AP European History, AP exams

Unit 9: Cold War and Contemporary Europe (c. 1914 to the present)

Unit 9 covers postwar reconstruction, the division of Europe, decolonization, European integration, and the collapse of communism. Social movements including second-wave feminism and immigration debates carry the course into the present. Integration and its critics supply material for essays about continuity and change since 1945.

Position: 9 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.

Rebuilding Europe after 1945: The Marshall Plan, occupation zones, and the postwar welfare states built in western Europe.
The Cold War in Europe: NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the division of Germany, and uprisings in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.
Decolonization and its European effects: Loss of empire in Asia and Africa, wars such as Algeria, and migration from former colonies into Europe.
European integration: From the coal and steel community to the European Union, and the debates over sovereignty it produced.
Economic strain and political change after 1970: The oil crises, stagflation, and the turn toward market-oriented policies in western economies.
The fall of communism: Reform in the Soviet Union, the revolutions of 1989, German reunification, and post-communist transitions.
Contemporary social change: Second-wave feminism, migration and multiculturalism, secularization, and populist reaction.

Study tips

How to practice Contemporary Europe.

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

Keep a timeline of 1945, 1968, 1989, and the treaty milestones of European integration.
Explain the fall of communism with multiple causes rather than a single one; complexity points depend on it.
Prepare recent examples for prompts on continuity and change since 1914, which often end in this unit.

Where this fits

Unit 9: Cold War and Contemporary Europe (c. 1914 to the present) is 9 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 Contemporary Europe 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
Which American program provided billions of dollars in aid to rebuild western European economies after 1948?
1. AThe Marshall Plan
2. BThe Truman Doctrine
3. CThe Warsaw Pact
4. DComecon
Show answer
Answer: A. The Marshall Plan
The European Recovery Program funded reconstruction and required recipients to cooperate in planning, which also strengthened western Europe against domestic communist parties. The Truman Doctrine is the tempting distractor because it belonged to the same strategy, but it was a pledge of political and military support rather than a reconstruction aid program.
Key insight: Postwar recovery in the west was shaped by American aid and by new welfare states built at the same time.
Question 2Foundational
Which military alliance did the Soviet Union and its eastern European satellites create in 1955 after West Germany joined NATO?
1. AThe Warsaw Pact
2. BNATO
3. CComecon
4. DThe European Coal and Steel Community
Show answer
Answer: A. The Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact formalized Soviet military control over eastern Europe and supplied the framework for interventions in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Comecon is the tempting distractor because it was the parallel eastern bloc organization, but it coordinated economic planning rather than armed forces.
Key insight: The division of Europe was institutional as well as military, with rival alliances and rival economic blocs.
Question 3Intermediate
Which 1957 treaty created the European Economic Community, the direct forerunner of the European Union?
1. AThe Treaty of Rome
2. BThe Maastricht Treaty
3. CThe Treaty of Paris
4. DThe Schengen Agreement
Show answer
Answer: A. The Treaty of Rome
Six states agreed to a common market with free movement of goods, labor, and capital, building on the coal and steel community of the early 1950s. The Treaty of Paris is the tempting distractor because it created that earlier community in 1951, while Maastricht is the 1992 treaty that established the European Union itself.
Key insight: European integration advanced treaty by treaty, each one trading a measure of sovereignty for shared prosperity.
Question 4Intermediate
Which Soviet leader introduced the policies of glasnost and perestroika that loosened controls and contributed to the collapse of communist rule in eastern Europe?
1. AMikhail Gorbachev
2. BLeonid Brezhnev
3. CNikita Khrushchev
4. DBoris Yeltsin
Show answer
Answer: A. Mikhail Gorbachev
Openness and restructuring were meant to save the Soviet system, and Gorbachev's refusal to use force to prop up satellite governments allowed the revolutions of 1989. Boris Yeltsin is the tempting distractor because he led Russia through the aftermath, but he became president of Russia as the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991.
Key insight: Explain 1989 with several causes at once; single-cause explanations lose the complexity point.
Question 5Advanced
Which 1968 reform movement in Czechoslovakia promised socialism with a human face before Warsaw Pact troops crushed it?
1. AThe Prague Spring
2. BSolidarity
3. CThe Hungarian Revolution
4. DThe Velvet Revolution
Show answer
Answer: A. The Prague Spring
Alexander Dubcek's government relaxed censorship and permitted open debate until Soviet-led forces invaded in August 1968 and reversed the reforms. The Hungarian Revolution is the tempting distractor because it was also crushed by Soviet troops, but it happened in 1956 and went further by announcing withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact.
Key insight: Each suppressed rising narrowed the reform the Soviet bloc would tolerate, until Moscow stopped intervening in 1989.

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Unit 9: Cold War and Contemporary Europe (c. 1914 to the present)