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LordFlameBoy t1_jcyvaig wrote

I’ve got a school history project (A-Level History coursework for those interested) and was wondering if anyone could help me trying to choose a topic.

The time period must cover 80-120 years and start no later than 1807.

It should examine the factors behind something e.g. ‘to what extent was the main cause of the American CW slavery?’

I’m particularly interested in political systems (e.g. formation of the Reichstag 1871) and would ideally like it to be as late as possible i.e. 19th century

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en43rs t1_jcz0b1r wrote

Unification of Germany ? You can start with Napoleon’s confederation of the Rhine and end in the 1880s with a unified Germany. You’ve got lot to talk about in between.

Or the idea of republic in France. It took 90 years, three republics, three monarchies and two empire (and like 6 uprisings and two civil wars) to get a stable republican government in the 1870s… but that may be a bit too much.

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quantdave t1_jd3c54c wrote

France occurred to me too: we tend not to recall what a close-run thing it (repeatedly) was. Germany (like Italy) seems a bit well-trodden, but could be interesting with a non-Prussia (or non-Piedmont) focus. Austria/Austria-Hungary's always fascinating, and this period encompasses the whole 1804-1918 empire. Spain & Portugal would be a bit more "out there" and are quite a challenge, but they're potentially rewarding and less vast than Russia's rise at the other end of the continent. And of course there's always the familiar rise of representative government in Britain and national aspiration in Ireland as in Poland or the Balkan lands.

Further afield, it's the "crisis" of the Chinese empire - but how much of it was home-grown, how much exogenous? It's the period of British supremacy in India and the first stirrings of modern nationalism. For Latin America it's the era of independence, export-led development and the rise of US hemispheric power. In Africa it's the period from the end of the Atlantic slave trade to the start of the full-scale colonial scramble: how were they linked, and what happened in between? Globally the century sees perhaps thirtyfold growth in international trade and the rise of gold to monetary hegemony (and the first signs that it may not have been such a brilliant idea after all). And it's the great age of European industrial & population growth and emigration (the last however mostly from the 1840s) - though others too were on the move. And of course it sees the rise of secularism, science and challenges on class, race and gender, though these were all foreshadowed in the 18th century and sometimes the 17th.

A fascinating century, then, with considerable unity but in some respects marked by a new dynamism from around 1850, yet it's arguable that we didn't truly emerge from its shadow until a century later - but that's anther story lying outside the chronological range.

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elmonoenano t1_jd4nwxp wrote

I don't know how in depth it has to be, but it might be fun to compare UK policy in China during the Opium Wars vs. US policy in Japan and how they shaped each other.

You could also do a compare and contrast of US and UK policy in some other colonial context like Liberia vs. Sierra Leone and how UK emancipation differed from US emancipation and colonization scheme.

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