Analyze the last 100 years of European history, explaining how Europe (and in many respects, the world itself) has turned out like it has in our current day.

Analyze the last 100 years of European history, explaining how Europe (and in many respects, the world itself) has turned out like it has in our current day.
You should be able to blend the isms and the events of, say the latter 19th and all of 20th century. You should be to demonstrate how the isms and the events are connected, how the one led to the other, building through the 20th century all the way to our current day.
If there was an outline, it probably would start with explaining what the major isms were (remember our discussion on this where we listed them). Don’t add “isms”; just focus on the list we worked on that is listed in the discussions and in the syllabus.
Then the bulk of the essay would explain and analyze that interplay between the isms and the events over the past 100+ years. There are far too many major events for me to list them or expect you to cover them all, so you have some freedom here. You could look at the creation of nations, wars, social movement, suffrage movements, technology rise and other events. This section probably is 3-4 pages alone, and so in here I would imagine you would present at least 4 moments or movements, but you might even mention a few more.
Finally, there would be something of a conclusion that centered on modern day crisis points where you are explaining how we got this point (through the isms and events of that last 150ish years). Modern day issues from the past 10 years that connect well here include, but are not limited to: North Korean Crisis, Immigration crisis in Europe, ISIS, Israel-Palestine, European economic crisis, Brexit, Russia vs Ukraine, nationalism rising in Europe, rise of China, war on terror, Middle East Islam issues (Turkey, Kurds, Iran, Saudi Arabia), world trade tensions, or civil rights struggles.
This is not some random, sprawling essay, no matter how it appears to you, nor is it merely a chronology of events. The essay MUST BE based on and around the “isms” which, as you know, is the centerpiece of this course. In the end, you will want to build an analysis that will show how all of our modern-day issues are built out of decisions and choices from the previous years…in particular post-French Revolution and World War I.
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Helpful Thoughts
In the last half of the class, we have studied the world reeling from the mid-1850s that led to radical changes in the 1920s & 1930s leading to yet another massive war, World War 2. From there, Europe and the world has continued to deal in the aftermath of the decisions created in the early part of the 20th Century—choices about governing styles, economic strategies, ways of living, impacts of technology, and nationalism or globalism.

Our discussions and assignments can help you—we started first noting how the 30 Years War was the beginning of the modern age. Note that when it finished, 1648, Hobbes had already written his main work, Leviathan. Just a few decades later, John Locke would stake out more ground about the issue of social contract. Our class shifted next to investigate the impact of the French Revolution, a critical point in modern European history. We talked then about trends from the Revolution such as liberalism and nationalism, critical steps on this issue of rights. As we moved toward the end of the 19th century, we looked at the emergence of socialism and events in Central Europe, and how individual liberty or economic equity was increasingly becoming the focus of the country. The development of Germany in 1870 became something of a focal point in that question, leading ultimately to the disaster of World War I. The post-Versailles world, then, was struggling with this same question of rights—what are the rights of humans? Does the human have the right to make as much money as they can? Or, are they limited by the concerns for economic equity? Is one culture of humans more advanced than another culture of humans? Should the advanced culture try to help the other culture? How should the government protect my rights? Can the government protect my rights while embracing socialism? Those questions ultimately led us to World War II and our final discussions. Those last discussions noted the ascension of Marx’s version of socialism or economic equity (or the English version proclaimed by John Maynard Keynes) in much of the world and how that contributed to the Cold War.
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So, you can see the essay as both “what did you learn in the second half of the course (WW1 to present day)” AND “how did those things emerge from the isms of the 19th century.” I want to see that you understand, can see and can analyze the course of history, the patterns or lessons of history as mentioned in Course Outcome #5.
This should be a 5-7 page essay that demands solid writing based on good historical research (3-5 sources would be best if you go beyond the class notes and the book).
You MUST write your thesis statement at the top of your first page, separate from the main body of the essay; consult the Historical Methods Module for more advice on this as needed
All citations must be done in the Chicago Style Guide, the citation type for History as a discipline (review in Historical Methods Module). You SHOULD include a list of any sources on a separate page (that page is NOT part of the 5-7 pages). You may, however, answer this essay FULLY from our class notes, in which case you do not need a Bibliography.
A cover page is NOT required.
This assessment MUST be typed (11 or 12 point font; Times or Calibri is best), 1.5 spacing and possess good grammar, spelling, and a clear, organized thought-process.

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