What is Case Study Question / Paragraph Based Question?
A case study is a scenario in a particular academic / professional context which students are expected to analyse and respond to, guided by specific questions posed concerning the situation. In many cases, the scenario or case study involves a number of issues or problems that must be dealt with in a academic / professional workplace.
Why Case Study Questions are included in academics?
Case study assignments usually require students to identify problems and issues in a scenario, to demonstrate their developing knowledge of theories and academic / professional policies and to make decisions and recommendations based on these to either prevent or solve some of the issues in that scenario.
How to solve Case Study Questions?
There are several steps to writing an answer to a case study assignment:
STEP 1: Read the case study and questions carefully.
- Read the case and associated questions carefully.
- Highlight the main points of the case and any issues that you can identify.
- Read the questions closely and analyse what they are requiring you to do.
- Read the case again, linking the information that is relevant to each question you have been asked.
STEP 2: Identify the issues in the case study.
Case studies describe a situation which may arise in a particular profession or social context. They often involve a number of people in a complex situation. They will often describe a situation which is problematic, possibly in how it is dealt with, or in its complexity. An important part of your answer is to analyse the situation and to identify the issues/actions described in the case which may be problematic. The following questions may help you to do this:
- What actions were taken in the case?
- Were these actions the most appropriate and why?
- Were there any consequences of the actions taken?
- Was anything omitted or not considered?
- Were actions/procedures in line with existing codes of practice, policy or theories?
STEP 3: Link theory to practice.
Use your knowledge of existing codes of practice, theories and/or other academic / professional documents and behaviours to decide what was done appropriately and what was not.
STEP 4: Plan your answer.
It can be useful to use the questions you have been set as headings and to answer each part in turn, reducing the chance of omitting set questions. You can always take out the headings before you submit if you wish. Lecturers usually set questions in a logical order, so answer in the order they are written in your question.
STEP 5: Start writing your case study answer (for theory only)
Like any assignment, you will need an introduction, body sections in which you answer the questions put to you regarding the case study, and a conclusion.
STEP 6: Edit and proofread.
Read through your paper yourself to detect and correct other errors and omissions.
Check you have answered all questions and backed up your answer with relevant passage.
Types of Case Study Questions / Paragraph Based Questions
Case Study Questions / Paragraph Based Questions can be broadly classified into two types:
- MCQs type: In this type, student has to tick the correct option from various options.
- Theory type: In this type, student has to write proper solution / answer in cotext to the case study.
Case Study/ Passage Based Questions Chapter 1 The Rise of Nationalism in Europe
Type 1: MCQ type
Case Study Question 01
Read the text given below and answer the questions that follows:
The first upheaval took place in France in July 1830. The Bourbon king who had been restored to power during the conservative reaction after 1815, were now overthrown by liberal revolutionaries who installed a constitutional monarchy with Louis Phillip at its head. ‘When France sneezes’, Metternich once remarked, ‘the rest of Europe catches cold, ‘The July Revolution sparked an uprising in Brussels which led to Belgium breaking away from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. An event that mobilised nationalist feeling among the educated elite across Europe was the Greek war of independence. Greek had been part of the Ottoman Empire since the fifteenth century. The growth of revolutionary nationalism in Europe sparked off a struggle for independence amongst the Greeks which began in 1821. Poet and artist lauded Greece as the cradle of European civilisation and mobilised public opinion to support its struggle against a Muslim empire. The English poet Lord Byron organised funds and later went to fight in the war, where he died of fever in 1824. Finally, the Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognised Greece as an independent nation.
Answer the following MCQs by choosing the most appropriate option:
Question.1. Who was the ruler of France at the beginning of the French Revolution?
(a) Louis Phillipe IV
(b) Louis Phillipe XIII
(c) Louis Phillipe XVI
(d) Louis Phillipe XV
Question.2. “When France sneezes, the rest of Europe catches cold.” Who marked the statement?
(a) Louis XVI
(b) Metternich
(c) Rousseau
(d) Karl Marx
Question.3. Which incident marked the French Revolution?
(a) February Revolution
(b) April Revolution
(c) July Revolution
(d) October Revolution
Question.4. ____________ recognised Greece as an independent nation.
(a) Treaty of Paris
(b) Treaty of Versailles
(c) Treaty of Constantinople
(d) Treaty of Vienna
Ans.1. (c) Louis Phillipe XVI.
Ans.2. (b) Metternich.
Ans.3. (c) July Revolution.
Ans.4. (c) Treaty of Constantinople
Case Study Question 02
Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow:
The most serious source of nationalist tension in Europe after 1871 was the area called the Balkans. The Balkans was a region of geographical and ethnic variation comprising modern-day Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro whose inhabitants were broadly known as the Slavs. A large part of the Balkans was under the control of the Ottoman Empire. The spread of the ideas of romantic nationalism in the Balkans together with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire made this region very explosive. All through the nineteenth century the Ottoman Empire had sought to strengthen itself through modernisation and internal reforms but with very little success. One by one, its European subject nationalities broke away from its control and declared independence. The Balkan peoples based their claims for independence or political rights on nationality and used history to prove that they had once been independent but had subsequently been subjugated by foreign powers. Hence the rebellious nationalities in the Balkans thought of their struggles as attempts to win back their long-lost independence.
Answer the following MCQs by choosing the most appropriate option.
Question.1. The Ottoman Empire sought to strengthen itself through:
(a) Modernisation
(b) internal reforms
(c) both (a) and (b)
(d) none of the above
Question.2. The Balkan people based their claims for __________ or __________ on nationality.
(a) independence, political rights
(b) power sharing, federalism
(c) secularism, political rights
(d) modernisation, strength
Question.3. The most serious source of nationalist tension in Europe after 1871 was the area of
_____________.
(a) Ottoman Empire
(b) Balkans
(c) Greece
(d) Albania
Question.4. The spread of the ideas of romantic nationalism was responsible for:
(a) disintegration of Greece
(b) Balkans disintegration from the Ottoman Empire
(c) integration of Macedonia
(d) none of the above
Ans.1. (c) both (a) and (b)
Ans.2. (a) independence, political rights
Ans.3. (b) Balkans
Ans.4. (b) Balkans disintegration from the Ottoman Empire
Case Study Question 03
Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow:
From the very beginning, the French revolutionaries introduced various measures and practices that could create a sense of collective identity amongst the French people. The ideas of la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) emphasised the notion of a united community enjoying equal rights under a constitution. A new French flag, the tricolour, was chosen to replace the former royal standard. The Estates General was elected by the body of active citizens and renamed the National Assembly. New hymns were composed, oaths taken and martyrs commemorated, all in the name of the nation. A centralised administrative system was put in place and it formulated uniform laws for all citizens within its territory. Internal customs duties and dues were abolished and a uniform system of weights and measures was adopted. Regional dialects were discouraged and French, as it was spoken and written in Paris, became the common language of the nation. The revolutionaries further declared that it was the mission and the destiny of the French nation to liberate the peoples of Europe from despotism, in other words to help other peoples of Europe to become nations. When the news of the events in France reached the different cities of Europe, students and other members of educated middle classes began setting up Jacobin clubs. Their activities and campaigns prepared the way for the French armies which moved into Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and much of Italy in the 1790s. With the outbreak of the revolutionary wars, the French armies began to carry the idea of nationalism abroad.
Answer the following MCQs by choosing the most appropriate option.
Question.1. The political and constitutional changes brought about by the French Revolution were:
(a) it ended the absolute monarchy.
(b) it transferred power to a body of the French citizens.
(c) it proclaimed that henceforth people would constitute the nation and shape its destiny.
(d) all the above.
Question.2. The first clear expression of nationalism came with:
(a) The American Revolution
(b) The French Revolution
(c) The Russian Revolution
(d) The Industrial Revolution
Question.3. The ideas of a United Community enjoying equal rights under a Constitution were expressed by the French as:
(a) La Patrie
(b) Le Citoyen
(c) Both (a) and (b)
(d) None of the above
Question.4. The Estates General was elected by the body of active citizens and it was renamed as:
(a) National Assembly
(b) Body of Executives
(c) Rule of Directory
(d) None of these
Ans.1. (d) all the above.
Ans.2. (b) The French Revolution
Ans.3. (c) Both (a) and (b)
Ans.4. (a) National Assembly
Case Study Question 04
Read the source given below and answer the following questions:
Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, European governments were driven by a spirit of conservatism. Conservatives believed that established, traditional institutions of state and society – like the monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family – should be preserved. Most conservatives, however, did not propose a return to the society of prerevolutionary days. Rather, they realised, from the changes initiated by Napoleon, that modernisation could in fact strengthen traditional institutions like the monarchy. It could make state power more effective and strong. A modern army, an efficient bureaucracy, a dynamic economy, the abolition of feudalism and serfdom could strengthen the autocratic monarchies of Europe. In 1815, representatives of the European powers – Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria – who had collectively defeated Napoleon, met at Vienna to draw up a settlement for Europe.
The Congress was hosted by the Austrian Chancellor Duke Metternich. The delegates drew up the Treaty of Vienna of 1815 with the object of undoing most of the changes that had come about in Europe during the Napoleonic wars. The Bourbon dynasty, which had been deposed during the French Revolution, was restored to power, and France lost the territories it had annexed under Napoleon.
Answer the following MCQs by choosing the most appropriate option.
Question.1. Which of the following countries did not attend the Congress of Vienna?
(a) Britain
(b) Russia
(c) Prussia
(d) Switzerland
Question.2. Why was the treaty of Vienna (1815) drawn up?
(a) To establish tariff barriers
(b) To restore the monarchies
(c) To divide the German Confederation of 39 states
(d) To establish democracies
Question.3. Who among the following was associated with the Treaty of Vienna of 1815?
(a) Bismarck
(b) Duke Metternich
(c) Louis Philippe
(d) Victor Emmaunel II
Question.4. After the Napoleon which dynasty was restored in France?
(a) Bourbon
(b) Mazzini
(c) Austrian
(d) none of the above
Ans.1. (d) Switzerland
Ans.2. (b) To restore the monarchies
Ans.3. (b) Duke Metternich
Ans.4. (a) Bourbon
Case Study Question 05
Read the source given below and answer the questions that follows:
When the news of the events in France reached the different cities of Europe, students and other members of educated middle classes began setting up Jacobin clubs. Their activities and campaigns prepared the way for the French armies which moved into Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and much of Italy in the 1790s. With the outbreak of the revolutionary wars, the French armies began to carry the idea of nationalism abroad. Within the wide swathe of territory that came under his control, Napoleon set about introducing many of the reforms that he had already introduced in France. Through a return to monarchy Napoleon had, no doubt, destroyed democracy in France, but in the administrative field he had incorporated revolutionary principles in order to make the whole system more rational and efficient. The Civil Code of 1804 – usually known as the Napoleonic Code – did away with all privileges based on birth, established equality before the law and secured the right to property. This Code was exported to the regions under French control. In the Dutch Republic, in Switzerland, in Italy and Germany, Napoleon simplified administrative divisions, abolished the feudal system and freed peasants from serfdom and manorial dues. In the towns too, guild restrictions were removed.
Answer the following MCQs by choosing the most appropriate option.
Question.1. The Civil Code of 1804 in France is usually known as:
(a) The French Revolutionary Code
(b) Napoleonic Code
(c) European Imperial Code
(d) The French Civil Code
Question.2. The Napoleonic Code was exported to which of the following regions?
(a) England
(b) Spain
(c) Regions under French control
(d) Poland
Question.3. Match the following:
(a) 1-(c), 2-(d), 3-(a), 4-(b)
(b) 1-(b), 2-(c), 3-(a), 4-(d)
(c) 1-(a), 2-(c), 3-(d), 4-(b)
(d) 1-(b), 2-(a), 3-(d), 4-(c)
Question.4. Which one of the following was not the feature of Napoleonic Code?
(a) Equality before the law
(b) Universal Adult Franchise
(c) Right to Property
(d) Privileges based on birth
Ans.1. (b) Napoleonic Code
Ans.2. (c) Regions under French control
Ans.3. (a) 1-(c), 2-(d), 3-(a), 4-(b)
Ans.4. (b) Universal Adult Franchise
Case Study Question 06
Read the source given below and answer the questions that follows:
During the 1830s, Giuseppe Mazzini had sought to put together a coherent programme for a unitary Italian Republic. He had also formed a secret society called Young Italy for the dissemination of his goals. The failure of revolutionary uprisings both in 1831 and 1848 meant that the mantle now fell on Sardinia-Piedmont under its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II to unify the Italian states through war. In the eyes of the ruling elites of this region, a unified Italy offered them the possibility of economic development and political dominance. Chief Minister Cavour who led the movement to unify the regions of Italy was neither a revolutionary nor a democrat. Like many other wealthy and educated members of the Italian elite, he spoke French much better than he did Italian. Through a tactful diplomatic alliance with France engineered by Cavour, Sardinia-Piedmont succeeded in defeating the Austrian forces in 1859. Apart from regular troops, a large number of armed volunteers under the leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi joined the fray. In 1860, they marched into South Italy and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and succeeded in winning the support of the local peasants in order to drive out the Spanish rulers. In 1861 Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of united Italy. However, much of the Italian population, among whom rates of illiteracy were very high, remained blissfully unaware of liberal nationalist ideology.
Answer the following MCQs by choosing the most appropriate option.
Question.1. Who was proclaimed King of united Italy in 1861?
(a) Victor Emmanuel II
(b) Louis Philippe
(c) Mazzini
(d) Cavour
Question.2. Cavour’s contribution to Italian unification was:
(a) Diplomatic alliance with the enemies of Austria
(b) War with Austrian and Bourbons
(c) Diplomatic alliance with France in 1859 and strengthening Sardinia and Piedmont
(d) Defeated the Bourbon Kings
Question.3. Which one of the following is true regarding the ideas promoted by Mazzini?
(a) opposition to monarchy and support to democratic republic
(b) to establish liberty and freedom under a monarchy
(c) disintegration of the German confederation under 39 states
(d) censorship of newspapers, books, plays and songs
Question.4. Who amongst the following the Italian leaders was neither a revolutionary nor a democrat?
(a) Mazzini
(b) Cavour
(c) Garibaldi
(d) Victor Emmanuel II
Ans.1. (a) Victor Emmanuel II
Ans.2. (c) Diplomatic alliance with France in 1859 and strengthening Sardinia and Piedmont
Ans.3. (a) opposition to monarchy and support to democratic republic
Ans.4. (b) Cavour
Case Study Question 07
Read the source given below and answer the questions that follows:
While it is easy enough to represent a ruler through a portrait or a statue, how does one go about giving a face to a nation? Artists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries found a way out by personifying a nation. In other words they represented a country as if it were a person. Nations were then portrayed as female figures. The female form that was chosen to personify the nation did not stand for any particular woman in real life; rather it sought to give the abstract idea of the nation a concrete form. That is, the female figure became an allegory of the nation. You will recall that during the French Revolution artists used the female allegory to portray ideas such as Liberty, Justice and the Republic. These ideals were represented through specific objects or symbols. As you would remember, the attributes of Liberty are the red cap, or the broken chain, while Justice is generally a blindfolded woman carrying a pair of weighing scales. Similar female allegories were invented by artists in the nineteenth century to represent the nation. In France she was christened Marianne, a popular Christian name, which underlined the idea of a people’s nation. Her characteristics were drawn from those of Liberty and the Republic – the red cap, the tricolour, the cockade. Statues of Marianne were erected in public squares to remind the public of the national symbol of unity and to persuade them to identify with it. Marianne images were marked on coins and stamps.
Answer the following MCQs by choosing the most appropriate option.
Question.1. The allegory of the German nation who wears a crown of oak leaves was a:
(a) Marianne
(b) Union Jack
(c) Britannia
(d) Germania
Question.2. Which of the given aspects signifies the image of ‘Germania’?
(a) Fold and Cultural Tradition
(b) Auterity and Asceticism
(c) Revenge and Vengeance
(d) Heroism and Justice
Question.3. What did Germania symbolise?
(a) French nation
(b) German nation
(c) British nation
(d) None of the above
Question.4. What does a blindfolded woman carrying a pair of weighing scales symbolise?
(a) Peace
(b) Equality
(c) Justice
(d) Liberty
Ans.1. (d) Germania
Ans.2. (d) Heroism and Justice
Ans.3. (b) German nation
Ans.4. (c) Justice
Type 2: Theory Type
Case Study Question 01
Read the sources given below and answer the questions that follows:
Source A – Liberal Nationalism
Ideas of national unity in early-nineteenth-century Europe were closely allied to the ideology of liberalism. The term ‘liberalism’ derives from the Latin root liber, meaning free. For the new middle classes liberalism stood for freedom for the individual and equality of all before the law. Politically, it emphasised the concept of government by consent. Since the French Revolution, liberalism had stood for the end of autocracy and clerical privileges, a constitution and representative government through parliament. Nineteenthcentury liberals also stressed the inviolability of private property.
Source B- New Conservatism after 1815
Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, European governments were driven by a spirit of conservatism. Conservatives believed that established, traditional institutions of state and society — like the monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family — should be preserved. Most conservatives, however, did not propose a return to the society of pre-revolutionary days. Rather, they realised, from the changes initiated by Napoleon, that modernisation could in fact strengthen traditional institutions like the monarchy. It could make state power more effective and strong. A modern army, an efficient bureaucracy, a dynamic economy, the abolition of feudalism and serfdom could strengthen the autocratic monarchies of Europe.
Source C- Conservative regimes
Conservative regimes set up in 1815 were autocratic. They did not tolerate criticism and dissent, and sought to curb activities that questioned the legitimacy of autocratic governments. Most of them imposed censorship laws to control what was said in newspapers, books, plays and songs and reflected the ideas of liberty and freedom associated with the French Revolution. The memory of the French Revolution nonetheless continued to inspire liberals. One of the major issues taken up by the liberal-nationalists, who criticised the new conservative order, was freedom of the press.
Source A-Liberal Nationalism
Question.1. What is the literal meaning of ‘liberalism’?
Source B-New Conservatism after 1815
Question.2. What was the belief of Conservatives?
Source C-Conservative regimes
Question.3. Why Conservative regimes was characterised by the autocrats?
Ans.1. The term ‘liberalism’ is derived from the Latin root liber, meaning free.
Ans.2. Conservatives believed that established, traditional institutions of state and society — like the monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family — should be preserved.
Ans.3. Conservative regimes did not tolerate criticism and dissent, and sought to curb activities that questioned the legitimacy of autocratic governments.
Case Study Question 02
Read the extract and answer the questions that follow:
To be revolutionary at this time meant a commitment to oppose monarchical forms that had been established after the Vienna Congress, and to fight for liberty and freedom. Most of these revolutionaries also saw the creation of nation-states as a necessary part of this struggle for freedom. One such individual was the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini, born in Genoa in 1807, he became a member of the secret society of the Carbonari. As a young man of 24, he was sent into exile in 1831 for attempting a revolution in Liguria. He subsequently founded two more underground societies, first, Young Italy in Marseilles, and then, Young Europe in Berne, whose members were like-minded young men from Poland, France, Italy and the German states. Mazzini believed that God had intended nations to be the natural units of mankind. So Italy could not continue to be a patchwork of small states and kingdoms. It had to be forged into a single unified republic within a wider alliance of nations. This unification alone could be the basis of Italian liberty.
Following his model, secret societies were set up in Germany, France, Switzerland and Poland. Mazzini’s relentless opposition to monarchy and his vision of democratic republics frightened the conservatives. Metternich described him as ‘the most dangerous enemy of our social order’. As conservative regimes tried to consolidate their power, liberalism and nationalism came to be increasingly associated with revolution in many regions of Europe such as the Italian and German states, the provinces of the Ottoman Empire, Ireland and Poland. These revolutions were led by the liberal-nationalists belonging to the educated middle-class elite, among whom were professors, schoolteachers, clerks and members of the commercial middle classes. The first upheaval took place in France in July 1830. The Bourbon kings who had been restored to power during the conservative reaction after 1815, were now overthrown by liberal revolutionaries who installed a constitutional monarchy with Louis Philippe at its head. ‘When France sneezes’, Metternich once remarked, ‘the rest of Europe catches cold’. The July Revolution sparked an uprising in Brussels which led to Belgium breaking away from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Question.1. In which place the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini was born? Which secret society was joined by Giuseppe Mazzini?
Question.2. What was the basis of Italian unification? When did the first upheaval took place?
Question.3. What is the belief of Mazzini on nation?
Ans.1. The Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini was born in Genoa in 1807 AD. He joined the secret society of the Carbonari.
Ans.2.
(i) The liberty was the basis of Italian unification.
(ii) The first upheaval took place in France in July 1830.
Ans.3. Mazzini believed that God had intended nations to be the natural units of mankind.
