Get to Know BP Year 3: Early Modern

Get to Know BP Year Three: Early Modern

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BP Year Three covers U.S., World and Church History from 1600 – 1850. Year Three is our first year to include U.S. History, as it was in 1607 that England planted its first lasting colony in North America.

On the U.S. and World History side, Year Three covers England side-by-side with England’s colonies in the New World. For example, our weeks on Jamestown start with the king for whom Jamestown was named: King James I of England, who was also King James VI of Scotland. We do the same for Plymouth colony, the Massachusetts Bay colony, and every one of the Thirteen Colonies. Because they were all English colonies, we must study English history to understand colonial history.

Year Three also covers the rest of Europe side-by-side with the newborn United States. We learn of the big part France played in the Revolutionary War; how the French Revolution cast shadows on Presidents Washington, Adams and Jefferson; how the fall of Napoleon helped the British burn Washington D.C. during the War of 1812; and much more.

The Church History side of Year Three covers a lot of ground. The trouble between Protestants and Catholics was never worse than it was in the early 1600s, when it touched off the awful Thirty Years’ War in the Holy Roman Empire. The same trouble led to the Gunpowder Plot, which came close to killing King James VI & I and his whole Parliament.

Year Three also tells how disagreements in the Church of England sent countless Englishmen running to the colonies looking for freedom of religion. Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay were just the start. We also learn how Maryland started as a haven for English Catholics, and how Georgia started as a second chance for English debtors. We go on to meet the great preachers of the First Great Awakening, plus some stranger preachers of the Second Great Awakening.

The U.S. and World History side of BP Year Three starts with a review of the conquistadors who built the Spanish Empire. The stories of Cortes, Pizarro, de Soto and Coronado convey the cruelty and gold-lust of those times. Before moving on, we take a short look back at the Scottish Reformation, the Dutch Revolt, and Elizabethan England.

Then comes the rise of King James, followed by a string of New World colonies—from Jamestown to Quebec City, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, New Netherland, New Sweden and all of the Thirteen Colonies. For each new colony, we learn how the news back in Europe affected that colony. For example, we learn that Pennsylvania was one of several “Restoration colonies”—referring to the Restoration of the Monarchy after the English Civil War. Each Restoration colony was gift from the restored monarch, King Charles II, to the nobles who’d helped him win back his throne. A out-of-favor Quaker like William Penn never could have founded a colony if the king hadn’t owed so much to Penn’s father.

Year Three also covers Native American history side-by-side with colonial history. We cover the Powhatan Confederacy side-by-side with Jamestown, the Iroquois Confederacy side-by-side with Quebec City, the Wampanoag Confederacy side-by-side with Plymouth Colony, and the Susquehannock and Occoneechee side-by-side with Bacon’s Rebellion. Later in the year, we see how the Revolutionary War all but destroyed the Iroquois Confederacy; how the fight for Ohio inspired a great leader called Tecumseh; and how the War of 1812 cost Tecumseh his life. Later still, we watch the “Five Civilized Tribes” follow their Trails of Tears out of the American South.

Weeks 21 through 23 cover U.S. History exclusively. We spend one full week on trouble that led to the Declaration of Independence; a second week on the Revolutionary War; and a third week on the Constitution of the United States. Then we’re back to covering U.S. and World History side-by-side. We spend several weeks on the French Revolution, the Age of Napoleon and the War of 1812. We also cover the growing British Empire, the abolitionist movement, the Boers of South Africa, and more. Year Three ends with a look at the Mexican-American War and the California Gold Rush.

U.S. & World History topics covered in Year Three include:

Cortes versus the Aztecs and Pizarro versus the Incas
The beheading of Mary, Queen of Scots
The Duke of Alba and the Dutch Revolt
The Gunpowder Plot against King James
Stories from Jamestown, Plymouth and every other English colony
Slavery and indentured servitude in the colonies
Stories from New France, New Netherland and New Sweden
The Thirty Years’ War between Catholics and Protestants in the Holy Roman Empire
The English Civil War and the beheading of King Charles I
The Puritan Migration
Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia and King Philip’s War in New England
The Restoration of the Monarchy under King Charles II
The Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London
Governor Edmund Andros and the Charter Oak of Connecticut
The Glorious Revolution of William and Mary
Stories from China, Japan, India, the Ottoman Empire, Russia and Prussia
The Golden Age of Piracy
The Salem Witch Trials
The French and Indian War and the British conquest of Canada
King Frederick the Great of Prussia and the Seven Years’ War
The rise of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia
The Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights
British penal colonies in Australia
King Louis XVI, Robespierre and the French Revolution
The rise of Napoleon and the French Empire
The fall of Napoleon and the Hundred Days
President George Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion
President John Adams and the Alien and Sedition Acts
President Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase
President Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal Act
The abolitionist movement in America
Nat Turner’s Rebellion
William Wilberforce and the abolitionist movement in Britain
President James Polk and the Mexican-American War
The Oregon Trail
John Sutter, Sam Brannan and the California Gold Rush
and many more!

Year Three is another important one for understanding Church History. It starts with major troubles between Catholics and Protestants in Europe. A look back at Mary, Queen of Scots shows how bad the trouble was during the Elizabethan era. For Mary was a devout Catholic, while Elizabeth leaned Protestant. The Catholic side was so desperate to put Mary on the throne of England that Elizabeth had to lock her up for years, and finally behead her, to keep herself safe.

The desperation continued when the Protestant King James took Elizabeth’s place. Guy Fawkes would have blown both king and Parliament sky-high if James hadn’t uncovered the Gunpowder Plot at the last minute. But the worst trouble between Catholics and Protestants was the Thirty Years’ War, which started with the Defenestration of Prague in 1618. The Catholic side might have killed every Protestant in the Holy Roman Empire if Protestants hadn’t found help from outside.

Meanwhile, conflicts in the Church of England were creating a burning desire for freedom of religion. The place to find it was in the American colonies, from Plymouth and Massachusetts to Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and more. We spend a lot of time with New England Puritans like William Brewster, John Cotton, John Winthrop, Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams and John Eliot. We also meet devoted Quakers like George Fox, Mary Dyer and William Penn. Their devotion helped make freedom of religion a permanent part of the American experience, written forever into the Bill of Rights.

Back in England, all those church conflicts nearly tore the country apart. The English Civil War wrought havoc for nearly twenty years, until the Restoration of the Monarchy set King Charles II back on the throne in 1660. But the trouble wasn’t over; for when Charles II died, a rumor spread that he had turned Catholic near the end. If Charles II wasn’t Catholic, then his successor James II certainly was. It took an invasion from James’ Protestant daughter Mary and her husband, William of Orange, to make England Protestant again. After the Glorious Revolution of William and Mary, the English Bill of Rights declared that England could never again have a Catholic monarch.

The next few decades saw less conflict and more faith. Great preachers like George Whitefield and John Wesley drew so many listeners that no church could hold them all. They took to preaching outdoors before crowds that numbered in the tens of thousands. So began the First Great Awakening, which renewed faith on both sides of the Atlantic.

Church History topics covered in Year Three include:

John Knox and the Scottish Reformation
The Duke of Alba and the Dutch Revolt
The Authorized Version of the Bible, a.k.a. the King James Version
The Massacre of the Huguenots at Matanzas Inlet, Florida
William Brewster and the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony
John Winthrop and the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Pulpit War and the banishment of Anne Hutchinson
Thomas Hooker and the founding of Connecticut
Roger Williams and the founding of Rhode Island
George Calvert and the founding of Maryland
John Milton and “Paradise Lost”
John Bunyan and “Pilgrim’s Progress”
John Eliot and the Praying Indians of Massachusetts
George Fox and the Quaker movement
The hanging of Mary Dyer in Boston
Margaret Wilson and the Scottish Covenanters
The Twenty-six Martyrs under Hideyoshi of Japan
The Salem Witch Trials
Great Awakening preachers like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield and John Wesley
The Moravian Pentecost
Brave missionaries like John Williams in the South Pacific, William Carey in India and Adoniram Judson in Burma
William Wilberforce and the abolitionist movement in Britain
Stories from the Second Great Awakening
and many more!

Year Three is our first year that includes U.S. Geography. As always, we cover the geography we need to understand our history lessons. For example, we cover the Chesapeake Bay before we study Jamestown, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence before we study the French colonies in Canada.

Geography topics covered in Year Three include:

The James River and the Chesapeake Bay
The Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Gulf of St. Lawrence
The Hudson River and Manhattan Island
The Delaware River
The Point of Fork and the Ohio River
The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers
The Louisiana Purchase
Major features of India, China and Japan
and many more!

BP Year Three is divided into six units:

Unit 1: The New World (6 weeks)
Unit 2: Western Europe (6 weeks)
Unit 3: Asia and Eastern Europe (6 weeks)
Unit 4: The American Revolution (5 weeks)
Unit 5: The Age of Napoleon (5 weeks)
Unit 6: Rebellion and Repression (6 weeks)

Total: 34 weeks

All BP materials have 34 chapters for a 34-week school year. If you follow a typical 36-week school year, then that leaves two extra weeks for field trips, parties and so on.