AP European History

In AP European History, students investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes from approximately 1450 to the present. Students develop and use the same skills, practices, and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; developing historical arguments; making historical connections; and utilizing reasoning about comparison, causation, and continuity and change over time. The course also provides seven themes that students explore throughout the course in order to make connections among historical developments in different times and places: interaction of Europe and the world, economic and commercial development, cultural and intellectual development, states and other institutions of power, social organization and development, national and European identity, and technological and scientific innovations.

College Course Equivalent

AP European History is designed to be the equivalent of an introductory college or university survey of modern European history.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for AP European History. Students should be able to read a college-level textbook and write grammatically correct, complete sentences.

Historical Thinking Skills

Skill 1 – Developments and Processes
Identify and explain historical developments and processes
1A Identify a historical concept, development, or process.
1B Explain a historical concept, development, or process.
Skill 2 – Sourcing and Situation
Analyze sourcing and situation of primary and secondary sources.
2A Identify a source s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience.
2B Explain the point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience of a source.
2C Explain the significance of a source s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience, including how these might limit the use(s) of a source.
Skill 3 – Claims and Evidence in Sources
Analyze arguments in primary and secondary sources.
3A Identify and describe a claim and/or argument in a text-based or non-text-based source.
3B Identify the evidence used in a source to support an argument.
3C Compare the arguments or main ideas of two sources.
3D Explain how claims or evidence support, modify, or refute a source s argument.
Skill 4 – Contextualization
Analyze the context of historical events, developments, or processes.
4A Identify and describe a historical context for a specific historical development or process.
4B Explain how a specific historical development or process is situated within a broader historical context.
Skill 5 – Making Connections
Using historical reasoning processes (comparison, causation, continuity and change) analyze patterns and connections between and among historical developments and processes.
5A Identify patterns among or connections between historical developments and processes.
5B Explain how a historical development or process relates to another historical development or process.
Skill 6 – Argumentation
Develop an argument.
6A Make a historically defensible claim.
6B Support an argument using specific and relevant evidence. Describe specific examples of historically relevant evidence. Explain how specific examples of historically relevant evidence support an argument.
6C Use historical reasoning to explain relationships among pieces of historical evidence.
6D Corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument using diverse and alternative evidence in order to develop a complex argument. This argument might:
  • Explain nuance of an issue by analyzing multiple variables.
  • Explain relevant and insightful connections within and across periods.
  • Explain the relative historical significance of a source s credibility and limitations.
  • Explain how or why a historical claim or argument is or is not effective.

Reasoning Skills

  • Comparison (Compare & Contrast)
    1. Describe similarities and/or differences between different historical developments or processes.
    2. Explain relevant similarities and/or differences between specific historical developments and processes.
    3. Explain the relative historical significance of similarities and/or differences between different historical developments or processes.
  • Causation (Cause & Effect)
    1. Describe causes and/or effects of a specific historical development or process.
    2. Explain the relationship between causes and effects of a specific historical development or process.
    3. Explain the difference between primary and secondary causes and between short- and long-term effects.
    4. Explain how a relevant context influenced a specific historical development or process.
    5. Explain the relative historical significance
  • Continuity and Change
    1. Describe patterns of continuity and/or change over time.
    2. Explain patterns of continuity and/or change over time.
    3. Explain the relative historical significance of specific historical developments in relation to a larger pattern of continuity and/or change.
 NOTE: Each unit will count for 10-15% of the AP Exam. 
  • Period 1 [c.1450-1648]
    • Unit 1: Renaissance and Exploration
      • Italian Renaissance and Northern Renaissance
      • Printing
      • New Monarchies
      • Age of Exploration, the Slave Trade, and the Beginning of a Global Economy
    • Unit 2: The Age of Reformation
      • Martin Luther, John Calvin and Hnry VIII
      • Wars of Religion and the Catholic Reformation
      • 16th Century Society and politics
      • 16th-Century Art
  • Period 2 [1648-1815]
    • Unit 3: Absolutism and Constitutionalism
      • Absolutism and Constitutionalism
      • Louis XIV and the Balance of Power
      • English Civil War and Glorious Revolution
      • The Dutch Golden Age
      • Mercantilism and Capitalism
    • Unit 4: Scientific, Philosophical, and Political Developments
      • The Scientific Revolution
      • The Enlightenment
      • Enlightened Absolutism
      • 18th-Century Culture and Arts
    • Unit 5: Conflict, Crisis, and reaction in the Late 18th Century
      • Britain's Industrial Revolution and Its Ascendancy
      • The French Revolution
      • The Rise and Fall of Napoleon
      • The Congress of Vienna
      • The Beginning of Romanticism
  • Period 3 [1815-1914]
    • Unit 6: Industrialization and Its Effects
      • The Concert of Europe and Conservatism
      • Ideologies of Change and Revolutions
      • 19th-Century Social Reform
      • the Second Industrial Revolution
    • Unit 7: 19th-Century Perspectives and Political Developments
      • National Unification
      • Nationalism and Imperialism
      • Progress and Modernity
      • Darwinism and Anxiety
      • 19th-Century Culture and Arts
  • Period 4 [1914-c.2005]
    • Unit 8: 20th-Century Global Conflicts
      • World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the Treaty of Versailles
      • Global Economic Crisis
      • Fascism and Totalitarianism
      • World War II and the Holocaust
      • 20th-Century Culture and Arts
    • Unit 9: Cold War and Contemporary Europe
      • Rebuilding Europe
      • The Cold War
      • Postwar Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict
      • The Fall of Communism
      • The European Union
      • Migration and Immigration
      • Technology and Globalization
      • Contemporary Culture and Arts

Test Preparation Pages: Review Materials