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Descriptive Statements:
- Demonstrate knowledge of basic historical terms and concepts, such as nation-state, theocracy, dynastic cycle, collectivization, globalization, modernization, chronology, and periodization.
- Apply knowledge of basic reference sources used in historical research, including almanacs, information technology, bibliographies, periodical guides, encyclopedias, and biographical dictionaries.
- Distinguish between primary and secondary sources of historical information, and evaluate their credibility and reliability.
- Evaluate the uses and limitations of various historical source materials, including oral histories, newspapers, diaries, artifacts, probate data, tax lists, personal correspondence, census data, videos, and materials accessed through information technologies.
- Analyze important historical interpretations, such as Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis, Charles Beard's interpretation of the creation of the U.S. Constitution, and Karl Marx's interpretation of European industrialization.
- Analyze cause-and-effect relationships between historical events and developments.
- Recognize central theses, main ideas, and supporting evidence in various sources of historical information.
- Distinguish between fact and opinion in historical narratives and interpretations.
- Draw inferences and conclusions from historical texts and interpretations.
- Analyze the purpose and perspective of diverse sources of historical information, including potential bias and the assumptions on which historical arguments are based.
- Interpret historical issues represented in graphic formats, including charts, diagrams, maps, political cartoons, and graphs.
Sample Item:
Which of the following bibliographic citations identifies a primary historical source?
- Alden, Michael. (1920). The Prime Minister and the Great War. London: Morebanks.
- Nash, Olivia, ed. (1936). Interpretations of Causality: Europe and the Onset of World War I1. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press.
- Connaught, Sir Lawrence. (1955). Collected Correspondence from the Foreign Office, 1914– to 1918. London: Hamilton and Wiggins.
- Mayer, Arno. (1967). Politics and the Diplomacy of Peacemaking: Containment and Counterrevolution at Versailles, 1918– to 1919. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
C. This question requires the examinee to distinguish between primary and secondary sources of historical information. Collected Correspondence from the Foreign Office, 1914– to 1918 is a primary source because it contains letters written by policymakers and diplomats during the time period being studied.
Descriptive Statements:
- Examine the Neolithic Revolution and the birth of human civilization, including the growth of agriculture, the domestication of animals, social differentiation, economic specialization, political organization, and the emergence of towns.
- Demonstrate knowledge of major geographic, social, political, economic, and cultural features of early civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Near East.
- Examine the major political, social, economic, and cultural developments of ancient Greece and Rome, and their contributions to Western civilization.
- Examine major political, social, economic, and cultural developments in India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, including the Mauryan and Gupta empires, Han government and expansion, the influence of Confucianism and Taoism in China, Japanese feudalism and the rise of the samurai, the Indianization of Southeast Asia, and the effect of the Mongol invasions.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the principal beliefs, sacred texts, and historical development of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
- Examine major geographic, social, political, economic, and cultural characteristics of civilizations in Africa and the Americas during the period, including the Bantu migrations, the spread of Islam south of the Sahara, the rise and decline of major African empires, the emergence of Swahili culture and commerce, Mayan science and religion, Aztec religion and society, and Inca government and expansion.
- Examine major geographic, social, political, economic, and cultural characteristics of the Islamic and Byzantine civilizations, the expansion of Islamic civilization, divisions within the Muslim caliphate, the growth of Muslim commerce, the work of Islamic and Byzantine scholars, Justinian's conquests and legal reforms, and the influence and decline of Byzantine civilization.
- Analyze major social, political, and economic developments in Europe following the decline of the Roman Empire, including the emergence of feudalism, the role of the Catholic Church in medieval civilization, the creation of the Holy Roman Empire, the rise of Russian civilization, the Crusades, and the Black Death.
- Recognize chronological relationships between major global events and developments of the period.
- Analyze major social, economic, and cultural developments and trends in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas from 4000 BCE to 1350 CE.
Sample Item:
Which of the following best describes a major objective of Greek and Hellenistic scholars and philosophers?
- to understand nature and society through rational observation and deduction
- to develop a philosophical system consistent with traditional religious beliefs
- to devise a system of rewards and punishments to motivate human behavior
- to create a flexible ethical code adaptable to diverse individual needs and a variety of social settings
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
A. This question requires the examinee to analyze major events, developments, characteristics, and contributions of ancient Greek civilization. Greek and Hellenistic scholars developed many of the Western world's fundamental concepts in politics, philosophy, and art by using reason to discover order and causality in the natural and human worlds.
Descriptive Statements:
- Examine the origins, major developments, significant individuals, and lasting consequences of the European Renaissance.
- Analyze the causes and consequences of the Protestant Reformation, including the role of leading reformers, the response of the Catholic Church, and the religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
- Analyze European expansion between 1450 and 1650, including the factors that encouraged European exploration and conquest and the impact of European colonization on Europeans and the indigenous societies they encountered.
- Analyze the central ideas of major thinkers of the Scientific Revolution and the European Enlightenment and the influence of those ideas on events and developments in Europe and the Americas.
- Analyze causes, similarities, differences, and consequences of the English, American, and French revolutions, and the wars for independence in Latin America.
- Evaluate economic, social, and political factors related to the emergence and spread of industrialization in Europe, including the role of Great Britain in the industrializing process; the growth of urban centers; the transformation of family and social relations; and major technological innovations, economic theories, political responses, and social reforms of the industrial era.
- Examine major political developments during the period, including the rise of the Ottoman Empire; dynastic change in China; the consolidation of nation-states; the growth of absolutism, liberalism, and nationalism in Europe; the Meiji Restoration; and German and Italian unification.
- Demonstrate knowledge of major literary, artistic, intellectual, and scientific developments in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas from 1350 to 1871.
- Recognize chronological relationships between major global events and developments from 1350 to 1871.
- Analyze major social, economic, and cultural developments and trends in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas from 1350 to 1871.
Sample Item:
Which of the following accurately lists four significant historical developments during the period 1350 to 1871 in the order in which they occurred?
- 1. the abolition of feudalism in Japan
2. the first use of steam engines in English textile mills
3. the rise of the Ottoman Empire
4. the Glorious Revolution in England
- 1. the Glorious Revolution in England
2. the rise of the Ottoman Empire
3. the abolition of feudalism in Japan
4. the first use of steam engines in English textile mills
- 1. the rise of the Ottoman Empire
2. the Glorious Revolution in England
3. the first use of steam engines in English textile mills
4. the abolition of feudalism in Japan
- 1. the first use of steam engines in English textile mills
2. the abolition of feudalism in Japan
3. the Glorious Revolution in England
4. the rise of the Ottoman Empire
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
C. This question requires the examinee to recognize chronological relationships between major global events and developments. The rise of the Ottoman Empire began during the fourteenth century, England's Glorious Revolution took place in 1688– to 1689, steam engines first appeared in English mills during the eighteenth century, and Japanese feudalism was not abolished until the Meiji Restoration of the 1860s.
Descriptive Statements:
- Analyze major causes, events, developments, and consequences of European imperialism, including motives and justifications for the pursuit of colonial empires; rivalries and conflicts between colonial powers; and interactions between imperialist powers and the peoples of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the causes, major events, and consequences of World War I1, including nationalist tensions in the Balkans, the strategy of the main combatants, major battles of the war, the Russian Revolution, and the Treaty of Versailles.
- Analyze the causes, major events, and consequences of World War II2, including the rise of totalitarian and authoritarian governments in Europe and Asia, Nazi and Japanese aggression, the Munich Conference, the Nazi-Soviet pact, major battles of the war, the Holocaust, the use of the atomic bomb, and the formation of the United Nations.
- Analyze the causes, major events, and consequences of the Cold War, including U.S.-Soviet differences concerning Eastern Europe, ideological confrontation, the Berlin Blockade, the creation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the nuclear arms race, détente, resistance to Soviet domination and communist rule, and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
- Examine major political, social, and economic developments in East Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East since 1945, including decolonization in postwar Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; the Chinese Cultural Revolution; revolutions in Cuba and Nicaragua; the overthrow of apartheid in South Africa; and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
- Analyze political, economic, social, and demographic changes in Europe since World War II2, including postwar reconstruction; socialism and the social welfare state; the Common Market; changing patterns of work, leisure, and gender relations; immigration; and the emergence of the European Union.
- Demonstrate knowledge of major literary, artistic, intellectual, and scientific developments in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas from 1871 to the present.
- Analyze major global challenges of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, including environmental degradation, terrorism, human rights abuses, limited natural resource supplies, and economic imbalances and social inequalities among the world's peoples.
- Recognize chronological relationships between major global events and developments from 1871 to the present.
- Analyze major social, economic, and cultural developments and trends in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas from 1871 to the present.
Sample Item:
Which of the following best describes a major cause of World War I1?
- economic competition in Central Europe
- revolutionary activity in Russia
- repression of ethnic minorities in Germany
- nationalist tensions in the Balkans
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
D. This question requires the examinee to analyze the major causes, events, and consequences of World War I1. The 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist—the event that triggered World War I1—was closely linked to Serbian efforts to create a "Greater Serbia" that united various Slavic peoples in Austrian-controlled lands.
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