STUDY QUESTIONS #1

1. What were the major ideas of the philosophes, and what specific social reforms did Enlightenment figures promote, e.g. regarding torture, slavery, etc.?  Did Enlightenment philosophy represent an alternative moral order to that of Christianity or an internal reformation of the traditional Christian moral order?

2. What was the role of the peasants in the French Revolution?  Why did they withdraw from revolutionary activity after the Great Fear?  What were the political ideals and practices of the sans-culottes?  Why did Parisians storm the Bastille?

3. In what sense could the French Revolution be called a democratic revolution, in what terms a bourgeois revolution?

4 What were the motivations behind the revolutionaries' demands before the Revolution and their actions during it?

5. In hindsight, what might the monarchy have done to retain control and minimize revolutionary changes?

6. Why did Revolution occur in France in particular, one of the most prosperous and powerfnations of Europe?

7. In what ways did Napoleon preserve and support the principles of the French Revolution?  In what ways did he undermine these principles?

8. How has the French Revolution served as a model for later revolutionaries?  What effect has it had on modern-day political culture and language? 
 
 

STUDY QUESTIONS #2
 

1. Napoleon Bonaparte has been called the “last of the enlightened despots.”  How did his policies and practices resemble - or differ from - those of the enlightened monarchs of the old regime?

2. Napoleon prided himself on being the preserver of the French Revolution, but which part of the French Revolution?  How did Napoleon’s regime and policies affect the various social groups of France, e.g. peasants, women, workers, aristocrats, etc?

3.  In what ways did Napoleon’s rule affect the cultural life of France?

4. How did the victories of Napoleon and the Grand Armée affect internal conditions inside the countries of Europe?  How did defeated countries resist his rule?

5. What new “-isms” appeared after Napoleon and why?

6. What were the effects of the Congress of Vienna upon the gains of the French Revolution?

7. What were the major theories (Smith, Bentham, Malthus) that helped underpin the economic aspects of the industrial revolution in Europe? What were the 'pessimistic' and 'optimistic' views on the effects of industrialization on the masses?

8. How did industrialization affect the emergence of social classes - the working class, middle class, upper classes - in Europe? 
 
 

STUDY QUESTIONS #3
 

1. What were the major causes and effects of Russia’s Emancipation Decree?

2. What conditions led to the unification of Italy?  Who unified Italy?  The Italians? Foreign intervention?

3. What were the main features of Bismarck’s policy of “blood and iron”?

4. What changes took place in European high culture at this time, and how did they reflect the economic and political changes of the era?  Who were the patrons?  What chagnes took place in the role and position of artists in society?  What new cultural forms emerged?

5. What were the main features of the Marxist attitude to the nature of society and the role of the working class in it?
 

QUESTIONS #4
 

1.  During and after the "Scramble for Africa," how did Europe affect Africa and vice-versa?  How did the European powers justify their land-grab in the colonies?

2.  What were the main features of the "second industrial revolution"?  How did it differ from the first?

3.  The Alliance system that marked the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century was both a destabilizing and stabilizing system.  In what ways?

4.  What were the immediate and long-term causes of the First World War? 

5.  How was this war different from wars that had gone before?  In what ways was this a Total War and why was this important for the future shape of European society after 1918?  How did war change the very structure of European societies?   What 'new' social groups emerged from the war?  How had the war changed the value system in Europe, with regard to democracy, the place of women, of workers, of the traditional elites, etc?

6.  What were the short- and long-term causes of the Russian Revolution of 1917?  How was it greeted among the Allies and the Central Powers at this time of war?  What were the roles of the major Bolshevik leaders in bringing about the October Revolution?  How did a tiny political party, representing a small minority of the Russian people, seize and keep power from 1917-1918?

7.  What caused the 'turn to authoritarianism' in Europe during the 1920s and 1930s?  How do you explain the rise to power of individuals like Hitler and Mussolini? 

8.  What are the similarities and differences between the two major ideologies of this period, Communism and Fascism?  Why were they so appealing to millions of people?  Which social categories did they most target?