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How to Get the Most from This Program

Build and develop your skills for success

on the European History Exam

Historical Thinking Skills: A Primer

Merry Wiesner-Hanks David J. Neumann
Distinguished Professor of History, Emerita Assistant Professor of History Education
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
this sample.
Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Before starting Chapter 1, read the AP® Historical
Worth Publishers.
STUDENTS AND ADULTS ALIKE often grumble that history is just a bunch of facts and dates to
Thinking Skills Primer, which explains each of the memorize. While it’s true that studying history requires data, information, and facts and dates, that’s
not the essence of what history is. History is a way of understanding the world by learning about the
Historical Thinking Skills and Reasoning Processes past. It is an interpretive reconstruction of the past based on several skills. AP® European History re-
quires students to demonstrate an understanding of these skills. This primer will help you develop the
engaged in violent riots and revolts. City, church, For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.
you’ll need to master for success in the AP® course. historical thinking skills and reasoning processes needed to succeed in your AP® European History
class and exam, as well as improve the critical thinking, reading, and writing skills that will be useful
Uncorrected proofs have been used in
The Primer also provides strategies and practice in college, in your future career, and in active citizenship. While most of you will not become profes-
sional historians, we hope this course and this book will spark or enhance an interest in history that
will continue throughout your life.
for applying these skills to questions on the exam.
Historical Thinking Skills and Reasoning Processes
The AP® European History curriculum introduces you to six historical thinking skills and three rea-
soning processes, which together represent the ways historians approach the past. These skills are
by Bedford, Freeman & OP MENT S AND PR OCESSES est: gain some kno wledge about an historical
sometimes described as “habits of mind.” This useful phrase should remind you that a skill needs to
be practiced repeatedly until it becomes second nature. Because practice is an integral part of learning
to think historically, the sections below include exercises to help you develop these “habits of mind.”
Like shooting free throws, rehearsing dance moves, or playing musical scales, historical thinking skills
need to be exercised regularly until you can use them easily and almost effortlessly.
Although we discuss each skill and process separately below, keep in mind that these skills overlap in
many ways. For example, you can’t make a comparison without also analyzing evidence, and you can
only really understand historical evidence, including artifacts, photographs, speeches, and historical
narratives (secondary sources), when you know something about their context — that is, the time and
narratives (secondary sources), when you know something about their context — that is, the time and
place when they came into existence. So as you develop one historical thinking skill, you’ll also be learn-
place when they came into existence. So as you develop one historical thinking skill, you’ll also be learn-
ing and practicing other skills at the same time.
ing and practicing other skills at the same time.
Period 1
SKILL 1: DEVELOPMENTS AND PROCESSES
:
1

SKILL
VEL
DE
The first historical thinking skill underlies all the r
The first historical thinking skill underlies all the rest: gain some knowledge about an historical
event or process and the people who made it happen. Historians generally begin their investigations
event or process and the people who made it happen. Historians generally begin their investigations

with a question. This may be as simple as “what happened?” or it may be a more complex question
involving why or how, like the questions that structure the chapters in this book. The question
involving why or how, like the questions that structure the chapters in this book. The question
Introduction to
might relate to an event or process to which scholars and others have already given a name, such as
might relate to an event or process to which scholars and others have already given a name, such as
Distributed
Museum Narodowe, Poznan, Poland/Bridgeman Images Copyright © with a question. This may be as simple as “what happened?” or it may be a more complex question HTS-1
the French Revolution, or it might simply be about certain things happening in the past that the
the French Revolution, or it might simply be about certain things happening in the past that the
historian thinks are interesting. Events and processes always acquire their names after the fact, and
historian thinks are interesting. Events and processes always acquire their names after the fact, and
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes, France/Bridgeman Images
members in the fields or the shop. During the search of food and employment, and they sometimes

sixteenth century, rising population, combined with

a flood of silver from the New World, led to steep and village leaders attempted to enforce public order
inflation, which hit the poor especially hard as food by prohibiting begging, punishing vagabonds, trying combined elements of Protestant and Catholic reforms and opposing Protestants in a Catholic

prices increased far more than wages. Then in the witches, and outlawing activities judged immoral, teachings, although these were challenged by the Reformation, in which the papacy, new religious

seventeenth century a period of colder and wetter and people also used less formal means to enforce Puritans, who wanted a more thoroughgoing orders such as the Jesuits, and the Council of Trent
weather led to poor yields and recurrent famine, just community norms, such as shaming rituals, gossip,
as rulers were increasing taxes to pay for larger armies and accusations of dishonor. (Chapter 1: The Later reform. A second generation of reformers, such as were important agents. Religious warfare engulfed

and large landowners were switching to less Middle Ages; Chapter 2: European Society in the Renaissance; John Calvin, built on Lutheran ideas to develop France and the Netherlands, and finally in some
labor-intensive commercialized agriculture. Overbur- Chapter 3: European Exploration and Conquest; Chapter 4: their own theology and plans for institutional places rulers allowed limited religious toleration
dened peasants and the urban poor migrated in Reformations and Religious Wars) change. After 1540 the Roman Catholic Church and pluralism to end the bloodshed.
made a significant comeback, carrying out internal (Chapter 4: Reformations and Religious Wars)

The Reformations and the Wars of Religion
AP® TOPICS . , . , . , . , . Understanding Themes in Period 1 THEME ABBREVIATIONS
In early-sixteenth-century Europe a wide range of the Catholic Church in a movement that became 1. What new ideas and technologies were originated in the Renaissance, and how INT Interaction of Europe and
people had grievances with the church and called known as the Protestant Reformation. Even more did these shape society? (CID, SOP, SCD, TSI) the World
for reform, including educated urban residents, radical concepts of the Christian message, such as 2. How did nation-states develop and become more centralized in this period? ECD Economic and Commercial
Christian humanists, and even some church those espoused by Anabaptists, became linked to (ECD, CID, SOP, NEI) Developments
officials. This widespread dissatisfaction helps calls for social change. Luther’s ideas appealed to 3. How did the European conquest of overseas territories create new forms of CID Cultural and Intellectual

explain why the ideas of Martin Luther, a German many local rulers in the Holy Roman Empire, and biological and cultural exchange, as well as new opportunities for power and Developments
university professor and Augustinian friar, found a though Emperor Charles V, a vigorous defender of wealth? (INT, ECD, SOP, SCD) SOP States and Other Institutions
of Power
ready audience. Luther criticized many practices Catholicism, sent troops against Protestants, he 4. How did the expansion of commercial capitalism and other economic changes SCD Social Organization and
and doctrines of the church and emphasized the could not defeat them, and the empire became affect daily life for rich and poor in the countryside and cities? (ECD, SCD) Development
importance of faith alone in salvation. Within a religiously divided. England broke with the 5. What impact did these changes in so many realms of life have on family and NEI National and European

decade of his first publishing his ideas (using the Catholic Church largely because King Henry VIII social structures, gender roles, and popular culture? (CID, SCD) Identity
new technology of the printing press), much of wanted a son to succeed him. Henry’s daughter 6. Why did the religious reform movements of the sixteenth century spread so TSI Technological and Scientific
central Europe and Scandinavia had broken with Elizabeth established new religious institutions that broadly and have such a great impact? (CID, SCD) Innovation
6 7
AP® Period Openers organize the book according to the AP® topics that
are covered in each period. Each Period Opener ends with Understanding
AP® Themes questions to keep in mind as you read the chapters.
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