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