Some things you may wish to prepare for specifically:

• General Crisis Theory
• English Constitutional Developments of the 17th century

Some questions that appeared on the exam in the recent past:

• The Beaver Wars in America and the Amboyna Massacre in South East Asia are emblematic of what development in the 17th century?
• Why do intellectual historians consider Descartes’ Discourse on Method (1637) a departure from Renaissance thought and fundamental to modern science (one of Niall Ferguson’s 6 Killer Apps)?
• Explain why most people today know Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill, king of Dun na nGall, as Hugh O’Donnell.
• Was Dutch nationality a cause or an effect of the rebellion in the Netherlands?
• Describe and explain the fortunes of Amsterdam and Antwerp between 1550 and 1650.
• How might it be argued that the Scientific Revolution was a triumph of science over philosophy and aesthetics?
• Explain the visual changes seen in the Frauenkirche and the Michaelskirche built a century apart in Munich.
• How might it be said that at the very time when the Atlantic states were consolidating their sovereign national power, the religious wars accelerated the political disintegration of central and eastern Europe?