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AP World History: 1_4–1_6 State Building in the Americas_ Africa_ and Europe from c_ 1200 to c_ 1450

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hey everybody

it is Friday welcome to our latest

edition of AP World History modern

review session my name is Mason Lazaro

coming to you from the Pflugerville

Texas or the in the Austin Texas area

and I'm ready to get into it so let's

talk about what we're doing today

alright so as you know Wednesday

yesterday and today we were covering

unit 1 which is sort of that tour of the

world it's called the global tapestry so

we're gonna finish that up today talking

about state buildings specifically how

did governments operate in Africa Europe

and the Americas the last three regions

that we have not really talked about yet

starting on next week we're gonna get

into unit 2 that's where we're gonna you

know real history stuff Smith is going

over trade routes on Monday I'm gonna

talk about the Mongols on Tuesday and

we'll kind of go from there but today

we're gonna finish up the sort of global

tapestry so we know where we're all at

starting in 1200 and then we're also

going to talk about kind of similarities

and differences I'm doing a lot of

comparing contrasting in state building

between these three regions and that's

gonna get us into making historical

arguments and we're going to talk a lot

of thesis statements as well today you

know about the importance of thesis

statements and your writing so I want to

make sure we're all clear on it we're

all feeling good as we get ready for

this AP test next month all right so for

our warm up today we want to take a look

at the homework that Smith gave y'all

last night he gave you two claims I'm

sorry he gave you pieces of evidence and

he asked you to come up with two claims

based on these pieces of evidence so

here's the first set that he gave you

and if you look at them and you read

them and you kind of put them together

which you know is what you're supposed

to do when making historical argument

you start to realize that this is about

reasons why the Abbasid Caliphate

collapsed

and so you can make a claim that there

were internal and external reasons for

that collapse if you notice evidence

piece a is about inside Egypt that's an

internal reason for collapse D and C are

about external threats to the Caliphate

especially including the Mongols which

again we'll talk about on Tuesday

the other one he gave y'all was about

how Islam spread as a religion and if

you notice here in his claim he gets a

little bit more specific in this one

than he did the last one the first one

he just said internal and external

responses which is plenty good for a

topic sentence in a paragraph in an

essay here he gets a little bit more

specific though and says missionary

efforts military conquests and merchant

exchanges and if you look at those three

pieces of evidence those completely line

up with that claim but I want to kind of

take this one step further and I wanna

think about how religions in general

spread not just Islam if you look at

religions through world history these

are really the three main ways that

religion spreads you've got missionaries

preaching the new religion you have

military conquest where you force the

new people that you've conquered to

convert to your religion and then you

see religion spread through trade routes

as people are meeting with other people

from different regions and convincing

them to you know join or just a new

religion so remember what I talked about

the other day that we need to kind of

think about general laws of world

history and this is a perfect example of

it religions always spread through

missionary efforts military conquest or

through trade and once you've learned

that and understand that then you start

plugging in the details about specific

religions for example you just see right

here that Islam spread in all three of

those ways when you think about Buddhism

for example typically we think of that

as merchant exchanges being spread on

the Silk Road as it moves towards East

Asia if you think about Christianity in

the Americas generally think more about

military conquests as a Spanish and

Portuguese took over in the Americas so

make sure you understand those general

rules of world history and then plug in

the details as you're studying and

reviewing for this test and again it's

gonna make things so much easier for you

all right

so what we're gonna do today is like I

said we talked about State Building in

Africa Europe and the Americas

so before we start oh this is times up

but it is not up we're gonna reset this

timer here in a second but I want you to

do simply brainstorm all the different

states that you can think of that were

around in these three regions anywhere

between 1200 to 1450 and I'm talking

about anything large empires countries

kingdoms even down the smallest chiefin

that you can think of so take about one

minute write down as many as you can I'm

gonna try and reset this timer there we

go so ready go and when the timer is up

I'm gonna go to the next slide

again just list as many as you possibly

can for bonus points if you can write

down a few characteristics of the states

that would be great but not required

I'm just trying to get your mind

about states in these areas

you

all right 15 seconds

and time is up so let's take a look at

possible answers here all right I gave

you this is not an exhaustive list it

does not mention every single state

because that would take way too much

space and be way too crowded on the

PowerPoint but listed some of the major

ones that you may have listed but one

thing I want you to remember and don't

worry when you look at this list because

some of you were look at this list right

now going uh I never saw some of these

states my teacher never mentioned them

and they're not in my textbook do I need

to know them and the answer is

fortunately you do not need to know

every single one of these remember the

AP test is not designed to test your

knowledge of African states in the 14th

century okay so that's okay the AP test

especially this years with the DB hue is

of course testing your ability to make a

historical argument documents and also

bring in outside evidence but it can be

from any of these examples if there's a

question about state building from 1200

to 1450 as long as you know a couple of

these then you're totally fine so please

don't freak out if you see a list on

here a name on here and you're gonna I

don't know it's okay alright in fact I'm

not even going to talk about some of

these today I didn't talk about some of

these in my class so even some of my

students are watching this right now are

getting kind of mad at me and going

Lozier oh we never talked about this

it's okay guys you don't need to know it

that's why we didn't talk about it but

as long as you know a couple of examples

then you're good

all right so let's get into what you

need to know about state building before

we talk about state building in Africa

Europe and the Americas from 1200 1450

let's kind of back up and take a

big-picture look at state building in

general why do we even have States and

governments and again I mean we you

could talk about all kinds of different

forms of governments as I mentioned

you've talked about giant empires this

year in class you've talked about

smaller kingdoms and countries all the

way down to like small city-states but

no matter how big it is or how long it

lasted

generally speaking states are trying to

accomplish a couple of things one

they're trying to organize all the

resources of the area states that

survive and thrive are able to figure

out exactly okay how many people do we

have how many farmers do we have how

many soldiers do we have how many

weapons do we have for those soldiers

and how can we get more weapons for the

soldiers how much food do we have crops

animals etc and how can we make sure

that everybody in our area is getting

fed those that are able to organize and

be more efficient have usually survived

and then of course another major role of

governments in general is that they're

supposed to enforce the laws and social

norms of the area you know consider I

think we can all agree that if you break

a law you should go to jail you should

be locked up into a room for some amount

of time that's kind of agreed-upon at

least in our society we'll remember the

government has the power to put people

in jail you as an individual do not have

that power please please please don't go

locking anybody up in a room even if you

think they committed a crime that's

called kidnapping it's wrong you should

not do it please leave it up to the

government and the police force to do

that okay

that is a main function of governments

everywhere to enforce laws alright so

then where did governments come from

where when do they start how did they

start well ok historians are kind of you

know a little bit of a disagreement

about this but I think generally

speaking we can say the first states

began somewhere around 3000 BCE so about

5000 years ago and about five or seven

thousand years after the Neolithic

Revolution I don't know if you talked

about the Neolithic Revolution in class

this year but remember that's when

humans first began to domesticate plants

and animals started to settle down but

then it takes a while almost 5000 years

until we see the first real states and

governments but what's really

interesting is that when you look at

where these states and governments begin

to pop up around the world it happens in

all different regions of the world

and kind of around the same time this

was not a situation where one state

starts in Mesopotamia and then everyone

else hears about it you know the news

spreads around the world like hey check

out this new cool idea of having a

government a lot of these popped up

independently again we see new states in

Mesopotamia we also see at the same time

new states in Mesoamerica and Collect

what's today's southern Mexico well

obviously the people in North America

were not talking to the people in Asia

three five thousand years ago so these

are all developing independently now I

shouldn't ake a timeout real quick pause

you know how we talked about

contextualization on Monday some of you

right now are thinking to yourself hey

if that DBQ is about state building I am

totally gonna mention all this as my

contextualization I'm telling you right

now please please please don't do that

okay remember that I said

contextualization has to directly relate

to the topic of the prompt and your

thesis the Neolithic Revolution is not

going to directly relate to the prompt

okay cuz remember the prompt is not

gonna be until after 1200 so please

don't use this contextualization alright

I'm only telling you this for your own

edification and knowledge this is not

supposed to be in your DBQ please don't

do it okay

the other thing we need to consider

though is how to governments and states

keep their power and there's a lot of

different ways but there's two that we

really see in nearly every state around

the world first is the use of religion

you know you got to consider no matter

what religion we're talking about or

what region of the world religion is an

extremely powerful tool for good and for

evil sadly we've seen both through world

history which you can convince large

numbers of people to do all kinds of

things through the use of religion and

political leaders have figured this out

and they have used it to keep control

and we can see this going back to like

ancient Egypt where the pharaohs were

considered half-god and half-man and

people believed that the pharaohs were

the ones that kept the Nile River

flowing that's a way of using religious

power to govern or these days in our

country every time a politician ends a

speech with god Bless America they're

using religion to justify political

power and this is something we see

around the world so again it's one of

those kind of general laws of world

history if you can know that often

governments use religion to keep

political power then you can plug the

details in about specific examples

through history and you're good to go or

another way that governments keep

control is through the economy if

governments and leaders can promise to

keep the wealth coming in to keep trade

happening that's gonna keep the wealthy

elites happy it's gonna keep the

commoners happy and as long as you're

keeping everybody happy you get to stay

in charge of the government oftentimes

though when the economy collapses you

generally see a change in the power

structure of the Gov

as well and political leaders obviously

know that so let's take a look at how

that happens in Africa and Europe in the

Americas from 1200 to 1450

okay one similarity we see all across

those three regions is what I just said

using religion to govern so let me give

you a couple examples the Aztec empire

in Mesoamerica they were known for using

human sacrifice in their religious

worship the story there goes that there

was a belief that in order for the Sun

God the good god of the Aztec religion

to continue his fight he had to be

replenished with human blood

and so the Aztecs would sometimes

sacrifice humans at the temple but now

keep in mind is this was not a situation

where they just like grabbed a random

person off the street bronze the temple

and killed them usually the person that

was being sacrificed was a captured

soldier from another area after a battle

or even not even just like a regular

soldier usually like a high ranking

military official if they could

so notice yes there's a religious aspect

to it but it's also showing off the

leaders military power and political

power or if we switch over to West

Africa and the kingdom of Mali now we

think Mali

you probably think of montsum Musa and

hopefully you talked about him in class

he's an extremely important figure in

West Africa remember Monson Musa was the

one that was considered one of the

richest men ever to live and it's hard

to put like exact figures on how much

money did he have and even if you could

how do you compare that to like the

wealth of someone today like a Jeff

Bezos or Bill Gates or something like

that

but the point is if you made a list of

the richest people ever matzo mousse is

definitely up there at the top and

remember he shows this off by his

pilgrimage that he makes to Mecca and I

put a picture down below in the corner

of the PowerPoint here remembering that

pilgrimage from West Africa through

North Africa to Mecca he brings his

entire court with him he brings a ton of

people and he also brings a ton of gold

and he spins

along the trip he gives it to the poor

he helps build schools and universities

he helps build libraries in fact

scholars have started to realize that he

spent so much money in gold that it

caused the price of gold around an

entire region to actually dip because he

increased the supply so much that's

insane

really when you think about it okay but

the point is here he is showing off the

economic power and using religion to do

it and showing that economic power to

show off his political power as well to

show off the wealth of his kingdom or if

we think about Europe

you've got the Byzantine Empire remember

that's what's left of the old ancient

Roman Empire after the Roman Empire

collapses in the western half of Europe

it continues on it's the most part

generally speaking in Eastern Europe the

main religion there of course is

Christianity it's Eastern Orthodox

Christianity which is different from

Roman Catholics or Roman Catholicism

which is being which is mainly followed

in Western Europe and you may have

talked about the Great Schism if he did

cool if you didn't don't worry about it

too much but that was the split between

Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox

that's when there were at one point two

popes and this Pope said I'm

excommunicating you I'm kicking you out

of the church and this Pope said no you

can't do that because I'm kicking you

out and yes it sounds really childish

and it kind of was in many ways because

they were arguing over things like the

bread that you used for communion should

there be yeast in it or not like should

it rise like a loaf of bread or should

be more flat like a tortilla yeah you

know really important stuff there that

everybody cares about but anyway the

point is you have the Eastern Orthodox

Church in the Byzantine Empire and

people saw the Emperor as also the

leader of the church a term known as

Caesar a pape ism which hey by the way

that's a fun word that you can wow your

friends and family with this weekend

if you talk to anybody this weekend you

know while using social distancing and

all that but notice the term Caesar the

head of the government

papé ism like the Pope the head of the

church as well so again you've got

political power and religious power very

much intertwined so that's kind of

similarity that we can see across the

Americas and Africa and Europe that

political leaders are using religious

power

but we can also see some differences

let's think about that other way that

government leaders you are staying

control and that is through the economy

through trade okay

Monson loose' and the other leaders of

Mali we're able to take control and grow

their kingdom because of all the money

coming in from the salt and gold trade

member there are large deposits of salt

and gold in West Africa and when news of

that spreads people start merchants

start traveling across the Sahara Desert

in order to get it Smith is gonna get

into all that on Monday so I don't want

to go too far into it but the point is

there's a lot of money coming into West

Africa and for everything that gets sold

of course that means more tax money and

more tax money of course means more

money for the government and more power

for the government or consider down in

South America

the Incas remember the Inca Empire kind

of ran down the coast the Pacific

between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes

Mountains it was a very geographically

just long Empire and so the Incas built

this amazingly intricate system of roads

up and down the coasts but also into the

Andes Mountains and part of that was to

keep control for the government but also

a lot of it was to help facilitate trade

across the empire again the more stuff

that gets traded the more stuff that

gets bought and sold means more tax

money for the government but here we

actually see a difference between those

kingdoms and empires and what we see in

Western Europe okay remember that in

Western Europe ever since the fall of

the Roman Empire which I mean depending

on how you want to date it there's a lot

of different ways you could date it but

most would agree somewhere around the

300s ever since then you don't see any

really huge kingdoms or empires emerging

nothing like these other ones that we've

looked at already

there are a few that kind of came and

went but then they fell apart and the

point is when it comes to political

power and West

Europe after the fall of Rome until

about 1450 or so it's very fluid

it's very decentralized it's definitely

a feudal system where power lies more in

the hands of the wealthy landowners very

similar to what we talked about Japan

the other day with the daimyo and

Samurai but one of the reasons why

that's the case is because lack of long

distance trade remember if you think

about all those trade routes across

afro-eurasia Western Europe is kind of

off in the corner by itself it really

was not involved in a lot of trade

across the Silk Roads or the Indian

Ocean or the Sahara Desert routes and so

because of that you don't see a ton of

wealth coming to that area as well and

so you don't see any large governments

or empires in that area

now I want to think about how geography

can be a barrier in limitation to the

growth of kingdoms and empires for one

it could definitely limit long-distance

trade you know think about when it comes

to West Africa we really don't see

long-distance trade across the Sahara

Desert until the discovery of gold and

salt before that no-one went across the

Sahara Desert why would you risk your

life doing that until gold and salts are

discovered those are both extremely

valuable gold you know because it's gold

it's shiny and really pretty and

everybody wants it and you can make

really cool stuff with it salt well

everybody needs salt

it makes your food taste good everybody

wants it and so when that happens then

you start to see that trade across the

Sahara Desert but before that you really

don't but now think about if the kingdom

of Mali was looking to expand they're

not really able to expand across the

Sahara Desert and to say like North

Africa it's one thing to cross the

desert in pursuit of riches it's another

thing if you're like a soldier in the

Mali army and you're told you have to

cross the desert to go fight this other

army I don't know that I'm willing to

risk my life crossing the Sahara Desert

in order to go fight and possibly die

that's a little much okay also if you

think about South America remember the

Incas would never really spread their

empire past the Andes Mountains because

the Andes Mountains are really big and

really hard to cross and then if you

consider rainforests in South America

you never really see any kind of large

kingdom or Empire that encompasses North

America and South America because try

getting through the Isthmus of Panama

right there especially with all that

rainforest so transportation and

communication and limited then the

spread of a governments power is when to

be limited as well okay let's take a

break from the whole State Building

thing for a second and let's talk thesis

statements

okay I know that you've talked thesis

statements all year long with your

teacher I hope that you've practiced

them this is something that I start the

very first week of school with my

students on and when we do over a couple

of ideas here a couple things that your

thesis asked to do so let me run through

these and then we'll do a little

practice okay

first thing your thesis statement has to

do and by the way don't forget you need

a good solid thesis statement for the DB

hue that you're writing next month it

has to answer the question okay I know

you're looking at me going yellow sure

oh we know it has to answer the question

but you'd be surprised the number of

times I've gone to grade those AP tests

in June and I see essays where students

simply did not answer the question if

the questions asking about let's say

causes of the Industrial Revolution

don't mention trains in your thesis

trains were not a cause of the

Industrial Revolution they were effect

they were something that drove it later

but they were not a cause don't put

trains and if I'm asking about causes so

just simply answer the question

all right the other thing that you need

to have in your thesis are what I call

organizational categories some teachers

call them claims whatever you want to

call it's fine but these are in a sense

your answers to the question typically I

like to tell students you have to have

at least two categories three is

preferable I would always like my

students when they write an essay in

class to have three although if we're

thinking about this year and this DBQ

remember you're only gonna have five

documents on this DBQ you're only gonna

have 45 minutes to write it so I think

for this year as long as you've got two

I think that is plenty I think you're in

a really good spot if you have two solid

claims two solid answers to the thesis

I'm sorry to the prompt then you're in a

really good spot and I'll show you some

examples of what I mean by that in a

second but

need to be careful with your categories

that they're not too broad I don't want

to see political and economic causes

because guys there's political and

economic causes for like everything in

history right so don't just say

something broad like political and

economic you got to be a little bit more

specific than that

but at the same time you don't need a

huge giant run-on sentence with all

types of different examples that's going

to come later in your body paragraphs so

you want to be specific but not too

specific and I'll show you what I mean

in a second but I think for this year as

long as you've got to you're in a good

spot alright and the way I tell students

to do this I want to keep this simple

let's just take the words of the prompt

rearrange them a little bit add your

categories because you've got to add

something to it and then you've got your

thesis statement

remember that pretty much every prompt

is gonna have a region of the world that

you have to talk about and it's gonna

have a time period please make sure you

have both of those in your thesis if you

don't put the region in your thesis then

you could be talking about anywhere in

the world if you don't put the time

period you could be talking about any

time in history so put the time period

put the region and if you use kind of

same terms of the prompt then you know

that you're doing number one that you're

answering the question also your thesis

should go in your introduction you are

introducing your argument and then

you're gonna talk about your argument

through the rest of the essay but I

would also put it in the conclusion as

well

remember if you look at the rubric for

the DBQ thesis statement is the one

thing that has to be in a certain spot

it has to be either in your intro or

your conclusion but I'm gonna suggest

that you put it in both because as long

as you do it well one time you get the

point for the thesis statement and I

have seen so many times where a student

writes their thesis in the intro and

it's okay but it doesn't quite reach the

level of a good thesis statement they

don't get the point

but then you start writing your essay

and your brain starts moving and the

little hamster in the wheel is turning

in your brain and by the time you dump

that essay you feel you know a lot more

about it you feel a lot better and if

you rewrite your thesis in a different

way in your conclusion it's almost

always going to be better and there are

plenty of times where I've seen students

who did not get the thesis point their

intro but they reworded it we're a

little bit more specific in their

conclusion and they got the thesis point

and everything was good so I would

suggest doing it both technically you

only have to do it in one but hey might

as well try it twice in case you mess up

on one

all right so let's look at a couple of

examples of decent statements these are

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YouTube Transcript:AP World History: 1_4–1_6 State Building in the Americas_ Africa_ and Europe from c_ 1200 to c_ 1450

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YouTube Transcript:
AP World History: 1_4–1_6 State Building in the Americas_ Africa_ and Europe from c_ 1200 to c_ 1450