Lesson Plans

The Western Heritage ©2000

by Kagan, Ozment, and Turner

Focus Lesson 15

Chapter 23: "The Age of Nation-States"

AP* Course Description

1. Intellectual and Cultural History
   • Secularization of learning and culture
   • Major trends in literature and the arts
   • Intellectual and cultural developments and their relationship to social values and political events
   • Developments in social, economic, and political thought
   • The diffusion of new intellectual concepts among different social groups
   • Changes in elite and popular culture, such as the development of new attitudes toward religion, the family, work, and ritual
2. Political and Diplomatic History
   • The rise and functioning of the modern state in its various forms
   • The evolution of political elites and the development of political parties and ideologies
   • The extension and limitation of rights and liberties (personal, civic, economic, and political); majority and minority; political persecutions
   • The growth and changing forms of nationalism
   • Forms of political protest, reform, and revolution
   • Relationship between domestic and foreign policies
   • Efforts to restrain conflict: treaties, balance of power, diplomacy, and international organizations
   • War and civil conflict: origins, developments, technology, and their consequences
3. Social and Economic History
   • The role of urbanization in transforming cultural values and social relationships
   • The shift in social structures from hierarchical orders to modern social classes: the changing distribution of wealth and poverty
   • The influence of sanitation and health care practices on society; food supply, diet, famine, disease, and their impact
   • Changing definitions and attitudes toward mainstream groups and groups characterized as "the other"
   • The origins, development, and consequences of industrialization
   • Changes in the demographic structure of Europe, their causes and consequences
   • Development of racial and ethnic group identities

Key Components

• Instructor's Manual: pp. 43–44
• Study Guide and Workbook, Vol. II: pp. 103–111
• Test Item File: pp. 123–128

Key Web Sites

• Great Power Politics
• The Process of German Unification
• The Heritage of Bismark
• Emancipation of the Serfs
• Benjamin Disraeli

Key Words and Terms

Suggested Pacing

Test Strategy

Key Concepts

• German and Italian unification
  German unification, led by the wily Otto von Bismarck, forever changed the balance of power in Europe. This unification was not the result of a movement among liberals but was conservative in origin. Italian unification, led by Mazzini, Cavour, Garibaldi, and Victor Emmanuel II, was less focused than German unification but was also more of a reflection of conservative ideology than of any liberal desire for true constitutionalism.
  
  
• Growth of liberalism
  While Germany and Italy turned toward conservativism, much of the rest of Europe was taking a more liberal view. Great Britain passed laws seeking to ease workers' complaints and adopted more liberal suffrage laws. It also attempted to deal with the issue of Irish home rule. Austria's creation of the Dual Monarchy attempted but failed to solve the problem of diverse ethnic groups within its borders. Ultimately, this problem would lead to World War I. France, during this time, changed its form of government from empire to republic with the help of quarreling monarchists. Russia changed its governmental administration and abolished serfdom. Although not entirely successful in either, it was Russia's first attempt at liberalizing its society.

Summing Up Student Understanding

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Aspects of Western Civilization, Vol. II, edited by Rogers—Chapter 5, "Nationalism"
• Sources of the West, Vol. II, edited by Kishlausky—Part V, "Political Critiques"
• Documents in World History, Vol. II, edited by Stearns, Gosch, and Grieshaber—Section Two, Reading 14