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Unit 7: 19th-Century Perspectives and Political Developments

9 dot points across 9 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How did 19th-century art and thought move from realism toward modern subjectivity?

Topic 7.8 19th-Century Culture and Arts: the movement from Romanticism through Realism to Impressionism and early Modernism, and what these styles reveal about a changing European outlook.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 7.8, on 19th-century culture and the arts: the shift from Romanticism to Realism, the rise of Impressionism and early Modernism, and how these artistic movements reflected industrial society, the faith in progress, and the growing turn toward subjectivity.
10 min answer →

How do historians reason about the causes and effects of nationalism and imperialism?

Topic 7.9 Causation in 19th-Century Perspectives and Political Developments: applying the historical reasoning skill of causation to nationalism, unification, imperialism, and the new ideas of the period.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 7.9, the causation reasoning skill applied to Unit 7: distinguishing the causes and effects of nationalism, unification, and imperialism, weighing motives, and structuring a causation LEQ or DBQ on the later 19th century.
10 min answer →

What forces shaped 19th-century politics and thought after the age of revolution and industry?

Topic 7.1 Contextualizing 19th-Century Perspectives and Political Developments: the legacy of revolution, nationalism, and industrialization that shaped the politics, ideas, and imperial expansion of the later 19th century.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 7.1, setting the scene for Unit 7: how the legacies of the French Revolution, the rise of nationalism, and industrialization combined to shape the nation-building, imperialism, and new ideas (from realism to Social Darwinism) of the later 19th century.
10 min answer →

How did Darwin's science reshape ideas, and how was it twisted into Social Darwinism?

Topic 7.4 Darwinism and Social Darwinism: Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection and how it was applied, as Social Darwinism, to justify competition, inequality, racism, and imperialism.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 7.4, on Darwinism and Social Darwinism: Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, its impact on science and religion, and how Social Darwinists misapplied survival of the fittest to society to justify economic inequality, racism, nationalism, and imperialism.
10 min answer →

How did the New Imperialism transform the colonized world and Europe itself?

Topic 7.7 Imperialism's Global Effects: the effects of European imperialism on colonized peoples (exploitation, resistance, and disruption) and on Europe itself (rivalry, wealth, and new tensions).
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 7.7, on the global effects of imperialism: the exploitation, disruption, and resistance experienced by colonized peoples in Africa and Asia, the responses ranging from rebellion to nationalism, and the effects on Europe, including economic gain, great-power rivalry, and rising tensions.
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How were Italy and Germany unified, and how did unification reshape the balance of power?

Topic 7.3 National Unification and Diplomatic Tensions: the unification of Italy and Germany through Realpolitik and war, and the diplomatic tensions and shift in the balance of power that followed.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 7.3, on the unification of Italy and Germany: the role of Cavour, Garibaldi, and Bismarck, the use of Realpolitik and war to build nation-states, and how the rise of a unified Germany shifted the European balance of power and bred new diplomatic tensions.
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What was 19th-century nationalism, and why did it become so powerful?

Topic 7.2 Nationalism: the idea of the nation, its romantic and liberal roots, and how it became the dominant political force of the 19th century, uniting some peoples and dividing others.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 7.2, on 19th-century nationalism: the idea that peoples sharing a language, culture, and history should form their own nation-state, its romantic and liberal roots, and how it both unified peoples (Italy, Germany) and threatened the multinational empires.
11 min answer →

Why did Europe seize most of the world after 1870, and how did it do it?

Topic 7.6 New Imperialism: Motivations and Methods: the economic, political, and ideological motives for the late 19th-century scramble for empire, and the technologies and methods that made rapid conquest possible.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 7.6, on the New Imperialism: the economic, political, nationalist, and ideological motives that drove the late 19th-century scramble for Africa and Asia, and the technologies and methods (steamships, the Maxim gun, quinine, the Berlin Conference) that made rapid European conquest possible.
12 min answer →

Why did Europeans believe in progress, and how did new science and thought both confirm and unsettle that faith?

Topic 7.5 The Age of Progress and Modernity: the later 19th-century faith in science, reason, and progress, the advances that fed it, and the new ideas (from germ theory to Freud) that confirmed and then challenged it.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 7.5, on the Age of Progress and modernity: the later 19th-century confidence in science, reason, and improvement, the medical and scientific advances (germ theory, evolution) that supported it, and the unsettling new ideas (relativity, Freud, irrationalism) that began to challenge it.
11 min answer →