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Unit 3: Absolutism and Constitutionalism (c. 1648 to c. 1815)

8 dot points across 8 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How did absolutist rulers like Louis XIV and Peter the Great concentrate power in the crown?

Topic 3.7 Absolutist Approaches to Power: the theory and practice of absolutism, the reign of Louis XIV, the rise of absolutism in central and eastern Europe, and the tools rulers used to centralize power.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 3.7, covering the theory and practice of absolutism: divine-right monarchy, Louis XIV and Versailles, the absolutism of Prussia under the Hohenzollerns and Russia under Peter the Great, and the tools (standing armies, bureaucracy, taming the nobility) used to centralize power.
13 min answer →

How did the balance of power shape European diplomacy and warfare after Westphalia?

Topic 3.6 Balance of Power: the decline of religion as a cause of war, the rise of balance-of-power diplomacy, and the great-power conflicts of the late 17th and 18th centuries.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 3.6, covering the post-Westphalia decline of religious warfare, the rise of the balance of power as the organizing principle of European diplomacy, the wars of Louis XIV, and the emergence of the great powers and shifting alliances of the 18th century.
11 min answer →

How do historians compare absolutism and constitutionalism as responses to the problem of state power?

Topic 3.8 Comparison in the Age of Absolutism and Constitutionalism: applying the historical reasoning skill of comparison to the two models of state power that emerged after 1648.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 3.8, the comparison reasoning skill applied to Unit 3: comparing absolutism (France, Russia) with constitutionalism (England, the Dutch Republic), explaining their similarities and differences, and structuring a comparison LEQ or DBQ that explains the reasons for both.
11 min answer →

What political and economic conditions in the mid-17th century set the stage for the rise of absolutism and constitutionalism?

Topic 3.1 Contextualizing State Building, Expansion, and Conflict: the conditions after the wars of religion that drove rulers to centralize power and that produced rival absolutist and constitutional states.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 3.1, setting the scene for Unit 3: the exhaustion left by the wars of religion, the Peace of Westphalia and the sovereign state, the military revolution and the fiscal-military state, and how these conditions produced the rival models of absolutism and constitutionalism.
11 min answer →

How did agriculture, industry, and family life change in Europe between 1648 and 1815, and what stayed the same?

Topic 3.3 Continuities and Changes to Economic Practice and Development: the agricultural revolution, the cottage (putting-out) industry, population growth, and the changes and continuities in family and society.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 3.3, covering the agricultural revolution (crop rotation, enclosure), the cottage or putting-out system, the resulting population growth, and the changes and continuities in family structure and rural society from 1648 to 1815.
11 min answer →

What was mercantilism, and how did states use it to build wealth and power?

Topic 3.4 Economic Development and Mercantilism: the theory and policies of mercantilism, the transatlantic economy, joint-stock companies, and how mercantilism financed the rise of strong states.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 3.4, covering mercantilism (bullionism, a favorable balance of trade, Navigation Acts), the transatlantic economy and joint-stock companies, and how mercantilist policy financed the rise of strong absolutist states and intensified colonial rivalry.
11 min answer →

How did the Dutch Republic become Europe's leading commercial power and a model of constitutionalism?

Topic 3.5 The Dutch Golden Age: the rise of the Dutch Republic as a commercial, financial, and cultural power, its republican constitutionalism, and the financial innovations that made it dominant.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 3.5, covering the rise of the Dutch Republic in the 17th century: its commercial and financial dominance (the VOC, the Amsterdam exchange, the fluyt), its republican constitutionalism and religious toleration, and its golden age of art and learning.
11 min answer →

How did conflict between crown and Parliament in England produce a constitutional monarchy rather than an absolutist one?

Topic 3.2 The English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution: the struggle between king and Parliament, the execution of Charles I, the Restoration, and the Glorious Revolution that established parliamentary supremacy.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 3.2, tracing the English Civil War, the execution of Charles I, the Restoration, and the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to 1689, and explaining how England developed constitutionalism (parliamentary supremacy) rather than the absolutism rising on the continent.
12 min answer →