AP®︎ European History: Unit 7 Practice Test
Prepare for your quiz, test, or the AP exam with focused practice questions on Unit 7 of AP European History – 19th-Century Perspectives and Political Developments.
Questions List
Unit 7 (All Topics)
Question 1 Topic 7.1Easy
This question tests the following: KC-3.4
What was the main aim of the Congress of Vienna?
What You’re Being Tested On:
Explore the learning objectives taken directly from the College Board’s AP® European History Curriculum. Ensure you’re prepared for the exact topics covered on the AP® exam, in-class tests, and quizzes, and gain confidence in your mastery of the material.
Unit 7: 19th-Century Perspectives and Political Developments
This unit focuses on the growth of nationalism, imperialism, and ideologies like liberalism and socialism. It also explores 19th-century scientific, cultural, and artistic movements that responded to rapid modernization and global expansion.
Topic 7.1: Contextualizing 19th-Century Perspectives and Political Developments
Learning Objective: Unit 7: Learning Objective A
Explain the context in which nationalistic and imperialistic sentiments developed in Europe from 1815 to 1914.
Review: KC-3.4
European states struggled to maintain international stability in an age of nationalism and revolutions.
Review: KC-3.4.II
The breakdown of the Concert of Europe opened the door for movements of national unification in Italy and Germany as well as liberal reforms elsewhere.
Review: KC-3.4.III
The unification of Italy and Germany transformed the European balance of power and led to efforts to construct a new diplomatic order.
Learning Objective: Unit 7: Learning Objective A
Explain the context in which nationalistic and imperialistic sentiments developed in Europe from 1815 to 1914.
Review: KC-3.5
A variety of motives and methods led to the intensification of European global control and increased tensions among the Great Powers.
Review: KC-3.5.II
Industrial and technological developments (e.g., the second industrial revolution) facilitated European control of global empires.
Review: KC-3.6
European ideas and culture expressed a tension between objectivity and scientific realism on one hand, and subjectivity and individual expression on the other.
Review: KC-3.6.II
Following the revolutions of 1848, Europe turned toward a realist and materialist worldview.
Topic 7.2: Nationalism
Thematic Focus: National and European IdentityNEI
Definitions and perceptions of regional, cultural, national, and European identity have developed and been challenged over time, with varied and often profound effects on the political, social, and cultural order in Europe.
Learning Objective: Unit 7: Learning Objective B
Explain how the development and spread of nationalism affected Europe from 1815 to 1914.
Historical Developments: KC-3.3.I.F
Nationalists encouraged loyalty to the nation in a variety of ways, including romantic idealism, liberal reform, political unification, racialism with a concomitant anti-Semitism, and chauvinism justifying national aggrandizement.
Historical Developments: KC-3.3.I.G
While during the 19th century western European Jews became more socially and politically acculturated, Zionism, a form of Jewish nationalism, developed late in the century as a response to growing anti-Semitism throughout Europe.
Historical Developments: KC-3.4.II.B
A new generation of conservative leaders, including Napoleon III, Cavour, and Bismarck, used popular nationalism to create or strengthen the state.
Historical Developments: KC-3.4.II.C
The creation of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, which recognized the political power of the largest ethnic minority, was an attempt to stabilize the state by reconfiguring national unity.
Illustrative Examples specific knowledge students should know & demonstrate
- J. G. Fichte
- Grimm Brothers
- Giuseppe Mazzini
- Pan-Slavists
- Dreyfus affair
- Christian Social Party in Germany
- Karl Lueger, mayor of Vienna
- Theodor Herzl
Topic 7.3: National Unification and Diplomatic Tensions
Thematic Focus: National and European IdentityNEI
Definitions and perceptions of regional, cultural, national, and European identity have developed and been challenged over time, with varied and often profound effects on the political, social, and cultural order in Europe.
Learning Objective: Unit 7: Learning Objective C
Explain the factors that resulted in Italian unification and German unification.
Historical Developments: KC-3.4.II.A
The Crimean War demonstrated the weakness of the Ottoman Empire and contributed to the breakdown of the Concert of Europe, thereby creating the conditions in which Italy and Germany could be unified after centuries of fragmentation.
Historical Developments: KC-3.4.III.A
Cavour’s diplomatic strategies, combined with the popular Garibaldi’s military campaigns, led to the unification of Italy.
Historical Developments: KC-3.4.III.B
Bismarck used Realpolitik, employing diplomacy, industrialized warfare, weaponry, and the manipulation of democratic mechanisms to unify Germany.
Thematic Focus: States and Other Institutions of PowerSOP
European states and nations developed governmental and civil institutions from 1450 to the present to organize society and consolidate political power, with a variety of social, cultural, and economic effects.
Learning Objective: Unit 7: Learning Objective D
Explain how nationalist sentiment and political alliances led to tension between and among European powers from 1815 to 1914.
Historical Developments: KC-3.4.III.C
After 1871, Bismarck attempted to maintain the balance of power through a complex system of alliances directed at isolating France.
Historical Developments: KC-3.4.III.D
Bismarck’s dismissal in 1890 eventually led to a system of mutually antagonistic alliances and heightened international tensions.
Historical Developments: KC-3.4.III.E
Nationalist tensions in the Balkans drew the Great Powers into a series of crises, leading up to World War I.
Illustrative Examples specific knowledge students should know & demonstrate
- Three Emperors’ League
- Triple Alliance
- Reinsurance Treaty
- Congress of Berlin in 1878
- Growing influence of Serbia
- Bosnia-Herzegovina annexation crisis (1908)
- First Balkan War
- Second Balkan War
Topic 7.4: Darwinism, Social Darwinism
Thematic Focus: Technological and Scientific InnovationTSI
Scientific and technological innovations have increased efficiency, improved daily life, and shaped human development and interactions, having both intended and unintended consequences.
Learning Objective: Unit 7: Learning Objective E
Explain how Darwin’s theories influenced scientific and social developments from 1815 to 1914.
Historical Developments: KC-3.6.II.B
Charles Darwin provided a scientific and material account of biological change and the development of human beings as a species, and inadvertently, a justification for racialist theories that became known as Social Darwinism.
Topic 7.5: The Age of Progress and Modernity
Thematic Focus: Technological and Scientific InnovationTSI
Scientific and technological innovations have increased efficiency, improved daily life, and shaped human development and interactions, having both intended and unintended consequences.
Learning Objective: Unit 7: Learning Objective F
Explain how science and other intellectual disciplines developed and changed throughout the period from 1815 to 1914.
Historical Developments: KC-3.6.II.A
Positivism, or the philosophy that science alone provides knowledge, emphasized the rational and scientific analysis of nature and human affairs.
Historical Developments: KC-3.6.III
In the later 19th century, a new relativism in values and the loss of confidence in the objectivity of knowledge led to modernism in intellectual and cultural life.
Historical Developments: KC-3.6.III.A
Philosophy largely moved from rational interpretations of nature and human society to an emphasis on irrationality and impulse, a view that contributed to the belief that conflict and struggle led to progress.
Historical Developments: KC-3.6.III.B
Freudian psychology offered a new account of human nature that emphasized the role of the irrational and the struggle between the conscious and subconscious.
Historical Developments: KC-3.6.III.C
Developments in the natural sciences, such as quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of relativity, undermined the primacy of Newtonian physics as an objective description of nature.
Illustrative Examples specific knowledge students should know & demonstrate
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Georges Sorel
- Henri Bergson
- Max Planck
Topic 7.6: New Imperialism: Motivations and Methods
Thematic Focus: Interaction of Europe and the WorldINT
Motivated by a variety of factors, Europe’s interaction with the world led to political, economic, social, and cultural exchanges that influenced both European and non-European societies.
Learning Objective: Unit 7: Learning Objective G
Explain the motivations that led to European imperialism in the period from 1815 to 1914.
Historical Developments: KC-3.5.I
European nations were driven by economic, political, and cultural motivations in their new imperial ventures in Asia and Africa.
Historical Developments: KC-3.5.I.A
European national rivalries and strategic concerns fostered imperial expansion and competition for colonies.
Historical Developments: KC-3.5.I.B
The search for raw materials and markets for manufactured goods, as well as strategic and nationalistic considerations, drove Europeans to colonize Africa and Asia, even as European colonies in the Americas broke free politically, if not economically.
Historical Developments: KC-3.5.I.C
European imperialists justified overseas expansion and rule by claiming cultural and racial superiority.
Thematic Focus: Technological and Scientific InnovationTSI
Scientific and technological innovations have increased efficiency, improved daily life, and shaped human development and interactions, having both intended and unintended consequences.
Learning Objective: Unit 7: Learning Objective H
Explain how technological advances enabled European imperialism from 1815 to 1914.
Historical Developments: KC-3.5.II.A
The development of advanced weaponry ensured the military advantage of Europeans over colonized areas.
Historical Developments: KC-3.5.II.B
Communication and transportation technologies facilitated the creation and expansion of European empires.
Historical Developments: KC-3.5.II.C
Advances in medicine enabled European survival in Africa and Asia.
Illustrative Examples specific knowledge students should know & demonstrate
- The White Man's Burden
- Mission civilisatrice
- Social Darwinism
- Minié ball (bullet)
- Breech-loading rifle
- Machine gun
- Steamships
- Telegraph
- Photography
- Louis Pasteur's germ theory of disease
- Anesthesia and antiseptics
- Public health projects
- Quinine
Topic 7.7: Imperialism’s Global Effects
Thematic Focus: Interaction of Europe and the WorldINT
Motivated by a variety of factors, Europe’s interaction with the world led to political, economic, social, and cultural exchanges that influenced both European and non-European societies.
Learning Objective: Unit 7: Learning Objective I
Explain how European imperialism affected both European and non-European societies.
Historical Developments: KC-3.5.III
Imperial endeavors significantly affected society, diplomacy, and culture in Europe and created resistance to foreign control abroad.
Historical Developments: KC-3.5.III.A
Imperialism created diplomatic tensions among European states that strained alliance systems.
Historical Developments: KC-3.5.III.B
Imperial encounters with non-European peoples influenced the styles and subject matter of artists and writers and provoked debate over the acquisition of colonies.
Historical Developments: KC-3.5.III.C
Especially as non-Europeans became educated in Western values, they challenged European imperialism through nationalist movements and by modernizing local economies and societies.
Illustrative Examples specific knowledge students should know & demonstrate
- Berlin Conference (1884–1885)
- Fashoda crisis (1898)
- Moroccan crises (1905, 1911)
- Pan-German League
- J. A. Hobson’s and Vladimir Lenin’s anti-imperialism
- Congo Reform Association
- Indian Congress Party
- Zulu Resistance
- India’s Sepoy Mutiny
- China’s Boxer Rebellion
- Japan’s Meiji Restoration
Topic 7.8: 19th-Century Culture and Arts
Thematic Focus: Cultural and Intellectual DevelopmentsCID
The creation and transmission of knowledge, including the relationship between traditional sources of authority and the development of differing world views, had significant political, intellectual, economic, cultural, and social effects on European and world societies.
Learning Objective: Unit 7: Learning Objective J
Explain the continuities and changes in European artistic expression from 1815 to 1914.
Historical Developments: KC-3.6.I
Romanticism broke with Neoclassical forms of artistic representation and with rationalism, placing more emphasis on intuition and emotion.
Historical Developments: KC-3.6.I.A
Romantic artists and composers broke from classical artistic forms to emphasize emotion, nature, individuality, intuition, the supernatural, and national histories in their works.
Historical Developments: KC-3.6.I.B
Romantic writers expressed similar themes while responding to the Industrial Revolution and to various political revolutions.
Historical Developments: KC-3.6.II.D
Realist and materialist themes and attitudes influenced art and literature as painters and writers depicted the lives of ordinary people and drew attention to social problems.
Historical Developments: KC-3.6.III.D
Modern art, including Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Cubism, moved beyond the representational to the subjective, abstract, and expressive and often provoked audiences that believed that art should reflect shared and idealized values, including beauty and patriotism.
Illustrative Examples specific knowledge students should know & demonstrate
- Claude Monet
- Paul Cézanne
- Henri Matisse
- Edgar Degas
- Pablo Picasso
- Vincent Van Gogh
- Francisco Goya
- Caspar David Friedrich
- J. M. W. Turner
- John Constable
- Eugène Delacroix
- Ludwig van Beethoven
- Frédéric Chopin
- Richard Wagner
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- William Wordsworth
- Lord Byron
- Percy Shelley
- John Keats
- Mary Shelley
- Victor Hugo
- Honoré de Balzac
- Honoré Daumier
- Charles Dickens
- George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
- Gustave Courbet
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Jean-François Millet
- Leo Tolstoy
- Émile Zola
- Thomas Hardy
Topic 7.9: Causation in 19th-Century Perspectives and Political Developments
Learning Objective: Unit 7: Learning Objective K
Explain the influence of nationalist and imperialist movements on European and global stability.
Review: KC-3.4
European states struggled to maintain international stability in an age of nationalism and revolutions.
Review: KC-3.4.II
The breakdown of the Concert of Europe opened the door for movements of national unification in Italy and Germany as well as liberal reforms elsewhere.
Review: KC-3.4.III
The unification of Italy and Germany transformed the European balance of power and led to efforts to construct a new diplomatic order.
Review: KC-3.5
A variety of motives and methods led to the intensification of European global control and increased tensions among the Great Powers.
Review: KC-3.5.II
Industrial and technological developments (e.g., the second industrial revolution) facilitated European control of global empires.
Review: KC-3.6
European ideas and culture expressed a tension between objectivity and scientific realism on one hand, and subjectivity and individual expression on the other.
Review: KC-3.6.II
Following the revolutions of 1848, Europe turned toward a realist and materialist worldview.
