Mrs. Dillon
682-7474 ext. 2654
paula.dillon@claytonvalley.org
Mr. Anwar
682-7474 ext. 2669
sayed.anwar@claytonvalley.org
AP European History
Course Syllabus
“Europe was created by history. America was
created by philosophy.” – Margaret Thatcher
Course Description
AP European History is a survey course that examines the human and political affairs of
Europe from approximately 1450 to the present. The course will approach the topics by
addressing the 1.) INTELLECTUAL and CULTURAL history; 2.) POLITICAL and
DIPLOMATIC history; and 3.) SOCIAL and ECONOMIC history.
Students will be given a basic exposure to the factual narrative of events and
movements in European history, and will strive to accomplish the goals of the course,
which are to develop an understanding of political themes, the ability to analyze
historical evidence, and the ability to express that understanding and analysis effectively
in writing.
This course includes history as both content and methodology. Students must
demonstrate knowledge of basic chronology and major events and trends since the
High Renaissance, and will develop academic skills, including 1.) Effective analysis of
such primary sources as documents, maps, statistics, art, pictures, and graphs;
2.) Effective note-taking; 3.) Clear and precise written expression; and 4.) The ability to
weigh evidence and reach conclusions on the basis of fact.
Course Format
Guided Reading
The Kagan text can be very challenging to read, although it is a great resource.
Therefore you will practice guided reading throughout the year, which means that you
will take notes, answer reading questions, and create flashcards for important people,
places, events, and historical developments.
Primary Source Analysis
For each unit, you will be expected to read, analyze, and interpret a wide variety of
primary sources such as:
- Written sources (letters, journals, government documents, newspapers, etc.)
- Maps
- Statistics tables
- Works of art
Secondary sources and Interpretations
Aside from the textbook, we will look at historical scholarship of various viewpoints and
historical eras. This will help you develop your own historical interpretation.
APEH Writing
Each unit will give instruction and practice in writing the DBQ (Document-Based
Question) and FRQ (Free Response Question) essays. Some of these will ne peerreviewed, while others will be timed and graded in the AP style.
Simulations, Debates, and Socratic Seminars
Students will regularly engage in simulations, debates, and seminars that will require
ACTIVE participation, critical thinking, collaboration, and group problem solving.
AP Practice Tests
Each unit will include a summative assessment based upon the AP Exam. These will
include AP-style multiple choice questions as well as timed FRQ and DBQ essays.
Required Texts:
 Kagan, Ozment, Turner, and Frank. (2014) The Western Heritage, Since
1300 AP Edition, 11th edition. Pearson.
 Niccoló Machiavelli, The Prince.
Please note: I expect you to read the assigned readings ahead of time. You cannot rely on
me to lecture on what was assigned in the reading. Rather than dictate events to you
(“This happened, then that happened”), you must come to class prepared to answer
questions about the reading (“What if this had not happened? How would this affect the
other thing?”)
Supplemental Reading:
Some readings will be assigned from other texts, including, but not limited to:
 Perry, Chapman, and Hastings: Primary Source Documents in Western
Civilization. Volume Two: Since 1400.
 McKay, Hill, Buckler, Crowston, Wiesner-Hanks, and Perry. (2011) A History of
Western Society, 10th edition. Bedford-St. Martin’s.
 Merriman, John.(2010) A History of Modern Europe, 3rd edition. Norton.
 Palmer, Colton, and Kramer (2007) A History of the Modern World, 10th edition.
McGraw-Hill.
 Sherman, Dennis, ed. Western Civilization: Sources, Images, and Interpretations,
from the Renaissance to the Present. 8th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.
 Spielvogel, Jackson (2012). Western Civilization Since 1300, 8th edition. Boston:
Wadsworth.
Required and Recommended Materials:
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Any AP test prep book, if you plan on taking the AP exam in May.
A notebook or binder exclusively for this class.
Pens, pencils, and highlighters.
Post-it notes. You will often want to write notes in your textbook, but since you
cannot write in the text, use post-it notes instead to annotate what you read.
 Index cards. You may want to use these for making flash cards.
Useful Resources and Websites:
- The AP College Board website for students:
https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/apcourse/ap-european-history
-
YouTube’s Crash Course channel: Great history videos by author John
Green: http://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse
-
www.khanacademy.org has great tutorial videos as well.
Class Rules:
- BE HERE. Without a doubt, attendance in this class is a must. If you have an
excused absence, you may make up your work for credit within the week.
However, there is no makeup work credit for unexcused absences.
- BE NICE. It is important to be respectful of each other and ourselves. We will
learn about many different points of view, nationalities, religions, cultures, etc.
Please remember that the classroom is not a place for discrimination or
intolerance.
- BE CLEAN. Please do not leave garbage lying around the classroom or write
on the desks. Some of us have to work here!
- BE RESPONSIBLE. Keep up with assignments and reading, and when you
don’t understand something, please ask! And if you are absent or know you
are going to be absent, remember that it is YOUR responsibility to get your
missed assignments.
Course Planner and Readings: “Napoleon by winter break, Hitler by spring break” is
the typical AP Euro teacher’s mantra. We will try to adhere to the following schedule.
This is a planned outline for the course calendar, along with selected readings,
activities, assignments, and quizzes/tests for each chapter unit:
SEMESTER ONE:
Week ½: August 14-16
- Introduction, Course Syllabus
- Review summer homework, first DBQ practice workshop
- Test: Summer textbook reading
Weeks 1 and 2: August 19-30
- Renaissance and Discovery (Chapter 2)
o The Renaissance in Italy
o Italy’s Political Decline
o Revival of Monarchy in Northern Europe
o The Northern Renaissance
o Voyages of Discovery and the New World
Weeks 3 and 4: September 2-13
- The Age of Reformation (Chapter 3)
o Society and Religion
o Martin Luther and the Reformation
o The English Reformation
o The Catholic Counter-Reformation
o Social Significance of the Protestant Reformation
Week 5: September 16-20
- The Age of Religious Wars (Chapter 4)
o French Wars: Calvinism, Edict of Nantes
o Imperial Spain
o England: Mary I, Elizabeth I
o The Thirty Years War
Week 6: September 23-27
- European State Consolidation in the 17th and 18th Centuries (Chapter 5)
o The Netherlands
o English Parliament and the Glorious Revolution
o Absolute Monarchy in France
o Russian Expansion and Dynasty
Week 7: September 30-October 4
- Continue Chapter 5
- New Directions in Thought and Culture in the 16th and 17th Centuries
(Chapter 6)
o
o
o
o
o
The Scientific Revolution: Copernicus, Galileo, Newton
Philosophic Reaction: Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke
Women in the Scientific Revolution
Science vs. Faith
Superstitions and Witch Hunts
Week 8: October 7-11
- Continue Chapter 6
- Society and Economy Under the Old Regime in the 18th Century (Chapter 7)
o The Old Regime and Aristocracy
o Family Structures
o Agricultural Revolution
o Industrial Revolution of the 1700s
o Growth of Cities, Jewish Ghettos
Week 9: October 14-18 (FIRST QUARTER ENDS)
- The Transatlantic Economy, Trade Wars, and Colonial Rebellion (Chapter 8)
o Mercantile Empires
o British, French, and Spanish Colonial Systems
o African Slave Trade
o Mid-18th century wars
o American Revolution
Weeks 10-11: October 21-November 1
- The Age of Enlightenment: 18th-Century Thought (Chapter 9)
o The Philosophes
o Religion and Society in the Enlightenment
o Political Thought
o Women
o New styles of art: Rococo and Neoclassical
o Enlightened Despotism
Weeks 12-13: November 4-15
- The French Revolution (Chapter 10)
o Crisis of the French Monarchy
o Causes of 1789 Revolution
o Reconstruction of France
o Reign of Terror
o War with Europe and Thermidorian Reaction
Weeks 14-15: November 18-29 (THANKSGIVING)
- The Age of Napoleon and the Triumph of Romanticism (Chapter 11)
o Rise and Reign of Napoleon Bonaparte
o Revolution of Haiti
o European response to Napoleon
o Congress of Vienna
o The Romantic Movement: Art, Literature, Religion
Weeks16-17: December 2-13
- The Conservative Order and the Challenges of Reform (Chapter 12)
o Conservatism in Europe
o Emergence of Liberalism and Nationalism
o Conservative Restoration
o Latin American Wars of Independence
Week 18: December 16-20 (END OF FIRST SEMESTER)
- Final Exam
WINTER BREAK: DECEMBER 21- JANUARY 12
SEMESTER TWO:
Weeks 19-20: January 13-24
- Economic Advance and Social Unrest (Chapter 13)
o Industrial Society
o Families, Women, and Labor
o Urban Problems: Crime, Poverty
o Early Socialism
o 1848: Year of Revolutions
Week 21: January 27-31
- The Age of Nation-States (Chapter 14)
o Crimean War
o Italian Unification
o German Unification
o France’s Third Empire
o The Hapsburgs of Austria
o Russia: Revolutionary Stirrings
o Great Britain’s move to democracy
Week 22: February 3-7
- The Building of European Supremacy: Society and Politics to World War I
(Chapter 15)
o New Industrialism
o Rise of the Middle Class
o Urban Life in the late 1800s
o Women’s Experiences
o Jewish Emancipation
o Labor, Socialism, and Politics to World War I
Week 23: February 10-14
- The Birth of Modern European Thought (Chapter 16)
o The Literate Public
o Science: Comte, Darwin
o Church vs Skepticism
o Twentieth Century Thinking
Weeks 24-25: February 17-28
- The Age of Western Imperialism (Chapter 17)
o British Imperial Dominance
o India
o New Imperialism and its Motives
o Partition of Africa
o Russian expansion
o Western Powers in Asia
o Missionaries and Scientists
Week 26-27: March 3-14
- Alliances, War, and a Troubled Peace- World War I (Chapter 18)
o Emergence of German Empire and the Alliance System
o World War I
o The Russian Revolution, Birth of the Communist Soviet Union
o End of World War I and Peace Settlements
Week 28: March 17-21 (END OF THIRD QUARTER)
- The Interwar Years: The Challenge of Dictatorship and Depression
(Chapter 19)
o Effects of Versailles Treaty
o Great Depression
o Soviet Communism; Lenin and Stalin
o Fascism in Italy; Mussolini
o German Dictatorship: Hitler and Nazi Party
o Eastern European States
Weeks 29-30: March 24-April 4
- World War II (Chapter 20)
o Road to War: Appeasement, Spanish Civil War and Nazi-Soviet Pact
o German Conquest of Europe
o Defeat of Nazi Germany
o Fall of Japanese Empire
o Racism and the Holocaust
o Preparations for Peace
Weeks 31-32: April 7-18 (Testing?)
- The Cold War Era, Decolonization, and the Emergence of a New Europe
(Chapter 21)
o Containment and American Foreign Policy
o NATO and the Warsaw Pact
o Soviet Domination in Eastern Europe
o Creation of Israeli State
o Korean War
o Khruschev in the USSR
o The Berlin Wall and Cuban Missile Crisis
o Decolonization around the world
o Turmoil of French Decolonization: Algeria, Vietnam, Cambodia
o Collapse of the Soviet Union and European Communism
o Yugoslavia’s Civil War
o Putin’s Russia
o Rise of Radical Political Islamism
SPRING BREAK: APRIL 21-25
Week 33: April 28- May 2
- Social, Cultural, and Economic Challenges in the West through the Present
(Chapter 22)
o 20th Century Movement of Peoples
o Welfare State Societies
o Women and Work
o New Knowledge and Culture
o Art Since World War II
o Technology
o European Unification
o New American Leadership and Financial Crisis
Week 34: May 5-9
- REVIEW WEEK!!!
Week 35: May 12-16
- AP EXAMS WEEK
- AP European History Exam (AAAHHHHH!!!!) is on WED. MAY 14.
- Location: To Be Determined
Week 36: May 19-23
- Chill, fun stuff. Yes, you still have to come to class.
- Film studies
- Field trips (maybe )
- Fun projects
Week 37: May 26-30 (END OF SECOND SEMESTER)
- Finals Week and last days of school
- The format of the final exam/project in this class is to be determined.
Grading System:
Based on recommendations of the College Board, the following scale will be used:
 90-100%= A
 60-69%= D
 80-89%= B
 0-59%= F
 70-79%= C
All essays and DBQs will be based on the regular 9-point scale (no half points). The
standards for grading will focus on thesis statement clarity, logic of argument, evidence,
outside information provided, etc.
 9= 100% = A
 4= 73% = C 8= 93% = A 3= 67% = Almost passing
 7= 89% = B+
 2= 60% = Not passing
 6= 85% = B
 1= 50% = Nice try, but no.Fi
 5= 79% = C
Final Note: Please remember that this class may be challenging, but at the end of the
year you will find that you have acquired excellent skills in critical thinking, reading,
writing, and analysis- and these are skills that will get you very far in life. If you try your
best and don’t give up, success is definitely within your reach. If you are struggling,
please contact Mrs. Dillon or Mr. Anwar as soon as possible- don’t wait!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------PLEASE SIGN, DETACH, AND TURN IN THE BOTTOM PART OF THIS PAGE.
I have read and understand this course syllabus and will make a concerted effort to
succeed in this course.
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