Sovereignty is a term that describes the idea of self-government for a community or an individual. It is based on the idea that people are the source of political power. It suggests that people are citizens, who have the right to participate in government. Sovereignty was a core idea in the political revolutions of the long nineteenth century, but it had lots of limits. Even those who thought sovereignty was important often didn’t include some groups of people in the idea. They often excluded enslaved people, serfs, women, and children.

In looking at revolutionary transformations, we are beginning with political and national revolutions. This article will introduce you to one of the core ideas that arguably led to these revolutions.

Think about the following question as you read the article: To what extent does this article explain the causes and effects of the various revolutions in the period from 1750 to 1900? Write this question at the top of the Three Close Reads worksheet. You will be asked to respond to this question again after the third read in the Evaluating and Corroborating section of the worksheet.

Read 1 – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Read 2 – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What is a citizen, and how is the idea of popular sovereignty important to creating citizens?
2. Thomas Hobbes was an important thinker from this period who wrote a book called Leviathan about popular sovereignty. How does the image from Leviathan express that idea?
3. The author argues that sovereignty left people out. What are examples she gives?
4. Beyond just being left out, the author argues that sovereignty for some actually meant that others could lose rights. How does she make this argument?

Read 3 – Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. To what extent does this article explain the causes and effects of the various revolutions in the period from 1750 to 1900?
2. How do you think the idea of sovereignty might be used to support “revolutionary” causes in this period?

The Scientific Revolution is another important set of ideas and practices that underpinned the revolutions of the long nineteenth century. Global interconnections and a widening world had set the stage for even more intellectual growth. The Scientific Revolution brought new concepts, understandings of the universe, and even new evidence and methods for arriving at conclusions. Thinkers started looking for laws and simple principles using tools like mathematics. This in turn led them to think about their communities, asking radical questions about rights and what government should be. These kinds of discussions kicked off political movements and even impacted industrialization and imperialism, making these intellectual movements important factors in the making of the modern world.

The Scientific Revolution is an important context for understanding both liberal and national political revolutions and the Industrial Revolution. These are all major movements, which you’ll need to understand in order to respond to Unit Problem: “How did different parts of the world experience the revolutionary transformations that occurred from c. 1750 to 1900 CE.”

Think about the following question as you watch the video: To what extent does this video explain the intellectual and ideological context in which revolutions swept the Atlantic world from 1750 to 1900? You will be asked to respond to this question again at the end of the video.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. What changed about how people reached conclusions as a result of the Scientific Revolution?
2. What was the significance of Newton’s publication?
3. What did the Scientific Revolution have to do with political revolutions?
4. What’s the link between industrialization and imperialism, according to author?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. To what extent does this video explain the intellectual and ideological context in which revolutions swept the Atlantic world from 1750 to 1900?
2. The author argues that political revolutions were inspired by ideas from the Scientific Revolution. How can ideas about the universe turn into ideas about political organization?

The Enlightenment had pretty lofty goals, but it didn’t always live up to them. It enlightened some things more than others. It contributed to important movements, like the abolition of slavery and women’s rights, but change was often slow. Enlightenment thinkers championed the idea of progress, and their philosophies helped lay the foundation for things like modern states, property rights, and capitalism—which had very different effects on different groups of people.

In this article, you’ll build on what you learned about sovereignty and the Scientific Revolution and learn more about the Enlightenment specifically. This understanding will be crucial as you learn about revolution and nationalism, industrialization, imperialism, and labor. The Enlightenment had some major impacts, and understanding it better will equip you to think through the Unit Problem, which asks you to assess what changed in this period.

Think about the following question as you read the article: To what extent does this article, and your understanding of Enlightenment thinking, explain the causes and effects of the various revolutions in the period from 1750 to 1900? Write this question at the top of the Three Close Reads worksheet. You will be asked to respond to this question again after the third read in the Evaluating and Corroborating section of the worksheet.

Read 1 – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Read 2 – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. How did the Dutch and British influence Enlightenment thought?
2. What opinion did Enlightenment thinkers have about slavery?
3. What views did Enlightenment thinkers have about progress? How did that affect their views of different societies?
4. How did Enlightenment thought impact economic systems?
5. How did the Enlightenment help or hurt working-class people?

Read 3 – Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. To what extent does this article, and your understanding of Enlightenment thinking, explain the causes and effects of the various revolutions in the period from 1750 to 1900?
2. So, was the Enlightenment revolutionary? What does the author think? What do you think?

The Enlightenment can be a difficult movement to fully understand. By analyzing a set of quotes from authors who were either inspirations for, or products of, the Enlightenment, you’ll learn more about their perspectives, which will help you understand the viewpoint of people who lived during that time. Quote analysis is an important analytical skill, and will help you see how different types of evidence can help us better understand the past. In this case, the analysis will help you understand how this movement inspired the revolutionary period that followed. In addition, you’ll connect these quotes to current events to evaluate how these ideas still influence society today.

In this activity, you’ll work together to analyze a set of quotes from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century authors to determine how each quote is both symbolic of the Enlightenment, and an indication the Enlightenment’s impact today.

First, your teacher will either hand out or have you download the Enlightenment Quotes worksheet. Then, your teacher will break the class into small groups and assign each group two or three quotes. Read each of your group’s assigned quotes and answer the questions at the end of the worksheet for each of these quotes. Be sure to read them carefully and look up any words you don’t know.

After all groups have answered the questions for each of the quotes, you and your group members will choose one quote to present to the class. Your group’s presentation should be about two minutes long and in it you’ll present your group’s analysis of the quote.

The “father of modern conservatism” was a British political figure and philosopher who was an important leader of the liberal transformation of the eighteenth century. How could he be both a liberal and a conservative? It turns out that the development of the two sets of ideals were firmly linked.

This biography provides you with important evidence for responding to the Unit 5 Problem: “How did different parts of the world experience the revolutionary transformations of the period c. 1750 to 1900 CE?” It will help you to evaluate claims made about liberalism and nationalism.

Read 1: Observe

As you read this graphic biography for the first time, review the Read 1: Observe section of your Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios Tool. Be sure to record one question in the thought bubble on the top-right. You don’t need to write anything else down. However, if you’d like to record your observations, feel free to do so on scrap paper.

Read 2: Understand

On the tool, summarize the main idea of the comic and provide two pieces of evidence that helped you understand the creator’s main idea. You can do this only in writing or you can get creative with some art. Some of the evidence you find may come in the form of text (words). But other evidence will come in the form of art (images). You should read the text looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the main idea, and key supporting details. You should also spend some time looking at the images and the way in which the page is designed. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. When and where was Edmund Burke born? Who ruled the place where he was born?
2. What, according to the author, was the major political conflict in Britain during this period? What did each side believe?
3. In what ways was Burke a liberal? In what ways was he a conservative?
4. What were the events that made Burke fear too rapid change and too much democracy?
5. How does the artist use art and design to demonstrate Burke’s position as both a liberal and a conservative?

Read 3: Connect

In this read, you should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in this unit of the course. On the bottom of the tool, record what you learned about this person’s life and how it relates to what you’re learning.

1. To what extent does this article explain the intellectual and ideological context in which revolutions swept the Atlantic world from 1750 to 1900?
2. We generally speak of political revolutions in this period as bringing more liberties and being a good thing. Does Burke’s biography challenge that assumption? How?
3. How could the rise of liberalism in this period also lead to the rise of political conservatism? Does this biography provide any clues to help you to answer this question?

To Be Continued…

On the second page of the tool, your teacher might ask you to extend the graphic biography to a second page. This is where you can draw and write what you think might come next. Here, you can become a co-creator of this graphic biography!

The eighteenth century saw a world in crisis, particularly in the region surrounding the Atlantic. The growth of trade and production meant that more things were being made than ever before, and there was lots of wealth to be made. But populations were growing. Lots of people weren’t getting an equal share of the new wealth. Some people just wanted more, but others didn’t even have enough to live on. Both groups were angry enough to start or join revolutions.

This article presents one half of a debate about the origins of liberal and national revolutions in this period, a key issue for responding to the Unit Problem. In other articles and videos, you have seen the importance of new ideas. In this article, you will explore the importance of people’s economic conditions. This will help you to evaluate the governance and economic systems themes for this period.

Think about the following question as you read the article: Using evidence from the article, explain the extent to which economic conditions played a role in the various revolutions in the period from 1750 to 1900. Write this question at the top of the Three Close Reads worksheet. You will be asked to respond to this question again after the third read in the Evaluating and Corroborating section of the worksheet.

Read 1 – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Read 2 – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What were three important economic changes that accompanied the growth of capitalism in this period, according to the author?
2. How did the Seven Years’ War (in which France and Britain were on opposite sides) start a process that led to both the American and French Revolutions, according to the article?
3. What economic problems helped lead the middle-class bourgeoisie and the poor to combine in the French Revolution?
4. What four groups in Haiti all had complaints against the French government, and what were those complaints?

Read 3 – Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. Using evidence from the article, explain the extent to which economic conditions played a role in the various revolutions in the period from 1750 to 1900.
2. After reading this article, do you think economic conditions were more important, as important, or less important than ideas in leading to revolution in these three places?
3. Were economic conditions also important in the revolutions in Latin America? How would you find out?

3x5 note cards or cut up paper

This sourcing collection, along with the Quick-Sourcing Tool, gives you an opportunity to practice a quicker kind of sourcing than you do in the sourcing practice progression. The tool and the process for using it—specifically designed for unpacking document collections—will help you be successful on both the SAQ and DBQ portions of the AP^® World History: Modern exam.

If you are unfamiliar with the Quick-Sourcing Tool or the process for using it, we recommend reviewing the Quick-Sourcing Introduction activity in Lesson 1.4.

The Quick-Sourcing Tool can be used any time you encounter a set of sources and are trying to respond to a prompt or question, as opposed to the deeper analysis you do when using the HAPPY tool that is part of the sourcing progression.

First, take out or download the sourcing collection and review the guiding question that appears on the first page. Then, take out or download the Quick-Sourcing Tool and review the directions. For Part 1, you’ll write a quick summary of each source in terms of how it relates to the guiding question (we recommend using one note card or scrap of paper for each source).

For Part 2, which uses the first four letters of the acronym from the HAPPY tool, you only have to respond to one of these four questions. This will get you a partial point on the AP^® World History: Modern exam. You should always include the historical significance or “why” (the “Y” in “HAPPY”) for any of the four questions you choose to respond to.

In Part 3, you’ll gather the evidence you found in each document and add it to your note cards so you can include it in a response later. Once each document is analyzed, look at your note cards and try to categorize the cards. There might be a group of documents that support the claim you want to make in your response, and another group that will help you consider counterclaims, for example.

To wrap up, try to respond to the guiding question.

You may already be familiar with the term “the Enlightenment”, but does it describe just one thing? There’s actually a pretty complex debate among scholars about the Enlightenment. One part of that debate asks whether the Enlightenment was a unified intellectual and culture movement, or if it is just a label we give to a bunch of different ideas from an assortment thinkers in this period. Another part of the debate is just how unified these ideas and values were across vast distances. In these sources, you’ll glimpse these tensions and contestations and see how the Enlightenment was not a single movement. Really, it was a new mode of reasoning and a set of ideas that did many different things in many different places.

The AP^® World History: Modern CED suggests students develop their sourcing skills in line with certain topics. For Unit 5, one of these topics is “The Enlightenment”; therefore, we’ve compiled a number of primary source excerpts to help you develop these skills in relation to this content. This should help prepare you to be successful on the AP exam.

We recommend using the accompanying Quick Sourcing activity (above) to help you analyze these sources.