putting it all together 79Putting it All togEthER
Revisiting the Main Point
•
How did transatlantic interactions solidify as well as challenge traditional
British conceptions of power and hierarchy?•
What effects did the First Great Awakening and the Enlightenment in colo-
nial North America have on British imperial policy and colonists’ concep-
tion of their place within the empire?•
Discuss three ways in which geography helped shape the transatlantic world.•
To what extent were the First Great Awakening and the Enlightenment
products of British mercantilist policies?•
How did the geography of North America fuel conflicts between Europeans
and between Europeans and natives?•
To what extent were the social hierarchies created in the New World a hold-
over from European hierarchies?The Subordinated Thesis Statement
Rarely does a thesis statement provide a simple answer. As you may have noticed
in the third Applying AP® Historical Thinking Skills exercise in Chapter 1 (on histor-
ical causation), questions about cause and effect (such as “What are the causes of the
Revolutionary War?”) provide room for ambiguity, complexity, and counterargument.
When historians combine historical thinking skills, they are able to subordi-
nate, or weigh several arguments within a single statement. A subordinated thesis
statement offers more than one point to make an argument. Here is an example
of such a statement:Although ideological values initiated the First Great Awakening and
British Enlightenment [claim 1], economic motives were the primary
force in spreading this new way of thinking [claim 2].buIlDIng AP®
WRITIng sKIllsPractice blending comparison, contextualization, and historical causation by
preparing a subordinated thesis to the following prompt:Consider which had a greater influence over British colonial thinking by
1754—religious thought or secular thought. Explain your reasoning.04_STA_2012_ch3_057-084.indd 79 11/03/15 3:50 PM