6.1 Contextualizing Industrialization and Its Origins and Effects
| Learning Objective | Preview: Unit 6 Key Concepts |
|---|---|
Unit 6.A |
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AP European History · Topic 6
| Learning Objective | Preview: Unit 6 Key Concepts |
|---|---|
Unit 6.A |
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Source: College Board AP Course and Exam Description
Unit 6 covers c. 1815 to c. 1914 and rests on three claims the CED states as key concepts:
That third claim is the unit's spine. Industrialisation created problems; the ideologies and reforms of the nineteenth century are the answers people proposed to them.
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| triggered a range of ideological, governmental, and collective responses | 意识形态、政府与集体回应 | yì shí xíng tài 、 zhèng fǔ yǔ jí tǐ huí yìng |
| Thematic Focus | Learning Objective | Historical Developments |
|---|---|---|
ECD | Unit 6.B |
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Illustrative examples:
Source: College Board AP Course and Exam Description
Britain led, and the CED gives the reasons as a set:
The continent then diverged, which is the examinable comparison:
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| Economic institutions and human capital | 人力资本 | rén lì zī běn |
| less social dislocation | 社会失序 | shè huì shī xù |
| Thematic Focus | Learning Objective | Historical Developments |
|---|---|---|
ECD | Unit 6.C |
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Unit 6.D |
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Illustrative examples:
Source: College Board AP Course and Exam Description
By 1914 mechanisation and the factory system had become the predominant modes of production. During the second industrial revolution 第二次工业革命 (c. 1870-1914) industrial activity spread across more of Europe, and:
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| second industrial revolution | 第二次工业革命 | dì èr cì gōng yè gé mìng |
| railroads | 铁路 | tiě lù |
| more fully integrated national economies | 一体化的国民经济 | yī tǐ huà de guó mín jīng jì |
| promoted population growth | 人口增长 | rén kǒu zēng zhǎng |
| heightened consumerism | 消费主义 | xiāo fèi zhǔ yì |
| Thematic Focus | Learning Objective | Historical Developments |
|---|---|---|
SCD | Unit 6.E |
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Illustrative examples:
Source: College Board AP Course and Exam Description
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| Class identity | 阶级认同 | jiē jí rèn tóng |
| urban overcrowding | 城市拥挤 | chéng shì yōng jǐ |
| cult of domesticity | 家庭崇拜 | jiā tíng chóng bài |
| companionate marriage | 伴侣式婚姻 | bàn lǚ shì hūn yīn |
| Thematic Focus | Learning Objective | Historical Developments |
|---|---|---|
SOP | Unit 6.F |
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Illustrative examples:
Source: College Board AP Course and Exam Description
The Concert of Europe 欧洲协调, or Congress System, sought to maintain the status quo through collective action and adherence to conservative principles.
Conservatism 保守主义 in this period is a genuine ideology, not merely resistance: it supported traditional political and religious authorities on the ground that society is an organic whole with a natural hierarchy, which cannot be redesigned by abstract reason without harm.
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| Concert of Europe | 欧洲协调 | ōu zhōu xié tiáo |
| Conservatism | 保守主义 | bǎo shǒu zhǔ yì |
| Thematic Focus | Learning Objective | Historical Developments |
|---|---|---|
SOP | Unit 6.G |
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Illustrative examples:
Source: College Board AP Course and Exam Description
In the first half of the nineteenth century, revolutionaries attempted to destroy the status quo. The revolutions of 1848 1848年革命, triggered by economic hardship and discontent with the political order, challenged conservative power across Europe - and largely failed, which is itself examinable.
In Russia, autocratic leaders pushed through reform and modernisation from above, including the emancipation of the serfs 农奴解放 - reform used as an alternative to revolution rather than a concession to it.
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| revolutions of 1848 | 1848年革命 | 1848 nián gé mìng |
| emancipation of the serfs | 农奴解放 | nóng nú jiě fàng |
| Thematic Focus | Learning Objective | Historical Developments |
|---|---|---|
CID | Unit 6.H |
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Illustrative examples:
Source: College Board AP Course and Exam Description

The CED names five positions, and they are best learned as answers to one question: who should hold power, and what should the state do?
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| Liberals | 自由主义者 | zì yóu zhǔ yì zhě |
| universal male suffrage | 男性普选权 | nán xìng pǔ xuǎn quán |
| Socialists | 社会主义者 | shè huì zhǔ yì zhě |
| Marx's scientific socialism | 科学社会主义 | kē xué shè huì zhǔ yì |
| Anarchists | 无政府主义者 | wú zhèng fǔ zhǔ yì zhě |
| Thematic Focus | Learning Objective | Historical Developments |
|---|---|---|
SCD | Unit 6.I |
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Illustrative examples:
| Thematic Focus | Learning Objective | Historical Developments |
|---|---|---|
SOP | Unit 6.J |
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Illustrative examples:
Source: College Board AP Course and Exam Description
Political movements and social organisations responded to the problems of industrialisation. The institutional side is equally examinable:
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| Liberalism shifted from laissez-faire to interventionist | 从自由放任转向干预 | cóng zì yóu fàng rèn zhuǎn xiàng gān yù |
| compulsory public education | 义务教育 | yì wù jiào yù |
| Learning Objective | Review: Unit 6 Key Concepts |
|---|---|
Unit 6.K |
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Source: College Board AP Course and Exam Description
The unit's reasoning skill is causation.
Worked example (a real AP exam question). AP European History short-answer questions here ask, for example, to "Explain one way in which industrialisation contributed to the development of new political ideologies in the nineteenth century." A full-mark answer traces the link: "Industrialisation created a large urban working class with common conditions and no political representation, which gave socialists a constituency and an argument: that the wealth produced by industry was distributed by ownership rather than by labour. Marx's scientific socialism turned that observation into a systematic critique of capitalism, and the concentration of workers in factories and cities made organising around it possible." Notice that the answer explains why the idea found an audience, not only that it existed.
Work through it step by step, with instant-check exercises.