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Advanced Placement European History Syllabus
Students enrolled in Advanced Placement European History are expected to:
- develop and demonstrate an understanding of changes in the social, political, religious, intellectual, artistic, technological and economic trends and forces that shaped European History from approximately 1450 to the present
- understand and account for the above changes in relation to the chronology of major events, and leaders as well as social and special interest groups
- discover and account for the various factors leading to changing zeitgeists in elite and popular culture
- regularly analyze, interpret and apply primary source evidence and literature in addition to reading college level texts
- develop and demonstrate effective writing and oral communication skills
Textbooks:
Palmer, R.R., Joel Colton, and Lloyd Kramer. A History of the Modern World. Ninth Edition,
Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization. Vols. 1 & 2.
Primary Source Readers and Websites:
Gregory, Candace. Documents of Western Civilization. Vol. 2.
Perry, Marvin, Joesph R. Peden, and Theodore H. Von Laue. Sources of the Western Tradition.
Schlesinger, Roger et.all. Global Passages: Sources in World History. Vol. 2.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html
Assignments:
Throughout the year students in this course are required to research and prepare for a variety of assignments including:
· Unit exams including either a thematic or document based essay
· Weekly quizzes
· Bi-weekly DBQ’s or thematic essays
· Research papers
· Quarterly oral reports
· Debates
· Cooperative projects
Throughout the year documents will be used for insight and analysis of the social, economic, religious, intellectual, artistic & political expectations and conditions of the time. A list of these documents follows the topic lists for each Unit.
1st Quarter
Unit I: Renaissance and Reformation
- Feudalism: agriculture, guilds, kings versus nobles, kings versus popes, popes versus cardinals
- Renaissance and the roots of Humanism – Petrarch, Dante
- Individualism and the Man of Virtu
- Northern Humanism
- Art and reflections of culture
- Machiavelli and the New Monarchs in
- Doctrines of Luther and Calvin compared to the Roman Catholic Church
- Causes of the Reformation – the spark and the issues – religious, political
- Political religious and social consequences of Reformation
- The Henrican Reformation
- Diet of
- Catholic Reformation and Council of
- Peace of
Documents and other primary sources:
Castiglione: The Book of the Courtier, Machiavelli: A Handbook for Princes, Erasmus: In Praise of Folly, Luther: the Ninety-Five Theses / On the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants, Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, Alessandra Strozzi: Letters on Marriage, Luther / Zwingli: Excerpts from the Marburg Colloquy, Inatius of Loyola: Rules for Thinking with the Church, Council of Trent: Selected Deciscions regarding doctrine and procedure, Isabella D’Este: Selected Letters of Diplomacy, William Shakespeare: Selected sonnets, Mirandello: Oration on the Dignity of Man, Laura Cerata: Defense of the Liberal Instruction of Women, DaVinci: selected sketches, paintings and letters, Selected artwork by Raphael, Michelangelo, Brueghel, Artemesia Gentileschi,
Unit II: Exploration and Commercial Revolution
- Economic, technological and political causes for exploration
- Discovery of the
- Siglio D’oro
- Elizabethan Renaissance
- Commercial Revolution, joint stock companies, expansion of banking, bullion, subversion of guild laws, mercantilism
- Reasons for the decline of
Documents and other primary sources:
Queen Elizabeth: The Golden Speech / various points of legislation,
Unit III: Wars of Religion & State building
- Politiques
- Revolt of the
- Causes and effects of the 30 Years War
- How important was religion as a cause of the 30 Years War?
- Stages of the 30 Years War through to
- Philip II and the Decline of
- The Witch Craze
Documents and primary sources:
Various writings and commentaries on witches from private citizens, Luther, Calvin, The Hammer of Witches, trial accounts, Grimmelshausen: Simplicius Simpliccissimus, Henry of Navarre: Edict of Nantes,
Unit IV: Religious and Political Tensions and Consequences:
- The Stuart Dynasty and Divine-Right: James I, Charles I
- Parliamentary resistance, 19 Propositions, Petition of Right, English Civil War
- Cromwell, New Model Army, Commonwealth, Instrument of Government
- Domestic and foreign policy in Stuart Restoration
- Constitutionalism
- Glorious Revolution
- Changes in religious toleration in
- New political theories in historical context: State of
Documents and primary sources: Hobbes:
Excerpts from Leviathan, Locke: Essay Concerning Human Understanding / Two Treatises on Government, The English Bill of Rights, James I: On the Powers of the Monarch
Unit V: Absolute Monarchies: Louis XIV and Peter the Great
- Definition and examples of absolutism under Louis XIV
- Bossuet
- Mazarin, the Fronde & reaction – childhood trauma and the rise of the Sun-King
- Louis XIV’s domestic policy, intendants and changing role of nobility
- Wars of Louis XIV
- Louis’ social and economic problems
- War of Spanish Succession & Balance of Power politics
- William of
- Peter the Great – Centralizing Policies
- Westernization
Documents and Primary Sources:
Louis XIV: Edict of
Unit VI: Scientific Revolution
- Causes of Scientific Revolution
- What was revolutionary about the Scientific Revolution
- Political, military, economic and religious implications of the Scientific Revolution
- Galileo and the Papacy – a Case Study
- Important people and ideas of the Scientific Revolution
- Patronage and Exclusivity (how is speech and opportunity limited by patrons, gender etc.)
Documents and Primary Sources:
Copernicus: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, Galileo: the Dialogue / The Starry Messenger, Kepler / Galileo: Selected Letters,
Unit VII: Enlightenment
- What is Enlightenment?
- Links from the Scientific Revolution to the Enlightenment
- Idea of Progress through History
- The Philosophes and major writings
- New religious theory & arguments - Deism – the Divine Watchmaker, Paine, Spinoza, Pascal
- The Querrelles des Femmes
- Political theory, Social progress
- Physiocrats - Adam Smith & Laissez-Faire
- Enlightened Despots: Catherine the Great,
- Catherine the Great- ideals vs. Actions - Pughachev’s Rebellion
Documents and Primary Sources:
Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Moliere: The Would Be Gentleman, Montesquieu: Spirit of the Laws, Voltaire: The Ignorant Philosopher, Candide, Selected Essays / Poem on the Lisbon Earthquake, Alexander Pope: An Essay on Man, Rousseau: The Social Contract, Letter to Voltaire, Emile, Beccaria: On Crime and Punishment, de la Bretonne: Nocturnal Spectator, Hume: On Miracles, Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Paine: The Age of Reason, Frederick II: Selections from the Anti-Machiavellian, Catherine the Great: Memoirs, Diderot: Selected Works, Spinoza: A Political Treatise on the Position of Women, Selected Letters from the Querrelles des Femmes, Declaration of Independence, Preamble of the US Constitution / US Bill of Rights. Smith: The Wealth of Nations
1st Quarter Projects:
Solo Project:
Oral Report on the life, times and Impact of a Historical Figure or Issue of the Renaissance / Reformation Era – Students will lead the class through a discussion and exploration of the impact of a figure from the era on Social, Political, Religious, Intellectual, Artistic, Technological, and or Economic issues of the day. Students will make use of primary sources throughout their report and make cross-temporal, cross-cultural connections regarding the impact and influence of their person or issue.
Group Project:
17th Century Conflict in a 20th Century context.
Students must research the struggle to change government in the 17th century and present that struggle in a modern context. Each team will select a specific country and conflict from
Essays:
Two thematic Essays and Two document based essays will be required each quarter. Topics will vary according to the needs of the class. Essays will be graded in accordance with the guidelines on the AP European DBQ and FRQ Rubrics. In this quarter students are expected to revise their essays and the revision grade will replace the initial grade given.
2nd Quarter
Unit VIII: French Revolution
- The Old Regime: social, economic, and political circumstances of the 3 estates
- Crane Brinton’s Theory of Revolutions – What they have in common – courses they tend to take
- The Estates General, Abbe Sieyes, Cahiers,
- Popular reaction – the First Wave
- Government Power, factions and legislation in each period
- Committee of Public Safety and Reign of Terror
- Enduring consequences of the Revolution
- Rise of Napoleon: causes and consequences
- Napoleon’s foreign and domestic policy
- Birth of nationalism
- Congress of Vienna and reaction
- Neo-Classicism vs. Romanticism in Art, Literature and Music and its connections to political / social events in the 18th and 19th century
Documents and Primary Sources:
Crane Brinton: Anatomy of a Revolution, Young: Travels in France 1787, 1788, 1789, Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, deGouge: A Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, The Three Estates (political cartoons), Abbey Sieyes: What is the Third Estate?, Robespierre: On the Use of Terror / On the Republic of Virtue, Napoleon Bonaparte, Selected letters, speeches, journal entries, Goya: The Third of May, Delacroix: Liberty Leading the People. Freidrich: Man and Woman Gazing at the Moon, Wordsworth: Selected Poems, Blake: Selected poems, Mary Shelley: Selections from Frankenstein
Unit IX: Industrial Revolution
- Agrarian Revolution & Enclosure
- Industrial Revolution: causes and development - inventions and inventors
- The Dismal Science and Laissez-Faire Capitalism - Ricardo and Malthus
- Utopian Socialists – Fourier, Owen etc.
- Liberalism and how it changed over the course of the
- Utilitarianism: John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham
- Corn Laws, Peterloo and Chartist movement
- Labor Conditions and factory legislation
- Effects of Industrial Revolution
- Sadler Committee & Labor Laws
Documents and Primary Sources:
Malthus: Essay on the Principle of Population, Ricardo: The Iron Law of Wages, Chartists: The People’s Charter, Yorkshire Cloth Workers Petition, Engles: On Manchester, Blake: The Chimney Sweeper and other Poems of the Industrial Revolution, Various testimony to Ashley’s Coal Mine Commission / Various reports of the Saddler Committee - Parliament: John Russell: A plea for Redistricting, Mill: On Liberty
Unit X: Post Congress Nationalism in
Reactionary Measures of the Concert of
1830’s France – and the Citizen King
Marxism
1848 –
Napoleon III
Unification of
Realpolitik
Dual Monarchy
Russian modernization attempts Alexander II – Alexander III
Russification, Autocracy and resistance, pogroms
Documents and Primary Sources:
Metternich: Memoirs, Marx & Engels: The Communist Manifesto / Das Capital (excerpts), Selected Newspaper articles regarding: Garibaldi, Napoleon III, Bismarck, Bismarck: Blood and Iron Speech / Selections of speeches to the Reichstag, Alexander II: Imperial Decree Emancipating the Serfs
Unit XI: Evolution of Democracy and Labor in
Disraeli & Gladstone – democratic reforms
Rise of the Labour Party & Unions
Revisionist Socialism and the First International
J.A. Hobson & V. I. Lenin – Imperialism necessitated by Capitalism
Evolutionary Socialism: the Fabians, Bernstein, Juarez, George Bernard Shaw etc.
Feminism & Women’s Suffrage Movements
Documents and Primary Sources:
Disraeli: Sybille, Macauley: Speech in support of the Reform Act 1832, Bernstein: Evolutionary Socialism, Octavia Hill: Homes of the London Poor, Elizabeth Poole Sanford: Woman in Her Social and Domestic Character, Dickens: Selections from A Christmas Carol & Oliver Twist, J.A.Hobson: the New Imperialism, Lenin: The Highest from of Capitalism
Second Quarter Projects:
Solo Project:
Oral Report on the life, times and Impact of a Historical Figure or Issue of the French Revolution / Napoleonic / Industrial Era – Students will lead the class through a discussion and exploration of the impact of a figure from the era on Social, Political, Religious, Intellectual, Artistic, Technological, and or Economic issues of the day. Students will make use of primary sources throughout their report and make cross-temporal, cross-cultural connections regarding the impact and influence of their person or issue.
Group Project:
Debate – Laissez Faire vs. Government intervention regarding Labor Conditions in the 19th century. Students will prepare evidence from primary source testimony from Laborers, Physiocrats, and Factory Owners in groups and debate Labor issues before “Parliament.”
Essays:
Two thematic Essays and Two document based essays will be required each quarter. Topics will vary according to the needs of the class. Essays will be graded in accordance with the guidelines on the AP European DBQ and FRQ Rubrics. In this quarter students are expected to have improved their writing skills and are more familiar with the AP rubrics. Students may revise their essays and the revision grade will be averaged with the initial grade given.
3rd Quarter
Unit XII: The New Imperialism, Science and changing Zeitgeists in the late 19th Century, Early 20th
- Scramble for
- Kipling and White Man’s Burden
- Case Studies:
- Ambitions of the Imperial Powers and Agitation:
- Russo Japanese War and Russian Aftermath
- Economics of the “New Imperialism” and how it was different from the
- old imperialism
- Fueling the “Second” Industrial Revolution
- Theories and Intellectual Revolutions: Freud, Einstein, Pavlov etc.
- Impact of
- Anti-Semitism – the Dreyfus Affair
- Nietzsche
Documents and Primary Sources:
Unit XIII: World War I and Domestic Consequences
- Expectations and Anticipations on eve of war
- Impact of Neitzschean thought & Social Darwinism
- Charge of the Light Brigade vs. Dulce and Decorum
- Arms Race
- Role of nationalism in provoking the war, especially in the Balkans
- Failure of the Schleiffen Plan
- Technology
- Consequences of the Versailles Treaty (also evaluation of Versailles Treaty)
- Brest-Litovsk
Documents and Primary Sources:
Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade(for comparison), Owen: Dulce et Decorum est / Disabled, Bernhardi: Germany and the next War, Liebknecht: Militarism Impedes Progress in Civilization, The Black Hand: Manifesto, Doregeles: That Fabulous Day, Zweig: That Rushing Feeling of Fraternity, Remarque: Selections from All Quiet on the Western Front / the Lost Generation, Selected recollections of the Christmas “Armistice,” Sassonn: Base Details, The Zimmerman Note, Wilson: Fourteen Points, The Treaty of Versailles,
Unit: XIV:
- Labor and industrial conditions in
- Revolution of 1905
- Stolypin’s Reforms
- Role of Intelligentsia and radical groups
- Events leading up to February / March and October /November Revolutions
- Revolution of 1917
- Lenin and the Bolsheviks and
- Lenin’s domestic and foreign policies, including “War Communism”
- White and Red Army
- Trotsky & Stalin
- NEP
- Stalin, the Five Year Plans,
- Stalin’s foreign policies
Documents and Primary Sources:
Lenin: Announcement of the Bolshevik Revolution /
Unit XV:
- Rise of Socialism in
- The
- World Economy in the Interwar Period
- Role of the Great Depression in leading up to the war
- Did
- Anti-Semitism,
- Rise of Fascism in
- Appeasement & Events leading up to the outbreak of World War II
Documents and Primary Sources:
Mussolini: On Fascism, Hitler: Selections from Mein Kampf / On Lebensraum, Hamilton: Hitler’s Youth, Stark: “Jewish Science” vs. “German Science,” Selected letters and news accounts regarding Kristallnacht, Appel: Memoirs of a German Jewish Woman, Koestler: On Conversion to Fascism, Chamberlain: In Defense of Appeasement, Churchill: A Disaster of the First Magnitude
Unit: XVI: World War II
- Chronology and Events of the War
- Compare and contrast the origins of World War I with the origins of World War II.
- Peace settlements after World War II—compare and contrast to World War I.
- Division of
Documents and Primary Sources:
Hitler: Speech to Journalists after Invasion of
Group Project: Late 19th Century Newscast
Students will use primary sources to research various aspects of life in the late 19th century. Each group will represent a particular country and be responsible for representing the domestic and international affairs of that country with a focus on social and political changes and tensions, technological advances, changes in philosophy and religion in elite and popular culture, artistic trends and economic relationships. Students will assign roles of producers, anchors, props coordinator etc. as necessary.
Solo Portion: Each student will be responsible for researching and scripting two stories for their group and be required to collaborate on additional elements of the newscast. Sources must be submitted for each story in MLA format.
Essays:
Two thematic Essays and Two document based essays will be required each quarter. Topics will vary according to the needs of the class. Essays will be graded in accordance with the guidelines on the AP European DBQ and FRQ Rubrics. In this quarter students are expected to be comfortable with the AP rubric and must submit their best work. The grade on these submissions is final.
4th Quarter
Unit: XVII: The Cold War
- Origins of the Cold War, Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Warsaw Pact, Comecom, United Nations, Arms Race, Space Race policy of “containment”
- Military conflicts in the Cold War - Berlin Airlift to the Berlin Wall,
- Benelux - Treaty of
- Comparison of Economic recovery in
- Student Movements of ‘68
- Détente
- French politics and the role of de Gaulle
- Efforts to oppose Russian domination in Eastern and
- Social and economic policy in
- Khrushchev’s “de-Stalinization” policy
- The End of Imperialism, dismantling of colonial empires, and independence movements
Documents and Primary Sources:
The Warsaw Pact, Khrushchev: Secret Speech, Churchill: The Iron Curtain,Djilas:The New Class, Heller: The Hungarian Revolution, Selections from the Treaty of Rome, UN Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Gorbachev: On Glasnost, Nehru, Marxism, Capitalism & Non-Alignment, Solzhenitsyn: What I learned in the Gulag, Budapest Students: Sixteen Political, Economic, and Ideological Points, Paris May 1968:An eyewitness account from Solidarity, The Maastricht Treaty
Unit XVIII: The Post Soviet World /
- The dismantling of the Berlin Wall
- The collapse of the Soviet Union/rise of nationalism in
- Impacts in the Balkan Region religious and political conflicts 1990’s to 2001
- The unification of
Documents and Primary Sources:
Excerpts from the Dayton Accords, Biermann: Dideldumm, Various News clips, Balkan Crisis, News accounts regarding the dismantling of Berlin Wall, New York Times articles re:
Research: Students will research and write a on various topics throughout the year. Topics must be pre-approved to ensure they align and connect with the AP curriculum.
Essays:
Two thematic Essays and Two document based essays will be required each quarter. Topics will vary according to the needs of the class. Essays will be graded in accordance with the guidelines on the AP European DBQ and FRQ Rubrics. In this quarter students are expected to be comfortable with the AP rubric and must submit their best work. The grade on these submissions is final.
- develop and demonstrate an understanding of changes in the social, political, religious, intellectual, artistic, technological and economic trends and forces that shaped European History from approximately 1450 to the present
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