Early Modern Europe Web Sites
Internet Modern History Sourcebook ★★★★☆
The Internet History Sourcebooks are wonderful collections of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts for educational use by Paul Halsall. The site and its documents are well organized and the breadth of materials is impressive. The Sourcebooks include: an Ancient History Sourcebook, a Medieval Sourcebook, and a Modern History Sourcebook. The Internet Modern History Sourcebook contains thousands of sources in dozens of categories. Subjects covered in the Internet Modern History Sourcebook include: the Late Middle Ages, the Italian Renaissance, the Early Reformation, Protestant Reformation, Catholic Reformation, Women and Reformation, The Early Modern World System, The European “Age of Discovery,” Structures of Life in the West, Everyday Life, From Popular to Mass Culture, The Enlightenment, Religion in an Age of Reason, Responses to the French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, and more.
Early Modern Resources ★★★★☆
In 2000 a Ph.D student began Early Modern Resources, a gateway site for the early modern period (c.1500-1800). It contains a wide range of links. Subject themes are Old and New Worlds, Material and symbolic cultures, Society, economy, and demography, Politics, rebellions and revolutions, Women, gender, and sexuality, Crime, law, and disorder, Religion, science, and philosophy, Literature, art, and performance, and Medicine and illness. Also includes links to General Resources, E-tests, E-journals, and more.
France in the Age of Les Miserables ★★★★☆
This site was created by students at Mount Holyoke and provides a wealth of information on the social history of France from the beginning of the Enlightenment to Haussman’s renovation of Paris in the 1870’s. The site’s presentation is very old and dated, but the content is excellent, with succintly-cited primary sources, plenty of images, and uncommon information things such as fashion history or the Parisian Opera.
London Stage Database ★★★★☆
The London Stage Database is the latest in a long line of projects that aim to capture and present the rich array of information available on the theatrical culture of London, from the reopening of the public playhouses following the English civil wars in 1660 to the end of the eighteenth century. On a given night, in each of the city’s playhouses, hundreds or even thousands of spectators gathered to experience richly varied performance events that included not only plays, but prologues and epilogues, short afterpieces and farces, pantomimes, instrumental music, singing, and dancing. These events, taken together, provide a wealth of information about the rhythms of public life and the texture of popular culture in long-eighteenth-century London.
World Civilizations Image Repository ★★★☆☆
This site consists of a series of image databases drawn from donated personal faculty collections and images in the WSU libraries. The primary purpose of the site is to provide educators with non-copyright restricted images for classroom use. Users may search across all collections by entering terms in the search bar.
The Garden, the Ark, the Tower, the Temple: Biblical Metaphors of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe ★★★☆☆
This Oxford University site describes how the Biblical stories of the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark, the Tower of Babel, and the Temple of Solomon provided explanations for the human condition and seemed to offer plans for escape into a better world. The searchable site aims to provide a broad picture of the role of biblical interpretation in early modern Europe and shows how stories from the Bible were used by early scientists and Reformation leaders as a story of the growth and decline of knowledge. Mostly text with a few hyperlinks, but there are some engaging images.
Labyrinth: Medieval Resources ★★★☆☆
This Georgetown University site features bibliographies, a searchable index, links to special topics, and full-text versions of medieval works
Lesson Plans, Teacher Guides, Activities, Primary Sources and more
History Learning Site
This site covers many UK Key Stage 3 topics and contains a complete Modern World History course, together with numerous GCSE and Advanced Level History and Politics courses.
BBC History Trail: Victorian Britain
Victorian Britain experienced dramatic economic growth but at great social cost. Discover more about the winners and losers in the race to prosperity. Find out how heroic cartoons and the novels of Charles Dickens can help the historian piece together a picture of the past.
Tudor Hackney
This UK National Archives Learning Curve and Hackney Archives site enables you to explore the world of 1601 through a virtual reality reconstruction of the Rectory House, which once stood on the west side of Hackney’s Mare Street. The site uses video drama and virtual tours to provide an insight into Tudor life in general, and how court and country could come to be linked in the web of intrigue and politics of the latter days of Elizabeth I.
Did God Really help the English Defeat the Spanish Armada?
At Key Stage 3 this work fits into the unit on the Making of the United Kingdom and could be used as a straight account of events, illustrating English foreign relations. It could also be used to explore the role of propaganda in Elizabeth’s reign. From the National Archives Learning Curve
19th Century People: What Can We Tell From this Photograph?
Who were these people? What were they called? The exercise aims to give students the opportunity to use two historical sources to answer these basic questions. From the National Archives Learning Curve. Key Stage 2-3.
Past Pleasures: How Did the Victorians Have Fun?
Photographs and posters from Victorian Britain help students understand how leisure time was spent. From the National Archives Learning Curve. Key Stage 2-3.
The Romantic Chronology
An attractive site featuring an interactive chronology of the Romance period.
Napoleon: Church and State
Study historic and present-day examples of the interplay between religion and government. Based on the PBS video, Napoleon. Grades 7 -12.
Hero or Tyrant?
Debate Napoleon’s legacies and leadership style to determine if he was a hero or a tyrant. Use your view to produce a newspaper from 1815 which assesses Napoleon’s career. Based on the PBS video, Napoleon. Grades 7 -12.
Napoleon Becomes a Man of Destiny
Ask students to consider what has influenced their own lives and whether or not they believe in “destiny.” Explore how the French Revolution, family, personality, historical events, and other factors influenced Napoleon’s rise to power. Based on the PBS video, Napoleon. Grades 7 -12.
How Did the British React to July 1789?
Students look at primary source material from 1789, including a London newspaper report and personal letters, and then the examine the British reaction to the events that started the French Revolution. From the National Archives Learning Curve. Key Stage 3
The Laws Live On
Compare Napoleon’s Civil Code with the U.S. Constitution and explore how guiding documents evolve over time. Based on the PBS video, Napoleon. Grades 7 -12.
English Civil War Game
In this ActiveHistory interactive contest you try to keep your head as King of England in the crisis-ridden years of the 1630’s and 1640’s. You must be a paying member of ActiveHistory in order to access the site.
A Victorian News Magazine
Students will create a special feature news magazine that highlights Queen Victoria and her reign over England. Students will include stories about key events, people, and politics of the time. They will use proper writing techniques when creating news and feature stories as well as editorials. Magazines will focus on different decades of Victoria’s life from 1819 to 1901. PBS, High School.
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Meet the wives, get a portrait of life in Tudor times, explore Henry VIII and his fascinating life, access lessons and play matchmaker for the monarch himself with a fun interactive game.
The Western Heritage: Lesson Plans
Focus Lessons for The Western Heritage highlight important ideas and concepts in each chapter as well as the relevant sections in the program’s ancillaries. The Focus Lessons, written by an experienced AP teacher, suggest strategies for assessing how well your students understand the important points in each chapter and also provide test-taking tips that will help your students prepare for and take the AP European history test successfully.
Inventions That Changed the World
Students will create small group projects that illustrate the positive and negative impacts of the inventions of the Industrial Revolution, the ways this revolution shaped Victoria’s reign as Queen of England, and the ways this invention contributed to the idea of a world economy. PBS, Middle School
AP European History Web Links and Primary Source Documents
Historyteacher.net offers 1000s of links to great web sites and primary source documents. Just pick a topic and go to that page where you will find a large number of links that can be used for research and study. You will also be directed to in-depth, detail-linked class assignments on several topics.
BBC History Games: Battle of Waterloo
Play the game and take sides in the Battle of Waterloo. Then find out more about the battle, the tactics employed, and the consequences for Europe.
BBC History Games: Elizabethan Spying
Play the game and see if you can crack the code that incriminated Mary, Queen of Scots.
BBC History Games: Victorian Women’s Rights
Play the game to find out how women’s rights evolved during the Victorian Age.
BBC History: Kings and Queens Through Time
In this animated timeline you put the kings and queens of England, and later the United Kingdom, in their proper place. There are four periods to explore. The Plantagenets and the Houses of Lancaster and York are featured in the first period, the Tudors and Stuarts in the second, and the House of Hanover in the third. The timeline concludes with the Windsors.
BBC History: Stephenson’s Rocket Animation
Play the animation to operate the Rocket, considered by many to be the forerunner of all steam locomotives, and a key factor in the advance of the Industrial Revolution.
BBC History: Spinning Mill Animation
Play the animation to operate a steam-powered spinning mill.
BBC History: The Changing British Population Animation
Play the animation, and track how key events in British history have affected the size of the British population.
BBC History: The Great Fire of London Animation
View the animation to see contemporary etchings of the London skyline, showing the extent of the devastation. Afterwards, you could view the changing designs for St Paul’s Cathedral, rebuilt in the aftermath of the fire by Sir Christopher Wren.
BBC History: The History of European Map Making Animation
Explore the changing European view of the world in the animated history of maps across the centuries. The Map Animation features images that are reproduced courtesy of the British Library.
BBC History: The Endeavour Virtual Tour
Captain Cook set sail on the Endeavour, a refitted Whitby coal ship, in 1768. The Endeavour was to sail to Taihiti to watch the ‘transit of Venus’, and then on to the South Pacific to complete a top secret mission. Cook went on to chart New Zealand and the previously uncharted east coast of Australia in what has now become a legendary voyage.
BBC History Games: The Gunpowder Plot
Guy Fawkes was among a gang of Roman Catholic conspirators who wanted to blow up the House of Lords and assassinate King James VI of Scotland and I of England. As part of their plan, they stored gunpowder kegs in the cellars of the House of Lords. You must find those kegs before the fizzing fuse causes disaster!