🇪🇺AP European History
1. Evaluate the extent to which nationalism served as a unifying force within individual European states while simultaneously acting as a divisive force in broader European integration from 1688 to 2002.
Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that establishes a line of reasoning.
Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt.
Support an argument using at least four of the provided documents.
Use at least one additional piece of specific historical evidence beyond the documents.
For at least two documents, explain how or why the document's point of view, purpose, historical situation, or audience is relevant.
Demonstrate a complex understanding through sophisticated argumentation and/or effective use of evidence.
Document 1
Source: German government proclamation concerning the conditions of the Treaty of Frankfurt, 1871.
Alsace and German Lorraine were restored to the newly founded German Empire to which they belong. Because France tried for years to suppress the German language and German culture in Alsace, it becomes Germany's national duty to wean these people from the French.
Document 2
Source: John Evelyn, writer and founding member of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, diary entry, 1688
7th October—Dr. Tenison [an Anglican minister] preached at St. Martin's church, showing the Scriptures to be our only rule of faith, and its perfection above all traditions. After which, near 1,000 devout persons partook of the Communion. The sermon was chiefly a response to a sermon by a Jesuit, who the Sunday before had disparaged the Scripture and railed at our translation. Some who were present [on that Sunday] pulled the Jesuit out of the pulpit, and treated him very coarsely. Hourly expectation of William, the Prince of Orange's invasion heightened to that degree, that his Majesty [James II] thought fit to dispense with all laws and in the meantime, he called over 5,000 Irish and 4,000 Scots soldiers, and continued to remove Protestants and put in Papists at Portsmouth harbor and other places of trust, and retained the Jesuits about him, increasing the universal discontent. It brought people to so desperate a pass, that they seemed passionately to long for and desire the landing of the Prince of Orange, whom they looked on to be their deliverer from Popish tyranny, praying incessantly for an east wind, which was said to be the only hindrance of his expedition [from the Netherlands] with a numerous army ready to make a descent.
Document 3
Source: Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister, speech on Single European Act, Bruges, Belgium, September 1988.
To suppress nationhood and concentrate power at the center of a European union would be highly damaging. There is no standardized European personality. Europe should be united but in ways that preserve different traditions, parliamentary powers, and national pride of member nations.
Document 4
Source: Giuseppe Mazzini, attorney from Genoa, exiled from Piedmont in 1831, manifesto, 1831.
Young Italy is the brotherhood of Italians who believe in a law of Progress and Duty, are convinced that Italy is called to be a nation, and that Italy can make itself one through its own strength. The secret of Italy’s strength lies in constancy and unified effort. Young Italy stands for the republic and unity. Italy should be a republic because it really has no basis for existing as a monarchy. Unity, because without unity there can be no true nation, and without unity there is no strength.
Document 5
Source: Editorial in the official Polish communist party newspaper People's Tribune, October 1956.
In these exciting and uncommon times * the Polish working class has clearly made its voice heard. This class leads the nation not by someone's appointment or decree, but by virtue of its position in society. . . . It is evident that the leading role of the [communist] Party has been tangibly confirmed. The Party has been united as never before with the working class which gave it birth, with the peasant masses, with the student youth, with the progressive intelligentsia, and with the Polish People's Army. The Party is united with the nation. * a reference to the June 1956 workers' strike in the city of Poznan, the first large-scale protest against communist rule in Poland; several dozen workers were killed in the government's suppression of the strike
Document 6
Source: Tunisian immigrant mother, radio interview, 2002.
I hate the term “beur.”* I refuse to use it for my kids; I refuse “beur” because they speak the [French] language, because “beur” is not a language, it’s not a culture. Either they are French, or they are Tunisian, but they are not beurs... Because the kids were born here, they are French. *a term used to designate second- and third-generation immigrants from North Africa
Document 7
Source: Getty Images, Fall of the Berlin Wall, November 9, 1989.
