2017


AP European History

Free-Response Questions

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2017 AP® EUROPEAN HISTORY FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS
EUROPEAN HISTORY

SECTION I, Part B

Time — 50 minutes

4 Questions

Directions: Read each question carefully and write your response in the Section I, Part B: Short-Answer Response
booklet. You must write your response to each question on the lined page designated for that response. Each response
is expected to fit within its designated page.
Answer all parts of every question. Use complete sentences; an outline or bulleted list alone is not acceptable. You
may plan your answers in this exam booklet, but no credit will be given for notes written in this booklet. Sources
have been edited for the purposes of this exercise.

1. a) Identify and explain ONE continuity in European family life from 1700 through 1900.
b) Identify and explain ONE change in European family life from 1700 through 1900.
c) Identify and explain a SECOND distinct change in European family life from 1700 through 1900.

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2017 AP® EUROPEAN HISTORY FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS
Use the map below to answer all parts of the question that follows.

Each dot represents a city that produced at least 50 different books or book editions during the period 1452–1500.

2.	 a) For the period 1452–1500, identify and explain ONE cause that contributed to the geographical distribution
of printing centers in Europe shown on the map.
b) For the period 1500–1550, identify and explain ONE short-term cultural or political effect of the emergence
of printing centers such as the ones shown on the map.
c) For the period 1550–1789, identify and explain ONE long-term effect of the spread of printing on European
society.

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2017 AP® EUROPEAN HISTORY FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS
Use the passage below to answer all parts of the question that follows.
“The welfare state, in short, was born of a cross-party twentieth-century consensus. . . . Moreover, and here
the memory of war once again played an important role, the twentieth-century ‘socialist’ welfare states were
constructed not as an advance guard of egalitarian revolution but to provide a barrier against the return of the
past: against economic depression and its polarizing, violent political outcome in the desperate politics of
Fascism and Communism alike. The welfare states were thus prophylactic [preventive]. . . . Thanks to a half
century of prosperity and safety, we in the West have forgotten the political and social traumas of mass
insecurity. And thus we have forgotten why we have inherited those welfare states and what brought them
about.”
Tony Judt, British historian, Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten
Twentieth Century, 2008
3. a) Provide ONE piece of evidence that would support Judt’s argument regarding the creation of welfare states.
b) Provide ONE piece of evidence that would support Judt’s characterization of political and economic

conditions in the period 1960 to 2000.

c) Briefly analyze ONE way in which Judt’s argument is a response to the political and intellectual trends in
late-twentieth-century Europe.

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2017 AP® EUROPEAN HISTORY FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS
Use the passage below to answer all parts of the question that follows.
“For if Tycho Brahe,* considering the immensity of those globes [the planets], believed that they did not exist
pointlessly in the world, but were packed with inhabitants, how much more convincing will it be for us,
perceiving the variety of the works and intentions of God on this globe of Earth, to adopt a similar conjecture
about the others as well? For He has created species to inhabit the waters, though there is no place under
them for air, which living things draw in; He has sent into the immensity of the air birds propped up by
feathers; He has given to the snowy tracts of the north white bears and white foxes. . . . Has He then used up
all His skill on the globe of the Earth? For whose benefit do four moons gird Jupiter,** as this single Moon
of ours does our home? In fact we shall also reason in the same way about the globe of the Sun—is that globe
empty but the others full, if everything else corresponds more closely? If just as the Earth breathes out
clouds, the Sun breathes out black soot [sun spots]?***”
Johannes Kepler, German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologist,
Harmony of the World, treatise, 1619.
* Danish astronomer (1546–1601) who is considered the pioneer of scientific astronomical observation.
** The four largest moons of Jupiter were discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei.
*** Sun spots were first observed telescopically in 1610–1611 by several European astronomers.
4. a) Analyze ONE way in which the passage reflects traditional views of the cosmos.
b) Analyze ONE way in which the passage challenges traditional views of the cosmos.
c) Choose ONE example of a scientific discovery made during the Scientific Revolution (other than the
discoveries explicitly mentioned in the passage) and explain how it challenged traditional views of nature.

END OF SECTION I


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2017 AP® EUROPEAN HISTORY FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS
EUROPEAN HISTORY

SECTION II

Total Time—1 hour, 30 minutes


Question 1 (Document-Based Question)

Suggested reading and writing time: 55 minutes


It is suggested that you spend 15 minutes reading the documents and 40 minutes writing your response.

Note: You may begin writing your response before the reading period is over.


Directions: Question 1 is based on the accompanying documents. The documents have been edited for the purpose
of this exercise.

In your response you should do the following.

•

Thesis: Present a thesis that makes a historically defensible claim and responds to all parts of the question. The
thesis must consist of one or more sentences located in one place, either in the introduction or the conclusion.

•

Argument Development: Develop and support a cohesive argument that recognizes and accounts for historical
complexity by explicitly illustrating relationships among historical evidence such as contradiction,

corroboration, and/or qualification.


•

Use of the Documents: Utilize the content of at least six of the documents to support the stated thesis or a
relevant argument.

•

Sourcing the Documents: Explain the significance of the author’s point of view, author’s purpose, historical
context, and/or audience for at least four documents.

•

Contextualization: Situate the argument by explaining the broader historical events, developments, or processes
immediately relevant to the question.

•

Outside Evidence: Provide an example or additional piece of specific evidence beyond those found in the
documents to support or qualify the argument.

•

Synthesis: Extend the argument by explaining the connections between the argument and ONE of the following.
o
A development in a different historical period, situation, era, or geographical area.
o
A course theme and/or approach to history that is not the focus of the essay (such as political,
economic, social, cultural, or intellectual history).
o
A different discipline or field of inquiry (such as economics, government and politics, art
history, or anthropology).

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2017 AP® EUROPEAN HISTORY FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS
1. Evaluate whether or not the Glorious Revolution of 1688 can be considered part of the Enlightenment.

Document 1

Source: John Evelyn, writer and founding member of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural
Knowledge, diary entry, 1688
7th October—Dr. Tenison [an Anglican minister] preached at St. Martin’s church, showing the Scriptures to
be our only rule of faith, and its perfection above all traditions. After which, near 1,000 devout persons
partook of the Communion. The sermon was chiefly a response to a sermon by a Jesuit, who the Sunday
before had disparaged the Scripture and railed at our translation. Some who were present [on that Sunday]
pulled the Jesuit out of the pulpit, and treated him very coarsely. Hourly expectation of William, the Prince of
Orange’s invasion heightened to that degree, that his Majesty [James II] thought fit to dispense with all laws
and in the meantime, he called over 5,000 Irish and 4,000 Scots soldiers, and continued to remove Protestants
and put in Papists at Portsmouth harbor and other places of trust, and retained the Jesuits about him,
increasing the universal discontent. It brought people to so desperate a pass, that they seemed passionately to
long for and desire the landing of the Prince of Orange, whom they looked on to be their deliverer from
Popish tyranny, praying incessantly for an east wind, which was said to be the only hindrance of his
expedition [from the Netherlands] with a numerous army ready to make a descent.

Document 2

Source: King William III, declaration, October 10, 1688
The Declaration of His Highness William, by the Grace of God, Prince of Orange, etc., of the reasons
inducing him to appear in arms in the Kingdom of England, and for preserving the Protestant religion, and
for restoring the laws and liberties of England, Scotland, and Ireland:
We for our part will concur in everything that may procure the peace and happiness of that nation, which a
free and lawful Parliament shall determine, since we have nothing before our eyes in this our undertaking but
the preservation of the Protestant religion, the covering of all men from persecution for their conscience, and
the securing to the whole nation the free enjoyment of all their laws, rights, and liberties, under a just and
legal government.

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2017 AP® EUROPEAN HISTORY FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS
Document 3

Source: Excerpts from the English Bill of Rights, passed by Parliament and ratified by William III, 1689

Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons, being now assembled in a full and free representative of this

nation, do in the first place (as their ancestors in like case have usually done) for the vindicating and asserting

their ancient rights and liberties declare:

That the pretended power of suspending the laws or the execution of laws by royal authority without consent

of Parliament is illegal;

That levying money for or to the use of the Crown by pretence of prerogative, without grant of Parliament,

for longer time, or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted, is illegal;

That the raising or keeping of a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent

of Parliament, is against law;

That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defense suitable to their conditions and as

allowed by law;

That the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or

questioned in any court or place out of Parliament;

That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments

inflicted;

And that for redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening and preserving of the laws,

Parliaments ought to be held frequently.


Document 4

Source: Gilbert Burnet, Anglican bishop and close friend of William III, sermon preached at the coronation
ceremony of William III, April 1689
When the encouraging and promoting of a vigorous piety, and sublime virtue, and the explaining and
propagating of true religion is the chief design of their rule; when impiety and vice are punished, and error is
repressed; when the decency of the worship of God is kept up, without adulterating it with superstitions;
when order is carried on in the Church of God, without tyranny; and above all when princes are in their own
deportment [conduct], examples of the fear of God . . . and when it is visible that they honour those who fear
the Lord, and that vile men are despised by them, then do they truly rule in fear of God.

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2017 AP® EUROPEAN HISTORY FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS
Document 5

Source: John Locke, English writer, Two Treatises of Government, 1689
The reason why men enter into society, is the preservation of their property; and the end why they choose and
authorize a legislative power, is, that there may be laws made, and rules set, as guards and fences to the
properties of all the members of the society, to limit the power, and moderate the dominion, of every part and
member of the society: for since it can never be supposed to be the will of the society, that the legislative
should have a power to destroy that which every one designs to secure, by entering into society, and for
which the people submitted themselves to legislators of their own making; whenever the legislators
endeavour to take away, and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary
power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther
obedience, and are left to the common refuge, which God hath provided for all men, against force and
violence. . . . the supreme executor, who having a double trust put in him, both to have a part in the
legislative, and the supreme execution of the law, acts against both, when he goes about to set up his own
arbitrary will as the law of the society.

Document 6

Source: Voltaire, French writer, Letters on the English, 1726–1729
The English are the only people upon earth who have been able to prescribe limits to the power of kings by
resisting them; and who, by a series of struggles, have at last established that wise Government where the
Prince is all powerful to do good, and, at the same time, is restrained from committing evil; where the nobles
are great without insolence, though there are no vassals; and where the people share in the Government
without confusion. . . . The English have doubtless purchased their liberties at a very high price, and waded
through seas of blood to drown the idol of arbitrary power. Other nations have been involved in as great
calamities, and have shed as much blood; but then the blood these other nations spilt in defense of their
liberties only enslaved them the more.

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2017 AP® EUROPEAN HISTORY FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS

Document 7

Source: “William and Mary,” woodcut from a mid-eighteenth-century English children’s book, showing
William III and his wife and coruler Queen Mary II

The Granger Collection, New York

The scroll in William’s hand is labeled “Bill of Rights.” The rhyming verse below the image reads:
“William the hero, with Maria mild, /(He James’s nephew, she his eldest child)/Fix’d freedom and the
church, reform’d the coin;/Oppos’d the French and settled Brunswick’s line*.”
* a reference to the principle that only a Protestant would be allowed to become ruler of Great Britain,
offıcially adopted in 1701

END OF DOCUMENTS FOR QUESTION 1

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2017 AP® EUROPEAN HISTORY FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS
Question 2 or Question 3

Suggested writing time: 35 minutes


Directions: Choose EITHER question 2 or question 3.

In your response you should do the following.

•

Thesis: Present a thesis that makes a historically defensible claim and responds to all parts of the question. The
thesis must consist of one or more sentences located in one place, either in the introduction or the conclusion.

•

Application of Historical Thinking Skills: Develop and support an argument that applies historical thinking
skills as directed by the question.

•

Supporting the Argument with Evidence: Utilize specific examples of evidence to fully and effectively
substantiate the stated thesis or a relevant argument.

•

Synthesis: Extend the argument by explaining the connections between the argument and ONE of the following.
o
A development in a different historical period, situation, era, or geographical area.
o
A course theme and/or approach to history that is not the focus of the essay (such as political,
economic, social, cultural, or intellectual history).
o
A different discipline or field of inquiry (such as economics, government and politics, art
history, or anthropology).

2. Describe and explain a significant similarity and a significant difference between the ways European states
waged war in the period circa 1500–1648 and in the period circa 1750–1871. (Historical thinking skill:
Comparison)

3. Describe and explain a significant similarity and a significant difference between European governments’ role
in the economy in the period circa 1650–1750 and in the period circa 1850–1950. (Historical thinking skill:
Comparison)

WHEN YOU FINISH WRITING, CHECK YOUR WORK ON SECTION II IF TIME PERMITS.
STOP

END OF EXAM

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