What the exam asks
- Multiple Choice (Section I, Part A): Stimulus sets often ask you to situate a source (such as a colonial casta painting, a silver mine ledger, or a merchant’s letter) within a broader global process, or to distinguish a new post-1450 development from an older pattern.
- Short Answer (Section I, Part B): Prompts frequently pair a 1450–1750 source with part (a) asking you to describe a historical context and parts (b) and (c) asking you to explain a specific change or continuity.
- DBQ and LEQ (Section II): Both essays award 1 rubric point for Contextualization—describing a broader historical context (before, during, or continuing after the prompt’s time frame) and explaining how it relates to the prompt’s topic. Continuity and change over time (CCOT) is also one of the three core reasoning processes used to frame LEQ and DBQ prompts.
Core ideas
Economic developments and social structures (c. 1450 to c. 1750)
Between 1450 and 1750, the creation of the first truly global trade network reshaped how goods were produced and how societies were organized. Rising global demand for raw materials (American silver, sugar, tobacco, and furs) and finished goods (Indian cotton textiles, Chinese silk and porcelain) drove two simultaneous realities: persistent traditional farming and dramatic transformations in coerced labor, social hierarchies, and the environment.
| Theme / Category | Major Continuities (c. 1450–c. 1750) | Major Changes (c. 1450–c. 1750) |
|---|---|---|
| Agriculture & Environment (ENV / ECN) | Agriculture remained the foundation of nearly every economy; peasant subsistence farming and traditional cash crops persisted across Afro-Eurasia. | Massive expansion of commercial monoculture plantations in the Americas; widespread deforestation and soil depletion from the Columbian Exchange. |
| Labor Systems (ECN / SIO) | Peasant agricultural labor (China, Europe), serfdom (Russia), and artisanal/guild production continued to supply most local and regional markets. | Intensification of the transatlantic slave trade (chattel slavery); Spanish adaptation of the Inca mit’a for silver mining; encomienda, hacienda, and European indentured servitude. |
| Manufacturing & Trade (ECN) | Asian states (Ming/Qing China and Mughal India) remained the world’s premier manufacturers, absorbing massive inflows of bullion. | Rise of European joint-stock companies (VOC, British East India Company), mercantilist Atlantic triangular trade, and global silver circulation via Manila galleons. |
| Social & Gender Structures (SIO) | Patriarchal family structures and landed nobility continued to dominate political and social life across Eurasia. | Emergence of race-based colonial hierarchies (sistema de castas) in the Americas; demographic gender imbalances in West Africa boosted polygyny and forced women into traditionally male agricultural and commercial roles; rise of a wealthy European bourgeoisie. |