Section II

100 Minutes 2

Questions

1. 1. Question 1: Document-Based Question

      Suggested reading period: 15 minutes

      Suggested writing time: 45 minutes

   2. Directions 

      Question 1 is based on the accompanying documents. The documents have been edited for the purpose of this exercise.

      In your response you should do the following.

      • Present a thesis statement
      • Develop and support a complex argument
      • Utilize at least six of the accompanying documents
      • Explain the significance of the author's point of view, purpose, historical context, and/or audience for at least four of the documents
      • Situate the argument in its broader historical context 
      • Provide an example or additional piece of specific evidence 
      • Extend the argument by explaining the connections between the argument and a theme that is not the focus of the essay, or between the argument and a development in a different historical period, situation, era, or geographic location.

   1. Analyze the processes associated with empire building in the Americas, Africa, and Asia from the early sixteenth century to the early twentieth century.

      Document 1

      Source: Nzinga Mbemba (Afonso I), King of Kongo, letter to the King of Portugal, 1526

      Sir, Your Highness should know that our Kingdom is being lost and it is necessary for you to act, since this is caused by the excessive freedom given to your agents and officials who come to our Kingdom to set up shops that sell goods that have been prohibited by us, and which are spread throughout our Kingdom to our vassals, whom we had in obedience, and who now do not comply because they have things in greater abundance than we ourselves; and it was with these things that we had them content and subjected under our control, so it is doing a great harm not only to the service of God, but the security and peace of our Kingdoms and State as well . . . .

      That is why we beg of Your Highness to assist us by commanding your country’s traders that they should not send either merchants or wares to Kongo . . . . Pray Our Lord in His mercy to have Your Highness under His guard and let you do forever the things of His service. I kiss your hands many times . . . .

      From: The Human Record: Sources of Global History, vol. 1 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2009), p. 433.

      Document 2

      Source: Drawing by native artist of Spanish and their native allies fighting the Aztecs, General History of the Things of New Spain, 1585

      

      Document 3

      Source: Population estimates for Puerto Rico by ethnicity

      Year	Europeans	Free Blacks	Mulattos*	Black Slaves	Natives
      1530	10%	0%	0%	53.6%	36.4%
      1600	55.6%	0%	16.6%	27.8%
      1775	40.4%	3.9%	46.7%	9%
      1795	38.4%	8.6%	34.5%	16%	2.5%
      1815	47%	6.8%	36.9%	9.3%
      1860	51.5%	41.3%		7.3%

      *people of mixed race

      From: “The Politics of Taíno Revivalism,” Gabriel Haslip-Viera

      Document 4

      Source: François Bernier, physician, An Account of India and the Great Moghul, France, 1665

      Your Majesty, you have seen the maps of Asia and how great is the extent of the empire of the Great Mogul,* which is commonly called India . . . .

      There are more than an hundred rajahs, or sovereigns, dispersed through the whole empire; . . . amongst whom there are about fifteen or sixteen that are very rich and powerful; . . . each of them is able in a very short time to raise and bring into the field twenty-five thousand horses, and better troops than the Mogul’s . . . .

      The Mogul is obliged to keep these rajahs in his service for several reasons: first, because the militia of the rajahs is very good and because there are rajahs who can bring into the field above twenty-five thousand men; second, to make sure all of the rajahs pay tribute, and serve in the army when the Mogul requires it; third, the Mogul may choose to nourish jealousies among them to keep them from organizing against him. This last tactic is done so that they will fight with one another very frequently.

      *Mughal emperor

      http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/india/1655bernier.asp

      Document 5

      Source: Harry Verelst, Governor of Bengal for Britain’s East India Company, Letter to the company’s Board of Directors in London, Delhi, India, 1769

      The coming of the English to power in the Hindostan province of India occurred through a number of events distinguished by a series of fortunate and unforeseen occurrences; not the result of any fixed or connected plan. A colony of merchants influenced by principles of commerce, have acquired a political title and influence over the land, which in size, population, and revenue from trade may be compared to many of the most powerful states of Europe . . . . We see the increasing poverty of the country from the lack of circulation of money throughout. Since we have become governors here, however, the new policies we have made are designed to restore the equality of commerce, and the spirit of monopoly, promoted by the natives, shall be destroyed.

      Document 6

      Source: Winston Churchill, excerpt from The River War: An Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan on the British-Sudanese Battle of Omdurman, 1899

      The moment was critical. It appeared to our cavalry commander that the Dervishes^* would actually succeed, and their success would involve the total destruction of our corps of Camel cavalry. That could not, of course, be allowed . . . .

      But at the critical moment our gunboat arrived . . . and began suddenly to blaze and flame from Maxim [machine] guns, quick-firing guns, and rifles. The range was short; the effect tremendous . . . . The river slopes of the Kerreri Hills, crowded with the advancing thousands of enemy forces, sprang up into clouds of dust and splinters of rock. The charging Dervishes sank down in tangled heaps. Even the masses in their rear paused. It was too much fire even for those in the back of their formation. The approach of another gunboat completed their fear. Our Camel Corps, hurrying along the shore, slipped past the fatal point of interception, and found safety.

      *Sudanese fighters

      http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1898churchill-omdurman.asp

      Document 7

      Source: Kisaburō Ohara, student, Keio University Japan, “A Humorous Diplomatic Atlas of Europe and Asia,” 1904

      

      English text reads in part: Black Octopus is the name newly given to Russia by a prominent Englishman. For the black octopus is so greedy that it stretches out its eight arms in all directions, and seizes everything that comes within its reach.

      Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:9s161c15w

2. 1. Question 2, Question 3, OR Question 4: LONG ESSAY QUESTION

      Suggested writing time: 40 minutes

   2. Directions

      Choose Question 2, Question 3, OR Question 4 to answer. 

      In your response you should do the following.

      • Present a thesis statement
      • Apply AP History Reasoning Skills as directed by the question
        
      • Utilize specific examples of historical evidence to support the thesis, and explain relationships among the evidence. 
      • Extend the argument by explaining the connections between the argument and either: a development in a different historical period, situation, era, or geographic location; or a theme/approach to history that is not the focus of the essay.

   2. Analyze the similarities and differences in the spread of Buddhism and the spread of Christianity between 600 B.C.E. and 600 C.E.

   3. Analyze the similarities and differences in the spread of Christianity and the spread of Islam between 100 C.E. and 1450 C.E.

   4. Analyze the similarities and differences in the spread of ideas/information before the end of World War I (1914–1918 C.E.) and after the end of World War I.

END OF SECTION II