“But words are things,
and a small drop of ink,
falling like dew upon a
thought, produces that
which makes
thousands, perhaps
millions, think.”
Lord Byron
THE COMPARATIVE ESSAY
The comparative essay requires students to
compare and contrast how at least two (perhaps
more) civilizations or nations have undergone or
responded to a historical event or experience
 Students must give equal weight to both (or all)
civilizations or nations specified in the question
 Students must also balance similarities and
differences, although one may be considered more
important than the other
 The central task for this essay is comparison

GENERAL TIPS FOR WRITING THE
COMPARATIVE ESSAY
Students should take 40 minutes to complete the
comparative essay
 Students should spend 5 of the 40 minutes
reading the question, reflecting on the question,
and organizing thoughts concerning the essay
 The comparative essay requires that students
compare and contrast how at least two
civilizations or nations have undergone or
responded to a historical event or experience
 The essay’s focus is on comparison

Because the central task of the comparative essay
is comparison rather than a theme, it may appear
difficult to create a thesis statement. The
question may not lend itself to a clear-cut theme
or argument but by emphasizing how likenesses
outweigh differences or vice versa or by arguing
that similarities and differences are equally
balanced, a solid thesis statement can be created.
Let’s Practice!
FROM THE 2005 WORLD HISTORY AP
EXAMINATION (COURTESY OF COLLEGE
ENTRANCE EXAMINATION BOARD):
Compare and contrast the political and economic
effects of Mongol rule on TWO of the following
regions:
China
Middle East
Russia
THOUGHTS TO CONSIDER BEFORE
WRITING
Who were the Mongols, when did they conquer a
vast empire, and how did they govern their
empire?
 Why did the Mongol Empire fracture into
different khanates?
 What was similar and different about Mongol
khanates in China, Russia, and the Middle East?
 Why was Mongol rule similar or different in
China, Russia, and the Middle East?
 For which regions under Mongol rule(China,
Russia, and the Middle East) can more facts be
recalled?

Definition: Compare
To examine the character or qualities of
especially in order to discover resemblances or
differences
~Merriam-Webster dictionary
Definition: Contrast
To set off in contrast: compare or appraise in
respect to differences
~Merriam-Webster dictionary
SO, WAIT A MINUTE

It’s not just what is the same but what is
different
REMEMBER TO READ THE
DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY
Compare and Contrast
 Political and Economic Effects
 Of Mongol rule on TWO regions

GENERAL FACTS ABOUT THE
MONGOLS
Mongol conquests began in 1211 under the
leadership of Genghis Khan (also Chingiz,
Jenghiz, or Chinggis)
 The first target was northern China; by 1215, the
Mongols had breached the Great Wall and seized
the city of Beijing
 The Mongols also moved against Central Asia,
capturing the great Silk Road trading center of
Samarkand
 But the Mongols were better at conquest than
they were at governing
 By 1260, the last khan to rule over a united
Mongol empire (Mongke) died

Civil war broke out, and the empire’s four largest
units became independent states
 The homeland, which went to Kublai Khan,
included Mongolia, China, and territories to the
east and southeast
 The Golden Horde ruled over Russia and parts of
eastern Europe until the mid-1400s
 The Il-Khan Mongols converted to Islam and
ruled much of the Middle East until the rise of
the Ottoman Turks in the late 1300s
 A Mongol state, the Jagadai Khanate, governed
Central Asia well into the 1400s
 Like the Il-Khans (with whom they often
struggled), the Jagadai became Muslims

MONGOLS IN CHINA
In China, Kublai Khan ruled
 Mongols destroyed cities and were ruthless
warriors
 But once their domain was established, the
empire was generally peaceful
 The empire allowed for the exchange of goods,
ideas, and culture
 The Mongols adopted Chinese methods to
administer China
 The Mongols made use of Chinese administrative
practices, techniques of taxation, and their postal
system

The Mongols gave themselves a Chinese dynastic
title, the Yuan, meaning “great beginnings”
 They transferred their capital from Karakorum
in Mongolia to what is now Beijing
 Kublai Khan, China’s Mongol ruler from 1271 to
1294, ordered a set of Chinese-style ancestral
tablets to honor his ancestors and posthumously
awarded them Chinese names
 Kublai Khan improved roads, built canals,
lowered some taxes, and prohibited Mongols from
grazing their animals on peasants’ farmland
 Mongol khans also made use of traditional
Confucian rituals
 Despite these accommodations, Mongol rule was
still harsh, exploitative, and foreign

The Mongols did not become Chinese, nor did
they accommodate every aspect of Chinese
culture
 The Mongols largely ignored the traditional
Chinese examination system and relied heavily
on foreigners to serve as officials
 And the Mongols kept the top decision-making
posts for themselves
 Few Mongols learned Chinese, and Mongol law
discriminated against the Chinese
 In social life, the Mongols forbade intermarriage
 Mongol women never adopted foot binding
 By 1368, Chinese rebels had ousted the Mongols

MONGOLS IN RUSSIA
From the survivors and the cities that
surrendered early to the Mongols, laborers and
skilled craftsmen were deported to other Mongol
lands or sold into slavery
 But if the ferocity of the initial conquest bore
similarities to other Mongol conquests, Russia’s
incorporation into the Mongol Empire was very
different
 To the Mongols, it was the Kipchak Khanate
 To the Russians, it was the “Khanate of the
Golden Horde”

From the Mongol point of view, Russia had little
to offer
 The availability of extensive steppe lands for
pasturing their flocks north of the Black and
Caspian seas meant that the Mongols could
maintain their preferred nomadic way of life
 The Mongols could dominate and exploit Russia
from the steppes
 Russian princes were required to send
substantial tribute to the Mongol capital at
Sarai, located on the lower Volga River
 A variety of additional taxes created a heavy
burden, especially on the peasantry
 Continuing border raids sent tens of thousands of
Russians into slavery

The Mongol impact on Russia was highly uneven
 Some Russian princes benefitted considerably
because they were able to manipulate their role
as tribute collectors to grow wealthy
 The Russian Orthodox Church likewise
flourished under the Mongol policy of religious
toleration, for it received exemption from many
taxes
 Some cities, such as Kiev, resisted the Mongols
and were devastated
 The city of Moscow emerged as a primary
collector of tribute for the Mongols and
eventually parlayed this position into a leading
role as the nucleus of a renewed Russian state
when the Mongols receded in the fifteenth
century

MONGOLS IN MIDDLE EAST
A second great civilization conquered by the
Mongols was that of an Islamic Persia
 The Mongol takeover was far more abrupt than
the extended process of conquest in China
 A first invasion (1219-1221), led by Chinggis
Khan himself, was followed thirty years later by
a second assault (1251-1258) under his grandson
Hulegu, who became the first il-khan
(subordinate khan) of Persia
 The sacking of Baghdad in 1258, which put an
end to the Abbasid caliphate, was accompanied
by the massacre of more than 200,000 people

Heavy taxes, sometimes collected twenty or
thirty times a year and often under torture or
whipping, pushed large numbers of peasants off
their land
 The in-migration of nomadic Mongols, together
with their immense herds of sheep and goats,
turned much agricultural land into pasture and
sometimes into desert
 A fragile system of underground water channels
that provided irrigation to the fields was
neglected, and much good agricultural land was
reduced to waste
 But some sectors of the Persian economy gained
 Wine production increased because the Mongols
were fond of alcohol and the Persian silk industry
benefitted from close contact with a Mongol-ruled
China

In general, though, even more so than in China,
Mongol rule in Persia represented “disaster on a
grand and unparalleled scale”
 But the Mongols in Persia were themselves
transformed far more than their counterparts in
China
 The Mongols made extensive use of the
sophisticated Persian bureaucracy, leaving the
greater part of government operations in Persian
hands
 During the reign of Ghazan (1295-1304), the
Mongols made some efforts to repair the damage
caused by earlier policies of ruthless exploitation,
by rebuilding damaged cities and repairing
neglected irrigation works

Most important, the Mongols who conquered Persia
became Muslims, following the lead of Ghazan, who
converted to Islam in 1295
 No widespread conversion to the culture of the
conquered occurred in China or in Christian Russia
 Members of the court and Mongol elites learned at
least some Persian, unlike most of their counterparts
in China
 A number of Mongols also turned to farming,
abandoning their nomadic ways, while some married
local people
 When the Mongol dynasty of Hulegu’s descendants
collapsed in the 1330s for lack of a suitable heir, the
Mongols were not driven out of Persia as they had
been from China
 Rather they and their Turkic allies disappeared
through assimilation into Persian society

BEFORE WRITING, LET’S REVIEW
THE SCORING GUIDE

Basic Core (For a possible total of 7 points)
-Acceptable thesis (1 point)
-Deals with all parts of the question (2 points)
-Backs up thesis with appropriate historical
evidence (2 points)
-Provides one or two relevant, direct comparisons
between or among societies (1 point)
-Analyzes one or more reasons for a difference or
similarity discussed in a direct comparison (1
point)
THE EXPANDED CORE FOR THE
COMPARATIVE ESSAY

The basic core of 7 must be earned before a
student can earn a maximum of 2 additional
points
-Opens with an analytical, clear, comprehensive
thesis
-Deals with all relevant parts of the question:
comparisons, chronology, causation, connections,
themes, interactions, content
-Gives ample historical evidence to back up thesis
-Links comparisons to larger global context
-Draws several direct comparisons
-Regularly examines the reasons for and the
results of key similarities and differences
KEY INGREDIENTS
Thesis
 Addresses all relevant parts of the question
 Historical evidence to support thesis
 Provides direct comparisons between or among
societies
 Analyzes reasons for differences or similarities
discussed in comparisons
 And for expanded core points: Analytical,
Comprehensive, Ample Evidence, Creative - links
comparisons to larger global context, draws
several direct comparisons, and regularly
examines the reasons for and the results of key
similarities and differences

SO, WHAT ARE THE POLITICAL AND
ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF MONGOL
RULE? AND ON WHAT TWO REGIONS
WILL THE EFFECTS OF MONGOL RULE
BE DISCUSSED?
HOW THE FACTS WILL DETERMINE
THE THESIS
Facts will provide the evidence needed to create a
thesis statement
 So, ultimately, reflect on the political and
economic effects of Mongol rule on two regions
and then look for similarities and differences
 If there are more differences that similarities,
emphasize the differences
 The thesis statement or argument that works is
the thesis statement or argument that can be
proven

SAMPLE THESIS PARAGRAPH
The Mongol conquest and rule of China was vastly
different from the Mongol conquest and rule of the
Middle East from the 12th through the 15th Centuries
CE, inevitably, some similarities existed for the various
Mongol rulers shared a similar culture. Yet, in the case
of China, Mongol rulers tried to preserve much of the
political and economic framework of previous Chinese
dynasties while largely ignoring the examination system
and denying Chinese top administrative posts. In the
Middle East, Mongol rule began in harsh and cruel way
only to eventually lead to the Mongol assimilation into
Islamic society. Ultimately, cultural interactions
determined political and economic outcomes.
WHAT TO NOTICE
Are there significant differences or important
similarities?
 In this essay, Mongol rule in China and the
Middle East are quite different but that does not
mean that similarities are completely absent
 In addition, the political and economic effects of
Mongol rule could be the political and economic
effects of conquerors in general
 Are there connections to larger global trends?
 Finally, which style of rule benefitted the
Mongols more?
 These thoughts can help clarify the thesis

NOW, LOOK FOR COMPARISONS TO
THE LARGER GLOBAL CONTEXT
Consider looking for general trends or global
issues that move beyond the specific comparison
 Of course, answer the question fully but then use
the facts to shed light on comparable global
trends or patterns

FACTS MATTER
Of course, to write a comparative essay, facts are
critical
 Unlike the DBQ, the only information the
student has to answer the question is the
information the student has remembered
 And the best way to remember information is to
practice and interact with it regularly

“The difference
between the right
word and the almost
right word is the
difference between
lightning and the
lightning bug. .”
Mark Twain