KC-4.1.V

Definition

This is a key concept in the AP World History curriculum that focuses on the role of disease in human history, particularly how it has shaped social and political developments.

Analogy

Think of KC-4.1.V as a detective investigating a crime scene. The crime scene is our world history, and the culprits are diseases. Just like detectives use clues to piece together what happened at a crime scene, we use historical evidence to understand how diseases have impacted societies throughout history.

Related terms

Epidemiology: The study of how often diseases occur in different groups of people and why.

Pandemic: An outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population.

Bubonic Plague: A highly infectious and often deadly disease that has affected humans throughout history, most famously during the Black Death in Europe during the Middle Ages.