Study AP European History (AP Euro) with flashcards covering all major periods from c. 1450 to the present.
Must-Know AP Euro Terms
- Protestant Reformation: 16th-century religious movement challenging Catholic Church authority. Luther's 95 Theses (1517) → split of Western Christianity into Catholic and Protestant denominations.
- Scientific Revolution: 16th–17th century shift to empirical, mathematical methods for understanding nature. Copernicus, Galileo, Newton. Undermined traditional religious/Aristotelian worldviews.
- Absolutism: Political system where a monarch holds unlimited, centralized power. Justified by divine right theory. Louis XIV of France: "L'état, c'est moi."
- Enlightenment: 18th-century intellectual movement emphasizing reason, individual rights, and skepticism of tradition. Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau. Influenced American and French revolutions.
- Congress of Vienna (1814-15): Post-Napoleonic settlement that redrew European borders, restored conservative monarchies, and created the Concert of Europe to maintain balance of power.
- Social Darwinism: Application of Darwin's natural selection to human societies, used to justify imperialism, class inequality, and racism. Misappropriation of scientific theory for social ideology.
- Totalitarianism: Political system where the state controls all aspects of public and private life. 20th-century examples: Nazi Germany (fascism), Stalinist USSR (communism).
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