AP European History Key Terms

Vocabulary flashcards for AP European History exam review.

Vernacular

The native language of a locality, which allowed authors to reach a broader section of society than Latin did, and promoted the development of local culture.

Living off their own

The medieval tradition that monarchs should fund their activities from their private income while at peace and only impose taxes when at war.

Intercursus Magnus

Henry VII’s trade deal with Burgundy, which included beneficial terms for English merchants.

Columbian exchange

The term used to describe the transfers of goods, people, culture, and diseases between the Old World and the New, which occurred in the wake of Columbus’s exploratory voyages.

Putting-out system

The system whereby entrepreneurs would deliver materials to their workforce outside town to avoid profit-inhibiting guild regulations, and return to collect the finished goods before selling them on in town.

Joint-stock company

Formed when “adventurers” would subscribe money together to fund an enterprise that they either did not wish, or were unable to, fund individually; returns from the venture would then be divided up in proportion to the original investment.

Indulgences

Provided sinners with redemption, even for sins yet to be committed, and raised funds for the Church; a major source of objection for reformers.

Lutherans

Believed in justification by faith alone, rather than faith and charity as for Catholics.

Calvinists (known as Huguenots in France)

Believed in predestination, unlike Lutherans and Catholics who believed in free will.

Anabaptists

Believed in adult, not infant, baptism and not just in a complete separation of Church and State, and that the godly should have nothing to do with the state.

Edict of Nantes (1598)

Granted a restricted tolerance to the Huguenots in France.

Absolutism

The idea that monarchs had absolute authority over their subjects. Note: authority is not the same as power—states lacked the information gathering, bureaucratic, and enforcement capacities for absolute power at this time.

Balance of power

Stipulates that states will combine into blocs with or against the most powerful state, until equilibrium between the two blocs is achieved and neither can prevail over the other.

Divine Right of Kings

The idea that kings were chosen by God, and that subjects therefore needed to obey them.

Enclosure movement

The tendency by large landowners to “enclose” land behind barriers (hedges/fences/walls) that had traditionally been available to all, so that they could monopolize it.

Parliaments

French law courts, which also enjoyed a political role.

The scientific method

The use of objective observation to determine truth.

Heliocentrism

The idea that the Earth orbits the Sun.

Deism

Belief in a Supreme Being, who created the universe, but whose existence can be deduced from reason and observation, rather than scripture.

General will

The views of the community as a whole, which should reflect a commitment to the protection of the rights of the individual against society, and which should be reflected in law.

Invisible hand

Adam Smith’s striking metaphor for the process by which individuals’ unregulated actions result in supply and demand meeting to the benefit of society as a whole.

Philosophes

Products of the Enlightenment, these writers applied reason to many aspects of the observed world in order to advance the human condition, often in opposition to existing customs.

Enlightened despots

The eighteenth-century successors of the absolutists, such as Frederick the Great, Joseph II, and Catherine the Great; they differed from their predecessors in seeing it as their responsibility to improve the lives of their people, rather than just the might of their realm.

Left” and “Right

Traditional political labels that originated in the French Revolution, where members of the Assembly tended to congregate with like-minded individuals. As it happened, those demanding progress sat on the left, while those resisting change (the Reactionaries) grouped themselves on the emptying seating on the right, giving us our modern labels.

Girondins

Named for the Gironde near Bordeaux, where many of the members were from, this left-wing faction in the Assembly eventually allowed themselves to be too closely associated with the monarchy and were outflanked by the Jacobins.

Levée en Masse

The mobilization of the entire country for war, decreed on August 23, 1793.

Thermidorean Reaction

The coup that ended the “Reign of Terror” and sent Robespierre and his associates to their deaths.

Legitimacy

The concept that only the rightful king had the authority to rule. While this was heavily eroded at the time, it did have some persistence and provided the allies with an alternative regime they could supplant Napoleon with after his defeat.

Nationalism

A concept to replace the idea of loyalty to the now fallen king, it sought to instead bind citizens to society as a whole though a sense of community.

Chartism

An unsuccessful radical British working-class movement that supported the implementation of “The Charter,” which championed a democratization of politics.

Luddites

Workers who resisted the introduction of machines to replace their jobs.

Syndicalism

A belief in trade union activism, rather than political participation, as the agent of progress.

Autocracy

The nineteenth century embodiment of the Divine Right of Kings, whose last redoubt was Russia.

Realpolitik

A brand of politics that elevated self-interest at the expense of idealism.

Racism

A belief that ethnic differences were the basis for understanding how the world worked.

Social Darwinism

A belief that people were in competition with each other and only the strongest would survive.

Second Industrial Revolution

The post-1848 spread of industrialization beyond the bounds of western Europe coupled with a new cycle of technological innovation and organizational refinement in existing centers.

Fascism

A radical, nationalistic, militaristic, and authoritarian political belief that emerged in the Interwar period.

Reds

Nickname for Communists, or more generally, any left-leaning group. Originates in the Red Flag, said to symbolize the blood of martyrs for the cause.

Glasnost and Perestroika

Policies used by Gorbachev to reform the U.S.S.R

Welfare state

A state that assumes responsibility for the social welfare of its citizens; Bismarck’s Germany was the first to do this but did not become really popular until after WWII.