2022 AP European History Exam Guide

Your guide to the 2022 AP European History exam

Format of the 2022 AP European History exam

• Section 1A: Multiple Choice (40% of score)
• 55 questions in 55 minutes
• Section 1B: Short Answer (20% of score)
• 3 questions in 40 minutes
• Section 2: Free Response (40% of score)
• Document-Based Question (25% of score)
• 1 DBQ with the recommended 60 minutes to complete it.
• Long Essay Question (15% of score)
• 1 LEQ with the recommended 40 minutes to complete it.
• Total time: 1 hour and 40 minutes

Scoring Rubric for the 2022 AP European History exam

• Thesis = 1pt
• Contextualization = 1 pt
• Evidence = 3 pts
• 2 pts for evidence in documents 
• 1 pt for evidence beyond documents
• Analysis and Reasoning = 2 pts
• 1 pt for sourcing
• 1 pt for complexity

• Thesis = 1pt
• Contextualization = 1 pt
• Evidence = 2 pts
• Analysis and Reasoning = 2 pts

When is the 2022 AP European History exam and how do I take it?

How should I prepare for the exam?

• First, download the AP European History Cram Chart PDF - a single sheet that covers everything you need to know at a high level. Take note of your strengths and weaknesses! 
• Review every unit and question type, and focus on the areas that need the most improvement and practice. We’ve put together this plan to help you study between now and May. This will cover all of the units and essay types to prepare you for your exam
•  Join Hours 🤝to talk to real students just like you studying for this exam! We have TAs in each subject channel to support you this Spring. 

Pre-work: set up your study environment

AP European History 2022 Study Plan

Unit 1: Renaissance and Exploration

Big takeaways:

Content to focus on:

• 🏰 End of the Middle Ages:
• Don’t worry too much about specific knowledge, but instead have a broad understanding of the impacts of the crises of the late Middle Ages.

• 🖼 Renaissance
• Have a good understanding of the differences between the Italian Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance. Pay close attention to Italian Humanists vs Christian Humanists.
• Have a good understanding of the major themes of the Renaissance including: 
• Humanism
• Greek and Roman influence
• Machiavelli
• Print Culture
• Artistic change is important, but be sure to focus on artistic themes and developments 

• ⛵️ Age of Exploration
• The big focus for the Age of Exploration is the causes and effects. What led to the Age of Exploration and how was Europe and the world changed because of it? 
• Causes: 
• Technological advancements
• New Monarchies
• Effects
• New Rivalries 
• The Columbian Exchange and Triangle Trade
• The Slave Trade
• The Commercial Revolution
• Shifting the political balance in Europe

Resources to use:

• 🎥 Watch These Videos: 
• Medieval Europe
• Age of Exploration 
• Italian Renaissance
• Italian Renaissance Art
• Northern Renaissance
• Northern Renaissance Art
• Exploration
• The Renaissance (Humanism)
• Period 1 & 2 Review
• 📖 Read these study guides:
• Context of the Renaissance
• Italian Renaissance
• Northern Renaissance
• Printing
• New Monarchies from 1450 to 1648
• Age of Exploration
• Colonial Rivals
• Columbian Exchange
• The Slave Trade
• The Commercial Revolution
• Causation in the Renaissance and Age of Discovery

Unit 2: Reformation and Wars of Religion

Big takeaways:

Content to focus on: 

• 💒Protestant Revolution
• Foundations of Reformation
• Have a good understanding of why people are unhappy with the Catholic Church by the 16th century. 
• You can focus on the Catholic Schism and the abuses of the Church
• Luther’s Reformation
• Martin Luther is given credit for starting the Protestant Reformation and laying the groundwork for all future reformation leaders.
• Make sure to focus on why Luther wanted to break from the Church and the differences between Luther’s Christianity and the Catholic Church’s Christianity. 
• You also want to make sure to review the Peasant Revolt and how the German Princes/Charles V dealt with Luther.
• The Calvinist Reformations
• The Calvinist Reformations refer to several reformation movements that occur after Luther’s 95 Theses. Specifically, you should focus on Zwingli, Calvin, and John Knox. 
• Make sure to understand the differences between Calvinism and  Lutheranism.
• Anglican Reformation
• The big takeaway to be focused on is that the Anglican Reformation was a political reformation and not a religious one.
• Understand the reasons why Henry VIII wanted to break from the Church. 
• Also, focus on the major changes that Elizabeth I made to the Anglican Church and how she solidified it.
• Counter-Reformation
• When studying the Counter-Reformation, focus on how the Catholic Church worked to gain followers back, and how they reformed some corrupt practices.
• Focus on studying the Council of Trent and the Catholic Inquisition.
• 🔫Wars of Religion
• The French Wars of Religion
• The specific details of the French Wars of Religion are less important than the effects of it.
• Definitely study the tension between Hugeonots and French Catholics and the general reasons why war broke out. 
• Focus most of your attention on Henry IV and the Edict of Nantes.
• The Conflicts of Philip II
• There are two specific conflicts that should be studied with Philip II. The first is the Spanish Armada and the attempted invasion of England. And the second is the response to the Dutch independence movement. 
• Both of these have religious undertones that should be focused on. 
• The 30 Years War
• This is arguably the most important war of the Wars of Religion. Like with all of these wars, the cause and effects outway the specific details of the war. 
• For the causes, focus on the continued conflicts between Lutherans and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire. 
• You can study the specific details of the war. Typically, it’s divided up into four periods: 
• Bohemian Period
• Danish Period
• Swedish Period
• French Period
• The Peace of Westphalia, which ended the war, is the biggest aspect that needs to be focused on. While you should do a deep dive into it, the big takeaway is that it ended all future religious wars in Europe.

Resources to use:

• 🎥 Watch these videos:
• Martin Luther and the Reformation
• English Reformation
• Catholic Counter-Reformation
• French Wars of Religion
• Thirty Years War
• Baroque Art
• Art 15th-16th Century: Renaissance, Mannerism, and Baroque
• Period 1 & 2 Review
• Reformation pt1
• Reformation pt2
• 📖 Read these study guides:
• Unit 2 Overview: Age of Reformation
• Martin Luther
• The Protestant Reformation
• Wars of Religion
• The Catholic Reformation
• 16th-Century Society & Politics in Europe
• Mannerism and Baroque Art
• Causation in the Age of Reformation and the Wars of Religion

Unit 3: Absolutism and Constitutionalism

Big takeaways:

Content to focus on: 

• 👑 Absolutism
• French Absolutism
• Henry IV is a good place to start here. Focus on he developed the power of the French monarchy. 
• Cardinal Richelieu laid the foundation for Louis XIV, so make sure to focus on how he did that. You can also pay attention to his role in the 30 Years War and how he became one of the examples of a politique. 
• Louis XIV is the model absolutist in European History. When you study him, pay attention to how he solidified power for himself and created the cult of personality that surrounded him. You should also pay attention to his foreign policy and his wars. The war to focus on most is the War of Spanish Succession. Lastly, think about whether he was truly a successful absolute monarch and where his shortcomings were.
• This is also a good place to study up mercantilism and the impact it had on European economies and the development of colonies throughout the world.

• Russian Absolutism
• Russian absolutism is really focused on Peter the Great and the advancements he made for Russia
• Focus on the establishment of a warm water port, the Table of Ranks, and his westernization of Russia

• 📜 Constitutionalism
• Focus first on the rule of James I, why he wanted to be an absolute king, and why he couldn’t. This is a good place to review the Magna Carta. 
• When tackling Charles I, study why he feuded with Parliament and what eventually led to the outbreak of the English Civil War.
• Like most wars that we study, the specific details of the war are not important, but instead, understand the causes of it and how it ended. It would be good to understand why it’s significant that Charles I was executed. 
• Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan dictatorship should be the next thing that you look at. The biggest thing to focus on, though, would be understanding why England allowed Cromwell to rule as a dictator for ten years. 
• The last thing that you should study is the Glorious Revolution and the establishment of the English Bill of Rights. Here, I would focus on why Parliament wanted James II gone and why they appealed to William and Mary. Understand the basic premise of the English Bill of Rights and how it established a constitutional monarchy in England.
• 🇳🇱 The Dutch Golden Era
• This is kind of the odd man out here but is very important to know. Focus on the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ when studying the Dutch Golden Age. How and why did the dutch control trade in the east during the 17th century? How did this impact Europe?

Resources to Use

• 🎥 Watch these videos:
• Absolutist France
• Absolutist Russia
• Constitutionalism
• English Civil War
• English Reformation and Glorious Revolution
• Absolutism vs Constitutionalism
• Economics and Society
• Dutch Golden Age
• Absolutism
• 📖Read these study guides:
• Unit 3 Overview: Absolutism and Constitutionalism
• Context of State Building from 1648-1815
• The English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution
• Continuities and Changes to Economic Practice and Development from 1648-1815
• Mercantilism
• The Dutch Golden Age
• Balance of Power in Europe from 1648-1815
• Absolutism

Unit 4: Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment 

Big takeaways:

Content to focus on:

• 👨🏻‍🔬 Scientific Revolution
• Go through the general history of the Scientific Rev. Know that it was a slow-moving process that gradually changed the way people thought about the world and the solar system.
• Pay attention to major themes that will lay the foundation for the Scientific Revolution. These are themes like deductive reasoning and the use of the scientific method.
• In terms of people to study, I would recommend knowing a few people who contributed to scientific thought and theory, and a few people who developed scientific methods. 
• Scientific Theory and Discovery
• Copernicus 
• Kepler
• Galileo
• Newton
• Scientific Methods
• Francis Bacon
• Descarte 

• 🤔 Enlightenment 
• The Enlightenment is much denser to study than the Scientific Rev. I would not try to tackle all Enlightened thinkers, instead I’ll give recommendations of a few to know. You should also study the causes of it. Why did the Enlightenment happen here and now? Also, look into Enlightenment-era Salons and the impact that they had.
• Enlightenment philosophers to know: 
• Voltaire: Religious Toleration
• Montesquieu: Political separation of powers
• Diderot: Equal access to knowledge
• Rousseau: The dangers of society  
• Beccaria: Criminal reform
• Wollstonecraft: Women’s rights in society

Resources to Use: 

• 🎥Watch these videos:
• History of European Literature
• Rococo Art
• New Societal Order - 1700s European Family
• Enlightenment pt1
• Enlightenment pt2
• Scientific Revolution pt1
• Scientific Revolution pt2
• Enlightenment & Scientific Revolution
• Enlightened Absolutists
• 📖Read these study guides:
• Unit 4 Overview: Scientific, Philosophical, and Political Developments
• Context of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
• The Scientific Revolution
• The Enlightenment
• 18th Century Society and Demographics in Europe
• 18th Century Culture and Art in Europe
• Enlightened Monarchies

Unit 5: Old Regime, the French Revolution, and Napoleon

Big takeaways:

Content to focus on: 

• 🤴🏻 Old Regime: 
• There are several specific pieces of content to focus on here. The biggest takeaway from the Old Regime is that Europe experienced systematic change throughout the century. I’ll highlight some of that change below: 
• The Enlightenment
• The Agricultural Revolution
• The Cottage Industry
• Population Growth
• Societal and Family Change
• Enlightened Absolutists
• But there are also some “Europe up to their old shenanigans” aspects of the Old Regime:
• Constant warfare 
• War of Austrian Succession
• Seven Years War
• Partitioning of Poland
• Peasant Revolts in Russia

• 🇫🇷The French Revolution
• You can spend A LOT of time on the French Revolution, but I really don’t think you need to. Instead, I would focus mostly on the causes and effects, while looking at the important changes that are made in France during the Revolution.
• Causes: 
• Long term vs Short term
• The Enlightenment as a cause
• Changes made in France
• Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
• Civil Constitution of the French Clergy
• Republic of Virtue
• Abolition of the Estates
• Effects
• The overthrow of the monarchy
• Abolition of the Estates
• Wars of the French Revolution
• The Spread of Revolutionary Ideas
• Notable People and Events
• Louis XVI
• Necker
• Danton
• Robespierre
• Marat
• Abbe Sieyes
• Fall of the Bastille
• Execution of the royal family
• The Emigries
• Levee en masse
• Reign of Terror

• 👀Napoleon
• Napoleon is another rabbit hole you can fall down. Instead, have an understanding of how he rose to power and his domestic and foreign policies.
• Domestic Changes
• Napoleonic Code
• The Concordat
• Social and Educational Reforms
• Foreign Policy
• Napoleonic Wars
• Continental System
• Invasion of Russia
• 100 Days and Fall from Power
• Congress of Vienna can also be lumped in here. Make sure to know the goals of the Congress and its impacts on Europe going into the 19th century.

Resources to use:

• 🎥Watch these videos: 
• The Old Regime
• French Revolution, Part I
• French Revolution, Part II
• Congress of Vienna
• The Seven Years War and American Revolution
• English and French Revolution
• Napoleon Part 1
• Napoleon Part 2
• French Revolution and Neoclassical Art
• French Revolution - Beginning Years
• 📖Read these study guides:
• Unit 5 Overview: Conflict, Crisis, and Reaction in the Late 18th-Century
• Context of 18th-Century Politics
• The Rise of Global Markets in the 18th-Century
• Britain's Ascendency
• The French Revolution
• Effects of the French Revolution
• Napoleon's Rise, Dominance, and Defeat
• The Congress of Vienna
• Romanticism

Unit 6: Industrial Revolution and Its Effects

Big takeaways:

Content to focus on:

• 🚂Industrial Revolution
• Study why and how the Industrial Revolution (I.R.) started in Britain. 
• Study what that early industrialization looked like and the impact it had on Britain and the countries that it spread to.
• I would really focus on the social consequences of the I.R.. How did this impact society? Make sure to really focus on the growth of cities and the impact that had on the growing working class.
• You can also go ahead and review the Second Industrial Revolution. How did it differ from the first I.R.? How will it lead to World War I? Most of the ‘big’ advancements of the I.R. happened during the Second I.R.. What were those?
• 🎸Competing Ideologies
• This is mostly focused on conservatism, liberalism, and nationalism.
• Have a good understanding of the core beliefs of these ideologies and how they competed against each other. 
• Also, have a good understanding of where these ideologies came from. Were they new? Had they been developing for a while?
• ✊Reactions to Social and Political Change
• There is a lot that you can focus on here. I’ll break it down below. 
• Reaction to industrialization
• How did governments respond to the new working class?
• Reaction to liberalism
• How did conservatives attempt to retain power?
• In what ways did liberals push for representation?
• Nationalism
• How did calls for nationalism manifest?
• You definitely want to review the Revolutions of 1848 and understand why they failed. 
• I would also look into the following nationalist movements: 
• Spanish Revolution
• Greek Independence movement 
• Serbian Independence movement 
• Belgian Independence movement 

Resources to use:

• 🎥Watch these videos:
• Industrial Revolution
• Competing Ideologies
• Industrial Revolution and Reform
• Revolutions of 1848
• 19th Century Isms
• 📖Read these study guides:
• Unit 6 Overview: Industrialization and Its Effects
• Context of Industrialization
• The First Industrial Revolution
• The Second Industrial Revolution
• Social Effects of Industrialization
• The Concert of Europe and European Conservatism
• Revolutions from 1815-1914
• Intellectual Developments from 1815-1914
• 19th Century Social Reform Movements
• Institutional Reforms of the 19th Century
• Causation in the Age of Industrialization

Unit 7: Unifications and Political Developments

Big takeaways:

Content to focus on:

• 🦄Unifications
• Italian Unification
• Here you need to understand what the early calls for unification were. I would look at Garibaldi and the Red Shirts. 
• You also need to review Cavour and why Piedmont became the driving force of unification. 
• Lastly, review the early problems that Italy runs into following unification. 
• German Unification
• Much like Italy, have a good understanding of the early calls for unification.
• The main person you want to focus on here is Bismarck. Understand what his motivations were for uniting Germany and how it represented a new type of conservatism. 
• While you don’t need to know the specific details of the three wars that united Germany, understand why Bismarck felt that they needed to happen. 
• Lastly, make sure to remember that once Germany was created it was the most powerful country on the content.
• 💰 New Imperialism
• You can definitely fall down the rabbit hole here, which is not a bad thing. I would recommend, though, focusing on the differences between the Age of Exploration and New Imperialism. 
• Look into the motivations and methods for New Imperialism. Why here, why now?
• Lastly, look at the impacts of New Imperialism. How did this impact the world, how did it impact Europe, how did it impact Africa, and how did it impact Asia?
• I would also think critically about how Europeans saw themselves in the world. Review things like Social Darwinism here.
• 👪Societal Changes
• Review how the “family” changed by the late 19th century. 
• You can also review the growth of the middle class.
• Lastly, I would review the rise of political feminism and the increasing calls for women’s suffrage. 
• Also, make sure to review Romanticism and how it was a direct reaction to industrialization.
• 👩‍🔬Scientific and Medical Advancement
• You definitely want to look into Darwin, Darwinism, and Social Darwinism. 
• Also, review Louis Pasteur and Florence Nightingale and the new ideas of germ theory. 
• You also want to look at the development of sociology by looking at people like Freud and Nietzsche. 

Resources to use:

• 🎥Watch these videos:
• Modernization and Unification 
• Unification of Italy and Germany
• Imperialism
• Impressionism
• Nationalism and Imperialism
• Rise of Socialism
• Romanticism and Realism
• Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
• 📖Read these study guides:
• Unit 7 Overview: 19th-Century Perspectives and Political Developments
• Nationalism
• National Unification and Diplomatic Tensions
• Darwinism and Social Darwinism
• Science and Intellectual Developments from 1815-1914
• Imperialism
• Effects of Imperialism
• 19th-Century Culture and Arts

Unit 8: 20th Century Global Conflicts

Big takeaways: 

Content to focus on:

• 🔫World War I
• Understand the differences between the western and eastern front in the development of WWI
• Look into the events leading into WWI (such as the Moroccan Crisis and Bosnian Crisis) and its immediate cause (assassination Archduke Franz Ferdinand)
• Look into the effects of the Industrial Revolution and increased militarism
• Know the different types of alliances and how they formed
• Look into the Schlieffen Plan
• Dig deeper into how nationalism and imperialism play a role in WWI
• Understand the conditions in the Treaty of Versailles and the formation of the League of Nations
• ⚔Russian Revolution
• Understand the rise of socialism and how the Bolshevik Party formed
• Look into what sparks the February/March Revolution
• Understand how Bolshevik Party takes over the provisional government and Lenin enacts New Economic Policy
• Look into the Civil War between the Red Army and White Army
• 🥖Great Depression
• Look into what the Dawes Plan was and the consequences of the US stock market crash
• Understand how the Great Depression led to the rise of authoritarian leaders.
• Be able to explain what fascism and totalitarianism is and how these ideologies played a role in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Soviet Union
• 👉🏽Interwar Period
• Look into how Germany remilitarized the Rhineland (between France and Germany)
• Check out the Italian invasion of Ethiopia
• Understand the Anschluss of Austria by Germany
• Look into the appeasement of Hitler and the German annexation of the Sudetenland 
• Understand the Nazi and Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
• Look into the economic modernization of the Soviet Union
• 🤺World War II
• Understand the gradual and immediate causes of WWII
• Look into the economic modernization of the Soviet Union
• Recognize how the war took place in the Pacific, Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
• Understand how the beginning of the Holocaust and its impact on Jewish people and how they were liberated.
• Learn how the world changed after WWII (socially, culturally, artistically, economically, etc.) and what the Lost Generation was.

Resources to use:

• 🎥Watch these videos:
• Appeasement
• The Russian Revolution
• World War I
• World War II
• Russian Revolution
• Modernism
• Causes of WWI
• Rise of Fascism
• Totalitarianism
• 📖Read these study guides:
• Unit 8 Overview: 20th-Century Global Conflicts
• Context of 20th Century Global Conflicts
• World War 1
• The Russian Revolution
• Versailles Conference and Peace Settlement
• Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression
• Fascism and Totalitarianism
• Europe During the Interwar Period
• World War II
• The Holocaust
• 20th-Century Cultural, Intellectual, and Artistic Developments

Unit 9: Cold War and Contemporary Europe

Big takeaways: 

Content to focus on:

• ❄Cold War
• Understand the emergence of two superpowers- The United States and the Soviet Union.
• Look into the impact of the Marshall Plan on Europe and how the Soviet Union created their own alternatives, the Molotov Plan and Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON)
• Learn about the major global conflicts of the Cold War, which isn’t a war in the traditional sense.
• Vietnam War
• Korean Conflict
• Yom Kippur War
• Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Chinese Civil War
• Berlin Blockade of 1948
• Berlin Crisis of 1961
• Look into how Berlin was split into four zones (after Yalta Conference) and then how Germany was eventually split into East and West Germany—separated by the “Iron Curtain”
• Understand the rise of the west
• International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• United Nations replaces League of Nations
• World Bank
• General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
• World Trade Organization (WTO)
• NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
• Learn about the U.S.'s goal to spread democracy throughout the world
• Truman Doctrine (1947)
• Containment
• Domino effect
• Understand how the Warsaw Pact formed and the role of puppet governments established by the USSR
• Look into the construction of the Berlin War and how more people grew discontented with communism
• Prague Spring
• Hungarian Revolution
• 😢Mass Atrocities Since 1945
• Look into nationalist movements 
• Ireland and England
• Look into separatist movements
• India and England 
• Understand major forms of ethnic cleansing
• Holocaust
• Massacre of Armenians
• Expulsion of ethnic Germans
• Genocide of Bosnian Muslims and Albanian Muslims
• 🧱The Fall of Communism
• Look into Khrushchev’s process of de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union after Stalin died
• Understand the rise of Brezhnev, Brezhnev Stagnation, and the detente between Russia and the United States
• Look into the reforms and policies that Gorbachev brought to the USSR 
• Withdrawal from the Soviet-Afghan War
• Limiting nuclear weapons
• Ending end the Cold War
• Glasnost
• Perestroika
• Learn how the fall of the Berlin Wall was a symbol of the fall of the USSR, which dissolves in 1991
• 🙋🏽‍♀️Decolonization
• Look into President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points—self-determination
• Understand the struggle for independence endured by colonized nations and which colonies gained independence from imperialism
• India
• Philippines
• Vietnam
• Cambodia and Laos
• The Democratic Republic of the Congo
• 🌐The European Union
• Understand how the EU formed and what its initial purpose was as ECSC
• Look into the causes of Brexit
• 🌍Globalization
• Understand the implications of increasing globalization
• Look into sustainable development and the formation of the Green Party
• Understand new trends in culture, the arts, and demographics
• Existentialism
• Postmodernism
• Secularism
• Cubism, futurism, dadaism, surrealism, abstract expressionism, and pop art
• More social movements—from womens’ rights to gay rights and civil rights
• Neonatalism
• Materialism
• Understand the continuity and change in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Resources to use:

• 🎥Watch these videos:
• European Integration
• The Cold War
• 📖Read these study guides:
• Context of the Cold War and Contemporary Europe
• Rebuilding Europe After World War II
• The Cold War
• Two Super Powers Emerge
• Mass Atrocities Since 1945
• Postwar Economic Developments
• The Fall of Communism
• Decolonization
• The European Union
• Technological Developments Since 1914
• Globalization
• 20th- and 21st-Century Culture, Arts, and Demographic Trends
• Continuity and Change in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Check out these other amazing resources!

Thematic Guides:

• Theme 1 (INT) - Interaction of Europe and the World
• Theme 4 (SOP) - States and Other Institutions of Power
• Theme 6 (NEI) - National and European Identity
• Theme 7 (TSI) - Technological and Scientific Innovation

Exam Guides:

• AP European History Free Response Help - FRQ/LEQ
• How to SAQ
• AP European History Multiple Choice Help (MCQ)
• 2019 Exam Questions
• Analyzing Primary Sources
• DBQ Overview/Writing a Thesis and Contextualization
• DBQ Overview/Writing a Thesis and Contextualization Slides
• How to Do the DBQ

Other Resources:

• How to Get a 5 in AP European History
• AP European History Self-Study and Homeschool
• Best Quizlet Decks for AP European History
• Best AP European History Textbooks and Prep Books
• Perfect Memes for AP European History