General Course Info: AP Euro

  • Caravaggio

     

    In just five centuries Europe went from being a cultural backwater to an area of the planet that is inextricably linked with the very notion of worldwide culture.  Europe has brought the world extraordinary achievements in the arts, literature, philosophy, science and technology.  It gave the world modern diplomacy and the science of political statecraft.  Institutional forms such as democracy, capitalism, socialism were given intellectual breath and became the foundations of societies around the planet.  Europe has also given us the worst atrocities perpetrated upon mankind, including slavery and genocide.  How do we make sense of it?  How did it come about in the first place?  When did a decidedly "European" civilization emerge and why? These are some of the questions that have fascinated me for years.  My goal is to convey my excitement about this extremely complicated and diverse historical entity in a way that will encourage you to explore this extraordinary part of the world.

     
    This is an AP course, but also a sandbox for the college experience you will begin in just one year's time. While it would be nice to get college credit for this course from the College Board, to my mind it's more important for you to learn how to do research, explore different ways of conveying what you learned from research, and to finesse your informal and formal writing skills. Oh, and to have fun.

General Resources

Useful links

  • Important Dates to Memorize

    I will be introducing all these dates as we discuss the topic.  Here they all are at a glance: 
     
    1348-1351:  Black Death
    1415-1417:  Council of Constance burns Hus and ends Great Schism
    1453:  Fall of Constantinople to Ottoman Turks; end of Hundred Years' War
    1455:  Invention of printing press
    1492:  Columbus encounters America; completion of reconquista in Spain
    1517:  Luther posts 95 Theses
    1519:  Cortez conquers Aztecs
    1534:  Act of Supremacy in England creates Anglican Church
    1536:  Calvin established reformed faith in Geneva
    1545:  Council of Trent opens (beginning of Counter-Reformation)
    1555:  Peace of Augsburg ends religious war in Germany between Catholics and Lutheran Protestants
    1588:  Defeat of Spanish Armada
    1598:  Edict of Nantes ends French religious wars
    1600:  Dutch East India Company founded
    1603:  Stuart Monarchy begins in England
    1648:  Peace of Westphalia ends Thirty Years' War; birth of modern diplomacy
    1649:  Charles I executed in England
    1683:  Turks defeated in their siege of Vienna;  systematic rollback of their territorial acquisitions in Europe begins 
    1687:  Newton publishes Principia Mathematica.
    1688-1689:  Glorious Revolution:  Peter the Great's reign begins in Russia
    1694:  Bank of England founded  (on model of Bank of Amsterdam)
    1713-1715:   Peace of Utrecht; death of Louis XIV
    1740:  War of Austrian Succession begins
    1763:  Treaty of Paris ends Seven Years' War (in North America:  French-Indian War)
    1776:  American Revolution; Smith publishes Wealth of Nations 
    1789:  French REvolution begins
    1792:  Wollstonecraft begins feminist movement with Vindication of Rights of Women
    1799:  Napoleon comes to power in France
    1815:  Abdication of Napoleon; Congress of Vienna institutes conservative, reactionary Congress System
    1830-1831:  Revolution in France; Belgian and Greek independence
    1848:  Revolutions of 1848; Marx and Engels publish Communist Manifesto
    1851:  Crystal Palace Exhibition in Britain
    1857:  Britain establishes direct rule of India
    1859:  Darwin publishes Origin of the Species
    1861:  Italy unified; Russian serfs emancipated
    1871:  Unification of Germany; Paris Commune and Third Republic in France
    1884-1885:  Berlin Conference over imperialism in Africa
    1900:  Freud publishes Interpretation of Dreams
    1905:  Einstein publishes relativity theory; Revolution of 1905 in Russia (autocracy officially comes to an end)
    1914:  World War I begins
    1917:  Bolshevik Revolution in Russia
    1919:  Treaty of Versailles ends World War I
    1922:  Fascists and Mussolini come to power in Italy
    1929:  Great Depression begins
    1933:  Hitler comes to power in Germany
    1938:  Hitler annexes Austria (Anschluss); Munich Conference:  height of appeasement
    1939:  World War II begins with the invasion of Poland
    1945:  World War II ends; United Nations formed 
    1949:  NATO formed
    1951:  European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) formed (origins of the EU here!)
    1953:  Stalin dies
    1956:  Khrushchev's de-Stalinization speech; Hungarian revolt
    1957:  Treaty of Rome creates European Economic Community (EEC); Sputnik launched
    1958:  Fifth Republic in France under DeGaulle (crisis provoked by Algerian independence movement)
    1961:  Berlin Wall erected
    1962:  Cuban Missile crisis
    1962:  Second Vatican Council begins
    1968:  Student revolts all throughout Europe; "Prague Spring" revolt in Prague triggers Soviet intervention
    1975:  Helsinki Accords:  height of detente
    1978:  John Paul II elected pope
    1979:  Soviet Union invades Afghanistan; Thatcher elected prime minister in Britain 
    1980:  Solidarity founded in Poland
    1985:  Gorbachev comes to power in Soviet Union
    1989:  Berlin Wall falls and collapse of communism
    1991:  Break-up of Soviet Union; Balkan conflicts begin in former Yugoslavia
    1992:  Maastricht Treaty creates European Union (EU)
    1999:  Euro currency introduced 
     
     The link below is to Wikipedia.  Explore more about these events there.
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  • Primary sources online

    If you are stuck unable to find primary sources for your paper, try the following sites:

    Best site above all is the Internet Source Book maintained by Fordham University:
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