The course notes that the new science did not simply replace older traditions. Which fact about Kepler shows this?Answer: He cast horoscopes for friends, family and patrons. Source: Wikipedia, "Johannes Kepler"; course topic 4.2
Descartes built his system of knowledge by a different route from Bacon's. What was it?Answer: Deduction, with perception set aside as unreliable. Source: Wikipedia, "René Descartes"; course topic 4.2
How did the physician Paracelsus show his contempt for the conventional medicine of his day?Answer: He publicly burned works of Galen and Avicenna. Source: Wikipedia, "Paracelsus"; course topic 4.2
How did Vesalius change the teaching of anatomy?Answer: He dissected bodies himself and urged his students to do the same. Source: Wikipedia, "Andreas Vesalius"; course topic 4.2
The humoral theory that Harvey's work challenged held that the body contains four vital fluids. Which are they?Answer: Blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. Source: Wikipedia, "Humorism"; course topic 4.2
Isaac Newton is remembered for physics and mathematics. Which older pursuit, named in the course as a traditional view some natural philosophers kept, did he also follow?Answer: Alchemy. Source: Wikipedia, "Isaac Newton"; course topic 4.2 (key concept KC-1.1.IV.D)
Show all 75 questions (69 more)
Topic 4.2: The Scientific Revolution, continued
Through his telescope Galileo saw four objects that, he concluded, were orbiting another planet. What had he found?Answer: The four largest moons of Jupiter. Source: Wikipedia, "Galileo Galilei"; course topic 4.2
What did Vesalius find out about the research behind Galen's anatomy?Answer: It had been carried out on animals, not on human bodies. Source: Wikipedia, "Andreas Vesalius"; course topic 4.2
What did William Harvey describe in the treatise he published in 1628?Answer: The circulation of the blood, pumped by the heart. Source: Wikipedia, "William Harvey"; course topic 4.2
What happened to Galileo after he championed Copernican heliocentrism in his Dialogue of 1632?Answer: The Inquisition tried him, and he lived on under house arrest. Source: Wikipedia, "Galileo Galilei"; course topic 4.2
Which book, first published in 1687, set out the laws of motion and universal gravitation?Answer: Newton's Principia. Source: Wikipedia, "Isaac Newton"; course topic 4.2
Which claim did Copernicus set out in On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, published just before his death in 1543?Answer: The Sun, not Earth, is at the center of the universe. Source: Wikipedia, "Nicolaus Copernicus"; course topic 4.2
Which path to knowledge did Francis Bacon argue for?Answer: Inductive reasoning from careful observation of nature. Source: Wikipedia, "Francis Bacon"; course topic 4.2
Working from observations of Mars, what did Kepler conclude about the paths of the planets?Answer: They move in ellipses, with the Sun at one focus. Source: Wikipedia, "Johannes Kepler"; course topic 4.2
Topic 4.3: The Enlightenment 22
According to Diderot, what was the aim of the Encyclopédie?Answer: To change the way people think. Source: Wikipedia, "Encyclopédie"; course topic 4.3
Baron d'Holbach kept a Paris salon that became a meeting place for contributors to the Encyclopédie. For which position was he known?Answer: Atheism. Source: Wikipedia, "Baron d'Holbach"; course topic 4.3
David Hume is known for which pair of positions?Answer: Empiricism and philosophical skepticism. Source: Wikipedia, "David Hume"; course topic 4.3
Denis Diderot is best known as co-founder and chief editor of which work?Answer: The Encyclopédie. Source: Wikipedia, "Denis Diderot"; course topic 4.3
How did Mary Wollstonecraft answer writers such as Rousseau in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)?Answer: Women seem inferior to men only because they lack education. Source: Wikipedia, "Mary Wollstonecraft" and "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman"; course topic 4.3
In The Social Contract (1762), to what must individuals submit, according to Rousseau?Answer: The general will of the people as a whole. Source: Wikipedia, "Jean-Jacques Rousseau"; course topic 4.3
In The Spirit of the Laws (1748), how does Montesquieu say the work of governing should be divided?Answer: Executive, legislative and judicial powers held by different bodies. Source: Wikipedia, "The Spirit of Law"; course topic 4.3
Like other leading Enlightenment thinkers, Voltaire held which view of religion?Answer: Deism. Source: Wikipedia, "Voltaire"; course topic 4.3 (key concept KC-2.3.IV.A)
Locke held that the mind at birth is a tabula rasa. What does the phrase mean?Answer: A blank slate. Source: Wikipedia, "John Locke"; course topic 4.3
Mercantilist policy tried to cut imports and raise exports. What did Adam Smith set against it in The Wealth of Nations (1776)?Answer: The principles of free-market economics. Source: Wikipedia, "Adam Smith"; course topic 4.3
Mercantilists measured a nation's wealth by its gold and silver. What did Smith teach was the cause of an increase in national wealth?Answer: Labor. Source: Wikipedia, "Adam Smith"; course topic 4.3
On what did John Locke's Two Treatises base legitimate government?Answer: The consent of the governed. Source: Wikipedia, "John Locke"; course topic 4.3
Pietism began in Germany in the late 17th century with the work of Philipp Spener. What did it stress?Answer: Individual piety and a holy Christian life. Source: Wikipedia, "Pietism"; course topic 4.3
Rousseau wrote of equality among citizens. Yet on what did the private sphere depend, as he imagined it?Answer: The subordination of women. Source: Wikipedia, "Jean-Jacques Rousseau"; course topic 4.3 (key concept KC-2.3.I.C)
Voltaire was an advocate of which set of causes?Answer: Freedom of speech, freedom of religion and separation of church and state. Source: Wikipedia, "Voltaire"; course topic 4.3
What did a penny buy in an English coffeehouse of this period?Answer: Admission and a cup of coffee. Source: Wikipedia, "English coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th centuries"; course topic 4.3
What did Cesare Beccaria's On Crimes and Punishments (1764) condemn?Answer: Torture and the death penalty. Source: Wikipedia, "On Crimes and Punishments"; course topic 4.3
What does a deist believe?Answer: A God created the universe but does not intervene in it. Source: Wikipedia, "Deism"; course topic 4.3
Where did the physiocrats, whose founding father was François Quesnay, believe the wealth of nations came from?Answer: Agriculture and the land. Source: Wikipedia, "Physiocracy"; course topic 4.3
Which natural rights are tied to the name of Locke?Answer: Life, liberty and property. Source: Wikipedia, "John Locke"; course topic 4.3 (key concept KC-2.3.I.B)
Who hosted many of the Paris salons of the 18th century, where Enlightenment writers met and talked?Answer: Women. Source: Wikipedia, "Salon (gathering)"; course topic 4.3
Whose ideas included free markets, public education and equal rights for women and for people of all races?Answer: The Marquis de Condorcet. Source: Wikipedia, "Marquis de Condorcet"; course topic 4.3
Topic 4.4: 18th-century society and demographics 12
After her return from Turkey, what did Lady Mary Wortley Montagu introduce and advocate in Britain?Answer: Inoculation against smallpox. Source: Wikipedia, "Lady Mary Wortley Montagu"; course topic 4.4
After the smallpox epidemic of 1767, which ruler promoted inoculation and insisted that members of the imperial family receive it?Answer: Maria Theresa. Source: Wikipedia, "Maria Theresa"; course topic 4.4
Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccine rested on the protective effect of which other disease?Answer: Cowpox. Source: Wikipedia, "Edward Jenner"; course topic 4.4
Farming in Britain changed through enclosure in these years. What did enclosure do to the land?Answer: It removed common rights and made ownership exclusive. Source: Wikipedia, "British Agricultural Revolution"; course topic 4.4
How did the European marriage pattern limit the growth of population?Answer: Low marriage rates kept fertility comparatively low. Source: Wikipedia, "Western European marriage pattern"; course topic 4.4 (key concept KC-2.4.III.A)
The plague that struck Marseille in 1720 holds what place in the history of the disease?Answer: It was the last major outbreak of bubonic plague in Western Europe. Source: Wikipedia, "Great Plague of Marseille"; course topic 4.4 (key concept KC-2.4.I.B)
Under the Norfolk four-course system, what took the place of leaving a field fallow?Answer: Turnips and clover. Source: Wikipedia, "British Agricultural Revolution"; course topic 4.4
What did the horse-drawn seed drill that Jethro Tull developed in 1701 do?Answer: It sowed seeds in neat rows. Source: Wikipedia, "Jethro Tull (agriculturist)" and "British Agricultural Revolution"; course topic 4.4
What happened to the population of England and Wales as the food supply grew between 1700 and 1801?Answer: It rose from 5.5 million to over 9 million. Source: Wikipedia, "British Agricultural Revolution"; course topic 4.4
When a smallpox epidemic struck England in April 1721, how did Montagu draw attention to inoculation?Answer: She had her own daughter inoculated and publicized it. Source: Wikipedia, "Lady Mary Wortley Montagu"; course topic 4.4
Which features mark the Western European marriage pattern?Answer: Marriage in the middle twenties, with many never marrying. Source: Wikipedia, "Western European marriage pattern"; course topic 4.4
Why did the Agricultural Revolution send people from the countryside to the cities, in the course's account?Answer: Farms produced more food with fewer workers. Source: College Board, AP European History Course and Exam Description, topic 4.4, key concept KC-2.4.IV.A
Topic 4.5: 18th-century culture and arts 13
Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe (1719) follows its hero through what experience?Answer: Twenty-eight years as a castaway on a remote island. Source: Wikipedia, "Robinson Crusoe"; course topic 4.5
David's history paintings of the 1780s marked a change in taste. From what, toward what?Answer: From Rococo frivolity toward classical austerity. Source: Wikipedia, "Jacques-Louis David"; course topic 4.5
Diego Velázquez shows how Baroque art served monarchy. In whose court was he the leading artist?Answer: Philip IV of Spain. Source: Wikipedia, "Diego Velázquez"; course topic 4.5
From 1723 J. S. Bach was director of church music for the city of Leipzig. What kind of churches did he serve there?Answer: Lutheran. Source: Wikipedia, "Johann Sebastian Bach"; course topic 4.5
Gian Lorenzo Bernini is credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture. Which setting did he design?Answer: The piazza and colonnade in front of St. Peter's. Source: Wikipedia, "Gian Lorenzo Bernini"; course topic 4.5
Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) was a main novel of which period in German literature?Answer: Sturm und Drang. Source: Wikipedia, "The Sorrows of Young Werther"; course topic 4.5
Handel's Messiah was first performed in Dublin in 1742. What kind of work is it?Answer: An oratorio sung in English. Source: Wikipedia, "Messiah (Handel)"; course topic 4.5
How does Montesquieu's Persian Letters (1721) hold French society up for criticism?Answer: Through two fictional Persian noblemen who stay in France. Source: Wikipedia, "Persian Letters"; course topic 4.5
Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii (1784) shows a scene from a Roman legend. Which values does it stress?Answer: Patriotism and self-sacrifice for one's country. Source: Wikipedia, "Oath of the Horatii"; course topic 4.5
The Panthéon in Paris was built as a church dedicated to Saint Genevieve. What did the National Constituent Assembly vote to make it in 1791?Answer: A mausoleum for distinguished French citizens. Source: Wikipedia, "Panthéon"; course topic 4.5
Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740) is told through the letters and journal of a fifteen-year-old maidservant. What is this kind of novel called?Answer: Epistolary. Source: Wikipedia, "Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded"; course topic 4.5
What did the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer specialize in?Answer: Domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. Source: Wikipedia, "Johannes Vermeer"; course topic 4.5
What did the French government do to the Encyclopédie in 1759, after the seventh volume had come out?Answer: It suspended the work's privilege to publish. Source: Wikipedia, "Encyclopédie"; course topic 4.5 (key concept KC-2.3.II.B)
Topic 4.6: Enlightened and other approaches to power 14
The course says the Habsburgs shifted their empire eastward. Which treaty of 1699 ended the Great Turkish War with the Ottoman Empire defeated?Answer: The Treaty of Karlowitz. Source: Wikipedia, "Treaty of Karlowitz"; course topic 4.6 (key concept KC-2.1.III.A)
"Everything for the people, nothing by the people" sums up whose way of ruling?Answer: Joseph II. Source: Wikipedia, "Enlightened absolutism"; course topic 4.6
Frederick William I of Prussia was known as the Soldier King. What did he do with the Prussian army between 1713 and 1740?Answer: He expanded it from 38,000 men to 80,000. Source: Wikipedia, "Frederick William I of Prussia"; course topic 4.6
How did Frederick II of Prussia describe the ruler's place in the state?Answer: As its first servant. Source: Wikipedia, "Frederick the Great"; course topic 4.6
Joseph II carried further the emancipation of the peasantry that his mother had begun. What did he do in 1781?Answer: He abolished serfdom. Source: Wikipedia, "Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor"; course topic 4.6
To whom did Joseph II's Patent of Toleration (1781) extend religious freedom?Answer: Lutherans, Calvinists and the Eastern Orthodox in the Habsburg lands. Source: Wikipedia, "Patent of Toleration"; course topic 4.6
What did Joseph II's edict of 1782 allow Jews in his lands to do?Answer: Work in various professions and attend schools and universities. Source: Wikipedia, "Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor"; course topic 4.6
What was enlightened absolutism?Answer: Rule by absolute monarchs who used Enlightenment ideas to enhance their power. Source: Wikipedia, "Enlightened absolutism"; course topic 4.6
What was the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 meant to do?Answer: Let a daughter of Charles VI inherit the Habsburg lands. Source: Wikipedia, "Maria Theresa"; course topic 4.6
When Maria Theresa came into the Habsburg lands in 1740, what did Frederick II do?Answer: He invaded and occupied the Austrian province of Silesia. Source: Wikipedia, "Frederick the Great"; course topic 4.6
Which denominations did the Peace of Westphalia guarantee the right to practice?Answer: Catholicism, Lutheranism and Calvinism. Source: Wikipedia, "Peace of Westphalia"; course topic 4.6
Which monasteries did Joseph II close?Answer: Those given only to contemplation and prayer. Source: Wikipedia, "Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor"; course topic 4.6
Which reforms did Frederick II carry out in Prussia?Answer: He abolished most judicial torture and widened freedom of the press. Source: Wikipedia, "Frederick the Great"; course topic 4.6
Which treaties of 1648 ended the Thirty Years' War and brought peace to the Holy Roman Empire?Answer: The Peace of Westphalia. Source: Wikipedia, "Peace of Westphalia"; course topic 4.6
How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to Unit 4 (Scientific, Philosophical, and Political Developments, c. 1648 to c. 1815) of the College Board's AP European History Course and Exam Description, effective fall 2026, https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-european-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf, read 2026-10-14: topics 4.2 to 4.6. Each fact was read on 2026-10-14 in the Wikipedia article named under its question, or in the key concept of the course description named there. Licence: Own work. Short quotations from the public documents named under each question.
How it works
This AP Euro Unit 4 study guide sets out the topics of Scientific, Philosophical, and Political Developments, then drills them with 75 practice questions of our own. It is unofficial and is not affiliated with the College Board.
Read the full guide
What Unit 4 covers
The College Board's course description, effective fall 2026 and read October 14, 2026, gives the unit seven topics. Five have a set here: the Scientific Revolution (14 questions), the Enlightenment (22), 18th-century society and demographics (12), culture and arts (13), and enlightened and other approaches to power (14). Topics 4.1 and 4.7, context and causation, are skills practiced inside those sets. The description weights no topic, so the counts are ours.
Where the answers come from
Each answer names the Wikipedia article its fact was read in, or the key concept of the course description.
Pair each thinker with one book and one idea: Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, separated powers; Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishments, no torture.
Bacon reasons up from observations (induction). Descartes reasons down from first truths (deduction).
For each enlightened monarch, note one reform and one limit: Joseph II abolished serfdom but shared no power.
Questions and answers
What should an AP European History Unit 4 study guide cover?
Copernicus to Newton and the new methods of Bacon and Descartes; Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu and Smith; salons and print; the Agricultural Revolution, inoculation and the marriage pattern; Baroque and Neoclassical art; Frederick II, Maria Theresa and Joseph II.
How much of the AP Euro exam is Unit 4?
Between 10 and 15%, by the College Board's course page, the same as each of the nine units. The multiple-choice part of the exam has 55 questions in 55 minutes and is 40% of the score.
Is this the AP Euro Unit 4 Progress Check?
No. The Progress Check, about 15 multiple-choice questions by the course description, belongs to the College Board and is assigned in AP Classroom. The questions here are our own and copy no real exam question.