What the exam asks
- Causation (Reasoning Process): Why did colonial subjects and disenfranchised groups rebel against monarchies and empires, and what political and social changes resulted?
- Comparison (Reasoning Process): How did the goals and outcomes of the American, French, Haitian, and Latin American revolutions differ, especially regarding social hierarchies and slavery?
- Sourcing and Situation (Skill 2): How do foundational documents reflect the specific historical situations and class interests of their authors?
- Governance (GOV) & Cultural Developments (CDI): How did new national identities—rooted in language, religion, customs, and territory—either unify fragmented states or fracture multiethnic empires?
Core ideas
Revolutionary documents and new ideologies
Discontent with absolute monarchy, mercantilist restrictions, and rigid social hierarchies pushed rebels to adopt 19th-century liberalism (constitutional rule, natural rights, free-market economics, and protection of private property) and expanded democracy. Three required foundational texts anchor this shift:
- American Declaration of Independence (1776): Thomas Jefferson applied John Locke’s social contract theory and natural rights to justify breaking from British imperial taxation and control.
- French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789): Asserted popular sovereignty, individual liberty, and legal equality for men, challenging the aristocratic privileges of the Ancien Régime.
- Simón Bolívar’s Letter from Jamaica (1815): Written from exile, Bolívar used Enlightenment logic to argue for Spanish American independence while advocating a strong central republic, believing Latin Americans lacked political experience under Spanish absolutism.