Historical Thinking Skills: Chronology, Causation, Source Analysis and Argumentation
This domain tests whether you can use dates, causes, sources and arguments rather than merely recall them: periodizing, ranking causes, reading a document's provenance and purpose, and defending a thesis against a counterargument.
Chronology and periodization
Know the turning points-1868, 1878, 1895, 1898, 1902, 1933, 1940, 1952, 1959, 1961, 1976, 1991, 2014, 2021-and be able to justify where a period starts. A periodization is an argument: the Ten Years' War, the "pseudorrepública", the Revolution's "institutionalization" are labels you defend with criteria such as regime type, economic model or foreign alignment, not facts you recite. Watch for sequences that are frequently reversed, such as Zanjón before Baraguá or Girón before the socialist declaration.
Causation
Separate long-term structures (sugar, slavery, dependency), medium-term conjunctures (the 1920 crash, the 1929 depression, the Soviet collapse) and short-term triggers (a coup, an invasion, a strike). Distinguish necessary from sufficient causes and intended from unintended consequences: the Platt Amendment's abrogation in 1934 did not end dependence, and the 1959 Agrarian Reform was intended to break the latifundio but also triggered exile and confrontation.
Source analysis
For each source identify author, date, audience, purpose and genre-manifesto, law, speech, press, statistics, testimony, photograph. Ask what it can and cannot prove. Martí's Montecristi manifesto reveals the movement's programme, not its social base; a Spanish general's report on reconcentración tells you about counterinsurgency doctrine and also about the officer's need to justify himself.
Argumentation
State a thesis in one sentence, support it with specific evidence, name the strongest counterargument, and answer it. Use historiography as positions: was the Republic a pseudorrepública or a fragile democracy? Did abolition come from British pressure, slave resistance or planter calculation?
Worked example
Prompt: two sources on the 1896 reconcentración-a Spanish commander's report and a letter by a displaced peasant. Reasoning: the report is official, written to justify policy, strong on orders and numbers, weak on suffering; the letter is testimony, strong on experience, weak on scale and possibly mediated by a journalist. Corroborate dates and places; conclude that the report proves policy, the letter proves impact, and neither alone proves intent.
Traps
Equating a primary source with a true one; moralizing instead of explaining; anachronism (judging 1868 by 1959 standards); listing dates without significance; and offering a narrative where the question asked for an argument.