AP Euro Period 1 Review (1450-1648)

Units 1-2 Review: Renaissance, Reformation, and Exploration (c. 1450-c. 1648)

In AP® European History, this review covers Unit 1 (Renaissance and Exploration) and Unit 2 (Age of Reformation), which together span roughly 1450 to 1648. Some later state-building developments connect to this era, but those are primarily tested in Unit 3 after 1648.

AP European History currently uses unit-based organization rather than numbered periods; this review focuses on Units 1 and 2, covering c. 1450-c. 1648.

🎮Live Trivia Review: AP Euro Units 1-2

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Units 1-2 Dates to Know

STUDY TIP: You will never be asked specifically to identify a date. However, knowing the order of events will help immensely with cause and effect. For this reason, we have identified the most important dates to know.

1348-1351 - The Black Death

1453 - Fall of Constantinople; final phase of the Hundred Years' War concludes

c. 1440-1450 - Gutenberg develops movable-type printing in Europe; 1455 - Gutenberg Bible published

1492 - Columbus reaches the Americas.

1517 - Protestant Reformation begins

1555 - Peace of Augsburg

1588 - Defeat of Spanish Armada

1598 - Edict of Nantes

1600 - Dutch East India Company founded

1618 - Defenestration of Prague

1648 - Treaty of Westphalia

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Past Essay Questions for Units 1-2 Content

STUDY TIP: Content from this era has appeared on the essays many times. Take a look at these questions before you review the key concepts & vocabulary below to get a sense of how you will be assessed. Then, come back to these later and practice writing as many as you can! 

Older free-response questions can still be useful for content practice, but students should rely on the current AP European History Course and Exam Description for the official exam structure and scoring expectations. The current exam includes 55 multiple-choice questions, 3 short-answer questions, 1 DBQ, and 1 LEQ. All prompts from 1999-2015 can be found here.***

Prompts from before 2016 use the old free-response format; use them for content practice rather than current rubric practice.

Current AP Euro exam format: Section I includes 55 multiple-choice questions in 55 minutes and 3 short-answer questions in 40 minutes. Section II includes 1 DBQ in 60 minutes (including a 15-minute reading period) and 1 LEQ in 40 minutes. The full exam is 3 hours and 15 minutes. SAQ 1 uses a secondary source, SAQ 2 uses a primary source, and students choose SAQ 3 or 4. The DBQ focuses on historical developments or processes between 1600 and 2001 and typically includes seven documents. Students then choose one of three LEQ options, which are usually focused primarily on 1450-1700, 1648-1914, or 1815-2001.

2018 - SAQ 3: Protestant Reformation

2018 - DBQ: Thirty Years’ War

2018 - LEQ 2: European colonies

2017 - SAQ 2: Printing press

2017 - SAQ 4: Scientific Revolution

2017 - LEQ 3: Waging War

2016 - SAQ 1: Scientific Revolution

2016 - LEQ 2: Women & the Reformation

2015 - FRQ: Market Economy in Europe

2015 - FRQ: Protestant & Catholic Reformations

2014 - FRQ: Protestant Church-State Relations

2013 - FRQ: Renaissance Art vs. Neoclassical Art

2012 - FRQ: Tech Developments & Expansion

2012 - FRQ: Religious Reform & Art

2011 - DBQ: Gender Roles & Elizabeth I

2011 - FRQ: Centralization of Spain & Frag of Italy

2011B - FRQ: Florence vs. Geneva

2010 - FRQ: Art, science, & Power

2010 - FRQ: Protestant Church-State Views

2010 - FRQ: Atlantic Trade

2010B - FRQ: Italian Renaissance Art

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Units 1-2 Key Concepts

The following outline is a study summary aligned to the current AP European History course framework. Topic names and unit structure may differ from older College Board materials, so students should use the current Course and Exam Description for official wording.

1.1. Works from Ancient Greece & Rome influenced Europeans’ view of their world.

1. Revival of classical texts led to new methods and values in society and religion.

   1. Italian Renaissance humanists promoted revival (Petrarch, Valla, Ficino, Mirandola).
   2. Italian Renaissance humanism emphasized civic engagement, classical revival, and patronage in urban Italian city-states, while the Northern Renaissance blended humanism with Christian reform and moral criticism.
   3. The printing press accelerated the spread of classical learning, religious texts, and vernacular literature, expanding literacy and debate across Europe. It helped disseminate both Renaissance humanism and later Reformation ideas, rather than replacing theology outright.
   4. Secular models developed because of influence of Greek & Roman politics.

2. Printing aided the dissemination of new ideas.

   1. Printing press helped spread Renaissance ideas beyond Italy.
   2. Also used by Protestant reformers to spread ideas (Martin Luther).

3. Visual arts evolved from the Renaissance into later Reformation-era styles.

   1. Italian Renaissance artists drew on classical balance, proportion, and human form.
   2. Northern Renaissance artists often emphasized realism, symbolism, and Christian moral themes.
   3. Later, in the 16th and 17th centuries, Mannerism and Baroque art reflected the tensions of the Reformation era; Catholic rulers and the Catholic Reformation often used Baroque style to inspire devotion and display power.

4. Renaissance inquiry helped lay foundations for later scientific developments.

   1. Humanist skepticism, close observation, and recovery of classical learning contributed to intellectual changes that would later shape the Scientific Revolution in the 17th century.
   2. Figures such as Galileo, William Harvey, Francis Bacon, and René Descartes are more commonly emphasized in later course content, but they connect back to Renaissance habits of inquiry.

Study Guide: Context of the Renaissance

1.2. Religious Pluralism in Europe

1. Protest and Catholic Reformations dramatically changed Europe.

   1. Christian humanism (Erasmus) used Renaissance ideas to reform religion (More).
   2. Martin Luther and John Calvin criticized Catholic abuses.
   3. Protestant reform took multiple forms, including Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglicanism under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, and radical groups such as Anabaptists that rejected infant baptism and often challenged close church-state ties.
   4. Calvinists emphasized predestination, moral discipline, and the value of a godly community; later observers connected Calvinist ethics to hard work and economic success.
   5. Catholic Reformation revived the church but cemented divisions in Christianity.

2. Religious reform increased state control of religious institutions and justified challenging authority.

   1. Some monarchs initiated religious reform from top down (Henry VIII).
   2. In some regions, Protestant reform strengthened rulers’ control over churches, as in England and parts of Germany; in other cases, religious conviction justified resistance to rulers or to existing church-state arrangements.
   3. Religious conflicts caused by groups challenging the monarch’s control (Huguenots).

3. Conflicts between religious groups overlapped with competition within and among states.

   1. Religious reform made conflicts between the monarchy and nobility worse.
   2. Habsburg rulers such as Charles V and Philip II attempted to preserve or restore Catholic unity in their territories and in Europe more broadly, while also pursuing dynastic and geopolitical rivalries with other European powers and confronting the Ottoman Empire on separate fronts.
   3. States exploited religious conflicts to promote state interests.
   4. Some states allowed religious pluralism to keep the peace (Poland, Netherlands).

🎥Live Stream Replay: Reformation

1.3. Age of Exploration

1. Europeans were motivated by commercial and religious reasons to explore.

   1. European states wanted direct access to gold, spices, and luxury goods.
   2. Christianity motivated explorers and was often used to justify conquest and oppression.

2. New technologies allowed Europeans to establish overseas colonies.

   1. Navigation (compass, sternpost rudder) and military tech helped long-distance exploration and conquest.

3. Europeans used coercion and negotiation to establish overseas colonies.

   1. Portuguese established colonies along African coast, Asia, and South America.
   2. Spanish became dominant with colonies in the Americas, Caribbean, and Pacific.
   3. France, England, and the Netherlands established colonies in North America.
   4. Competition for trade and empire led to conflict and diplomatic agreements, such as the Treaty of Tordesillas and later Anglo-Dutch and Anglo-Spanish rivalries.
   5. European overseas expansion intensified rivalries among Portugal, Spain, the Dutch Republic, England, and France, as states competed for sea routes, trading-post empires, colonies, and naval supremacy. These rivalries reshaped diplomacy, warfare, and the balance of power in Europe and overseas.

4. Global exchanges resulted in a shift toward European dominance.

   1. Center of Europe shifted from Mediterranean to Atlantic states.
   2. Columbian Exchange resulted in population increase in Europe and devastating population loss in the Americas.
   3. African slave trade expanded to support plantation economies in the Americas.

🎥Live Stream Replay: Age of Exploration

1.4. Economic and social changes reshaped European life.

Commercial Revolution and changing economies

1. Although social hierarchies remained, new social patterns appeared. 

   1. Cities became centers of finance because of innovations in banking.
   2. Growth of commerce created new elites (gentry in England, nobles of the robe in France, and urban merchant elites elsewhere).
   3. Social status continued to be defined by class, religion, and gender.

2. Agriculture continued to be the center of livelihood for Europeans.

   1. Most Europeans practiced subsistence agriculture.
   2. Agriculture became increasingly commercialized in some regions during the price revolution and enclosure movement.
   3. Western Europe adopted freer peasant labor systems, while serfdom remained strong in the East.
   4. Peasants revolted when landlords attempted to abolish traditional rights.

16th-century society and social tensions

1. Cities expanded as populations increased.

   1. Prices of goods increased more than wages, which lowered living standards.
   2. Migrants to cities challenged urban elites.
   3. City governments regulated public morals (secular laws, codes).

2. Family structures shifted, but remained the primary social and economic centers.

   1. Men and women worked on separate, but complementary tasks.
   2. The Renaissance & Reformation triggered debates about roles of women.
   3. Economic and environmental crises delayed marriage and childbearing.

3. Popular culture and leisure activities became more common.

   1. Activities for leisure were communal and organized by religious and agricultural calendars.
   2. Rituals of public humiliation remained popular to enforce communal norms.
   3. Accusations of witchcraft peaked between 1580 and 1650.

Study Guide: Italian Renaissance

1.5. Transition: political centralization and the road to early state building

Transition note: This section overlaps with the end of the 1450-1648 era and points toward the state-building topics that become a bigger focus after 1648.

1. New monarchies in states such as France, England, and Spain consolidated royal authority through taxation, diplomacy, and military power while negotiating with nobles and representative bodies.

   1. New centralized monarchies monopolized taxes, military force, and justice.
   2. Ferdinand and Isabella, Henry VII, and Louis XI are common examples of rulers who strengthened royal authority in this era.
   3. Secular political theorists developed new concepts of state (Machiavelli).

2. Religious conflict and the late 16th to early 17th century reshaped politics.

   1. Religious reform made conflicts between the monarchy and nobility worse.
   2. The Peace of Westphalia weakened the ability of the Holy Roman Emperor to impose religious unity across the empire.
   3. The Thirty Years’ War and Peace of Westphalia mark an important turning point from religious warfare toward a stronger state system.

3. These developments set up later Unit 3 topics.

   1. Monarchies sought more power and faced challenges from nobles and representative institutions.
   2. Dynastic and religious tensions shaped political conflict across Europe.
   3. After 1648, struggles over sovereignty, taxation, military power, and representative institutions become even more central.

🎥Live Stream Replay: Absolutist France

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Concepts & Vocabulary for Units 1-2 (c. 1450-c. 1648)

STUDY TIP: These are high-priority Units 1-2 terms, plus a few bridge terms that connect to later units. Create a quizlet deck to make sure you are familiar with these terms!

• 95 Theses
• Act of Supremacy
• Age of Exploration
• Anabaptists
• Atlantic Slave Trade
• Catherine de Medici
• Catholic Reformation
• centralization
• Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire
• Christian Humanism
• Columbian Exchange
• Commercial Revolution
• Council of Trent
• Dutch East India Company
• Edict of Nantes
• Elizabeth I of England
• Enclosure Movement
• Erasmus
• Ferdinand & Isabella
• French Wars of Religion
• gentry
• God, Glory, and Gold
• Gustavus Adolphus
• Henry IV of France
• Henry VIII of England
• Henry VII of England
• Huguenots
• humanism
• individualism
• Jesuits
• John Calvin
• joint-stock companies
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Little Ice Age
• Martin Luther
• Niccolò Machiavelli
• Northern Renaissance
• Peace of Augsburg
• Peace of Westphalia
• Petrarch
• Philip II of Spain
• Price Revolution
• printing press
• Protestant Reformation
• putting-out system
• Renaissance
• Roman Inquisition
• secularism
• serfdom
• Sir Thomas More
• Spanish Armada
• Spanish Inquisition
• St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
• Thirty Years' War
• Treaty of Tordesillas
• Ursulines
• vernacular
• witch hunts

Bridge to later units: Scientific Revolution figures more fully covered in Unit 4

• Andreas Vesalius
• Nicolaus Copernicus
• William Harvey

🎥Live Stream Replay: Q&A Study Session & 2020 DBQ Review