AP European History CED Notes

Historical Thinking Skills

  • Development and Processes (dp)

  • Sourcing and Situation (ss)

  • Claims & Evidence in Sources (ce)

  • Contextualization (cx)

  • Making Connections (mc)

  • Argumentation (ag)

Historical Reasoning Skills

  • COMPARISON (COM)

  • CAUSATION (CAU)

  • CHANGE & CONTINUITY OVER TIME (CCT)

Unit 1: Renaissance and Exploration

Essential Questions:

  • How did the rediscovery of works from ancient Greece and Rome and observation of the natural world change many Europeans’ view of their world?

  • What was the impact of Europeans exploration and settlement of overseas territories as they encountered and interacted with indigenous populations?

  • In what ways was European society and the experiences of everyday life increasingly shaped by commercial and agricultural capitalism?

Key Concepts:

  • KC-1.1 The rediscovery of works from ancient Greece and Rome and observation of the natural world changed many Europeans’ view of their world.

    • KC-1.1.I A revival of classical texts led to new methods of scholarship and new values in both society and religion.

    • KC-1.1.III The visual arts incorporated the new ideas of the Renaissance and were used to promote personal, political, and religious goals.

  • KC-1.3 Europeans explored and settled overseas territories, encountering and interacting with indigenous populations.

    • KC-1.3.I European nations were driven by commercial and religious motives to explore overseas territories and establish colonies

  • KC-1.4 European society and the experiences of everyday life were increasingly shaped by commercial and agricultural capitalism, notwithstanding the continued existence of medieval social and economic structures.

    • KC-1.4.I Economic change produced new social patterns, while traditions of hierarchy and status continued.

    • KC-1.4.II Most Europeans derived their livelihood from agriculture and oriented their lives around the seasons, the village, or the manor, although economic changes began to alter rural production and power.

  • KC-1.5 The struggle for sovereignty within and among states resulted in varying degrees of political centralization.

    • KC-1.5.I The new concept of the sovereign state and secular systems of law played a central role in the creation of new political institutions.

Illustrative Examples:

  • Italian Renaissance humanists:

    • Petrarch (pre-1450)

    • Lorenzo Valla

    • Marsilio Ficino

    • Pico della Mirandola

  • Individuals promoting secular models for individual and political behavior:

    • Niccolò Machiavelli

    • Baldassare Castiglione

    • Francesco Guicciardini

  • Individuals promoting a revival of Greek and Roman texts:

    • Leonardo Bruni

    • Leon Battista Alberti

    • Niccolò Machiavelli

  • Painters and architects:

    • Michelangelo

    • Donatello

    • Raphael

    • Andrea Palladio

    • Leon Battista Alberti

    • Filippo Brunelleschi

  • Artists who employed naturalism:

    • Pieter Bruegel the Elder

    • Rembrandt

  • State actions to control religion and morality:

    • Spanish Inquisition

    • Concordat of Bologna

    • Book of Common Prayer

    • Peace of Augsburg

  • Monarchical control:

    • Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain consolidating control of the military

    • Star Chamber

    • Concordat of Bologna

    • Peace of Augsburg

    • Edict of Nantes

  • Commercial and professional groups that gained in power:

    • Merchants and financiers in Renaissance Italy and northern Europe

    • Nobles of the robe in France

  • Secular political theorists:

    • Jean Bodin

    • Hugo Grotius

    • Niccolò Machiavelli

  • Navigational technology:

    • Compass

    • Sternpost rudder

    • Portolani

    • Quadrant and astrolabe

    • Lateen rig

  • Military technology:

    • Guns and gunpowder

  • States seeking access to luxury goods:

    • Spanish in the New World

    • Portuguese in the Indian Ocean World

    • Dutch in the East Indies/Asia

  • Mercantilist policies employed by the state:

    • Jean-Baptiste Colbert

  • Religion and exploration:

    • Jesuit activities

  • Colonial conflicts and rivalries:

    • Asiento

    • War of the Spanish Succession

    • Seven Years’ War

    • Treaty of Tordesillas

  • Important Atlantic port cities:

    • London

    • Bristol

    • Amsterdam

    • Antwerp

  • New plants, animals, and diseases (from Europe to the Americas):

    • Wheat

    • Cattle

    • Horses

    • Pigs

    • Sheep

    • Smallpox

    • Measles

  • New plants, animals, and diseases (from the Americas to Europe):

    • Tomatoes

    • Potatoes

    • Squash

    • Corn

    • Tobacco

    • Turkeys

  • Slave trade developments:

    • Middle Passage

    • Planter society

  • Innovations in banking and finance:

    • Double-entry bookkeeping

    • Bank of Amsterdam

    • The Dutch East India Company

    • The British East India Company

  • The commercialization of agriculture:

    • Enclosure movement

    • Restricted use of the village common

    • Freehold tenure

  • New economic elites:

    • Italian merchant princes

    • Nobles of the robe in France

  • The way new migrants challenged urban elites:

    • Sanitation problems caused by overpopulation

    • Employment

    • Poverty

    • Crime

Themes:

  • Interaction of Europe and the World (INT)

  • Economic and Commercial Developments (ECD)

  • Cultural and Intellectual Developments (CID)

  • States and Other Institutions of Power (SOP)

  • Social Organization and Development (SCD)

  • Technological and Scientific Innovation (TSI)

  • National and European Identity (NEI)

Key Concepts Elaborated:

  • KC-1.1.I.A Italian Renaissance humanists, including Petrarch, promoted a revival in classical literature and created new philological approaches to ancient texts. Some Renaissance humanists furthered the values of secularism and individualism.

  • KC-1.1.III.A In the Italian Renaissance, rulers and popes concerned with enhancing their prestige commissioned paintings and architectural works based on classical styles, the developing “naturalism” in the artistic world, and often the newly invented technique of geometric perspective.

  • KC-1.1.I.B Humanist revival of Greek and Roman texts, spread by the printing press, challenged the institutional power of universities and the Catholic Church. This shifted education away from a primary focus on theological writings toward classical texts and new methods of scientific inquiry.

  • KC-1.1.I.C Admiration for Greek and Roman political institutions supported a revival of civic humanist culture in the Italian city- states and produced secular models for individual and political behavior.

  • KC-1.1.III.A In the Italian Renaissance, rulers and popes concerned with enhancing their prestige commissioned paintings and architectural works based on classical styles, the developing “naturalism” in the artistic world, and often the newly invented technique of geometric perspective.

  • KC-1.1.III.B The Northern Renaissance retained a more religious focus, which resulted in more human-centered naturalism that considered individuals and everyday life appropriate objects of artistic representation.

  • KC-1.2.I.A Christian humanism, embodied in the writings of Erasmus, employed Renaissance learning in the service of religious reform.

  • KC-1.1.II The invention of printing promoted the dissemination of new ideas.

  • KC-1.1.II.A The invention of the printing press in the 1450s helped spread the Renaissance beyond Italy and encouraged the growth of vernacular literature, which would eventually contribute to the development of national cultures.

  • KC-1.2.II.A Monarchs and princes, including the English rulers Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, initiated religious reform from the top down in an effort to exercise greater control over religious life and morality.

  • KC-1.5.I.A New monarchies laid the foundation for the centralized modern state by establishing monopolies on tax collection, employing military force, dispensing justice, and gaining the right to determine the religion of their subjects.

  • KC-1.5.I.C Across Europe, commercial and professional groups gained in power and played a greater role in political affairs.

  • KC-1.5.I.D Continued political fragmentation in Renaissance Italy provided a background for the development of new concepts of the secular state.

  • KC-1.3.II Advances in navigation, cartography, and military technology enabled Europeans to establish overseas colonies and empires.

  • KC-1.3.I.A European states sought direct access to gold, spices, and luxury goods to enhance personal wealth and state power.

  • KC-1.3.I.B The rise of mercantilism gave the state a new role in promoting commercial development and the acquisition of colonies overseas.

  • KC-1.3.I.C Christianity was a stimulus for exploration as governments and religious authorities sought to spread the faith, and for some it served as a justification for the subjugation of indigenous civilizations.

  • KC-1.3.III Europeans established overseas empires and trade networks through coercion and negotiation.

  • KC-1.3.III.B The Spanish established colonies across the Americas, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, which made Spain a dominant state in Europe in the 16th century.

  • KC-1.3.III.C The Atlantic nations of France, England, and the Netherlands followed by establishing their own colonies and trading networks to compete with Portuguese and Spanish dominance in the 17th century.

  • KC-1.3.III.D The competition for trade led to conflicts and rivalries among European powers in the 17th and 18th centuries.

  • KC-1.3.III.A The Portuguese established a commercial network along the African coast, in South and East Asia, and in South America in the late 15th and throughout the 16th centuries.

  • KC-1.3.IV.i Europe’s colonial expansion led to a global exchange of goods, flora, and fauna; a shift toward European dominance; and the expansion of the slave trade.

  • KC-1.3.IV.A The exchange of goods shifted the center of economic power in Europe from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic states and brought the latter into an expanding world economy.

  • KC-1.3.IV.B.i The exchange of new plants, animals, and diseases—the Columbian Exchange—created economic opportunities for Europeans.

  • KC-1.3.IV.ii Europe’s colonial expansion led to a global exchange of goods, flora, fauna, cultural practices, and diseases, resulting in the destruction of some indigenous civilizations, a shift toward European dominance, and the expansion of the slave trade.

  • KC-1.3.IV.B.ii The exchange of new plants, animals, and diseases—the Columbian Exchange—in some cases facilitated European subjugation and destruction of indigenous peoples, particularly in the Americas.

  • KC-1.3.IV.C Europeans expanded the African slave trade in response to the establishment of a plantation economy in the Americas and demographic catastrophes among indigenous peoples.

  • KC-1.4.I.A Innovations in banking and finance promoted the growth of urban financial centers and a money economy

  • KC-1.4.II Most Europeans derived their livelihood from agriculture and oriented their lives around the seasons, the village, or the manor, although economic changes began to alter rural production and power.

  • KC-1.4.II.A Subsistence agriculture was the rule in most areas, with three-crop field rotation in the north and two-crop rotation in the Mediterranean; in many cases, farmers paid rent and labor services for their lands.

  • KC-1.4.II.B The price revolution contributed to the accumulation of capital and the expansion of the market economy through the commercialization of agriculture, which benefited large landowners in western Europe.

  • KC-1.4.III.A Population recovered to its pre-Great Plague level in the 16th century, and continuing population pressures contributed to uneven price increases; agricultural commodities increased more sharply than wages, reducing living standards for some.

  • KC-1.4.I Economic change produced new social patterns, while traditions of hierarchy and status continued.

  • KC-1.4.I.B The growth of commerce produced a new economic elite, which related to traditional land-holding elites in different ways in Europe’s various geographic regions.

  • KC-1.4.II.C As western Europe moved toward a free peasantry and commercial agriculture, serfdom was codified in the east, where nobles continued to dominate economic life on large estates.

  • KC-1.4.II.D The attempts of landlords to increase their revenues by restricting or abolishing the traditional rights of peasants led to revolt.

  • KC-1.4.III.B Migrants to the cities challenged the ability of merchant elites and craft guilds to govern, and strained resources.

  • KC-1.4.IV.C From the late 16th century on, Europeans responded to economic and environmental challenges, such as the Little Ice Age, by delaying marriage and childbearing. This European marriage pattern restrained population growth and ultimately improved the economic condition of families.

Unit 2: Age of Reformation

Essential Question:

  • How did religious pluralism challenge the concept of a unified Europe?

Key Concepts:

  • KC-1.2 Religious pluralism challenged the concept of a unified Europe.

    • KC-1.2.I The Protestant and Catholic reformations fundamentally changed theology, religious institutions, culture, and attitudes toward wealth and prosperity.

    • KC-1.2.II Religious reform both increased state control of religious institutions and provided justifications for challenging state authority.

    • KC-1.2.III Conflicts among religious groups overlapped with political and economic competition within and among states.

  • KC-1.4 European society and the experiences of everyday life were increasingly shaped by commercial and agricultural capitalism, notwithstanding the continued existence of medieval social and economic structures.

    • KC-1.4.III Population shifts and growing commerce caused the expansion of cities, which often placed stress on their traditional political and social structures.

    • KC-1.4.IV The family remained the primary social and economic institution of early modern Europe and took several forms, including the nuclear family.

    • KC-1.4.V Popular culture, leisure activities, and rituals reflecting the continued popularity of folk ideas reinforced and sometimes challenged communal ties and norms.

  • KC-1.5 The struggle for sovereignty within and among states resulted in varying degrees of political centralization.

    • KC-1.5.I The new concept of the sovereign state and secular systems of law played a central role in the creation of new political institutions.

Illustrative Examples:

  • New Protestant interpretations of Christian doctrine and practice:

    • Priesthood of all believers

    • Primacy of scripture

    • Predestination

    • Salvation by faith alone

  • Protestants who viewed wealth as signs of God’s favor:

    • Calvinists

  • Key factors in the French wars of religion:

    • Catherine de’ Medici

    • St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre

    • War of the Three Henrys

    • Henry IV

  • Habsburg rulers:

    • Charles V

  • State exploitation of religious conflicts:

    • Catholic Spain and Protestant England

    • France, Sweden, and Denmark in the Thirty Years’ War

  • States allowing religious pluralism:

    • Poland

    • The Netherlands

  • The Catholic Reformation:

    • St. Teresa of Avila

    • Ursulines

    • Roman Inquisition

    • Index of Prohibited Books

  • Continued social hierarchies:

    • Prestige of land ownership

    • Aristocratic privileges regarding taxes, fees for services, and legal protections

    • Political exclusion of women

  • Debates about female roles:

    • Women’s intellect and education

    • Women as preachers

    • La Querelle des Femmes

  • Regulating public morals:

    • New secular laws regulating private life

    • Stricter codes on prostitution and begging

    • Abolishing or restricting Carnival

  • Communal leisure activities:

    • Saint’s day festivities

    • Carnival

    • Blood sports

  • Rituals of public humiliation:

    • Charivari

    • Stocks

    • Public whipping and branding

  • Factors in witchcraft accusations:

    • Prominence of women

    • Regional variation

    • Social upheaval

  • Mannerist and Baroque artists whose art was used in new public buildings:

    • El Greco

    • Artemisia Gentileschi

    • Gian Bernini

    • Peter Paul Rubens

Key Concepts elaborated:

  • KC-1.2.I.B Reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin criticized Catholic abuses and established new interpretations of Christian doctrine and practice. Responses to Luther and Calvin included religious radicals, including the Anabaptists, and other groups, such as German peasants.

  • KC-1.2.I.C Some Protestant groups sanctioned the notion that wealth accumulation was a sign of God’s favor and a reward for hard work.

  • KC-1.1.II.B Protestant reformers used the printing press to disseminate their ideas, which spurred religious reform and helped it to become widely established.

  • KC-1.2.II.B Some Protestants, including Calvin and the Anabaptists, refused to recognize the subordination of the church to the secular state.

  • KC-1.2.II.C Religious conflicts became a basis for challenging the monarchs’ control of religious institutions.

  • KC-1.2.III.A Issues of religious reform exacerbated conflicts between the monarchy and the nobility, as in the French wars of religion.

  • KC-1.2.III.B Habsburg rulers confronted an expanded Ottoman Empire while attempting unsuccessfully to restore Catholic unity across Europe.

  • KC-1.2.III.C States exploited religious conflicts to promote political and economic interests.

  • KC-1.2.III.D A few states, such as France with the Edict of Nantes, allowed religious pluralism in order to maintain domestic peace.

  • KC-1.5.I.B The Peace of Westphalia (1648), which marked the effective end of the medieval ideal of universal Christendom, accelerated the decline of the Holy Roman Empire by granting princes, bishops, and other local leaders control over religion.

  • KC-1.2.I.D The Catholic Reformation, exemplified by the Jesuit Order and the Council of Trent, revived the church but cemented division within Christianity.

  • KC-1.4.I.C Established hierarchies of class, religion, and gender continued to define social status and perceptions in rural and urban settings.

  • KC-1.4.IV.A Rural and urban households worked as units, with men and women engaged in separate but complementary tasks.

  • KC-1.4.IV.B The Renaissance and Reformation raised debates about female education and women’s roles in the family, church, and society.

  • KC-1.4.III.C Social dislocation, coupled with the shifting authority of religious institutions during the Reformation, left city governments with the task of regulating public morals.

  • KC-1.4.V.A Leisure activities continued to be organized according to the religious calendar and the agricultural cycle, and remained communal in nature.

  • KC-1.4.V.B Local and church authorities continued to enforce communal norms through rituals of public humiliation.

  • KC-1.4.V.C Reflecting folk ideas and social and economic upheaval, accusations of witchcraft peaked between 1580 and 1650.

  • KC-1.1.III.C Mannerist and Baroque artists employed distortion, drama, and illusion in their work. Monarchies, city-states, and the church commissioned these works as a means of promoting their own stature and power.

Unit 3: Absolutism and Constitutionalism

Essential Questions:

  • In what ways did the struggle for sovereignty within and among states result in varying degrees of political centralization?

  • How did different models of political sovereignty affect the relationship among states?

  • How did different models of political sovereignty affect the relationship between states and individuals?

  • In what ways did the expansion of European commerce accelerate the growth of a worldwide economic network?

Key Concepts:

  • KC-1.5 The struggle for sovereignty within and among states resulted in varying degrees of political centralization.

    • KC-1.5.I The new concept of the sovereign state and secular systems of law played a central role in the creation of new political institutions.

    • KC-1.5.III The competition for power between monarchs and corporate and minority language groups produced different distributions of governmental authority in European states.

    • KC-1.5.III.B Monarchies seeking enhanced power faced challenges from nobles who wished to retain traditional forms of shared governance and regional autonomy.

    • KC-1.5.III.C Within states, minority local and regional identities based on language and culture led to resistance against the dominant national group.

  • KC-2.1 Different models of political sovereignty affected the relationship among states and between states and individuals.

    • KC-2.1.I In much of Europe, absolute monarchy was established over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries.

    • KC-2.1.II Challenges to absolutism resulted in alternative political systems.

  • KC-1.5.III.A The English Civil War

    • a conflict among the monarchy, Parliament, and other elites over their respective roles in the political structure

    • exemplified the competition for power among monarchs and competing groups.

  • KC-2.1.II.A The outcome of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution protected the rights of gentry and aristocracy from absolutism through assertions of the rights of Parliament.

  • KC-2.2.I.B The Agricultural Revolution raised productivity and increased the supply of food and other agricultural products.

  • KC-2.2.II.D The importation and transplantation of agricultural products from the Americas contributed to an increase in the food supply in Europe.

  • KC-2.2.I.A Labor and trade in commodities were increasingly freed from traditional restrictions imposed by governments and corporate entities.

  • KC-2.2.I.C The putting-out system, or cottage industry, expanded as increasing numbers of laborers in homes or workshops produced for markets through merchant intermediaries or workshop owners.

  • KC-2.2.I.D The development of the market economy led to new financial practices and institutions.

  • KC-2.2.I Early modern Europe developed a market economy that provided the foundation for its global role.

  • KC-2.2.II The European-dominated worldwide economic network contributed to the agricultural, industrial, and consumer revolutions in Europe.

    • KC-2.2.II.A European states followed mercantilist policies by drawing resources from colonies in the New World and elsewhere.

    • KC-2.2.II.B The transatlantic slave-labor system expanded in the 17th and 18th centuries as demand for New World products increased.

    • KC-2.2.II.C Overseas products and influences contributed to the development of a consumer culture in Europe.

    • KC-2.2.II.E Foreign lands provided raw materials, finished goods, laborers, and markets for the commercial and industrial enterprises in Europe.

  • KC-2.1.II.B The Dutch Republic, established by a Protestant revolt against the Habsburg monarchy, developed an oligarchy of urban gentry and rural landholders to promote trade and protect traditional rights.

  • KC-1.5.II The competitive state system led to new patterns of diplomacy and new forms of warfare.

    • KC-1.5.II.A Following the Peace of Westphalia, religion declined in importance as a cause for warfare among European states; the concept of the balance of power played an important role in structuring diplomatic and military objectives.

  • KC-2.1.I.D The inability of the Polish monarchy to consolidate its authority over the nobility led to Poland’s partition by Prussia, Russia, and Austria, and its disappearance from the map of Europe.

  • KC-2.1.III After 1648, dynastic and state interests, along with Europe’s expanding colonial empires, influenced the diplomacy of European states and frequently led to war.

    • KC-2.1.III.B After the Austrian defeat of the Turks in 1683 at the Battle of Vienna, the Ottomans ceased their westward expansion.

    • KC-2.1.III.C Louis XIV’s nearly continuous wars, pursuing both dynastic and state interests, provoked a coalition of European powers opposing him.

  • KC-1.5.II.B Advances in military technology led to new forms of warfare, including greater reliance on infantry, firearms, mobile cannon, and more elaborate fortifications, all financed by heavier taxation and requiring a larger bureaucracy. New military techniques and institutions (i.e., the military revolution) tipped the balance of power toward states able to marshal sufficient resources for the new military environment.

  • KC-2.1.I.A Absolute monarchies limited the nobility’s participation in governance but preserved the aristocracy’s social position and legal privileges.

  • KC-2.1.I.B Louis XIV and his finance minister, JeanBaptiste Colbert, extended the administrative, financial, military, and religious control of the central state over the French population.

  • KC-2.1.I.E Peter the Great “westernized” the Russian state and society, transforming political, religious, and cultural institutions; Catherine the Great continued this process.

Illustrative Examples:

  • Competition between monarchs and nobles:

    • Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu

    • The Fronde in France

    • The Catalan Revolts in Spain

  • Competition between minority and dominant national groups:

    • Celtic regions of Scotland, Ireland, and France

    • Dutch resistance in the Spanish Netherlands

    • Czech identity in the Holy Roman Empire/ Jan Hus/Defenestration

  • Competitors for power in the English Civil War:

    • James I

    • Charles I

    • Oliver Cromwell

  • Outcomes of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution:

    • English Bill of Rights

    • Parliamentary sovereignty

  • New financial practices and institutions:

    • Insurance

    • Banking institutions for turning private savings into venture capital

    • New definitions of property rights and protections against confiscation

    • Bank of England

  • Transatlantic slave-labor systems:

    • Middle Passage

    • Triangle trade

  • Overseas products:

    • Sugar

    • Tea

    • Silks and other fabrics

    • Tobacco

    • Rum

    • Coffee

  • Louis XIV’s nearly continuous wars:

    • Dutch War

    • Nine Years’ War

    • War of the Spanish Succession

  • States that benefited from the military revolution:

    • Spain under the Habsburgs

    • Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus

    • France

  • Absolute monarchs:

    • James I of England

    • Peter the Great of Russia

    • Philip II, III, and IV of Spain

  • Extended power of the state:

    • Intendants

    • Modernized, state controlled military

  • Russian westernization:

    • Russian Academy of Sciences

    • Education

    • Western fashion

    • Expanded military

Unit 4: Scientific, Philosophical, and Political Developments

Essential Questions

  • How were the concepts and practices of the Scientific Revolution spread?

  • How were the concepts of the Scientific Revolution applied by the Enlightenment to political, social, and ethical issues?

  • In what ways did the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment lead to an increased but not unchallenged emphasis on reason in European culture?

  • How were the experiences of everyday life shaped by demographic, environmental, medical, and technological changes?

Key Concepts

  • KC-1.1 The rediscovery of works from ancient Greece and Rome and observation of the natural world changed many Europeans’ view of their world.

    • KC-1.1.IV New ideas in science based on observation, experimentation, and mathematics challenged classical views of the cosmos, nature, and the human body, although existing traditions of knowledge and the universe continued.

  • KC-2.3 The spread of Scientific Revolution concepts and practices and the Enlightenment’s application of these concepts and practices to political, social, and ethical issues led to an increased but not unchallenged emphasis on reason in European culture.

    • KC-2.3.I Enlightenment thought, which focused on concepts such as empiricism, skepticism, human reason, rationalism, and classical sources of knowledge, challenged the prevailing patterns of thought with respect to social order, institutions of government, and the role of faith.

    • KC-2.3.II New public venues and print media popularized Enlightenment ideas.

    • KC-2.3.III New political and economic theories challenged absolutism and mercantilism.

    • KC-2.3.IV During the Enlightenment, the rational analysis of religious practices led to natural religion and the demand for religious toleration.

  • KC-2.4 The experiences of everyday life were shaped by demographic, environmental, medical, and technological changes.

    • KC-2.4.III By the 18th century, family and private life reflected new demographic patterns and the effects of the commercial revolution.

  • KC-1.1.IV.A New ideas and methods in astronomy led individuals, including Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton, to question the authority of the ancients and traditional knowledge, and to develop a heliocentric view of the cosmos.

  • KC-1.1.IV.B Anatomical and medical discoveries by physicians, including William Harvey, presented the body as an integrated system, challenging the traditional humoral theory of the body and of disease espoused by Galen.

  • KC-1.1.IV.C Francis Bacon and René Descartes defined inductive and deductive reasoning and promoted experimentation and the use of mathematics, which would ultimately shape the scientific method.

  • KC-1.1.IV.D Alchemy and astrology continued to appeal to elites and some natural philosophers, in part because they shared with the new science the notion of a predictable and knowable universe. At the same time, many people continued to believe that the cosmos was governed by spiritual forces.

  • KC-2.3.I.A Intellectuals, including Voltaire and Diderot, began to apply the principles of the Scientific Revolution to society and human institutions.

  • KC-2.3.I.B Locke and Rousseau developed new political models based on the concept of natural rights and the social contract.

  • KC-2.3.I.C Despite the principles of equality espoused by the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, intellectuals such as Rousseau offered controversial arguments for the exclusion of women from political life.

  • KC-2.3.II.A A variety of institutions, including salons, explored and disseminated Enlightenment culture.

  • KC-2.3.III.A Political theories, including John Locke’s, conceived of society as composed of individuals driven by self-interest and argued that the state originated in the consent of the governed (i.e., a social contract) rather than in divine right or tradition.

  • KC-2.3.III.B Mercantilist theory and practice were challenged by new economic ideas, including Adam Smith’s, which espoused free trade and a free market.

  • KC-2.3.IV.A Intellectuals, including Voltaire and Diderot, developed new philosophies of deism, skepticism, and atheism.

  • KC-2.3.IV.B Religion was viewed increasingly as a matter of private rather than public concern.

  • KC-2.4.I In the 17th century, small landholdings, low-productivity agricultural practices, poor transportation, and adverse weather limited and disrupted the food supply, causing periodic famines. By the 18th century, the balance between population and the food supply stabilized, resulting in steady population growth.

    • KC-2.4.I.A By the middle of the 18th century, higher agricultural productivity and improved transportation increased the food supply, allowing populations to grow and reducing the number of demographic crises (a process known as the Agricultural Revolution).

    • KC-2.4.I.B In the 18th century, plague disappeared as a major epidemic disease, and inoculation reduced smallpox mortality.

    • KC-2.4.III.A Although the rate of illegitimate births increased in the 18th century, population growth was limited by the European marriage pattern, and in some areas by various birth control methods.

  • KC-2.4.III.B As infant and child mortality decreased, and commercial wealth increased, families dedicated more space and resources to children and child-rearing, as well as private life and comfort.

  • KC-2.4.IV Cities offered economic opportunities, which attracted increasing migration from rural areas, transforming urban life and creating challenges for the new urbanites and their families.

    • KC-2.4.IV.A The Agricultural Revolution produced more food using fewer workers; as a result, people migrated from rural areas to the cities in search of work.

    • KC-2.4.IV.B The growth of cities eroded traditional communal values, and city governments strained to provide protection and a healthy environment.

    • KC-2.4.IV.C The concentration of the poor in cities led to a greater awareness of poverty, crime, and prostitution as social problems, and prompted increased efforts to police marginal groups.

  • KC-2.3.II.B Despite censorship, increasingly numerous and varied printed materials served a growing literate public and led to the development of public opinion.

  • KC-2.3.II.C Natural sciences, literature, and popular culture increasingly exposed Europeans to representations of peoples outside Europe and, on occasion, challenges to accepted social norms.

  • KC-2.3.V The arts moved from the celebration of religious themes and royal power to an emphasis on private life and the public good.

    • KC-2.3.V.A Until about 1750, Baroque art and music promoted religious feeling and was employed by monarchs to illustrate state power.

    • KC-2.3.V.B 18th-century art and literature increasingly reflected the outlook and values of commercial and bourgeois society. Neoclassicism expressed new Enlightenment ideals of citizenship and political participation.

  • KC-2.4.II The consumer revolution of the 18th century was shaped by a new concern for privacy, encouraged the purchase of new goods for homes, and created new venues for leisure activities.

  • KC-2.1.I.C In the 18th century, a number of states in eastern and central Europe experimented with enlightened absolutism.

  • KC-2.3.IV.C By 1800, most governments in western and central Europe had extended toler