AP EUROPEAN HISTORY:
- HOW TO “SLAY THE
BEAST!!!”
AP European History: Themes
and Time Periods
Themes:
Time Periods:
1: Interaction of Europe and the Period 1: c.1450 - c.1648
World (INT)
Period 2: c.1648 – c.1815
2. Poverty and Prosperity (PP)
Period 3: c.1815 – c.1914
3. Objective Knowledge and
Subjective Visions (OS)
4. States and Other Institutions of
Power (SP)
5. Individual and Society (IS)
Period 4: c.1914 to the Present
Meet “THE BEAST”
(aka: AP Euro. History Exam)
*Section 1: Part A: 55 Multiple Choice Questions ((A-D) - 55 minutes = 40% of the
total exam score)
*Section 1: Part B: 4 ShortAnswer Questions – 50 min.
= 20% of the total score)
grade)
*Section 2: Part A: DBQ (1
question – 55 minutes =
25% of the total score)
*Section 2: Part B: Long-Essay
Question (LEQ/FRQ) – 1 q. out
of 2 topics - 35 min.= 15% of the total score)
SELF-DOUBT / OVERCONFIDENCE
“WEAPONS” AGAINST “THE BEAST”
Background knowledge/
Experience
Resilience
Mastery of Historic
Thinking Skills
Primary/Secondary
Source Analysis
Essay writing skills
Knowledge of European political geography
Time management
Support from your
Teacher and
Classmates
Note-Taking / Studying
Mastering Specific “Weapons”
Note-Taking:
• Come up with a method that works for you!
• My preferred note-taking style – POWER THINKING NOTES
(PTN)
• PTN Method – Organizes information into important ideas,
details of those important ideas, details of the details of those
important ideas, etc.
• PTN Method requires ACTIVE THINKING (stopping
consistently while reading the textbook and figuring out what
to record)
• While executing PTN, DO NOT use complete sentences
(unless you are writing a definition). Instead, use
abbreviations, symbols, acronyms, etc.
• PTN works best if you do not procrastinate!!! (5-8 pages /
night)
Power 1 = Main Idea
Power 2 = Supporting Details for Power 1
Power 3 = Supporting Details for Power 2
Example: (see p.338)
Ch.12: Recovery and Rebirth…
P1: Meaning and Characteristics of the Italian
Renaissance (R)
P2: R=rebirth (Italy)
P3: interest in Greco-Roman culture
P3: !!! Individuality and secularism
P4: …
P2: R.Italy = urban
P3: mid-14th cen. – independent cities
P4: wealthy centers
P2:  main idea of the next paragraph!!!
P3: details of the main idea…
Mastering Specific “Weapons” (cont.)
Key Terms: Definitions
Complete Definition/Explanation = WHAT, WHEN, WHO, WHERE, WHY +
SIGNIFICANCE/CONSEQUENCES/CONNECTIONS!
Example: THE BLACK DEATH
Definition: One of the most devastating pandemics in Europe and the world
(occurred in the mid-14th century). It started in China and, because of the
increased economic interconnectedness of the “Old World,” the plague entered
Europe through Italian city-ports and then spread throughout. The plague's
widespread devastation could be attributed to a number of factors, such as
crowded, unsanitary living conditions in European cities, malnutrition of
Europe's poor due to poor harvests/food scarcity, and general ignorance of
causes and treatment of the disease and its victims. The plague reduced
Europe's population by at least 30% and resulted in dire economic and social
consequences throughout the continent while dealing a serious blow to the
prestige of the Catholic Church. It also resulted in widespread persecution of
minorities, such as Jews, and contributed to the general mood of morbidity that
was reflected in art and literature of that time period.
Mastering Specific Weapons (cont.)
Map Competence
Map Competence (cont.)
Historical Thinking Skills (HTS): Categories
Analyzing Historical
Sources and Evidence
Primary
Sources:
Secondary
Sources:
Making Historical
Connections
Chronological
Reasoning
Creating and
Supporting a
Historical
Argument
Comparison
Causation
Argumentation
Contextualization
Periodization
Synthesis
Patterns of
continuity and
change over
time
Interpretation
Analyzing Evidence:
Content and Sourcing
(TAP TAB or HIPP)
H – Historic context
I – Intended audience
P – Purpose
P – Point of View
Mastering Specific “Weapons” (cont.)
Primary Source Analysis – Analyzing
Evidence: Content and Sourcing
LINK TO PPT:
HOW to ANALYZE PRIMARY SOURCES
Secondary Source Analysis:
HTS: Interpretation – the ability to describe, analyze, and evaluate the
different ways historians interpret the past, which includes understanding
of various questions historians ask, as well as considering how the
particular circumstances and contexts shape their interpretations of past
events and historical evidence.
Secondary Sources: Accounts or analyses or events by someone (usually a
scholar looking back on the past) who did not witness the event or live through
the particular era described in the source.
Secondary-source writers (historians) usually base their interpretation of what
occurred on their examination of numerous primary documents, artifacts, and
other sources.
The analyses in these sources reflect the authors' choices and their own
understanding of what happened. Often scholars differ on how to interpret
significant historical developments.
Secondary Source: Example #1:
Source: From “The Second Voyage (1493-1496): Christopher
Columbus” by Thomas C. Tirado, Ph.D. Professor of History,
Millersville University, 2000.
“Setting sail from Cadiz on September 25, 1493, the second voyage was on a
much larger scale; 17 ships and about 1200 colonists accompanied Columbus.
Its mission was to return to La Navidad in Hispaniola to relieve the men left
behind from the first voyage, settle more colonists on the islands, and conquer
other islands to be discovered. This time Columbus carried a mission to bring
Christianity to the Indians....
...There was a reluctance on the part of the settlers who balked at the prospect
of doing manual labor. Many were ill and others were more interested in finding
gold and other riches than building a settlement....When gold failed to show up
in large quantities, Columbus decided on a policy of forced labor. Enslavement
of the natives had not been one of the stated goals of this expedition and it was
offensive to the queen; yet Columbus justified Indian enslavement on the
grounds that it would be profitable.”
Secondary Source Analysis: Example #2
Source: “Columbus and the Indians” from “A Young People's
History of the United States” by Howard Zinn, 2009.
“Columbus' promises [to the King and Queen of Spain, of gold and slaves] won
him seventeen ships and more than 1,200 men for his second expedition. The
aim was clear: slaves and gold. They went from island to island capturing
Indians...Columbus' men searched Haiti for gold, with no success. They had to
fill up the ships with something, so in 1495 they went on a great slave raid.
Two hundred slaves [out of 500] died on the voyage to Spain. Too many slaves
died in captivity. Columbus was desperate to show a profit on his voyages. He
had to make good on his promise to fill the ships with gold. Columbus and his
men ordered everyone over the age of 13 to collect gold for them. Indians who
did not give gold to the Spaniards had their hands cut off and bled to death.”
Historical Thinking Skills (HTS) Category:
Making Historical Connections
Comparison – the ability to identify, compare, and evaluate
multiple perspectives on a given historical event to draw
conclusions and the ability to describe, compare, and evaluate
multiple historical developments within one society, one or more
societies across various chronological and geographical context
Examples from curriculum:
(1) Compare causes of the French Revolution (1789) and the
Russian Revolution (1917).
(2) Why did the devastation of World War I and the Great
Depression lead to the rise of fascism in some European
countries but not in others?
(3) Analysis of primary sources (TAP TAB / A HIPP)
HTS Category: Making Historical Connections
Contextualization – the ability to connect historical
events and processes to specific circumstances of time and
place and to broader regional, national, or global processes.
Examples from Curriculum:
(1) Propaganda posters depicting Stalin as an evil dictator
prior to World War II and USSR as a “friendly bear” during
World War II.
(2) “The White Man's Burden” - European Imperialism and
Social Darwinism
(3) Decolonization process after World War II
Contextualization: Examples
Published in 1942
Published in 1947
HTS Category: Making Historical Connections
Synthesis – the ability to develop understanding of the past
by making meaningful and persuasive historical and/or crossdisciplinary connections between a given historical issue and
other historical contexts, periods, themes, or disciplines.
Examples from Curriculum:
(1) Contradictory arguments from primary/secondary sources in
document-based questions (DBQs).
(2) Rise of modern European far-right parties and their roots in
fascism of the 1920s-1930s.
(3) Psychology of unlimited (absolute) power
HTS Category: Chronological Reasoning
Causation – the ability to identify, analyze, and evaluate the
relationship among historic causes and effects, distinguishing
between long-term and proximate as well as the ability to
distinguish between causation and correlation.
Examples from Curriculum:
(1) Short and long-term causes of the Protestant Reformation
(2) Short and long-term impacts of industrialization
HTS Category: Chronological Reasoning
Patterns of continuity and change over time –
the ability to recognize, analyze, and evaluate the dynamics of
historical continuity and change over periods of time of varying
length, as well as the ability to relate these patterns to larger historic
processes or themes.
Examples from Curriculum:
(1) Urban/rural divide in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries.
(2) Religion prior, during, and after the Age of the Enlightenment.
HTS Category: Chronological Reasoning
Periodization – the ability to describe, analyze, and
evaluate different ways that historians divide history into
discrete and definable periods, keeping in mind that the
choice of specific turning points might accord a higher value
to one narrative, region, or group than to another.
Examples from Curriculum:
(1) 1648 – The Treaty of Westphalia
(2) The 1848 Revolutions
(2) The Renaissance and its effect on women
Dealing With Multiple Choice Questions –
In Class and On the Exam
In class: every quiz and every test will include
multiple choice questions (A-D)
On the Exam: 55 questions (55 minutes)
In class: combination of simple recall and critical
thinking questions
On the Exam: 2-4 Questions for each “stimulus”
(primary/secondary source passage or a visual)
Example:
Fascism, the more it considers and observes the
future and the development of humanity quite
apart from political considerations of the moment,
believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of
perpetual peace. It thus repudiates the doctrine of
Pacifism -- born of a renunciation of the struggle
and an act of cowardice in the face of sacrifice.
War alone brings up to its highest tension all
human energy…...Fascism denies, in democracy,
the absur[d] conventional untruth of political
equality dressed out in the garb of collective
irresponsibility, and the myth of "happiness" and
indefinite progress....
Benito Mussolini, What is Fascism, 1932.
Questions 1-2
1. The main idea expressed by the author is that:
a). Fascism rejects the future and development of humanity.
b). Fascism opposes pacifism, but can co-exist with democracy in
the same country.
c). Happiness and the indefinite progress is only possible through a
renunciation of the struggle.
d). Fascism rejects pacifism as well as democracy
2. The above-mentioned argument on the subject of fascism and
democracy was most likely to be rejected by all of the following
contemporaries of the author EXCEPT:
a). Franklin D. Roosevelt
b). Winston Churchill
c). Charles de Gaulle
d). Adolf Hitler
Essay Writing in AP Euro. Class:
DBQs
document based questions
LEQs/FRQs:
free response questions
• 1 topic - 7-12 docs.
• New Grading Rubric
• 1 topic – out of 2 choices
• New Grading Rubric
• Critical skills:
*Primary source analysis
*Thesis construction
*”Chunk” paragraph skills
adjusted to the DBQ format!
*Contextualization
*Synthesis
• Critical skills:
*Thesis construction
Rubrics will be explained in
class in details!!!
(argumentation)
*Argument development
(based on targeted HTS)
*Mastery of content
(specific evidence)
*”Chunk” paragraph skills
* Synthesis
DBQ Writing Handout
(coming up in class!)
•
•
•
•
Explanation of grading rubrics
Step by step instructions
Practice with individual primary sources
DBQ on the Black Death - ?
(practice in class)
LEQ/FRQ Writing Handout
(coming up in class)
• Explanation of the grading rubric
• Step by step instructions
• Practice with content related topics
Group Activity: Recognizing HTSs in Your Writing!
Your Task:
Pick an event from the list on the next slide or think of a historic event
from the last 500 years of history that is connected to Europe. Write a
paragraph about the picked event that would reflect one or more
historical thinking skills.
Example: Event - No revolution in 1848 in Great Britain (while
many other Western European countries experienced them)
Written explanation:
In the 1830s and 1840s there were several reforms that were implemented in Great
Britain. These reforms satisfied major demands of certain social classes in the country
and prevented political upheavals that rocked the rest of the continent in 1848. More
specifically, the Reform Act of 1832 instituted changes in the British electoral system
and allowed the upper middle class, the industrial leaders of Britain, to gain access to
the Parliament. Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 helped workers by lowering the price
of bread and was supported by the industrial middle class who championed free trade.
These concessions from the British political elites allowed them to avoid revolutions
that were rooted in middle class frustrations and nationalism. Flexibility of the British
system at that time shares its similarities with the abilities of modern democracies,
such as the United States, to accommodate demands of their marginalized
populations, such as women and minorities, especially in the 20th and 21st centuries.
HTSs Reflected in the Example
ARGUMENTATION
CAUSATION
SYNTHESIS
Any others? :)
Now – IT IS YOUR TURN!!!
European Exploration
Emergence of
Absolutism
The French
Revolution
European Imperialism
The Industrial Rev.
World War I
The Cold War
Collapse of the USSR
*Any current day events
(ISIS/terrorism, Greece,
Migrant crisis in Europe)
HTSs:
Argumentation
Comparison
Causation
Contextualization
Periodization
Continuities/Changes
Synthesis