East Africa, Arabia, India, and China.
The Americas, Africa, and Europe
The Aztec (Tenochtitlan) and Inca (roads, quipu) built empires without pack animals or iron. Africa's Mali and Great Zimbabwe grew rich on gold and salt. Europe, fragmented and relatively poor after Rome's fall, rebuilt through feudalism and the Catholic Church.
Exam traps
Islam spread by merchants and Sufis, not just conquest. Song China's innovations were economic, not industrial. The Aztecs and Incas were contemporaries of the late Middle Ages, not the ancient world. Europe in 1200 was a peripheral player — its rise comes later.