Western Civilization II / Unit 1 WC2 0017 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Sequencing France, 1610 to 1715
The idea
The exam hands you events out of order and asks which came first. For Louis XIV's France the method is three fixed points: Henry IV's assassination in sixteen ten, which put a child on the throne; Mazarin's death in sixteen sixty-one, which began Louis's personal rule; and Utrecht in seventeen thirteen, which ended his ambitions. Everything else falls between them.
In practice
Place six events. Richelieu becomes chief minister: sixteen twenty-eight, after sixteen ten and before Louis XIII's death in sixteen forty-three. The Fronde: sixteen forty-eight to fifty-three, during the regency, so before sixteen sixty-one. Colbert takes the finances: sixteen sixty-one, the year personal rule begins. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes: sixteen eighty-five, deep in the personal rule. The War of the Spanish Succession opens: seventeen-oh-one, after the revocation and before Utrecht. Louis dies: seventeen fifteen, two years after Utrecht. The order reads Richelieu, the Fronde, Colbert, the revocation, the Succession war, Utrecht, the king's death.
Where people slip
The anchor writes Richelieu's tenure as a reign, sixteen twenty-eight to forty-two; it is a ministry. The Fronde's start year comes from the witness, not the anchor. The exam asks order, and the order does not change.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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