High School World History Quiz: Using Evidence From Sources

"Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favors the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if to social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit. Nor again does poverty bar the way; if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition."

— Thucydides, Pericles' Funeral Oration, c. 431 BCE

Which of the following statements from the passage provides the strongest evidence for the historical claim that Athenian democracy valued meritocracy?

"The condition of the serf is a miserable one. He is bound to the land and can be sold with it. Three days a week he must work on the lord's demesne, without pay, using his own oxen and tools. The rest of the week he may work his own small plot, but from its produce he must pay a tithe to the Church and various dues to the lord, such as a portion of his grain at the mill and his bread at the oven. He cannot marry his daughter to a man from another manor without the lord's permission and the payment of a fee. His life is one of unceasing toil with little hope of betterment."

— A description of manorialism in medieval Europe, based on historical sources.

A historian argues that under manorialism, the lives of serfs were defined by economic and personal obligations to the lord. Which piece of evidence from the text best encompasses both the economic and personal aspects of this claim?

"The Mongols made no technological breakthroughs, founded no new religions, wrote few books or dramas, and gave the world no new crops or methods of agriculture. Their own craftsmen could not weave cloth, cast metal, make pottery, or even bake bread. They manufactured neither porcelain nor pottery, painted no pictures, and built no buildings. Yet, as the historian John Man states, 'The Mongols created a single economic, cultural, and epidemiological world system.' Rather than being creators of culture themselves, they were its transmitters. They were an essential link, a veritable channel for the transfer of knowledge and technology between distant civilizations."

— Secondary source on the Mongol Empire

A historian wishes to argue that the Mongols played a crucial role as cultural intermediaries. Which piece of evidence from the text would best support this argument?

"Satyagraha is not a method of coercion. It is one of conversion. We seek to awaken the sense of justice in the wrongdoer. By willingly accepting the punishment for breaking an unjust law, we expose the injustice of the law itself and the violence inherent in the system that upholds it. The satyagrahi (practitioner of satyagraha) must be willing to suffer, not to inflict suffering. Our aim is to conquer the opponent by love, to make him see the truth which we champion. This is the soul-force, the power of truth, which is infinitely more potent than the force of arms."

— M.K. Gandhi, writings on non-violent resistance

A historian argues that Gandhi's strategy of satyagraha was intended to win a moral victory by appealing to the conscience of the oppressor. Which quotation best supports this argument?

"There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his prophet. This simple, uncompromising monotheism was a dramatic change for the people of Mecca, who worshipped a multitude of local deities and tribal gods housed in the Kaaba. The new faith also demanded a new kind of social identity. It replaced tribal loyalties, which had been the basis of Arabian society for centuries, with a new, unifying allegiance to the umma, the community of believers. This was not merely a spiritual change; it was a political and social revolution. It challenged the authority of the powerful Quraysh tribe, whose wealth and prestige were linked to the pilgrimage trade centered on the pagan idols of the Kaaba."

— A secondary source on the origins of Islam.

To support the claim that the rise of Islam was a direct challenge to the existing social and political structure of Mecca, a historian would be most likely to cite which piece of evidence from the passage?

"The samurai, as a class, were warriors. But in the long peace of the Tokugawa shogunate, their martial skills were no longer in demand. Stripped of their military function, many fell into poverty, becoming indebted to the very merchant class they officially disdained. Yet, their cultural influence remained immense. The samurai code of bushido, with its emphasis on loyalty, discipline, and honor, became a model for all of Japanese society. The government, staffed by samurai-turned-bureaucrats, promoted this ethos as a means of social control. Thus, the samurai lost their swords but shaped the soul of the nation."

— Secondary source on Tokugawa Japan (1603-1868)

Which piece of evidence from the passage best supports the claim that the samurai class maintained cultural authority even as their practical military role declined?

"The factory system transforms not only how goods are made but how people live. Workers rise before dawn to tend machines that never tire, unlike the craftsmen of old who set their own pace. Women and children join men at the looms, earning wages but losing the rhythms of domestic life. The air grows thick with smoke, and rivers run brown with waste, yet the abundance of cheap cloth brings comfort to households that once wore only rough homespun garments." - English social reformer's observations, 1830

Which evidence from this account would best support an argument that industrialization involved complex trade-offs rather than simple progress or decline?

"The inhabitants of this city [Quilon, India] are idolaters, though there are a number of Muslims who have their own mosque. The king is an infidel. The merchants are so wealthy that any one of them can purchase a whole cargo of a vessel. The city has a great bazaar, with the most precious spices being very abundant. In this city, the final calibration is made for the sea-quadrant, which the sailors use to navigate the Indian Ocean. I saw the Chinese junks here; they are the greatest ships in the world. The pepper of this region is exported to China and to Fars [Persia]. I have never seen it so plentiful as here."

— Adapted from the writings of Ibn Battuta, c. 1340s

Which piece of evidence from the passage best supports the claim that Indian Ocean trade routes fostered cultural as well as economic exchange?

"TO ALL FREE MEN of our kingdom we have also granted, for us and our heirs for ever, all the liberties written out below, to have and to keep for them and their heirs, of us and our heirs… No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice."

— Magna Carta, 1215

A historian argues that the Magna Carta's protections were not universal but were intended for a specific social stratum. Which detail from the text is most crucial for supporting this interpretation?

"I am fourteen years of age. I have worked in the pits for about 18 months. I work with a woman who is a drawer. She is naked to the waist and I am quite naked. It is very hard work; I cannot say how many times I have to travel the distance from the bottom to the top of the shaft in a day. The place I work in is very wet. We have to go into the water which is sometimes up to our thighs. My sister is ten years of age and she works in the pit with me. Sometimes I am so tired I could fall asleep. I have been beaten, but not so much as some."

— Testimony of a child miner to the Ashley Mines Commission, Great Britain, 1842

A historian studying the social consequences of the Industrial Revolution would most likely use this testimony as evidence for which of the following claims?

"Any Power which henceforth takes possession of a tract of land on the coasts of the African Continent outside of its present possessions, or which, being hitherto without such possessions, shall acquire them, and any Power which assumes a protectorate there, shall accompany the respective act with a notification thereof, addressed to the other signatory Powers of the present Act, in order to enable them, if need be, to make good any claims of their own. ... The signatory Powers of the present Act recognize the obligation to ensure the establishment of authority in the regions occupied by them on the coasts of the African Continent sufficient to protect existing rights and, as the case may be, freedom of trade and of transit under the conditions agreed upon."

— General Act of the Berlin Conference, 1885

A historian asserts that the Berlin Conference created a formal process for European colonization to prevent conflicts between the imperial powers themselves. Which piece of evidence from the text best supports this assertion?

"What is to be done? First, the Provisional Government must be overthrown. It cannot be overthrown now, for it is supported by an agreement with the Soviet of Workers' Deputies. It cannot be 'overthrown' in the ordinary way, for it rests on the 'support' given to the bourgeoisie by the second government, the Soviet. This government is a revolutionary dictatorship, but it is a government of a special kind. It rules not by laws, not by the force of bayonets, but by the direct, unceremonious, and unmediated will of the popular masses. Our immediate task is not to 'introduce' socialism, but to bring social production and the distribution of products at once under the control of the Soviet of Workers' Deputies."

— Vladimir Lenin, address to the Bolsheviks, April 1917

Which piece of evidence from the passage best supports the argument that Lenin, in April 1917, advocated for a transfer of power to the Soviets rather than an immediate socialist revolution?

"Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money? ... Again, what is this remission of penalties and participation in the benefits of the Church which the pope grants, if he gives to every one who contributes to the building of the basilica a greater grace than he could give by personally visiting and praying at the holy places? ... Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better work than buying pardons."

— Martin Luther, selected theses from the Ninety-five Theses, 1517

A historian argues that Luther's initial challenge to the Church was rooted in a critique of the economic and spiritual logic of indulgences. Which quotation best supports this specific argument?

"The New World's great contribution to the Old was in crop plants. Maize, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, and manioc were revolutionary. They were all richer in calories than Old World staples like wheat and barley, and all could be grown in soils that were useless for Old World crops. The potato, for example, could be grown in the mountains of western China, where rice cultivation was impossible. The population of the world doubled between 1650 and 1850, and this increase was due in large part to the new food crops from the Americas. They provided the nutritional base for the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the modern world."

— Secondary source on the Columbian Exchange.

To support the claim that the Columbian Exchange caused major demographic shifts in the Old World, which piece of evidence from the passage would be most effective to cite?

"The political liberty of the subject is a tranquility of mind arising from the opinion each person has of his safety. In order to have this liberty, it is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another. When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty... Again, there is no liberty, if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive. Were it joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control; for the judge would be then the legislator. Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with violence and oppression."

— Baron de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, 1748

A political theorist claims that Montesquieu's primary argument for the separation of powers is to prevent arbitrary rule. Which quotation provides the strongest support for this claim?

"At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one. One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression. The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms. I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."

— President Harry Truman, Address to Congress (Truman Doctrine), 1947

To support the claim that the Truman Doctrine framed the Cold War as a global ideological conflict, which piece of evidence from the speech would be most effective?

"What is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it been until now in the political order? Nothing. What does it ask? To become something. ... The Third Estate embraces then all that which belongs to the nation; and all that which is not the Third Estate, cannot be regarded as being of the nation. What is the Third Estate? It is everything. ... It is the strong and robust man who has one arm still shackled. If the privileged order were removed, the nation would not be something less but something more."

— Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès, "What Is the Third Estate?", 1789

To support the claim that Sieyès's pamphlet redefined the concept of the "nation" to be synonymous with the common people, which piece of evidence would be most effective?

"The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent. We have won the battle for our own independence. But this is only the first step. We must not relax our efforts. We must now embark on the more difficult, but no less important, task of safeguarding our sovereignty and using it for the welfare of our people. For this, we need a new and bolder approach: a political union of African states. Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world. Neocolonialism, which is the practice of exerting economic or political influence over a country whose people have supposedly been granted their freedom, is a real and present danger."

— Kwame Nkrumah, speech on African unity, 1960

Which quotation from the speech provides the best evidence for the argument that Nkrumah believed political independence was insufficient without pan-African solidarity to resist external pressures?

"If a man has destroyed the eye of a free man, his own eye shall be destroyed. If he has broken the bone of a free man, his own bone shall be broken. If he has destroyed the eye of a commoner or broken the bone of a commoner, he shall pay one mina of silver. If he has destroyed the eye of a gentleman's slave or broken the bone of a gentleman's slave, he shall pay half the slave's price. If a man has knocked out the tooth of a man who is his equal, his own tooth shall be knocked out."

— Excerpt from the Code of Hammurabi, c. 1754 BCE

A historian arguing that the Babylonian justice system reinforced existing social hierarchies would find which piece of evidence from this excerpt most useful?

"The Black Death swept through our lands like God's wrath upon sinful humanity. The priests tell us this pestilence is punishment for our moral failings, yet I have observed that it strikes down the most pious alongside the wicked. The old methods of bleeding and prayer seem powerless. Some speak of poisoned air from the East, others blame the alignment of planets, but none can explain why entire villages perish while others remain untouched." - Chronicle of Brother Thomas, England, 1348

What evidence from Brother Thomas's account would best support the argument that medieval Europeans struggled to reconcile religious explanations with empirical observations during the Black Death?