Essay Topic : Was Political Fragmentation Critical to the
Rise of Europe?*
A long-standing argument holds that political fragmentation was crucial to the rise of
Europe and hence the Great Divergence. Assess and evaluate these claims. Use the following as a reference for the reseach paper, all available online
(search using Google Scholar)
• Chiu Yu Ko, Mark Koyama and Tuan-Hwee Sng, Unified China; Divided Europe
January 2014
• Eric L. Jones, The European Miracle, 3rd edition Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981, 2003
• Joel Mokyr, Culture of Growth Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press, 2016
• Philip T. Hoffman, Why Did Europe Conquer the World? Princeton, NJ.:
Princeton University Press, 2015
• Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel New York: W.W. Norton & Company,
1997
Additional Guidelines
• Essay length: 2500—3500 words excluding references
.
• Standard social science citation i.e, references should be at the end and not in
footnotes. Chicago style is recommended but you can use alternatives if you
wish. The main thing is that you cite and not which citation style you use. See
Writing Center for further hints and tips.
• Construct an argument. Don’t just review all of the readings. Make sure you
have an introduction and a conclusion. Using section headings if they are useful.
• Make sure your writing is clear. Clarity is more important than long sentences
or fancy terminology.
• Feel free to refer to other readings from the course (and elsewhere if they are
relevant).
