AP World History Unit 1 Drill 3

Question 1. According to this passage, what was the primary foundation of the Mali Empire's political power?

• A) Military conquest of rival kingdoms throughout West Africa
• B) Control of trans-Saharan trade combined with dual legitimacy drawing on both indigenous and Islamic traditions ✓
• C) Mansa Musa's personal diplomatic relationships with North African and Middle Eastern rulers
• D) An exclusive alliance with Muslim merchants who funded the empire in exchange for trade monopolies across the western Sudan region

Explanation: B is correct. The historian identifies two foundations: control of trans-Saharan gold and salt trade, and "dual legitimacy" combining indigenous sacred kingship with Islamic piety. A is wrong, while Mali expanded militarily, the passage does not identify conquest as the primary foundation; legitimacy and economic control are the focus. C is wrong, the pilgrimage announced Mali's wealth internationally but is explicitly noted as secondary to the empire's deeper foundations. D is wrong; Muslim merchants were partners in the trade network, not exclusive funders; no such exclusive arrangement is described, and it contradicts the passage's emphasis on dual (not merely Islamic) legitimacy.

Question 2. The author's argument about Mali's "dual legitimacy" would be best supported by which type of additional evidence?

• A) A detailed inventory of the goods carried by Mansa Musa's caravan to Mecca in 1324
• B) Primary sources from Mali's court showing rulers performing both traditional ritual ceremonies and Islamic prayers ✓
• C) A map of trans-Saharan trade routes showing the location of gold and salt deposits
• D) Population estimates for the Mali Empire at the height of Mansa Musa's reign

Explanation: B is correct. To support the claim that rulers used dual legitimacy, simultaneously invoking indigenous sacred kingship and Islamic piety, the historian needs primary sources showing the mansas actually performing both types of legitimizing acts. A is wrong, a caravan inventory speaks to Mali's wealth but not to how rulers legitimized their authority. C is wrong, a trade route map supports the economic argument but says nothing about legitimacy strategies. D is wrong, population estimates speak to the empire's scale but not to the specific mechanism of how rulers justified their authority to diverse subjects.

Question 3. Mali's control of trans-Saharan gold and salt trade is best understood in the context of which broader development?

• A) The introduction of the camel saddle and expansion of caravan networks, which made regular trans-Saharan commerce viable ✓
• B) The decline of Indian Ocean trade, which forced West African merchants to develop overland routes to reach Mediterranean markets
• C) The Portuguese establishment of sea routes around Africa in the 1200s, which initially strengthened West African coastal states
• D) The Crusades, which created high European demand for West African gold to finance military campaigns in the Holy Land

Explanation: A is correct. Trans-Saharan trade was made viable by innovations in camel husbandry and saddle design that allowed caravans to cross the Sahara reliably. Without these developments, regular long-distance trade between the West African savanna and North Africa would have been impractical. Mali's power was built on this pre-existing technological foundation. B is wrong; Indian Ocean trade did not decline in this period, and trans-Saharan routes served different markets entirely. C is wrong; this is a chronology trap. The Portuguese did not establish sea routes around Africa until 1488, over two centuries after Mali's peak; they could not have influenced a trade network in the 1200s. D is wrong, while European demand for gold existed, North African and Middle Eastern Muslim merchants were the primary partners in trans-Saharan trade, and that commerce predated the Crusades.

Question 4. Mali rulers' use of both indigenous and Islamic traditions to legitimize their authority most closely resembles which of the following?

• A) Song Dynasty rulers in China using Confucian ideology and the civil service examination to justify their authority to a homogeneous elite ✓
• B) European feudal lords using military prowess and hereditary landholding to establish dominance over serfs
• C) Mongol khans who, after conquering diverse populations, adopted local religious and administrative traditions, including Islam in Persia and Buddhism in China, to legitimize their rule among conquered peoples
• D) Aztec rulers who used human sacrifice rituals as the sole basis of their political authority over subject peoples

Explanation: A is correct. The Song Dynasty's use of Confucian ideology to legitimize governance is the closest parallel: as Mali's mansas used Islamic piety to attract the loyalty of Muslim merchants and scholars, Song rulers used Confucian learning and the examination system to project moral authority and attract talented administrators. Both cases involve a deliberate ideological framework used to legitimize rule. C is tempting because the Mongols genuinely did adopt local religions to govern diverse populations, which sounds like dual legitimacy. However, the key difference is mechanism: Mongol rulers adopted foreign traditions reactively after conquest to pacify subjects, whereas Mali's mansas proactively cultivated both traditions from a position of indigenous power. The Song parallel is closer because it involves a governing class using ideology to justify authority, not conquerors adapting to the conquered. B is wrong, feudal legitimacy rested on military obligation and hereditary rights, not ideology projected to diverse communities. D is wrong; Aztec sacrifice was one tool of power, not a sole basis, and it operated through coercion rather than legitimacy-building.

Question 5. Which development after 1450 most directly disrupted the trans-Saharan trade patterns described in this passage?

• A) The Moroccan invasion of the Songhai Empire in 1591, which destabilized the Western Sudan's dominant state
• B) The Portuguese development of Atlantic sea routes that gradually redirected West African gold and enslaved persons away from trans-Saharan networks ✓
• C) The Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517, which cut off West African gold from Mediterranean markets
• D) The Black Death, which devastated North African trading cities and permanently collapsed demand for West African commodities

Explanation: B is correct. After the Portuguese established Atlantic sea routes to West Africa in the late 1400s, gold and eventually enslaved persons were increasingly redirected from trans-Saharan overland routes to Atlantic maritime routes, gradually undermining the economic foundation of the Sahelian empires. A is wrong, the Moroccan invasion devastated Songhai (Mali's successor state) militarily but represents a disruption to political power, not to the trans-Saharan trade pattern itself; furthermore it occurred after the Portuguese Atlantic shift was already underway. C is wrong, the Ottoman conquest of Egypt actually kept Mediterranean trade active; Ottoman Egypt continued to receive trans-Saharan goods. D is wrong, the Black Death occurred before Mali's peak and trade recovered; Songhai later surpassed Mali in regional power, demonstrating the network's resilience.