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But while this pattern holds true for all western European nations, each developed in a distinctive way.
Through the tool of comparison we can see how leaders and ordinary people handled common prob-
lems in unique ways.

As you develop this skill, practice comparing two nations in the nineteenth century — like France and
Germany — and also compare the same nation at two different points in time. For example, how was
government in France during the late nineteenth century similar to that of France in the Napoleonic
era of the early nineteenth century? How was it different? What had happened during the nineteenth
century to lead to these differences?

EXERCISE: Look at the authors’ comparison of the revolutions in politics in the British Historical Thinking Skills: A Primer
North American colonies, France, and Haiti in the late eighteenth century in Chapter 9.
How are these revolutions similar to one another? Why are they alike? What key
this sample.
features do the authors say are different? Why are they different?
Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Worth Publishers.
REASONING PROCESS 2: CAUSATION
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No historical event or development occurs in a vacuum; each one has prior conditions and causes, and
Uncorrected proofs have been used in
each one has consequences. Historical thinking involves using evidence and reasoning to draw conclu-
sions about probable causes and effects, recognizing that these are multiple and complex. Sometimes
there is an obvious connection between an event and its consequence, like a cue ball striking the eight
by Bedford, Freeman &
ball and making it move. And some events are fairly straightforward: the assassination of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand by the Serbian revolutionary Gavrilo Princip in June 1914 led Austria-Hungary to
declare war on Serbia, which led Serbia’s ally Russia to declare war on Austria-Hungary and its ally
Germany, and ultimately led to World War I. But even this seemingly simple example is more com-
plex, as Chapter 15 explains. Why did Princip decide to kill Franz Ferdinand? What role did Austria’s
1908 annexation of territories, in which substantial numbers of Serbs lived, play in his decision? Did
Serbian military victories against the Ottoman Empire in 1912 and 1913 enter into his decision? All
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of these other events took place just a few years before the assassina-
tion. If we go even further back, we’ll gain additional insight into
Distributed
the larger context of Princip’s decision. A longer-term analysis Historical thinking involves using
might lead back to Chapter 13’s discussion of the system of alli- evidence and reasoning to draw
ances and treaties that had divided Europe into two hostile camps, conclusions about probable
causes and effects, recognizing
as well as the widespread militarism and nationalism that encour- that these are multiple and
aged leaders and citizens to see war as a way of testing national complex.
power and individual honor.

Just as there were many factors behind Princip’s action, most examples of historical causation involve
multiple causes and effects. Events and processes often result from developments in social, political,
economic, and cultural realms. Historians cannot test these in laboratories the way scientists can,
but they can use historical evidence and reasoning to determine which of these are probable causes
and effects. Historical causation also involves large processes, multiple causes, and unintended
consequences — that is, the fact that the outcome of any historical event may not be what those who
engaged in it intended or predicted. Chains of cause and effect in history are not predetermined,
although they sometimes seem to be when we look at developments after the fact.

You can begin to develop the skill of determining causation by asking yourself, whenever some signif-
icant change in history is described, what reasons explain the development? If the answer seems sim-
ple, keep digging, because there’s bound to be a more complicated (and longer-term) explanation.

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