AP EUROPEAN HISTORY CHEAT SHEET // @thinkfiveable // fiveable.

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Time  PERIOD 1  PERIOD 2  PERIOD 3  PERIOD 4 

Period → 
RENAISSANCE, REFORMATION,  ABSOLUTISM, ENLIGHTENMENT,  INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION,  GLOBAL CONFLICTS, COLD WAR, 
Key 
Concept  EXPLORATION  REVOLUTION  NATIONALISM, IMPERIALISM  CONTEMPORARY 
↓  1450–1648  1648–1815  1815–1914  1914–present 

● Printing press → spread ideas quickly 

● Italian Renaissance (Petrarch, Valla,  ● Absolute Monarchies (James I, Peter  ● Total war, political instability → 
● Industrial Rev → GB (had coal, private 
etc)  the Great, Phillip II, III, IV, Louis XIV)  polarization, transnational 
industry, and gov’t support) 
Key  ● Northern Ren more religious,  ● Monarchs challenged → Glory Rev  ● WWI → losses and disruptions 
● Spread → Fr, Prussia, US, Ger 
Concept  naturalism  ● Wars → 7 Yrs, Am Rev, Dutch War  ● Paris Peace Conf, ideal vs. punish 
● E & S Euro serfdom delayed IR 
1  ● Scientific thinkers emerging: astro  ● French Rev → 99%, Reign of T, Haiti  ● Fascism, nationalism, racism → WWII 
● Second IR → factory sys, electric, chem, 
(Galileo), med (Harvey), math (Bacon)  ● Napoleon → conq Euro, Congress of  ● Cold War, COMECON, Warsaw Pact 
railroads, radio, monopolies 
● Philosophy (Paracelsus, Descartes,  Vienna  ● World systems, alliances (NATO, WTO) 
More) 

● Protestant Ref (Luther, Calvin) 

● Catholic Ref in response  ● European state conflict (relation of 
● Global market expanded  ● IR → middle class, trade unions 
● State religious reforms (Henry VIII)  individual and the state) 
● Putting out sys led to ↑ laborers  ● Huge pop ↑, crowded cities 
Key  ● Conflicts (Huguenots challenged  ● Democracy, communism, fascism 
● Market Econ → free trade, ↑ supply  ● Cult of domesticity for bourgeois 
Concept  monarchy, Habsburgs restored  ● Russian Rev, Marxist–Leninist 
● Euro dominated markets, mercantil  ● Wages ↑ = better working class life 
2  Catholicism to fight o Ottoman  ● GD (econ weak, debt, policy) 
● slave trade ↑, food ↑, population ↑  ● ↑ consumerism bc mass marketing 
expan)  ● Soviet Union: Stalin, repress 
● Rivalries → vied for influence  ● Some places = famine (Irish, Russian) 
● Relig pluralism = peace (Poland,  totalitarian, econ modern, collapse 
Dutch) 

● Exploration for gold, god, and glory 

● Enlightenment (salons, co eehouse)  ● IR → new challenges → revolutions  ● Intellect, cultural move (object know, 
● Mercantilist policies promoted dev 
● Sci Rev applied to ppl (Voltaire)  ● Liberals = pop sov (Bentham, Mill)  truth, religion + morals, progress) 
Key  ● New tech (compass, horses, guns) 
● Ideas → Political (Locke, Rousseau),  ● Conserv = trad author (Metternich)  ● Science and tech + and - 
Concept  ● Portug, Span, GB, FR, Dutch → 
Econ (Smith), Religion (Diderot)  ● Socialist = redistribution (Marx)  ● Military tech → genocide, nuclear 
3  colonies 
● Led to ↑ literacy, spread of ideas  ● Nationalist (loyalty to nation)  ● Immigration ↑ Europe, relig debate 
● Competition = Conflict 
● Romanticism, Baroque, Neoclassic  ● Zionism ↑ bc growing antisem  ● Postmodernism, existentialism 
● Euro dominance → slave trade expand 

● Capitalism → new elites (gentry,  ● Econ ↑, social reform, free + just 

nobles)  ● Su ering (war, genocide) + improve 
● Food ↑, disease ↓ bc of medicines  ● Concert of Euro → maintain status quo 
● Subsistence agriculture continued  ● WWI → lost gen, cynicism, democracy 
Key  ● Consumer Rev → leisure, privacy  ● Revs of 1848 → liberal reforms 
● Agr commercial = Price Rev  ● Women: war, feminism, vote, edu, 
Concept  ● Infant mortality ↓, focus on child  ● Crimea, Bismarck, Russian Rev (‘05) 
(enclosures)  work 
4  ● Cities = job opportunities, new health  ● Italian & Ger unification, realpolitik 
● Family e ects = delay marriage & kids  ● Transnational, globalization, 
issues, policing, poverty  ● Alliance system, tensions in Balkans 
● Communal leisure, public humiliation,  sustainable 
witchcraft accusations peaked  ● Baby boom, mass product, domestic 

● Central monarchies (tax, army, justice) 

● Motives & methods → imperialism → 
● Oligarchical influence of wealthy 
Africa & Asia 
Key  patrons (Medici) 
● Social darwinism to justify imperial 
Concept  ● Peace of Westphalia → decline of HRE     
● New tech & comm & meds = 
5  ● New concepts of states (Machiavelli) 
strengthened Euro global empires 
● Competition ↑ = Eng Civil War, 
● West edu → nat’l mvmts India, Japan 
balance 

Dates to Know: 1455 Printing Press // 1492 Columbus // 1517 Protestant Rev // 1555 Peace of Augsburg // 1598 Edict of Nantes // 1600 Dutch East India Co // 1648 Treaty of Westphalia // 1688 Glorious Rev // 1688 Eng 
Bill of Rights // 1763 End 7 Yrs War // 1776 Am Rev // 1789 French Rev // 1799 Napoleon // 1815 Congress of Vienna // 1848 Liberal Revs // 1861 Unification of Italy // 1861 End Russian Serfs // 1871 Unification of Germany 
// 1884 Berlin Conference // 1905 Russian Rev // 1914-1918 WWI // 1939-1945 WWII // 1989 Berlin Wall Collapse // 1991 Soviet Union Collapse // 1992 Maastricht Treaty