Essay

Essay (please choose ONE of the following topics and write three to five paragraphs in response):
1. Identify key factors driving the Age of Exploration and the subsequent development of European colonialism in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, as well as the major countries involved.  What were the roles of slavery, the profit motive, and religion in building the colonial empires of Spain, Portugal, France, and Britain? 
2. Choose one of the major African or West, South, or East Asian empires we have examined and identify and describe its major leaders, public policies (including those related to religion), major achievements, and major failings.
3. Examine one of the following movements: the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Reformation/Counter-Reformation, the scientific revolution, or the Enlightenment, including key people, ideas, and events related to this movement.
4. Examine the causes and consequences of any of the following political revolutions: the English Civil War, the Pueblo Revolt of 1680; the American Revolution, or the French Revolution.  (The Haitian Revolution is also an acceptable topic, but we will covering that more during this Friday’s class.)  You may examine how radical (or not) this revolution was in its short-term and long-term effects.
5. Examine the development of slavery in the world civilizations we have examined, including its expansion following the Age of Exploration and the dawn of global European colonialism.  Identify some similarities and differences between slavery as it was practiced among black Africans, Arabs, and Europeans, and the experiences of both Native Americans and black Africans under colonial slavery.