500 Word Paper, English

INSTRUCTIONS

Please choose one of the following questions, and answer in the form of an essay with a strong thesis statement in the introductory paragraph followed by sufficient evidence and argument in the body of the paper to support your thesis (as per the handout “Writing a History Essay—The Basics’). The essay should be between 500 and 750 words (usually 2-3 typed, double-spaced pages in a 12-point font with one-inch margins).

 

 

When Europeans explored the world during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, the subsequent encounters on the various continents did not always follow a similar path. Compare and contrast the European encounter with peoples in the Americas, Africa, South Asia, and East Asia, and explain why these encounters developed in different ways. (Hint: Be sure to provide in your thesis paragraph the basic explanation(s) for the differences in European encounters on all the aforementioned regions.)

 

What contributed to and caused the rise of absolutism (absolute monarchy) in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? In what ways were the resulting absolutist regimes similar, and in what ways were they different—even unique?

 What were the political, social, cultural, and economic consequences of the Columbian encounter and exchange for European civilization? Of these changesin Europe that resulted from the Columbian encounter/exchange, which would you rank as the most important ? (Hint: Be sure that you focus on the changes to Europe; what happened to other peoples in other parts of the world as a result of the European encounter are irrelevant to the question at hand).