Patterns of World History
Unpack the structural forces that built our modern world. Trace how energy transitions, trade networks, ecological shocks, and institutional shifts steered the human journey from deep prehistory to globalized modernity.
Like Duolingo, but for Patterns of World History. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
21 levels across 3 sections, about 42 minutes end to end, roughly 8 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Settlement and the Mechanics of Early Power, Networks of Convergence and Ecological Shock, and The Machinery of the Modern World. It assumes you already know the basics.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Patterns of World History
- Farming yields dramatically more calories per acre than foraging ranges
- Higher food yields enabled higher population densities despite poorer individual health
- Dense populations outcompeted or absorbed neighboring mobile forager bands
- Cereal crops ripen predictably all at once in visible above-ground fields
- Dry grain grains can be divided, transported, and stored long-term in state granaries
- Root tubers can be left hidden underground and harvested piecemeal to evade seizure
- Zoonotic pathogens jumped from domesticated cattle, pigs, and fowl to humans
- Permanent settlements accumulated untreated fecal waste that contaminated water sources
- High settlement population density allowed infectious crowd diseases to persist
- Fixed land boundaries enabled families to monopolize prime arable soil
- Clear title and clearing labor turned land into inheritable private property
- Wealth accumulation across generations replaced egalitarian band norms
- River floods deposited fertile silt but required large-scale drainage canals
- Maintaining irrigation ditches across multiple villages required coordinated scheduling
- Logistical management of public works consolidated authority into permanent state bodies
- Earliest cuneiform tablets record commodity receipts like grain and beer rations
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Patterns of World History the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
Early farmers suffered worse individual health than foragers. Why did farming villages still grow so fast?
Get it right to open this lesson and 20 more in the app.
Where Patterns of World History takes you
- 1
Settlement and the Mechanics of Early Power
- Decoding the Agricultural Revolution
- The Architecture of Early States and Axial Thought
- 2
Networks of Convergence and Ecological Shock
- Trade Corridors and Cultural Transmission
- The Columbian Exchange and Global Integration
- 3
The Machinery of the Modern World
- The Fossil Fuel Shift and Industrial Power
- The Nation-State and Ideological Confrontation
- The Great Acceleration and Global Interdependence
3 sections · 7 units · 21 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Patterns of World History is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Patterns of World History today.
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