How do historians compare the ways different societies built and legitimized states in the period c. 1200 to c. 1450?
Topic 1.7 Comparison in the Period from c. 1200 to c. 1450: applying the historical reasoning skill of comparison to the state-building processes of Unit 1.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 1.7, the comparison reasoning skill applied to Unit 1: comparing how Song China, Dar al-Islam, the Americas, Africa, and Europe built and legitimized states, and how to structure a comparison LEQ.
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What this topic is asking
Topic 1.7 is a reasoning-skill topic. The College Board is not introducing new content; it is asking you to apply the historical reasoning skill of comparison to everything in Unit 1. You should be able to identify similarities and differences between the state-building processes of Song China, Dar al-Islam, the Americas, Africa, and Europe, and to explain the reasons for those differences in an LEQ or DBQ.
What comparison means on the AP exam
The exam tests three reasoning skills: comparison, causation, and continuity and change over time. Topic 1.7 anchors comparison; later units anchor the others (for example, comparison of economic exchange in Topic 2.7).
Comparing the state-building processes of Unit 1
Lay the five regions side by side. The exam rewards seeing the pattern beneath the variety.
Similarities across the period:
- Most states used religion to legitimize power: Confucianism in China, Islam in Mali and the Delhi Sultanate, state religion among the Mexica and Inca, Christianity in Europe and Ethiopia.
- Most states extracted resources - taxes, tribute, or labor - from a productive base of agriculture or trade.
- Many built bureaucracies or administrative systems to govern large populations.
Differences in method:
- Song China: a centralized, merit-based bureaucracy selected by examination and grounded in Neo-Confucianism.
- The Inca: a centralized state run on the mit'a labor draft, roads, and quipu, without writing.
- The Mexica: a looser tribute empire over autonomous subject peoples.
- Mali and the Hausa: states funded by control of trans-Saharan trade and legitimized by Islam.
- Europe: a decentralized, feudal order of lords and vassals, unified less by the state than by the Catholic Church.
Reasoning well: explaining the reasons for difference
Structuring a comparison LEQ
Try this
Q1. Name the three historical reasoning skills tested on the AP exam. [Recall]
- Cue. Comparison, causation, and continuity and change over time.
Q2. Identify one similarity and one difference between how Song China and the Inca administered their states. [Short explanation]
- Cue. Similarity: both used a centralized bureaucracy over a large population. Difference: the Song selected officials by written examination, while the Inca organized the state around the mit'a labor draft and quipu, lacking writing.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of College Board exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AP 2018 (style)6 marksCompare the methods rulers used to legitimize and consolidate power in two different regions in the period c. 1200 to c. 1450.Show worked answer →
A Long Essay Question (LEQ), scored on the 6-point comparison rubric.
Thesis (1): "Rulers in both Song China and Mali legitimized power through religion and administration, but the Song relied on a merit-based Confucian bureaucracy while Mali relied on control of trans-Saharan trade and the prestige of Islam."
Contextualization (1): situate both within an Afro-Eurasian world of expanding states and trade.
Evidence (2): the Song examination system and Neo-Confucianism; Mali's gold-salt trade, Mansa Musa, and Islam.
Comparison analysis (2): explain HOW the two methods were similar (religion legitimized rule) and different (bureaucracy versus trade wealth), then add complexity by noting that both also relied on extracting resources from a productive economy.
AP 2021 (style)3 marksBriefly describe ONE similarity in how two societies in this period administered their states. Briefly describe ONE difference. Briefly explain ONE reason for that difference.Show worked answer →
A Short Answer Question (SAQ) testing comparison directly, 3 points.
A. Similarity: both the Inca and Song China used a centralized bureaucracy to administer a large population.
B. Difference: the Song staffed their bureaucracy through merit-based written examinations, while the Inca relied on labor obligations (the mit'a) and a hereditary elite.
C. Reason: the Song had a long literate tradition and the technology of paper and printing, while the Inca, lacking writing, organized the state around labor and record-keeping on quipu.
The skill is comparison: identify both similarity and difference and explain why the difference existed.
Related dot points
- Topic 1.1 Developments in East Asia from c. 1200 to c. 1450: the political, economic, intellectual, and cultural developments of Song China and their influence across East Asia.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 1.1, explaining the political continuity and Confucian revival of Song China, its commercialised and technologically advanced economy, and the spread of Chinese culture and Buddhism across Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.
- Topic 1.2 Developments in Dar al-Islam from c. 1200 to c. 1450: the rise of new Islamic political entities, the continuity and innovation of Islamic intellectual life, and the cultural transfers it produced.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 1.2, explaining the fragmentation of the Islamic world after the Abbasids, the rise of new Turkic and Mamluk states, and the intellectual flowering and cultural transfers that kept Dar al-Islam unified in religion and learning.
- Topic 1.4 State Building in the Americas: the political, economic, and religious systems of the Mexica (Aztec), Inca, and Mississippian societies and how they administered large populations.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 1.4, explaining how the Mexica (Aztec), Inca, and Mississippian societies built large states through tribute systems, the mit'a labor draft, and religious authority, despite lacking the draft animals, iron, and wheeled transport of Afro-Eurasia.
- Topic 1.5 State Building in Africa: the growth of states such as Mali, Great Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, and the Hausa kingdoms, and the role of trade and religion in their power.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 1.5, explaining how trade and religion built powerful African states, from the gold-and-salt empire of Mali and the stone city of Great Zimbabwe to Christian Ethiopia and the Hausa kingdoms of West Africa.
- Topic 1.6 Developments in Europe from c. 1200 to c. 1450: the role of Christianity, the feudal and manorial systems, and the early growth of centralized monarchies and revived trade.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 1.6, explaining the decentralized feudal and manorial systems of medieval Europe, the unifying role of the Catholic Church, and the early growth of centralized monarchies, towns, and revived trade by 1450.
Sources & how we know this
- AP World History: Modern Course and Exam Description — College Board (2020)