analysis

Analysis

Analysis in AP World History

Analysis is a necessary skill for all three APWH essays (and life), especially when analyzing: point of view, grouping of documents, the process of change over time and/or continuity, and reasons for a similarity or difference identified in a direct comparison. It is also a way of getting expanded core points (e.g. an analytical thesis) and is even sometimes required in the thesis or to support the thesis.

What is analysis?

According to the College Board: “Analyze: determine their component parts; examine their nature and relationship.”

Which is further distinguished from:

• “Assess/Evaluate: judge the value or character of something; appraise; weigh the positive and negative points; give an opinion regarding the value of; discuss the advantages and disadvantages of

• Compare: examine for the purpose of noting similarities and differences

• Contrast: examine in order to show dissimilarities or points of difference

• Describe: give an account of; tell about; give a word picture of

• Discuss: write about; consider or examine by argument or from various points of view; debate; present the different sides of

• Explain: make clear or plain; make clear the causes or reasons for; make known in detail; tell the meaning of”

Analysis (Based on Bloom's Taxonomy) refers to the ability to break down material into its component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. This may include:

• the identification of parts or components,

• examination of the relationship between parts,

• recognition of hidden meanings and

• detection of the organizational principles or patterns involved."

So when doing a historical analysis what is being done is breaking down the item being analyzed into its parts which generally include:

• historical actors - events, processes, institutions, ideas, etc. (e.g. examination of multiple causation which looks at cause and effect relationships)

• evidence (e.g. determining the significance and reliability of various perspectives like when point of view is analyzed)

• interpretations of what happened (e.g. comparing and contrasting changing versions of developments or theories)

• underlying structures (e.g. determining how all the processes, institutions, ideas, events, actors, motives, evidence, interpretations)

• overall process of change and continuity (e.g. connecting different regions and eras)

Steps involved in analysis:

1. Identify what the question is asking you

2. Determine the components/parts to break apart - motives, actors, etc.

3. Take causation several steps back and results several steps forward whenever possible

4. “Web out” to see how events tie to other events in other regions or time periods

Analysis and the 2005 COT

Analyze the social and economic transformations that occurred in the Atlantic world as a result of new contacts among Western Europe, Africa, and the Americas from 1492 to 1750.

• If the 2005 COT question had only asked students to explain a transformation that took place, it would have been okay with a single description - “the slavery of Africans were introduced to the Americas”.

• Instead students were asked to analyze the transformations which required students to go further with looking at why the slavery of Africans was introduced, ideally several steps forward and backward.

• If students had been asked to explain the causes of the economic changes in the Americas, simply describing the Atlantic slave trade and European colonization would cut it; whereas if students were asked to analyze economic changes in the Americas we would want students to also look at why they needed the slave trade, why there was colonization and the differences in which genders were involved.

Limited Analysis

“The mercantilist economies established in Europe redefined the economies of not only of European nations, but also of American and African ones as well. Under mercantilism, European colonies in the new world were limited to trade only with their mother countries to ensure profit. The European monarchs would finance gold and silver expeditions in the Americas so that their national treasure would grow. In order to ensure productivity not only in American mines, but on plantations as well, Europe began to enslave Africans and send them to the Americas via the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage was part of a great trading triangle linking Europe, Africa, and America. African slaves were sent to America to work in captivity. America sent raw good to Europe and Europe sent money and good to allied African tribes to pay for slaves. The goods and money exchanged on the Great Circuit profited many European nations and African tribes. Plantation owners in America also became very wealthy. However, the exchange of goods, and not to mention people on the Great Circuit, also reshaped societies socially.”

Weak analysis of demographic and economic effects of Atlantic slave trade:

“Further it [the Atlantic Slave trade] greatly increased the population of the Atlantic colonies. In some places, as much as half of the population was comprised of African slaves brought to the colonies by Western Europe and American traders. With such a large labor force, the production of cash crops increased, and since the slaves provided free labor, many colonies became very wealthy.”

Analysis of labor demand and population change.

“During the Middle Passage, most of these African salves went to sugar plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean where conditions were extremely harsh and life expectancy was generally under five years, all the while disregarding the enormous amounts of death that occurred in simply making the voyage from Africa to the Americas. Since this sort of labor involving sugarcane (as well as cotton and tobacco) was highly demanding and required great physical force, men were generally needed, and women were left in Africa.”

Decent Analysis

“The spread of diseases like smallpox to the Americas caused a massive demographic decline among Native Americans who had not previously been exposed to it thereby necessitating new source of labor, namely Africans slaves.”

“Shift in center of World trade from the Indian Ocean basin to the Atlantic Ocean. Silver from the Americas allowed Europe to break into Asian markets and the economic success of the plantation system created the economic rise of the West, which led to the geopolitical rise of the West.”

“Continued demand for slave labor, backbreaking plantation labor and low birth rates, caused a need for slave labor since there were very few female slaves to reproduce naturally.”

“The cycle of grading guns for slaves created social disruption in Africa and led to political warfare and led to a dependence on European shipping, leading to the ideas ‘trade with Europeans or perish’ The best would discuss the transition of power among African Kingdoms along the Sahel to smaller states along the Atlantic coast.”

Excellent Analysis

[Global Context] By 1492, Europe was on the verge of an economic explosion and Africa and America were relatively quiet in the global economy. [Slavery COT] Long before European contact in Africa, slaves and trans-Saharan slave trade were in existence. Portuguese explorers came upon Africa to find this institution. An institution once belonging to Africa would become globalized. Europeans soon began to export slaves to their countries and eventually to the American economies. [Slave trade’s effect on Africa and Americas] The slave trade put Africa on the map as a contending economic power. The slave workers fueled the American economies soon thereafter. [European motives] The Europeans had difficulty in finding and maintaining native-American labor - slaves filtered into the Caribbean, Brazil, and the southern U.S. to serve on plantations. The sugar industry was growing in Europe and the slaves satisfied the Portuguese sweet-tooth on the “engenhos” and in other lands. [Slave trade’s overall effect] By creating the triangular slave trade, the Americans entered the global economy and Europe morphed into a more powerful one.

Analysis and other APWH Questions

DBQ Rubric calls for analysis of POV and grouping of documents and thesis.

DBQ Question from the Course Description Guide: “Based on the following documents, analyze the opportunities and barriers that nationalist movements posed concerning women’s rights.”

So for the thesis break it down. First identify:

• Opportunities: including increased public participation, roles in the nationalist party leadership, and even military actions; and

• Barriers: nationalist male opposition to any power-sharing with women, and the ongoing problem of women bearing a special burden in the representation of traditional culture

Then determine multiple causes for these opportunities (changing attitudes of the imperial forces, increasing access to Western education, growing frustration with colony status, etc.) and barriers (cultural biases, chauvinism, misogyny, etc.) and why different women had different perspectives (political situation in their respective countries, geopolitical and class differences among the women, and cultural differences in their societies’ views of women’s participation in the public sphere).

For point of view, if you following the triangle of SOAPSTONE, Text and What connects the two.

For grouping, if you were analytical in your thesis and POV it should be enough as you would have made various connections among the documents already leading to analytical grouping.

C&C Rubric calls for an analysis of a reason for a similarity or difference identified in a direct comparison.

Sample Comparative Question from the Course Description Guide: “Unfree labor systems were widely used for agricultural production in the period between 1450-1750. Discuss the major similarities and differences of Caribbean slavery and Russian serfdom.”

Similarities:

• both could be bought and sold;

• both were regarded as property that could be inherited by one generation from another; and

• the legal and civil rights of both were both severely restricted.

Differences in the two systems:

• serfs had the right to own some land, whereas slaves could not hold land;

• serfs were generally enserfed wherever they were living and bound to that land, whereas slaves in the Caribbean were usually transported long distances from their original homes and could be sold away from the land they worked

• serfs, although regarded as part of one of the lowest classes in Russia, were generally viewed as having higher status than slaves.

• Russian serfs were most commonly involved in grain and livestock production, while Caribbean slaves usually worked producing sugar on large plantations.

• serfs were recognized and usually worked as part of family units; slaves on the other hand most commonly worked as part of labor gangs.

Reasons for Similarities –

• Nature of labor systems: designed to benefit owners who needed cheap and available labor

• Lack of liberalization of the societies in which these labor systems were employed

• Inherent weakness of the serfs, slaves and their general class

Reasons for Differences:

• Serfdom in Russia evolved out of peasant and slave systems, and serfdom’s growth paralleled the rapid growth in the power of the Russian state, the government’s perception of critical labor shortages, its need for tax revenues, and its military manpower requirements.

• Slavery in the Caribbean grew primarily in response to the need for labor to staff large plantations where the native populations were small; this occurred at the same time that Europeans were gaining control of the African slave trade.

• Slave labor was viewed as critical for the expansion of Caribbean agricultural production and commerce and for the continued production in Russia

• Climatological reasons account for why sugar was not grown in Russia and therefore possibly why slavery was not needed there

• Keeping slaves in family units was perceived as a threat by the slave owners as it could give greater cause for an uprising or revolt.