AP World History: Modern — Unit 3: Land-Based Empires (c. 1450–1750)

What AP World History: Modern Unit 3 covers

The College Board Course and Exam Description breaks Unit 3 into 4 topics:

1. 3.1 Empires Expand
2. 3.2 Empires: Administration
3. 3.3 Empires: Belief Systems
4. 3.4 Comparison in Land-Based Empires

AP World History: Modern Unit 3 practice questions

• Four empires expand across Eurasia between 1450 and 1750. They speak different languages, worship different gods, and rule different peoples. But they ALL rise to dominance using the exact same weapon technology. What is it?

  Gunpowder — cannons, muskets, and firearms that decided who would expand. The Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal, and Qing are called 'gunpowder empires': adopt it early and dominate, adopt it late and get eaten.

• In Unit 4, you'll meet empires that get rich from controlling OCEAN trade. But in Unit 3, these empires get powerful a completely different way — through the sheer amount of LAND they control. What's the term, and what's the logic?

  Land-based empires — power from sheer territory, not trade routes. More land means more people to tax, more soldiers to recruit, more resources — the opposite of the maritime empires of Unit 4.

• In 1453, an Ottoman sultan rolls giant cannons up to the walls of Constantinople — the 1,000-year-old heart of the Byzantine Empire. The walls that held off every previous attacker crumble in weeks. Why is this THE turning point of the period?

  The fall of Constantinople (renamed Istanbul) in 1453 ended Byzantium. It gave the Ottomans the crossroads between Europe and Asia and opened the door to expansion. One gunpowder siege rewrote the map.

• A new empire in Persia declares itself Shia Muslim — and its neighbors (the Sunni Ottomans, the Sunni Mughals) see this as a direct slap in the face. One religious declaration triggers decades of war. Who made this choice, and why was it so provocative?

  Shah Ismail of the Safavid Empire, who enforced Shia Islam by the sword. He didn't just adopt it — he slaughtered Sunnis who resisted, turning theology into a political confrontation with every neighbor.

• The Safavid Empire has no mountains, no rivers — nothing to stop an invading army. Shah Abbas's solution: build an army of enslaved Christians from the Caucasus, arm them with gunpowder weapons, and make them loyal ONLY to him. Sound familiar?

  It should — the Ottomans did the same with janissaries. Two rival empires independently found that enslaved outsiders make the most loyal soldiers: no competing loyalties to local nobles or families.

• You're a Muslim emperor ruling India — but 80% of your subjects are Hindu. Previous Muslim rulers tried to force conversion and failed miserably. You try something radical: tolerance. It works. Who are you?

  Emperor Akbar of the Mughal Empire, who won Hindus through tolerance. He tolerated all religions instead of fighting the majority, and with smart administration and gunpowder built the century's richest empire.

• In 1526, a Central Asian warlord named Babur uses gunpowder cannons to smash the Delhi Sultanate and conquer northern India. His GRANDSON then turns the conquest into the most prosperous empire of the century. What's the empire, and what's the grandson's strategy?

  The Mughal Empire — Babur conquered it, Akbar consolidated it. Babur won territory with gunpowder force; his grandson Akbar kept it with tolerance, bureaucracy, and cultural adaptation to a Hindu majority.

• China celebrates getting rid of foreign Mongol rulers and restoring native Han Chinese control under the Ming Dynasty. Then history repeats: ANOTHER group of outsiders invades from the north and takes over. Who are they, and why is this ironic?

  The Manchu people, who established the Qing Dynasty in 1636. The irony: China went from celebrating native rule (Ming) to being conquered by outsiders (Manchu) — AGAIN. Just like the Mongols before them, the Manchu faced constant tension with the Han majority who saw them as foreign invaders.

+ 37 more AP World History: Modern cards in the app.

Key terms in Unit 3

These 12 terms show up in the Unit 3 cards. Each one links to its definition in the AP World History: Modern key-term reference.

• Akbar
• Byzantine Empire
• Delhi Sultanate
• devshirme
• gunpowder empires
• Hinduism
• Islam
• Janissaries
• Mughal Empire
• printing press
• Protestant Reformation
• Safavid Empire