Sample DBQ Paragraph
Prompt: Using the documents provided and your knowledge of world history, analyze the effects
of Mongol rule on Eurasia during the period of c1200 CE to c1500 CE.
As you read the sample paragraph, look for the following:
 What is the paragraph’s main argument? Where is it stated?
 How did the writer support their argument with evidence from a document(s)?
 HIPPO analysis can be found in this paragraph. What aspect of HIPPO was utilized?
 Where is there evidence provided beyond the documents?
“Mongol expansion had the effect of facilitating the spread of Chinese technologies westward
across Eurasia. Due to their widespread conquest across much of Eurasia and their protection of
overland trade routes like the Great Silk Road, technologies diffused much more easily and faster
than ever before. This is demonstrated in particular by the spread of gunpowder technologies to
civilizations beyond China. In document 5, this gunpowder technology is shown being used in the
form of cannons by the English against the French in the Hundred Years’ War. This demonstrates
the acceptance of Chinese gunpowder technology and how relatively quickly Western Europeans
had adopted it from the time the Mongols first conquered China in the 1200s. However, this
document depicts an event that occurred several decades before it was recorded. As a result, the
true course of the battle may be somewhat skewed due to the likelihood that the image was not
created by a person who was actually there or the illustrator’s memory had faded with the passage
of time. Nonetheless, Mongol expansion not only helped to diffuse Chinese gunpowder
technology to Western Europe, but also knowledge of the movable-type printing press and
magnetic compass.”
If you were to provide synthesis for the main argument made in this paragraph, what is a possible
parallel you could provide from a different time period?
 Remember that you must make a clear link to the argument and provide specific evidence
that supports the claim!