The World Around 1750: States, Trade & Labor — Practice · Grade 10 Social Studies

Chapter: The World Around 1750 & Atlantic Revolutions

What this practice covers

By the end of The World Around 1750: States, Trade & Labor you should be able to:

6 questions, written answer, each with a worked explanation.

Vocabulary used: context, evidence, interpretation, sovereignty, commodity.

Problem 1

Why is a largest-extent map insufficient evidence of uniform control?
Answer and explanation

To assess authority, identify who collected revenue, judged disputes, controlled land, and supplied troops in a particular region. Formal boundaries alone do not establish identical institutions or practical control across a large territory.

Problem 2

Why does a large export total not establish prosperity for every producer?
Answer and explanation

Track production, financing, movement, and consumption separately. A valuable export can enrich some participants while exposing laborers to coercion or hazards. Trade totals do not reveal how gains were distributed within the producing region.

Problem 3

How should paid labor and slavery be compared without equating them?
Answer and explanation

Compare labor using status, choice, compensation, mobility, and enforcement. Low wages are not identical to legal enslavement, and legal freedom does not establish equal bargaining power. Historical comparison needs these distinctions to explain different mechanisms.

Problem 4

How can a comparison avoid explaining the past only through a later winner?
Answer and explanation

Begin with a bounded question and dated evidence. Compare the same criteria across regions and identify differences in the surviving record. Explain a development through mechanisms rather than treating later dominance as evidence of inevitable superiority.

Problem 5

Illustrative figures: a trading venture receives 100 monetary units; 50 pay transport and materials, 35 go to investors, and 15 pay labor. These are invented values, not historical accounts. Explain what the allocation shows and why it cannot establish workers’ living standards.
Answer and explanation

The figures show a distribution within this scenario. They do not establish profit after every cost, pay per worker, or purchasing power. A historical judgment needs dated records of employment, obligations, household costs, and the institutions enforcing the arrangement.

Identify the allocation of receipts.

Distinguish receipts from profit and individual pay.

Request worker numbers, hours, prices, and legal status.

Response criteria

  • Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
  • Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
  • Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
  • Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.

Problem 6

A map labels a province as part of an empire. Does it establish that its people supported the ruler?
Answer and explanation

No. It records a territorial representation. Local records, petitions, administrative practices, and evidence of resistance would be needed to evaluate support or effective control.

Response criteria

  • Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
  • Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
  • Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
  • Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.

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