AP Euro Unit 3 Standards - Absolutism and Constitutionalism

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Aug 21, 2020 • 5 min read

Disclaimer: This outline is sourced directly from the AP European History Course Framework released by the College Board. This is a lightweight, web-friendly format for easy reference. Omninox does not take credit for this outline and is not affiliated with the College Board. AP is a reserved trademark of the College Board.

Table of Contents

Unit 1 - Renaissance and Exploration
Unit 2 - Age of Reformation
Unit 3 - Absolutism and Constitutionalism (you are here)
Unit 4 - Scientific and Cultural Developments
Unit 5 - Late 18th Century Crisis and Reaction
Unit 6 - Industrialization and its Effects
Unit 7 - 19th Century Perspectives
Unit 8 - 20th Century Global Conflicts
Unit 9 - Cold War and Modern Europe

TOPIC 3.1 - Contextualizing State Building

U3_Learning Objective A: Explain the context in which different forms of political power developed from 1648 to 1815.

KC-1.5: The struggle for sovereignty within and among states resulted in varying degrees of political centralization.
- KC-1.5.I: The new concept of the sovereign state and secular systems of law played a central role in the creation of new political institutions.
- KC-1.5.III: The competition for power between monarchs and corporate and minority language groups produced different distributions of governmental authority in European states.
- KC-1.5.III.B: Monarchies seeking enhanced power faced challenges from nobles who wished to retain traditional forms of shared governance and regional autonomy.
- KC-1.5.III.C: Within states, minority local and regional identities based on language and culture led to resistance against the dominant national group.
KC-2.1: Different models of political sovereignty affected the relationship among states and between states and individuals.
- KC-2.1.I: In much of Europe, absolute monarchy was established over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries.
- KC-2.1.II: Challenges to absolutism resulted in alternative political systems.

TOPIC 3.2 - The English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution

U3_Learning Objective B: Explain the causes and consequences of the English Civil War.

KC-1.5.III.A: The English Civil War — a conflict among the monarchy, Parliament, and other elites over their respective roles in the political structure — exemplified the competition for power among monarchs and competing groups.
KC-2.1.II.A: The outcome of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution protected the rights of gentry and aristocracy from absolutism through assertions of the rights of Parliament.

TOPIC 3.3 - Continuities and Changes to Economic Practice and Development

U3_Learning Objective C: Explain the continuities and changes in commercial and economic developments from 1648 to 1815.

KC-2.2.I.B: The Agricultural Revolution raised productivity and increased the supply of food and other agricultural products.
KC-2.2.II.D: The importation and transplantation of agricultural products from the Americas contributed to an increase in the food supply in Europe.
KC-2.2.I.A: Labor and trade in commodities were increasingly freed from traditional restrictions imposed by governments and corporate entities.
KC-2.2.I.C: The putting-out system, or cottage industry, expanded as increasing numbers of laborers in homes or workshops produced for markets through merchant intermediaries or workshop owners.
KC-2.2.I.D: The development of the market economy led to new financial practices and institutions.
KC-2.2.I: Early modern Europe developed a market economy that provided the foundation for its global role.

TOPIC 3.4 - Economic Development and Mercantilism

U3_Learning Objective C: Explain the continuities and changes in commercial and economic developments from 1648 to 1815.

KC-2.2.II: The European-dominated worldwide economic network contributed to the agricultural, industrial, and consumer revolutions in Europe.
- KC-2.2.II.A: European states followed mercantilist policies by drawing resources from colonies in the New World and elsewhere.
- KC-2.2.II.B: The transatlantic slave-labor system expanded in the 17th and 18th centuries as demand for New World products increased.
- KC-2.2.II.C: Overseas products and influences contributed to the development of a consumer culture in Europe.
- KC-2.2.II.D: The importation and transplantation of agricultural products from the Americas contributed to an increase in the food supply in Europe.
- KC-2.2.II.E: Foreign lands provided raw materials, finished goods, laborers, and markets for the commercial and industrial enterprises in Europe.

TOPIC 3.5 - The Dutch Golden Age

U3_Learning Objective D: Explain the factors that contributed to the development of the Dutch Republic.

KC-2.1.II.B: The Dutch Republic, established by a Protestant revolt against the Habsburg monarchy, developed an oligarchy of urban gentry and rural landholders to promote trade and protect traditional rights.

TOPIC 3.6 - Balance of Power

U3_Learning Objective E: Explain how European states attempted to establish and maintain a balance of power on the continent throughout the period from 1648 to 1815.

KC-1.5.II: The competitive state system led to new patterns of diplomacy and new forms of warfare.
- KC-1.5.II.A: Following the Peace of Westphalia, religion declined in importance as a cause for warfare among European states; the concept of the balance of power played an important role in structuring diplomatic and military objectives.
KC-2.1.I.D: The inability of the Polish monarchy to consolidate its authroity over the nobility led to Poland's partition by Prussia, Russia, and Austria, and its disappearance from the map of Europe.
KC-2.1.III: After 1648, dynastic and state interests, along with Europe's expanding colonial empires, influenced the diplomacy of European states and frequently led to war.
- KC-2.1.III.B: After the Austrian defeat of the Turks in 1683 at the Battle of Vienna, the Ottomans ceased their westward expansion.
- KC-2.1.III.C: Louis XIV's nearly continuous wars, pursuing both dynastic and state interests, provoked a coalition of European powers opposing him.

U3_Learning Objective F: Explain how advances in technology contributed to a developing balance of power on the continent throughout the period from 1648 to 1815.

KC-1.5.II.B: Advances in military technology led to new forms of warfare, including greater reliance on infantry, firearms, mobile cannon, and more elaborate fortifications, all financed by heavier taxation and requiring a larger bureaucracy. New military techniques and institutions (i.e., the military revolution) tipped the balance of power toward states able to marshal sufficient resources for the new military environment.

TOPIC 3.7 - Absolutist Approaches to Power

U3_Learning Objective G: Explain how absolutist forms of rule affected social and political development from 1648 to 1815.

KC-2.1.I.A: Absolute monarchies limited the nobility's participation in governance but preserved the aristocracy's social position and legal privileges.
KC-2.1.I.B: Louis XIV and his finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, extended the administrative, financial, military, and religious control of the central state over the French population.
KC-2.1.I.E: Peter the Great "westernized" the Russian state and society, transforming political, religious, and cultural institutions; Catherine the Great continued this process.

TOPIC 3.8 - Comparison in the Age of Absolutism and Constitutionalism

U3_Learning Objective H: Compare the different forms of political power that developed in Europe from 1648 to 1815.

KC-1.5: The struggle for sovereignty within and among states resulted in varying degrees of political centralization.
- KC-1.5.I: The new concept of the sovereign state and secular systems of law played a central role in the creatin of new political institutions.
- KC-1.5.III: The competition for power between monarchs and corporate and minority language groups produced different distributions of governmental authority in European states.
- KC-1.5.III.B: Monarchies seeking enhanced power faced challenges from nobles who wished to retain traditional forms of shared governance and regional autonomy.
- KC-1.5.III.C: Within states, minority local and regional identities based on language and culture led to resistance against the dominant national group.
KC-2.1: Different models of political sovereignty affected the relationship among states and between states and individuals.
- KC-2.1.I: In much of Europe, absolute monarchy was established over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries.
- KC-2.1.II: Challenges to absolutism resulted in alternative political systems.
KC-2.2: The expansion of European commerce accelerated the growth of a worldwide economic network.
- KC-2.2.I: Early modern Europe developed a market economy that provided the foundation for its global role.
- KC-2.2.II: The European-dominated worldwide economic network contributed to the agricultural, industrial, and consumer revolutions in Europe.