The AP World History DBQ uses the same 7-point rubric as APUSH and AP Euro, but the content and sourcing challenges are distinct. Here is how to apply the rubric to the kinds of prompts APWH gives — trade networks, state-building, cultural exchange, and comparison across civilizations.
The DBQ rubric (same as APUSH and AP Euro)
Thesis (1) + Contextualization (1) + Document use × 2 (2) + Outside evidence (1) + Sourcing/HAPP (1) + Complexity (1) = 7 points
APWH-specific thesis tips
AP World prompts often ask you to evaluate the extent to which something changed or the degree to which a factor caused something. Your thesis must take a position on that "extent" — not just list factors. "The Mongol Empire promoted trade across Eurasia but also caused significant disruption" earns nothing. "The Mongol Empire fundamentally transformed Eurasian trade networks by providing security and administrative infrastructure that enabled unprecedented movement of goods and ideas, despite the initial devastation of conquest" earns the point.
Contextualization in a global history course
APWH contextualization must connect your prompt's time period to a broader pattern from BEFORE the prompt — not a cause in the same era. For a prompt about 1200–1450 trade: contextualize with the post-Tang Dynasty fragmentation of the Silk Roads, or the rise of Islamic commercial networks in the 9th–11th centuries, as the backdrop that made the Mongol-era trade revival significant. One sentence about "there was trade before" earns nothing — developed analysis earns the point.
Document sourcing (HAPP) for APWH
APWH documents often include sources from multiple civilizations — a Chinese imperial account, an Arab merchant's observations, a European traveler's journal. HAPP analysis is especially powerful here: the genre of a source matters. A government-commissioned travel account (like Ibn Battuta's) had the PURPOSE of demonstrating cosmopolitan Islamic civilization to patrons — which affects how we interpret his enthusiasm for Islamic institutions he encountered. An account by a Spanish friar describing indigenous religious practices was written with the PURPOSE of justifying conversion — which affects what it emphasizes and omits.
Complexity in world history
The easiest path to the complexity point in APWH: explicitly connect the prompt's changes to a later period, or to a different region than the documents primarily address. "While the Mongol trade networks declined after 1350, the commercial patterns they established — particularly the Indian Ocean maritime routes — actually intensified in the 15th century as Chinese and later Portuguese traders built on the same networks, demonstrating continuity within change."
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