Look for the "Big Idea"

The most difficult thing for most AP Euro students to grasp in the first term of the course has to be the reading. The textbook we use, Western Civilization by Jackson J. Spielvogel, uses a very narrative style that is a bit easier for most high school students to read. However, it is still a college text book. The vocabulary used in the book is intended for college-aged readers, just out of the reach of your average high-school sophomore. You will also encounter a more sophisticated style of writing when we get into the primary sources throughout the year. Don't get discouraged if you don't understand a few words, and don't just read past them. You live in the age of insanely instantaneous gratification. Use the Internet for something more than sending stupid pictures to your friends on Snapchat! Look up those words on Dictionary.com (It's an app too!).  I know it's a lot of work to look up new words (sarcasm... a bit), but you will be much better off if you actually understand what you read. After all, you signed up for this class to stretch your mind.

This course will ask you to stretch your mind by changing the way you think about history, as well. In my first post I mentioned that many people look at history as a collection of dead people, events, dates, and facts to be memorized. I think that is why many people claim to hate history, do poorly in history courses, and show very little interest in history beyond the occasional Band of Brothers marathon on the History Channel (We won't concern ourselves with the appropriateness of this name right now). What they miss out on is the glue that holds all of those dates, people, events, and facts together. They miss out on the connections between events and other events. They fail to concern themselves with the connections between ideas and events, or ideas and other ideas. That's the good stuff! That's the stuff that makes history work! It's also the stuff that will help you to make sense of the past, and allow you to better remember the details.

I'll use an example from the 14th century (Chapter 11 in our text) to illustrate some "big idea" thinking.

The really big idea that sums up the 14th century is that it was a major disaster for European civilization. Actually, the 14th century saw three major disasters; famine and plague, the Hundred Years' War, and series a crises in the Roman Catholic Church. As students of history we should be concerned with finding cause and effect relationships within these three disasters. It's important to remember that all things are connected. Let's look at the example of the the first of these disasters, the Black Death.

A doctor treats victims of the Bubonic Plague (From the Toggenburg Bible, 1401)

Thanks to the modern science of biology, we now know that the Black Death was caused by a nasty bacterium called Yersinia Pestis that was transmitted by fleas on the backs of black rats. So what? Where did the rats come from? Why did they come in the 14th century? What was the effect of the Black Death on European society? The causes of the Black Death provide us with a great example of the cause-and-effect relationship of historical events. During the 13th century, the Mongols (Genghis Khan, his sons, and grandsons) conquered most of the Eurasian continent, from Poland and Hungary in the west to China in the east. In the process, they conquered the Persian Empire and tied the old Silk Road together under one empire. This unity further opened up the east-west trade routes, bringing about a medieval boom in trade that was dominated by the Italian cities of Venice and Genoa in the Mediterranean. It was along these trade routes that the black rats and their fleas hitched rides out of the steppes of Mongolia during the 14th century  into China and eventually Europe. So, Mongolian conquest and expanded trade in the 13th century eventually led to the Black Death and the loss of up to half of the European population.

Peasants working a lord's demesne (domain) in France (from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 1412-16)

Now that we have dealt with the causes of the Black Death, we need to turn our attention to the consequences of this plague. The plague first struck between 1347 and 1351, and reoccurred every five to ten years until the end of the 15th century. The European population would not even begin to see a recovery until 1500, and it would take over a century to see the population levels close to those before the plague. The immediate result of this rapid depopulation was social upheaval and dislocation. Europe's economic and political system, the feudal system (Remember 7th grade?), was based upon a large population of peasants who were either tied to the land (serfs) or free peasants who paid rents to their landlords. When half of this labor force died, the labor they provided became a valuable commodity. In other words, they became much more expensive. They demanded, and got higher wages. The Black Death also accelerated the end of serfdom, which had already begun in the 13th century. The lack of labor and reduced population was bad news for the noble landowners. The reduced population also reduced the demand for their agricultural produce. They found their revenues also reduced by declining rents. In short, the Black Death raised the standard of living for the peasant survivors, but lowered the standard of living for the nobility who depended upon those peasants for their survival. Don't worry too much about the nobility. They survived peasant revolts in Flanders, France, and England in the second half of the century with their power intact. However, the upheavals after the Black Death in the 14th century were just the beginning of the kind of social conflict that characterized modern European history.

I know that seems like a lot of information, but it's not that bad if you focus on the big idea stuff. Here it is in a shortened form (notes):

Black Death (14th century):

• Carried to Europe on trade routes from the east
• first outbreak in mid-14th century
• killed up to 50% of European population
• social upheaval
• labor shortage- accelerated end of serfdom
• higher wages
• lower prices
• lower revenue from rents
• high standard of living for peasants
• lower standard of living for noble landowners
• peasant revolts in Flanders, France, England

As you read your summer reading choice, try looking for the "big ideas." Look for the cause-and-effect relationships. Look for the "characteristics" of ideas, or "-isms." If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below, or send me an e-mail message. Don't worry if you're struggling with any of this. It's the struggle that pushes us to become more than we are. Besides, we have the entire school year to work on it.