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Global Interactions

Part Four of this text corresponds to Period 4 of the AP^® course outline and constitutes 20 percent of the AP^® exam. Encompassing the three centuries between 1450 and 1750, this part is commonly referred to as the “early modern era.” While this designation remains controversial among some historians, these centuries represent a new phase in the human journey because for the first time the interactions among distinct cultures and societies occurred on a genuinely global scale. Now the Americas became permanently linked into a network of communication and exchange with the Afro-Eurasian world, and sub-Saharan Africa was more thoroughly connected to an emerging world system. The three chapters of Part Four are organized thematically, with Chapter 13 dealing with empire building, Chapter 14 with the making of a global economy, and Chapter 15 with transregional cultural developments, both religious and secular. These processes in turn had major effects on the social evolution of human cultures around the world and on the demographic and environmental settings in which they operated.

551-b