A republic has no hereditary monarch, but that label alone does not specify who votes. Cooperation among states need not create one state.
Prescription
A statement about what should be established or done.
Prediction
An anticipation of what may occur, not proof that it happened.
Hereditary office
An office transmitted through inheritance rather than a fresh public election.
Political scale
The territory and institutions over which a decision applies.
01 · TRY
Does supporting unity require one government for an entire continent?
Draw authority maps for the regional proposal and the imagined international congress. Label each arrow with a decision or power; mark unspecified powers. Write a 250–400-word comparison with the French or Haitian investigation, using source IDs and a counterargument.
Label an idea, a condition and an unknown; compare one decision across two diagrams.
Make a provisional claim
Loading saved evidence…
Inspect evidence and test an explanation
The investigation controls appear when your local evidence is ready.
04 · UNDERSTAND
Connect evidence and mechanism
The Jamaica Letter: unity at what scale?
Does supporting unity require one government for an entire continent?
Begin with two sketches
Sketch two meanings of political unity. Name a decision that would be shared and one that would stay local.
Draw a box around each government and a separate box for each shared institution. Name the decision each connecting line carries. A line without a named power is not yet an explanation.
Place the source in time
The letter is dated 6 September 1815, after the French declaration of 1789 and Haitian declaration of 1804 studied nearby. UNESCO places its composition in Jamaican exile during Spanish American independence struggles. These are different political settings, not three stages of an inevitable process. English paraphrases make Spanish optional for this guided investigation.
Read and annotate
Limits of the account
Bolívar acknowledges limited documents and knowledge, describing forecasts about the region’s future as uncertain.
Original English editorial paraphrase of a proposal or argument, not evidence that it was enacted. These records divide one letter, not independent witnesses.
Simón Bolívar; Spanish text in Cervantes Virtual, document 18. 6 September 1815. Source and edition.
Annotate: What evidence would turn a forecast into an account of what happened?
A conditional regional proposal
He considers joining New Granada and Venezuela under a central republic with an elective executive, hereditary senate and elected legislative body, while acknowledging possible disagreement over centralization.
Original English editorial paraphrase of a proposal or argument, not evidence that it was enacted. These records divide one letter, not independent witnesses.
Simón Bolívar; Spanish text in Cervantes Virtual, document 18. 6 September 1815. Source and edition.
Annotate: Separate the offices, their selection methods and the condition on union.
Continental limits and cooperation
He doubts one government could unite the whole region because conditions and interests differ, while imagining a congress in Panama to discuss peace and war.
Original English editorial paraphrase of a proposal or argument, not evidence that it was enacted. These records divide one letter, not independent witnesses.
Simón Bolívar; Spanish text in Cervantes Virtual, document 18. 6 September 1815. Source and edition.
Annotate: Compare the scale and powers here with jamaica-regional.
Exile, audience and versions
UNESCO places the letter in Bolívar’s Jamaican exile, identifies Henry Cullen as its addressee, and describes surviving Spanish and English manuscripts, including corrections in the English translation.
Secondary context and provenance, not evidence that political predictions came true.
UNESCO Memory of the World regional record. Modern catalog concerning 1815. Source and edition.
Annotate: How do audience, exile and translation affect the questions you ask?
Three scales of political organization
Within a state
Who holds executive and legislative offices? How are they selected?
Between regions
What conditions would make a proposed union possible? Who could disagree?
Between states
What does a shared congress discuss? Which binding powers are unspecified?
Compare powers and participation separately. A larger boundary does not itself mean more equal participation.
Start with the unit of analysis: office, state, union or international meeting. Statements about unity may address different scales. Compare actual decision powers rather than matching a shared word.
Separate description, prescription and prediction. An account of existing conditions, a desired arrangement and a forecast require different corroboration. A later event cannot be treated as something the author already knew.
An elective executive and a hereditary chamber combine different selection principles. Neither republic nor an elected body proves equal participation. Eligibility rules, election records and excluded groups’ accounts are needed to investigate who could act.
This voice does not represent every Latin American. The letter cannot substitute for Mexican, Brazilian, Andean or community histories. Compare questions and audiences without treating Europe as the standard against which every revolution is measured.
Worked example
An invented island league retains local domestic law but delegates coordinate shipping signals. Unity does not give those delegates taxation powers. Draw the shipping arrow, leave taxation unassigned and ask for the governing agreement. This is a constructed illustration, not a historical institution.
Build a supported comparison
Draw authority maps for the regional proposal and the imagined international congress. Label each arrow with a decision or power; mark unspecified powers. Write a 250–400-word comparison with the French or Haitian investigation, using source IDs and a counterargument.
For each source, name its setting and distinguish proposal from enactment. Complete three sentences: Both sources …; They differ because …; This comparison cannot establish …. These prompt reasoning, not a required conclusion.
Review and revise
A strong response distinguishes the geographic scales, describes a concrete allocation or selection mechanism, cites a counterpoint and names missing evidence. A weaker response repeats unity or freedom without explaining who decides. Different conclusions can be defensible when their evidence and scope are sound.
Extend independently
Guided: Label an idea, a condition and an unknown; compare one decision across two diagrams.
AP: Compare political authority across two Atlantic revolutions using source purpose and institutional detail. Explain both similarity and difference.
Introductory college: Read document 18 in Spanish or an identified complete translation. Compare a passage and translation choice with a dated implementation source; defend case selection and a counterinterpretation.
Continue with new evidence
World and European course pages contain a separate application using an 1817 council decree. Attempt its written tasks before revealing review notes to retain a pre-feedback attempt. Reading a letter’s proposal does not answer the decree’s powers for you.
Revise your unity diagrams. Name a supported claim, an assumption you removed and another actor whose evidence would change your comparison.
Worked example
An invented island league retains local domestic law but delegates coordinate shipping signals. Unity does not give those delegates taxation powers. Draw the shipping arrow, leave taxation unassigned and ask for the governing agreement. This is a constructed illustration, not a historical institution.
