AP European History Concept Outline, Effective Fall 2019

AP European History

Concept Outline

The concept outline for AP European History presents the course content organized by

key concept rather than in sequential units. The coding that appears in the AP European

History Course and Exam Description, Effective Fall 2019 corresponds to the organization of

the course content found in this conceptual outline.

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Key Concept 1.1 — The rediscovery of works from ancient Greece and

Rome and observation of the natural world changed many Europeans’ view of

their world.

I. A revival of classical texts led to new methods of scholarship and new values in

both society and religion.

A. Italian Renaissance humanists, including Petrarch, promoted a revival in

classical literature and created new philological approaches to ancient

texts. Some Renaissance humanists furthered the values of secularism

and individualism.

B. Humanist revival of Greek and Roman texts, spread by the printing press,

challenged the institutional power of universities and the Catholic Church. This

shifted education away from a primary focus on theological writings toward

classical texts and new methods of scientic inquiry.

C. Admiration for Greek and Roman political institutions supported a revival of

civic humanist culture in the Italian city-states and produced secular models for

individual and political behavior.

II. The invention of printing promoted the dissemination of new ideas.

A. The invention of the printing press in the 1450s helped spread the Renaissance

beyond Italy and encouraged the growth of vernacular literature, which would

eventually contribute to the development of national cultures.

B. Protestant reformers used the printing press to disseminate their ideas, which

spurred religious reform and helped it to become widely established.

III. The visual arts incorporated the new ideas of the Renaissance and were used to

promote personal, political, and religious goals.

A. In the Italian Renaissance, rulers and popes concerned with enhancing their

prestige commissioned paintings and architectural works based on classical

styles, the developing “naturalism” in the artistic world, and often the newly

invented technique of geometric perspective.

B. The Northern Renaissance retained a more religious focus, which resulted in

more human-centered naturalism that considered individuals and everyday life

appropriate objects of artistic representation.

C. Mannerist and Baroque artists employed distortion, drama, and illusion in their

work. Monarchies, city-states, and the church commissioned these works as a

means of promoting their own stature and power.

IV. New ideas in science based on observation, experimentation, and mathematics

challenged classical views of the cosmos, nature, and the human body, although

existing traditions of knowledge and the universe continued.

A. New ideas and methods in astronomy led individuals including Copernicus,

Galileo, and Newton to question the authority of the ancients and traditional

knowledge and to develop a heliocentric view of the cosmos.

B. Anatomical and medical discoveries by physicians, including William Harvey,

presented the body as an integrated system, challenging the traditional humoral

theory of the body and of disease espoused by Galen.

C. Francis Bacon and René Descartes dened inductive and deductive reasoning

and promoted experimentation and the use of mathematics, which would

ultimately shape the scientic method.

D. Alchemy and astrology continued to appeal to elites and some natural

philosophers, in part because they shared with the new science the notion of a

predictable and knowable universe. At the same time, many people continued to

believe that the cosmos was governed by spiritual forces.

Period 1: c. 1450–c. 1648

Key Concept 1.2 — Religious pluralism challenged the concept of a

unied Europe.

I. The Protestant and Catholic reformations fundamentally changed theology,

religious institutions, culture, and attitudes toward wealth and prosperity.

A. Christian humanism, embodied in the writings of Erasmus, employed

Renaissance learning in the service of religious reform.

B. Reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin criticized Catholic abuses and

established new interpretations of Christian doctrine and practice. Responses

to Luther and Calvin included religious radicals, such as the Anabaptists, and

other groups, such as German peasants.

C. Some Protestant groups sanctioned the notion that wealth accumulation was a

sign of God’s favor and a reward for hard work.

D. The Catholic Reformation, exemplied by the Jesuit Order and the Council of

Trent, revived the church but cemented the division within Christianity.

II. Religious reform both increased state control of religious institutions and provided

justications for challenging state authority.

A. Monarchs and princes, such as the English rulers Henry VIII and Elizabeth I,

initiated religious reform from the top down in an eort to exercise greater

control over religious life and morality.

B. Some Protestants, including Calvin and the Anabaptists, refused to recognize

the subordination of the church to the secular state.

C. Religious conicts became a basis for challenging the monarchs’ control of

religious institutions.

III. Conicts among religious groups overlapped with political and economic

competition within and among states.

A. Issues of religious reform exacerbated conicts between the monarchy and the

nobility, as in the French wars of religion.

B. Habsburg rulers confronted an expanded Ottoman Empire while attempting

unsuccessfully to restore Catholic unity across Europe.

C. States exploited religious conicts to promote political and economic interests.

D. A few states, such as France with the Edict of Nantes, allowed religious

pluralism in order to maintain domestic peace.

Key Concept 1.3 — Europeans explored and settled overseas territories,

encountering and interacting with indigenous populations.

I. European nations were driven by commercial and religious motives to explore

overseas territories and establish colonies.

A. European states sought direct access to gold, spices, and luxury goods as a

means to enhance personal wealth and state power.

B. The rise of mercantilism gave the state a new role in promoting commercial

development and the acquisition of colonies overseas.

C. Christianity was a stimulus for exploration as governments and religious

authorities sought to spread the faith, and for some it served as a justication

for the subjugation of indigenous civilizations.

II. Advances in navigation, cartography, and military technology enabled Europeans to

establish overseas colonies and empires.

AP European History Concept Outline

Period 1: c. 1450–c. 1648

III. Europeans established overseas empires and trade networks through

coercion and negotiation.

A. The Portuguese established a commercial network along the

African coast, in South and East Asia, and in South America in the

late 15th and throughout the 16th centuries.

B. The Spanish established colonies across the Americas, the

Caribbean, and the Pacic, which made Spain a dominant state in

Europe in the 16th century.

C. The Atlantic nations of France, England, and the Netherlands

followed by establishing their own colonies and trading networks to

compete with Portuguese and Spanish dominance in the 17th century.

D. The competition for trade led to conicts and rivalries among

European powers in the 17th and 18th centuries.

IV.i. and IV.ii. Europe’s colonial expansion led to a global exchange of goods, ora,

fauna, cultural practices, and diseases, resulting in the destruction of

some indigenous civilizations, a shift toward European dominance, and

the expansion of the slave trade.

A. The exchange of goods shifted the center of economic power in

Europe from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic states and brought

the latter into an expanding world economy.

B.i. The exchange of new plants, animals, and diseases—the Columbian

Exchange—created economic opportunities for Europeans.

B.ii. The exchange of new plants, animals, and diseases—the Columbian

Exchange—in some cases facilitated European subjugation and

destruction of indigenous peoples, particularly in the Americas.

C. Europeans expanded the African slave trade in response to the

establishment of a plantation economy in the Americas and

demographic catastrophes among indigenous peoples.

Key Concept 1.4 — European society and the experiences of everyday life were

increasingly shaped by commercial and agricultural capitalism, notwithstanding

the continued existence of medieval social and economic structures.

I. Economic change produced new social patterns, while traditions of hierarchy and

status continued.

A. Innovations in banking and nance promoted the growth of urban nancial

centers and a money economy.

B. The growth of commerce produced a new economic elite, which related

to traditional land-holding elites in dierent ways in Europe’s various

geographic regions.

C. Established hierarchies of class, religion, and gender continued to dene social

status and perceptions in both rural and urban settings.

II. Most Europeans derived their livelihood from agriculture and oriented their lives

around the seasons, the village, or the manor, although economic changes began to

alter rural production and power.

A. Subsistence agriculture was the rule in most areas, with three-crop eld rotation

in the north and two-crop rotation in the Mediterranean; in many cases, farmers

paid rent and labor services for their lands.

B. The price revolution contributed to the accumulation of capital and the

expansion of the market economy through the commercialization of agriculture,

which beneted large landowners in western Europe.

Period 1: c. 1450–c. 1648

C. As western Europe moved toward a free peasantry and commercial agriculture,

serfdom was codied in the east, where nobles continued to dominate economic

life on large estates.

D. The attempts of landlords to increase their revenues by restricting or abolishing

the traditional rights of peasants led to revolt.

III. Population shifts and growing commerce caused the expansion of cities, which

often placed stress on their traditional political and social structures.

A. Population recovered to its pre–Great Plague level in the 16th century, and

continuing population pressures contributed to uneven price increases;

agricultural commodities increased more sharply than wages, reducing living

standards for some.

B. Migrants to the cities challenged the ability of merchant elites and craft guilds to

govern, and strained resources.

C. Social dislocation, coupled with the shifting authority of religious institutions

during the Reformation, left city governments with the task of regulating

public morals.

IV. The family remained the primary social and economic institution of early modern

Europe and took several forms, including the nuclear family.

A. Rural and urban households worked as units, with men and women engaged in

separate but complementary tasks.

B. The Renaissance and Reformation raised debates about female education and

women’s roles in the family, church, and society.

C. From the late 16th century forward, Europeans responded to economic and

environmental challenges, such as the Little Ice Age, by delaying marriage and

childbearing. This European marriage pattern restrained population growth and

ultimately improved the economic condition of families.

V. Popular culture, leisure activities, and rituals reecting the continued popularity of

folk ideas reinforced and sometimes challenged communal ties and norms.

A. Leisure activities continued to be organized according to the religious calendar

and the agricultural cycle and remained communal in nature.

B. Local and church authorities continued to enforce communal norms through

rituals of public humiliation.

C. Reecting folk ideas and social and economic upheaval, accusations of

witchcraft peaked between 1580 and 1650.

Key Concept 1.5 — The struggle for sovereignty within and among states

resulted in varying degrees of political centralization.

I. The new concept of the sovereign state and secular systems of law played a central

role in the creation of new political institutions.

A. New monarchies laid the foundation for the centralized modern state by

establishing monopolies on tax collection, employing military force, dispensing

justice, and gaining the right to determine the religion of their subjects.

B. The Peace of Westphalia (1648), which marked the eective end of the medieval

ideal of universal Christendom, accelerated the decline of the Holy Roman

Empire by granting princes, bishops, and other local leaders control over religion.

C. Across Europe, commercial and professional groups gained in power and played

a greater role in political aairs.

D. Continued political fragmentation in Renaissance Italy provided a background

for the development of new concepts of the secular state.

AP European History Concept Outline

Period 1: c. 1450–c. 1648

II. The competitive state system led to new patterns of diplomacy and new forms

of warfare.

A. Following the Peace of Westphalia, religion declined in importance as a cause

for warfare among European states; the concept of the balance of power played

an important role in structuring diplomatic and military objectives.

B. Advances in military technology led to new forms of warfare, including greater

reliance on infantry, rearms, mobile cannon, and more elaborate fortications,

all nanced by heavier taxation and requiring a larger bureaucracy. New

military techniques and institutions (i.e., the military revolution) tipped the

balance of power toward states able to marshal sucient resources for the new

military environment.

III. The competition for power between monarchs and corporate and minority

language groups produced dierent distributions of governmental authority in

European states.

A. The English Civil War—a conict among the monarchy, Parliament, and other

elites over their respective roles in the political structure—exemplied the

competition for power among monarchs and competing groups.

B. Monarchies seeking enhanced power faced challenges from nobles who wished

to retain traditional forms of shared governance and regional autonomy.

C. Within states, minority local and regional identities based on language and

culture led to resistance against the dominant national group.

Period 1: c. 1450–c. 1648

Key Concept 2.1 — Dierent models of political sovereignty aected the

relationship among states and between states and individuals.

I. In much of Europe, absolute monarchy was established over the course of the 17th

and 18th centuries.

A. Absolute monarchies limited the nobility’s participation in governance but

preserved the aristocracy’s social position and legal privileges.

B. Louis XIV and his nance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, extended the

administrative, nancial, military, and religious control of the central state over

the French population.

C. In the 18th century, a number of states in eastern and central Europe

experimented with enlightened absolutism.

D. The inability of the Polish monarchy to consolidate its authority over the nobility

led to Poland’s partition by Prussia, Russia, and Austria, and its disappearance

from the map of Europe.

E. Peter the Great “westernized” the Russian state and society, transforming

political, religious, and cultural institutions; Catherine the Great continued

this process.

II. Challenges to absolutism resulted in alternative political systems.

A. The outcome of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution protected the

rights of gentry and aristocracy from absolutism through assertions of the rights

of Parliament.

B. The Dutch Republic, established by a Protestant revolt against the Habsburg

monarchy, developed an oligarchy of urban gentry and rural landholders to

promote trade and protect traditional rights.

III. After 1648, dynastic and state interests, along with Europe’s expanding colonial

empires, inuenced the diplomacy of European states and frequently led to war.

A. As a result of the Holy Roman Empire’s limitation of sovereignty in the Peace

of Westphalia, Prussia rose to power and the Habsburgs, centered in Austria,

shifted their empire eastward.

B. After the Austrian defeat of the Turks in 1683 at the Battle of Vienna, the

Ottomans ceased their westward expansion.

C. Louis XIV’s nearly continuous wars, pursuing both dynastic and state interests,

provoked a coalition of European powers opposing him.

D. Rivalry between Britain and France resulted in world wars fought both in

Europe and in the colonies, with Britain supplanting France as the greatest

European power.

IV. The French Revolution posed a fundamental challenge to Europe’s existing political

and social order.

A. The French Revolution resulted from a combination of long-term social and

political causes, as well as Enlightenment ideas, exacerbated by short-term

scal and economic crises.

B. The rst, or liberal, phase of the French Revolution established a constitutional

monarchy, increased popular participation, nationalized the Catholic Church,

and abolished hereditary privileges.

C. After the execution of Louis XVI, the radical Jacobin republic led by Robespierre

responded to opposition at home and war abroad by instituting the Reign of

Terror, xing prices and wages, and pursuing a policy of de-Christianization.

AP European History Concept Outline

Period 2: c. 1648–c. 1815

D. Revolutionary armies, raised by mass conscription, sought to bring the changes

initiated in France to the rest of Europe.

E. Women enthusiastically participated in the early phases of the revolution;

however, while there were brief improvements in the legal status of women,

citizenship in the republic was soon restricted to men.

F. Revolutionary ideals inspired a revolt of enslaved persons led by Toussaint

L’Ouverture in the French colony of Saint Domingue, which became the

independent nation of Haiti in 1804.

G. While many were inspired by the revolution’s emphasis on equality and human

rights, others condemned its violence and disregard for traditional authority.

V. Claiming to defend the ideals of the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte

imposed French control over much of the European continent, which eventually

provoked a nationalistic reaction.

A. As rst consul and emperor, Napoleon undertook a number of enduring

domestic reforms while often curtailing some rights and manipulating popular

impulses behind a façade of representative institutions.

B. Napoleon’s new military tactics allowed him to exert direct or indirect control

over much of the European continent, spreading the ideals of the French

Revolution across Europe.

C. Napoleon’s expanding empire created nationalist responses throughout Europe.

D. After the defeat of Napoleon by a coalition of European powers, the Congress

of Vienna (1814–1815) attempted to restore the balance of power in Europe and

contain the danger of revolutionary or nationalistic upheavals in the future.

Key Concept 2.2 — The expansion of European commerce accelerated the

growth of a worldwide economic network.

I. Early modern Europe developed a market economy that provided the foundation for

its global role.

A. Labor and trade in commodities were increasingly freed from traditional

restrictions imposed by governments and corporate entities.

B. The Agricultural Revolution raised productivity and increased the supply of food

and other agricultural products.

C. The putting-out system, or cottage industry, expanded as increasing numbers

of laborers in homes or workshops produced for markets through merchant

intermediaries or workshop owners.

D. The development of the market economy led to new nancial practices and

institutions.

II. The European-dominated worldwide economic network contributed to the

agricultural, industrial, and consumer revolutions in Europe.

A. European states followed mercantilist policies by drawing resources from

colonies in the New World and elsewhere.

B. The transatlantic slave-labor system expanded in the 17th and 18th centuries as

demand for New World products increased.

C. Overseas products and inuences contributed to the development of a consumer

culture in Europe.

D. The importation and transplantation of agricultural products from the Americas

contributed to an increase in the food supply in Europe.

E. Foreign lands provided raw materials, nished goods, laborers, and markets for

the commercial and industrial enterprises in Europe.

Period 2: c. 1648–c. 1815

III. Commercial rivalries inuenced diplomacy and warfare among European states in

the early modern era.

A. European sea powers vied for Atlantic inuence throughout the 18th century.

B. Portuguese, Dutch, French, and British rivalries in Asia culminated in British

domination in India and Dutch control of the East Indies.

Key Concept 2.3 — The spread of Scientic Revolution concepts and practices

and the Enlightenment’s application of these concepts and practices to

political, social, and ethical issues led to an increased but not unchallenged

emphasis on reason in European culture.

I. Enlightenment thought, which focused on concepts such as empiricism, skepticism,

human reason, rationalism, and classical sources of knowledge, challenged

the prevailing patterns of thought with respect to social order, institutions of

government, and the role of faith.

A. Intellectuals including Voltaire and Diderot began to apply the principles of the

Scientic Revolution to society and human institutions.

B. Locke and Rousseau developed new political models based on the concept of

natural rights and the social contract.

C. Despite the principles of equality espoused by the Enlightenment and the French

Revolution, intellectuals such as Rousseau oered controversial arguments for

the exclusion of women from political life.

II. New public venues and print media popularized Enlightenment ideas.

A. A variety of institutions, such as salons, explored and disseminated

Enlightenment culture.

B. Despite censorship, increasingly numerous and varied printed materials served a

growing literate public and led to the development of public opinion.

C. Natural sciences, literature, and popular culture increasingly exposed Europeans

to representations of peoples outside Europe and, on occasion, challenges to

accepted social norms.

III. New political and economic theories challenged absolutism and mercantilism.

A. Political theories, including John Locke’s, conceived of society as composed of

individuals driven by self-interest and argued that the state originated in the consent

of the governed (i.e., a social contract) rather than in divine right or tradition.

B. Mercantilist theory and practice were challenged by new economic ideas, such

as Adam Smith’s, which espoused free trade and a free market.

IV. During the Enlightenment, the rational analysis of religious practices led to natural

religion and the demand for religious toleration.

A. Intellectuals, including Voltaire and Diderot, developed new philosophies of

deism, skepticism, and atheism.

B. Religion was viewed increasingly as a matter of private rather than public concern.

C. By 1800, most governments in western and central Europe had extended

toleration to Christian minorities and, in some states, civil equality to Jews.

V. The arts moved from the celebration of religious themes and royal power to an

emphasis on private life and the public good.

A. Until about 1750, Baroque art and music promoted religious feeling and was

employed by monarchs to illustrate state power.

B. Eighteenth-century art and literature increasingly reected the outlook and

values of commercial and bourgeois society. Neoclassicism expressed new

Enlightenment ideals of citizenship and political participation.

AP European History Concept Outline

Period 2: c. 1648–c. 1815

VI. While Enlightenment values dominated the world of European ideas and culture,

they were challenged by the revival of public expression of emotions and feeling.

A. Rousseau questioned the exclusive reliance on reason and emphasized the role

of emotions in the moral improvement of self and society.

B. Romanticism emerged as a challenge to Enlightenment rationality.

C. Consistent with the Romantic Movement, religious revival occurred in Europe

and included notable movements such as Methodism, founded by John Wesley.

D. Revolution, war, and rebellion demonstrated the emotional power of mass

politics and nationalism.

Key Concept 2.4 — The experiences of everyday life were shaped by

demographic, environmental, medical, and technological changes.

I. In the 17th century, small landholdings, low-productivity agricultural practices, poor

transportation, and adverse weather limited and disrupted the food supply, causing

periodic famines. By the 18th century, the balance between population and the food

supply stabilized, resulting in steady population growth.

A. By the middle of the 18th century, higher agricultural productivity and

improved transportation increased the food supply, allowing populations to

grow and reducing the number of demographic crises (a process known as the

Agricultural Revolution).

B. In the 18th century, plague disappeared as a major epidemic disease, and

inoculation reduced smallpox mortality.

II. The consumer revolution of the 18th century was shaped by a new concern for

privacy, encouraged the purchase of new goods for homes, and created new venues

for leisure activities.

III. By the 18th century, family and private life reected new demographic patterns and

the eects of the commercial revolution.

A. Although the rate of illegitimate births increased in the 18th century, population

growth was limited by the European marriage pattern, and in some areas by

various birth control methods.

B. As infant and child mortality decreased and commercial wealth increased,

families dedicated more space and resources to children and child-rearing, as

well as private life and comfort.

IV. Cities oered economic opportunities, which attracted increasing migration from

rural areas, transforming urban life and creating challenges for the new urbanites

and their families.

A. The Agricultural Revolution produced more food using fewer workers; as a

result, people migrated from rural areas to the cities in search of work.

B. The growth of cities eroded traditional communal values, and city governments

strained to provide protection and a healthy environment.

C. The concentration of the poor in cities led to a greater awareness of poverty,

crime, and prostitution as social problems and prompted increased eorts to

police marginal groups.

Period 2: c. 1648–c. 1815

Key Concept 3.1 — The Industrial Revolution spread from Great Britain to the

continent, where the state played a greater role in promoting industry.

I. Great Britain established its industrial dominance through the mechanization of

textile production, iron and steel production, and new transportation systems in

conjunction with uniquely favorable political and social climates.

A. Britain’s ready supplies of coal, iron ore, and other essential raw materials

promoted industrial growth.

B. Economic institutions and human capital such as engineers, inventors, and

capitalists helped Britain lead the process of industrialization, largely through

private initiative.

C. Britain’s parliamentary government promoted commercial and industrial

interests because those interests were represented in Parliament.

II. Following the British example, industrialization took root in continental Europe,

sometimes with state sponsorship.

A. France moved toward industrialization at a more gradual pace than Great

Britain, with government support and with less dislocation of traditional

methods of production.

B. Industrialization in Prussia allowed that state to become the leader of a

unied Germany, which subsequently underwent rapid industrialization under

government sponsorship.

C. A combination of factors including geography, lack of resources, the dominance

of traditional landed elites, the persistence of serfdom in some areas, and

inadequate government sponsorship accounted for eastern and southern

Europe’s lag in industrial development.

III. During the second industrial revolution (c. 1870–1914), more areas of Europe

experienced industrial activity, and industrial processes increased in scale

and complexity.

A. Mechanization and the factory system became the predominant modes of

production by 1914.

B. New technologies and means of communication and transportation—including

railroads—resulted in more fully integrated national economies, a higher level of

urbanization, and a truly global economic network.

C. Volatile business cycles in the last quarter of the 19th century led corporations

and governments to try to manage the market through a variety of methods,

including monopolies, banking practices, and taris.

Key Concept 3.2 — The experiences of everyday life were shaped by

industrialization, depending on the level of industrial development in a

particular location.

I. Industrialization promoted the development of new classes in the industrial regions

of Europe.

A. In industrialized areas of Europe (i.e., western and northern Europe),

socioeconomic changes created divisions of labor that led to the development of

self-conscious classes, such as the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.

B. In some of the less industrialized areas of Europe, the dominance of agricultural

elites continued into the 20th century.

C. Class identity developed and was reinforced through participation in

philanthropic, political, and social associations among the middle classes, and

in mutual aid societies and trade unions among the working classes.

AP European History Concept Outline

Period 3: c. 1815–c. 1914

II. Europe experienced rapid population growth and urbanization, leading to social

dislocations.

A. Along with better harvests caused in part by the commercialization of

agriculture, industrialization promoted population growth, longer life

expectancy, and lowered infant mortality.

B. With migration from rural to urban areas in industrialized regions, cities

experienced overcrowding, while aected rural areas suered declines in

available labor as well as weakened communities.

III. Over time, the Industrial Revolution altered the family structure and relations for

bourgeois and working-class families.

A. Bourgeois families became focused on the nuclear family and the cult of

domesticity, with distinct gender roles for men and women.

B. By the end of the century, higher wages, laws restricting the labor of children

and women, social welfare programs, improved diet, and increased access to

birth control aected the quality of life for the working class.

C. Economic motivations for marriage, while still important for all classes,

diminished as the middle-class notion of companionate marriage began to be

adopted by the working classes.

D. Leisure time centered increasingly on the family or small groups, concurrent

with the development of activities and spaces to use that time.

IV. A heightened consumerism developed as a result of the second industrial revolution.

A. Industrialization and mass marketing increased both the production and

demand for a new range of consumer goods—including clothing, processed

foods, and labor-saving devices—and created more leisure opportunities.

B. New ecient methods of transportation and other innovations created new

industries, improved the distribution of goods, increased consumerism, and

enhanced the quality of life.

V. Because of the continued existence of more primitive agricultural practices and

land-owning patterns, some areas of Europe lagged in industrialization while facing

famine, debt, and land shortages.

Key Concept 3.3 — Political revolutions and the complications resulting from

industrialization triggered a range of ideological, governmental, and collective

responses.

I. Ideologies developed and took root throughout society as a response to industrial

and political revolutions.

A. Liberals emphasized popular sovereignty, individual rights, and enlightened

self-interest but debated the extent to which all groups in society should actively

participate in its governance.

B. Radicals in Britain and republicans on the continent demanded universal male

surage and full citizenship without regard to wealth and property ownership;

some argued that such rights should be extended to women.

C. Conservatives developed a new ideology in support of traditional political and

religious authorities, which was based on the idea that human nature was not

perfectible.

D. Socialists called for the redistribution of society’s resources and wealth and

evolved from a utopian to a Marxist scientic critique of capitalism.

E. Anarchists asserted that all forms of governmental authority were unnecessary

and should be overthrown and replaced with a society based on voluntary

cooperation.

Period 3: c. 1815–c. 1914

F. Nationalists encouraged loyalty to the nation in a variety of ways, including

romantic idealism, liberal reform, political unication, racialism with a

concomitant anti-Semitism, and chauvinism justifying national aggrandizement.

G. While during the 19th century western European Jews became more socially

and politically acculturated, Zionism, a form of Jewish nationalism, developed

late in the century as a response to growing anti-Semitism throughout Europe.

II. Governments, at times based on the pressure of political or social organizations,

responded to problems created or exacerbated by industrialization.

A. Liberalism shifted from laissez-faire to interventionist economic and social

policies in response to the challenges of industrialization.

B. Reforms transformed unhealthy and overcrowded cities by modernizing

infrastructure, regulating public health, reforming prisons, and establishing

modern police forces. The reforms were enacted by governments motivated by

such forces as public opinion, prominent individuals, and charity organizations.

C. Reformers promoted compulsory public education to advance the goals of public

order, nationalism, and economic growth.

III. Political movements and social organizations responded to problems of

industrialization.

A. Mass-based political parties emerged as sophisticated vehicles for social,

economic, and political reform.

B. Workers established labor unions and movements promoting social and

economic reforms that also developed into political parties.

C. Feminists pressed for legal, economic, and political rights for women as well as

improved working conditions.

D. Various nongovernmental reform movements, many of them religious, assisted

the poor and worked to end serfdom and slavery.

Key Concept 3.4 — European states struggled to maintain international

stability in an age of nationalism and revolutions.

I. The Concert of Europe (or Congress System) sought to maintain the status quo

through collective action and adherence to conservatism.

A. Metternich, architect of the Concert of Europe, used it to suppress nationalist

and liberal revolutions.

B. Conservatives re-established control in many European states and attempted to

suppress movements for change and, in some areas, to strengthen adherence to

religious authorities.

C. In the rst half of the 19th century, revolutionaries attempted to destroy the

status quo.

D. The revolutions of 1848, triggered by economic hardship and discontent with the

political status quo, challenged conservative politicians and governments and

led to the breakdown of the Concert of Europe.

II. The breakdown of the Concert of Europe opened the door for movements of national

unication in Italy and Germany as well as liberal reforms elsewhere.

A. The Crimean War demonstrated the weakness of the Ottoman Empire and

contributed to the breakdown of the Concert of Europe, thereby creating

the conditions in which Italy and Germany could be unied after centuries

of fragmentation.

B. A new generation of conservative leaders, including Napoleon III, Cavour, and

Bismarck, used popular nationalism to create or strengthen the state.

AP European History Concept Outline

Period 3: c. 1815–c. 1914

C. The creation of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, which recognized the

political power of the largest ethnic minority, was an attempt to stabilize the

state by reconguring national unity.

D. In Russia, autocratic leaders pushed through a program of reform and

modernization, including the emancipation of the serfs, which gave rise to

revolutionary movements and eventually the Russian Revolution of 1905.

III. The unication of Italy and Germany transformed the European balance of power

and led to eorts to construct a new diplomatic order.

A. Cavour’s diplomatic strategies, combined with the popular Garibaldi’s military

campaigns, led to the unication of Italy.

B. Bismarck used Realpolitik, employing diplomacy, industrialized warfare,

weaponry, and the manipulation of democratic mechanisms to unify Germany.

C. After 1871, Bismarck attempted to maintain the balance of power through a

complex system of alliances directed at isolating France.

D. Bismarck’s dismissal in 1890 eventually led to a system of mutually antagonistic

alliances and heightened international tensions.

E. Nationalist tensions in the Balkans drew the Great Powers into a series of crises,

leading up to World War I.

Key Concept 3.5 — A variety of motives and methods led to the intensication

of European global control and increased tensions among the Great Powers.

I. European nations were driven by economic, political, and cultural motivations in

their new imperial ventures in Asia and Africa.

A. European national rivalries and strategic concerns fostered imperial expansion

and competition for colonies.

B. The search for raw materials and markets for manufactured goods, as well as

strategic and nationalistic considerations, drove Europeans to colonize Africa

and Asia, even as European colonies in the Americas broke free politically, if not

economically.

C. European imperialists justied overseas expansion and rule by claiming cultural

and racial superiority.

II. Industrial and technological developments (i.e., the second industrial revolution)

facilitated European control of global empires.

A. The development of advanced weaponry ensured the military advantage of

Europeans over colonized areas.

B. Communication and transportation technologies facilitated the creation and

expansion of European empires.

C. Advances in medicine enabled European survival in Africa and Asia.

III. Imperial endeavors signicantly aected society, diplomacy, and culture in Europe

and created resistance to foreign control abroad.

A. Imperialism created diplomatic tensions among European states that strained

alliance systems.

B. Imperial encounters with non-European peoples inuenced the styles and

subject matter of artists and writers and provoked debate over the acquisition

of colonies.

C. Especially as non-Europeans became educated in Western values, they

challenged European imperialism through nationalist movements and by

modernizing local economies and societies.

Period 3: c. 1815–c. 1914

Key Concept 3.6 — European ideas and culture expressed a tension between

objectivity and scientic realism on one hand, and subjectivity and individual

expression on the other.

I. Romanticism broke with Neoclassical forms of artistic representation and with

rationalism, placing more emphasis on intuition and emotion.

A. Romantic artists and composers broke from classical artistic forms to emphasize

emotion, nature, individuality, intuition, the supernatural, and national histories

in their works.

B. Romantic writers expressed similar themes while responding to the Industrial

Revolution and to various political revolutions.

II. Following the revolutions of 1848, Europe turned toward a realist and materialist

worldview.

A. Positivism, or the philosophy that science alone provides knowledge,

emphasized the rational and scientic analysis of nature and human aairs.

B. Charles Darwin provided a scientic and material account of biological change

and the development of human beings as a species, and inadvertently, a

justication for racialist theories that became known as Social Darwinism.

C. Marx’s scientic socialism provided a systematic critique of capitalism and a

deterministic analysis of society and historical evolution.

D. Realist and materialist themes and attitudes inuenced art and literature as

painters and writers depicted the lives of ordinary people and drew attention to

social problems.

III. In the later 19th century, a new relativism in values and the loss of condence in the

objectivity of knowledge led to modernism in intellectual and cultural life.

A. Philosophy largely moved from rational interpretations of nature and human

society to an emphasis on irrationality and impulse, a view that contributed to

the belief that conict and struggle led to progress.

B. Freudian psychology oered a new account of human nature that emphasized

the role of the irrational and the struggle between the conscious and

subconscious.

C. Developments in the natural sciences, such as quantum mechanics and

Einstein’s theory of relativity, undermined the primacy of Newtonian physics as

an objective description of nature.

D. Modern art, including Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Cubism, moved

beyond the representational to the subjective, abstract, and expressive and often

provoked audiences that believed that art should reect shared and idealized

values such as beauty and patriotism.

AP European History Concept Outline

Period 3: c. 1815–c. 1914

Key Concept 4.1 — Total war and political instability in the rst half of the

20th century gave way to a polarized state order during the Cold War and

eventually to eorts at transnational union.

I. World War I, caused by a complex interaction of long- and short-term factors,

resulted in immense losses and disruptions for both victors and vanquished.

A. A variety of factors—including nationalism, military plans, the alliance system,

and imperial competition—turned a regional dispute in the Balkans into World

War I.

B. New technologies confounded traditional military strategies and led to trench

warfare and massive troop losses.

C. The eects of military stalemate, national mobilization, and total war led to

protest and insurrection in the belligerent nations and eventually to revolutions

that changed the international balance of power.

D. The war in Europe quickly spread to non-European theaters, transforming the

war into a global conict.

E. The relationship of Europe to the world shifted signicantly with the

globalization of the conict, the emergence of the United States as a world

power, and the overthrow of European empires.

II. The conicting goals of the peace negotiators in Paris pitted diplomatic idealism

against the desire to punish Germany, producing a settlement that satised few.

A. Wilsonian idealism clashed with postwar realities in both the victorious and the

defeated states. Democratic successor states emerged from former empires and

eventually succumbed to signicant political, economic, and diplomatic crises.

B. The League of Nations, created to prevent future wars, was weakened from the

outset by the nonparticipation of major powers, including the United States,

Germany, and the Soviet Union.

C. The Versailles settlement, particularly its provisions on the assignment of guilt

and reparations for the war, hindered the German Weimar Republic’s ability to

establish a stable and legitimate political and economic system.

III. In the interwar period, fascism, extreme nationalism, racist ideologies, and the

failure of appeasement resulted in the catastrophe of World War II, presenting a

grave challenge to European civilization.

A. French and British fears of another war, American isolationism, and deep

distrust between Western democratic, capitalist nations and the authoritarian,

communist Soviet Union allowed fascist states to rearm and expand their

territory.

B. Germany’s Blitzkrieg warfare in Europe, combined with Japan’s attacks in Asia

and the Pacic, brought the Axis powers early victories.

C. American and British industrial, scientic, and technological power, cooperative

military eorts under the strong leadership of individuals such as Winston

Churchill, the resistance of civilians, and the all-out military commitment of the

USSR contributed critically to the Allied victories.

D. Fueled by racism and anti-Semitism, Nazi Germany—with the cooperation of

some of the other Axis powers and collaborationist governments—sought to

establish a “new racial order” in Europe, which culminated with the Holocaust.

Period 4: c. 1914–PRESENT

IV. As World War II ended, a Cold War between the liberal democratic West and the

communist East began, lasting nearly half a century.

A. Despite eorts to maintain international cooperation through the newly created

United Nations, deep-seated tensions between the USSR and the West led to the

division of Europe, which was referred to in the West as the Iron Curtain.

B. The Cold War played out on a global stage and involved propaganda campaigns;

covert actions; limited “hot wars” in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the

Caribbean; and an arms race, with the threat of a nuclear war.

C. The United States exerted a strong military, political, and economic inuence

in Western Europe, leading to the creation of world monetary and trade systems

and geopolitical alliances including NATO.

D. Countries east of the Iron Curtain came under the military, political, and

economic domination of the Soviet Union within the Council for Mutual

Economic Assistance (COMECON) and the Warsaw Pact.

E. The collapse of the USSR in 1991 ended the Cold War and led to the

establishment of capitalist economies throughout Eastern Europe. Germany

was reunited, the Czechs and the Slovaks parted, Yugoslavia dissolved, and

the European Union was enlarged through admission of former Eastern

bloc countries.

V. Nationalist and separatist movements, along with ethnic conict and ethnic

cleansing, periodically disrupted the post–World War II peace.

VI. The process of decolonization occurred over the course of the century with varying

degrees of cooperation, interference, or resistance from European imperialist states.

A. At the end of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson’s principle of national

self-determination raised expectations in the non-European world for new

policies and freedoms.

B. The League of Nations distributed former German and Ottoman possessions

to France and Great Britain through the mandate system, thereby altering the

imperial balance of power and creating a strategic interest in the Middle East

and its oil.

C. Despite indigenous nationalist movements, independence for many African and

Asian territories was delayed until the mid- and even late 20th century by the

imperial powers’ reluctance to relinquish control, threats of interference from

other nations, unstable economic and political systems, and Cold War strategic

alignments.

Key Concept 4.2 — The stresses of economic collapse and total war

engendered internal conicts within European states and created conicting

conceptions of the relationship between the individual and the state, as

demonstrated in the ideological battle between and among democracy,

communism, and fascism.

I. The Russian Revolution created a regime based on Marxist–Leninist theory.

A. In Russia, World War I exacerbated long-term problems of political stagnation,

social inequality, incomplete industrialization, and food and land distribution, all

while creating support for revolutionary change.

B. Military and worker insurrections, aided by the revived Soviets, undermined the

Provisional Government and set the stage for Lenin’s long-planned Bolshevik

Revolution and establishment of a communist state.

C. The Bolshevik takeover prompted a protracted civil war between communist

forces and their opponents, who were aided by foreign powers.

AP European History Concept Outline

Period 4: c. 1914–PRESENT

D.i. In order to improve economic performance, Lenin compromised communist

principles and employed some free-market principles under the New Economic

Policy.

D.ii. After Lenin’s death, Stalin undertook a centralized program of rapid economic

modernization, often with severe repercussions for the population.

E. Stalin’s economic modernization of the Soviet Union came at a high price,

including the liquidation of the kulaks (the land-owning peasantry) and other

perceived enemies of the state, devastating famine in the Ukraine, purges of

political rivals, and, ultimately, the creation of an oppressive political system.

II. The ideology of fascism, with roots in the pre–World War I era, gained popularity in

an environment of postwar bitterness, the rise of communism, uncertain transitions

to democracy, and economic instability.

A. Fascist dictatorships used modern technology and propaganda that rejected

democratic institutions, promoted charismatic leaders, and gloried war and

nationalism to attract the disillusioned.

B. Mussolini and Hitler rose to power by exploiting postwar bitterness and

economic instability, using terror and manipulating the edgling and unpopular

democracies in their countries.

C. Franco’s alliance with Italian and German fascists in the Spanish Civil War—in

which the Western democracies did not intervene—represented a testing ground

for World War II and resulted in authoritarian rule in Spain from 1936 to the

mid-1970s.

D. After failures to establish functioning democracies, authoritarian dictatorships

took power in central and eastern Europe during the interwar period.

III. The Great Depression, caused by weaknesses in international trade and monetary

theories and practices, undermined Western European democracies and fomented

radical political responses throughout Europe.

A. World War I debt, nationalistic tari policies, overproduction, depreciated

currencies, disrupted trade patterns, and speculation created weaknesses in

economies worldwide.

B. Dependence on post–World War I American investment capital led to nancial

collapse when, following the 1929 stock market crash, the United States cut o

capital ows to Europe.

C. Despite attempts to rethink economic theories and policies and forge political

alliances, Western democracies failed to overcome the Great Depression and

were weakened by extremist movements.

IV. Postwar economic growth supported an increase in welfare benets; however,

subsequent economic stagnation led to criticism and limitation of the welfare state.

A. Marshall Plan funds from the United States nanced an extensive reconstruction

of industry and infrastructure and stimulated an extended period of growth in

Western and Central Europe, often referred to as an “economic miracle,” which

increased the economic and cultural importance of consumerism.

B. The expansion of cradle-to-grave social welfare programs in the aftermath of

World War II, accompanied by high taxes, became a contentious domestic

political issue as the budgets of European nations came under pressure in the

late 20th century.

Period 4: c. 1914–PRESENT

V. Eastern European nations were bound by their relationships with the Soviet Union,

which oscillated between repression and limited reform, until the collapse of

communist governments in Eastern Europe and the fall of the Soviet Union.

A. Central and Eastern European nations within the Soviet bloc followed an

economic model based on central planning, extensive social welfare, and

specialized production among bloc members. This brought with it the

restriction of individual rights and freedoms, suppression of dissent, and

constraint of emigration for the various populations within the Soviet bloc.

B. After 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization policies

failed to meet their economic goals within the Soviet Union; combined with

reactions to existing limitations on individual rights, this prompted revolts in

Eastern Europe, which ended with a reimposition of Soviet rule and repressive

totalitarian regimes.

C. Following a long period of economic stagnation, Mikhail Gorbachev’s internal

reforms of perestroika and glasnost, designed to make the Soviet system more

exible, failed to stave o the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of its

hegemonic control over Eastern and Central European satellites.

D.i. The rise of new nationalisms in Central and Eastern Europe brought peaceful

revolution in most countries but resulted in instability in some former Soviet

republics.

D.ii. New nationalisms in central and eastern Europe resulted in war and genocide

in the Balkans.

Key Concept 4.3 — During the 20th century, diverse intellectual and cultural

movements questioned the existence of objective knowledge, the ability

of reason to arrive at truth, and the role of religion in determining moral

standards.

I.i. The widely held belief in progress characteristic of much of the 19th century

thought began to break down before World War I.

I.ii. The experience of war intensied a sense of anxiety that permeated many facets

of thought and culture, giving way by the century’s end to a plurality of intellectual

frameworks.

A. When World War I began, Europeans were generally condent in the ability

of science and technology to address human needs and problems despite the

uncertainty created by the new scientic theories and psychology.

B. The eects of world war and economic depression undermined this condence

in science and human reason, giving impetus to existentialism and producing

postmodernism in the post-1945 period.

II. Science and technology yielded impressive material benets but also caused

immense destruction and posed challenges to objective knowledge.

A. The challenge to the certainties of the Newtonian universe in physics opened

the door to uncertainty in other elds by undermining faith in objective

knowledge while also providing the knowledge necessary for the development

of nuclear weapons and power.

B. Medical theories and technologies extended life but posed social and moral

questions that eluded consensus and crossed religious, political, and

philosophical perspectives.

C. Military technologies made possible industrialized warfare, genocide, nuclear

proliferation, and the risk of global nuclear war.

AP European History Concept Outline

Period 4: c. 1914–PRESENT

III. Organized religion continued to play a role in European social and cultural life

despite the challenges of military and ideological conict, modern secularism, and

rapid social changes.

A. The challenges of totalitarianism and communism in Central and Eastern

Europe brought mixed responses from the Christian churches.

B. Reform in the Catholic Church found expression in the Second Vatican Council,

which redened the church’s doctrine and practices and started to redene its

relations with other religious communities.

C. Increased immigration into Europe altered Europe’s religious makeup, causing

debate and conict over the role of religion in social and political life.

IV. During the 20th century, the arts were dened by experimentation, self-expression,

subjectivity, and the increasing inuence of the United States in both elite and

popular culture.

A. New movements in the visual arts, architecture, and music radically shifted

existing aesthetic standards, explored subconscious and subjective states, and

satirized Western society and its values.

B. Throughout the century, a number of writers challenged traditional literary

conventions, questioned Western values, and addressed controversial social and

political issues.

C. Increased imports of United States technology and popular culture after World

War II generated both enthusiasm and criticism.

Key Concept 4.4 — Demographic changes, economic growth, total war,

disruptions of traditional social patterns, and competing denitions of

freedom and justice altered the experiences of everyday life.

I. The 20th century was characterized by large-scale suering brought on by warfare

and genocide, but also by tremendous improvements in the standard of living.

A. World War I created a “lost generation,” and fostered disillusionment and

cynicism, while it transformed the lives of women, and democratized societies.

B. World War II decimated a generation of Russian and German men; virtually

destroyed European Jewry; resulted in the murder of millions in other groups

targeted by the Nazis including Roma, homosexuals, people with disabilities,

and others; forced large-scale migrations; and undermined prewar class

hierarchies.

C. Mass production, new food technologies, and industrial eciency increased

disposable income and created a consumer culture in which greater domestic

comforts such as electricity, indoor plumbing, plastics, and synthetic bers

became available.

D. New communication and transportation technologies multiplied the connections

across space and time, transforming daily life and contributing to the

proliferation of ideas and to globalization.

II. The lives of women were dened by family and work responsibilities, economic

changes, and feminism.

A. During the world wars, women became increasingly involved in military and

political mobilization as well as in economic production.

B. In Western Europe through the eorts of feminists, and in Eastern Europe and

the Soviet Union through government policy, women nally gained the vote,

greater educational opportunities, and access to professional careers, even while

continuing to face social inequalities.

Period 4: c. 1914–PRESENT

C. With economic recovery after World War II, the birth rate increased dramatically

(the baby boom), often promoted by government policies.

D. New modes of marriage, partnership, motherhood, divorce, and reproduction

gave women more options in their personal lives.

E. Women attained high political oce and increased their representation in

legislative bodies in many nations.

III. New voices gained prominence in political, intellectual, and social discourse.

A. Green parties in Western and Central Europe challenged consumerism, urged

sustainable development, and, by the late 20th century, cautioned against

globalization.

B. Various movements, including women’s movements, political and social

movements, gay and lesbian movements, and others, worked for expanded civil

rights, in some cases obtaining the goals they sought, and in others facing

strong opposition.

C. Intellectuals and youth reacted against perceived bourgeois materialism and

decadence, most signicantly with the revolts of 1968.

D. Because of the economic growth of the 1950s and 1960s, migrant workers

from southern Europe, Asia, and Africa immigrated to Western and Central

Europe; however, after the economic downturn of the 1970s, these workers and

their families often became targets of anti-immigrant agitation and extreme

nationalist political parties.

IV. European states began to set aside nationalist rivalries in favor of economic and

political integration, forming a series of transnational unions that grew in size and

scope over the second half of the 20th century.

A. As the economic alliance known as the European Coal and Steel Community,

envisioned as a means to spur postwar economic recovery, developed into the

European Economic Community (EEC or Common Market) and the European

Union (EU), Europe experienced increasing economic and political integration

and eorts to establish a shared European identity.

B. EU member nations continue to balance questions of national sovereignty with

the responsibilities of membership in an economic and political union.

AP European History Concept Outline

Period 4: c. 1914–PRESENT