All students are capable of getting a 3 out of a 5 on the thematic and DBQ essay addressing
the task and developing a well -organized essay which provides sufficient and/or adequate
evidence and descriptive and slightly analytical support. You are better than that!!!! You
just need to explore the subject material more and write until you have exhausted all of
your knowledge skills and materials ( leave it all out on the field or testing room). The
following themes have traditionally been utilized on both DBQ and thematic essays. The
graphic organizer will allow you to provide insightful background information to be
utilized in the introduction and conclusion and your examples will provide knowledge of
theme to be utilized as examples, details, evidence etc. on a thematic or , perhaps, as
outside information for the DBQ. Please utilize thematic review sheet, any review sheet (
including MC questions) and your knowledge of global history and geography
Background
examples
The only constant is change. Be the change that you wish to
see in the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed,
citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing
that ever has.”
― Margaret Mead
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use
to change the world.”
― Nelson Mandel
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking.
It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
― Albert Einstein
Change comes in technology in order to create a more
efficient, easier, less labor intensive way of life. Change
happens by accident and through a series of carefully
calibrated conscious decisions. Ideas, education and
connections between cultures are some of the greatest
transmitters of change.
Neolithic Revolution
Interregional trading networks
Hellenistic Empires
Chin Dynasties centralization
Constantine’s conversion of Christianity
Mongol Khanates
Mansa Musa’s conversion of Mali to Muslim Empire
Bantu migrations
Fall of Empires (Rome, Han, Gupta,etc.)
Rise and Spread of Dar Al Islam
Protestant Reformation
Columbian Exchange
Black Death
Isolation of Japan’s Tokugawa
Industrial Revolution(s)
Berlin Conference (scramble for Africa)
World Wars (I and II)
Genocides
Cold War
Technologies (gunpowder, paper, train, airplane,
automobile, digital, etc.)
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't
resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality.
Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they
like.”
― Lao Tzu
Backgound
Similar to change, sometimes turning points are
connections, interactions or accidents which forever create
major impacts on the fate of civilizations, people’s way of
life or historical developments. They are sometimes
determined by groups, empires, or by just individuals. As
these events, decisions or accidents happen, many do not
understand them as turning points but, rather, hstorians
evaluate that these were watersheds in the course of human
history. They may have important positive consequences
improving health, way of life or an understanding of the
world. They may, also , have horrific consequences like the
deaths of millions, fall of great empires of a decrease in
understanding, tolerance and social harmony. Regardless
on their consequences, historians view these as turning
points.
The turning point in the process of growing up is when
you discover the core of strength within you that survives all
hurt.”
“From a certain point onward there is no longer
any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.”Seneca
“Life is always at some turning point.”
Irwin Edman
Neolithic Revolution
Industrial Revolution
Hitler’s final solution
Columbian Exchange
Fall of Rome
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
Green Revolution
Scientific Revolution
Communist Revolutions (Russia and.or
China)
Ghandi’s Salt March
Mandela’s imprisonment
Dropping of the Atomic bomb
Great Dying
Great Hunger (Ireland)
Taiping Rebellion
Historical Background
Examples of Impacts
Religions and philosophies have helped to provide mankind with
a worldview. Before science, religion explained many of the great
mysteries of the universe, provided a moral and ethical
framework and united believers providing them with a
framework of historical understanding. Politically, belief systems
helped to justify authority and maintain a social order where
everyone would know what was expected of them, belief systems
would spread across trade routes through missionaries and
merchants and culturally would inspire architects and engineers
to build monumental architecture. In short, world belief systems
like Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam and
Confucianism, Legalism and Taoism just to name a few would
have a strong impact on global historical develop Religions and
philosophies have served both to unite and divide people since
the first stylus hit the wedge clay and spelled it out in cuneiform.
Earliest explanations about human existence and world views
were illustrated in creation myths told by priest-kings.
Ceremonial centers and pyramids were erected in honor of
various deities and centers of learning were built to advance
cultures in labs, classrooms and places of worship. The old
saying that there are no atheists in foxholes identifies that in
times of peril (a foxhole referred to where soldiers were
encamped for protection from enemy fire) people cling on to
their religious beliefs for fear that death is imminent (trying to
make peace before they meet their maker). It is clear that, from
the womb to the tomb, belief systems have played an integral
role in the development of World History
Monumental architecture
Justification of authority
Wars
Tolerance vs intolerance
Schisms or divisions within sects
Sects which vary by geography
Divine right or mandate of Heaven
Ethic minorities and Genocide ( Ethnic Albanian in Bosnia or
Jews in Germany)
Role of Hinduism and Ghandi
Role of Buddhism and Asoka or Ann Sang Su Kyii
Role of Judaism and Zionism (creation of Israel)
Role of pilgrimages
Laws ( Cannon, Talmud, Sharia, Code of Manu)
5 pillars, 10 comandments, 4 noble truths, 8 fold path, Karma,
Dharma, Reincarnation, dietary restrictions
Role of geography and spread
Role of trade
Role of universal vs ethnic regional
Crusades
30 years war
Historical Context
examples
“ War is a way of teaching geography”- Paul Rodriguez
Sometimes your latitude effects your attitude. A geographic
determinist would say history was profoundly shaped by
geography and Jared Diamond argues that civliizations which
fail to respond to geographic forces fail while those that do
succeed. Geography is the study of the Earth and its features and
includes movement, human and environmental interaction,
location and place. It is where populations settle, transportation,
what they eat as well as how they lead their life. It impacts the
development of the first civilizations from settlement to
nomadic pastoralists. Today the global North and the Global
South have economic disparities because of the geographic
differences and the geographic exploitation of the north by the
south. Geography includes resources, labor and a groups abiulity
to adapt despite overwhelming adversity. Certain physical
landforms are easy to settle while some are barely habitable.
Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends.
Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us
allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put
asunder.
John F. Kennedy
To me, it seems a dreadful indignity to have a soul controlled by
geography.
George Santayana
Strategic watersources (rivers, straits, Oceans)
River valley civilizations, bodies of water ( strategic location, irrigation,
transportation, communication, flooding)
Bantu migrations, Vikings, Arabs, Mongols, Jewish Diaspora,
Indentured servitude, Chattel slavery, migrant laborers (globalization),
pilgrims, explorers( Zheng He, Columbus, Magellan, Da Gama, etc.)
Trade routes (silk routes, Trans-Sahara, Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean,
Mediterranean, Pacific Ocean, Black Sea, Roads like Rome, Royal and
Inca)
Manipulation- Chinampas, Terrace farming, quanats, cisterns, bridges,
aqueducts, railroads, steamships, automobiles, highways, baths, sewer
systems, paper production, calendars, metallurgy, slash and burn,
hydro-electric power, wind power, fiber optics, trans-oceanic cables,
papyrus, cuneiform, seismograph, buildings
Commodities- oil, salt, gold, silver, fur, sugar, silk, spices, slaves( or
other coercive labor force), rare earth, hydrofracking, uranium, copper,
tin, agricultural products ( wheat, corn, cereal grains, chicken, cows,
pigs, chickens, champa rice, etc.)
Spread of religions- Christianity, Buddhism, Islam ( nature based
religions: Polytheism, animism, Shintoism, Taoism)
Policies- mercantilism, deforestation, slash and burn, colonization,
displacement, wars, genocide, diasporas, refugees, land-redistribution,
mineral extraction, taxation, feudalism, encomienda, treaties ( ex.
Tordesillas, Nanjing, or Versailles), collectivization, industrialization,
infrastructure projects ( canals, bridges, roads, urbanization)
Natural disasters and responses: flooding, cyclones, hurricanes,
tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, drought, famine, predatory species
Historical Background
Examples
With the advent of the first civilizations in the river valleys of the Nile,
Tigris -Euphrates, Indus and Huang He the rise of dense populations
required a decision making person or group who would provide
protection, help construct infrastructure projects, maintain law and
order and somehow pay for it all through the levying of taxes. Various
forms of leadership and governance have been attempted throughout
the ages to degrees of success and some epic failures. Political sytems
responsibilitie sinclude the regulation of large, dense populations
through laws, maintining and providing for the public defense,
creating a infrastructure and collecting revenue with which it spends
often more than it collects. Great politial systems controlled lucrative
trade routes and exhibited golden ages while others grew corrupt and
failed to address the concerns of its citizenry and was toppled by a
greater force whether a peasant rebellion or another empire who
provided a better way of life. Political systems wage war and maintain
peace, Create harmon or promote dischord. Help develop and create
great works of art or science or technology or tear down all the
components which preceded it. A political system sometimes adopts
and apats and sometimes overcomes. Winston Churchill said
democracy is the worst form of government but the best one tried so
far.
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma,
we become automatons. We cease to grow.
Anais Nin
Feudalism ( Japan, Europe, China, Latin
America)
Monarchy ( Absolute and
Constitutional)
Democracy ( Direct and
representative/Republic)
Oligarchy
Plutocracy
Tyranny
Totalitarian
Theocracy
Technocracy
Preist-Kings
Empires
Colonialism
Impaerialism
Legalism
Meritocracy
The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and
to alter their constitutions of government.
George Washington
The United States brags about its political system, but the President
says one thing during the election, something else when he takes office,
something else at midterm and something else when he leaves.
Historical context
examples
Culture is sometimes referred to as a blueprint for living. It
is generally anything created by humans and can fit into the
theme of social, economic, religious, and the development
of ideas. These ideas can both change the world and create a
better place to live or destroy pre-existing notions (for good
and bad) and contribute to great instability. Ideas are both
powerful as well as damaging so one needs to be careful
with the power of ideas. Universities, salons, books ,
religions, libraries and open forums were all areas for
groups to congregate and engage in intellectual and cultural
discourse and trade routes, ports and cities became
culturally diffused regions of convergence to share these
ideas. There is a saying that knowledge is power and from
this knowledge comes thinking, studying and expounding
upon what is considered conventional wisdom.
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
― Socrates
did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I
do better.”
― Maya Angelou
Confidence is ignorance. If you're feeling cocky, it's because
there's something you don't know.”
― Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl
Libraries
Mathematics
Engineering
Humanism
Enlightenment
Theory of relativity
Germ theory of disease
Biological engineering
Industrialism (of anything)
Farming (think)
Music, clothing, art, architecture
Renaissance(S)
Golden Age(S)
Historical context
examples
1750-Present sees the rise of the nation-state and
the dawning of a new identity toward one’s country
(nation-state) rather than ones culture, ethnicity,
religion of region. The concept drew wide attention
toward pride, independence, common cultural,
historic and ideological components which
sometime drew groups together but , at times,
splintered them apart. The belief that one’s nation
could do no wrong and inspired components of
imperialism, militarism and global conflict were
the same ideologies which led to selfdetermination, popular sovereignty and
decolonization.
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes
first; nationalism, when hate for people other than
your own comes first.
Charles de Gaulle
Causes for imperialism 19th century
Unification of Germany and Italy
Russification
Atlantic Revolutions
Causes of WWI and II
Russian, Cuban, Chinese, Mexican and
Iran Revolution ( with some
Communism and/or Shiitism involved)
Division of Ottoman and AustriaHungarian Empires
Balkanization
Pan Arabism
Zionism
Pan Slavism
Pan Africanism
Partition of India
Nationalism is power hunger tempered by selfdeception.
George Orwell
Historical Context
examples
The desire to take over territories utilizing military
force for the purpose of gaining control over its
people, resources and markets is a system which
hails back to Egypt and Assyria. While its motive
differed from God, Gold and Glory to
Christianization, Commercialization and
civilizing,the purpose wa scontrol and the method
was quite militaristic . Whether it was for
Lebenstraum or Westward expansion, sometimes
the native inhabitants actually gained great fortune
and advancements as the imperializers brought the
fruits of empire. Other times, howver, the diseases,
slavery and exploitation of resources and markets
led to an imbalance of political forces. While the
hunter often tells tha tale of the lion, imperialism
still persists in various forms today.
So long as there is imperialism in the world, a
permanent peace is impossible.
Hassan Nasrallah
Egypt, Assyrian, Greece, Hellenistic, China (
Tang/Yuan), Maurya, Aztecs, Incas,
Mongols, Sudanic Kingdoms, Mughal,
Ottoman, Spain, Portugal, England, France,
Dutch, German, Austrai-Hungary, United
States, Russia, Japan, China, U.S.S.R,
When it comes to combating imperialism we are all
Stalinists.
Nikita Khrushchev
Mercantilism
Old imperialism
New imperialism
Neo-colonialism
Globalization
Economic imperialism
Cultural imperialism
Cold War ( Proxy Wars)
Ideological imperialism (Jiihad vs McWorld)
ISIS
Historical Context
examples
As earliest mankind moved out of Africa and slowly
began a pattern of settlement through all of the
continents, geography, biology and diversity
contributed to a vast cultural, economic and
political landscape which prompted both an
appreciation of the individual difference, a
diffusion and convergence of ideas as well as the
intentional and unintentional mixing of people,
places and things. The reliance on other is as
ancient as mankind is a evolutionary feature which
allows mankind to coexist. Trade, labor
specialization, social hierarchal functioning as well
as belief systems of morality, identity and
understanding have made mankind one of the
most needy yet self-sufficient beings on Earth.
I think... if it is true that there are as many minds
as there are heads, then there are as many
kinds of love as there are hearts.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Strength lies in differences, not in similarities”
― Stephen R. Covey
Regional, interreguional and global trading networks
Globalization
Mercantilism
Feudal ties (ex. Manorialism)
Multi-ethnic empires
Cosmopolitan cities
Syncretism ( Voo doo, Neo-Confucianism, Hinduism,
Swahili)
Caste system
Encomienda system
Slavery and other coercive labor systems
Favorable balances of trade
Tribute
Empires ( see multi-ethnic empires)
Societies of tolerance and freedoms
Universal declaration of human rights
Sara Dara
Mc Donalds
Migrations
Historical Context
Examples
Mankind possese the uncanny ability to determine what is
fair and what is not yet has contributed to so many
disparities whether it be socio-economic, religious, or
political, From the Neolithic revolution when the surplus of
agricultural would pave the way for labor specialization,
inequities would plague the path of the human journey.
There have been numerous attempts, however, to bring
justice, fairness or elevate some people’s status however
slight through laws, rebellions, universal standards and the
philosophical thought that all people deserve dignity,
respect and fairness. While slavery, patriarchy, rigid social
hierarchy and genoide persist throughout the human
condition, so, too, does the fight for rights, social struggles
and the ability for individuals to gain access to equal
political, economic and cultural institutions.
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent
injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to
protest.”
― Elie Wiesel
Truth never damages a cause that is just.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
To sin by silence, when they should protest, makes cowards
of men.”
― Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Hammurabi’s Code
12 Tables of Rome
Justinain’s Code (Byzantine Empire)
Magna Carta
English Bill of Rights
The Enlightenment
Atlantic Revolutions
Yellow Turban Rebellion
Nat Turners Rebellion
Aboltion of Slavery
Emancipation of serfs
Universal male suffrage
Female suffrage
Abolition of Sati
Abolition of Apartheid
Abolition of Jim Crow (civil rights)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Hague)
Genocide, slvery, patriarchy, class warfare, Wall Street,
imperiliazation vs decolonization
League of Nations, United Nations
Same sex marriage
Historical Context
examples
There is a wanderlust amongst the human population and
has been so ever since the first homo sapiens migrated out
of Africa. The desire for something better whether it be new
foodstuffs, a better environment, opportunities or to
provide for the ever growing family led to the increasing
interconnectivity between groups of people across the
Earth. As the movement of people and their goods, ideas
and ways of life (cultural diffusion) continued, wider
passages of highways, technologies and policies facilitated
broader and sweeping movements. The desire to spread
faith, empire, and the acqusition of material wealth, labor
and markets increased as the world became “smaller” due to
new ideas, technologies and fostered a sense of increased
hemispheric interactions. From Neolithic to globalization
the movement of people and goods trudges forward( or
backward some might say)
The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only
guardian of true liberty.
James Madison
Silk routes
Trans- sahara
Mediterranean
River Valleys
Roads ( Royal, Roman, Inca)
Columbian Exhange
Black Sea
Pacific and Atlantic
Starits of Malaca
Spice,Sugar, Slave trade
Urbanization
Nomads( Vikings, Arabs, Aztecs, Bantu,
Mongols, Polynesians)
Indentured servants
Migrant workers
Historical Context
examples
Science and technology is generally societies application of
conventional wisdom and challenging the borders of
acceptable knowledge. Sometimes it comes about due to
independent innovation ( Necessity is the mother of
invention) or due to an amalgamation of indigenous and
borrowed cultural traits ( cultural diffusion). Societies
which experience “Golden Ages” are generally ones which
emphasize science and technology and essentially become
economically powerful as well as militarily. Success is
sometimes percieved by those who advance utilizing
wisdom, academic study and the puruit of “boldly going
where no man has gone before”. Science and technology
apply natural laws to improve building, military,
transportation, and lifestyle but the seedy underbelly are all
the unintended consequences of science and progress.
Sometimes degradation to the environment, social elitism
and mass destruction of humanity are just some of the
negative consequences of science and technology.
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not
worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
- Galileo Galilei
Farming during the neolitic revolution
concept of zero in Gupta and/or Maya
Greek philosophy
Roman engineering
Inca engineering
Industrialization
Golden Age of Islam
Chinese inventions ( water powered tooles, grand canal,
seismograph, printing press, magnetic compass)
Guttenburg’s printing press
Gunpowder
Lateen sail, caravel, cartography
Industrial technology
Trains, cars, airplanes, rockets, satelites
Theory of relativity
Physics and chemistry
Plastics
Tanks, gas, bombs, nuclear proliferation
Digital technology
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of
knowledge.
- Carl Sagan
Historical Context
Examples
As mankind moved across continents and this oblate
spheroid, competition over scarce resource led to
tremendous conflicts. Murder and was existed even
amongst plaeolithic peoples. It is no wonder, therefore, that
as the human species settled and increased its population,
the fomenting of conflicts would only grow exponentially.
Conflict over resources, territories, religions, ideologies and
differences were just some of the first conflicts which faces
the early civilizations after the neolithic revolution.
Although conflict has come at great costs including wars,
genocide, inequalities and exploitation of land, labor and
capital. The conflicts can turn from tactical to practical and
create greater technologies, end tyranny and even promote
peaceful negotiation and treaties between groups and have
positive consequence.
Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle
conflict by peaceful means.
Ronald Reagan
Persian Wars
Pelloponesian wars
Punic Wars
Battle ofKalingsa ( Asoka)
Jihad
Crusades
Mongol Expanse
Aztec human sacrifice
Struggle for order ( Plebeians vs Patricians)
Yellow Turban rebellion
Fall of classical civilizations
Fall of all empires
Columbian exchange
Trans-Atlantic Slave trade
Battle of Chaldrian
Conquest of the Americas
100 years war
30 years war
7 yeas war
Peace of West phalia
Treaty of Tordesillas
Gampeii Wars
Feudalism
Franco-Prussian War
Napoleonic Wars
Congress of Vienna
Berlin Conference
WWI/Treaty of Versaille
WWII atomic bombs
Proxxy wars ( Cold War)
War on terrorism
9-11
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which
rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation
of such a method is love.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Historical Context
Examples
In 1571, the Ming Dynasty’s demand for silver promulgated
the Spanish empire to mine into their colonial territories in
the Americas to extract silver to be traded across the Pacific
into Manilla Galleon in the Phillipines and finally into
Chinese ports in Canton and Macoa. This began the first
truly global exchange of goods across Oceas and overland
trade routes. While interregional exchanges had been in
existence for nearly a millenia, the Columbian exchange
facilitated the first global exchange which would persist to
this present day. Old imperialism gace way to the new
imperialism of the industrial age and expanded to include
the interior of continents utilizing new technology and
mchinery to exploit the land, labor and capital of these new
global markets. After the 20th century world wars and
decolonization, a world of free trade with porous borders
and markets paved the way for the concept of globalization
or global interdependence. While global connections have
brough great technology and improvements in health ,
stability ( of food and politics) and social mobility, it has
also created environental degradation, exploitation of
workers and developed an unfair competition between the
rich global north and poor global south.
Silverization
Columbian Exchange
Sugar, Slavery, Spice commodity exchange
Coffee
Triangle trade
Mercantilism
Global labor exchange
Role of banking and joint stock companies
Tulipmania
Wars over resources ( all of them)
Colonies fighting for colonists
Colonism
Economic imperialism
Atlantic Revolutions
Technologies in communication ( telegraph, telephone,
television, sattelites, internet)
Transportation ( Caravels, junk ships, steam ships,
railroads, automobiles, airplanes, jets, rockets)