(^54) › STEP 4. Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High
Introduction
The AP European History Exam identifies six main themes in modern European history.
These themes are explored throughout the curriculum of AP European history courses.
In fact, all of the various kinds of questions posed on the AP European History Exam refer
to one or more of these themes. The particulars of each theme will be discussed in detail in
Chapters 10 through 23. For now, just become familiar with these broad themes, as such
familiarity will allow you to take the first step in contextualizing the visual prompts from
each question on the exam.Interaction of Europe and the World
By the fifteenth century, increased wealth flowing into the economies of Western European
kingdoms from reviving trade with Eastern civilizations made both the monarchies and
the merchant class of Western Europe very wealthy. Beginning in the fifteenth century, the
combined investment of those monarchies and merchant classes funded great voyages of
exploration across the globe, establishing new trade routes and bringing European civiliza-
tion into contact with civilizations previously unknown to Europeans. The effects of this
exploration and interaction on both the civilization of Western Europe and on those they
encountered were profound.Changes in Wealth and Who Had It
From the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries, the economies of Western
European civilization expanded and changed. The new wealth that flowed into those
economies from their trading empires and colonies fostered a shift in the very nature of
wealth and in who possessed it. At the outset of the fifteenth century, wealth was land,
and it was literally in the hands of those who had the military ability to hold and pro-
tect it. Gradually, over the next four centuries, wealth became capital (money in all of
its forms), whereas land became simply one form of capital—one more thing that could
be bought and sold. The wealthy, those who had and controlled capital, became a larger
and slightly more diverse segment of society, ranging from traditional landholders who
were savvy enough to transform their traditional holdings into capital-producing con-
cerns, to the class of merchants, bankers, and entrepreneurs who are often referred to
as the bourgeoisie.Changes in Knowledge Systems and World View
Throughout the course of modern European history, intellectuals were engaged in the pur-
suit of knowledge. In traditional or medieval European society, knowledge was produced
by church scholars whose abilities to read and write allowed them access to ancient texts.
From those texts, they chose information and a world view that seemed compatible with
Christian notions of revealed knowledge and a hierarchical order. Accordingly, traditional
Christian scholars found knowledge in texts they believed to be divinely inspired and whichKEY IDEAKEY IDEAKEY IDEA09_Bartolini_Ch09_053-056.indd 54 16/04/18 4:28 PM