Document Based Questions

Click on any of the questions below to be taken to the free response section for that particular year of AP World History. View the document-based question to better understand the nature of the DBQ. Note, that the most recent DBQs (effective 2023) are all seven documents in length.

2002 Religious Views on Trade

Compare and contrast the attitudes of Christianity and Islam toward merchants and trade from the religions’ origins until about 1500.

2003 Indentured Servitude

Analyze the main features, including causes and consequences, of the system of indentured servitude that developed as part of global economic changes in the nineteenth and into the twentieth centuries.

2004 Buddhism in China

Analyze the responses to the spread of Buddhism in China.

2005 Islam and Nationalism

Analyze the issues that twentieth-century Muslim leaders in South Asia and North Africa confronted in defining their nationalism.

2006 Global Flow of Silver

Analyze the social and economic effects of the global flow of silver from the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century.

2007 Ancient Views on Technology

Analyze Han and Roman attitudes toward technology.

2008 The Modern Olympics

Analyze factors that shaped the modern Olympic movement from 1892 to 2002.

2009 Scramble for Africa

Analyze African actions and reactions in response to the European Scramble for Africa.

2010 Industrialization in Japan and India

Analyze similarities and differences in the mechanization of the cotton industry in Japan and India in the period from the 1880s to the 1930s.

2011 The Green Revolution

Analyze the causes and consequences of the Green Revolution in the period from 1945 to the present.

2012 Politics and Cricket

Analyze the relationship between cricket and politics in South Asia from 1880 to 2005.

2013 Global Power Struggles

Analyze connections between regional issues and European struggles for global power in the mid-eighteenth century.

2014 Chinese Peasants and Communists

Analyze the relationship between Chinese peasants and the Chinese Communist Party between circa 1925 and circa 1950.

2015 The Influenza Pandemic

Analyze responses to the spread of influenza in the early twentieth century.

2016 Latin American Gender and Politics

Analyze the relationships between gender and politics in twentieth-century Latin America.

2017 Responses to Wealth Accumulation

Evaluate the extent to which religious responses to wealth accumulation in Eurasia in the period circa 600 B.C.E. to 1500 C.E. differed from state responses to wealth accumulation.

2018 Railroads and Empire

Evaluate the extent to which railroads affected the process of empire-building in Afro-Eurasia between 1860 and 1918.

2019 The Portuguese Maritime Empire

Evaluate the extent to which the Portuguese transformed maritime trade in the Indian Ocean in the sixteenth century.

2020 Check AP Classroom

Due to COVID

2021 The Mexican Revolution

Evaluate the extent to which economic factors led to the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920).

2022 European Imperialism

Evaluate the extent to which European imperialism affected economies in Africa and/or Asia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

2023(1) Collapse of the Qing Empire

Evaluate the extent to which foreign involvement led to the collapse of the Qing Empire

2023(2) Muslim Women

Evaluate the extent to which Muslim women in the Middle East challenged social norms in the period circa 1850-1950.

2024(1) Communist Rule Till 1990

Evaluate the extent to which communist rule transformed Soviet and/or Chinese societies in the period circa 1930–1990.

2024(2) Japanese Imperialism

Evaluate the extent to which economic motives were the leading cause of Japanese imperialism in the period circa 1900–1945.

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