AP European History, AP exams

Unit 5: Conflict, Crisis, and Reaction in the Late 18th Century (c. 1648 to c. 1815)

Unit 5 covers global markets, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic era, and the conservative restoration that followed. The revolution is studied through its phases and their competing goals rather than as a single event. Romanticism closes the unit as a cultural response to revolution and industrial change.

Position: 5 of 9 units
Topics covered: 7 topics in this guide

What is covered

Topics inside this unit.

These topics describe the scope students most often review for this part of AP European History. Treat them as a study checklist rather than an exhaustive list of what a single exam form can sample.

Global markets and Britain's ascendancy: Atlantic trade, colonial competition, and the financial and naval strength that gave Britain the advantage.
Causes of the French Revolution: Fiscal crisis, estate grievances, Enlightenment ideas, and the political failures of the old regime.
Phases of the French Revolution: The National Assembly, the Declaration of the Rights of Man, radicalization, the Terror, and the Directory.
Women and the revolution: Popular participation, Olympe de Gouges, and the revolution's contradictory record on women's rights.
Napoleon's rise, empire, and defeat: The Napoleonic Code, imperial expansion, nationalist resistance, and defeat in Russia and at Waterloo.
The Congress of Vienna and conservatism: Restoration of legitimate monarchies, the concert of Europe, and the conservative order it tried to preserve.
Romanticism: Emotion, nature, and nationalism in art and literature as a reaction against Enlightenment rationalism.

Study tips

How to practice Revolution and Napoleon.

Section-specific guidance that follows from how this material is usually tested.

Learn the revolution by phase, with one goal and one outcome per phase, instead of by date list.
Argue both that Napoleon consolidated and that he betrayed revolutionary principles; prompts run both ways.
Use Romanticism as evidence in cultural prompts; it is often the strongest available example.

Where this fits

Unit 5: Conflict, Crisis, and Reaction in the Late 18th Century (c. 1648 to c. 1815) is 5 of 9 units in the AP European History guide. Use the full guide to balance it against everything else you have to review.

Back to the AP European History guide Official exam information

Sample Revolution and Napoleon questions

Practice questions, not yet expert-reviewed

Original practice questions written to the published framework for this section. No expert has reviewed them, and they are not taken from any official exam. Try each one before you open the answer.

Question 1Foundational
In June 1789 the deputies of which estate broke away from the Estates General and declared themselves the National Assembly?
1. AThe Third Estate
2. BThe First Estate
3. CThe Second Estate
4. DThe Parlement of Paris
Show answer
Answer: A. The Third Estate
Deputies of the commoners, blocked by voting rules that let the clergy and nobility outvote them, claimed to represent the nation and swore not to disband until France had a constitution. The First Estate is the tempting distractor because sympathetic parish clergy soon joined them, but the break itself was made by the Third Estate.
Key insight: The revolution began as a constitutional dispute over representation before it became a social upheaval.
Question 2Foundational
Which legal code issued under Napoleon in 1804 guaranteed equality before the law and secure property rights while restricting the legal standing of women?
1. AThe Napoleonic Code
2. BThe Declaration of the Rights of Man
3. CThe Continental System
4. DThe Concordat of 1801
Show answer
Answer: A. The Napoleonic Code
The code preserved revolutionary gains such as legal equality among men and the abolition of feudal privilege while placing wives under their husbands' legal authority. The Continental System is the tempting distractor because it was another signature Napoleonic policy, but it was an economic blockade aimed at Britain rather than a body of civil law.
Key insight: Napoleon consolidated some revolutionary principles and reversed others, which is why prompts about him run both ways.
Question 3Intermediate
Which phase of the French Revolution, directed by Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety, used mass executions to defend the republic against its enemies?
1. AThe Reign of Terror
2. BThe Thermidorian Reaction
3. CThe Directory
4. DThe Hundred Days
Show answer
Answer: A. The Reign of Terror
Facing foreign invasion and internal revolt, the committee governed by emergency powers, and revolutionary tribunals sent thousands to the guillotine until Robespierre himself fell in July 1794. The Thermidorian Reaction is the tempting distractor because it belongs to the same year, but it names the backlash that ended the Terror.
Key insight: Learn the revolution by phase, with one goal and one outcome for each, instead of by a list of dates.
Question 4Intermediate
Which congress meeting in 1814 and 1815 redrew the map of Europe after Napoleon's defeat and sought to restore legitimate monarchs and a balance of power?
1. AThe Congress of Vienna
2. BThe Congress of Berlin
3. CThe Peace of Westphalia
4. DThe Paris Peace Conference
Show answer
Answer: A. The Congress of Vienna
Guided by Metternich, the powers restored ruling houses, strengthened the states bordering France, and created a system of consultation meant to prevent another general war. The Congress of Berlin is the tempting distractor because it also rearranged borders among great powers, but it met in 1878 to settle Balkan questions.
Key insight: The restoration tried to contain revolution and nationalism, and the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 measured its success.
Question 5Advanced
Which French writer published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen in 1791 and was executed during the Terror?
1. AOlympe de Gouges
2. BMary Wollstonecraft
3. CMadame Roland
4. DCharlotte Corday
Show answer
Answer: A. Olympe de Gouges
De Gouges rewrote the 1789 declaration to include women, insisting that a woman who may mount the scaffold must equally be allowed to mount the speaker's rostrum, and she was guillotined in 1793. Mary Wollstonecraft is the tempting distractor because she made a parallel argument in the same years, but she was English and died in 1797.
Key insight: The revolution broadened the language of rights and then narrowed who could claim them, a tension worth naming in essays.

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Unit 5: Conflict, Crisis, and Reaction in the Late 18th Century (c. 1648 to c. 1815)