Major Eras of AP European History
AP history exams cover so much content that it can be easy to get lost in the details. Get some perspective on the bigger historical picture by looking at our major eras list below.
Below you will find some big-picture ways to think about AP Euro. Of course, you will have to know many more details for the test. But keeping these bigger changes in mind will help you on questions that ask about how Europe has changed over time. The bigger picture can also help you remember the details better because they will be a part of a wider story, as opposed to individual facts.
Our outline below focuses on two things:
First, how do ages of history build on each other? In other words, why does one era of history matter to later eras? These kinds of issues can help you understand causation, can give a sense for why you are learning the particular details you are, and can help you understand how forces going back hundreds of years have shaped our present.
Second, what is the major question that this question poses? Regular readers of our blog will know that historians like to pose questions. The outline below tells you what the major questions of each era are.
Renaissance
The course begins with an era called the Renaissance, which was a time of great political and social change. It started in Italy in the 14th century and eventually spread throughout Europe through the 15th and 16th centuries.
The main question that this era poses is: what defines modern Europe? In this era, thinkers and politicians wrestled with what it meant to live in a new age, what the possibilities were in a new era of science and technology, and how contemporary thought could be pushed in new directions. In many ways, the answer was relatively straight-forward: modern Europe would not be the Middle Ages. If we (perhaps unfairly) characterize the Middle Ages as a period of religious supremacy, decentralized governments, and a rejection of the ideals of the classical world, then the Renaissance set a course that modern Europe would be the opposite of that.
Perhaps the Renaissance is best remembered for the changes it brought to the arts. Great Renaissance artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo are still renowned for their realism and their ability to create three-dimensional spaces on two-dimensional surfaces. This period is also remembered as a time of learning and of new ideas. Thinkers like Niccolo Machiavelli, for instance, characterized new political thought. But other developments, like humanism or the rise of Renaissance princes, would also help set a course for Europe for the following centuries.
Exploration
The next major change that Europe went through was geographic. With new possibilities in shipbuilding and new opportunities to travel, the question soon became: where is Europe? Is Europe defined by the European continent or is it something more? Throughout the age of exploration, it became increasingly clear that European people, politics, and interests were not confined to the continent of Europe but instead spanned the entire globe.
In many ways, the age of exploration relied on the Renaissance. New advancements in technology allowed ships to travel further. New thinking encouraged curiosity about distant lands. And new political rivalries encouraged European states to look beyond their borders for power and wealth.
Reformation
By the 16th century, political competitions and new philosophies reached such heights as to challenge the foundations of Europe itself. Especially, what had been the unifying aspect of Europe for the previous millennium and a half was thrown into chaos with the question: What religion will Europe be? In the Middle Ages, Europe was securely under the control of the Catholic Church. By the 1500s, there will be the rise of a new denomination: Protestantism.
The Renaissance also directly led to the age of Reformation. In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was the premier power in Europe. Thanks to the new philosophies and politics of the Renaissance, however, theologians and princes alike began considering an alternative to the Catholic Church through Protestantism.
From the 16th to the early 17th centuries, new Protestant sects and their leaders achieved recognition and gained followers across Europe. Some countries, perhaps most notably England, rejected the authority of the Catholic Church entirely. In response, the Catholic Church made some reforms and also experienced a revival of its own, seen in new art, architecture, and publications.
While influential on art, literature, and wider social thought, this age was also particularly violent. Princes and kings of one denomination regularly fought against princes and kings of another, with ordinary people often caught in the middle.
Absolutism
All of these changes in politics, philosophy, and technology meant that European countries could no longer have governments the way they used to. As individual rulers continued to amass personal power in the 17th century, a new question appeared: what makes a European state a state? The answer to this question would be centralized government.
The age of absolutism was a time when the political arrangements of Europe were changing. Especially, this age began to set up European countries as we would understand them today. Strong leaders led powerful centralized governments. Unlike the Middle Ages, power was not diffused among vassal lords but instead concentrated in one central monarch. Louis XIV of France is probably the best example of this age of absolutism. Absolutism, however, also created its detractors, which would set up later conflicts over the political rights of everyday citizens and the limits to power, even among kings.
Revolution
As European countries reached new heights of power, contemporaries faced a new question: What would be the consequences of this newfound political power and economic might?
In some ways, strong central governments and wealthy leaders were able to create positive change. The scientific revolution reshaped understandings of the natural world. Thinkers of the Enlightenment forever altered learning, rational thinking, and philosophy.
Yet this unchecked power also forced negative reactions. Whereas it might once have seemed like monarchies and empires would continue indefinitely, the end of the century gave rise to two revolutions that changed these assumptions: the American Revolution, in which a colony gained independence, and the French Revolution, in which a country overthrew its monarchy in favor of republicanism.
Industrialization
By the 1800s, the great changes to science and technology from the previous century shaped a new reality for people across Europe. Increasingly through this century, a new question formed: how can these new discoveries be put to use in service of the country, the economy, and everyday life? In short, industry was put to use nearly everywhere, creating an age of industrialization that reshaped life across the continent.
In this era, citizens that had once worked on farms moved en masse to cities to work in new factories, making goods that were then sold across countries and around the world. Individuals had access to goods that they never could have purchased before. The GDP of countries like Great Britain increased measurably. And reliable means of transportation meant that the world was seeming to become smaller than ever before. At the same time, widespread industrialization caused great disruption to the environment, to family life, and to working conditions.
Ideologies
By the end of the 19th century, Europeans now faced a question that had been a century in the making: after an era of upheaval in politics, industry, science, and the fates of countries, how would these changes affect society? There was no singular answer to this question, but the multitude of possibilities became the age of ideologies.
The second half of the 19th century was filled with ideas about how to remake society. Some, like communism, aimed to addressed social and economic ills. Other ideologies, like nationalism, hoped to bring together people to create political change. Other beliefs, like Social Darwinism, created an intellectual climate in which European imperialism would continue to expand.
World Wars
It fell to the first half of the twentieth century to answer the question of: what is to be done with these competing ideologies?
Through two World Wars, the major ideologies of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries clashed: far-right ideologies like fascism faced off against far-left ideologies like communism. Nationalism—which once seemed so promising to small states across Europe—became a means by which to enlist entire populations in the cause of total war. After the World Wars, the far-right ideologies were defeated militarily, but these same ideas remained in circulation across Europe for the following decades and indeed remain even today.
Cold War
In some ways, the Cold War brings history of modern Europe back to where it started. The Cold War challenges us to ask the question: What is European? Whereas earlier eras offered commonalities across the continent and across history, the Cold War destroys earlier of assumptions of what Europe was.
First, the Cold War brought division to Europe. Political and ideological divides cut across the continent, inhibiting travel and the sharing of ideas like never before. Europe of the past had seemed to share certain ideas or experiences; now half of the continent was wall off from the other half.
Second, the Cold War brought the end to European empires. For centuries, European states had been defined by their imperialism. What would it mean to be a European country in an era of decolonization?
States on both sides of the Iron Curtain answered that their new futures belonged with their respective blocs—with the future of socialism in the east and with the future of democracy and European cooperation in the west.
Post-Cold War
For the final portion of the course, the class considers the role of Europe today. The major question of the post-Cold War era is: where does Europe fit into a globalized world? For many centuries, it was relatively clear that Europe played a leading role in international politics. Now, it is much more complicated what role Europeans should (and do) play in our increasingly globalized world. In this sense, the end of the course returns to the initial question: what defines modern Europe?
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