World History

Explore comprehensive lessons, activities, and resources covering major eras and civilizations in global history.

Teach Arcade’s World History collection is organized by unit so you can plan instruction from early civilizations through the contemporary world. Each unit page curates free classroom resources—lesson plans, worksheets, primary sources, guided notes, review games, projects, and DBQ-style document analysis activities—designed to support historical thinking and strong writing.

Use these units for stations, inquiry lessons, unit reviews, sub days, or skill practice (sourcing, contextualization, corroboration, and argumentation). Whether you teach a standards-based world history course or a themed global studies class, the goal here is simple: organized, teacher-friendly resources without paywalls.

Choose a unit below to jump into a curated set of materials for that era—then use the topic pages to search by title and filter by resource type.

Early Humans & River Valley Civilizations

Prehistory, human migration, and the first civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley, and ancient China.

Ancient Greece

City-states, democracy, philosophy, art, and warfare in the Greek world.

Ancient Rome

The Roman Republic and Empire, law, engineering, culture, and the fall of Rome.

Classical India & Early East Asia

The Maurya and Gupta Empires, early Chinese dynasties, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.

Mesoamerican & Andean Civilizations

Pre-Columbian civilizations in Central and South America, including the Maya, Aztec, and Inca.

Medieval Europe

Feudalism, the power of the Church, the Crusades, and the Black Death.

Byzantine Empire & Islamic World

Constantinople, Eastern Roman legacy, and the rise and spread of Islam and major caliphates.

African Civilizations

Kingdoms and empires across Africa, trade networks, and cultural achievements.

East Asia: China & Japan

Later Chinese dynasties, Mongol rule, and feudal Japan with samurai and shoguns.

Renaissance & Reformation

Humanism, art and literature, the printing revolution, and religious change in Europe.

Age of Exploration & Colonialism

European voyages of discovery, colonization of the Americas, and the Columbian Exchange.

Enlightenment & Scientific Revolution

New ideas about government, rights, and science that reshaped societies around the world.

Revolutions Era (Europe & Latin America)

The French and Haitian Revolutions, and independence movements across Latin America.

Industrial Revolution

Industrialization, urbanization, labor conditions, and new economic systems.

Imperialism & Global Change

European imperialism in Africa and Asia, resistance, and changing global power structures.

World War I

Causes of the war, trench warfare, total war, and the Treaty of Versailles.

World War II

Global conflict between the Axis and Allies, the Holocaust, and the war’s aftermath.

Cold War & Decolonization

U.S.–Soviet rivalry, proxy wars, nuclear tension, and independence movements worldwide.

Globalization & Contemporary World

Modern conflicts, global organizations, technology, the environment, and an interconnected world.