HIST2300 INTRODUCTION TO EARLY MODERN EUROPEAN HISTORY Fall 2014 Final Exam Study Guide

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1 HIST2300 INTRODUCTION TO EARLY MODERN EUROPEAN HISTORY Fall 2014 Final Exam Study Guide GENERAL GUIDELINES For studying i) Find a quiet place to study where you will not be distracted; cut off connection to the Internet; ii) Work from the general themes for each section to the specific content; iii) Be an active studier (if that is the right word): jotting down skeletal notes as you work through the material, drawing graphs, and so on; and iv) Rather than merely trying to reread all the textbooks and documents word for word, start first with this study guide, your lecture notes, and the reading guidelines to help you focus your thoughts. Work with the themes first, and then move to the detail. Think too of the connections between different elements in the course. For the exam itself i) Please write double-spaced (it does not have to be beautiful prose, but try to use a formal essay-writing style); ii) Please try to write in readable script; iii) Read over the exam and instructions carefully before writing anything; iv) Before beginning to write one of the essays, prepare an outline and think about what you will write (be sure to keep everything relevant and to answer the question); v) For the essay questions, be sure to include a thesis statement in the introduction; vi) Vague and excessively general answers are highly discouraged; try to be as specific as possible (you do not need to know every single fact in the textbooks, but you do need enough specific material and evidence to form an argument; avoid generalities! Think of your role as that of a lawyer trying to make an argument before a court, an argument that has to be convincing and based on solid evidence); vii) Make sure that everything in your answer is relevant; viii) Pace yourself and keep track of the time so that you do not spend too much time on one answer at the expense of the other answers (you will need to write quickly); and

2 ix) Remember to define terms wherever necessary (e.g. paradigm shift ). REQUIRED MATERIALS i) Course Textbooks Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. Early Modern Europe, Second Edition. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, Baylor, Michael G. The German Reformation and the Peasants War: A Brief History with Documents. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin s Press, Voltaire. Treatise on Tolerance and Other Writings. Ed. Simon Harvey. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, ii) The online Primary source reader iii) A hand-out St. Bartholomew Day s Massacre Documents, in David Potter, The French Wars of Religion: Selected Documents (Houndsmill, Hampshire: Macmillan, 1997), pp The Lectures I provided nuance, qualification, and some further details in the lectures, while highlighting salient features of the readings. You will not be tested on the content of these lectures specifically. However, using the lectures in your essay will enhance your answer. If you had to miss a lecture or two, feel free to borrow my lecture notes. All the reading guidelines are on the course website. I will be holding regular office hours right through the exam period. THE STRUCTURE OF THE EXAM Part A: Primary Historical Documents This section will test your knowledge of the documents noted below. The questions that I choose for the exam will generally be ones that we specifically discussed in class. You will be given a choice of four out of eight (rather than three out of six) and so spend about ten minutes on each one (write about two pages double-spaced for each one). Again, the reading guidelines will be your best guide.

3 i) From the Baylor text DOC. 4: LUTHER, 95 THESES, Oct 31/17 DOC. 6: LUTHER, TO THE CHRISTIAN NOBILITY OF THE GERMAN NATION, 1520 DOC. 8. LUTHER, A SINCERE ADMONITION TO GUARD AGAINST REBELLION DOC. 11: MARTIN LUTHER, THE RIGHT OF A CHRISTIAN CONGREGATION, 1523 DOC. 12: THOMAS MÜNTZER, SERMON TO THE PRINCES, 1524 DOC. 13: ARTICLES OF THE PEASANTS OF STUHLINGEN early 1525 DOC. 14: SEBASTIAN LOTZER AND CHRISTOPH SCHAPPELER, THE TWELVE ARTICLES OF THE UPPER SWABIAN PEASANTS, March 1525 DOC. 15: MUNTZER AND BALTHASAR HUBMAIER, THE CONSTITUTIONAL DRAFT 1525 DOC. 17: THE MEMMINGEN FEDERAL ORDINANCE, March 7/25 DOC. 19: THE FIELD ORDINANCES OF THE FRACONIAN PEASANTRY DOC. 22. LUTHER, ADMONITION TO PEACE: A REPLY TO THE TWELVE ARTICLES, April 1525 DOC. 24: CHRISTOPH SCHAPPELER (?), TO THE ASSEMBLY OF THE COMMON PEASANTRY May 1525 DOC. 26: LUTHER, AGAINST THE MURDERING AND ROBBING HORDES OF PEASANTS, May 1525 DOC. 28: LUTHER, AN OPEN LETTER ON THE HARSH BOOK AGAINST THE PEASANTS, June or July 1525 ii) The St. Bartholomew s Day Massacre documents noted above iii) From the online course reader: Chapter 2: Doc. 16: Marriage contract for a first marriage, France (1546) Doc. 17: Marriage contract for a second marriage, France (1540)

4 Chapter 4 Doc. 13: Marguerite d ANGOULEME, Heptameron (1558) Chapter 9 Doc. 8: Root and Branch Petition Chapter 10 Doc. 12: Behn, Oroonoko Chapter 13 Doc. 4: Diderot, Supplement to Bougainville s Voyage Parts B and C: Essays You will be given a choice of three essay questions for each section. Answer one essay question from each section. Spend about fifty minutes on each essay and write about 4-7 double-spaced pages (2-3 pages would not be sufficient to answer an essay question, not at this level anyway). You will be surprised by how much you can write in fifty minutes, but be sure to keep everything relevant. Everything that you have read for this course (textbooks, primary documents) as well as the lecture notes can be pertinent here, but be sure to maintain a good focus. Each question will revolve around the central themes in the course. Use the course outline for a bird s eye view of the course (the seven separate parts) as well as the reading guidelines that I mounted on the course website. Here are some general issues to consider, for each of the seven parts in the course: Part One: Foundations: the Individual, the Family, Society, and Government -systems of belief: Catholic penitential cycles before the onset of the Reformation -the social hierarchy of orders -the element of gender as a category of historical analysis -family, kin and community: as areas of an individual s allegiance -factors: gender, social status, the body, religious allegiance (during the Reformation period as well) -the European state system: the concept of the nation-state ; the northern monarchies and the Italian city-states Part Two: Political Power and Culture in an Era of Renaissance -the historical context of the Italian Renaissance -the importance of Renaissance humanism -what the Renaissance meant for women; connections with the social history of the Renaissance

5 -the different manifestations of the Renaissance across Europe Part Three: The Protestant Reformation and the German Peasants War -the understanding of theology among the broader populace (the material importance of something like the Eucharist) -the concept of the Age of Reform -the European Reformation was not just about religion, but about politics and society (politics and society could not be separated from religion) -the connection between spiritual revolution and social revolution -the impact and significance of the Peasants War -the social, economic and political context of the Holy Roman Empire -the use of the Bible to promote passive obedience or resistance against oppressive authorities -the Wars of Religion in Europe: the intersection between various theaters of conflict -the intermingling of religion and politics in the St. Bartholomew s Day Massacre documents Part Four: Contact and Confrontation between Europe and Non-European Peoples -the background of economic change in Europe up to about the connection with the expansion of Europe beyond Europe -Gramsci s concept of hegemony and subaltern Part Five: The Body Physical, Social, and Political -the metaphor of the body as a physical body, a political body, and a social body -the social hierarchy of orders and the social hierarchy of wealth -changing attitudes towards the body, changes in medical practice and hospitals -the political body: linked to the English Civil War (struggles between divine right of kings/absolutism/personal rule and common law/constitutionalism) --the changes in the European state system after the Thirty Years War Part Six: Science, Religion, and the Enlightenment -the paradigm shift that occurred in part as a result of the Scientific Revolution -distinguishing the Enlightenment from the Renaissance -for the Scientific Revolution: the importance of the systematized approach to knowledge; Bacon, Descartes, and Newton -the dissemination of the Scientific Revolution and the mechanisms that facilitated that dissemination -the changing understanding of religion: questioning organized religion, cultural relativism, ideas of human rights, religious toleration, etc. -the survival and persistence of religion in the eighteenth century (heterodox movements within the main religions of Europe, for example Jansenism within Catholicism or Methodism within Anglicanism)

6 -Voltaire s understanding of religion and the connection between that understanding and his espousal of religious tolerance; the value of doubt -Voltaire s relationship with the Enlightenment and with enlightened absolutism Part Seven: Changes in the European Economy and the Path to Globalization -the focus here is on Great Britain in the eighteenth century -connecting the reasons for Great Britain s dominance of world trade to demographic growth in Europe, agricultural innovation, technological change, changes in economic thinking, and the beginnings of the factory system -the new focus on the role played by consumer demand (think of the sad history of sugar) -the dramatic growth of the slave trade in the eighteenth century and the importance of the increasingly structured ideas about race in fueling that grim expansion -the greater focus on race in studying European expansion overseas (Britain s particular attitudes towards race and relations with different races) -the central concept of race in the debate over slavery in the eighteenth century