3-5 pages, 12-Times New Roman, single or double spaced) CITATIONS REQUIRED as (Author, page number) or (Title, minute) for
documentaries. For lectures, use (Week, page).
PROMPT: The general question is: What does it mean to be identified as Western Europeans? (here, think about location, the time stages that have been covered in this course, and the people included into this geographic landscape)
And the many sub-questions are related to how this identity has been influenced by the last 700 years covered in this course.
What specific: items (trade goods),
ideas (borrowed as well as developed, artistic or scholarly),
economic practices and doctrines (international and regional trade, colonizing “newly discovered” territories, production of knowledge about themselves, the world, and nature; Adam Smith and the French Physiocrats discussed in the 2000. Enlightenment),
political and social ideas (John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Mary Astell, all discussed in the Enlightenment),
revolutions (medieval ones, modern ones, industrial, political and social),
nationalisms (the Romantic movement and nationalism in the 19th century),
technology (steam and telegraph),
modern war practices (world wars: I and II) as well as unity challenges after the 1940s…
….have been important to the ways that Western Europeans have evolved, defined themselves and declared their identity?
For this formal essay: to help you organize your thoughts, plan an outline with the main events, ideas, people that you will write about. The outline is not required for the grade but to help you write a better essay. Begin with one introductory paragraph where you provide context for your essay and you end it with your thesis. Thesis is a statement that you make about the prompt. —An example of a thesis,
Western Europeans emerged from the middle ages with a Christian world perspective, underwent many changes across the 700 years, and, by the end of the 20th century, Western Europeans had changed completely not only the geography of the region but also the ways in which they thought about themselves, nature and the world.
The next paragraphs (keep paragraphs shorter than one page, roughly 15 lines) are used to develop this big thesis/statement. Focus on 3 or 4 big ideas, historical stages and important people to illustrate and argue that your thesis is true. Obviously, concrete examples are essential.
