AP Euro: Anglo-Spanish Rivalry of the 16th century

Directions: Please answer each of the following with precision (meaning use historical detail when necessary) and clarity. None demands a full-essay as a response. Some may be a single word or two. Please WRITE ALL RESPONSES IN THE BLUE BOOK.

1..Carr asks if the proper object of the historian’s enquiry is the behavior of individuals or the action of social forces? Which proves decisive in historical events? Provide an argument for each with respect to the 16th century AND give a specific example for each point.

2. Gay&Webb wrote: “Philip II alienated his northern subjects first of all by what he was, not by what he did… But he soon added the irritant of policy to the accident of birth.” Please explain the statement and provide specific examples (two total) for each point.

3. What was the outcome of the siege of Malta? (Please give one short-term effect and one long-term)

4. Give three specific grievances of the rebels in the Netherlands that were not initially part of the rebel agenda against Philip, but rather resulted from Spanish reactions to the troubles of the 1560s.

5. What do Gay&Webb mean when they write that ‘Elizabeth reversed the marital diplomacy of the Hapsburgs’?

6. The conflict in the Netherlands has often been simplistically characterized as a religious conflict, between good and evil (Dutch children used to be told that if they weren’t good the Duke of Alba would come and carry them off). How is this, in the words of the historian Peter Geyl, “a denial of history”?

7. Give the surname (family) of each Henri involved in the War of the Three Henrys (1587-89).

8. What name did a sea-faring faction of the Netherlandish rebels take for themselves after seizing the island of Brielle?

9. In his Utopia Thomas More famously advised Raphael that he might perform a great public service by joining the council of some prince. Name 5 prominent royal counsellors of 16th-century and the princes they served. THEN briefly explain how 2 of them influenced the direction of policy during the 16th century. [Do not use Thomas More.]  

10. What were the long-term consequences of the Unions of Arras and of Utrecht, established in the decisive year of 1579?

11. What do Gay&Webb mean by writing that when Philip III ascended the Spanish throne “Spain was bankrupt in more than funds”?

12.  Briefly summarize the historical thesis of one of the following eminent scholars of the 16th century: Geoffrey Elton or Geoffrey Parker

13. When did England go Protestant theologically? Provide  a response and give evidence to prove your point.

14. Historians speak of long-term and immediate causation. Provide two long-term and two immediate causes for England going to war with Spain in 1585.