Documenting United States History

TopIC III | transatlantic Conquest 21

ApplyINg Ap® historical Thinking Skills

n ew sKill historical Causation

When we think about change over time, we think about historical causation—the rela-

tionship between cause and effect. In other words, things change over time because there

is a cause (an event or a process) that leads to one or more effects. Historians use the

term proximate causes to refer to short-term causes that are set into motion by one or

more immediate events. But change usually is also the result of long-term causes that are

affected by events and changes that have occurred over a long period of time. Many histor-

ical events and processes are the result of both long-term and proximate causes. An ability

to determine causes rests on a logical relationship between cause and effect.

For example, consider Smith’s description of his encounter with Native Americans in

Document 1.12. Some long-term causes of this encounter might include Columbus’s first

landing in the Western Hemisphere, the Spanish and Portuguese discovery of gold and sil-

ver in Central and South America, and the advent of the encomienda system. Proximate

causes might include the English arrival in what is now modern Virginia in the early seven-

teenth century and the native peoples’ unfamiliarity with European weapons.

Review the documents from this chapter, and choose two documents for which you can

identify long-term and proximate causes of the events described in them. Create a chart in

your notebook similar to the one below for the documents you select.

long-term causes

proximate (short-term)

causes

event 1 example:

Smith’s description of his

encounter with Native

Americans (Doc. 1.12)

● Columbus’s first landing in

the Western Hemisphere

● The Spanish and Portuguese

discovery of gold and silver

in Central and South America

● The advent of the encomienda

system (Doc. 1.7)

● The English arrival in what is

now modern Virginia

● A desperation for food dur-

ing early years of settlement

● The natives’ unfamiliarity

with European weapons

(Doc. 1.12)

event 2

event 3

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