Two competing answers to the same question: who holds ultimate political power? Louis XIV's absolutist France and the divine-right monarchies of Austria, Prussia, and Russia versus England's parliamentary alternative — from civil war to the Glorious Revolution.
Divine right monarchy, Versailles, centralization of state power, and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
Topic 3.2
Mercantilism & the French Economy
Jean-Baptiste Colbert's mercantilist policies tying state wealth to trade, manufacturing, and colonial empire.
Topic 3.3
Absolutism in Central & Eastern Europe
Habsburg Austria, the Hohenzollerns of Prussia, and Peter the Great's westernization of Russia.
Topic 3.4
The English Civil War & Commonwealth
Charles I's conflict with Parliament, Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth, and the Restoration.
Topic 3.5
The Glorious Revolution & Constitutionalism
William and Mary, the English Bill of Rights (1689), and the growth of parliamentary supremacy.
Topic 3.6
The Dutch Republic & Commercial Power
The Dutch model of commercial constitutionalism, joint-stock companies, and the Amsterdam Exchange Bank.
About Unit 3
Unit 3 examines two competing models for organizing political power that emerged from the chaos of Europe's 17th-century wars. In France, Louis XIV built the model of absolutism — centralizing authority in the monarch, using Versailles and Baroque art as tools of political theater, and pursuing religious uniformity through the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Similar absolutist projects unfolded in Habsburg Austria, Hohenzollern Prussia, and Romanov Russia, where Peter the Great forcibly westernized his state to compete with the rest of Europe.
England took a different path. The English Civil War, the execution of Charles I, Cromwell's Commonwealth, and finally the bloodless Glorious Revolution of 1688 established a constitutional alternative: a monarchy bound by law and answerable to Parliament, codified in the English Bill of Rights. This unit is roughly 10–13% of the AP European History exam, and its central tension — unchecked royal power versus representative limits on that power — shaped the rest of early modern European politics.
The College Board ties Unit 3 to four of its course-wide themes:
SP
Absolutist rulers centralized political authority by limiting the power of nobles and representative bodies
SP
England developed an alternative constitutional model that limited monarchical power through parliamentary supremacy
ECD
Mercantilist economic policy tied state power to colonial trade and the accumulation of wealth
CID
Baroque art and architecture were used as tools of political legitimacy and absolutist propaganda