FRQ Essay Topics
Refer to the calendar on the course homepage for due dates.
Chapter 9
1) Analyze the variety of reactions by Europeans to the outbreak of the Black Death in the 1340s.
2) Discuss the challenges faced by the Church from the 13th to the 15th centuries and evaluate the effects of these challenges.
Chapter 10
3) Compare and contrast the Italian Renaissance with the Northern Renaissance. How were the ideals and spirit of humanism applied in each case?
4) Select two of the “new monarchies” of the Renaissance. Compare the methods employed by these monarchies and the results of their efforts.
5) Analyze the effects of overseas exploration and the conquest of the Americas on life in Europe itself.
Chapter 11
6) Analyze the causes of the Protestant Reformation.
7) Compare and contrast the English Reformation with Luther’s Reformation in Germany.
8) To what extent did the Catholic Church succeed in achieving its goals during the Catholic Reformation?
Chapter 12
9) How accurate are the characterizations of Elizabeth I, Henry of Navarre, and William of Orange as politiques?
10) Compare and evaluate the extent to which politics and religion drove the events of the Thirty Years War.
Chapters 13-14
11) Evaluate the validity of the following statement:“Absolutism was more an attitude than a real political system during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.”
12) Analyze how Galileo, Descartes, and Newton altered traditional interpretations of nature and challenged traditional sources of knowledge.
13) Compare the political philosophies of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes.