AP European History › Unit 5
Revolution and war reshaped Europe in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Unit 5 covers global trade rivalries, Britain's rise, the French Revolution from its moderate start to the Terror, Napoleon's empire, and the Congress of Vienna. Romanticism appears as a reaction against Enlightenment reason. Expect questions about continuity and change, such as how much the Revolution really changed France. Students often compress the Revolution into one event instead of distinct phases. Many also treat Napoleon simply as a conqueror, missing how he spread some revolutionary reforms across Europe.
These are taken from the Regular set, with the answer and explanation shown.
The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.
Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (London, 1789), chapter 2, via Project Gutenberg. Source
1. Accounts like Equiano's most directly contributed to which later development?
Answer: B. British abolitionists used firsthand accounts to sway public opinion and Parliament. In 1807 Britain banned the slave trade within its empire.
Common trap: Napoleon did not end slavery. He restored it in French colonies in 1802, eight years after the Republic had abolished it.
The science of constructing a commonwealth, or renovating it, or reforming it, is, like every other experimental science, not to be taught a priori [by reasoning alone, before experience]. ...
The nature of man is intricate; the objects of society are of the greatest possible complexity; and, therefore, no simple disposition or direction of power can be suitable either to man's nature or to the quality of his affairs. When I hear the simplicity of contrivance aimed at and boasted of in any new political constitutions, I am at no loss to decide that the artificers are grossly ignorant of their trade or totally negligent of their duty.
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), in The Works of Edmund Burke, 3 vols. (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1860), via Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media). Source
2. Burke argues that political institutions should be
Answer: B. Burke says governing is an "experimental science" that cannot be learned "a priori," and that simple new constitutions show ignorance. He favors cautious change based on experience.
Common trap: Rebuilding from reason is what Burke attacks. Students sometimes pick it because it sounds like the Enlightenment, which Burke rejects here.
Low and rustic life was generally chosen because in that situation the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity ... and speak a plainer and more emphatic language; ... For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings ...
For a multitude of causes unknown to former times are now acting with a combined force to blunt the discriminating powers of the mind ... The most effective of these causes are the great national events which are daily taking place, and the encreasing accumulation of men in cities, where the uniformity of their occupations produces a craving for extraordinary incident which the rapid communication of intelligence [news] hourly gratifies.
William Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (London, 1800), Preface, via Project Gutenberg. Source
3. The "encreasing accumulation of men in cities" that Wordsworth criticizes was most directly caused by
Answer: B. By 1800 new factories, especially in textiles, were drawing workers into growing towns like Manchester. Wordsworth saw this crowded, repetitive city life as dulling the mind.
Common trap: British trade grew after 1763, it did not collapse. The French émigré option is far too small to explain city growth.