National high-stakes exams are a fundamental structural feature of education systems around the world. Despite their importance in shaping educational stratification, little is known about the social processes that influence how and why national high-stakes exams are used at early ages on a global basis. I argue that global trends in the use of primary-level high-stakes exams during the postwar period are shaped by competing international and historical pressures. On one hand, Western colonialism instigated path-dependent processes that led former French and British colonies to continue to use high-stakes exams at the primary level, even after gaining independence. On the other hand, a worldwide cultural shift toward universalistic conceptions of education as a human right has led other countries to abandon high-stakes exams at early ages. Drawing on a newly constructed panel data set of 138 countries from 1960 to 2010, I show that national high-stakes exams have declined over time at early ages of schooling. Evidence from a series of panel regression models supports arguments about the importance of Western colonialism and universalistic conceptions of education in world society in shaping the use of high-stakes exams at the primary level.