Diplomacy Review

AP Lang and Comp testing wiped out a scheduled review of diplomatic history, although Jack was undaunted and started a brainstorming review document organized by century.  Students interested in big picture review might add the most salient alliances, treaties, wars, and themes to the document.  Diplomatic as a historical category refers to relationships between sovereigns and/or states, often taking the aforementioned forms.  This history, obviously, affects and was affected by the development of nation-states over the past 500 years of European History.  So, skimming through highlights of diplomatic history will also bring some political developments to the surface. Check out the key maps in the presentation below; the interposed images are of change agents.  See if you can make the connections between the images and the maps.

 

Other than discussions of imperialism, diplomatically themed FRQ are less popular than the other five subcategories of AP European History (i.e. political, social, economic, intellectual, and cultural).  Here's an example where diplomatic content was probably the difference between scores of 4 and 6:

Considering the period 1933 to 1945, analyze the diplomatic, economic, and military reasons for Germany's defeat in the Second World War.

What would diplomatic content look like in a quality response to this prompt?

Postwar Europe

Soviet cartoon criticizing the Marshall Plan

An excited band of scholars met after school today to discuss postwar Europe.  One student attached the cartoon at left, which depicts American postwar assistance to Western Europe as a form of imperialism, to our brainstorming review document.  Check it out and add more ideas.  The cartoon brings together key points from the first two columns.  The Cold War between the US and the USSR was a major factor in postwar Europe.  Europe was divided into East and West, while countries in both blocs forged closer ties.  After the fall of communism, 1989-91, the liberal West has expanded to included former communist states.  Today, the European Union contains three countries--Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania--that were once part of the Soviet Union; and, all of the former Warsaw Pact member states, except the Soviet Union, are now a part of the NATO.

Most of Europe faced substantial rebuilding after WWII, but the Western, capitalist countries eventually began a long economic expansion that reshaped their societies and brought France, West Germany, Italy, and the Low Countries closer together.  This expansion continued the urbanization and the growth of the middle class that are megatrends in European history since 1450.  This growing changing economy presented more opportunities for women who had entered the paid workforce in large numbers during the world wars. This, combined with an assertive feminism, created the conditions for the legal and social equality of women.  Expanding educational opportunities in both eastern and western Europe were another factor in the growth of managerial, clerical, and technical careers on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

Gandhi spinning thread. Photo by Margaret Bourke White, 1946.

Students nailed several aspects of decolonization--the process by which former colonies became independent states--following World War II.  In some cases this was violent, such as anti-French wars in Indochina and Algeria.  The primary example of nonviolent anti-colonial movement was Gandhi's (and others) campaign for Indian independence, although this was marked by Muslim-Hindu violence that accompanied the creation of Pakistan.  John Green's crash course on the decolonization, embedded at the bottom of the review page, summarizes the factors responsible for the end of European empires: World War II, which exhausted resources and drained imperialism of moral legitimacy; and, nationalist movements in former colonies.  The results were scores of new nation states, many with problematic borders and immigration from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean into Europe as former colonial subjects sought economic opportunity.

The postwar period is three chapters, instead of two, in the more recent issues of McKay, and reviewing students should follow the developments above to the twenty-first century.  There is often a postwar FRQ, and if not there will be multiple choice questions.  How might you approach one of the following, all from the last two years?

• Analyze various factors that contributed to the process of decolonization in the period 1914 to 1975.
• Analyze the factors that led to the expansion of women’s participation in the paid workforce in Europe over the course of the twentieth century. 
•  Analyze the factors that led to the expansion of the welfare state in Western Europe in the mid-twentieth century. 

Feel free to discuss in comments.

French Revolution

View the whole presentation here

A merry band of typing history scholars filled the French Revolution review document with information today after school in S109.  This major event has so many well-documented events, names, and developments associated with it that even more could be added.  The eager learners also put the events in order for the last four columns!  Despite what some have heard, historians don't usually blame a random, twenty-first century American teenager for the twenty-six years of revolution and war.  They do, however, often divide the Revolution into three phases followed by the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Revolutionary calendar, topped with Liberty

One important theme that did not emerge in today's discussion was the types of social and political change pursued in the radical revolution.  Radical means more than violent.  There was violence in all of the phases of the revolution, although the Reign of Terror was a key aspect of the radical phase.  The radicals also attempted to fundamentally alter French society with De-Christianization, republican government, price controls, and total war against Austria and Prussia. Under Robespierre the National Convention ended slavery in the French colonies.  The earlier moderate revolution had instituted liberal changes to France.  The National Assembly ended noble privileges, restrained the King and the church, protected property rights and individual rights, and enfranchised propertied men.  Free-response questions on the French Revolution and Napoleonic period often ask students to analyze revolutionary action or participation in specific ways.  For instance, in 2012 many students wrote on this question:

Analyze various ways in which government policies during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic era contributed to a greater sense of French national identity in the period 1789 to 1815.

Answering this question well requires students to apply examples that relate to the emerging notion of national identity.  Which examples could be used to answer this question?  How would you analyze them?

Chronology

At review sessions I keep hearing myself describe certain dates as very important or useful to know. In the past I have had classes collaboratively create lists of the most important dates. Here is a list of mine:

c.1450

1492
1517
1555
1618-1648
1688/9
1776
1789
1815
1848
1914
1917
1939
1945
1968
1989


These 16 dates are heavily weighted toward political and diplomatic history. Use your sense of the century sheets to identify big themes and developments in the other categories in particular centuries. What makes these key dates? What other dates might you add? What long term developments or time periods belong in your chronological scheme of European History since 1450?  Post thoughts in comments.

Early Modern Eastern Europe

A fistful of lively learners rocked our last review session solely devoted to the early modern Europe.  After school tomorrow we will return to the French Revolution, pivot event between early and just plain modern.  So early modern is generally speaking the 15th through 18th centuries.  Review today focused on eastern Europe, especially the rise of the Russian Empire from Ivan the Terrible (r. 1533-1584) through Peter the Great (r. 1689-1725) to Catherine the Great (r. 1762-1796).  Here is a quick primer, including the origins of Russian culture before our course begins:


I also did a screencast on this.  Russia expanded greatly under Ivan, Peter, and Catherine, all of whom increased the power of the state and the military.

Although Catherine the Great, played by Becca Timo at our Salon, is considered an Enlightened monarch, she did not end serfdom in the Russian Empire.  Noble land owners gained authority over their peasants during and after the time of Ivan the Terrible.  Tsars controlled the nobility and the nobility controlled their serfs.  Early modern Eastern Europe was socially and economically dominated by noble land owners, and a prominent merchant class did not develop.  This lack of a modernizing bourgeoisie made much of Eastern Europe different than Western Europe.

Catherine did reform the law, by creating a legal code, and supported education, the arts, and the Encyclopedia.  Like other Russian Tsars, however, she was unwilling to take the side of the serfs against the nobles, whose support she needed to stay in power.  This was especially true after the Pugachev Rebellion, a massive peasant uprising that started along the Volga River, and the French Revolution, to which we will turn our attention tomorrow after school.

DBQ Camp!

I am live blogging this morning's DBQ camp, where six happy campers are digging into the 2000 DBQ on rituals and festivals.  A few documents, including the Brueghel painting below, discuss Shrove Tuesday (aka Fat Tuesday), the last day of Carnival (aka Mardi Gras) before lent which was a time of austerity.  Lots of merrymaking.  Brueghel, as a painter, however, may be exaggerating the level of mayhem in order to make his painting more interesting.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Battle Between Carnival and Lent, 1559

See what I did there?  Sourcing analysis!  That's what the scholars in 109 are doing, too.  I have this and other practice DBQs.  I recommend doing one or two, or at least outlining, before the test.  Remember the blue sheet? Give it a look when you practice.

Absolutism, especially the French kind

Cold winters of the late 16th-century continued into the 17th.
Pieter Brueghel the Elder, The Hunters in the Snow,  1565

AP Euro review over the past week has been criss-crossing the the 17th century, generally a rough time: destructive wars, growth of serfdom in eastern Europe, and bad weather.  Amidst this several monarchs increased their power. In review we have mentioned but not discussed the growth of absolutism, especially in France during the 1600s.  French Kings, especially Louis XIV, strove become the absolute rulers of their countries.  While they never achieved this ideal, the power of central governments and the state did expand in many places, even in constitutional England.  In absolute monarchies--France, Spain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire--this meant more power in the hands of the monarch.  Places where this concentration of power did not happen, such as Poland, were often overpowered by stronger states.

To review you might view the short video below on Louis XIV.  There is also a short quiz on a few of these topics.  Enjoy!

Early Modern Central Europe

Waves of energy and intellect rippled through the SSRC after school yesterday during AP Euro review.  Fifteen students represents are biggest turnout for a session without pastry, and they dug into Early Modern Central Europe like it was a box full of Bismarcks.  Early Modern generally refers to the 15th-18th centuries, the beginning of the class to the French Revolution.

On our handy brainstorming review document, students identified the key social structure of early modern central Europe: many enserfed peasants controlled by powerful noble land owners.  This was especially true further east, and some areas, such as the Rhineland, were more urban than most of Europe.  Also, like the rest of Europe, central European families were patriarchal.

Much of the territory of central Europe was part of the Holy Roman Empire:




Prussia and Austria were both absolutist powers in central Europe, and starting in the 18th Century they competed for power in the HRE and central Europe in general.  Monarchs in both used the crisis of the 30 Years' War to enhance their power.  Frederick William the Great Elector (the Margrave of Bradenburg was one of seven electors of the Holy Roman Emperor) took power from the assembly of great nobles that traditionally shared power with the Monarch.  Think of this as the opposite of the English Civil War, where the assembly of gentry and nobles, Parliament, restrained the Kings of the 17th century.   The Great Elector's grandson, Frederick William I, used this power to build a first-rate military, including some very tall soldiers; and his son, the Enlightened Frederick II, the Great, used this powerful military to expand Prussian territory.  The Austrian Habsburgs were unable to use the 30YW to control the whole of the HRE, but they did use it to remove Protestant nobles from power in most of their lands, including Bohemia.  This made their control of their own territories more absolutist, with the exception of Hungary were the nobility retained some autonomy.

Tomorrow the review train steams into DBQ camp.  Sourcing will be the focus.

English Constitutionalism

The review bandwagon grew to double digits as eleven smarties joined me in S109 this morning to review English constitutionalism.  Check out the review brainstorm doc, and feel free to add ideas and examples. The main idea is that constitutional government emerged in England in the seventeenth-century.  Parliamentary powers over the Crown (i.e. King/Queen) grew with victory in the English Civil War (1642-1649), and Parliament's authority was confirmed when William and Mary deposed James II in the Glorious Revolution (1688-1689) and accepted limits on their authority through the English Bill of Rights.  While knowing the order of Stuart Monarchs in the 1600s is useful, it is not as important as the main idea.  Here's a quick summary:

1. James I: absolutist ideas, but cooperated with Parliament
2. Charles I: absolutist ideas, and quarreled with Parliament=>Civil War, executed
3. Oliver Cromwell: Parliamentary political and military leader, Puritan, ruled as dictator after execution of Charles I; banned Christmas
4. Charles II: restored to throne after death of Cromwell; King and Christmas returned
5. James II: Charles II's brother, suspected Catholic, deposed by Parliament
6. William (of Orange) and Mary: invited by Parliament to invade England, they did; accepted Bill of Rights

A few students remembered that John Locke wrote his explanation of the social contract between rulers and the ruled to justify the Glorious Revolution.  Thomas Jefferson, and others, would famously recycle Locke's reasoning in the American Declaration of Independence, which declared that men can "alter or abolish" a government that restricts their rights.

The glib, short, and very fast video below recounts the English Civil War in more detail than you need, but the main ideas should shine through.

The review train steams forward on Wednesday with a look at early modern central Europe: Prussia, and stuff...

Wars of Religion

A focused group of inquisitive minds closed out last week in style with a fog clearing discussion of European wars of religion.  The review document is here, and the Dutch Revolt line is crying out for completion.  I created a short quiz (six question, including two matching) to help brush up on this.

Philip II, painting by Renaissance master Titian

The most prominent name on the quiz that we didn't discuss more than briefly last week is Philip II of Spain.  He had a hand in two of the conflicts: Dutch Protestants were revolting against his rule and he supported the most militant Catholic faction in the French Wars of Religion.  Philip II ruled the Spanish Empire during the second half of the sixteenth-century, and he ordered the Spanish Armada assembled to attack England, because the English under Elizabeth I supported the Dutch rebels.  Philip II was so committed to Catholicism that he his Royal Palace, El Escorial, was also a monastery.  He used much of Spain's American gold and silver to finance wars against Protestant rebels.


We also discussed the two eruptions of large scale religious violence in the Holy Roman Empire during the first halves of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-centuries.  I used the phrase Wars of the Reformation to refer to the conflict between Lutheran and Catholic forces in the Holy Roman Empire following establishment of Lutheranism by many German Princes.  This fighting was interrupted for long stretches as Charles V Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor, fought the Ottoman Empire and France.  The Peace of Augsburg (1555) ended these conflicts and allowed Princes in the HRE to establish Lutheranism or

Sack of Magdeburg

Catholicism.  This peace lasted until the Thirty Years' War which began in 1618 and (helpfully) lasted thirty years until the Peace of Westphalia.  This war was a major watershed in European History and caused tremendous suffering in central Europe. 

Many of the Royalist officers who fought in the English Civil War (1642-1651) gained combat experience in the Thirty Years' War, but that is a story for our next review session...

Reformations

S109 was alive with intellectual ferment once again as a lively band of AP Euro scholars discussed aspects of the Reformation today.  The fruits of their labor are visible on the Reformations review doc, which shows many of the issues of the Reformation era.   Gutenberg's printing press, which first appeared around 1450 (also, the starting time for this course), came up several times both Catholics and

One of Gutenberg's Bibles.  The text is in Latin, printed on paper.
This copy is from the New York Public Library

Protestants made use of printing.  The Reformation era began in 1517 when Martin Luther wrote his 95 Theses criticizing Church doctrine, especially the sale of indulgences.  Students should start working on a few key dates to help them stay organized.  The two above are an excellent start.

Students need to be able to explain the main ideas of Protestantism, and also compare the various Protestant movements, particularly Calvinism and the Church of England.  The impact of the Reformation rippled through the centuries, and as we will discuss during Friday morning's review of the Wars of Religion.

Renaissance Review

Afternoon review last Thursday featured ChromeBooks and lively Renaissance chat.  For many sessions students will brainstorm on google docs using ChromeBooks.  Check out the social/political and intellectual/cultural docs.   These are by no means exhaustive, so feel free to add key ideas or details.  I do edit them during review to correct misconceptions and/or add key details.

Renaissance Italay

We remembered that northern Italy, heartland of the Renaissance, was comprised of city-states in the fifteenth and subsequent centuries. The great powers of the day did fight over and in Italy, though.  The Habsburg-Valois Wars (Holy Roman Empire vs. France) were a prominent example during the Renaissance
Northern Italy was more commercial and more urban than most parts of Europe. The bourgeois and noble elites that dominated the city-states were patrons of many of Renaissance artists, although the church and landed nobility continued to fund arts. Patronage was also one way that women, especially noble women, influenced Renaissance art.  Isabelle d'Este, who became Marchesa (like a Duchess) of Mantua (near Venice) is a famous example. She commissioned, collected, and displayed paintings and sculptures by Leonardo da Vinci and other famous artists.  She ruled Mantua while her husband was away at war or a prisoner.  Since these things happened a lot, she exercised quite a bit of authority.

Sketch of Isabella d'Este by Leonardo da Vinci

  Isabella's father, a Duke, educated Isabella and her sisters, in the humanist manner.  Despite the prevalence of patriarchy, some elite women did become quite well educated.  Don't worry if you don't remember ever learning about Isabella d'Este, you will not need to recall her name for the AP Test.  Isabella's story does illustrate several of the key themes of the Renaissance.

Other key topics that we discussed included Northern Humanism and examples of Renaissance art, you should know a few, and literature.

There is often a FRQ on either the Renaissance or the Reformation.  Review rolls on this afternoon with a look at the Reformation.

Review is rolling!

I have enjoyed seeing AP History Scholars back to review for the test. Engaged minds! We have met on a couple of times and discussed general review techniques and the DBQ.

I think that using self-testing to review every day or two over the next month is the most effective approach.  By self-testing I mean quizzing yourself on the material, perhaps using marked up copies of your own notes.  This technique is backed by the American Psychological Association.  Check it out, they're a sharp group.

The official AP Euro course themes can be found on the back page of your syllabus or downloaded from here. Try to focus on identifying a manageable number of high priority terms, people, events, and themes.  I have other materials to help with review:

• Old DBQs with which to practice 
• "Sense of the Century" sheets, on lovely orchid-colored paper, to practice recalling key events, themes, and people.  These also help with the chronological awareness necessary to write some FRQ.  Use these in tandem with the key themes.
• European History textbooks to use to review and look up material. Sick of McKay? Pick up Kagan

The calendar on the moodle page has the schedule for future review session.  Renaissance review this Thursday after school.  I am also available in the "PLCC" office in the SSRC before and after school to work on writing or specific content.


See you soon!

Mr B