SAT Reading section historical timeline & themes

Historical timeline for SAT Reading section historical passages

• This entry is a subpage of SAT Reading section techniques, strategies & approaches

• Historical passages are often difficult for students
  • language and context of the passages are unfamiliar
  • while historical knowledge is not required to answer questions, it is helpful

BIG IDEAS

• historical literacy can help students understand passage context and author purpose in historical passages
• students are NOT required to know the particular history, as questions are "evidence-based"
  • but it helps to know the time period and/or historical times, people and perspectives
• use dates of major wars to identify historical context
  • wars mark historical turning points
    • therefore ideas, discussions and themes are different before and after wars

example of applying historical knowledge on SAT Reading

• College Board practice test 10, 4hth passage, question 39:
  • the passages are from 1898 & 1900 regarding the Spanish-American War, in which the U.S. fully engaged in imperialism and colonialism
  • possible answers to question 39 are:

A) founding and history of the United States.
B) vibrancy and diversity of American culture.
C) worldwide history of struggles for independence.
D) idealism that permeates many aspects of American society

simply by knowing the perspective of 1898/1900, we can eliminate:

• x B) "diversity" = a modern not a c. 1900 political value or expression
• x C) "worldwide history" = a modern not a c. 1900 political value or expression (which would be concerned about American and not "worldwide" history)
• x D) "idealism that permeates" = a modern and not a c. 1900 perspective
  • without looking at the text, we can eliminate down to the correct answer, A)

Major wars timeline

• at a minimum, knowing the dates of major 18th-21st century wars will help identify historical context
  • i.e.: identifying a document from, say, 1844, it is helpful to know that it was written after the War of 1812 and before both the Mexican-American and Civil wars.
  • knowing that helps understand the perspective of the author, as the Mexican-American War changed American attitudes towards slavery and sectionalism and broke down the Compromise of 1820 that was born of the "Era of Good Feelings" that followed the War of 1812.

Major wars timeline

Major Wars 1775-81: American Revolution * 1789-95: French Revolution ** 1812-15: War of 1812 1846-48: Mexican-American War 1861-65: U.S. Civil War 1898: Spanish-American War 1914-18: WWI 1939-45: WWII 1959-75: Vietnam War (U.S. ground war: 1965) 2002-current: Afghanistan/ War on Terror 2003-11: Iraq War (Iraqi Insurgency: 2003-2006)	Other wars to know: 1803-1815: Napoleonic Wars 1904-1905: Russo-Japanese War 1910-1920: Mexican Revolution 1917: Russian Revolution 1931-32: Japanese Invasion of Manchuria 1950-53: Korean War 1990-91: Gulf War
*American Revolution timeline: - 1765-1775: Colonial agitation - 1775-1781: War - 1783: Treaty of Paris formally ends War	**French Revolution timeline: - 1789-91: Estates General - 1792-93: Overthrow and execution of King Louis XV - 1793-94: Jacobin Rule and Reign of Terror - 1795-1799: The Directory - 1799: Napoleon seizes power

Themes & events timelines

1500s-1700s

• the SAT will not test documents from these periods
  • it is useful to know the general timeline, anyway

16th & 17th centuries

1500-1600s Early British colonial settlements: 1584 Roanoke 1607 Jamestown/ Virginia Company Mass Bay Colony / Pilgrims / Puritans New England small farms/ townships 1676: Bacon's Rebellion = Virginia planters v. settlers moving westward 1700s General: Enlightenment / Age of Reason Americas colonization European economic / political expansion/ colonization/ slavery / mercantilism U.S. colonial westward expansion U.S. Independence / French Revolution

1700s timeline - 1750s: French Indian War (America) / Seven Years War (Europe) - end of salutary neglect - 1760s: British colonial rule, including: - trade restrictions - taxes - dispute over representation in Parliament 1775-81 American Revolution - 1776: Declaration of Independence - 1787: US Constitution (ratified 1789) - 1789 US Gov operates under constitution 1789-95: French Revolution - 1793: French Rev: Reign of Terror - 1799: Napoleon Bonaparte seizes power

1800s

19th century

* 1800s general: - US western expansion (new states) - Social and economic change/ progress - Rising middle and professional class - Industrialization - Disruption of aristocratic order/ less importance - Democracy / expanding rights and freedoms Early 1800s timeline - 1803-1815 Napoleonic Wars - 1812-1815 War of 1812 (US v Britain) - 1815-25: Era of Good Feelings - 1820s: European monarchies restoration / UK industrialization / railroads / telegraph - 1848: revolutions in Europe (unsuccessful) - 1848-49: California gold rush - 1840s-50s: Karl Marx / Irish potato famine / direct British rule in India / Charles Darwin 1820s-1850s Antebellum US: - Missouri Comprise of 1820 - Alexander de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America” (study of America by French diplomat) - sectional conflict & compromises: slavery/ tariff/ National Bank - Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831) - Indian wars 1830s (also 1870s) - religious movements / Second Great Awakening/ - Thoreau/ Emerson/ Transcendentalism, individualism, individual morality, nature - temperance movement - women's suffrage (voting) & rights / franchise / disenfranchisement - Seneca Falls/ Declaration of Sentiments (1848) - anti-slavery/ abolition movement / Frederick Douglass / Underground Railroad / Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Antebellum additional: - 1820s-40s US: railroads/ canals / telegraph - 1830s-50s: Manifest Destiny / western expansion - 1848: Mexican-American War (ends compromise of 1820 due to new states/ territories; leads to North-South division) 1861-1865: Civil War - slavery / states’ rights / union - Lincoln / Gettysburg Address / Emancipation Proclamation 1865-1877: Reconstruction - 13th, 14th, 15th amendments to Constitution (ending slavery, protecting civil rights, & suffrage, i.e.) - occupation of South by northern troops - carpetbaggers - end of Reconstruction = rise of Jim Crow and segregation / rights abuses of blacks 1870s-1890s US - industrialization / "Gilded Age" / Robber Barons (industry) - railroads - urbanization - labor / industry - 1896: Spanish-American War: U.S. expansion / colonialization (Puerto Rico, Cuba, Hawaii, Philippines) - 1870s-1890s other - opening of Japan (Mathew Perry, 1854), Japanese industrialization - German unification & industrialization - European imperialism & colonialism / “Scramble for Africa” / Berlin Conference / interventions in China / Opium Wars

1900s

20th century

1900s General - world wars - economic growth/ middle class - automobiles & industry - social, class & labor conflict - racial & ethnic awareness, feminism, civil rights and equality - communism / Cold War 1890s-1910s: Progressive Era - US: reform / urban conditions / labor / immigration - UK: suffragette movement (voting, elected office) 1914-1918: WWI - nationalization (collapse of European monarchies by WWII) - US entry: 1917-1918 - 1919: Women right to vote in US 1920s: Roaring 20s - consumerism / rise of middle class - prohibition - Jazz Age / Harlem Renaissance 1930s - Great Depression / New Deal/ government intervention in economy, jobs, etc. - German militarism, invasion of Poland, 1939 - Japan militarism/ expansionism / Russo-Japanese War, 1904 / invasion of Manchuria, 1931 / Pearl Harbor, 1941 - U.S. war mobilization

1945-1950s post-War - United Nations / Declaration of Human Rights - 1950's middle class / suburbs / television / autos & highways / pop culture - Civil Rights / Brown v. Board of Edu / protests - Korean War (1950-53) / Cold War - Brown v. Board of Education (desegregation) 1960s - Civil Rights movement/ MLK / March on Washington, 1963 - Vietnam War /protests / youth movements / hippies / popular culture / rock-n-roll - MLK assassination/ urban riots 1970s - inflation - economic decline (“stagflation”) - feminism - Détente (US – USSR) / missile treaties 1980s - Ronald Reagan - economic growth - banking / Wall Street scandals - 1989: collapse of Soviet Union 1990s/ 2000s General - digital & medical technologies - the internet / social media - globalization - global warming - War on Terror / Afghan & Iraq wars / Patriot Act / “surveillance state”

General SAT Reading section topics & themes

• SAT reading selections are usually aimed at the following topics:
  • global warming / climate/ environmental sustainability
  • social and political change, especially in historical pieces pertaining to social transitions from aristocratic or elitist to modern societies
  • rise of middle or professional classes
  • democratization & race and gender equality
  • industrialization, urbanization and impact of technological change
  • DNA, biodiversity, space technology, animal behavior
  • social media and other technological challenges to modern society
  • libraries, academics, and information technology