SYLLABUS 2014-2015
AP European History
Mr.Johnston
Jason.Johnston@nbexcellence.org
Course Bibliography
Textbook: McKay, John, Bennett Hill, and John Buckler. A History of Western Society,
(Fifth Edition) Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1995
Main Assignments
Terms-Students will write the about the major events, people, and movements of each
chapter of study. These are completed in paragraph form and cover the important who,
when, where, what, and why it was or still is important.
Students will also complete a relevant Timeline for each chapter’s terms. Maps will also
be provided and a list of important places will be completed and returned with the some
of the chapter’s terms.
Papers-All the major papers are listed throughout the course syllabus.
Prompts after every chapter, students construct a thesis to a Historical prompt dealing
with the recent topics of study. In class discussions follow.
Document Based Questions (DBQ)- Students will complete a take-home DBQ at least
four times throughout the year. There will more out of class if deemed necessary.
Several DBQ’s are also done throughout the year as in-class assignments.
Primary Source Readings-Students will analyze primary sources throughout the year
during in–class discussions.
Summer Readings
Chapter 8, 9, and 10 from McKay. Ch 8-10 Reading notes, terms, and maps due
first day. Quiz on the summer assignment first day back.
Course Outline
First Semester
Introduction/Development to the Middle Ages
Introduction: Course description
The development of the Carolingian state and the resulting breakup and its
role in the development of medieval feudalism. Examination of the revival of
Europe and the establishment of a relatively stable political environment. A
study of the causes of church reform in the 11th and 12th centuries and the
corresponding role of monasticism in that reform. A look at the division of
society in the High Middle Ages and the nature of the feudal society.
Readings: McKay Chapters 8, 9, and 10
Naylor (Vol. One) pp. 96-99 (Charlemagne and Harun AL-Rashid)
Terms/Timeline: See terms handout
Video: Medieval Lives and a scene from Monty Python’s Search for the Holy
Grail
Primary Source Reading-Pope Urban’s appeal at Clermont.
Test: McKay, Chapters 8, 9 and 10
Middle Ages: Creativity and vitality of the High Middle Ages and
subsequent Crisis
The establishment of proto-modern states in the Kingdoms of England, France
and Germany and significance of the Normans, Phillip II. The development in
Germany and the revival of commerce, growth in towns and cities, and initial
appearance of universities. The impact of the Black Death in Europe and the
role of Dante, Chaucer, and Villon in the use of the vernacular in language
and literature. Factors which lead to the demise of the later medieval Catholic
Church.
Readings: McKay, Chapters 11 and 12.
Terms/Timeline Chapter 11; Henry II, Doomsday book, William the
Conqueror, Thomas Becket, Sovereignty.
Video clip-The Bayeux Tapestry
Terms/Timeline Chapter 12: 100 years war, Joan of Arc, Babylonian
captivity, Edward III, Conciliar movement, Nationalism, Great Schism.
Handout-Account of Becket’s Assassination
Test: Chapters 11 and 12
Renasissance/Humanism/Rise of New Monarchs
The meaning of Renaissance, the significant characteristics of the Italian
and Northern Renaissance and the resulting impact on politics, the
economy, and society. The spread of Humanism, and the effects of the
War of Roses.
Readings: McKay Chapter 13
Video: The Medici-Godfathers of the Renaissance
Primary Source Reading-The Prince Chapter XVII
Paper: Evaluate the changes and continuities in women’s
public roles during the Renaissance.
Terms/Timeline: oligarchy, humanism, secularism, Erasmus, Thomas
More, Machiavelli, Henry VII of England, Habsburg-Valois wars
Test: chapter 13
The Reformation
The Reformation and impact of on western society. The response of the
Catholic Church and the contribution of major Protestant reformers.
Readings: McKay chapter 14
DBQ-College Board DBQ from 1993. Describe the various values and
purposes of Renaissance education.
Terms/Timeline: John Knox, Martin Luther, Henry VIII, Charles V, Council
of Trent, Benefices, Peace of Augsburg, Calvinism.
Film-Luther
Paper: Analyze the impacts of the Protestant Reformation and
the Catholic Reformation(Counter Reformation) on the social
order of sixteenth-century Europe.
Test: chapter 14
The Age of Expansion and Religious Wars
The factors which led to the discovery and conquest of lands by Europeans
and how these possessions affected European countries.
Readings: McKay chapter 15
Terms/Timeline: mercantilism, skepticism, misogyny, baroque, Elizabeth I,
Huguenots, Thirty Years War, Defeat of Spanish Armada, Peace of
Westphalia, Edict of Nantes, Skepticism
Film: Elizabeth (with handout and discussion about Historical
inaccuracies)
Test: Chapter 15
Absolutism and Constitutionalism in Western and Eastern Europe
The factors which led to the transition from feudalism to absolutism in
Western and Eastern Europe. The differences between absolutism in both
regions and the impact of the Turkish invasion on Eastern European
absolutism and their peasants.
Readings: McKay chapters 16 and 17
Terms/Timeline Chapter 16: absolutism, Sovereignty, Fronde, Cardinal
Richelieu, Louis XIV of France, Moliere, Oliver Cromwell, John Locke, War
of Spanish Succession.
Terms/Timeline Chapter 17: Junkers,Autocracy, pragmatic Sanction,
Frederick the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, War of Austrian
Succession.
Paper: What conditions in England led to the establishment of the
Commonwealth in England and what impact did this have on the development
of government in England?
Video: First part of Russia: Land of the Tsars & Movie Cromwell(segments)
Test: Chapters 16 and 17
Expansion, A New World View, and a Change in Life of the people
The Newtonian world-view, its difference from the medieval world view, and
its affect on society, religion, the economy, and politics. The expansion of
world trade and the consequences on the lives of the common people.
Readings: McKay chapters 18-20
DBQ- College Board DBQ from 1988. Analyze the arguments for and
against the restriction of the sale of gin in eighteenth century England.
Terms/Timeline Chapter 18: Enlightenment, rationalism, philosophes,
Bayle, Kepler, Descartes, D’Holbach, Montesquieu, Catherine the Great,
Voltaire
Primary Source Reading-John Locke’s 2nd Treatise on Civil government
Terms/Timeline chapter 19: Open field system, enclosure, cottage industry,
agricultural revolution, bubonic plague, Navigation Acts, peace of Utrecht,
Charles Townsend
Paper:Compare and contrast the political ideas of
Hobbes and Locke.
Terms/Timeline chapter 20: Jesuits, Edward Jenner, Methodists, extended
and nuclear families
Chapter 19 Short Answer Discussions: Answer the following questions:
1 How did the new scientific theory and discoveries alter the concept of God
and religion? Did Science, in fact, come to dictate humanity’s concept of
God?
2 Where did the modern agricultural revolution originate and what was it’s
impact on the people and their lives?
3 Describe the various forms popular leisure took in the 18th century, and
describe how and why the changes were underway.
Test: Chapter 18, 19, and 20
*** Midterm Exam *** Possibly?
More Chapters (Certainly)
Second Semester
The Revolution and Politics
The various causes of the Frence and American Revolutions. The impact of
the French revolution on the people of Europe and specifically on France
Readings: McKay chapter 21
Video: The French Revolution and Napolean Biography
Terms/Timeline: Jacobins, Girondists, Reign of Terror, Mountain, Bastille,
sans-culottes, Mary Wollstonecraft, Edmund Burke, Robespierre, Termidorian
Reaction and Directory, Napoleon, Classical Liberalism
A Revolution in Energy and Industry
Factors that led to the Industrial Revolution and it’s impact on England and
the rest of Europe and it’s people.
Readings: McKay chapter 22
Terms/Timeline: cottage workers, Chartist Movement, separate spheres,
Crystal Palace, spinning jenny, Zollverein, Robert Owens, James Watt, Engels
Paper: Analyze and describe the working class responses to
Industrialization between 1850 and 1914.
Test: Chapter 21 and 22
Ideologies, Upheavals and Changing Life in Urban Society
The romantic revolt and it’s impact on politics, the arts, and society. The
lingering influence of the French Revolution on political development in the
first half of the 19th century and how the resulting urbanization affected
Western society in Europe.
Readings: McKay chapter 23 and 24
Primary source reading-Marx’s Communist Manifesto
Terms Chapter 23: balance of power, romanticism, nationalism, laissez
faire, socialism, Quadruple Alliance, Corn Law, Marx’s Communist
Manifesto, George Sand
Terms chapter 24: Darwin’s Theory of evolution, Freud, Joseph Lister
,Jeremy Bentham
Video: Second 1/3 of Russia: Land of the tsars
Short answer questions:
1. Marx claimed that as a result of industrialization there was an increasing
polarization of society into rich and poor. Do the facts warrant such a
conclusion?
2. To what extent was industrialization responsible for the deplorable
conditions of the cities in the early 19th century?
3. What methods were used by the Great Powers to preserve the balance of
power?
4. Why did the French turn their backs on the 1848 Revolution and elect a
strongman as president?
Test: Chapter 23 and 24
Field Trip to London, England- Not mandatory. (Spring Break)
Nationalism and Growing Imperialism
The growth of nationalism and unification of both Germany and Italy. The
subsequent establishment of imperialism and it’s impact on both European
and non-Western societies.
Readings: McKay chapters 25 and 26
DBQ-College Board DBQ from 1994. Describe the controversies over the
relationship between the English and the Irish from 1800-1916.
Terms/Timeline Chapter 25: Disraeli, Alexander II, Cavour, Garibaldi,
Napoleon’s III’s coup d’etat, May Day, Paris Commune of 1871, Ulster
Revolt of Dec. 1913, Zollerein
Terms/Timeline chapter 26 “The White Man’s burden”, Suez Canal, British
opium trade, Boers, Treaty of Nanking 1842
Paper: Analyze attitudes toward and evaluate the motivations
behind the European acquisition of African colonies in
the period 1880 to 1914.
Primary Source Reading- Kipling’s-White Man’s Burden
Movie: Gandhi (if time)
Test: Chapter 25 and 26
The Great Break: War and Revolution
The causes and impact of World War I and its major results including how the
war affected the common people. The subsequent Russian Revolution and
establishment of a communist state.
Reading: McKay chapter 27
Video: Last installment of Russia: Land of the a Tsars
Terms/Timeline: Bolsheviks, principle of national self-determination, war
reparations, Lusitania, Duma, Petrograd Soviet, Treaty of Brest-Litovsk,
Alexander Kerensky, Vladimir Lenin
The Social Impact of World War I-Anxiety
The impact of the “Lost Peace” of 1919 and the development of political
unrest in Germany. The alienation of people after WWI and its reflection in
art, psychology, philosophy, and literature
Terms/Timeline chapter 28: KellogI briand Pact, F. Nietzsche, Jean Paul
Sarte, Modrn Existentialism, Cubism, Surrealism.
Reading: McKay chapter 28
Test Chapters 27-28
Dictatorships and the Second World War
The impact of how unresolved problems of WWI ignited another
worldwide conflict. Totalitarianism (both Nazi and Soviet) and the
abilities of the Allies to defeat Nazi Germany and Axis powers.
Readings: McKay chapter 29
DBQ- College Board DBQ from 1992. Identify and analyze the political
issues in the debate over Pan-Slavism
Terms/Timeline Chapter 29: Modern totalitarianism, Hitler’s Final
Solution, fascism, Benito Mussolini, Munich Conference (1938), NaziSoviet Pct (1939), Battle of Stalingrad (1942), Normandy invasion (1944)
Test: chapter 29
Recovery from WWII and the Establishment of the Cold War
The development of the cold war and the successful rebuilding of Western
Europe. The growing independence of non-western countries and
society’s culture post war.
Readings: McKay chapter 30”
Terms/Timeline chapter 30: Truman Doctrine, NATO, Warsaw Pact,
Common Market (EEC), Mao Ze Dong, Fidel Castro, The Berlin Airlift
(1948), partition of Palestine (1948), Gamal Nassar
The Recent Past, 1968 to the Present
The world economy in the 1970’s and the consequences of the reverse
shift. The growth of women’s movement and the end of the cold war and
the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Readings: McKay chapter 31
Terms/Timeline Chapter 31: OPEC, stagflation, The Polish Elections of
1989, Détente, Tet Offensive, Solidarity, Boris Yeltsin, Eastern
revolutions of Eastern Europe.
Test: chapters 30- 31
Review for the AP EXAM!