AP European History — Unit 3: Absolutism and Constitutionalism (c.1648–1815)
Practice questions, answers, and key terms for Unit 3, aligned to the College Board CED.
Exam weighting: Unit 3 is 10% of the AP European History exam.
What AP European History Unit 3 covers
The College Board Course and Exam Description breaks Unit 3 into 6 topics:
- 3.1 Contextualizing Absolutism and Constitutionalism
- 3.2 Absolute Monarchy
- 3.3 Constitutionalism
- 3.4 Balance of Power
- 3.5 Economic Development and Mercantilism
- 3.6 Causation in the Age of Absolutism and Constitutionalism
AP European History Unit 3 practice questions
1648: a treaty ends a war, but it also tells the pope and the emperor they can't overrule a ruler inside his own borders anymore. What principle of statehood just got locked in?
Sovereignty — supreme authority over a territory, answering to no higher power. Neither pope nor emperor can overrule a ruler inside his own borders.
A king wants to centralize power, but a wall of old aristocrats wants to keep running their own regions like always. This single clash decided which states went absolutist and which didn't. What was the clash?
Monarchs consolidating authority versus nobles defending their regional autonomy. Where the crown won you get absolutism; where nobles won, constitutionalism.
A centralizing state pushes one dominant language and culture from the top down. In Scotland, Ireland, and the Spanish Netherlands, the locals push back hard. What is the state colliding with?
Minority regional identities of language and culture resisting absorption. They were a brake on top-down centralization.
Charles I keeps seizing land and raising money without Parliament's consent, insisting God put him above the law. Parliament keeps insisting land can only be taken by due process. Where does this standoff end up?
Civil war between the king and Parliament over their roles in England's structure. It was really a fight over whether the king answers to law.
Parliament wins the civil war and does something no European state had done to a sitting, anointed king. What happened on 30 January 1649 — and what came next that surprises students?
Charles I was executed; England became a republic, the Commonwealth, under Cromwell. It was a military republic, not a restored monarchy.
A man cuts off a king's head and rules England — yet he refuses the crown and calls himself something else entirely. Who is he, and what title did he take?
Oliver Cromwell, who ruled as Lord Protector during the Commonwealth. He took one-man military rule, refusing the crown itself.
1688: a Catholic king is on a Protestant throne and Parliament has had enough. They swap him out for a new ruler — with almost no blood spilled. What was this swap called, and why 'Glorious'?
The Glorious Revolution — James II was replaced by William and Mary. The near-bloodless swap settled England's constitutional path.
William and Mary are handed the English throne — but only after they agree to one condition that permanently caged royal power. What document were they forced to accept?
The English Bill of Rights (1689), which subordinated the monarch to Parliament. It guaranteed parliamentary rights as a condition of the throne.
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Key terms in Unit 3
These 12 terms show up in the Unit 3 cards. Each one links to its definition in the AP European History key-term reference.
Drill all of Unit 3 with spaced repetition
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