162 ChaPTER 6 | GrowinG painS | period three 175 4 –18 0 0Putting it All togEthEr
revisiting the Main Point
•
To what extent did the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 represent
a turning point for Native American and British North American relations?
For a review of turning points, see Applying AP® Historical Thinking Skills
(pp. 51–55).•
To what extent were emerging regional identities in the United States shaped
by environmental factors in the late eighteenth century?•
In what ways did technology and transportation contribute to emergent
regional identities?•
In what ways did economic and environmental factors give rise to political
identities in the United States between 1781 and 1797?•
Characterize the motives behind US expansion of power in North America
between 1781 and 1797.•
Review James Peale’s The Artist and His Family (Doc. 6.8). How does this
image portray gender identities in the new republic?historical Causation: The linear argument
As you’ll recall, historical arguments are original interpretations of statements
about historical events. When making arguments about historical causation, it
is crucial to present a clear cause-and-effect relationship between events. One
way to do that is with a linear argument in which one idea follows another in a
progression from one point to the next, working toward a concluding statement.
One hallmark of a linear argument is that the summary becomes the clearest ar-
ticulation of the thesis. In a linear argument, the essay justifies the arrangement of
evidence, the development of ideas, and the significance of the closing statement.
First, it is useful to think of the overall progression of your essay. Below is the
prompt from Chapter 5, followed by general models that illustrate a sample thesis
statement for the prompt:Consider two of the major sides in the political debates of the 1780s and
1790s—the Antifederalists/Jeffersonian Republicans on one side and the
Federalists on the other. Determine the extent to which one had a greater
claim to fulfilling the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.buil Ding AP®
writing sKillsputting it all together 16307_STA_2012_ch6_145-168.indd 162 19/03/15 5:19 PM