What the exam asks
College Board tests your ability to connect Economic Systems (ECN) and Humans and the Environment (ENV) through the reasoning process of causation:
- Multiple Choice: Expect tables showing surges in raw material exports (such as cotton, palm oil, or guano) or political cartoons depicting the carving up of Chinese trade spheres.
- Short Answer (SAQ) & Essays (DBQ/LEQ): Prompts ask you to explain how industrial demand reshaped local environments and economies, or to evaluate the extent to which Western powers exerted control over nominally independent states in Latin America and Asia.
Core ideas
Resource export economies and environmental factors
As factories multiplied and cities grew in Europe and the United States between 1750 and 1900, industrialized nations needed two things: raw materials to keep machines running and food to feed urban factory workers.
In response, many regions transitioned from subsistence farming to export economies—economies that specialized in extracting natural resources or growing a single cash crop (monoculture). The profits from these raw exports were then used to purchase finished manufactured goods (like textiles and machinery) from the very industrialized nations buying their raw materials, locking export regions into economic dependency.
| Commodity | Key Region(s) | Industrial / Urban Use | Environmental & Social Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cotton | Egypt, India, US South | Textile factory production | Depleted soil nutrients; displaced local food crops |
| Rubber | Amazon Basin, Congo Basin | Factory belts, tires, insulation | Depleted wild rubber trees and vines; brutal coerced labor systems |
| Palm Oil | West Africa | Lubricant for factory machinery, soap | Export boom drew mostly on wild and semi-wild palm groves; producers in states such as Dahomey used enslaved labor |
| Guano | Peru, Chile | Nitrogen-rich agricultural fertilizer | Intensive mining of coastal islands; harsh labor conditions |
| Meat / Beef | Argentina, Uruguay | Feeding growing European cities | Enclosed the Pampas grasslands and overgrazed native pastures |
| Diamonds | Southern Africa | Industrial cutting tools, luxury goods | Deep-pit mining (De Beers); racialized migrant labor |