AP World History: Modern — Unit 5: Revolutions (c. 1750–1900)
Practice questions, answers, and key terms for Unit 5, aligned to the College Board CED.
Exam weighting: Unit 5 is 12-15% of the AP World History: Modern exam.
What AP World History: Modern Unit 5 covers
The College Board Course and Exam Description breaks Unit 5 into 9 topics:
- 5.1 The Enlightenment
- 5.2 Nationalism and Revolutions
- 5.3 Industrial Revolution Begins
- 5.4 Industrialization Spreads
- 5.5 Technology of the Industrial Age
- 5.6 Industrialization: Government's Role
- 5.7 Economic Developments and Innovations
- 5.8 Reactions to the Industrial Economy
- 5.9 Society and the Industrial Age
AP World History: Modern Unit 5 practice questions
For centuries, Europeans obeyed kings because 'God said so.' Then a group of 18th-century thinkers said: forget tradition, forget divine authority — use REASON. This idea lit the fuse on every revolution in this unit. What's the movement?
The Enlightenment — applying reason, not tradition, to politics and power. Its ideas of natural rights and the social contract sparked every revolution in this unit.
You're born with rights that NO government can take away — life, liberty, property. If a government violates those rights, you have the right to OVERTHROW IT. Who said this, and why did it terrify every king in Europe?
John Locke, whose natural rights gave permission to rebel against tyranny. Before him, opposing the king was treason; after him, it was self-defense — the Declaration borrows his words.
A king and his people have an unwritten deal: the government protects rights, the people consent to be governed. But if the king BREAKS the deal — abuses power, ignores rights — the people can revoke their consent and rebel. What's this idea, and why is it revolutionary?
The social contract (Locke and Rousseau). It turns revolution from 'illegal rebellion' into 'justified self-defense.' That reframing is everything — it gave colonial rebels, French citizens, and enslaved Haitians the philosophical LICENSE to fight their rulers.
If ALL people have natural rights, then enslaving people violates those rights. If ALL people deserve dignity, then serfdom is wrong. If ALL people should participate in government, then who votes needs to expand. How did Enlightenment ideas drive reform BEYOND just revolution?
They fueled reform: wider voting, abolition, and ending serfdom. Natural rights logic challenged every inequality, from slavery to Russian serfdom (emancipated 1861).
The Enlightenment says 'all people have natural rights.' So Mary Wollstonecraft asks the obvious question: does 'all people' include WOMEN? Her answer — and the answer of Olympe de Gouges and the Seneca Falls Convention — is yes. What movement does this launch?
Early feminism — applying universal natural rights to women. Wollstonecraft, de Gouges, and Seneca Falls weren't inventing new ideas, just applying existing ones consistently.
You don't feel loyalty to a king anymore. You feel loyalty to people who speak your language, share your customs, and live on your territory. 'We are a NATION,' you say, 'and we should govern ourselves.' What's this powerful — and dangerous — force?
Nationalism — loyalty to a shared culture that demands self-rule. It builds states (Germany, Italy unify) and destroys empires (Ottoman, Austrian fragment) — same force, opposite effects.
Before 1776, overthrowing a king and establishing a democratic republic was just THEORY. Then American colonists actually DO IT — and succeed. Why does the American Revolution matter far beyond America itself?
It proved Enlightenment ideas actually work — monarchy can be overthrown. The American Revolution became the proof of concept that inspired the French, Haitian, and Latin American revolutions.
The American Declaration of Independence, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, and Bolívar's Letter from Jamaica — three documents, three continents, written decades apart. But they all use the SAME philosophical language. Why?
Because all three draw upon the same Enlightenment ideas. Natural rights, social contract, and self-governance — one toolkit applied to Britain, France, and Spain.
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Key terms in Unit 5
These 12 terms show up in the Unit 5 cards. Each one links to its definition in the AP World History: Modern key-term reference.
Drill all of Unit 5 with spaced repetition
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