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Advanced Placement (AP)

You’ve been working hard in your AP US History class, and now it’s time to start prepping for your APUSH exam. 

But there’s a lot you’ll need to know if you want to do well, especially on the APUSH DBQ section. For instance, you’ll need to understand the APUSH DBQ rubric so you know how you’ll be scored on your answers, and you’ll need to look at a few APUSH DBQ examples so you understand what it takes to 

Luckily for you, we’ve compiled everything you need to know about APUSH DBQs in one easy place. (That place is, uh, here. ) We’ll go over: 

• An explanation of what APUSH DBQs are and why they’re important 
• A walkthrough covering how APUSH DBQs work on the exam and what to expect
• A six-step process for writing a great DBQ
• Four tips for studying for and answering the APUSH DBQs

We’ll also give you an APUSH DBQ rubric and APUSH DBQ examples That’s a lot to talk about, so let’s get going!

The APUSH DBQ is an essay-based question, so you'll have to write quickly!

What Is an APUSH DBQ? 

A DBQ is a “document-based” question that you’ll have to answer on your AP exam. For these questions, you’ll be given seven “documents,” which are short readings that cover different, usually related aspects of US History. From there, you’ll be asked to answer each DBQ in essay form using information from the documents you’ve been provided! 

The good thing about APUSH DBQs is that they’re open-ended, meaning there are multiple correct ways to answer each question. The downside is that in order to answer the question and earn full credit, you’ll need to analyze and incorporate multiple documents as part of your argument. 

And did we mention you’ll only have a limited amount of time to answer the DBQ, and that it's worth 25% of your total test score? That’s why APUSH DBQs can be stressful for test-takers! 

How Do DBQs Work on the APUSH Exam?

The APUSH exam consists of 60 questions in total. Here’s how they break down across the test: 

Of the two free response questions, one is a long essay (worth 15%) and one is a DBQ. This means that the sole DBQ is, by itself, worth 25% of your total grade, making it the single most heavily-weighted question on the APUSH exam.  

The APUSH DBQ will consist of a single open-ended prompt . To answer it, you’ll have to create a persuasive argument that uses the documents you’ve been given on the exam itself. (More on that a bit later.) 

To give you a little more context, here are some actual APUSH DBQ examples from previous years’ APUSH exams:

• “Evaluate the extent of change in ideas about American independence from 1763 to 1783.” ( 2017 ) 
• “Evaluate the relative importance of different causes for the expanding role of the United States in the world in the period from 1865 to 1910.” ( 2018 )
• “Evaluate the extent to which the Progressive movement fostered political change in the United States from 1890 to 1920.” ( 2019 )

APUSH Document Types 

To answer these questions well, you’ll also have to read, analyze, and incorporate information from seven documents you’ll be provided on test day. These documents will be a mixture of: 

• Primary texts : texts that were actually written in the time period you’re being asked about
• Secondary texts : texts written by later historians that explain the time period 
• Images: these are typically either political cartoons or artworks from the time period

How many of each type of document you’ll see on your exam varies from year to year, so you’ll need to be equally comfortable using all three types of documents. 

You’ll have to read through all seven documents and understand them so you can use them to answer your DBQ question. The information in the documents will help you create a thesis, build your argument, and prove your point…so you can get a great APUSH DBQ score! Just remember: to earn full credit, you’ll also have to explain how at least six of the documents are relevant to your argument, using evidence to back those claims up. 

Using Outside Information 

Along with the provided documents, you’ll also be expected to use one piece of historical evidence that isn’t included in the documents , but you already know from your own reading. This is information that you’ll have studied in class (or read on your own!) that applies to the DBQ and supports your argument. 

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to bring any class notes with you on exam day. That means you’ll need to study ahead of time so you’ll be ready to incorporate outside information into your DBQ answer! 

Whew! That’s a lot! However, if it makes it any easier, the APUSH DBQ will only cover the period from 1754-1980 . That means you’ll only need to focus on studying–and remembering!--information from about 230 years. 

Understand the APUSH DBQ Rubric

First, you need to understand what the expectations are and how your answer will be graded. That means reading through and understanding the official APUSH DBQ rubric!

The good news is that the College Board has provided the APUSH DBQ rubric as part of their 2021 AP Exam Administration Scoring Guidelines - AP United States History document .  

Here’s how the rubric breaks down:

Thesis (1 point) 

First, you’ll need to create a thesis that “responds to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis/claim that establishes a line of reasoning.” In order to get this point you’ll need to make an arguable claim based on the documents that answers the question of the prompt.  

In other words, you’ll need to choose a position and then defend it with evidence from the documents and your knowledge base. 

Contextualization (1 point) 

In order to get a point for contextualization you’ll need to “accurately describe a context relevant” to the time period covered by the prompt. What this means is that you’ll have to describe the political, social, or economic events and trends that contributed to what your thesis is arguing. 

Some of this you’ll know from the provided documents, but some of it you will also be expected to know on your own based on what you’ve studied in AP US History. You’ll also need to relate your knowledge to “broader historical events, developments, or processes that occur before, during, or continue after the time frame of the question.” That means you have to show how the events of this time period are relevant now or how they are similar to some other historical situation .

Evidence (3 points)

For this part of the rubric, you’ll earn one point just for incorporating specific evidence that does not come from the provided documents in a way that is relevant to your thesis! 

In order to earn the other two points, you must support your argument by using content from six of the seven documents . (If you don’t use six documents, but do use at least three of them, you’ll only earn one point.) 

You can’t just randomly throw information from the documents into your essay, though, you have to use it in a way that supports your argument and accurately represents what the documents are saying . 

Analysis and Reasoning (2 points)

For the analysis and reasoning section, you get one point for explaining “how or why the document’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience is relevant to an argument.” You’ll earn another point for “complexity,” showing that you understand the time period that the prompt covers and use evidence to prove your understanding and back up your argument . 

So to earn analysis and reasoning points, you have to prove how the documents are relevant to your argument, your argument has to demonstrate you understand the historical events of the time period, and you’ll have to create an argument that is well-reasoned and “complex.” 

You’ll need to show graders you understand there’s a variety of possible perspectives about the issue you’re writing about and that people in that era did not all agree or have the same experiences.

Step-By-Step Process for Tackling an APUSH DBQ

The APUSH DBQ is a complicated question that tests you over several different skills, so there isn’t any simple technique to ace it. However, if you master each of the individual skills it takes to do well on the DBQ examples, rocking your APUSH DBQ will be much easier! 

Here are five steps you can follow to build a foundation that’ll help you ace the DBQ. 

Step 1: Take a Practice DBQ

The best way to master APUSH DBQs is by practicing with real APUSH DBQ examples.

The College Board’s website has the actual prompts from 2015-2019 available to download. This means you can take at least five practice APUSH exams, as well as read APUSH DBQ example responses and APUSH DBQ rubrics, for free! 

This is excellent news because you can take several practice swings at answering APUSH DBQs before you have to tackle the real thing on test day. 

Before practicing DBQ responses, it’s a good idea to take at least one APUSH DBQ practice test so you know what your baseline is. That way, you’ll understand your strengths and weaknesses and can really zero in on your weakest areas! From there, you can work through the practice APUSH DBQ prompts on their own. 

However, the nature of a free response means that it won’t be easy for you to grade by yourself. To evaluate your DBQs, be sure to use the APUSH DBQ rubric we walked through above. Honestly try to assess whether or not you incorporated the information thoroughly and accurately. You can also ask a teacher, tutor, or even a family member to grade your APUSH DBQs for you as well! 

Later, after you practice the skills outlined in the steps below, take another practice DBQ and see if it seems easier for you. Compare your score to the baseline score from your first attempt. Then, re-read over your textbooks and take it again. Repeat the cycle a couple of times. The big benefit will be that you will eventually get so used to the APUSH DBQ that you will be more comfortable in the actual testing environment .

Step 2: Practice Writing a Thesis

Because your DBQ response will have to choose a position and defend it, you’ll need to work on writing strong thesis statements. A thesis statement is essentially your argument in a nutshell, and it sums up the purpose of your essay. 

The most important aspect of your APUSH DBQ thesis is that it has to make a claim that is both arguable (meaning you can use evidence to prove it) and is relevant to the prompt you’re given. However, you don’t want to just restate the prompt in your thesis! 

Here’s what we mean. Let’s say your APUSH DBQ prompt is: 

Evaluate the extent of change in ideas about American independence from 1763 to 1783.

You don’t want your thesis to be “Ideas about American independence changed a lot from 1763 to 1783. That’s just adding a few words to the prompt…and it’s not descriptive enough to cover the argument you’ll make later. Instead, make a specific claim about how and why ideas about American independence changed, and you’ll need to use the documents provided to prove it!

So for this example, a better thesis might be, “Between 1763 and 1783, American ideas about independence changed from being unsure about how the nation could survive without British rule to believing in (and fighting for) the nation’s independence.” 

Because APUSH DBQs are open-ended, there are actually many different thesis statements you could come up with that would let you write an amazing answer. Here are two APUSH DBQ examples that College Board considers acceptable theses for this prompt:

• “The ideas about American independence changed greatly from 1763 to 1783. In the beginning, colonists only wanted representation and a say in the legislation of new laws, but by 1783 Americans wanted true freedom from British rule.” 
• “From 1763–1783, ideas of American independence changed from the colonies blindly accepting the tyranny of the British by religious rights of divine kings to believing in natural rights of individuals against British rule.”

Let’s look at how these theses make specific claims: 

The first thesis argues that colonists originally only wanted representation, but by 1783 wanted freedom from British rule. These are two different mindsets that the author can then use the documents to illustrate and prove actually existed. 

The second example thesis addresses a more theoretical change in belief: one that changes from Americans of 1763 accepting the medieval notion of the king inheriting from God the right to govern, to one in which Americans of 1783 believed that individuals had the natural right of freedom from tyranny. The author can then use the documents as evidence that Americans in that time period had those beliefs, and can argue about what happened to change them.

By practicing thesis writing, you’ll be able to create a detailed–and defensible!--statement that will help you create a convincing DBQ argument. 

An outline will serve as a roadmap that'll help you write a great essay—and it'll help you manage your time, too. 

Step 3: Practice Creating an Outline

With only an hour to read the documents to write your essay, you probably won’t have time to revise. It’s very important that you make the best use of the limited time you will have available, so an outline will help you organize your thoughts and will keep you on track as you write. 

Just be careful that you don’t take too much time with your outline–you need to write a whole essay! Five minutes (or less!) is all you need to put together an outline that’ll help you write an awesome DBQ. 

With that said, let’s talk about what makes up a great outline.

Two important elements of a good outline are an introduction and conclusion ! Your intro will set up your thesis and your conclusion to restate your thesis while explaining why it’s relevant to the reader today. Because both of these sections center around your thesis statement, they’ll help you organize the rest of your argument…and your DBQ essay! 

Once you have those in place, you can start adding body paragraphs to your outline. Since you only have about 45 minutes to write this essay, you don’t want too many of them. Three or four body paragraphs will be enough to get the job done. 

The most important thing about your body paragraphs is that each of them makes a claim that a) supports your thesis and b) allows you to incorporate information from the documents as evidence. You may even want to make a note of which documents you want to use in each body paragraph! 

Here’s an outline template you can use as you practice your APUSH DBQs:

• Set up your argument and include your thesis.
• You can break down your thesis into several component steps, which will then become the body paragraphs as you expand upon them.
• Tell the reader what they need to know about the historical situation. 
• Include any information you might already know from outside the provided documents.
• Make the first argumentative point you mentioned in your introduction/thesis.
• Use information from two to three documents to illustrate and prove your point.
• Make the second argumentative point you mentioned in your introduction/thesis.
• Use two to three different documents to support this point. 
• If you have a third argumentative point, you’ll need to make it here. 
• Be sure to use at least one document to support your argumentative point. 
• Restate your thesis and summarize the main points you’ve made.
• Show how it’s relevant to the reader.

Again, this outline doesn’t need to be fancy! Jotting down a few words–or a short sentence–for each point will get you to where you need to go. 

Step 4: Practice Incorporating Quotes and References 

As you write your essay, you’ll need to use examples from the documents provided–and each time you do so, you need to explain documents you pulled the information from. You’ll do this whether you are quoting your source or just paraphrasing it. 

There are two ways to do this:

#1: Attribution

Attributing your information means you tell your reader in the sentence which document you’re quoting or paraphrasing from. Below are two attribution DBQ examples APUSH considers acceptable: 

"Charles Inglis uses reason to note that the colonies would be unable to sustain themselves without British support because the colonies don’t make enough money through agriculture and commerce.”

Notice that even though this APUSH DBQ example doesn’t quote Inglis outright, the author still lets the readers know which source they’re using to prove their point.

#2: Parenthetical

Using a parenthetical citation means that you put either the author of the source’s name or which document it’s from, in parentheses, at the end of the sentence. H ere’s an example of parenthetical citation that the College Board considers acceptable:

“He claimed only man himself can direct his own actions and decisions, not the rule of any legislative authority or man (Doc. 3).”

Since the sentence does not say who “he” is, the author of this essay has included this parenthetical citation (Doc. 3) that the reader can use to read the document in question and see if the argument the author is making is correctly represented from the source.

As you use these sources, you need to make sure that you are using the document accurately and not plagiarizing. Your goal is to show that you understand each document and know how to incorporate it into an argument. 

Step 5: Understand Time Management

One of the most important skills you can acquire by taking multiple attempts at the APUSH DBQ practice test will be time management . When you’re in the actual test environment, you won’t be able to use your phone to set a timer or alarm, so it can be difficult to keep track of how much time you’re spending on reading and re-reading the documents, brainstorming, and outlining. 

You want to leave yourself the majority of the time allowed (which will be one hour) for writing. College Board’s APUSH DBQ rubric recommends that you spend 15 minutes reading the documents and 45 minutes writing the essay . 

The best way to get your time management down is practice . Set timers during your APUSH DBQ practice test so you can get a feel for how much time it takes to put an answer together. That way you have a feel for the process and will have enough time to write your DBQ on test day. 

4 Tips for Mastering APUSH DBQs

Now that you’ve read our step-by-step process for tackling the APUSH DBQ and have seen several APUSH DBQ examples, here are some expert tips on doing well on the APUSH DBQ .  

Tip 1: Remember that Each Point Is Scored Separately

Go through the APUSH DBQ rubric and take note of each individual task since you’ll be scored on how well you complete each one . For each task, there are usually multiple points available. 

For example, you’ll earn one point for using at least three documents in your DBQ. But if you want to earn the full two points for that category, you’ll need to incorporate at least six documents into your answer.  

By understanding the rubric, you’ll be able to maximize how many points you earn on your DBQ. 

Tip 2: Your Essay Can Contain Errors 

Now, don’t misunderstand us: you can’t say an author makes one claim when they are clearly saying the opposite. You also can’t write something that is obviously wrong, like that America continues under British rule because the revolution was unsuccessful, and get full credit!  

But you can make minor errors that don’t detract from your argument as long as you are demonstrating a knowledge of the time period and the ability to incorporate evidence to make an argument. So for example, if you said that the First Continental Congress ended in November instead of October of 1774, you’ll still be able to earn full credit despite making a small error. 

Tip 3: Write For Clarity 

One thing to keep in mind is that you will be graded on how well you make and argue a thesis, and how well you incorporate the evidence from the documents to support that thesis– you don’t get graded on how beautifully or fluently you write ! So, while you’ll want to use correct grammar and write as clearly as you can, don’t spend too much time thinking about how best to phrase things as if you were writing for publication. Just focus on clearly explaining your ideas! 

You won’t have points taken away for grammatical errors unless they make it difficult for the graders to see how you’ve used the evidence to make an argument.

Tip 4: Connect the Dots 

Not only for the APUSH DBQ, but for everything you write, you need to ask yourself, why is this relevant? In the contextualization section, you are required to relate the information you’re conveying to other time periods or situations to earn full credit.

This is your chance to show that while the period you’re writing about may have been long in the past, the events are still relevant to us today ! This is why we read, write, and study history in the first place!

What’s Next? 

If you’re taking APUSH, you’re probably taking other AP classes as well! Here’s a general guide to preparing for AP tests that’ll help you get ready for any other AP exams you take. 

Like we mentioned earlier, taking practice tests is one of the best ways you can get ready for your actual AP exams. Here’s a guide that’ll help you find the best AP practice tests for each exam.

If you’re taking multiple AP tests, you’ll need to maximize your study time. One way to do this is to study for each test based on when you’ll have to take it! Our complete breakdown of the AP exam schedule will help you manage your study time efficiently and effectively. 

Looking for help studying for your AP exam?

Our one-on-one online AP tutoring services can help you prepare for your AP exams. Get matched with a top tutor who got a high score on the exam you're studying for!

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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APUSH Document Based Questions and Responses: A Study Guide

Document Based Questions tend to freak students out the most on the APUSH exam. This is understandable; not only do you have to read documents, you have to write a coherent essay about them.

However, we’ve got you covered here at Magoosh. For a step-by-step breakdown of what you need to do to write a Document Based Question (DBQ), check out my other blog posts on 3 Steps to a DBQ Essay that Works and How to Write a DBQ Essay . This post, though, will focus on what other students have done to make their Document Based Question essays successful.

I will take you through one DBQ on a prior APUSH exam and give you the ins and outs, and the dos and don’ts. At the end, I will provide a link to a DBQ essay for you to practice some of the things that successful test-takers have done. There, you can compare your essay to the scoring notes provided by College Board. In fact, everything I present on this post will be provided by College Board – you can (and should!) check out their website for more tips.

Sound good? Let’s go!

Document Based Question #1

This is taken from the 2016 APUSH Exam . The DBQ for this section asks you to do the following:

Explain the causes of the rise of a women’s rights movement in the period 1940–1975.

You will have 55 minutes to answer that question. The College Board suggests 15 minutes for reading and 40 minutes for writing, although if you are a fast and careful reader, you can start writing before your 15-minute reading period is done.

I won’t post all of the documents that you have to reference (there are 7 after all!), but the following two documents are representative of the types of documents you will encounter on a DBQ.

As you can see, there’s a mix of photographs, advertisements, and text that you will be expected to incorporate into your essay.

Still with me? Good. Next, let’s look into what an essay should have in it.

Scoring Notes for Document Based Questions

The following (including descriptions) comes straight from the APUSH scoring notes. I’ll break down parts of it later to make sure that you understand what they want to see.

Your DBQ essay should have the following (for a maximum of 7 points):

• Thesis: Present a thesis that makes a historically defensible claim and responds to all parts of the question. The thesis must consist of one or more sentences located in one place, either in the introduction or the conclusion.
• Argument Development: Develop and support a cohesive argument that recognizes and accounts for historical complexity by explicitly illustrating relationships among historical evidence such as contradiction, corroboration, and/or qualification.
• Use of the Documents: Utilize the content of at least six of the documents to support the stated thesis or a relevant argument.
• Sourcing the Documents: Explain the significance of the author’s point of view, author’s purpose, historical context, and/or audience for at least four documents.
• Contextualization: Situate the argument by explaining the broader historical events, developments, or processes immediately relevant to the question.
• Outside Evidence: Provide an example or additional piece of specific evidence beyond those found in the documents to support or qualify the argument.
• A development in a different historical period, situation, era, or geographical area.
• A course theme and/or approach to history that is not the focus of the essay (such as political, economic, social, cultural, or intellectual history).

Yes, it’s a lot. But students have done it before, and so can you! Just because of the limits of space, I am only going to show you what to do – and what not to do – on the parts where I have seen students struggle most: thesis and synthesis.

Thesis Statements for Document Based Questions

Your thesis statement is the bread and butter of any essay you write for the APUSH exam. As I have stated before in previous posts, you should spend the most time on your thesis because a strong thesis will guide the rest of your essay.

But what makes a thesis strong? As mysterious as that question may seem, it is relatively straightforward:

A strong thesis directly answers the question being asked by referencing specific times, movements, or ideas.

It’s that simple! Well, it’s sort of simple. Developing a strong thesis is hard work, but let’s begin at the beginning. Here’s the question being asked: Explain the causes of the rise of a women’s rights movement in the period 1940–1975.

Notice that the question asks for causes, meaning MORE than one. Also, notice that the question gives you a defined time period to work with. Therefore, your thesis shouldn’t deal with any events, ideas, or people outside of that time period.

Let’s look at two student examples.

Example Thesis #1:

The women’s rights movement arose as a result of women’s experiences with inequality at work and the influence of other rights movements.

Does the student directly answer the question being asked? Yes. According to the student, the women’s rights movement was caused by the experiences of women dealing with inequality at work and the influence of other rights movements in the same time.

Is the student being specific? Yes. I know that this student will be organizing their essay in two big chunks: inequality in the workforce and civil rights movements.

Notice that this student didn’t give the longest answer possible, and the response was not necessarily the most eloquent, but that student still got a point for their thesis.

Example Thesis #2:

The woman’s rights movement was the product of unfair treatment in economics, politics, and society.

Does the student directly answer the question being asked? Well, yes, but I am unclear what “economics, politics, and society” means.

Is the student being specific? Not at all. There could be thousands of things that go under economics, politics, and society – and many things could be considered “unfair” – so I have no idea what the student will be arguing in this DBQ.

Thesis Statement Dos and Don’ts

• Directly answer the question being asked.
• Be specific.
• Write a thesis statement like the first example.

Don’t:

• Answer the question in a confusing way or answer some other question you think the test SHOULD be asking.
• Be general.

Synthesis in Document Based Questions

This is a newer component of the DBQ. You need to demonstrate your understanding of history by being able to go beyond the documents they provide you and make connections between different parts of history. This does NOT mean that you need to spend all of your time racking your brain for more evidence. However, it does mean that you should have a solid understanding of US History and can extend your argument to other time periods or themes. Let’s look at some student examples to explain what I mean.

Student Example #1:

The conditions that helped cause the rise of the women’s rights movement in the 20th century were similar to those that helped cause the rise of a movement for greater women’s rights in the 1840s. In both periods, calls for greater rights for African Americans led women to demand more of a voice in social and political reforms.

This student explains that the conditions for women’s rights movements were similar in two different time periods, extending the argument beyond this one moment in US history.

Student Example #2:

A development in a different historical period was when Alice Paul went on hunger strikes and protests in from of the White House to gain attention on passing an amendment that would give women their rights. Paul’s fight for women’s rights started with trying to get equal voting rights for women. This links to how in 1940-1975 women were fighting for equal rights in wages and other important rights.

This student makes a connection to another time period by arguing that the fight for equal rights did not begin in 1940; instead, women had been active for some time in US history to achieve equal rights.

Student Example #3:

The Seneca Falls convention also served to help inspire women around the world to gain equal rights. The speech given clearly stated the way things were being conducted was unconstitutional and women should not be socially inferior to men.

Unlike the first two student responses, this third response does NOT connect back to the time period in the question. I am unclear from this student response whether the connection is gaining equal rights for women, the persistence of inequality, or the changing interpretations of the Constitution. This student did not receive a point for the synthesis criteria.

Synthesis Dos and Don’ts

• Connect back to the time period of the question.
• State something that you feel is an “obvious” connection, but never make a connection yourself. You should be doing that work for your reader.

Document Based Question #2: Your Turn!

Although I haven’t outlined every single component of the DBQ, you should look at the two blog posts I linked to at the beginning of this article for more references.

But now it’s time for you to dive in! You will only get better by practicing.

You should practice with the 2015 Document Based Question 1 . In that document, you will have access to the questions and sample student responses.

Good luck, and let me know how it goes!

Allena Berry loves history; that should be known upfront. She loves it so much that she not only taught high school history and psychology after receiving her Master’s degree at Stanford University, she is now studying how students learn history at Northwestern. That being said, she does not have a favorite historical time period (so don’t bother asking). In addition to history, she enjoys writing, practicing yoga, and scouring Craigslist for her next DIY project or midcentury modern piece of furniture.

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Module 1: Westward Expansion (1840-1900)

Analyzing documents using the happy analysis, learning objectives.

• Analyze primary source documents using the HAPPY Analysis

The H.A.P.P.Y. Analysis

Because we will be looking at primary sources so often in this course, it is helpful to use a consistent pattern for analyzing the documents. There are several strategies to help you analyze documents, but no matter which technique you use, the important thing is to simply take the time to read documents carefully and look for the information you need. You want to read historical sources like an investigator—looking for information that might reveal clues about a person, event, or time period. In longer texts, this often includes using headers to help you, reading the introduction, looking up confusing words, and considering the viewpoint from which the primary source originates. One strategy for analyzing primary sources is known as H.A.P.P.Y.

The H.A.P.P.Y. analysis consists of:

H : Historical Context

• Where and when was this source produced? Focus on how place and time affect its impact, message, and genesis.
• Place it in the appropriate context – connect it with ideas before and after, or related events.

A : Audience

• Who is the author’s intended audience?
• How does the audience affect the validity of the document and its message? For example, how might their message have been modified or shaped to suit their audience?

P : Purpose

• What is the author’s purpose and/or motivation for creating this source?
• Is this intended to persuade or inform? Is this some sort of propaganda?
• How does the purpose affect reliability and validity?

P : Point of View

• What do you know about the author’s background?
• How does the author’s role in society and hierarchy affect their perspective?
• How does this affect the reliability and validity of the source?

Y : Why? (Significance)

• What is the main idea the source is trying to convey?
• Why is this source important to history?
• Why does this source relate to your thesis and/or the prompt? (Remember to explain this in your writing)

H.A.P.P.Y Analysis of the Extermination of the American Bison (1889)

Let’s practice the HAPPY Analysis by taking a careful look at the document by  William T. Hornady on the Extermination of the American Bison (1889). William Hornady, Superintendent of the National Zoological Park, wrote a detailed account of the near-extinction of the American bison in the late-nineteenth century.

Figure 1 . Photograph from 1892 of a pile of American bison skulls in Detroit (MI) waiting to be ground for fertilizer or charcoal.

Of all the quadrupeds that have lived upon the earth, probably no other species has ever marshaled such innumerable hosts as those of the American bison. It would have been as easy to count or to estimate the number of leaves in a forest as to calculate the number of buffaloes living at any given time during the history of the species previous to 1870. Even in South Central Africa, which has always been exceedingly prolific in great herds of game, it is probable that all its quadrupeds taken together on an equal area would never have more than equaled the total number of buffalo in this country forty years ago.…

Between the Rocky Mountains and the States lying along the Mississippi River on the west, from Minnesota to Louisiana, the whole country was one vast buffalo range, inhabited by millions of buffaloes. One could fill a volume with the records of plainsmen and pioneers who penetrated or crossed that vast region between 1800 and 1870, and were in turn surprised, astounded, and frequently dismayed by the tens of thousands of buffaloes they observed, avoided, or escaped from. They lived and moved as no other quadrupeds ever have, in great multitudes, like grand armies in review, covering scores of square miles at once. They were so numerous they frequently stopped boats in the rivers, threatened to overwhelm travelers on the plains, and in later years derailed locomotives and cars, until railway engineers learned by experience the wisdom of stopping their trains whenever there were buffaloes crossing the track. …

No wonder that the men of the West of those days, both white and red, thought it would be impossible to exterminate such a mighty multitude. The Indians of some tribes believed that the buffaloes issued from the earth continually, and that the supply was necessarily inexhaustible. And yet, in four short years the southern herd was almost totally annihilated…

It will be doubly deplorable if the remorseless slaughter we have witnessed during the last twenty years carries with it no lessons for the future. A continuation of the record we have lately made as wholesome game butchers will justify posterity in dating us back with the mound-builders and cave-dwellers, when man’s only known function was to slay and eat.

The primary cause of the buffalo’s extermination, and the one which embraced all others, was the descent of civilization, with all its elements of destructiveness, upon the whole of the country inhabited by that animal. From the Great Slave Lake to the Rio Grande the home of the buffalo was everywhere overrun by the man with a gun; and, as has ever been the case, the wild creatures were gradually swept away, the largest and most conspicuous forms being the first to go.

The secondary causes of the extermination of the buffalo may be catalogued as follows:

• Man’s reckless greed, his wanton destructiveness, and improvidence in not husbanding such resources as come to him from the hand of nature ready made.
• The total and utterly inexcusable absence of protective measures and agencies on the part of the National Government and of the Western States and Territories.
• The fatal preference on the part of hunters generally, both white and red, for the robe and flesh of the cow over that furnished by the bull.
• The phenomenal stupidity of the animals themselves, and their indifference to man.
• The perfection of modern breech-loading rifles and other sporting fire-arms in general.

Each of these causes acted against the buffalo with its full force, to offset which there was not even one restraining or preserving influence, and it is not to be wondered at that the species went down before them. Had any one of these conditions been eliminated the result would have been reached far less quickly. Had the buffalo, for example, possessed one-half the fighting qualities of the grizzly bear he would have fared very differently, but his inoffensiveness and lack of courage almost leads one to doubt the wisdom of the economy of nature so far as it relates to him…

The buffalo supplied the Indian with food, clothing, shelter, bedding, saddles, ropes, shields, and innumerable smaller articles of use and ornament. In the United States a paternal government takes the place of the buffalo in supplying all these wants of the red man, and it costs several millions of dollars annually to accomplish the task…

The Indians of what was once the buffalo country are not starving and freezing, for the reason that the United States Government supplies them regularly with beef and blankets in lieu of buffalo. Does any one imagine that the Government could not have regulated the killing of buffaloes, and thus maintained the supply, for far less money than it now costs to feed and clothe those 54,758 Indians?…

There is reason to fear that unless the United States Government takes the matter in hand and makes a special effort to prevent it, the pure-blood bison will be lost irretrievably….

Source: Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1889).

Historical Context

For historical documents, reading critically means placing the author, audience, and message into their historical context. The author and the audience may have lived in times and places very different than our own. Their lives, their knowledge, and their assumptions might be very different than our own. So you need to carefully construct a mental picture of their world, and then relate what they say and what they do to your knowledge of that world.

Ask yourself, based on your readings, what do you know of the historical events surrounding the source? Was there a war? A plague? A technological innovation? A social change? How was society structured? What part of it did the author and audience occupy? How might that affect their viewpoints?

This can be quite tricky. Our guesses about the past might be wrong. But such imaginative reconstructions are necessary to fully appreciate historical sources.

Comprehending an author’s message is only the first step in reading critically. You still need to figure out why the author sent it: the message’s intended audience, its purpose, and its context. This analysis is the exciting part of the process, and the most useful.

Every piece of writing has an author, an audience, and a message. As you read, you should think about each of these pieces simultaneously.

Who does the author expect will be reading their work? If you are reading a historical document, to whom is it addressed? If the author doesn’t say, can you guess? Is the audience part of the author’s own group (whatever that is) or an outsider? How does the author seem to feel about his audience? Is he or she hostile? Condescending? Flattering? How does he or she seem to feel the audience will regard him or her in turn?

For academic writing, this question is less urgent, but you may notice a difference in content between articles specialists write for each other and articles written for students or for a general audience.

Every piece of writing has a purpose. Even a simple grocery list serves the purpose of reminding me what to buy. Much writing aims to convince someone to adopt an opinion or to perform an action. What action does the author want the audience to perform? What view do they want them to adopt?

Look at how the author constructs their message. What arguments do they employ to convince their audience? Why do they think these arguments might be persuasive? Do they make an emotional appeal? What emotions do they invoke, why, and how?

You may ask yourself: who benefits if the author gets what they want? Human motivations are complex and not always immediately obvious; you should perhaps be skeptical whether the author has some hidden purpose.

Some of our historical documents will have huge, raw messages: to declare a war, to destroy an enemy, or to promote a religion. Others may be more mundane: to describe an event or convince the audience to purchase a product. Regardless, your job as a critical reader is to figure out what that purpose is.

Even academic writing has a message, although it is often more subtle than historical documents. In articles and books, scholars want to convince their peers that their theories are correct or that they should adopt a particular point of view about a historical event. Textbooks, by their selection of material, aim not only to convey raw data, but to provide a convincing interpretation of that data.

Point of View

Who is writing? For historical documents, this is hugely important. A document written by a king will be very different than a document written by a farmer or a priest.

When you read a historical document, try to find out as much as you can about the author. Many primary source readers will contain a small biography at the start of the selection. You could also look up the author’s background online. What suppositions can you make about the author based on his or her background? How is it likely to affect their knowledge or other resources available to them? How is it likely to shape their attitudes, prejudices, and goals?

What can you tell about the author just based on his or her own statements? Often, an author’s choice of words reveals a great deal about their mental world and goals.

The same questions apply to modern authors as well. Historians may be liberal or conservative, religious or secular, or favor one group over another in their analysis. Even the authors of textbooks have a background and point of view that affects their selection of facts.

Y? or Significance

This last component of the HAPPY Analysis includes thinking about the significance, or the importance of the document. Consider the following questions:

• What makes this event or source memorable?
• What does this reveal about the time period?
• What are the results of the event?
• What is its relevance today?
• Why does this source relate to your thesis and/or the prompt?

Fill out this HAPPY chart for the primary source reading below. This is an open-ended exercise, but you can use the spaces below to jot down your ideas.

Primary Source: Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé tribe on Indian Affairs

H: Historical Context

A: Audience

• How does the audience affect the validity of the document and its message? E.g., how might their message have been modified or shaped to suit their audience?
• How does this affect reliability and validity?

P: Point of View

Y: Why? (Significance)

• Why does this source relate to your thesis and/or the prompt? (Remember to explain this in your writing.)
• Modification, adaptation, and original content. Authored by : Megan Coplen for Lumen Learning. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Authored by : Mr. Erfurth. Located at : https://erfurth.co/history-handbook/primary-sources-happy-analysis . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Analyzing Documents. Provided by : Lumen Learning. Located at : https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-ushistory1/chapter/reading-documents-the-happy-analysis/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Bison skull pile. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bison_skull_pile_edit.jpg . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

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How to Write the Document Based Question (DBQ)

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What’s Covered:

What is the document based question, steps to writing an effective dbq, how do ap scores affect my college chances.

If you’re taking a history AP exam, you’ll likely encounter the Document Based Question (DBQ). This essay question constitutes a significant portion of your exam, so it’s important that you have a good grasp on how best to approach the DBQ. In this post, we’ll cover what exactly a document based question is, and how to answer it successfully.

A Document Based Question (DBQ) is a measure of the skills you learned in your AP classes in regard to recalling history and analyzing related documents. These documents can be primary or secondary sources, and your responses are expected to be in the form of an essay. Your ability to relate the context of documents to concepts beyond the given text and creating meaningful connections between all your sources will help demonstrate your skills as a knowledgeable writer.

The number of documents for a DBQ varies from exam to exam, but typically will fall between five to seven documents. The following AP exams will require you to write a DBQ:

AP U.S. History

AP European History

AP World History

We’ve listed the formats for each exam below, and keep in mind that the number of documents is prone to changing from year to year:

• Up to seven Documents
• One hour recommended time (includes 15-minute reading period)
• Up to seven Documents 
• 25% of total exam score

With that in mind, let’s jump right into how to craft a strong DBQ response!

We’ve summarized how to write an effective DBQ into the following five steps:

1. Read the prompt first

Though you may be tempted to jump into the documents right away, it’s very important that you first look at what exactly the prompt is asking for. This way, when you eventually look at the documents, your focus will be narrower. A DBQ tests your reading comprehension and analysis skills more than the content itself, making it very important to understand your prompt thoroughly.

2. Skim the document titles

Each document will contain vital information regarding the context, and it’s important to scout key words regarding dates, authors, and anything pertaining to the general sense of what the documents are about. Skimming through your documents like this could save time and allow you to form a more structurally sound thesis.

Let’s take a look at the following graph and figure out how to skim the figure:

This document was in a real exam from the AP World History free response questions in 2019. It’s important to pay attention to data provided and what context can be drawn from it. In this case, we’re provided with a graph that displays the life expectancy of a country in relation to the GDP per capita of said country. Being able to skim this graph and notice the common trends in the data points could provide convenient information into the context of the document, without any further intensive reading. 

For example, seeing how countries with a GDP below 4,000 to 5,000 have lower life expectancies already gives us a potential correlation between the two factors. We can use this information to start formulating a thesis, depending on what the prompt is specifically asking for.

Remember, just skim! Don’t worry about reading the entire document yet; this strategy can keep you calm and level-headed before tackling the rest of the document. Methods like this can make acing the AP World History DBQ less intimidating! 

3. Formulate a tentative thesis

A thesis is a statement that should be proved and discussed upon. It’s important to have a strong thesis as the foundation of your DBQ, as it guides the rest of your response in relation to the context. Understanding the difference between weak and strong theses will be imperative to your success, so here is an example of a weak thesis:

“The Cold War originated from some scenarios of conflict between Soviets and some groups of oppressors.” 

Such a thesis can be considered weak for its lack of specificity, focal point, and usability as a constructive tool to write further detail on the subject. This thesis does not take a clear stance or communicate to the reader what the essay will specifically focus on. Here’s how the same thesis can be restructured to be stronger and more useful:

“The Cold War originated from tense diplomatic conflicts relating to propaganda and conspiratorial warfare between the United States and the Soviet Union.”

The information that’s been included into the second thesis about the two groups involved with the Cold War gives you more room to build a structured essay response. In relation to the rubric/grading schema for this DBQ, forming a structurally sound thesis or claim is one of the seven attainable points. Being able to contextualize, analyze, and reason off of this thesis alone could provide for two to four points – this means that five out of seven of your points revolve around your thesis, so make sure that it’s strong! Doing all of this in your fifteen minute reading period is crucial as once this is set, writing your actual response will be much easier!

4. Actively read the documents

Simply reading a document doesn’t normally suffice for creating a well-written and comprehensive response. You should focus on implementing your active reading skills, as this will make a huge difference as to how efficient you are during your work process. 

Active reading refers to reading with an intention to grab key words and fragments of important information, usually gone about by highlighting and separating important phrases. Annotations, underlining, and circling are all great ways to filter out important information from irrelevant text in the documents. 

An example of where you might find important information via active reading is the description. Circle important names or dates to contextualize the document. If you still can’t find contextual value from the title, that’s totally fine! Just scope out the rest of the document in relevance to your thesis – that is, pinpoint the specific information or text that best supports your argument. Finding one or two solid points of interest from one document is usually enough to write about and expand upon within your essay. 

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5. Make an Outline 

If you like outlines, making one before writing your essay might prove helpful, just be aware of the time limit and act accordingly. 

Start with your introduction, then work on the rest of your essay. This way, you can make sure your thesis is clear and strong, and it will help the graders form a clear view on what the general consensus of your paper is. Make sure to include evidence with your thesis within each paragraph and cite only relevant information, otherwise your citations could come across as filler as opposed to useful content. Every commentary or point you make should be tied in some way to the documents.

Format each body paragraph and organize your essay in a way that makes sense to you! The graders aren’t really looking at the structure of your essay; rather, they want to see that you analyzed the documents in a way that is supportive of your essay. As long as you have content from the documents which prove your thesis, the order or manner in which you present them doesn’t matter too much. What’s more important is that your essay is clear and comprehensive. As you write practice DBQs, try having someone else read your essays to make sure that the format is easy to follow.

Keep all these key details in mind as you construct your own DBQ response, and you’re well on your way to writing an effective essay!

Your chances of admission are actually not really impacted by your AP scores; however, the AP classes you take are more important than the exam scores themselves, meaning the impact of your AP scores isn’t as big as you think . 

Instead, focusing on the AP classes on your transcript and the relevance of those classes to your future major is more impactful. For a further detailed understanding of the role AP classes play in regards to your college admissions, use CollegeVine’s free Admissions Calculator , which takes into account your GPA, standardized test scores, and more. 

Additional Information

To dive deeper into DBQs, AP classes, and learning how to tackle each exam check out other resources at CollegeVine:

• Acing the Document Based Question on the AP US History Exam
• Acing the AP World History Document Based Question
• Ultimate Guide to the AP U.S. History Exam
• Ultimate Guide to the AP European History Exam
• Ultimate Guide to the AP World History Exam

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

Sharing teaching and learning resources from the National Archives

Education Updates

AP US History Resources from DocsTeach

For high school teachers and their students getting ready for next month’s AP US History exam , the National Archives has primary sources and educational resources to help prepare you for the modified DBQ format.

This year’s test on May 15th will be significantly different from previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to it being taken at home, the exam is also considerably shorter, with multiple choice questions, short answers, and a long essay removed. Instead, the test will be comprised of a single Document Based Question (DBQ) including 5 primary sources (instead of the typical 7), one of which will be a non-text based primary source.

One helpful resource for students to practice their DBQ skills is our series of Document Analysis Worksheets . These tools are designed for both written and several non-text based sources (photos, maps, posters, political cartoons, etc.) and could be used to support analysis of primary sources from any institution.

These resources have questions that are especially helpful to prepare students for the DBQ essay as their response is evaluated based on “how or why the document’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience is relevant to an argument.”

Regardless of the document type, the analysis sheets walk students through the same basic routine:

• Meet the document.
• Observe its parts.
• Try to make sense of it.
• Use it as historical evidence.

In addition to the worksheets, DocsTeach has several activity types that are particularly helpful for preparing for the DBQ essay. Any teacher can access and share learning activities created by National Archives educators; and with a FREE account , educators can modify activities or create their own activities from scratch.

The Analyzing Documents tool is an online interactive version of the worksheets where educators can use any primary source, and even add customized text-dependent questions to focus their students on specific details.

Weighing the Evidence activities ask students to analyze documents and place them on a scale according to how they support a historical interpretation. Weighing the Evidence can help students focus on finding evidence with primary sources to support specific arguments and evaluate the strength of that evidence on a spectrum.

The Making Connections tool is also helpful for DBQ essay prep. It presents a string of primary sources to convey historical progression or some related theme and prompts students to make connections among the events. Making Connections is easily adaptable to the AP DBQ format. Give students a DBQ prompt and place 5 primary sources from the National Archives (or from other institutions) in conversation with each other.

With this year’s reduced historical time periods for the DBQ (only focusing on Unit 3 – Unit 7, or 1754-1945), there are over 7,000 documents in DocsTeach to help build that content knowledge or incorporate them into model DBQ activities. Search for key terms, and filter by era and type to manage your results.

With a free DocsTeach account , teachers can even curate their own folders of highlight documents for each Unit. Just star the document on the document detail page, then add it to a folder in the My Documents section of your account.

Or you can share one of the folders we have curated for each Unit. Students do not need a login to see any activities or folders that you create or share with them.

• Unit 3, 1754–1800: https://www.docsteach.org/shared-documents/favorite/MTgwNjk=  
• Unit 4, 1800–1848: https://www.docsteach.org/shared-documents/favorite/MTgwNzA=
• Unit 5, 1844–1877: https://www.docsteach.org/shared-documents/favorite/MTgwNzE=
• Unit 6, 1865–1898: https://www.docsteach.org/shared-documents/favorite/MTgwNzI=
• Unit 7, 1890–1945: https://www.docsteach.org/shared-documents/favorite/MTgwNzM=

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AP World DBQ HIPP Analysis Submissions & Feedback

7 min read • december 31, 2020

Melissa Longnecker

One of the skills AP World History: Modern holds you accountable for is  document analysis  - the ability not to only introduce a document but to deconstruct and break it down to smaller components to explore separately.

DBQ Early Modern Period Prompt

Here  are three documents from the Early Modern Period, c. 1450 to 1750. With your historical knowledge of Unit 3 (land empires), try to analyze at least 2 out of 3 documents. The more documents you practice analyzing, the more confident you’ll be in doing so in a timed fashion!

HIPP Strategy

Recap: We use the  HIPP strategy.  You might also know it as  HAPPY  but worry not, it has pretty much the same idea.

H: Historical Context - what was going on at this time period?

I: Intended Audience - who/whom is the document meant for?

P: POV - who/what is the document representing?

P: Purpose - why is the document created?

Responses and Feedback

Hipp analysis practice submission 1.

This document was compiled near the height of the Protestant Reformation, a time during which many countries and peoples in Europe began to break away from the Catholic Church on the basis of disputes of theological doctrine. To such examples are mentioned by Martin Luther in the passage, one being that the Catholic church had new practices that differed from that of traditional Christianity, such as indulgences and simony, and the second being that the Pope utilized the church as a means to accumulate power for himself rather than to glorify Jesus Christ. Martin Luther made these claims and speeches in private to his followers, whom he trusted. This trust allowed him to speak truly on his opinions of the Catholic Church, making more clear exactly how he believed Catholicism differed from true Christianity. However, this document was not written by Martin Luther himself, but rather his followers, who likely wrote it with the intent of distributing it to the peoples of Europe. This may have resulted in some inaccuracy and dramatization of Luther’s views towards the Catholic church in the document. His followers likely would have done this, with the goal of rallying more Christians to join the Protestant Movement and break away from the Catholic church.

This document was written at the height of the Sunni-Shia conflict between the Ottoman and Safavid Empires. Both the Ottomans and Safavids practiced slightly different versions of the Islamic faith, Sunni and Shia respectively. This document was written by the Ottoman sultan (Sunni) to the Safavid Shah (Shia). Because he believes that his own brand of Islam is superior, he attempts to downgrade Shia views by depicting them as sacrilegious while also attempting to uphold Sunni views by depicting them as righteous and holy. However, because the Safavid ruler is also Muslim, the Ottoman sultan makes sure to honor Muhammad, the undisputed founder of the faith, in his letter. Ultimately, his goal is to convince the Safavid sultan to convert to Sunni Islam, and he uses religious writing and sentiment to do so.

During this time, King Louis XIV ruled over France with the power of an absolute monarch. Under his supreme powers, he demanded that areas under French influence pay him reverence periodically. One of the areas was Siam, or modern-day Thailand, the king of which is depicted offering gifts to Louis in the document. The picture was created by a French artist, Nicolas Larmessin, who attempted to convey his own king’s, as well as France’s, power and sovereignty in this image. He likely intended the audience of this image to be both the people of France and foreign peoples under French influence. By showing it to these groups of people, its purpose would effectively be completed in that it would allow King Louis to legitimize his own power through an engraving him that depicted him and France as superior over other kings and nations.

DBQ Teacher Feedback

As usual, this response shows thoughtfulness and depth of understanding. Each HIPP category is present in your response to each document, and you’ve even developed each response to come to a conclusion about the document. Great job!

On the actual DBQ, you won’t need to be this thorough. This prompt is good practice with all of the different HIPP/HAPPY categories, but on the AP Exam you will be free to pick just one of these categories to describe and explain its relevance to your argument. That should save you time and energy on your final essay!

You wouldn’t actually do such robust analysis in your DBQ! Instead, you would choose one characteristic to describe about a document and then explain why that characteristic is relevant to know about in terms of understanding the document or your argument in response to the prompt. This is a really tricky skill!

Let’s talk about Document 3 - you have a good idea about purpose. The purpose of art like this was to legitimize the rule of the monarch. William does a good job in his response of briefly describing this purpose and connecting it to analysis of the document.

HIPP Analysis Practice Submission 2

was compiled during the Protestant Reformation when many people began to break away from the Catholic Church because of its wrongdoings. It is in the point of view of Martin Luther supporters; therefore, we can recon that they may be potentially biased against the Church, for Martin Luther believed the popes were changing the way of Christianity in the bible and protecting themselves by participating in acts such as the sale of indulgences or partaking in simony. The Purpose of this document was likely to inform the audience, other supporters of Martin Luther and people who didn’t know of the popes wrongdoing, to gather and spread the word of the the church’s injustice throughout Europe.

This document was compiled while there was a harsh split in Islamic beliefs in the Middles East, and a rival period was occurring between the Ottoman and Safavid empires over who should descend the prophet Muhammad. In this document The Ottoman empire addresses the Safavid. This is significant because the writing will try to persuade the Safavids that their beliefs are invalid and therefore should be scrapped for the Ottoman Sunni beliefs. The purpose of this document is to have the Shi’a Safavids convert to Sunni Islam while still respecting the words of the prophet Muhammad. Perhaps, this document even hints as a threat to the Safavids with its authoritative voice. The Ottomans and Safavids would often go to war, and towards the end of the document the Ottomans say that the Safavids will be granted royal favor once they become part of Ottoman land. This hints as a threat that if the Safavids don’t comply with Ottoman word, they will go to war with them over Islamic land and force the submission of their people towards the right branch of Islam.

Your responses here show that you have a good understanding of these documents and the history around them. Of the HIPP categories, your responses are strongest in terms of historical situation and POV.

On the actual DBQ, you won’t need to analyze all of the HIPP categories for any one document. This prompt is good practice with all of the different HIPP/HAPPY categories, but on the AP Exam you will be free to pick just one of these categories to describe and explain its relevance to your argument. That should save you time and energy on your final essay!

HIPP Analysis Practice Submission 3

In this document, King Louis XIV is shown in a throne and the King of Siam and the Siamese (Siam was a territory of France) are shown in grovelling postures. They seem to be bowing down to and almost worshiping King Louis XIV who ruled with divine right (claimed he was chosen to rule by God). But, since the painter is French, it stands to reason that the scenario depicted may not be entirely factual since the painter of this scenario would not want to insult King Louis XIV who had a significant amount of power over him and therefore portrayed the King as more powerful than he actually was in this painting.

In this document, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire is insulting the Shah of the Safavid Empire over not being faithful to Islam and is imploring the Safavids to join the Ottoman Empire and repent for sins. The purpose of this work is to get the Safavids to merge into the Ottoman Empire and therefore eliminate the Sh’ia Islam minority who make up the Safavid Empire since the Sunni (Ottoman Empire) have been in conflict with Sh’ia ideologies. If the Safavids join the Ottoman Empire, then a huge part of the Sh’ia population will become Sunni and that is what the Ottoman leader wants. The Ottoman sultan also will become politically more successful if he gets the Safavids to merge into his empire since he will rule a much larger territory.

This is a great example of what sourcing analysis might look like on the AP exam! I know the prompt was encouraging folks to try using all of the HIPP/HAPPY categories for each document, and your responses focused in on just one category each. This is actually the way you’ll write it on the exam, so that’s great!

I would encourage you to try on some additional HIPP categories in your practice so you’re prepared to use any category on your DBQ essay. Some documents lend themselves more to purpose or POV, while others make more sense in their historical situation. Try practicing with all of these so nothing throws you for a loop!

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