A support question about a historical claim tests whether a finding backs up the links in someone’s argument. Read the claim and put its parts in a few words, including where, when, and what role something played. Then predict what would connect those parts, rather than what would fit only the topic. Accept each finding as true and check which parts of the claim it supports. A finding can be about the same topic as the claim without showing how its parts connect.
Hints
- Hint 1
Start with Ahmed’s sentence beginning with Instead. Break her claim into parts: where the gold came from, where it went, and how it was used there.
- Hint 2
The word linchpin means a key part that something depends on. Ask what evidence could show the link between the gold’s source and its role in money during the centuries Ahmed names.
Step-by-step
Follow the gold’s source and use
Step 1Separate the claim’s parts
Ahmed says trade supplied West African gold to Europe between the eighth and tenth centuries, making it the linchpin of Europe’s emerging monetary system. A linchpin is a key part something depends on, so the claim is about more than crossing the Sahara. What would support the whole claim? We’d want evidence connecting where the gold came from, where it went, and how it was used as money within that period, rather than a finding about trade or gold alone.
- Step 2
Check for missing links
Which findings connect West African gold to Europe and show its use as money? The frequent shipments of gold dust reach North Africa, with no evidence that the gold reached Europe. The chronicle about gold dinars imported from North Africa shows use as money in Europe, but doesn’t trace that gold to West Africa. The sharp increase in gold content also puts gold in European money, but leaves its source unknown. None of these findings traces West African gold into Europe’s money.
- Step 3
Connect the source to monetary use
Do the chemical analyses supply the missing connection? An isotopic signature is a chemical pattern that helps identify a material’s source, so the identical signatures tie European coin gold to West African ore. Ninth-century coins fall between the eighth and tenth centuries, and gold used to make coins was part of Europe’s emerging monetary system. That connects West African gold to its use as European money, which directly supports Ahmed’s claim even though it doesn’t show how much Europe relied on that gold. Choice A.