World history
- Free
- No certificate
World history on Khan Academy is a nine-unit survey from the first humans to the present day. It opens with Origins of History, which looks at history stories, history frames, and history and memory, then moves through Early Humans (250,000 BP to 3000 BCE), Early Agrarian Societies (6000 BCE to 100 CE), Empires and Belief Systems (600 BCE to 700 CE) and Regional Webs (200 to 1500 CE). The later units cover The First Global Age (1200 to 1750), The Long Nineteenth Century (1750 to 1914), Global Conflict (1914 to 1991) and Globalization (1900 to the present).
The page lists 74 skills tracked from Not started to Mastered, each unit ends with a unit test, and a course challenge covers the whole course. As with every Khan Academy course it is free, has no paid features and awards no certificate. No duration is stated, so you can follow the chronology or drop into a single era.
What you’ll learn
- Explain how historians frame and remember the past
- Describe early humans and the first agrarian societies
- Compare empires and belief systems from 600 BCE to 700 CE
- Trace regional webs, the first global age and the long nineteenth century
- Analyze global conflict in the twentieth century and globalization to the present
Who it’s for
Students taking a world history course and adult readers who want a structured, big-picture history with practice questions. Not for anyone who needs a certificate.
Source: Khan Academy (opens in a new tab) · Verified · Report a change
More free Khan Academy courses
Every Khan Academy course we have verified, with cost and certificate terms compared.
HistoryAll free history courses
Free and free-to-audit history courses from every provider, ranked.