Can you please grade the following LEQ for AP world history? Please use the college board grading rubric and the prompt for this essay was: In the period 1900–2001, challenges to the existing political order led to military conflicts around the world.

Develop an argument that evaluates how challenges to the existing political order led to one or more global or regional military conflicts.

Here is the essay I wrote in response to that prompt.



     In the time period 1900-2001, the global political landscape would fall into great turmoil. During this time, many global conflicts occurred, some of which were due to ideological differences, such as those done through decolonization and containment efforts, while other were due to wanting to gain resources or national pride, such as World War II. While it may not have been the direct cause of the conflicts that occurred after it, WWII caused a great deal of change, both at home in the West, and overseas in colonies and soon to be independent states. Many of these colonies were tired of being oppressed by their European overlords and they fought diligently in the Second World War to perhaps gain their freedom, unfortunately for them, Europe had a very different idea. This led to revolutionaries pouncing on the opportunity of a weakened Europe and thus led to the decolonization movement during the cold war. In the period 1900-2001, challenges to the existing political order greatly led to military conflicts around the globe. This can be seen both through containment efforts and the global war on terror.

    Following the period of time after WWII, Vietnam decided to rise up against their French oppressors. They succeeded under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, who was a communist leader. While communism is technically an economic system in theory, when put into practice, it becomes akin to its very own government system, with many communist nations undergoing the same political transformation of a democracy into a dictator. For this reason, the United States intervened, causing the Vietnam conflict, which was heavily despised back at home. It could be argued that the conflict that was about to ensue was not due to a challenge of political order and instead due to a more economic challenge, this is simply not the case. While a communist government was a goal of the revolution, the main goal was to break away from the political oppression that France had placed upon their people. Even if that wasn’t the case, this idea would still not hold up as the Communist goal would have led to political involvement from both the USSR and the United State,s, who didn’t truly care what economic system was used, only that their nation, and thus their government was stronger. So to be clear, this war was mainly because of an effort to change the political order. This conflict was a prime example of the US theory of containment and because of it, a great deal of change was brought about. Vietnam started as a French colony, and by the end of World War II, they had realized that this political order needed to be challenged. As a result, they went from being a poor colony to a poor but independent nation. This conflict was also entirely caused by the US theory of containment as they didn’t want the economic theory of their fierce political rival, the USSR, to take another nation, for fear that more would follow and that they would be overtaken as the most powerful country.

    On September 11th, 2001, the United States would face the largest attack from a foreign power since Pearl Harbor. It was a deliberate act of terror, and following the attacks, the leader behind them would release a statement that said the attacks were political in nature as they despised the nation that America had become, the symbol of gluttony and government corruption, at least from their perspective. President Bush responded to the attacks later that night, stating that they would not stand by and let America be attacked without repercussions. Within the year, America had landed boots on the ground in order to fight nations that were supposedly hiding or supporting terror groups. This conflict led to a regime change in Afghanistan and helped to show that though the American system wasn’t perfect, it worked. The terrorist organization that planned the attacks was mostly destroyed, and though they attempted to challenge the political order that America was based on, their attempt ended in failure. Once again, it could be argued that the attacks that led to the Global War on Terror were not mainly politically inspired. The other prevailing motive for the attacks could have just as easily been cultural. After all, the organization that planned the attacks were an Islamic extremist group. However, it should also be noted that Osama Bin Laden, in his letter to the American people, said that he hated what America stood for. This would include governments and economic systems, both of which, at least in America, are politically different from what Bin Laden thought was a Utopia. This also includes capitalism* ,which he believed was the epitome of American gluttony. This attack on our economic system was also an attack on our government, which is what led to the massive retaliation that it did.


*For a bit of clarification, capitalism, though it may be an economic system,  should arguably be considered a political  ideology of  the United States. It was one of out founding principles, wanting to break away form the constrained mercantilistic practices of Great Britain, we started a conflict over it and vowed to be a capitalist society. It is in this way that Communism should also be considered a political ideology of the USSR.