HL Options: Depth Studies - History of Europe

1: Monarchies in England and France (1066-1223)

  • Pre-Norman England and the impact of the Norman invasion

  • Normans in England: William I, Duke of Normandy (King of England 1066–1087); establishment of authority; domestic and foreign policies; Domesday Book; Henry I (1100–1135)

  • Angevin Commonwealth: Henry II (1154–1189); policies in England, Ireland and Gascony

  • The Duchy of Normandy and its relations with France: rivalry and wars between the dukes of Normandy, as kings of England, and the kings of France; role played by John, Richard I, Henry II and Phillip II; effects in England and France

  • Extension of the royal demesne and power in France under the Capetians (1108–1223); expansion of Capetian power under Louis VI, Louis VII and Phillip II, the nature of their governments, and reasons for their success in expanding royal authority

  • Comparison of the nature of royal government in England and France

2: Muslims and Jews in medieval Europe (1095-1492)

  • Reasons for hostility to Muslims: the Crusades; fear of Muslim power; Christian doctrine and teaching

  • Reasons for Christian opposition to the Muslim states in Spain: religious motivation; economic ambition

  • Continuous conflict between the Christian-ruled and Muslim-ruled states in Spain: results: warfare on the borders between Christian and Muslim states, for example, the Mediterranean and the Balkans; loss of economic activity and loss of cultural and intellectual diversity; growth of anti-Muslim feelings

  • The role and contribution of Jews in medieval Europe: finance; trade; participation in royal bureaucracy and scholarship

  • The reasons for persecution of Jews: religious hysteria during the Crusades; official and/or popular anti-Semitism and scapegoating; belief in Jewish culpability for the Black Death

  • Impact of persecution of Jews: massacres; expulsion; segregation from society

  • Impact of Jewish persecution on society: loss of skill and ability in economic, intellectual and cultural life

3: Late medieval political crises (1300-1487)

  • Succession crises in England: Edward II (1307–1327); Richard II (1377–1399)

  • The Hundred Years War 1337–1360 and 1369–1389: causes, course, impact and significance

  • The Hundred Years War 1415–1453: reasons for the re-emergence of war; importance of Aquitaine; reasons for the outcome; impact in England and France

  • The rise and fall of ducal Burgundy (1363–1477)

  • Crisis of monarchy and challenges to royal authority in 15th-century England and France: Wars of the Roses and the War of the Public Weal

  • Nature of kingship and challenges: England—Henry VI (1422–1461); Edward IV (1461–1483);

  • France—Louis XI (1461–1483)

  • The Wars of the Roses: causes; events; impact on England, including impact on government and royal authority

4: The Renaissance (c1400-1600)

  • Origins, causes and development of the Renaissance in Italy; social and political situation in Florence

  • Forms of government in Italian city states: Milan; Florence; Venice

  • The importance of patronage: role and significance of Lorenzo de Medici and Ludovico Sforza; papal patronage

  • Cultural and intellectual developments: art, literature, architecture and political writings

  • The northern Renaissance: spread to Burgundy and Germany

  • Case study of the spread and impact of the Renaissance to one European country not already mentioned in this section

5: The Age of Exploration and its impact (1400-1550)

  • Motives for exploration and reasons for its increase in the 15th century: religion and exploration; national and personal rivalries; the quest for knowledge; opening up of new trade routes for luxury goods

  • Enablers of exploration: patronage, including role and significance of Henry the Navigator; developments in shipbuilding, cartography and navigation

  • Portuguese exploration of the west coast of Africa: significance; consequences; impact on indigenous peoples

  • Exploration and the New World: significance; consequences; impact on indigenous peoples

  • Exploration and the Indian Ocean: significance; consequences; impact on indigenous peoples

  • The significance and impact of the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

  • Impact on Europe to 1550: economic impact on Europe; the “Columbian Exchange”

6: The Reformation (1517-1572)

  • The state of the Catholic church in Europe at the start of the 16th century, and reasons for criticism

  • The religious ideas and impact of Luther and Calvin

  • Reasons for the successful spread of Lutheran ideas in Germany to 1547, including the attitudes of the German princes

  • Religion and conflict in Germany: the Peasants’ War; the Schmalkaldic League and the Peace of Ausburg (1555)

  • The role of spread and impact of Protestant ideas in any one of England, Scotland, France or the Netherlands: religious factors; aims and role of rulers; economic reasons; popular sentiments; religious conflicts

  • The Catholic Reformation: spiritual movements; the Jesuits and other Catholic orders; clerical education and discipline; the Council of Trent (1545–1563)

7: Absolutism and Enlightenment (1650-1800)

  • The goals and development of Enlightenment ideas; the Scientific Revolution

  • Case study of Enlightenment ideas and their political impact in any two of Germany, England, Scotland, France, Spain, the Dutch Republic or Italy)

  • Case study of any two absolutist monarchs: nature of their rule; extent of their power; foreign policy

  • Case study of any two enlightened despots: policies and their impact; extent of change

  • Social and economic change in the Enlightenment era; growth of cities; agricultural change

  • Monarchy, patronage and the arts; the Baroque movement

8: The French Revolution and Napoleon I (1774-1815)

  • Crisis of the Ancien Régime: role of the monarchy, specifically Louis XVI; intellectual, political, social, financial and economic challenges

  • Monarchy to republic: causes and significance of the Revolution; the 1791 Constitution; the fate of the monarchy; the terror; Robespierre; the Thermidorean reaction

  • The political, social and economic impact of the Revolution; French revolutionary wars (1792–1799)

  • Establishment of, nature of, and collapse of the Directory (1795–1799)

  • Rise and rule of Napoleon (1799–1815); impact of Napoleon’s domestic and foreign policies on France

  • Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815); collapse of the Napoleonic Empire; military defeat; the Hundred Days

9: France (1815-1914)

  • The Bourbon restoration, the Congress of Vienna and its impact on France

  • The reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X: politics and society (1815–1830)

  • Revolution of 1830 and the July Monarchy of Louis Philippe; reasons for the collapse of the July monarchy

  • 1848 Revolution: Second Republic, repression and the emergence of Louis-Napoleon and the Second Empire

  • Napoleon III and the Second Empire: domestic policies; stability; opposition; periods of reform; foreign policies, including Crimean War and interventions in Italy and Mexico

  • Third Republic (1871–1914): stability and crises 1871–1890—problems in establishing the Republic and Boulangisme; 1890–1914—Dreyfus, growth of political extremes, corruption

10: Society, politics and economy in Britain and Ireland (1815-1914)

  • Social protest (1815–1848): Peterloo; Chartism—reasons for emergence and failure; Peel and the repeal of the Corn Laws—reasons and consequences; the Irish Famine

  • Extension of the franchise: reasons for, and consequences of, the Reform Acts (1832, 1867 and 1884–1885); impact on the political parties

  • Victorian society c1840–c1900: the condition of the working class during the Industrial Revolution; urban poverty, social reforms

  • Disraeli, Gladstone and Salisbury: domestic policies; the Irish Question

  • Early 20th-century Britain: the emergence of the Labour Party; Lloyd George and social reforms—the “People’s Budget” and the Parliament Act

  • Pre-war unrest and protest in Edwardian Britain: women’s suffrage, Ireland, trade unions

11: Italy (1815–1871) and Germany (1815-1890)

  • Italy (1815–1849): impact of the Congress of Vienna on Italy, Austrian dominance, role of Metternich; nationalism and liberalism; attempted revolutions in Italy between 1820 and 1844; Mazzini and Gioberti; role of the papacy; 1848–1849 Revolutions—causes, nature, defeat and consequences

  • Germany (1815–1849): impact of the Congress of Vienna on Germany; nationalism and liberalism in the Vormärz period; economic and social change before 1848; 1848–1849 Revolutions—causes, nature, defeat and consequences

  • Unification of Italy (1849–1871); Cavour and Garibaldi; the role of foreign influence

  • The rise of Prussia and the decline of Austria (1815–1866); the Zollverein

  • Bismarck, Prussia and final unification: diplomatic, economic, military reorganization; Wars of Unification; the 1871 Constitution

  • Germany (1871–1890): Bismarck’s domestic policies, including the Kulturkampf and the anti-socialist campaign; consolidation of the new German state and the role of Prussia within it

12: Imperial Russia, revolution and the establishment of the Soviet Union (1855-1924)

  • Alexander II (1855–1881): the extent of reform

  • Policies of Alexander III (1881–1894) and Nicholas II (1894–1917): economic modernization, tsarist repression and the growth of opposition

  • Causes of the 1905 Revolution (including social and economic conditions and the significance of the Russo-Japanese War); consequences of the 1905 Revolution (including Stolypin and the Dumas)

  • The impact of the First World War and the final crisis of autocracy in February/March 1917

  • 1917 Revolutions: February/March Revolution; provisional government and dual power (Soviets); October/November Revolution; Bolshevik Revolution; Lenin and Trotsky

  • Lenin’s Russia/Soviet Union; consolidation of new Soviet state; Civil War; War Communism; New Economic Policy (NEP); terror and coercion; foreign relation

13: Europe and the First World War (1871-1918)

  • European diplomacy and the changing balance of power after 1871; imperial expansion in Africa and Asia, and its impact on European diplomacy; the Congress of Berlin and European Alliance system

  • Foreign policy of Kaiser Wilhelm II: domestic conditions that impacted on German foreign policy; its impact/influence on other countries, including Britain, France, Russia and Austria-Hungary

  • Causes of the First World War: short- and long-term causes; relative importance of causes; the Alliance system; the decline of the Ottoman Empire; German foreign policy; Austria-Hungary, Russia and Balkan nationalism; the arms race and diplomatic crises; the July Crisis of 1914

  • Impact of the First World War on civilian populations of two countries from the region between 1914 and 1918

  • Factors leading to the defeat of Germany and the other Central Powers, and to the victory of the Entente Powers: strategic errors; economic factors; entry and role of the US; domestic instability in the Central Powers

14: European states in the inter-war years (1918-1939)

  • Weimar Germany: constitutional, political, economic/financial and social issues (1918–1933); initial challenges (1918–1923); “Golden Era” under Stresemann (1924–1929); the crisis years and the rise of Hitler (1929–1933)

  • Hitler’s Germany (1933–1939): consolidation of power; Hitler’s pre-war domestic policies, including economic, social and political policies; nature of the Nazi state; the extent of resistance to the Nazis

  • Italy (1918–1939): rise of Mussolini; consolidation of power; Mussolini’s pre-war domestic policies, including economic, social and political policies; nature of the fascist state

  • Spain (1918–1939): political, social and economic conditions in Spain; the Primo de Rivera regime; polarization and political parties under the Second Republic; Azaña and Gil Robles; causes of the Civil War; foreign involvement; reasons for nationalist victory under Franco

  • Case study of domestic political, economic and social developments in one European country (other than Germany, Italy or Spain) in the inter-war years.

15: Versailles to Berlin: Diplomacy in Europe (1919-1945)

  • Peace settlements (1919–1923): Versailles; Neuilly; Trianon; St Germain; and Sèvres/Lausanne—aims, issues and responses

  • The League of Nations and Europe: successes and failures; the search for collective security; developments in the successor states of central and eastern Europe

  • Italian and German foreign policies (1919–1941): aims, issues and extent of success

  • Collective security and appeasement (1919–1941): aims, issues and extent of success; role of British, French and Russian/Soviet foreign policies (1919–1941); Chamberlain and the Munich Crisis

  • Causes of the Second World War and the development of European conflict (1939–1941); the wartime alliance (1941–1945); reasons for Axis defeat in 1945 and for Allied victory; role of economic, strategic and other factors

  • Impact of the Second World War on civilian populations in any two countries between 1939–1945

16: The Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia (1924-2000)

  • Soviet Union (1924–1941): Stalin and the struggle for power (1924–1929); defeat of Trotsky; Stalin’s policies of collectivization and the Five-Year Plans; government and propaganda under Stalin; the purges and the Great Terror

  • The impact of the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945); post-war Soviet Union (1945–1953): political and economic developments

  • Khrushchev and Brezhnev: domestic policies and foreign relations

  • Transformation of the Soviet Union (1985–1991): Gorbachev (aims, policies and extent of success); political developments and change

  • Collapse of the Soviet Union; post-Soviet Russia to 2000; role and policies of Yeltsin; political and economic developments to 2000

17: Post-war western and northern Europe (1945-2000)

  • Breakdown of the wartime alliance; emergence of the Cold War and its impact on Germany; division of Germany

  • Post-war problems and political and economic recovery in western Europe: devastation and debt; reconstruction of France and West Germany (1945–1963) and the impact of the Marshall Plan; role of Adenauer; the German “economic miracle”; role of de Gaulle; “Les Trente Glorieuses” in France

  • West Germany (1963–1990): domestic policies; challenge of Baader Meinhof Group/Red Army Faction; reunification, role and policies of Kohl; social and cultural change in West Germany from 1949 to 1990

  • Spain: Franco’s regime and the transition to, and establishment of, democracy under Juan Carlos up to 1982; political, economic and social developments in Spain (1982–2000)

  • Case study of political, social and economic changes in one western or northern European country (other than France, the Federal Republic of Germany and Spain) between 1945–2000

18: Post-war central and eastern Europe (1945-2000)

  • Soviet domination: motives, extent and nature of Soviet control in central and eastern Europe (1945–1955); politics, economies (COMECON) and the Warsaw Pact (1945–1955); Yugoslavia’s challenge to Soviet control under Tito

  • Support and cooperation, repression and protest (1945–1968): East Germany; Poland; Hungary; Czechoslovakia

  • Acceptance of, and opposition to, Soviet control in central and eastern Europe (1968–1989): East Germany; Poland; Hungary and Czechoslovakia; Romania and Bulgaria; role of Walesa and Havel

  • The collapse of Soviet control in central and eastern Europe; causes, developments and consequences

  • Balkan conflicts in the 1990s: reasons for, and consequences of, the conflicts; role and policies of Milosevic

  • Case study: the economic, social and political challenges of the post-communist era in any one central or eastern European country (1989–2000)

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