History
History on the MTEL spans world civilizations and United States history, with emphasis on chronology, causation, primary-source interpretation, and major turning points. Questions often ask why an event mattered, not just when it happened.
Core concepts
- Cause vs. catalyst: a cause is a underlying condition; a catalyst triggers an event. The Civil War's causes include slavery's expansion, sectional political imbalance, and economic differences; secession was the catalyst.
- Primary vs. secondary sources: primary sources are produced in the period under study; secondary sources interpret them later.
- Reconstruction amendments: the Thirteenth (1865) abolished slavery; the Fourteenth (1868) established birthright citizenship, due process, and equal protection; the Fifteenth (1870) protected voting rights regardless of race.
Worked example
The Emancipation Proclamation took effect January 1, 1863. Question: why is it considered a turning point if it did not free all enslaved people? Reasoning: it declared enslaved people in Confederate-held territory free, but exempted border states and areas already under Union control. As a war measure, it changed the Union's war aims from restoring the Union to also ending slavery, encouraged Black enlistment, and discouraged European recognition of the Confederacy. The correct analysis separates its immediate legal reach from its political and military significance.
Traps that cost marks
- Presentism: judging past actors only by current values instead of explaining their context.
- Assuming a law immediately changed practice; enforcement and resistance matter.
- Conflating the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Constitution (1787), and the Bill of Rights (1791).
- Reducing complex events to a single cause, such as 'states' rights' alone.