AP EUROPEAN HISTORY
To the Student:
All test dates are “Cast in Stone” and will not be changed. Consult the class website for exact dates and required readings. Your weekend essay will be due each Monday when the tardy bell rings—there will be no exceptions. Essays will be either Free Response or Document Based in style and will be selected from questions used on previous AP Exams. Any additional assignments will also be due when the tardy bell rings on the due date. In addition to the assigned supplemental texts you will be expected to keep up with readings posted on the class webpage.
Course Purpose:
AP European History is the equivalent of a college level survey course and exists as a joint venture between the College Board, high schools and colleges from both this nation and around the globe. Highly motivated students will have the opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school by passing the national AP Examination which will be administered in early May. The curriculum, materials and methods used in this course are of college level and have been selected to prepare the student for success on this three hour examination. More than just test preparation, this course will help students develop the necessary thinking, reading, studying and organizational skills to become successful in their on going educational careers.
Course Objective:
While the course is labeled AP European History, and certainly one aim of this endeavor is to enable students to understand European intellectual, political, social, economic and cultural history, this course goes beyond the mere content. Hopefully, students will learn to love history for its sheer joy and along the way develop the skills of:
Course Scope and Themes:
This course will explore the six themes set forth by the College Board as a means of understanding the fabric of Modern European History from 1450 to the present. Thus, under the umbrella of political, diplomatic, social, intellectual, cultural and economic themes students will be expected to demonstrate why historical events evolved the course will begin with the Renaissance and journey onward concluding with a look at the failure of communism and the rise of global terrorism.
Instructional Procedures:
The course will be built around the lecture/discussion format and as the course progresses more seminar type classes will be included. Most class period will include a powerpoint presentation which I have prepared utilizing maps, charts, cartoons, art and primary sources. From studying the “evidence” of history (and their daily readings) students will be expected to explain the “why” of history and not merely recite a list of events.
Each weekend will feature an essay (either an AP FRQ or DBQ question) which will provide opportunity for the student to demonstrate mastery of the concepts covered during the week. At the conclusion of each unit students will take a rigorous timed, online multiple choice test containing 40-60 questions which will cover both current and previously covered materials. Pop quizzes may be used as a means to keep students focused and prevent procrastination.
The Course:
Unit 1 Endings and Beginnings (the Middle Ages to the Renaissance)
The Structure of Medieval Society
Nation Building
New Technologies
Religious Divisions
Agricultural Economy
The Black Death
Banking Practices
Overseas Exploration
Was there a Renaissance?
Italian City States
Social Structure
The Condottieri
Renaissance values:
Humanism
Individualism
Secularism
Rationalism
The High Renaissance
Southern vs. Northern Renaissance
Renaissance Art
The World of Women
PRIMARY SOURCES: Valla, Castiglione, Machiavelli’s The Prince, Petrarch, Mirandola, de Las Casas
RENAISSANCE ART –POWER POINT PRODUCTION
Unit 2 The Reformations and the Wars of Religion
The Roots and Causes of the Reformation
The Social background for the Reformation
Martin Luther
The spreading of the Reformation
Zwingli, Calvin, Anabaptists, English Reformation
The Peace of Augsburg
The Counter Reformation
Inquisition, Loyola, Council of Trent
The cultural Reformation
Baroque Style
Witch Hunts
Education and Literacy
Women and the Reformaion
Religious Civil War in France
Catholics vs. Huguenots in France
Catherine de Medici
Henry of Navarre and St. Bartholomew’s Day
Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu
The Thirty Year’s War
Origins
War in Bohemia
The Danish Period
The Swedish Intervention
Social and Economic consequences of the war
The Treaty of Westphalia
PRIMARY SOURCES: Luther (the packet), Calvin, Erasmus, Loyola, Council of
Trent, Witchcraft documents, St. Teresa, St. Bart’s Day, Edict of Nantes, Charles V.
Unit 3 The Atlantic World
Economic changes
Agricultural Changes
The Price Revolution
Depression
The Rise of Spain
The results of the Potosi discovery
Dynastic Marriages (Austrians and Habsburgs)
The World of Philip II
The Turkish Problem
The English Tudors
The Elizabethan Age
Cultural, Religious, Economic and Social change and political challenges
The decline of Spain
The English Stuarts and the Civil War
The Interregnum (Cromwell)
The Glorious Revolution
The Rise of Parliament and the Decline of the Monarchy
The Intellectual Revolution of John Locke
Society in the English 17th century
The Golden Age of the Dutch Republic
Religious Toleration
Patronage of the arts
The Decline of the Dutch
PRIMARY SOURCES: Cortes, Montezuma, Sahagun, Espinosa, de Las Casas,
Sepulveda, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, James I, Cromwell, Acts of Parliament, Locke
ENGLISH HISTORY IN ART – POWER POINT PRODUCTION
Unit 4 The Age of Absolutism and the Rise of the Intellectual
Theories of absolutism
The actual character of Absolutism
The growth of the state
Absolutism and Religion
Czarist autocracy and the Russian Orthodox Church
French Absolutism
Louis XIV and the culture of Versailles
Mercantilism
An end of toleration
The Austrian Habsburgs
The Rise of Prussia (once upon a Frederick)
The Russian experience
Duchy of Muscovy
Peter the Great
Eastern European culture
The Balance of Power and the modern state
The Intellectual Revolution
Changing views of the Universe
Copernicus and Galileo challenge the Church (to what degree?)
Scientific Anatomy
What is really up “there”
The Newtonian world and the loss of security
The Culture of Science
Science and religion together in the world
The social ramifications of the Scientific Revolution
PRIMARY SOURCES: Bossuet, Duke of Saint Simon, Frederick William, Colbert, Copernicus, Galileo, Pope John Paul II,
LOUIS XIV AND THE BAROQUE --- POWER POINT PRODUCTION
Unit 5 The Eighteenth Century
Economic and Social change
The social order
British landed elite
Hints of the Industrial Revolution to come
New Agricultural movements
New Technology
England’s advantages
Adam Smith
Towns and Cities
The plight of the lower classes
Controlling Society
The Enlightened movements
Enlightened ideas
Great Thinkers of the century
The social dimension of the Enlightenment
The Cultural Enlightenment
Enlightened Absolutism
Educational and Religious reforms
The late Enlightenment
The Legacy of the Age
Colonial expansion
Economic rivalries
Prussia vs. Austria
The Seven Years’ War
The ‘new’ warfare of the 18th century
Political workings in Great Britain
The American experience
The decline of the Ottoman Empire and the partitions of Poland
PRIMARY SOURCES: Smith, Descartes, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Beccaria, Voltaire,
(Candide), Frederick the Great, Catherine the Great,
Unit 6 What a Revolting Development this is!
The state of the Old Regime
Financial crisis
The First Stage of the French Revolution
Constitutional restraints on the monarch
The impact of war upon the Revolution
The Second Stage of the Revolution
The Terror
The Final Stage (Napoleon’s beginning)
The Meaning (contemporary and futuristic) of the Revolution
Napoleon—Son of the Revolution or Imperial Despot
Rise to Power
Consolidation of Power
The French Empire
Napoleonic Code
Overextension and the beginning of the end
Temporary restoration and Napoleon’s return
To St. Helena and the aftermath
PRIMARY SOURCES: Abbe de Sieyes, de Gouges, Writings of the Assembly, Robespierre, Desmoulins, Napoleonic Code, Bonaparte (diary),
THE ART OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION -- POWER POINT PRODUCTION
Unit 7 The Restoration, its failure and Middle Class Liberalism
European restoration
The Congress of Vienna
Conservative ideology
The breakdown of the conservative plan for Europe
The Bourbon restoration in France
The Revolution of 1830 (France)
Liberal ideas begin to take hold
Nationalism emerges on the continent
The unique situation in Britain
The British Reform Bill of 1832
What is the “new” Middle Class?
A different Middle Class in different places
Middle class culture
A feminist movement
A culture of comfort
Education, Religion and Leisure
Liberalism and laissez-faire
From Reason to Emotion. The emergence of Romanticism
PRIMARY SOURCES: Hegel, Metternich, Alexander I, Byron, Shelley, Ricardo,
Darwin, J.S. Mill
THE ART OF THE ROMANTIC AGE -- POWER POINT PRODUCTION
Unit 8 Nineteenth Century Revolutions
Industrialization background
Demographic explosion
The Agricultural base
New transportation systems
Different stroke for different folks—Industrialism across the
continent
The impact of the Industrial Revolution
A new way of life – workers, labor, living conditions, protests, social
awareness
The origins of European socialism
Utopians to Marx
The causes of revolution
Revolutions in the German states
Revolutions in Central Europe
Revolutions in Italy
The French crisis
The Counter-revolutionary movement
The Second French Republic
The legacy of 1848
PRIMARY SOURCES: Smiles, Chateaubriand, Bentham, Owen,
Proudhon, Engels, Marx, Mazzini, Industrialism Packet, Blanc,
Tristan, Chadwick
Unit 9 National Unification, Dominant Powers,
The Italian experience
The German experience (filling the void in the north)
The Habsburg experience
The Victorian Age – politics, culture and social changes
The Crimean War
The Reform Bill of 1867
The Czars of Russia
Nihilists and populists
France’s Second Empire
Science and Realism
Impressionism
The Franco-Prussian War
The Paris Commune
The Second Industrial Revolution
Changing populations
Social Changes
Mass Culture—leisure
Responses to the changing world
(from alcoholism, to philosophy to the avant-garde
PRIMARY SOURCES: O’Connell, Parnell, Garibaldi, Bismarck, Cavour, Pope Leo XIII, Mazzini, Gladstone, Nietzsche, Freud
AVANT GARDE AND THE NEW ART – POWER POINT PRODUCTION
Unit 10 Mass politics, Nationalism and Imperialism
The meaning of mass politics
From Liberalism to Nationalism
Universal manhood suffrage
Cartels
Social Reform
Women’s Suffrage
Challenges to the nation state
Changes and continuities in British political life
Republican France
Czarist Russia --Russo-Japanese War
Italy and the rise of nationalism
Austria-Hungary and ethic tensions
Germany under Bismarck and William II
The meaning of imperialism
The Scramble for Africa
Imperialism in Asia
The realities of imperialism
Goals and motivations of Imperialism
PRIMARY SOURCES: Pankhurst, Webb, Ferry, William II, Hobson, Kipling, Lenin, Punch.
Unit 11 The Great War
Visions of War
The alliance system
Technology and the new view
Europe divided
The Balkan crisis (or the beginnings of war)
Society and Social issues toward war
The final straw (the real shot heard ‘round the world)
The changing nature of war
A true world war
The final stages
US entry
Peace plans
The impact of the war on all levels
Plans, techniques, fronts
PRIMARY SOURCES: Lenin, Wilson, Wilfred Owen, Punch, Knight- Adkin, William II
WORLD WAR I IN ART AND POETRY -- POWER POINT PRODUCTION
Unit 12 The Russian Revolution and the turbulent 20’s
The long background and causes of the revolution
General unrest, failed reforms, and revolution
Lenin and the Bolsheviks
The 1905 Revolution
World War I and revolution
The October Revolution
The Civil War
The creation of the Soviet Union
Stalin—rise, plans, culture and purges
The Treaty of Versailles
Plans, dissent, idealism, Point 14
Settlements in Eastern Europe
Nationalism vs. colonialism
Post war politics and economy
The rise of fascism
Two models
PRIMARY SOURCES: Witte, Lenin, Izvestiia, Stalin, Trotsky, Kerenski,
Rasputin Packet.
ART STYLES OF THE 20TH CENTURY -- POWERPOINT PRODUCTION
Unit 13 Depression, Dictatorship and Disaster (WWII)
The Great Depression
Fascist Movements
The French Popular Front
Nazism
Holocaust
The Spanish Civil War
Steps to the outbreak of World War II
The war in Europe begins
Global War—Total War
Hitlers’s “New European Order”
Dissent
The turning of the tide
Allied Victory
Yalta
VE and VJ Day
The war’s end and the meaning of it all
PRIMARY SOURCES: Nitti, Mussolini, Hitler, Nuernberg Trials, Stalin, Linke, Kellogg-Briand Pact, Chambeerlain, Churchill, Hawes, Goering, Clinton, Truman
Unit 14 The Post War World and the Modern Era
Europe at the end of the war
The Potsdam Settlement
The UN and Cold War Alliances
Economic and social unrest
Political realignment (Truman doctrine and Marshall Plan)
Eastern Europe in Soviet hands
The Labor Party in Britain
The new French Republic (again)
Politics in the Soviet Union
Decolonization
Economic and Social changes
The Cold War
Korea
Superpower tension
Sino-Soviet competition
Politics in a changing world
Growth of Democracy
Decline of Religion
The European Community and the European Union
Economic growth
Oil and global economy
Threats to Peace
Weapons, terrorism, and religious and ethnic divisions
The fall of communism
Prague Spring
Brezhnev Doctrine
Gorbachev era (glasnost and perestroika)
Poland and Hungary
Fall of the Wall
The fall of the Soviet Union
On toward a modern world
Entrance into the 21st century
PRIMARY SOURCES: Beauvoir, Friedan, Truman, Khrushchev, Solzhenitsyn, Gorbachev, Putin, Sartre, Churchill, Walesa, Kennedy.