Mr. Sink’s AP European History – Course Syllabus
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
AP European History is a College Board class that covers
European History from 1400 to the present. From the
time of the Renaissance, when we can see the seeds of
many of today’s values emerging, through the 50th
anniversary of the European Union, this class teaches
the evolution of Europe’s political, cultural, military,
economic, philosophical and religious ideals. Although
there are certainly a lot of names, events, wars and
dates involved, it is important to remember that this
class is primarily a class of IDEAS.
GRADING:
Major Grades = 75%
 Tests
 Essays/DBQs
 Art Projects
 Individual/Group Projects
Minor Grades = 25%
 Flashcard Quizzes
 Snapshot Charts
 POV Analysis
 General Quizzes
In addition to understanding the content, this course is
designed to meet two very specific goals. First, this
course is meant to prepare students to take the AP
exam on May 8th. Since many students in the class will be taking this exam, which may earn
those students up to six hours of college credit with scores of a 3 or higher, all course materials
and assignments will be geared to reinforce the format of the test and the expectations of those
grading it. Second, this course is designed to instruct students on the practice of history.
Extensive time will be spent in class and at home learning how to interpret historical documents
and construct historical writing. A final exam modeled on an actual AP European History Exam
will be the culmination of these studies.
In conclusion, you must remember this class is a college course and will be treated as such. Due
to intense time constraints, you will be responsible to cover most of the fine details of the
course on your own, leaving our valuable class time to deal with a “Big Picture” narrative of
modern European History.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
You will be responsible for the following work in this course…
1. Tests & Essays – The most important part of the course is getting you familiar with the
format of the AP exam. Therefore, you will take five unit tests over the course of this
semester that will feature AP caliber questions designed to help you develop the skills
necessary for success on the AP exam in May. You will also learn the format for writing
answers to free response questions (FRQs) and document-based questions (DBQs). You
will have A LOT of practice writing these two types of AP essays, first at home and then
timed in class.
2. Readings, Discussions, & Class Activities – AP Euro is a course that has been designed to
be more interactive and dynamic than most AP classes you may have experienced
already. Daily lectures have been replaced by a host of activities – discussions, debates,
simulations, etc., - that will require you to actively engage and apply the knowledge
you’ve gained from your readings and assignments. Simply put, you will be expected to
PARTICIPATE in this class everyday! In order to effectively participate and cover the
amount of required material before the exam, you will be required to keep up with your
assigned readings from your textbook and other supplemental sources.
3. Flashcards, Snapshot Charts, & Web Assignments – At the beginning of each new unit
we study in the course, you will be given a list of important people, places and things to
indentify as you read. You will also occasionally be given snapshot charts to complete as
you read. Snapshot charts are graphic organizers that are meant to provide you with
quick summaries of people, places, concepts/ideas, or events that occur within a similar
time period in European History. In addition, you will be expected to watch selected
episodes of John Green’s fantastic YouTube series Crash Course World History in order
to supplement your knowledge on certain topics we cover in class. All of these
assignments are valuable tools to help you manage the enormous content load in this
course, reinforce your reading, and help you prepare for tests.
4. POV Analysis – In order to do well in this course you need to learn how to think like a
historian. In order to do this, you must learn how to analyze POINT-OF-VIEW (POV) in
primary source documents. Over the course of the semester, you will be required to
read and interpret numerous documents. Some of these documents will be selected for
you to practice POV analysis. POV analysis requires you to analyze how the author’s
motives, position, profession, or status in society, and the nature of the document itself,
might affect the reliability of the author’s perspective being stated in the document. You
will be required to write your answers down and hand them in the day after we discuss
the document in class. Furthermore, you will be required to perform POV analysis on all
DBQs and unit tests in this course.
5. Art Projects – Since Art History is an important component of the AP European course,
you will be expected to research and present information on a specific artistic
movement in European History. Your art project will have two parts. First, you will have
to create a presentation for the class in which you discuss the key characteristics of each
movement as well as show and explain examples of important works from that
movement. Second, you will be asked to hand in a study guide evaluating the key
characteristics, artists, and works of that movement. A sign in sheet will be displayed
the first day of class so you can sign up for a movement. First come, first serve!!!
6.
Quizzes – You will be given two different types of quizzes in this class. The first will be
flashcard quizzes, in which you will be able to use your flashcards to identify a few
selected terms. You will also have general quizzes which will allow you to assess your
understanding of key content within a given unit. These general quizzes will feature a
wide variety of questions ranging from multiple-choice to short answer.
TEXTBOOK:
 Western Civilization. Jackson Spielvogel, 7th Edition. Wadsworth, 2009
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:
I strongly recommend purchasing one (or all) of the following review books/guides…
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Fast Track to a 5: Preparing for the AP European History Examination (Louis Forsyth &
Lenore Schneider). 8th & 9th Editions, Holt McDougal, 2008
5 Steps to a 5: AP European History (Jeffrey Brautigam). McGraw Hill, 2008-9
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to European History. Nathan Barber. Alpha Books, 2006
AP European – Daily Topics & Readings List
WC = Western Civilization Textbook (Spielvogel)
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Readings and assignments are listed in Italics
Readings are listed on the day they are to be completed NOT read (i.e. read the night
before!)
This list does NOT include source readings.
This list MAY NOT include all assignments, essays, DBQs or projects.
Over 700 Years of History in only 90 Days!!! Are You Ready for the Challenge?
GETTING STARTED: AN INTRODUCTION TO AP EUROPEAN HISTORY
Sep. 3 – Breaking the Ice: An Introduction to AP European History
Summer Assignment (optional) due
Sep. 4 – Learning the Lay of the Land: An Intro to Contemporary Europe
WC 213-234; Get Binder & Notebook
Sep. 5 - APEH Stock Market Game: Contemporary Europe Edition
Contemporary Europe Snapshot Chart due
UNIT 1: RENAISSANCE, REFORMATION & THE AGE OF DISCOVERY
Sep. 8 – Were the “Dark Ages” really that Dark?
WC 244-268, 284-300
Sep. 9 – Coming Out of the “Dark”: The Breakdown of the Middle Ages (Part 1)
WC 304-321
Sep. 10 – Coming Out of the “Dark”: The Breakdown of the Middle Ages (Part 2)
WC 322-333
Sep. 11 – Mr. Sink’s Tour of Renaissance Italy
WC 338-349
Sep. 12 – Machiavelli vs. Erasmus: Politics and Statecraft during the Renaissance
WC 349-355; Machiavelli & Erasmus documents
Sep. 15 – Skill Focus: POV Analysis
Chap. 11 Flashcards due
Sep. 16 - Italian Renaissance Art: Five Key Ideas & Five Immortal Works
WC 355-362; Machiavelli & Erasmus POV Analysis
Sep. 17 – The Renaissance Outside of Italy: Comparing Northern Renaissance & Italian Renaissance Art
WC 362-367; Dürer Reading
Sep. 18 – “Erasmus laid the egg…
WC 368-369, 374-377; Chap. 12 Flashcards due
Sep. 19 – … that Luther hatched.”
WC 377-385; Luther Reading
Sep. 22– The Reformation Spreads: New Directions in Protestantism
WC 386-392; Reformation Churches Snapshot Chart due
Sep. 23 – Skill Focus: Writing the FRQ/The Catholic Reformation
WC 392-399; Reformation Cups FRQ assigned; German Peasants’ War POV Analysis
Sep. 24 – My Religion is better than Your Religion! Religious Wars of the 16th century
WC 399-406
Sep. 25 & 26 – NO CLASS: ROSH HASHANAH
Sep. 29 – England vs. Spain in an Age of Religious Wars
Chap. 13 Flashcards due; Reformation Cups FRQ due
Sep. 30 – “God, Glory, and Gold!” An Age of European Exploration and Colonization
WC 411-421
Oct. 1 – The Columbian Exchange
WC 421-433
Oct. 2 – Mercantilism & the Atlantic Slave Trade
WC 433-440;
Oct. 3 – APEH Stock Market Game: 15th & 16th Century Europe
Chap. 14 Flashcards due; 15th and 16th c. Europe Snapshot Chart due
Oct. 6 – Unit 1 Test
UNIT 2: STATE-BUILDING, SCIENCE & THE AGE OF REASON
Oct. 7 – Which Witch is a Witch? The Great European Witch Hunt
WC 444-446
Oct. 8 – Just be glad you don’t live in Germany: The Thirty Years’ War
WC 446-451
Oct. 9 – “It’s Good to be the King!”:The Emergence of Absolutism in 17th c. France
WC 451-459;
Oct. 10 –Auditing an Absolute Monarch: Administration & Taxation in Louis XIV’s France
Louis XIV’s Taxation Reading
Oct. 13 – Absolute Monarch Face-Off: Louis XIV vs. Peter the Great
WC 459-467; Absolutism Debate Prep Worksheet due
Oct. 14 – The Highs of Living in the “Low Country”: The Dutch Golden Age
WC 467-475; Louis XIV’s Taxation POV Analysis due
Oct. 15 – The “Glorious” case of Constitutionalism in England
Chap. 15 Flashcards due
Oct. 16 – Going Baroque: Art in the Age of Absolutism
WC 475-480; Mannerism, Baroque & Dutch Realism Art Projects due; WWMD? FRQ assg.
Oct. 17 - On the Shoulders of Giants: The Scientific Revolution
WC 483-499
Oct. 20 – The Long Term Effects of the Scientific Revolution: Good or Bad?
WC 499-505; Chap. 16 Flashcards due
Oct. 21 – “Dare to Know!” Europe in an Age of Enlightenment
WC 510-522; Mock Salon Project Assigned
Oct. 22 – High Culture in the 18th century: Enlightenment Art & Music
WC 522-535; Rococo Art Project due
Oct. 23 – NO CLASS: DIWALI
Oct. 24 – The Oxymoron of Enlightened Absolutism
WC 538-554; “WWMD?” FRQ due; Chap. 17 Flashcards due
Oct. 27 – APEH Stock Market Game: 17th & 18th Century Europe
17th & 18th c. Europe Snapshot Chart due; Chap. 18 Flashcards due
Oct. 28 – Salons aren’t just for hair!
Mock Salon Project due
Oct. 29– Unit 2 Test
Oct. 30– Skill Focus: Of Shoes & DBQs/ Poverty in Europe DBQ (1450-1700)
Read Poverty in Europe (1450-1700) DBQ
UNIT 3 – THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS
Oct. 31– The Fever Model of a Revolution
WC 561-567, 572-575; French Revolution Fever Project assigned
Nov. 3 – The Fever Emerges: A Simulation of the Causes of the French Revolution
WC 575-593
Nov. 4 - NO CLASS: TEACHER INSERVICE
Nov. 5 – The Fever Heats Up: The “Bourgeois” Phase of the French Revolution (1789-1792)
WC 593-600; Poverty DBQ due
Nov. 6 & 7 - NO CLASS: NJEA CONVENTION
Nov. 10 – Poverty DBQ Review/Share French Revolution Fever Projects
French Revolution Fever Project due
Nov. 11 – The Fever Hits Crisis Levels: The “Radical” Phase of the French Revolution (1793-1794)
Chap. 19 Flashcards due
Nov. 12 – The Fever Subsides: The Thermidorean Reaction, Directory, & Rise of Napoleon
Nov. 13 – Napoleon I: Enlightened Despot or Dictator?
Napoleon Historiography Docs due; Debate Prep Worksheet due
Nov. 14 – Duty, Honor, & Patriotism: Art during the 18th c. Revolutionary Period
Neoclassicism Art Project due
Nov. 17 – The Event that Changed Everything: The Industrial Revolution
WC 554-560; 604-618
Nov. 18 – The Urbanization Game: A Simulation of the Rapid Growth of the Industrial City
WC 618-630
Nov. 19 – The Urbanization Game II: Taming the Industrial City in the Late 19th Century
WC 699-708; Manchester DBQ assigned
Nov. 20 – Urbanization Game II (cont.): Presenting the Tamed Industrial City
WC 708-722
Nov. 21 – Reactions and Responses to Industrialization: The Hyde Park Project
Chap. 20 Flashcards due; Hyde Park Group Project Assigned
Nov. 24 – The New Industrial Social Order: A Simulation
WC 685-687
Nov. 25 – Hyde Park Project Presentations
Hyde Park Group Project due
Nov. 26 – The Birth of the Concert System: Metternich and the Congress of Vienna
WC 632-646; Manchester DBQ due
Nov. 27 & 28 - NO CLASS: THANKSGIVING BREAK
Dec. 1 – Anyone feeling Romantic? Really?
WC 646-662, 687-696; Romanticism & Realism Art Project due
Dec. 2 – APEH Stock Market Game: Revolutionary Europe (1800-1850)
Chap. 21 Flashcards due; Revolutions of 1820s, 1830, &1848 Snapshot Chart Packet due
Dec. 3 – Unit 3 Test
UNIT 4: THE EMERGING MODERN WORLD
Dec. 4 – La Belle Epoque:“The Beautiful Era” of European Society
Mock Salon II Project Assigned
Dec. 5 – Uniters Not Dividers! National Unification in Italy and Germany
WC 665-678
Dec. 8 – Something Old, Something New: European Imperialism in the Late 19 th Century
WC 752-761
Dec. 9 – The Scramble for Africa: A Case Study of the “New” Imperialism
WC 678-685, 722-727; Scramble for Africa DBQ completed in class
Dec. 10 – APEH Stock Market Game: The Responsive Nation-States (1871-1914)
WC 742-752; Responsive Nation-State Snapshot Chart due
Dec. 11 – Art & Architecture in “La Belle Epoque”: A Revolution in Color and Shape
WC 731-742; Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, & Cubism Art Projects due
Dec. 12 – Salons Aren’t Just For Hair II: Gertrude Stein’s Paris Apartment
Mock Salon II Project due
UNIT 5: THE WORLD AT WAR
Dec. 15 – The Great European Powder Keg: Europe on the Verge of World War (1914)
WC 761-765; 769-773; Unit 4 Flashcards due
Dec. 16 – WWI: The Course of the War through Political Propaganda
WC 773-788
Dec. 17 – Russia turns “Red”: The Russian Revolution & the Birth of the USSR
WC 789-796
Dec. 18 – Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off: The WWI Peace Settlement
WC 796-800, 804-807
Dec. 19 – From Bust to Boom and back to Bust! Europe in the Interwar Years
WC 804-812; Chap. 25 Flashcards due
Dec. 22 – Look Out, Here Come the Dictators! The Rise of Authoritarian & Totalitarian States
WC 812-828; Chap. 26 Flashcards due
Dec. 23 – Art & Culture in an Age of Anxiety
WC 828-836; Surrealism, Expressionism & Dada Art Projects due
Dec. 24 through Jan. 2 - NO CLASS: WINTER RECESS
Jan. 5 – WWII: Second Verse, Worse than the First
WC 839-871
Jan. 6 – The Legacy of World War II
Chapter 27 Flashcards due
Jan. 7 – Unit 4/5 Test
UNIT 6: COLD WAR TO THE PRESENT
Jan. 8 – The World on the Brink of Annihilation: An Intro to the Cold War
WC 875-883
Jan. 9 - Letting Go is Hard to Do! : Decolonization
WC 883-890
Jan. 12 – The Cold War “Heats” Up: Third World Proxy Wars during the Cold War Era
WC 890-906
Jan. 13 – A Case Study of the 1960s’ Counterculture: The 1968 Student Revolts in Paris
WC 909-914; 1968 Parisian Student Revolt DBQ (in class)
Jan. 14– The Cold War Thaws: Détente (1968-1985)
WC 914-925; Chap. 28 Flashcards due
Jan. 15– Art and Culture in the Society the Cold War Created
WC 925-932; Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, & Postmodernism Art projects due
Jan. 16 – The Cold War Melts: The Fall of Communism
WC 935-949; Chap. 29 Flashcards due
Jan. 19 - NO CLASS: DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY
Jan. 20– APEH Stock Market Game: Cold War Europe (1945-1991)
WC 949-953; Cold War Europe Snapshot Chart due
Jan. 21 – Going Global? Europe enters the 21st Century
WC 953-964
Jan. 22 – New Challenges in the 21st Century: The Economy, Immigration, Islam, & Far Right Politics
Chap. 30 Flashcards due; Current Event Readings from the Economist & New York Times
Jan. 23 – Unit 6 Test
Jan. 26– Ain’t No Party like AP Euro PARTIES! Final Exam Review Day
Wed., January 28th – AP EURO FINAL EXAM