AP European History

Acellus AP European History

Course Features

Course Details


Course Overview

In the Acellus AP European History course, students learn about the cultural, economic, political, and social developments that have shaped today’s world by studying European history from 1450 to the present. Students study the great awakening referred to as the Renaissance, as well as the reformations that took place during this critical time in history.  They study the religious tensions and wars of this period, as well as revolutions, industrialization, liberalism, conservatism, and nationalism. They also learn about socialism and marxism, the second industrial revolution, and the World Wars.  They go on to study Europe in the Twentieth Century, with its technology, its religious and social transformations, its feminism, its "modern" women, and its new political voices and social life. This course has been audited and approved by College Board to provide students with a college-level learning experience. This course is also A-G approved through the University of California. Acellus AP European History is taught by Acellus Course Instructor, Paul Sargent.


Sample Video: Italian Renaissance Humanism

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Scope and Sequence

Unit 1 - A Society Awakens, 1450-1556 In this unit students learn about Italian renaissance humanism, the printing press, renaissance art and architecture, new monarchs, Machiavelli, mannerism, christian humanism, and the Protestant, Catholic, and English reformations. They also learn about motivations for exploration, waves of exploration and colonization, the Columbian exchange, and the African slave trade. Students also evaluate the differing views of the Renaissance held by Jacob Burkhardt and Peter Burke. They explain why they do or don't believe that the Renaissance is a distinct period. Further, they evaluate the artist's purpose, point of view, and intended audience of two pieces of art, one northern, one southern, and compare and contrast the values and ideals of the societies that produced them. In addition, students analyze the reasons for European exploration and its effects upon European and American societies, as reflected by the authors Richard Reed, M.L. Bush, and Gary Nash. Students consider how the Renaissance and the Reformation changed the way society viewed individuality, as well as how the movements restructured individuals' relationships with God. Unit 2 - The Age of Religious Tensions, 1556-1648 In this unit students learn about the scientific revolution, baroque art, the English Civil War, wars of religion, the Thirty Years' War, economic expansion in the 15th and 16th centuries, agriculture, and the Price Revolution. They also learn about the rise of urban centers, family life in early modern Europe, popular culture, and witchcraft. In addition, students compare and contrast the political, economic, and religious reasons for the rise of the Dutch and the decline of the Spanish in the period 1550-1650. They also evaluate Holborn and Schiller's explanations of the Thirty Years' War and compare them with the account provided by Spielvogel. They explain which argument they find most compelling and express their opinions on the matter. Students consider the ways in which European states and institutions used religion and culture (science and the arts) to control their society, and which states were the most successful at this. Unit 3 - Society in Transition, 1648-1750 In this unit students learn about Louis XIV and absolutism, the Glorious Revolution, constitutionalism, development of a market economy, and mercantilism. They also learn about commercial rivalries and warfare, Dutch realism, the enlightenment, how the enlightenment was popularized, religious enlightenment, and enlightened absolutism. Students evaluate the changing roles of the nobility in European society (1450-1789) using three secondary sources: John Roberts, Leonard Krieger, and Jerome Blum. In addition, students compare and contrast the lives of common people and elites during the period 1650-1750, and their own lives. They further consider in what ways enlightenment thinkers challenged previously held notions of human nature, government, and religious beliefs. Unit 4 - An Age of Revolution, 1750-1815 In this unit students learn about Malthusian growth, the consumer revolution, the French Revolution, and Napoleanic Europe. They also learn about neoclassicism, British industrialization, and continental industrialization. Students analyze the extent to which the Industrial Revolution altered the lives of England's working class. They further analyze the political, economic, and social causes for the French Revolution of 1789. Students study French Revolution documents to analyze the influence of enlightenment theory on the moderate phase of the French Revolution. They compare and contrast the accounts of the French Revolution provided by Lefebvre and Sutherland. They consider to what extent the French Revolution amounted to a "Revolution" in economic terms for each of the following groups: nobility, middle class, average person, and women. Unit 5 - An Age of Change, 1815-1871 In this unit students learn about the industrial class system, liberalism, conservatism, and nationalism. They also learn about socialism and marxism. They study the concert of Europe, romanticism, the revolutions of 1830 and 1848, the Crimean War, nationalism, national unification, and realism. Students assess whether the Old Order or the New Order won the battle to control Europe between 1815 and 1830. They research modern 21st century liberalism in Europe and compare and contrast these views with those of early 19th century classical liberalism. They assess the extent to which the Crimean War changed the course of 19th century European history. They go on to use a map to analyze Haussman and the changes he made, and to explain how those changes, along with new breakthroughs in medicine and sanitation, are representative of the new Industrial Revolution. Further, they consider to what extent the western European powers sacrificed the interests of the working classes to please the middle class in the period 1815-1848. Unit 6 - An Age of Questioning, 1871-1914 In this unit students learn about the second industrial revolution, 19th-century family life, consumerism, impressionism, mass politics, governmental responses to industrialization, the new nationalism, Charles Darwin, and social Darwinism. They also learn about the study of the irrational, post-impressionism, motivations of imperialism, technology and imperialism, imperialism itself, and the alliance system. Students analyze the reasons why late nineteenth-century Europeans argued for and against imperialism. Using one Impressionist piece of art from this period and one piece of art from any prior period, students explain why the Impressionist period was the turning point for modern art. They discuss the views of Hobsbawm and Landes on the short and long-term effects of imperialism. They assess the ways in which the following individuals challenged the established social/intellectual order in the period 1871-1914: Freud, Neitzesche, Einstein, the Pankhursts, Herzl, Bernstein, and the Social Democratic Parties in Germany and Great Britain. Unit 7 - A Time of Crisis, 1914-1933 In this unit students study the causes of World War I, the war itself, the Russian Revolution, and the Treaty of Versille. They also learn about postwar economic challenges, cubism, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany. They use three pieces of art to assess to what extent the artistic movements of the 1920s reflected the mood of European society. Using the secondary sources Roland Stromberg, Hartmug Pogge von Strandmann, and Gordon Craig, students analyze the various reasons for the coming of the First World War in 1914. Students also compare and contrast the depictions of World War I provided by early press releases and the "trench poets." Unit 8 - A Time of Tragedy and Triumph, 1938-2010 In this unit students learn about World War II and its causes. They also learn about the Holocaust, the Cold War, decolonization, the rise of the welfare state, and Cold War Eastern Europe. Students analyze the various views on the wisdom of appeasement and how it contributed to World War II. They assess the reasons that Europeans began to decolonize in the period after 1945. Further, they compare and contrast appeasement on the eve of World War II with western European responses to the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014. They also assess the negative and positive impacts of European interactions with Africa and Asia. They go on to research the development of the welfare state in Europe and America, and then select.an individual country and argue in favor of it providing "the best life" to all of its citizens. Unit 9 - The Twentieth Century In this unit students learn about science and technology in the 20th Century. They also learn about anxiety and existentialism, the changing face of religion in the 20th century, and social transformation in the 20th Century. They go on to learn about feminism and the modern woman, and new voices in politics and social life.  
This course does not have any sections.