Can someone grade my LEQ?
Basically I'm doing the late AP World test tomorrow and I'm really scared ngl. I feel like theres a ton of stuff I dont remember and i barely remember how to do things like leqs tbh. i tried doing a practice leq today so can someone just roughly say what i could improve/which parts worked? i know it's probably shit but i need someone to look at it lol, thx
Prompt: In the period from 1450-1750, the development of religions and the interactions of belief systems often had political, social, and cultural implications. Develop an argument that evaluates the extent to which interactions between societies and cultures affected the institutions of land-based empires in this period.
Response: The period 1450-1750 was characterized by a global power shift from Asian states like China to primarily European states like Spain, Portugal, and Britain as a result of technological innovations such as the Portuguese Caravel, which enabled maritime exploration and colonization. This facilitated the discovery of the Americas in an attempt to find an alternate trade route to Asia so that European nobility would pay less for luxury goods along the Silk Roads. The discovery of the Americas led to flourishing trade along the Atlantic, including things like cattle and grains such as rice to the Americas, crops like potatoes into Europe, and African slaves into the Americas. This cultural exchange is known as the Columbian Exchange. In the period from 1450-1750, interactions between societies and cultures significantly affected the institutions of land-based empires, as seen with the emergence of syncretic belief systems and cultural changes resulting from the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.
As a result of the discovery of the Americas, cross-Atlantic trade between Afro-Eurasia and the rest of the Western Hemisphere exploded. One result of this emerging network of exchange was the transfer of beliefs from Afro-Eurasia to the Americas, most notably Christianity from European missionaries and traditional African animist beliefs. As a result of the sudden mixing of indigenous American beliefs, traditional African beliefs, and Christianity, many new syncretic belief systems formed. One such example is the emergence of the Vodun religion, which emerged from the mixing of animism, brought from enslaved African populations, and Christianity from European Jesuit missionaries. Another instance of such syncretism is found more broadly in the mixture of certain important religious figures, such as Our Lady of Guatelupe, who was a blend of the Christian Virgin Mary and matron figures within indigenous American religions. Both of these examples show a change from before European colonization of the Americas. Whereas previously, Amerindians practiced their own religions and Africans practiced either traditional belief systems like animism or Islam, their mixture in the Americas facilitated completely new religions to emerge, causing some to abandon their native faith.
Additionally, the discovery of the Americas resulted in a drastic increase in the number of enslaved Africans. Immediately following the discovery of the Americas, many European settlers established plantations in order to grow cash crops, such as the growing of sugarcane in the Caribbean for the purpose of exporting it back to Europe and selling it for a profit. This increased the demand for African slaves to perform difficult manual labor on such plantations. As a result of this increased demand, many Africans were kidnapped from their homes in order to be sold along trans-Atlantic trade routes. This had a variety of effects on African culture, namely a decline in the power of African kings and a significant gender imbalance. Because slaves were primarily taken to perform grueling manual labor, male slaves were in much higher demand than female slaves. As a result of this, male slaves were kidnapped and sold at a 2:1 ratio compared to female slaves, resulting in a significant gender imbalance in African states. This resulted in cultural and societal changes in Africa such as the emergence of polygamy, in which one man would take multiple wives. Additionally, because African kings couldn’t prevent the kidnappings of their people by European slave traders, respect and trust in them began to decline, as many Africans believed that their rulers couldn’t protect them anymore, weakening African political institutions.
However, not all interactions between belief systems resulted in institutional change. For example, although Christian missionaries and oppressive systems such as the Encomieda system attempted to convert many Native Americans, many chose to outwardly adopt Christianity while practicing their traditional religions in secret. While this was often met with colonial violence when discovered, the fact that many Natives didn’t ever abandon their faith, even when met with grueling labor and the threat of death, means that underlying institutional beliefs and cultures in many areas of the Americas remained the same even after colonization. The practicing of Native belief systems in secret shows that some Native institutions and belief systems resisted change and colonial authority.