AP European History
Spring Semester Review
1. In the fifteenth century, how did Lorenzo Valla prove that the Donation of Constantine was a
forgery?
He showed that the language used in the document was not in use in the age of
Constantine.
2. Why was the Holy Roman Emperor a weak title?
It was an elected monarchy.
3. In France in the 17th century, how did the "nobles of the sword" differ from the "nobles of the
robe”?
Nobles of the Sword were part of the old traditional landed nobility dating back to the
Middle
4. How did Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army differ from the Cavalier forces under Charles I?
The New Model Army provided regular pay for soldiers & for paid for supplies taken from
farmers.
5. Why was Martin Luther able to attend the Diet of Worms without fear of losing his life?
He was protected by the Elector of Saxony.
6. What discovery was made in the seventeenth-century by English scientist William Harvey?
He discovered how blood circulates within the human body.
7. What kind of people in the seventeenth century found a haven in the Netherlands? minorities
8. Identify the results of the Thirty Years War?
It caused the Counter-Reformation, the power of the Habsburgs increased, there was religious conflict in Bohemia and Calvinism expanded into the Holy Roman Empire.
9. In 1555, what choice did Holy Roman Emperor Charles V allow German princes to make?
They could choose Catholicism or Lutheranism for themselves and their people.
10. What did the most to strengthen royal power in Europe?
Limiting the power and autonomy of the Catholic church
11. What was the impetus for Henry VIII's decision to split with the Roman Catholic Church?
his desire for a legitimate male heir and his wife’s inability to provide one
12. Describes French policy during the Thirty Years’ War.
They allowed French Protestants to fight for the Protestant monarchs in Europe.
(politiques)
13. Identify the main characteristics of Renaissance art. the use of oil paints, the emphasis on naturalism, secular portraiture and the desire to
create three- dimensional images.
14. What activities did Adam Smith believe was most appropriate for a national government?
Defending the state against foreign invaders – keeping peace
15. How did the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau differ significantly from other Enlightenment philosophes?
He emphasized emotion and admired people as “noble savages”.
16. Which city was the recognized capital of the Enlightenment?
Paris

17. What ideas are most characteristic of Voltaire’s philosophy?
Empiricism and religious toleration are to be celebrated
18. What view did Enlightenment philosophes expound on the status of women?
They were different from men and operated in separate spheres.
19. What major factors fostered the ideals of the Enlightenment? stability and commercial prosperity of Great Britain after 1688
Newtonian worldview need for administrative and economic reform in France after the wars of Louis XIV
consolidation of a print culture
20. What did the ideas of the Enlightenment, which challenged the long-term assumptions about sovereignty, proposed as the best way to run a country?
governments are bound to the will of the people
21. Describe Voltaire’s views concerning religion.
Organized religion perpetuates superstition and ignorance
I will allow that bodily strength seems to give man a natural superiority over women; and this is the only solid basis on which the superiority of men over women can be built.
22. Whose views are reflected in the passage above?
Mary Wollstonecraft
23. What new form of writing was developed in England? novels
24. Describe the salons. men and women could gain social mobility through the salons, they were generally run by women for men, they provided a forum for the serious discussion of the ideas of the
philosophes and women were allowed to attend the salons.
25. Describe century France just prior to the Revolution of 1789.
The French monarchy was experiencing a deepening financial crisis
26. What was Napoleon’s primary aim in establishing the Continental System?
To destroy Great Britain’s economy
27. What advantage did the armies of revolutionary France enjoy over the armies of the major
European monarchs?
Greater patriotism and morale
28. What directly caused King Louis XVI to call the Estates General in1789?
The failure of the Assembly of Notables to endorse the monarch’s program of tax reform
29. What started the French Reign of Terror?
The Committees of Public Safety
30. Why is the seizure of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 important?
It represented a successful attack on the tyranny of the Old Regime
31. Describe the immediate results of the French Revolution of 1789?

The French middle class gained more power.
32. If you conducted a study of revolutions what conclusion about pre-Revolutionary governments would you probably reach?
They fail to meet the political and economic needs of their people.
33. Why did the French people support Napoleon Bonaparte?
to provide stability for the nation
34. How did factory owners induce children to work harder? beat them
36. What caused the Crimean War?
France and England worried the Russians would upset the balance of power.
37. Which organization was responsible for maintaining peace in Europe for more than 25 years following the defeat of Napoleon?
Concert of Europe
38. Why were the ideas of John Stuart Mill so controversial?
He said that men and women had the same nature and should be equal.
39. Who was the British economist who said that unemployment stemmed from a decline in demand that should be stimulated by government intervention with increased public works financed, if necessary, through deficit spending?
John Maynard Keynes
40. Why was nationalism a fundamentally radical movement?
It encouraged people to shift their political loyalty from the king to the nation.
41. When Otto von Bismarck forced the French to choose a government by universal male suffrage, the French people rejected the republicans and favored the monarchists. What did this cause?
form an independent government known as the Paris Commune
42. Why did European governments regard public education for the masses as important in the period between 1871 and 1914?
provide society with well-informed and responsible citizens
43. How did the balance of power in Europe change in the second half of the 19 th century?
the unifications of Germany and Italy
44. To what did Tsar Nicholas II of Russia agree as a result of the 1905 Revolution?
create a national legislative assembly
45. Why was it difficult to write a peace treaty according to Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points after the First World War?
the Allies had secret treaties that conflicted with the Fourteen Points
46. In the period 1871-1914, what did European governments do to try to provide society with wellinformed and responsible citizens?
Provided education
47. Why is the 1920s described as the “age of anxiety” ? concerns about the unfairness of the Treaty of Versailles, the issue of balance of power as the
“entangled alliances were untangled, uncertain economic conditions resulting from the reparation payments and worry about new technology and its impact on society.

48. What events contributed to the causes of the Great Depression?
Hitler’s rise to power in Germany - Germany’s failure to repay its war debt - the crash of the
New York Stock Exchange - the inability of the British and French to repay loans to New York banks.
49. In what way were the revolutions in the Soviet Union, Italy and Germany different?
While Italy and Germany became fascist, the Soviet Union became communist
50. The first atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of:
Hiroshima, Nagasaki
51. What was the chief concern of the Allies at the Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam Conferences? determining spheres of influence for the individual allied powers in post-war Europe
52. The chief argument between Truman and Stalin at Potsdam in July of 1945 was over: free elections in eastern Europe
53. The horrors of two world wars, the Cold War, and attendant socio-cultural upheavals have also stimulated a late twentieth-century religious revival exemplified in the works of Karl Barth, who has argued: that the sinful and imperfect nature of humans means that they can know religious truth not through reason but only through the grace of God
54. American motion pictures in the post-war years have:
been the primary vehicle for the diffusion of American popular culture throughout he world
55. Passage of what act in Germany gave Hitler power to act without the consent of President
Hindenburg or the Reichstag?
Enabling Act