0:07 hey everybody
0:09 it is Friday welcome to our latest
0:12 edition of AP World History modern
0:15 review session my name is Mason Lazaro
0:18 coming to you from the Pflugerville
0:21 Texas or the in the Austin Texas area
0:23 and I'm ready to get into it so let's
0:27 talk about what we're doing today
0:29 alright so as you know Wednesday
0:32 yesterday and today we were covering
0:35 unit 1 which is sort of that tour of the
0:38 world it's called the global tapestry so
0:40 we're gonna finish that up today talking
0:43 about state buildings specifically how
0:46 did governments operate in Africa Europe
0:48 and the Americas the last three regions
0:50 that we have not really talked about yet
0:53 starting on next week we're gonna get
0:56 into unit 2 that's where we're gonna you
0:57 know real history stuff Smith is going
1:00 over trade routes on Monday I'm gonna
1:03 talk about the Mongols on Tuesday and
1:05 we'll kind of go from there but today
1:06 we're gonna finish up the sort of global
1:08 tapestry so we know where we're all at
1:10 starting in 1200 and then we're also
1:14 going to talk about kind of similarities
1:16 and differences I'm doing a lot of
1:17 comparing contrasting in state building
1:19 between these three regions and that's
1:21 gonna get us into making historical
1:23 arguments and we're going to talk a lot
1:25 of thesis statements as well today you
1:28 know about the importance of thesis
1:29 statements and your writing so I want to
1:31 make sure we're all clear on it we're
1:32 all feeling good as we get ready for
1:34 this AP test next month all right so for
1:41 our warm up today we want to take a look
1:43 at the homework that Smith gave y'all
1:45 last night he gave you two claims I'm
1:50 sorry he gave you pieces of evidence and
1:52 he asked you to come up with two claims
1:54 based on these pieces of evidence so
1:58 here's the first set that he gave you
2:00 and if you look at them and you read
2:03 them and you kind of put them together
2:04 which you know is what you're supposed
2:05 to do when making historical argument
2:07 you start to realize that this is about
2:11 reasons why the Abbasid Caliphate
2:14 collapsed
2:15 and so you can make a claim that there
2:17 were internal and external reasons for
2:21 that collapse if you notice evidence
2:25 piece a is about inside Egypt that's an
2:28 internal reason for collapse D and C are
2:31 about external threats to the Caliphate
2:35 especially including the Mongols which
2:37 again we'll talk about on Tuesday
2:42 the other one he gave y'all was about
2:46 how Islam spread as a religion and if
2:50 you notice here in his claim he gets a
2:52 little bit more specific in this one
2:54 than he did the last one the first one
2:56 he just said internal and external
2:57 responses which is plenty good for a
2:59 topic sentence in a paragraph in an
3:02 essay here he gets a little bit more
3:03 specific though and says missionary
3:06 efforts military conquests and merchant
3:08 exchanges and if you look at those three
3:10 pieces of evidence those completely line
3:12 up with that claim but I want to kind of
3:15 take this one step further and I wanna
3:17 think about how religions in general
3:19 spread not just Islam if you look at
3:23 religions through world history these
3:25 are really the three main ways that
3:27 religion spreads you've got missionaries
3:30 preaching the new religion you have
3:32 military conquest where you force the
3:34 new people that you've conquered to
3:35 convert to your religion and then you
3:38 see religion spread through trade routes
3:40 as people are meeting with other people
3:42 from different regions and convincing
3:44 them to you know join or just a new
3:47 religion so remember what I talked about
3:50 the other day that we need to kind of
3:51 think about general laws of world
3:54 history and this is a perfect example of
3:56 it religions always spread through
3:59 missionary efforts military conquest or
4:01 through trade and once you've learned
4:04 that and understand that then you start
4:07 plugging in the details about specific
4:09 religions for example you just see right
4:12 here that Islam spread in all three of
4:14 those ways when you think about Buddhism
4:17 for example typically we think of that
4:19 as merchant exchanges being spread on
4:23 the Silk Road as it moves towards East
4:25 Asia if you think about Christianity in
4:28 the Americas generally think more about
4:30 military conquests as a Spanish and
4:32 Portuguese took over in the Americas so
4:35 make sure you understand those general
4:37 rules of world history and then plug in
4:40 the details as you're studying and
4:41 reviewing for this test and again it's
4:43 gonna make things so much easier for you
4:49 all right
4:50 so what we're gonna do today is like I
4:53 said we talked about State Building in
4:54 Africa Europe and the Americas
4:56 so before we start oh this is times up
4:59 but it is not up we're gonna reset this
5:01 timer here in a second but I want you to
5:05 do simply brainstorm all the different
5:08 states that you can think of that were
5:10 around in these three regions anywhere
5:13 between 1200 to 1450 and I'm talking
5:16 about anything large empires countries
5:19 kingdoms even down the smallest chiefin
5:21 that you can think of so take about one
5:24 minute write down as many as you can I'm
5:27 gonna try and reset this timer there we
5:28 go so ready go and when the timer is up
5:33 I'm gonna go to the next slide
5:41 again just list as many as you possibly
5:43 can for bonus points if you can write
5:48 down a few characteristics of the states
5:49 that would be great but not required
5:54 I'm just trying to get your mind
5:57 about states in these areas
6:03 you
6:07 you
6:11 all right 15 seconds
6:23 and time is up so let's take a look at
6:30 possible answers here all right I gave
6:33 you this is not an exhaustive list it
6:35 does not mention every single state
6:37 because that would take way too much
6:40 space and be way too crowded on the
6:41 PowerPoint but listed some of the major
6:43 ones that you may have listed but one
6:47 thing I want you to remember and don't
6:48 worry when you look at this list because
6:51 some of you were look at this list right
6:52 now going uh I never saw some of these
6:56 states my teacher never mentioned them
6:58 and they're not in my textbook do I need
7:00 to know them and the answer is
7:02 fortunately you do not need to know
7:04 every single one of these remember the
7:08 AP test is not designed to test your
7:10 knowledge of African states in the 14th
7:14 century okay so that's okay the AP test
7:18 especially this years with the DB hue is
7:20 of course testing your ability to make a
7:24 historical argument documents and also
7:26 bring in outside evidence but it can be
7:30 from any of these examples if there's a
7:32 question about state building from 1200
7:34 to 1450 as long as you know a couple of
7:37 these then you're totally fine so please
7:40 don't freak out if you see a list on
7:42 here a name on here and you're gonna I
7:45 don't know it's okay alright in fact I'm
7:49 not even going to talk about some of
7:51 these today I didn't talk about some of
7:53 these in my class so even some of my
7:55 students are watching this right now are
7:57 getting kind of mad at me and going
7:58 Lozier oh we never talked about this
8:00 it's okay guys you don't need to know it
8:03 that's why we didn't talk about it but
8:05 as long as you know a couple of examples
8:07 then you're good
8:10 all right so let's get into what you
8:13 need to know about state building before
8:16 we talk about state building in Africa
8:18 Europe and the Americas from 1200 1450
8:22 let's kind of back up and take a
8:24 big-picture look at state building in
8:26 general why do we even have States and
8:29 governments and again I mean we you
8:33 could talk about all kinds of different
8:34 forms of governments as I mentioned
8:36 you've talked about giant empires this
8:38 year in class you've talked about
8:40 smaller kingdoms and countries all the
8:43 way down to like small city-states but
8:46 no matter how big it is or how long it
8:48 lasted
8:49 generally speaking states are trying to
8:52 accomplish a couple of things one
8:55 they're trying to organize all the
8:58 resources of the area states that
9:01 survive and thrive are able to figure
9:04 out exactly okay how many people do we
9:07 have how many farmers do we have how
9:09 many soldiers do we have how many
9:11 weapons do we have for those soldiers
9:12 and how can we get more weapons for the
9:14 soldiers how much food do we have crops
9:17 animals etc and how can we make sure
9:19 that everybody in our area is getting
9:22 fed those that are able to organize and
9:25 be more efficient have usually survived
9:27 and then of course another major role of
9:30 governments in general is that they're
9:32 supposed to enforce the laws and social
9:35 norms of the area you know consider I
9:39 think we can all agree that if you break
9:43 a law you should go to jail you should
9:46 be locked up into a room for some amount
9:49 of time that's kind of agreed-upon at
9:51 least in our society we'll remember the
9:55 government has the power to put people
9:57 in jail you as an individual do not have
10:01 that power please please please don't go
10:05 locking anybody up in a room even if you
10:07 think they committed a crime that's
10:09 called kidnapping it's wrong you should
10:12 not do it please leave it up to the
10:14 government and the police force to do
10:16 that okay
10:18 that is a main function of governments
10:21 everywhere to enforce laws alright so
10:24 then where did governments come from
10:26 where when do they start how did they
10:28 start well ok historians are kind of you
10:32 know a little bit of a disagreement
10:34 about this but I think generally
10:36 speaking we can say the first states
10:39 began somewhere around 3000 BCE so about
10:43 5000 years ago and about five or seven
10:46 thousand years after the Neolithic
10:49 Revolution I don't know if you talked
10:51 about the Neolithic Revolution in class
10:52 this year but remember that's when
10:54 humans first began to domesticate plants
10:56 and animals started to settle down but
11:00 then it takes a while almost 5000 years
11:03 until we see the first real states and
11:06 governments but what's really
11:09 interesting is that when you look at
11:11 where these states and governments begin
11:14 to pop up around the world it happens in
11:16 all different regions of the world
11:18 and kind of around the same time this
11:22 was not a situation where one state
11:24 starts in Mesopotamia and then everyone
11:27 else hears about it you know the news
11:29 spreads around the world like hey check
11:31 out this new cool idea of having a
11:33 government a lot of these popped up
11:35 independently again we see new states in
11:39 Mesopotamia we also see at the same time
11:42 new states in Mesoamerica and Collect
11:44 what's today's southern Mexico well
11:47 obviously the people in North America
11:49 were not talking to the people in Asia
11:52 three five thousand years ago so these
11:55 are all developing independently now I
11:59 shouldn't ake a timeout real quick pause
12:02 you know how we talked about
12:03 contextualization on Monday some of you
12:06 right now are thinking to yourself hey
12:08 if that DBQ is about state building I am
12:12 totally gonna mention all this as my
12:14 contextualization I'm telling you right
12:17 now please please please don't do that
12:19 okay remember that I said
12:21 contextualization has to directly relate
12:24 to the topic of the prompt and your
12:26 thesis the Neolithic Revolution is not
12:29 going to directly relate to the prompt
12:31 okay cuz remember the prompt is not
12:33 gonna be until after 1200 so please
12:37 don't use this contextualization alright
12:40 I'm only telling you this for your own
12:41 edification and knowledge this is not
12:44 supposed to be in your DBQ please don't
12:47 do it okay
12:49 the other thing we need to consider
12:51 though is how to governments and states
12:54 keep their power and there's a lot of
12:57 different ways but there's two that we
13:00 really see in nearly every state around
13:03 the world first is the use of religion
13:07 you know you got to consider no matter
13:10 what religion we're talking about or
13:11 what region of the world religion is an
13:15 extremely powerful tool for good and for
13:18 evil sadly we've seen both through world
13:20 history which you can convince large
13:23 numbers of people to do all kinds of
13:25 things through the use of religion and
13:28 political leaders have figured this out
13:30 and they have used it to keep control
13:33 and we can see this going back to like
13:35 ancient Egypt where the pharaohs were
13:38 considered half-god and half-man and
13:41 people believed that the pharaohs were
13:43 the ones that kept the Nile River
13:44 flowing that's a way of using religious
13:47 power to govern or these days in our
13:50 country every time a politician ends a
13:53 speech with god Bless America they're
13:56 using religion to justify political
13:58 power and this is something we see
14:00 around the world so again it's one of
14:03 those kind of general laws of world
14:06 history if you can know that often
14:08 governments use religion to keep
14:11 political power then you can plug the
14:13 details in about specific examples
14:15 through history and you're good to go or
14:19 another way that governments keep
14:21 control is through the economy if
14:23 governments and leaders can promise to
14:26 keep the wealth coming in to keep trade
14:28 happening that's gonna keep the wealthy
14:30 elites happy it's gonna keep the
14:32 commoners happy and as long as you're
14:34 keeping everybody happy you get to stay
14:37 in charge of the government oftentimes
14:39 though when the economy collapses you
14:41 generally see a change in the power
14:43 structure of the Gov
14:45 as well and political leaders obviously
14:48 know that so let's take a look at how
14:51 that happens in Africa and Europe in the
14:55 Americas from 1200 to 1450
15:03 okay one similarity we see all across
15:06 those three regions is what I just said
15:08 using religion to govern so let me give
15:11 you a couple examples the Aztec empire
15:15 in Mesoamerica they were known for using
15:19 human sacrifice in their religious
15:22 worship the story there goes that there
15:26 was a belief that in order for the Sun
15:28 God the good god of the Aztec religion
15:30 to continue his fight he had to be
15:33 replenished with human blood
15:35 and so the Aztecs would sometimes
15:37 sacrifice humans at the temple but now
15:41 keep in mind is this was not a situation
15:43 where they just like grabbed a random
15:44 person off the street bronze the temple
15:46 and killed them usually the person that
15:49 was being sacrificed was a captured
15:52 soldier from another area after a battle
15:55 or even not even just like a regular
15:57 soldier usually like a high ranking
15:59 military official if they could
16:01 so notice yes there's a religious aspect
16:05 to it but it's also showing off the
16:07 leaders military power and political
16:11 power or if we switch over to West
16:15 Africa and the kingdom of Mali now we
16:18 think Mali
16:19 you probably think of montsum Musa and
16:21 hopefully you talked about him in class
16:23 he's an extremely important figure in
16:25 West Africa remember Monson Musa was the
16:28 one that was considered one of the
16:30 richest men ever to live and it's hard
16:33 to put like exact figures on how much
16:35 money did he have and even if you could
16:38 how do you compare that to like the
16:40 wealth of someone today like a Jeff
16:43 Bezos or Bill Gates or something like
16:44 that
16:45 but the point is if you made a list of
16:48 the richest people ever matzo mousse is
16:50 definitely up there at the top and
16:52 remember he shows this off by his
16:55 pilgrimage that he makes to Mecca and I
16:57 put a picture down below in the corner
16:59 of the PowerPoint here remembering that
17:02 pilgrimage from West Africa through
17:04 North Africa to Mecca he brings his
17:07 entire court with him he brings a ton of
17:09 people and he also brings a ton of gold
17:13 and he spins
17:15 along the trip he gives it to the poor
17:17 he helps build schools and universities
17:20 he helps build libraries in fact
17:23 scholars have started to realize that he
17:25 spent so much money in gold that it
17:28 caused the price of gold around an
17:31 entire region to actually dip because he
17:34 increased the supply so much that's
17:37 insane
17:38 really when you think about it okay but
17:41 the point is here he is showing off the
17:44 economic power and using religion to do
17:48 it and showing that economic power to
17:52 show off his political power as well to
17:54 show off the wealth of his kingdom or if
17:58 we think about Europe
17:59 you've got the Byzantine Empire remember
18:01 that's what's left of the old ancient
18:04 Roman Empire after the Roman Empire
18:06 collapses in the western half of Europe
18:08 it continues on it's the most part
18:11 generally speaking in Eastern Europe the
18:16 main religion there of course is
18:17 Christianity it's Eastern Orthodox
18:19 Christianity which is different from
18:21 Roman Catholics or Roman Catholicism
18:24 which is being which is mainly followed
18:27 in Western Europe and you may have
18:30 talked about the Great Schism if he did
18:31 cool if you didn't don't worry about it
18:34 too much but that was the split between
18:35 Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox
18:37 that's when there were at one point two
18:40 popes and this Pope said I'm
18:42 excommunicating you I'm kicking you out
18:44 of the church and this Pope said no you
18:45 can't do that because I'm kicking you
18:47 out and yes it sounds really childish
18:50 and it kind of was in many ways because
18:52 they were arguing over things like the
18:55 bread that you used for communion should
18:58 there be yeast in it or not like should
19:00 it rise like a loaf of bread or should
19:02 be more flat like a tortilla yeah you
19:05 know really important stuff there that
19:07 everybody cares about but anyway the
19:10 point is you have the Eastern Orthodox
19:12 Church in the Byzantine Empire and
19:15 people saw the Emperor as also the
19:19 leader of the church a term known as
19:21 Caesar a pape ism which hey by the way
19:24 that's a fun word that you can wow your
19:26 friends and family with this weekend
19:29 if you talk to anybody this weekend you
19:30 know while using social distancing and
19:33 all that but notice the term Caesar the
19:37 head of the government
19:38 papé ism like the Pope the head of the
19:40 church as well so again you've got
19:43 political power and religious power very
19:46 much intertwined so that's kind of
19:49 similarity that we can see across the
19:51 Americas and Africa and Europe that
19:55 political leaders are using religious
19:58 power
20:01 but we can also see some differences
20:04 let's think about that other way that
20:06 government leaders you are staying
20:09 control and that is through the economy
20:11 through trade okay
20:14 Monson loose' and the other leaders of
20:17 Mali we're able to take control and grow
20:19 their kingdom because of all the money
20:21 coming in from the salt and gold trade
20:24 member there are large deposits of salt
20:27 and gold in West Africa and when news of
20:31 that spreads people start merchants
20:34 start traveling across the Sahara Desert
20:36 in order to get it Smith is gonna get
20:39 into all that on Monday so I don't want
20:40 to go too far into it but the point is
20:42 there's a lot of money coming into West
20:44 Africa and for everything that gets sold
20:47 of course that means more tax money and
20:50 more tax money of course means more
20:53 money for the government and more power
20:54 for the government or consider down in
20:58 South America
20:59 the Incas remember the Inca Empire kind
21:02 of ran down the coast the Pacific
21:03 between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes
21:05 Mountains it was a very geographically
21:08 just long Empire and so the Incas built
21:12 this amazingly intricate system of roads
21:15 up and down the coasts but also into the
21:17 Andes Mountains and part of that was to
21:19 keep control for the government but also
21:22 a lot of it was to help facilitate trade
21:26 across the empire again the more stuff
21:29 that gets traded the more stuff that
21:31 gets bought and sold means more tax
21:33 money for the government but here we
21:37 actually see a difference between those
21:40 kingdoms and empires and what we see in
21:43 Western Europe okay remember that in
21:47 Western Europe ever since the fall of
21:49 the Roman Empire which I mean depending
21:52 on how you want to date it there's a lot
21:53 of different ways you could date it but
21:55 most would agree somewhere around the
21:57 300s ever since then you don't see any
22:02 really huge kingdoms or empires emerging
22:04 nothing like these other ones that we've
22:06 looked at already
22:07 there are a few that kind of came and
22:09 went but then they fell apart and the
22:12 point is when it comes to political
22:13 power and West
22:14 Europe after the fall of Rome until
22:16 about 1450 or so it's very fluid
22:20 it's very decentralized it's definitely
22:23 a feudal system where power lies more in
22:26 the hands of the wealthy landowners very
22:29 similar to what we talked about Japan
22:30 the other day with the daimyo and
22:32 Samurai but one of the reasons why
22:36 that's the case is because lack of long
22:38 distance trade remember if you think
22:41 about all those trade routes across
22:42 afro-eurasia Western Europe is kind of
22:46 off in the corner by itself it really
22:48 was not involved in a lot of trade
22:51 across the Silk Roads or the Indian
22:53 Ocean or the Sahara Desert routes and so
22:57 because of that you don't see a ton of
22:58 wealth coming to that area as well and
23:01 so you don't see any large governments
23:03 or empires in that area
23:09 now I want to think about how geography
23:13 can be a barrier in limitation to the
23:15 growth of kingdoms and empires for one
23:19 it could definitely limit long-distance
23:22 trade you know think about when it comes
23:25 to West Africa we really don't see
23:27 long-distance trade across the Sahara
23:29 Desert until the discovery of gold and
23:32 salt before that no-one went across the
23:35 Sahara Desert why would you risk your
23:37 life doing that until gold and salts are
23:40 discovered those are both extremely
23:42 valuable gold you know because it's gold
23:45 it's shiny and really pretty and
23:47 everybody wants it and you can make
23:48 really cool stuff with it salt well
23:52 everybody needs salt
23:53 it makes your food taste good everybody
23:55 wants it and so when that happens then
23:58 you start to see that trade across the
24:00 Sahara Desert but before that you really
24:02 don't but now think about if the kingdom
24:07 of Mali was looking to expand they're
24:09 not really able to expand across the
24:11 Sahara Desert and to say like North
24:13 Africa it's one thing to cross the
24:16 desert in pursuit of riches it's another
24:19 thing if you're like a soldier in the
24:21 Mali army and you're told you have to
24:23 cross the desert to go fight this other
24:25 army I don't know that I'm willing to
24:28 risk my life crossing the Sahara Desert
24:30 in order to go fight and possibly die
24:33 that's a little much okay also if you
24:37 think about South America remember the
24:38 Incas would never really spread their
24:40 empire past the Andes Mountains because
24:42 the Andes Mountains are really big and
24:45 really hard to cross and then if you
24:48 consider rainforests in South America
24:51 you never really see any kind of large
24:53 kingdom or Empire that encompasses North
24:56 America and South America because try
24:59 getting through the Isthmus of Panama
25:00 right there especially with all that
25:02 rainforest so transportation and
25:05 communication and limited then the
25:08 spread of a governments power is when to
25:10 be limited as well okay let's take a
25:16 break from the whole State Building
25:19 thing for a second and let's talk thesis
25:21 statements
25:22 okay I know that you've talked thesis
25:24 statements all year long with your
25:26 teacher I hope that you've practiced
25:29 them this is something that I start the
25:32 very first week of school with my
25:33 students on and when we do over a couple
25:37 of ideas here a couple things that your
25:39 thesis asked to do so let me run through
25:43 these and then we'll do a little
25:45 practice okay
25:47 first thing your thesis statement has to
25:49 do and by the way don't forget you need
25:51 a good solid thesis statement for the DB
25:52 hue that you're writing next month it
25:55 has to answer the question okay I know
25:59 you're looking at me going yellow sure
26:01 oh we know it has to answer the question
26:03 but you'd be surprised the number of
26:06 times I've gone to grade those AP tests
26:08 in June and I see essays where students
26:11 simply did not answer the question if
26:14 the questions asking about let's say
26:18 causes of the Industrial Revolution
26:21 don't mention trains in your thesis
26:24 trains were not a cause of the
26:26 Industrial Revolution they were effect
26:28 they were something that drove it later
26:30 but they were not a cause don't put
26:32 trains and if I'm asking about causes so
26:35 just simply answer the question
26:38 all right the other thing that you need
26:41 to have in your thesis are what I call
26:43 organizational categories some teachers
26:46 call them claims whatever you want to
26:48 call it's fine but these are in a sense
26:50 your answers to the question typically I
26:55 like to tell students you have to have
26:57 at least two categories three is
26:59 preferable I would always like my
27:01 students when they write an essay in
27:02 class to have three although if we're
27:06 thinking about this year and this DBQ
27:09 remember you're only gonna have five
27:11 documents on this DBQ you're only gonna
27:13 have 45 minutes to write it so I think
27:16 for this year as long as you've got two
27:18 I think that is plenty I think you're in
27:21 a really good spot if you have two solid
27:23 claims two solid answers to the thesis
27:28 I'm sorry to the prompt then you're in a
27:30 really good spot and I'll show you some
27:32 examples of what I mean by that in a
27:34 second but
27:35 need to be careful with your categories
27:37 that they're not too broad I don't want
27:40 to see political and economic causes
27:43 because guys there's political and
27:46 economic causes for like everything in
27:48 history right so don't just say
27:50 something broad like political and
27:51 economic you got to be a little bit more
27:53 specific than that
27:54 but at the same time you don't need a
27:57 huge giant run-on sentence with all
27:59 types of different examples that's going
28:02 to come later in your body paragraphs so
28:04 you want to be specific but not too
28:06 specific and I'll show you what I mean
28:08 in a second but I think for this year as
28:11 long as you've got to you're in a good
28:13 spot alright and the way I tell students
28:17 to do this I want to keep this simple
28:19 let's just take the words of the prompt
28:22 rearrange them a little bit add your
28:25 categories because you've got to add
28:26 something to it and then you've got your
28:28 thesis statement
28:30 remember that pretty much every prompt
28:32 is gonna have a region of the world that
28:34 you have to talk about and it's gonna
28:35 have a time period please make sure you
28:37 have both of those in your thesis if you
28:40 don't put the region in your thesis then
28:42 you could be talking about anywhere in
28:44 the world if you don't put the time
28:46 period you could be talking about any
28:48 time in history so put the time period
28:51 put the region and if you use kind of
28:53 same terms of the prompt then you know
28:55 that you're doing number one that you're
28:57 answering the question also your thesis
29:02 should go in your introduction you are
29:04 introducing your argument and then
29:06 you're gonna talk about your argument
29:08 through the rest of the essay but I
29:11 would also put it in the conclusion as
29:13 well
29:14 remember if you look at the rubric for
29:17 the DBQ thesis statement is the one
29:20 thing that has to be in a certain spot
29:22 it has to be either in your intro or
29:25 your conclusion but I'm gonna suggest
29:29 that you put it in both because as long
29:32 as you do it well one time you get the
29:35 point for the thesis statement and I
29:38 have seen so many times where a student
29:41 writes their thesis in the intro and
29:43 it's okay but it doesn't quite reach the
29:46 level of a good thesis statement they
29:48 don't get the point
29:49 but then you start writing your essay
29:51 and your brain starts moving and the
29:54 little hamster in the wheel is turning
29:55 in your brain and by the time you dump
29:57 that essay you feel you know a lot more
29:59 about it you feel a lot better and if
30:01 you rewrite your thesis in a different
30:03 way in your conclusion it's almost
30:06 always going to be better and there are
30:08 plenty of times where I've seen students
30:09 who did not get the thesis point their
30:12 intro but they reworded it we're a
30:14 little bit more specific in their
30:16 conclusion and they got the thesis point
30:18 and everything was good so I would
30:21 suggest doing it both technically you
30:23 only have to do it in one but hey might
30:26 as well try it twice in case you mess up
30:28 on one
30:31 all right so let's look at a couple of
30:34 examples of decent statements these are
30:37 more kind of fun non history questions
30:39 also if you notice my answers are both
30:43 kind of dealing with my childhood in
30:45 south Louisiana in fact I'm wearing my
30:48 st. shirt today cuz got to talk about
30:50 the Saints and I've got my Mardi Gras
30:53 beads here so we're good there oh you
30:55 know what I'm just why is the guy here
31:03 but you know what I know that mighty
31:05 growl season's over but frankly don't we
31:08 all just need some happiness and bright
31:11 colors in our world right now so let's
31:13 just kind of pretend and have fun but
31:16 yes even though I do live in Texas I
31:18 grew up in south Louisiana and as they
31:21 say you can take the boy out of South
31:22 Louisiana but you can't take the south
31:24 Louisiana
31:25 out of the boy so let's talk about a
31:28 couple of south Louisiana possible
31:30 thesis statements Oh actually wait
31:32 before I do since I'm talking about
31:34 growing up in Louisiana I want to give a
31:36 shout out to my alma mater Baton Rouge
31:39 high if any of you are students there or
31:42 teachers there and are watching this go
31:44 Bulldogs
31:45 okay so if I asked you to write an essay
31:48 on which fast-food restaurant has the
31:51 best fried chicken
31:53 okay let's think about that for a second
31:56 first off the answer is Popeyes you
31:58 cannot argue with me some of you are
32:00 sitting there going wait lotro we've got
32:03 this like this local place it's really
32:05 really good it's got the best fried
32:06 chicken okay I hate to tell you but I
32:09 think you might be wrong you know and
32:11 here's the problem
32:12 I'm a history teacher I believe in
32:15 diversity of ideas and opinions and that
32:18 is really important to me and that you
32:20 know everyone can express their
32:22 viewpoints that is extremely important
32:25 except when it comes to really important
32:27 things like fried chicken
32:28 in which case Popeyes is the one answer
32:30 ok so just it is and if you live in a
32:33 part of the country or the world where
32:34 there are no Popeyes oh I'm sorry for
32:38 you I just what does what it just a
32:40 terrible terrible life you must lead but
32:43 hopefully one day you'll fine
32:44 'if the goodness of his Popeyes all
32:48 right so if I said which fast-food
32:50 restaurant is the best chicken notice
32:53 how I kind of rearranged some of the
32:54 words and the prompt of all the
32:56 fast-food restaurants Popeyes has the
32:58 best chicken so I've answered the
32:59 question right here with Popeyes but
33:02 here I give my reasons why the spice and
33:04 flavor the crispness of the skin and the
33:08 juiciness of the meat I've given you
33:10 three reasons why Popeyes has the best
33:12 chicken now this is perfect because if I
33:15 was gonna write out this full essay you
33:17 also now know that my first paragraph is
33:19 gonna be about spice and flavor I'm
33:21 gonna talk about all the different
33:22 spices that they put into the batter the
33:24 second paragraph is gonna be how when
33:26 you crunch that skin you eat it it just
33:28 tastes perfectly and then three my last
33:31 paragraphs gonna be with the juiciness
33:33 of the meat how the grease kind of gets
33:35 all over your fingers that's when you
33:36 know it's really good fried chicken so
33:38 you know exactly where I'm headed with
33:40 this but notice I didn't go into a lot
33:43 of explanation of my thesis statement
33:45 I kept it kind of short I kept it to one
33:48 sentence now at the same time I wasn't
33:51 super broad I didn't say Popeyes has the
33:54 best chicken because it tastes good
33:56 that's not enough you need to give some
33:58 reasons why without going into a long
34:01 run-on sentence okay also notice that
34:07 you have to answer the question I had to
34:09 answer fast-food restaurant maybe
34:12 there's a sit-down restaurant that has a
34:13 really good chicken but you can't
34:15 mention X that's not the question asked
34:16 my wife makes really really good fried
34:19 chicken but I can't say my wife's fried
34:22 chicken because she doesn't operate a
34:24 fast-food restaurant you have to answer
34:26 the question also I considered something
34:30 about maybe putting in biscuits in my
34:33 thesis as well because Popeyes has
34:34 amazing biscuits for a side but you
34:38 can't do that because the prompt did not
34:40 ask about the rest of the food it just
34:43 asked about chicken so if the prompt
34:45 asks about chicken talk about chicken
34:47 don't talk about biscuits now
34:51 this could be your contextualization you
34:53 could talk about Popeyes a restaurant it
34:55 started in New Orleans it's known for
34:57 its famous biscuits but as good as the
35:01 biscuits are their chickens even better
35:03 notice contextualization - thisis I made
35:05 that connection there and then you get
35:09 into how good the chicken is at Popeyes
35:11 or my second one will the Saints win the
35:15 Superbowl in 2021 because yes I'm a huge
35:18 Saints fan and right now those of you in
35:20 Minnesota are kind of laughing at me
35:22 because of what's happened twice now in
35:25 the last couple years the playoffs and I
35:26 will say good win y'all kicked our butts
35:29 this year if there's any Rams fans out
35:32 there okay y'all you know is pass
35:36 interference okay so don't even start
35:38 with me you know is pass interference
35:40 there's no question about it but it's
35:42 fine I'm over it I'm okay for the most
35:46 part but anyway let's move on let's talk
35:48 about 2021
35:49 if there is an NFL season and Super Bowl
35:51 the Saints are gonna win now notice the
35:55 reasons that I gave while the Saints
35:58 have an average defense their offense
36:00 and coaching rank at the top of the
36:02 league I didn't just say defense offense
36:05 coaching cuz I don't think that would be
36:07 enough but I did describe them average
36:10 defense but then really good offense in
36:13 coaching and that's enough for a thesis
36:15 statement you know then at the body of
36:17 my paragraphs when talking about offense
36:20 I'll talk about Drew Brees coaching I'll
36:22 talk about how great Sean Payton is so
36:24 I'll get into the details later you
36:26 don't have to do that in your thesis
36:27 statement but also notice something here
36:31 I have set up what possibly could be a
36:34 complex argument remember there is that
36:37 complex argument point and the rubric
36:39 that you can get where you kind of you
36:42 can give one side of the argument and
36:43 then the other as well that is possible
36:46 to show new ones so I've kind of set up
36:48 my thesis to be able to do that now
36:52 we be honest here for a second about
36:53 this complexity point and how do I say
36:57 this nicely okay I want you to consider
37:00 something that complexity point and the
37:03 rubric I know your teachers have talked
37:04 about it before it is a very very hard
37:07 point to get in a normal year and this
37:11 year we know is not normal you're only
37:13 going to have 45 minutes with a DBQ
37:15 you're only going to five documents so
37:18 as hard as that complexity point is
37:19 usually to get it's gonna be even harder
37:21 this year my thought when I'm looking at
37:26 this new rubric the other nine points
37:28 are thinker within most of your grass
37:30 grasps y'all can get those other nine
37:32 points focus on the other nine points
37:36 make sure you've nailed those down and
37:39 then if you want to think about
37:40 complexity then go for it but please
37:43 please please when you get your DBQ in
37:45 May don't spend all this time going I'm
37:48 gonna have the most complex argument I'm
37:50 gonna show it from all different sides
37:51 and then forget to source the documents
37:54 for example okay just let's focus on the
37:57 other nine points if he gets complexity
37:59 great but I think the other nine points
38:01 are really where you need to focus okay
38:07 so let's do a little practice for you
38:08 here we're back to a history question
38:12 about states and empires establishing
38:13 their authority so if I gave you this
38:18 essay prompt I'd like you to write a
38:19 one-sentence thesis statement that will
38:21 answer it and we give you a couple
38:23 minutes to do that but we're gonna do
38:25 the same thing we did on Wednesday where
38:27 if you want to stop go and stop this
38:29 right now and pause it and then when
38:33 you're ready hit play so that I'm not
38:34 standing here staring at the camera for
38:37 a couple minutes all right so ready
38:39 pause okay
38:43 welcome back here's the thesis statement
38:47 that I came up with again you may have
38:50 something different and that is a okay
38:52 please talk to your teacher though about
38:54 it but notice in my thesis I said twelve
38:57 hundred fourteen fifty I mentioned
39:00 Africa in the Americas because this
39:02 prompt doesn't actually give you a
39:03 region so you can go pretty much
39:05 anywhere in the world you want but I
39:07 said that states in Africa the Americas
39:09 used religious power and access to trade
39:13 routes to establish their authority so
39:16 I've given you two claims here religious
39:18 power and access to trade routes again
39:21 notice when it comes to religious power
39:23 I didn't mention human sacrifice I
39:26 didn't mention Mansa Musa's pilgrimage
39:29 to Mecca that is stuff that I won't
39:32 mention in the rest of the essay okay
39:37 all right so let's kind of summarize
39:39 what we've done today we've talked about
39:43 the ways that states form and the ways
39:45 that keep power again make sure you
39:48 understand those general ways that
39:50 states keep power and once you
39:52 understand that plugging in the details
39:55 about individual states it's gonna be so
39:57 much easier also you all know that
40:00 thesis statements are important your
40:02 teacher has stressed that over and over
40:04 and over again so make sure your thesis
40:06 statement is strong all right and then
40:09 my biggest tip for the AP test when
40:12 you're writing an essay make sure your
40:14 thesis is in your intro and in your
40:17 conclusion
40:19 all right you've got a little homework
40:22 for the weekend yes I'm that really mean
40:24 teacher that gives homework over the
40:26 weekend all right down below and the
40:30 Google Drive that is right below us
40:32 there is a file called one point four to
40:34 one point six homework it is a modified
40:37 DBQ I took an older DBQ from several
40:39 years ago willed it down to five
40:41 documents so I want you to look over
40:44 those documents I want you to write a
40:46 thesis statement for it all you need to
40:49 do is the thesis statement remember when
40:52 you're doing a DBQ
40:53 kind of group the documents together in
40:56 answers that you notice hey it looks
40:58 like documents two and five seem to kind
41:00 of go together and one in three seem to
41:02 work together as well group those
41:04 together like your teacher taught you
41:06 and let those documents guide your
41:09 categories in your thesis statement if
41:11 you're looking for bonus points once
41:15 you've got your thesis statement think
41:17 about topic sentences for your
41:19 paragraphs that you might write again
41:21 you've got your two claims your thesis
41:23 statement so you have two paragraphs and
41:25 your essay what's the first sentence of
41:28 those two paragraphs going to look like
41:29 so you can do that for bonus
41:37 oops all right we are done for today I
41:40 hope you'll have a nice weekend
41:41 hope you get to relax again do your best
41:45 with this we're all kind of in the same
41:47 boat right now trying to get ready for
41:48 this AP test I know it's an insane time
41:51 it really really is okay but please
41:54 understand focus on yourself focus on
41:57 your family as well okay I hope you get
42:00 rejuvenated over the weekend and we will
42:02 see y'all on Monday have a good weekend
42:05 bye everybody
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