United Grade 11 AP European History
Chapters: 9
1. Renaissance and Exploration
Contextualizing Renaissance and Discovery · Italian Renaissance · Northern Renaissance · Printing · New Monarchies · Technological Advances and the Age of Exploration · Rivals on the World Stage · Colonial Expansion and Columbian Exchange · The Slave Trade · The Commercial Revolution · Causation in the Renaissance and Age of Discovery
- Renaissance and Exploration: How Europe Changed, c. 1450–1648 – From about 1450, Italian city-states revived Greek and Roman learning (humanism) and new art based on perspective. The movement spread north, where it became more religious. The printing press spread ideas fast. Kings built stronger 'new monarchies'. New ships and instruments let Portugal, Spain and later the Dutch, English and French cross oceans, creating empires, the Columbian exchange, the forced Atlantic slave trade and a commercial revolution with banks and joint-stock companies.
2. Age of Reformation
Contextualizing 16th- and 17th-Century Challenges and Developments · Luther and the Protestant Reformation · Protestant Reform Continues · Wars of Religion · The Catholic Reformation · 16th-Century Society and Politics · Art of the 16th Century: Mannerism and Baroque Art · Causation in the Age of Reformation and the Wars of Religion
- The Reformation and Catholic Reform: Causes and Effects – In the 1500s the single Western Christian church split. People were angry about the sale of indulgences and corruption, printing spread new ideas fast, and rulers wanted more power. Luther (1517), Calvin and the English crown created Protestant churches. The Catholic Church answered with its own reform (Council of Trent, Jesuits). Wars followed, then treaties that let rulers choose their state's religion.
3. Absolutism and Constitutionalism
Contextualizing State Building · The English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution · Continuities and Changes to Economic Practice and Development · Economic Development and Mercantilism · The Dutch Golden Age · Balance of Power · Absolutist Approaches to Power · Comparison in the Age of Absolutism and Constitutionalism
- Absolutism: When One Ruler Held All the Power – Absolutism (about 1600–1789) was a way of ruling in which one monarch held almost all power. The ruler made the laws, carried them out and was the highest judge. Rulers said their power came from God (divine right of kings), so nobody could question them. To control the country they built a standing army, hired paid officials, collected taxes everywhere and kept great nobles busy at court. Louis XIV of France, the 'Sun King', is the classic example, with his palace at Versailles. Peter the Great of Russia and the Habsburg rulers of Austria and Spain also ruled this way. Absolute rulers often followed mercantilism: sell more abroad than you buy, to bring gold home. In England and the Dutch Republic, parliaments and rich town leaders limited the ruler instead, leading to constitutional monarchy after 1689. Enlightenment ideas and the French Revolution of 1789 finally weakened absolutism.
4. Scientific, Philosophical, and Political Developments
Contextualizing the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment · The Scientific Revolution · The Enlightenment · 18th-Century Society and Demographics · 18th-Century Culture and Arts · Enlightened and Other Approaches to Power · Causation in the Age of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
- The Enlightenment – The Enlightenment (about 1680–1800) was a movement in Europe that said people should use reason and evidence, not only tradition, to understand the world and to run society. It grew out of the Scientific Revolution. Thinkers such as Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant and Mary Wollstonecraft argued for natural rights, separation of powers, freedom of speech and religion, and government by consent. Ideas spread through books, newspapers, salons and the Encyclopédie. Some monarchs tried reforms (enlightened absolutism); the ideas also fed the American (1776) and French (1789) revolutions and later movements everywhere, including reformers in India.
5. Conflict, Crisis, and Reaction in the Late 18th Century
Contextualizing 18th-Century States · The Rise of Global Markets · Britain's Ascendency · The French Revolution · The French Revolution's Effects · Napoleon's Rise, Dominance, and Defeat · The Congress of Vienna · Romanticism · Continuity and Change in 18th-Century States
- The Age of Revolutions (c. 1770–1850) – Between about 1770 and 1850, people in the Americas and Europe overthrew or challenged kings, colonial rulers and old privileges. New ideas of liberty, equality and rights met real problems: unfair taxes, debt, hunger and slavery. The American Revolution (1776) created a republic with a written constitution. The French Revolution (1789) ended feudal privilege and declared the rights of citizens. The wave spread to Haiti, Latin America and Europe in 1848. Kings pushed back at Vienna in 1815, but ideas of citizenship, constitutions and the nation lasted.
6. Industrialization and Its Effects
Contextualizing Industrialization and Its Origins and Effects · The Spread of Industry Throughout Europe · Second Wave Industrialization and Its Effects · Social Effects of Industrialization · The Concert of Europe and European Conservatism · Reactions and Revolutions · Ideologies of Change and Reform Movements · 19th-Century Social Reform · Institutional Responses and Reform · Causation in the Age of Industrialization
- The Industrial Revolution: Causes, Effects and Reform (1760–1914) – Between about 1760 and 1914 work moved from hand tools at home to machines in factories. A first wave (about 1760–1840) began in Britain with coal, iron, steam power and cotton mills. A second wave (about 1870–1914) brought steel, electricity, chemicals and oil, and spread to Western Europe, the United States, Japan and Russia. Towns grew fast; workers faced long hours, child labour and dirty housing. Workers organised in unions, new ideas (liberalism, socialism, conservatism) argued about what to do, and governments slowly passed factory, health and voting reforms.
7. 19th-Century Perspectives and Political Developments
Contextualizing 19th-Century Perspectives and Political Developments · Nationalism · National Unification and Diplomatic Tensions · Darwinism, Social Darwinism · The Age of Progress and Modernity · New Imperialism: Motivations and Methods · Imperialism's Global Effects · 19th-Century Culture and Arts · Causation in 19th-Century Perspectives and Political Developments
- The Rise of Nationalism in Europe – Before 1789, Europe was split into many kingdoms and people were loyal to a king. The French Revolution said power belongs to the people, who form one nation. Napoleon spread equal laws. After 1815 kings came back, but liberals, romantic writers and hungry common people pushed for nation-states in 1830 and 1848. Germany (1871) and Italy (1861) were built by joining many small states. Nations were shown as women figures like Marianne and Germania. By 1914, nationalism mixed with imperial rivalry, and the Balkans tension led to the First World War.
8. 20th-Century Global Conflicts
Contextualizing 20th-Century Global Conflicts · World War I · The Russian Revolution and Its Effects · Versailles Conference and Peace Settlement · Global Economic Crisis · Fascism and Totalitarianism · Europe During the Interwar Period · World War II · The Holocaust · 20th-Century Cultural, Intellectual, and Artistic Developments · Continuity and Changes in an Age of Global Conflict
- World War II (1939–1945) – World War II was the deadliest war in history. Its roots were the anger left by World War I, the Great Depression and the rise of dictators in Germany, Italy and Japan. It began when Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. The Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan) fought the Allies (Britain and its empire, France, the USSR, the USA, China and others). It was a total war and a war of annihilation: about 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and 70–85 million people died. Germany surrendered in May 1945 and Japan in September 1945. The war led to the United Nations, the Cold War and the end of empires.
9. Cold War and Contemporary Europe
Contextualizing Cold War and Contemporary Europe · Rebuilding Europe · The Cold War · Two Super Powers Emerge · Postwar Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict, and Atrocities · Contemporary Western Democracies · The Fall of Communism · 20th-Century Feminism · Decolonization · The European Union · Migration and Immigration · Technology · Globalization · 20th- and 21st-Century Culture, Arts, and Demographic Trends · Continuity and Change in the 20th and 21st Centuries
- The Cold War (1945–1991) – The Cold War was a long contest (1945–1991) between two superpowers: the USA with its Western allies (capitalism, multi-party elections) and the USSR with its Eastern allies (communism, one-party rule). They never fought each other directly. Instead they formed rival alliances (NATO, Warsaw Pact), raced to build nuclear weapons and reach space, backed opposite sides in proxy wars (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan) and came close to nuclear war in Cuba in 1962. Many new nations, led by India and others, stayed non-aligned. Détente eased tension in the 1970s. Reforms in the USSR, the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the break-up of the USSR (1991) ended it.