Weighing Which Cause Mattered Most

History · Historical Thinking · ages 11-14

Name ______________________ Date ____________

A trigger cause is something that has been building up for many years.
Circle one: True False
Which of these is a long-term cause of a war, not the trigger?
- Years of rivalry between two empires
- A leader being assassinated
- A single border skirmish that starts fighting the next day
When arguing which cause of an event mattered most, what should you always do?
- Pick the cause mentioned first in your textbook
- Back up your claim with evidence
- Choose the cause you find most interesting
A country loses a war and must pay huge fines and give up land. Years later, anger over this treaty helps cause a new war. What does this best show?
- A consequence of one event became a cause of the next event
- The treaty had no lasting effects
- Long-term causes never matter in history
Look at the timeline. Which box shows the trigger, the spark that happened right before the war?
- Alliances form
- Arms race grows
- Archduke assassinated
Priya and Deshawn disagree about a revolution. Priya says years of unfair taxes mattered most because they built anger for over a decade. Deshawn says a bad harvest mattered most because it happened right before the uprising. Whose argument uses evidence better?
- Deshawn, because his cause happened most recently
- Priya, because she explains how her cause built impact over time
- Neither, because you cannot argue about causes
A city passes a strict new law right after a big theft. Years later, anger over the law leads to protests that force it to be repealed. Which statement links these events correctly?
- The strict law was a consequence of the theft and later became a cause of the protests
- The protests caused the original theft
- The theft and the protests have no connection
A student writes: 'The war happened because the leader was assassinated. That is the only cause.' What is the biggest problem with this claim?
- It shows the student weighed several causes fairly
- It correctly backs up the claim with evidence
- It ignores the long-term causes that made war likely before the assassination

Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

Weighing Which Cause Mattered Most W1-mt_BjY92Ahl-S-s1

False · A trigger is the spark that happens right before an event, not something that builds for years. That is what a long-term cause does instead.
Years of rivalry between two empires · Years of rivalry is a long-term cause because it built up slowly. The assassination and the skirmish are closer to sparks that happen right before an event.
Back up your claim with evidence · A cause matters because of the evidence behind it, not because it is listed first or happens to interest you.
A consequence of one event became a cause of the next event · The harsh treaty was a consequence of the first war and, over time, became one of the causes of the next one.
Archduke assassinated · The assassination is the trigger because it was the spark right before war started. The other two boxes took years to build.
Priya, because she explains how her cause built impact over time · Priya explains how her cause built up impact over a decade. Deshawn only points out that his cause happened recently, without explaining why it mattered more.
The strict law was a consequence of the theft and later became a cause of the protests · The theft's consequence, the strict law, became a cause of a later event, the protests. That is how one event's effects can feed into the next.
It ignores the long-term causes that made war likely before the assassination · Naming only the assassination misses the years of rivalry and tension that made war likely. A strong argument weighs several causes, not just one.