AP European History spans 1450 to the present across four periods. DBQ and LEQ prompts test causation, comparison, and continuity/change over time. These notes focus on the turning points and key figures most frequently tested.
Period 1 (1450–1648): Renaissance, Reformation, and Exploration
Italian Renaissance: humanism, Machiavelli's The Prince, patronage system. Protestant Reformation: Luther's 95 Theses (1517), sola fide/sola scriptura, Council of Trent (Catholic Counter-Reformation). Wars of Religion: Peace of Augsburg (1555, cuius regio eius religio), Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), Peace of Westphalia. European exploration: joint-stock companies, Columbian Exchange, encomienda system.
Period 2 (1648–1815): Absolutism, Enlightenment, and Revolution
Absolute monarchies: Louis XIV ("L'état, c'est moi"), Versailles as control mechanism, intendants. Scientific Revolution: Copernicus (heliocentric), Galileo, Newton's Principia Mathematica, empiricism. Enlightenment: Locke (natural rights), Voltaire (religious tolerance), Rousseau (general will), Montesquieu (separation of powers). French Revolution: Estates, Tennis Court Oath, Declaration of the Rights of Man, Reign of Terror, Napoleon Bonaparte's rise and fall.
Period 3 (1815–1914): Industrialization, Nationalism, and Imperialism
Congress of Vienna (1815): Metternich and conservative order, Concert of Europe. Industrial Revolution: enclosure movement, factory system, urbanization, class conflict. Nationalism: unification of Germany (Bismarck, 1871) and Italy (Risorgimento, Garibaldi, Cavour). New Imperialism: Berlin Conference (1884), Social Darwinism, "civilizing mission." Marxism: Communist Manifesto, class struggle, means of production.
Period 4 (1914–Present): World Wars, Cold War, Integration
WWI causes: militarism, alliances, imperialism, nationalism (MAIN); assassination of Franz Ferdinand. Treaty of Versailles: war guilt clause, reparations, redrawing borders → conditions for WWII. Totalitarianism: Stalin's collectivization/gulags, Hitler's Nazi state (Nuremberg Laws, Holocaust), Mussolini's fascism. WWII: Holocaust, D-Day, atomic bombs. Cold War: Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Berlin Wall, détente, collapse of USSR 1991. European integration: EU, Maastricht Treaty, euro currency.
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