AP European History Exam
Absolutism - answer The theory that the monarch is supreme and can exercise full and
complete power unilaterally
Abstract Expressionism - answer No identifiable subject matter. Expresses feelings of
artists. Emphasized spontaneous personal expression, freedom from accepted artistic
values. Pollack
Act of Union - answer1701 act of Parliament uniting England and Scotland into one
kingdom: Great Britain. Intended to strengthen England against France. Abolished the
Scottish Parliament.
Konrad Adenauer - answer The first chancellor of West Germany; he was able to
establish a stable democratic government (1876-1967)
Gustavus Adolphus - answer Swedish Lutheran king who won victories for the German
Protestants in the Thirty Years' War and lost his life in one of the battles (1594-1632)
Agatir - answer Moroccan Crisis: The site of the landing of the German gunboat in
Morocco in 1911. William II tried to force the French to make concessions to Germany
in Africa. Like the first crisis, this one drew Britain and France closer together
Age of Absolutism - answer1650-1789, a purposeful attempt by European rulers to
attend their royal or dynastic control over all aspects of life in the lands they ruled
Age of Anxiety - answertime between 1918 and 1950 when the meaning of lifewas
being questioned around the world because of the harsh brutality of World War I,
impersonal attitudes, pessimism for future
Age of Metternich - answerperiod of time in Europe in which reactionaries ruled. During
which there was a lot ot opposition and revolt from countries trying to establish their own
freedom such as Poland and Greece
Age of Montesquieu - answerfirst phase of the french revolution-tennis court oath,
national assembly, etc
Age of Rousseau - answersecond phase of the French Revolution-Republic, execution
of Louis, Committee of Public Safety, Reign of Terror, Thermidorian Rebellion, Directory
Agricultural Revolution - answerThe transformation of farming that resulted in the
eighteenth century from the spread of new crops, improvements in cultivation
,techniques and livestock breeding, and consolidation of small holdings into large farms
from which tenants were expelled
Alexander II - answerReforming czar who emancipated the serfs and introduced some
measure of representative local government (1855-1881)
Alexander III - answerPolitically reactionary czar who promoted economic
modernization of Russia (1881-1894)
Algecira - answerMoroccan Crisis: The site of the 1906 conference in Spain at which
German involvement in Morocco was rebuffed by Britain and France acting in unison
Algerian Liberation Movement - answerAn eight-year struggle by Algeria to secure
independence from French colonial control; the goal was finally achieved in 1962
American Revolution - answerThis political revolution began with the Declaration of
Independence in 1776 where American colonists sought to balance the power between
government and the people and protect the rights of citizens in a democracy.
Ancien Regime (Old Regime) - answerFrance prior to the French Revolution
Anschluss - answerThe union of Austria with Germany, resulting from the occupation of
Austria by the German army in 1938
Appeasement - answerThe making of concessions to an adversary in the hope of
avoiding conflict. The term is most often used in reference to the meeting between Hitler
and British prime minister Chamberlain in Munich, where agreement was made, in
September 1938, to cede the Sudetenland (the German-speaking area of
Czechoslovakia) to Germany
Saint Thomas Aquinas - answerHe believed that Christianity's premises and date came
from divine revelation rather than from empirical observation. Theology was considered
a science, and he was a scholastic. Wrote Summa Theologica
Aristotelian-Ptolemaic Cosmology - answerThe geocentric view of the universe that
prevailed from the fourth century B.C. to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and
accorded with the church teachings and Scriptures
Armada - answerSpanish vessels defeated in the English Channel by an English fleet,
thus preventing Philip II's invasion of England (1588)
Army Order Number 1 - answerAn order issued to the Russian military when the
provisional government was armed. It deprived officers of their authority and placed
power in elected committees of common soldiers. This led to the collapse of army
discipline
,Article 231 - answerProvision of the Versailles Treaty that blamed Germany for World
War I
Arkwright - answerInvented the water frame and steam engine
Atlantic Alliance - answerAlliance between Thatcher, Kohl, and Reagan over the control
of the Atlantic
Atlantic Charter - answerThe joint declaration, in August 1941, by Roosevelt and
Churchill, stating common principles for the free world; self-determination, free choice of
government, equal opportunities for all nations for trade, permanent system of general
security and disarmament
Sir Francis Bacon - answerHe gave science a progressionist bias. Science has as a
practical purpose the goal of human improvement. His greatest achievement was
persuading others that scientific thought must conform to empirical experience. Wrote
Novum Organum
Michael Bakunin - answerRadical Russian, advocated revolutionary violence. He
believed that revolutionary movements should be led by secret societies who would
seize power, destroy the state, and create a new social order (1814-1876)
Vasco de Balboa - answerFirst European to reach the Pacific Ocean
Banalites - answerFees that French peasants were obligated to pay landlords for the
use of the village mill, bakeshop, and winepress
Baroque - answerThe sensuous and dynamic style of art of the Counter-Reformation.
Characterized by violent movement, strong emotion and dramatic lighting and color.
Rembrant, Caravaggio
Bastille - answerThe political prison and armory stormed on July 14, 1789, by Parisian
city workers alarmed by the king's concentration of the troops at Versailles
Bayle - answerWrote Dictionary. A religous skeptic who attacked superstition, religous
attitudes, and dogmatism.
Simone de Beauvoir - answerExistentialist and feminist who has written on the
psychology and social position of women (1908-1986)
Cesare Beccaria - answerAuthor of Of Crime and Punishment. He attacked both torture
and capital punishment. He believed criminal justice should ensure speedy trial and
sure punishment which was intended to deter further crime. Law was to secure the
greatest good for the greatest number of human beings
, Beer Hall Putsch - answerHitler's attempt, in 1923, to overthrow the Weimar Republic
when he fired his pistol in the ceiling of a Munich beer hall
Beethoven - answer(1770-1827) French, purely Romantic composer, transformed the
art of music. Used music to convey his feelings of what was going on in the world
around him, such as the many French revolutions of that time; Third Symphony, also
called the Eroica (originally written for Napoleon) and Ninth Symphony, composed when
he was completely deaf
Jeremy Bentham - answerBritish theorist and philosopher known for his work, Principles
of Morals and Legislation, proposed utilitarianism, the principle that governments should
operate on the basis of utility, or the greatest good for the greatest number (1748-1832)
Berlin Wall - answerConcrete barrier constructed by the Soviets in August 1961
between West Berlin and East Berlin to prevent East Germans from fleeing to the West
(In 1990, the wall was torn down.)
Eduard Bernstein - answerRevisionist German Social Democrat who favored socialist
revolution by the ballot rather than the bullet- i.e., by cooperating with the bourgeois
members of Parliament and securing electoral victories for his party (the SDP) (1850-
1932)
Henry Bessemer - answerEnglishman who developed the first efficient method for the
mass production of steel
Bill of Rights - answerDocument declaring that sovereignty resided with the Parliament
(1689)
Otto von Bismarck - answerPrussian chancellor who engineered a series of wars to
unify Germany under his authoritarian rule (1815-1898)
Black Death - answerThe bubonic plague that struck Europe in the mid-fourteenth
century and killed from one third to one half of the population before it ran its course
after 1600
Black Hand - answerThe Serbian secret society alleged to be responsible for
assassinating Archduke Francis Ferdinand (Princeps)
Black Shirts - answerThe private army of Mussolini
Louis Blanc - answerWrote the Organization of Work (1840) which proposed the use of
competition to eliminate competition. It was the first step toward a future socialist
society. Advocated the principle of "from each according to his abilities, to each
according to his needs."