AP European History — Unit 6: Industrialization and Its Effects (c.1815–1914)
Practice questions, answers, and key terms for Unit 6, aligned to the College Board CED.
Exam weighting: Unit 6 is 15% of the AP European History exam.
What AP European History Unit 6 covers
The College Board Course and Exam Description breaks Unit 6 into 9 topics:
- 6.1 Contextualizing Industrialization and its Effects
- 6.2 The Industrial Revolution Begins in Britain
- 6.3 Second Industrial Revolution
- 6.4 Social Effects of Industrialization
- 6.5 Reactions and Reforms
- 6.6 New Imperialism: Causes
- 6.7 New Imperialism: Developments
- 6.8 19th-Century Culture and Arts
- 6.9 Causation in Industrialization
AP European History Unit 6 practice questions
France and Britain both had ambitious entrepreneurs by 1815, yet Britain industrialized first. What single physical advantage made the difference?
Britain sat on cheap, abundant coal and iron ore to power and build machines. France lacked comparable supplies located near each other.
Britain's first factory owners weren't random risk-takers — most had already gotten rich doing something else. Doing what?
Running the cottage industry and putting-out system. That gave them capital to reinvest in machines and factory buildings.
Britain rejected absolutism in the prior century. Trace how that political choice gave it an industrial head start.
Parliament represented commercial interests and passed pro-business laws. It left industrialization in private hands, not waiting on state direction.
A potato blight hits Ireland in the 1840s and millions die or emigrate. What deeper structural failure does this disaster expose?
Lagging industry left the Irish on one subsistence crop. So a single potato blight became mass famine.
An Agricultural Revolution boosts food supply across Europe — but in Britain it does something extra that fuels industry. What?
Cheaper food gave Britons spare income for manufactured goods. That domestic demand fueled factory output.
An indoor tree grows inside a giant glass-and-steel building in 1851 London. What was this structure meant to prove to the world?
The Crystal Palace showcased Britain's industrial supremacy. The 1851 Great Exhibition proclaimed mastery over nature and empire.
Everyone hears 'Corn Laws' and pictures corn. They were actually tariffs on grain. Who benefited, and who pushed to repeal them?
Tariffs protected landowners' grain; the League pushed repeal. The Anti-Corn Law League of factory owners and workers wanted cheaper food.
France industrialized too — but its experience looked calmer than Britain's. What about its pace explains the gentler social shock?
France industrialized gradually, with state support, not abruptly. That avoided the massive social dislocations Britain experienced.
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Key terms in Unit 6
These 12 terms show up in the Unit 6 cards. Each one links to its definition in the AP European History key-term reference.
Drill all of Unit 6 with spaced repetition
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