AP European History Unit 3 Cheatsheet: Absolutism and Constitutionalism

Core Shift: Peace of Westphalia (1648) established the sovereign state as the primary political unit, ending the Thirty Years’ War and reinforcing state sovereignty over religious affairs.

• Sovereignty struggle: Monarchs vs. nobles over governance authority
• Regional resistance: Minority language/cultural groups (Celts, Dutch in Spanish Netherlands, Czechs) resisted dominant national identity
• Outcome: Varying degrees of centralization—no single model

Key tension: Nobles wanted traditional shared governance + regional autonomy; monarchs sought enhanced centralized power.

Shift from tradition: Labor and trade increasingly freed from government and corporate restrictions.

New financial practices & institutions:

• Insurance systems
• Banking institutions (e.g., Bank of England, est. 1694) mobilizing private capital and expanding credit, especially public/government war finance
• New property rights definitions + protections against confiscation
• Enabled long-distance trade and investment

Putting-out system (cottage industry): Merchants/workshop owners employed home laborers for market production—precursor to factory system.

Agricultural Revolution: Increased productivity → more food supply → population growth → larger labor force.

Result: Market economy became foundation for Europe's global economic dominance.

Mercantilist strategy: European states drew resources from colonies (New World, elsewhere) to build wealth and power.

Transatlantic slave-labor system:

• Middle Passage: forced transport of enslaved Africans
• Triangle trade: Europe → Africa → Americas → Europe
• Expanded 17th–18th centuries as demand for New World products surged

Key imports fueling consumer culture: Sugar, tea, silks, tobacco, rum, coffee, American agricultural products.

Global network effects:

• Raw materials + finished goods from colonies
• Labor systems (slavery) supplied by Africa
• Markets for European goods in colonies
• Agricultural imports (potatoes, maize, etc.) increased European food supply

Outcome: Wealth concentration in merchant/state hands; consumer revolution in Europe; colonial dependency.