5 Steps to a 5TM AP European History

Answers and Explanations for AP European History Practice Test 1 (^) ‹ 239

• Both countries were deeply in debt from wars. In
  France, these were due to earlier wars of Louis XIV,
  whereas in Russia, they were due to the burden
  of participating in World War I. Both countries
  responded to these debts by increasing the tax burden
  on lower classes like peasants and the bourgeoisie.


• Radicals in both nations were inspired by new
  political theories that seemed to justify transform-
  ing the political regime. French revolutionaries
  were inspired by the ideas of the philosophes in
  the Enlightenment, whereas in Russia, they were
  inspired by the ideas of Marxism.


• W omen played pivotal roles early on in both revo-
  lutions. In France, women protested the shortage
  of bread by marching on Versailles and escorting
  King Louis XVI into Paris. In Russia, female fac-
  tory workers, angry at having to stand in line for
  bread rations after long factory shifts, protested
  and encouraged a general workers’ strike.


• Both revolutions had middle-class factions that
  attempted to form moderate governments, before
  being taken over by more radical elements. In
  France, this was seen in the National Assembly,
  whose goal was establishment of a constitutional
  monarchy. In Russia, it took the form of the
  provisional government formed in March, 1917,
  which embarked on a series of liberal reforms but
  intended to fulfill Russia’s wartime commitments.


• nI both nations, revolutionary tensions were exac-
  erbated by weak leadership in the form of Louis
  XVI in France and Nicholas II in Russia.

b) A good response will identify ONE piece of evidence

undermining the comparison that the Russian and

French Revolutions were similar, such as:

• The French Revolution ultimately resulted in few
  permanent political changes, including return of
  hereditary monarchy in the 1800s. In Russia, the
  political landscape was permanently changed with
  the execution of the entire royal family. Russia
  never again had a monarchy.


• A second difference can be seen in the attitudes
  toward foreign conflicts. In France, war with other
  countries like Austria was encouraged by some
  revolutionaries as a means of uniting the nation,
  whereas in Russia, the war turned people against
  the government.

Question 3

One aspect of the Romantic Movement was its insist-

ence on the importance of the cultivation of the senses,

sentiment, and emotion.

Two examples of that aspect of the Romantic

Movement are seen in the works of William Wordsworth

and Lord Byron. The roots of Romanticism are often

traced back to the works of Rousseau, who argued that

humans are born essentially good and virtuous but

are easily corrupted by society. Both Wordsworth and

Byron refer to the purity of Nature as opposed to the

corrupt and “vulgar” experiences of society.

Part B: Briefly explain TWO reasons for the rise of

the Romantic Movement.

Two reasons for the rise of the Romantic Movement are

the emphasis on reason that dominated the writings of

the Enlightenment philosophes and the changes wrought

by the process of industrialization.

The works of Rousseau and Goethe explicitly assert

the need for the cultivation of the senses, sentiment,

and emotion as a remedy for the ruthless and soul-

less rationalism of the Enlightenment. Meanwhile,

many of the Romantics explicitly offered the solace

of nature as a remedy for the dehumanizing effects

of factory work and urban living conditions, both of

which they saw as arising from the excessive emphasis

on reason in European society. For example, the works

of the English poets William Wordsworth and Samuel

Taylor Coleridge extolled the almost mystical quali-

ties of the lake country of northwest England. Lord

Byron and Mary Shelley concentrated on the corrupt-

ing effects of society on pure souls, again stressing the

importance of Nature.

Question 4

Ricardo’s notion that state intervention on behalf of

the poor (“the poor laws”) would only serve to increase

the number of poor people identifies the passage with

classical liberalism.

Classical liberalism asserted that there were laws of

nature that governed economic markets and that any

attempt by the state or society to interfere with the

workings of those laws would only make matters worse.

Specifically, Ricardo is writing in the tradition of Adam

Smith, who argued in Wealth of Nations (1776) that there

was an “invisible hand” that guided the economic activ-

ity of societies.

Two factors that help explain the rise to prominence

of classical liberalism in 1817 are the wide-ranging

influence of the Enlightenment and the emergence of

a fully commercial economy in Great Britain (where

Ricardo wrote).

By 1815, Enlightenment works such as John

Locke’s Essay on Human Understanding and Second

Treatise of Government (both 1689) and Adam Smith’s

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