Causation in the Imperial Age Practice Test

In Latin America after independence, governments increasingly relied on export economies, selling commodities such as guano, nitrates, sugar, and coffee to industrializing countries. Foreign investors financed railroads and ports, and local elites often benefited from land concentration and export profits. However, dependence on a few commodities made state revenues vulnerable to global price drops, contributing to debt crises and political instability in some countries. Which of the following best explains the causal relationship between export dependence and political instability?

In the late nineteenth century, European popular culture promoted “civilizing missions,” and governments funded schools and missionary activity in colonies. However, colonial education often emphasized European languages and clerical skills for a small elite, while most people remained excluded. In several colonies, Western-educated elites later led nationalist movements. Which of the following best explains the causal connection between colonial education and later nationalism?