🌍AP World History: Modern
1. Evaluate the extent to which foreign economic influence transformed power relationships between states and local populations in the period 1200-1900 CE.
Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that establishes a line of reasoning.
Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt.
Support an argument using at least four of the provided documents.
Use at least one additional piece of specific historical evidence beyond the documents.
For at least two documents, explain how or why the document's point of view, purpose, historical situation, or audience is relevant.
Demonstrate a complex understanding through sophisticated argumentation and/or effective use of evidence.
Document 1
Source: Qing China's Foreign Office, policy letter addressed to all Chinese embassies abroad, 1878
Under the Treaties of Tianjin, foreigners in China are not subject to the jurisdiction of the Chinese imperial authorities. If they have disputes among themselves, their own consuls in China are to settle them; if they commit a crime in China, their own diplomats are to punish them according to their national laws. But in practice, foreigners claim much more than this: they interpret the treaties to mean that they may violate Chinese laws without consequences.
Document 2
Source: Marion Letcher, United States consul in Chihuahua, Northern Mexico, "United States, British, French, and Mexican Investment in Mexico," report commissioned by the United States Senate subcommittee on Mexico, 1911. The figures are in millions of dollars.
TYPE OF INVESTMENT UNITED STATES BRITISH AND FRENCH MEXICAN
Railways 644 186 138
Mines and smelters 250 49 15
Ranches, farms, livestock, timber 21 14 114
Factories, cotton mills, breweries 11 23 16
Stores 4 8 74
Oil industry 15 10 1
Rubber industry 15 - 4
Other 97 176 430
TOTAL 1,057 466 792
Document 3
Source: Charles D’Avenant, an English scholar, “An Essay on the East-India Trade” regarding the debate on a bill in Parliament to restrict Indian textiles, 1697
Since we were supplanted in the spice-trade by the Dutch, our chief investments or importations from the East Indies have been in dyed cotton cloth, silks, drugs, cotton-yarn, and wool; part of which commodities are for our own use, but a much greater part, in times of peace, were brought to London for sale to France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, and our colonies. For Europe draws from Asia nothing of solid use; only materials to supply luxury, and only perishable commodities, but sends to Asia gold and silver, which is there buried and never returns. But since Europe has tasted of this luxury, since the custom of a hundred years has made Asian spices seem necessary to all degrees of people, since Asian silks are pleasing everywhere to the better sort, and since their dyed cotton cloth is useful wear at home, and in our own colonies, and for the Spaniards in America, it can never be advisable for England to quit this trade, and leave it to any other nation.
Document 4
Source: The Voyage and Travel to East India by Venetian trader Cesare Federici, published in Venice, 1587.
In the city of Cambay in northwestern India, Hindu brokers of great authority have traditionally handled all transactions at the port, and the Portuguese merchants observe this custom. Every foreign merchant who does business in the country has his own broker who works with him in buying and selling his merchandise. When a new fleet of ships sails into port at Cambay, the brokers come to the dock and the foreign merchants give them all their cargo. The merchants carefully note all the bundles and packs of goods that they are giving to the brokers, and the brokers command their servants to take the merchants and lodge them in one of the many houses kept for this purpose; the broker says to the merchant, “Go and take your rest, while I conduct your trade.” After Goa, Cochin is the most important base the Portuguese have in southwestern India. Much of the merchandise destined for the kingdom of Portugal originates there. Inland from Cochin is the pepper-producing region. But the pepper that goes to Portugal from Cochin is not as good as the pepper that goes to Arabia and Persia because the Portuguese had made a contract with the king of Cochin to buy the pepper at a very low price. Because of that, the Indian pepper growers bring their worst produce to the Portuguese and sell them pepper that is green and full of filth.
Document 5
Source: Wang Xijue, Ming dynasty court official, report to the emperor, 1593.
The venerable elders of my home district explain that the reason grain is cheap despite poor harvests in recent years is due entirely to the scarcity of silver coin. The national government requires silver for taxes but disburses little silver in its expenditures. As the price of grain falls, tillers of the soil receive lower returns on their labors, and thus less land is put into cultivation.
Document 6
Source: Exchange of telegrams between William Low, British colonial official in Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), and British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain in London, 1900
[April 30, 1900; Low to Chamberlain]: Update on the fighting against the Ashanti 1 — Ashanti warriors launched a serious attack on a telegraph clerk while he was repairing telegraph lines that had previously been severed by the Ashanti. Other telegraph clerks report Ashanti troops have effectively blockaded the main road to the city of Kumasi since April 25th. Government troops from Lagos [in Nigeria] were sent to Kumasi. We hope that they will succeed in reopening communications. [May 1, 1900; Chamberlain to Low]: In response to your telegram of April 30th, we will be sending 250 more troops from southern Nigeria to Kumasi to counter Ashanti attacks. I will also send 50 additional Frontier Police from Sierra Leone to the Ashanti territories for protection of British life and property.
Document 7
Source: Shipyard of the Dutch East India Company, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1726.
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