This quick skill-building activity is intended to help you understand what is being asked of you when you’re presented with historical prompts, particularly those you’ll encounter in assessment prompts such as document-based questions (DBQs) and long essay questions (LEQs).

In this activity, you’re going to learn how to parse a prompt. What is parsing a prompt? It’s the process of analyzing a string of words. Or, put more simply, it’s trying to figure out what something—in this case a historical prompt—is saying and asking.

For the majority of historical prompts you encounter, you’ll be asked to do five things, so a LOT is packed into these sentences. Here are the five things— keep in mind, most if not all of these elements should be included in your thesis statements:

1. Periodization – What’s the timeframe referred to in the prompt?
2. Location – Where in the world this is happening?
3. Topic – What is the main topic being explored?
4. Historical reasoning practice – Which of these three historical reasoning practices are you being asked to use: comparison, causation, or CCOT?
5. Composition – What type of essay are you writing (for example, is it expository or argumentative)?

Note that although there are historical thinking practices in addition to comparison, causation, and CCOT, those other practices are included in every response you’ll give to every historical prompt, so there’s no need to mention them. (In case you need reminding, those other practices are contextualization, claim testing, and sourcing.)

Now that you have that background, take out the Question Parsing Tool and write down the following prompt: Analyze continuities and changes in trade networks between Africa and Eurasia from c. 300 CE to 1450 CE. Walk through the process with your teacher, and fill out the tool as you go. If you get confused, don’t hesitate to ask questions—this is a tricky process, but you’ll surely master it with a little practice!

The Afro-Eurasian trade system of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was the largest integrated commercial network in the world at the time. It helped with the exchange of products, people, knowledge, technologies—and germs. One view of this system is that it consisted of many smaller networks linked up into a massive network. This article describes that view of this period.

This article will give you information about different trade centers across Afro-Eurasia in the thirteenth and early fourteenth century, at the beginning of this era. This is before their collapse due to the Black Death. This information will help you respond to the unit problem, which asks you to compare networks of exchange in various parts of the world.

Think about the following question as you read the article: To what extent does this article explain the causes and effects of the growth of networks of exchange after 1200? Write this question at the top of the Three Close Reads worksheet. You will be asked to respond to this question again after the third read in the Evaluating and Corroborating section of the worksheet.

Read 1—Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads Worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Read 2—Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. Why is the Afro-Eurasian system of long-distance trade described as an archipelago?
2. What was the effect of the Mongol Empire on trade?
3. What role did this regional trade network play in helping Johannes Gutenberg create his printing press?
4. What impact did annual fairs have on the European economy?
5. What was one negative effect of interconnected trade?

Read 3—Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. To what extent does this article explain the causes and effects of the growth of networks of exchange after 1200?
2. This article is about economic systems in Afro-Eurasia. Which Afro-Eurasians does it leave out? Whose experiences of trade, production, and distribution are not included in the article?
3. Given what you have already learned about the Mongol Empire, do you think the view of the Afro-Eurasian system as an “archipelago” makes sense?

We might think of the Afro-Eurasian trading system as an archipelago of trade—a chain of overlapping trade circuits and trading cities. In the thirteenth century, England was at the far end of this archipelago of trade. England’s most valuable trade good was wool, which it exported to Western Europe and the Mediterranean. The best wool in Europe came from England, and England’s economy ran on wool. The wool trade helped empower an English merchant class. By the fourteenth century, these merchants organized into a guild that gave them more power and privileges in English society.

The Unit 2 problem asks you to consider how patterns of exchange connected societies and to compare and contrast these patterns in various regions around the world. England might have been at the far corner of Afro-Eurasia during this period, but wool made England a key part of regional trade networks. This video provides you with evidence at the local and national level to evaluate the impacts of the wool trade on England’s connections to other regions and its growing interconnections with the rest of the world. By examining merchant guilds, the video also helps you understand how dynamics within these networks shifted over time.

Think about the following question as you watch the video: To what extent does this article support your understanding of the causes and effects of the growth of networks of exchange after 1200? You will be asked to respond to this question again at the end of the video.

Preview—Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key Ideas—Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. How do Nick and Trevor describe the Afro-Eurasian trade system in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries?
2. Why did people in Flanders and northern Italy buy English wool?
3. Who produced wool in England?
4. How did the wool trade empower the merchant classes? What role did guilds play in this process?
5. Why was wool important for England?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. To what extent does this article support your understanding of the causes and effects of the growth of networks of exchange after 1200?
2. English wool is one example of a local good that was traded across extensive regional networks. The trade reshaped both economic systems as well as governance in England and across Western Europe. Can you think of anything that is or was once made in your community? Where does that good get distributed? Who produces it? How does that industry affect your community, and how do you think it impacts other places?
3. Think about how you might tell the story of the Worshipful Company of Woolmen differently through the lens of different AP themes. How were they a community? What impacts did they have on economic systems in England and the larger region?

In this activity, you will read travel accounts from thirteenth- and fourteenth-century missionaries and merchants, and then write a postcard from the perspective of one of them. This will help you practice the skill of avoiding presentism and having historical empathy. Furthermore, reviewing these travel accounts will help you better understand exchange networks at this time, and the communities that gathered around them.

Sourcing
To gain a solid understanding and realistic perspective of each traveler, you will have to source the travel accounts documents, identifying the intention and purpose of each account.

In this activity, you are going to read some primary source excerpts about travelers from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Then, you will create a postcard from one of these travelers to someone back home, describing their travel experiences. You will be asked to share your postcard with the class.

There are six travelers included in “Travelers’ Accounts Excerpts”. Your teacher will assign you a traveler from this list:

1. Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, a Florentine merchant
2. Friar Odoric, also known as Odoric of Pordenone, a Franciscan friar and missionary explorer
3. Rabban Sawma and Rabban Markos, Nestorian Chinese monks
   • Note: you can write the postcard from the perspective of one or the other or both.
4. Marjory Kempe, an English Christian mystic and traveler
5. Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan scholar and explorer
6. Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant

Once you know which traveler you will learn more about, use the Sourcing Tool to unpack your traveler’s account. Once you have done that, create a postcard using the template. On the left side of the postcard, draw an image that shows what the traveler saw or experienced. On the right side of the postcard write a letter home that explains the following:

1. Where they traveled.
2. What they have seen (for example: new religions, new trade items, new cities).
3. Any new knowledge or items they acquired.
4. How they impacted the cities they visited.

Once you are done with your postcard, be prepared to share yours with your class. Since there will be multiple postcards from the same people, make sure to compare the similarities and differences and discuss how you and your classmates might have interpreted the same accounts differently. Remember that in using primary source documents and interpreting history, it’s not at all unusual to come up with different interpretations of the same thing! This is one of the reasons history is interesting and also sometimes difficult to interpret and use!

In this final vocab activity of the unit, as with all of the final vocab activities in each unit, you will engage in a deeper exploration of the unit’s vocabulary. You’ll move beyond defining words to representing them in a variety of ways, including acting them out, drawing pictures, defining them in sentences, providing antonyms, and connecting them to course content.

Your teacher will give you a vocab card. Once everyone in the class has their cards, hold your card up to your forehead (with the word facing out), and try to find the other students in the room that have synonyms of your card. You and your synonyms are a group.

Now, you’re going to play a few rounds of the Word Wheel Game. The Word Wheel game works like this:

• Your teacher spins the wheel and calls out the action.
• For each spin, one person in your group has to complete the action related to where the spinner has landed. The actions are as follows for each word:
  • Use it in a sentence
    • Come up with a sentence that uses the word.
  • Think of an antonym
    • Come up with a word that is the opposite of the card you have.
  • Draw it
    • Create a quick sketch of the word.
  • Act it out
    • Act out the definition of the word. (Don’t just act out the word itself!)
  • Explain how your word relates to course content.
    • Relate your word to an activity, a lesson, a concept, the Unit Problem, or even one of the practices. This one can be hard!
  • You choose!
    • You can do any of the above.
• You and the rest of the people in your group determine if the student whose turn it was gave a correct answer. If your group can’t decide, ask your teacher to help.
• Each time a student gets a correct answer, they get a point.
• Then, the teacher spins the wheel again and it’s the next person’s turn to go.
• Once all of the words in the group have been explained (after two or three rounds), your teacher will collect the cards, shuffle them, and redistribute them. Repeat the process as many times as your teacher says!

The Sahara Desert might not seem much like a body of water, but this sea of sand carried goods and people across its expanse for centuries. From 1200 to 1450 CE, an extensive network of trade routes, merchants, and pastoralists connected the communities within and surrounding the desert. Pastoralists mastered camel riding, allowing them to transport trading caravans from West Africa to the Mediterranean. Salt, gold, and enslaved people were all transported along these routes, encouraging the spread of technology and Islam.

Unit 2 focuses on the role of networks of exchange in transforming societies. The trans-Saharan trade is often overlooked as an important trading system. This article will provide you with evidence to evaluate the impact of trade in transforming West African and Mediterranean societies. It will also help you contextualize this regional trading system as part of larger networks in Afro-Eurasia during this period. In the last unit, we focused on communities during this same period. As you read, keep an eye out for how networks like the trans-Saharan routes impacted the development of and interactions between different cultures.

Think about the following question as you read the article: Explain the extent to which this article describes how the expansion of empires influenced trade and communication over time. Write this question at the top of the Three Close Reads worksheet. You will be asked to respond to this question again after the third read in the Evaluating and Corroborating section of the worksheet.

Read 1—Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Read 2—Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What was the “ship of the desert,” and what made it so important to the trans-Saharan trade?
2. Why were pastoralists important to the trans-Saharan trade?
3. The author argues that these trade routes reached their peak from the twelfth to fifteenth centuries. What changes caused this?
4. Why did the rulers of West African kingdoms regulate the movement of merchants through their territory?
5. The author argues that, though Islam arrived in West Africa before this period, local religions remained important long after its arrival. Why was this?

Read 3—Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. Explain the extent to which this article describes how the expansion of empires influenced trade and communication over time.
2. Take a look at a global map and think about the several different networks described in this unit. The trans-Saharan trade connects West Africa to North Africa and the Mediterranean. How do you think these trade routes were connected to other networks in Afro-Eurasia?
3. Make a list of the different kinds of communities that were connected by this network. How did their involvement in this trade impact their cultural development? How about their economic systems?

The regular, predictable monsoon winds of the Indian Ocean helped create an extensive network of merchants and trading ports. Diverse trade goods and peoples traveled through the many port cities of the Indian Ocean. This trading system was the engine of trade in Afro-Eurasia and helped spread new ideas and technologies around the world. Large empires were an important part of this system, as Islamic and Chinese empires helped launch an expansion of the trade. But the Indian Ocean trade was also remarkably peaceful, with these empires generally allowing merchants a free hand in the ocean.

This unit focuses on the role of networks of exchange in transforming societies in the period c. 1200–1450. The Indian Ocean trading system was arguably the most important in the world. Like the Silk Roads, the Indian Ocean routes linked China’s manufacturing centers and the spice islands of Southeast Asia to the Western Indian Ocean, East Africa, and the Mediterranean. This article will provide evidence to evaluate the impact of oceanic trade in transforming Afro-Eurasian societies. It will also help you contextualize this sea-based trading system alongside other, land-based networks in Afro-Eurasia during this period.

Think about the following question as you read the article: To what extent does this article explain the role of environmental factors in the development of networks of exchange in the period from c. 1200 to 1450? Write this question at the top of the Three Close Reads worksheet. You will be asked to respond to this question again after the third read in the Evaluating and Corroborating section of the worksheet.

Read 1—Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Read 2—Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What enabled the vast trading system of the Indian Ocean? How?
2. Where were the busiest ports in the Indian Ocean? Why?
3. How did the rise of empires help expand the trade?
4. The author argues that the most important factor driving trade was cultural. What does he mean?
5. What important aspect of the Indian Ocean trade does the author say are highlighted by the Zheng He voyages?

Read 3—Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. To what extent does this article explain the role of environmental factors in the development of networks of exchange in the period from c. 1200 to 1450?
2. You have examined other trading systems in this unit. How was the Indian Ocean trade different or similar to these other networks? How did the sea-based nature of these routes differentiate the Indian Ocean trade from land-based networks?
3. The author argues that the Indian Ocean was the most important trading system in the world during this period. What evidence can you find in this article and others to support or challenge this claim?

Zheng He is “world history” famous as the admiral whose voyages from China to Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and even East Africa, demonstrate a thriving Indian Ocean world before the coming of Europeans. Usually, his massive fleets are depicted as largely peaceful trading voyages. Some scholars, however, argue that they were violent acts of Ming Dynasty empire-building. His biography helps us understand why this debate is important.

We learn about Zheng He because we are studying connections and networks among countries and people in this era, which were quite extensive. Zheng He’s expeditions may have been the largest organized missions of this era, and they crossed long distances. Thus, we get a sense of just how connected large parts of the Afro-Eurasian world were in this era. However, how should we describe these connections? What did they mean? How did they work? This biography helps raise (and maybe answer) some important questions about these voyages.

Read 1: Observe

As you read this graphic biography for the first time, review the Read 1: Observe section of your Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios Tool. Be sure to record one question in the thought bubble on the top-right. You don’t need to write anything else down. However, if you’d like to record your observations, feel free to do so on scrap paper.

Read 2: Understand

On the tool, summarize the main idea of the comic and provide two pieces of evidence that helped you understand the creator’s main idea. You can do this only in writing or you can get creative with some art. Some of the evidence you find may come in the form of text (words). But other evidence will come in the form of art (images). You should read the text looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the main idea, and key supporting details. You should also spend some time looking at the images and the way in which the page is designed. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. How did Zheng He come to have three names?
2. What did Zheng He do as the admiral of the Ming Dynasty?
3. How does Xu Zu-Yuan describe these journeys, and how does this contrast to later Portuguese expeditions in this region?
4. How does Geoff Wade describe these journeys, and what is his evidence?
5. How does the artist use art and design to contrast and illustrate the two big theories about Zheng He’s voyages?

Read 3: Connect

In this read, you should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in this unit of the course. On the bottom of the tool, record what you learned about this person’s life and how it relates to what you’re learning.

1. To what extent does this article explain how the expansion of empires influenced trade and communication over time?
2. How does this biography of Zheng He support, extend, or challenge what you have learned about connections across Afro-Eurasia in this period?

To Be Continued…

On the second page of the tool, your teacher might ask you to extend the graphic biography to a second page. This is where you can draw and write what you think might come next. Here, you can become a co-creator of this graphic biography!

From 850 to 1150 CE, an Indigenous American people called the Ancestral Pueblo made Chaco Canyon the center of their cultural world. For hundreds of miles in every direction, other communities emulated the ideas and architecture of Chaco. Archaeologists have found surprising evidence of long-distance trade networks linking Chaco Canyon with societies thousands of miles away. Why did the Ancestral Puebloans choose to live in Chaco Canyon, and how did they learn to thrive in this challenging environment? To find answers to these questions, we spoke with archaeologist Kurt Anschuetz and Brian Vallo, the former governor of Acoma Pueblo.

This video provides you with evidence to evaluate state formation and long-distance trade in the Americas. It will help you respond to the Unit Problem by providing new details on the development of complex societies and the ways they interacted with each other. Finally, by listening to interviews with an archaeologist and a Pueblo leader, you will gain an understanding of how this history remains important to descendent communities today.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Remember to open and skim the transcript, and then read the questions below before you watch the video.

Key Ideas – Factual

Think about the following questions as you watch this video.

1. What sorts of buildings were constructed at Chaco Canyon and who built them?
2. What are kivas and what are outliers?
3. How many people lived in the Chaco Canyon region? Why did this number change?
4. According to Kurt Anschuetz, why is it wrong to think of Chaco as a center?
5. According to Kurt Anschuetz, why is it important that some Pueblo peoples today describe themselves as being “of Chaco”?
6. According to Brian Vallo, what sort of trade and long-distance connections did the people at Chaco Canyon have?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. How was Chaco Canyon similar to other complex societies you’re learning about? How was it different?
2. All three speakers in this video argue that the history and memory of Chaco Canyon remains important to Pueblo communities in the present. Can you think of other histories or historical sites that have similar importance for people today in other parts of the world?

In this simulation, you will learn how the Silk Roads connected Afro-Eurasian societies through the exchange of goods. The Silk Roads represented one of the first steps toward globalization, economically and culturally tying together communities from different continents and regions. By actively participating as merchants in the Silk Roads simulation, you will witness firsthand how goods and services were moved across regions and discover why individuals took financial and personal risks in order to make a profit. You will also discover how the Silk Roads affected states, economic systems, culture, and innova, and led to an increase in networks of exchange across Afro-Eurasia.

In this activity, you will take part in three rounds of a simulation that should help you better understand the Silk Road and the impact it had on the communities of Afro-Eurasia.

You are going to act like merchants on the Silk Road. Over the course of three rounds, you will engage in trade with different regions to get a better sense of what it was like to be a part of this new, global system. The ultimate goal is for you to try to collect the most technologies, beliefs, and goods that originated outside of your home region.

Before you are assigned a region or goods to trade, your teacher will give you a quick overview of the trading zones and regions that will be involved in the simulation, as well as a preview of the different types of goods that each region has. Make sure to pay attention to this part—you will eventually be trying to trade for goods that other regions have so it’s good to preview what you might be trying to trade for. Once you’ve previewed, get into your regional groups.

Round 1–Within Group Trading

Read Regional Guide Card #1 in your small groups, and take a few minutes to trade. While you can’t collect anything from outside your home region for this round, you should be thinking about diversifying what you have so your basic needs are met. After a few minutes of trading, discuss the questions on Regional Guide Card #1. Then, discuss the following questions with your whole class:

1. Do you have everything you need to survive?
2. Do you have “extras” or luxury goods?

Round 2—Within Group and Next-Door Group Trading

Now, you can trade within your group and with the other group in your trade zone. You are not allowed to trade with groups outside of your trade zone. Your teacher will give you about five minutes for this round of trading. Don’t forget to try to get rid of your disease card, if you have one. Once you’re done trading, your teacher will hand out Regional Guide Card #2 to you. Read the contents and discuss the questions with your regional group. Then, discuss the following questions with your class:

1. Do you have everything you need to survive?
2. Do you have “extras” or luxury goods?
3. Was the trading difficult? Did you have trouble with communication?
4. Was it expensive or cheap? Have you been trading one for one, or trying to work out better deals?
5. Did you encounter new challenges?
6. What new things did you learn about your world?

Round 3—Multi-Regional Trade Using Intermediaries

For this round, trade has expanded and you can now trade with regions that are further away, but you cannot leave your own trade zone and will have to use intermediaries to help you trade (for example, the next-door groups can help with groups that are farther away). It was rare for any merchant to travel the entire Silk Road. Take about five minutes to trade. Once time is up, return to your home region and separate your cards on the table. Count the number of items on your table that did not originate from your home region and write down this number. Then, your teacher will give you Regional Guide Card #3. Take a few minutes to adjust your totals based on the directions on the card and also to answer the questions on the card. Then, discuss the following questions with your class:

1. Do you have what you need to survive?
2. Do you have “extras” or luxury goods?
3. Was it difficult? Did you have trouble with communication?
4. Were the goods cheap or expensive?
5. Did you encounter new challenges?
6. How did empires both help and hinder trading?
7. What new things did you learn about your world?

Wrapping Up

Now that the simulation is done, it’s time to share your final point totals to see how everyone fared. You’ll wrap up one of two ways: Either you’ll answer these questions in class or your teacher will have you answer them for homework:

• What is the purpose of passing the disease cards with each exchange?
• How would religions and beliefs actually have been transferred between the regions?
• How did the Silk Road impact states at this time in history?
• How did the Silk Road impact economic systems at this time in history?
• How did the Silk Road impact innovation at this time in history?

Three colors of highlighters

Some of the SAQs on the AP World History examination includes a primary source: either a text excerpt, an image, a map, or some data. Sourcing these excerpts can be difficult—it’s hard to produce enough accurate factual knowledge to respond completely to SAQ prompts. This activity introduces you to the SAQ Practice Tool, which is a 4-step method that gives you a process you can use when conducting historical analysis while answering SAQs. You will practice this 4-step method throughout the year in preparation for the AP^® World History: Modern exam.

In this activity, you will be introduced to the SAQ Practice Tool, which is a 4-step process for responding to SAQs that include a primary source.

Start by taking out the SAQ Practice Tool. As a class, you are going to work through a 4-step process that will help you expertly respond to SAQs. The steps of the process are: 1) Rewrite the prompt, 2) Review the content, 3) Analyze and annotate, and 4) Answer the prompt. For SAQs that don’t include a source, you’ll just skip the third step in the process.

First, rewrite the following prompts in your own words:

• Prompt A: Identify ONE innovation that facilitated trade in the Indian Ocean network in the period c. 1200 to 1450 CE.
• Prompt B: Explain ONE political factor that influenced trade in the Indian Ocean network in the period c. 1200 to 1450 CE.
• Prompt C: Explain ONE cultural factor that influenced trade in the Indian Ocean network in the period c. 1200 to 1450 CE.

Second, it’s time to start thinking about how to respond to the prompts. While it’s tempting to first look at the source provided along with the prompts, you will probably find more success if you first try to recall what you already know about the topic so that the source doesn’t limit your thinking. To do this, organize your review using the AP themes. For this activity, you are asked to recall what you remember about Indian Ocean trade in terms of innovation, politics, and culture. Go through each of these themes with your class and add historical details you remember in the tool. As needed, you can go back into Unit 2 to review, but remember that on the exam, you will not be able to do this! But for now, the process is the most important thing to focus on.

Once you’ve organized what you remember into the themes, it’s now time to move onto Step 3—analyze and annotate the source! As a class, you are going to read through the source and try to identify any factors that may have helped trade in the Indian Ocean network. As you work through the source, each time you identify a factor, see if you can connect it to one of the themes from Step 2. When you do, highlight that section of text with the corresponding highlight color from Step 2.

Now it’s time to answer the prompts. Using the ideas your class came up with in Step 2, along with the annotations from Step 3, you should be just about ready to construct your responses. First, look at the highlighted paragraph to see how the themes align to each prompt. Try to see if you can match the specific theme/evidence to each of the prompts. Choose the theme that will help you construct the strongest response to each prompt.

And don’t forget to use ACE when you write your response: A – answer the prompt/make a claim; C – cite evidence; and E – explain how the evidence supports the claim (often referred to as reasoning). Your teacher will walk you through constructing a response. To wrap up, review the SAQ Practice Tool’s 4-step process with your class and be sure to ask any questions you have—you will be using this tool all year so the sooner you get comfortable with it, the better.

You practice testing claims a lot in this course. You make claims as well, often within the context of writing assignments. This activity gives you the opportunity to practice making claims, which will help you make strong historical arguments both verbally and in writing.

Claim testing
In many ways, claim testing is really shorthand for “making and testing claims.” In this activity, you will practice your claim-making skills.

This is a quick activity where you’re asked to make two claims about why networks expanded during this era. Today you’re just making claims, but you’ll be making counterclaims in similar activities later in the course!

First, review the articles in this lesson (use the Three Close Reads worksheet, if your teacher asks you to). Then, in pairs or small groups, write two claims about why networks expanded during this period. For each claim, find two pieces of evidence that support it. You should be able to support your claims using course materials, but your teacher might ask you to use the Internet, as well.

Be prepared to share your claims at the end of class. Note that most if not all of these claims are causal claims. Historical claims often relate to historical thinking practices such as causation, CCOT, and comparison. You should consider the types of historical claims you want to make when you respond to a particular type of historical question.