AP® European History review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/euro/units/5/5-9)
Unit 5 · Topic 5.9
5.9 Continuity and Change in 18th-Century States
This wrap-up topic practices continuity and change over time from 1648 to 1815. Monarchy, privilege, serfdom in the east and balance-of-power diplomacy largely lasted, while revolutions introduced citizenship, written constitutions, legal equality and nationalism that the Congress of Vienna could not erase.
Key terms
- continuity and change over time
- absolutism
- constitutionalism
- balance of power
- citizenship
- serfdom
What continuity and change means
Continuity and change over time (CCOT) asks you to explain what changed and what stayed the same across a period, and why. The best answers do both and explain the reasons, for example why some old institutions survived despite revolutions.
Continuities, 1648–1815
- Monarchy: almost every European state was still a monarchy in 1815, and the Congress of Vienna restored the Bourbons in France.
- Aristocratic power: nobles still dominated land, armies and high office across most of Europe.
- Serfdom in the east: it lasted in Russia until 1861 and in the Austrian Empire in some forms until 1848.
- Balance-of-power diplomacy: from Louis XIV to Napoleon, coalitions formed to stop any state from dominating, and Vienna made this the explicit goal.
- Established churches and an agricultural economy: most people remained religious peasants.
- Exclusion of women from political rights.
Changes, 1648–1815
- Ideas of popular sovereignty and natural rights spread from Locke and Rousseau to the revolutions of 1789.
- Written constitutions: the United States (1787), Poland (1791) and France (1791 and after) tried to limit power by written law.
- Citizenship and legal equality: the Revolution abolished feudal privileges in 1789, and the Napoleonic Code locked in men's equality before the law in France and many conquered lands.
- Nationalism: mass armies and resistance to Napoleon spread the idea that the nation, not the dynasty, deserves loyalty.
- The map: the Holy Roman Empire disappeared in 1806, replaced by fewer, larger German states; Poland vanished in 1795.
- New ideologies: liberalism and conservatism (Burke) took shape as rival answers to the Revolution.
- The Atlantic world: the United States and Haiti became independent, and Britain became the leading global power.
Place matters
Change was uneven across Europe. In France, the Low Countries, the Rhineland and northern Italy, the Revolution and Napoleon swept away feudal dues, guilds and church privileges, and much of that stayed after 1815. In Russia and much of the Habsburg lands, serfdom, noble power and absolute monarchy continued with little change. Britain changed in yet another way, becoming the leading commercial and naval power without a revolution at home. Pointing out these regional differences is an easy way to add nuance to a CCOT essay.
Explaining the mix
Why did so much survive? Monarchs and nobles still controlled armies and land, most people were rural and traditional, and the victors of 1815 deliberately restored the old order. Why did so much change anyway? Ideas spread by print couldn't be unlearned, Napoleon's reforms had reshaped laws across Europe, and new middle classes and nationalists had a stake in them. The revolutions of 1830 and 1848 (see 6.6) would show that the changes ran deep.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
A CCOT thesis
Long-essay practice: Write a thesis evaluating the extent to which European political systems changed from 1648 to 1815.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: State both what changed and what stayed the same.
- Step 2: Make a judgment about extent.
- Step 3: Give a reason that explains the pattern.
Answer: Model thesis: Although monarchy and aristocratic privilege survived across most of Europe through 1815, as the Congress of Vienna's restoration of the Bourbons shows, European political systems changed significantly because the French Revolution and Napoleon spread ideas of popular sovereignty, legal equality and nationalism that restored monarchs could not erase.
Common mistakes
- Writing only about change. A CCOT essay needs continuity too.
- Describing the period without explaining why things changed or stayed the same.
- Assuming the Congress of Vienna undid the Revolution. It restored rulers, not the full Old Regime; the Napoleonic Code survived in many places.
On the exam
- CCOT is a common long-essay reasoning type. Organize by category: politics, society, ideas, diplomacy.
- Turning points like 1789 and 1815 help structure an essay; say what each changed and what it didn't.
Connected topics
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Check yourself
4 questions on 5.9 Continuity and Change in 18th-Century States. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
Which of the following best describes continuity in Europe between 1648 and 1815?
Which of the following represented the most significant change in European political ideas between 1648 and 1815?
Which of the following remained largely unchanged in Russia between 1648 and 1815?
1. From this moment until that in which the enemy shall have been driven from the soil of the Republic, all Frenchmen are in permanent requisition for the service of the armies.
The young men shall go to battle; the married men shall forge arms and transport provisions; the women shall make tents and clothing and shall serve in the hospitals; the children shall turn old linen into lint; the aged shall betake themselves to the public places in order to arouse the courage of the warriors and preach the hatred of kings and the unity of the Republic.
2. The national buildings shall be converted into barracks, the public places into workshops for arms . . . .
Source: Decree of the National Convention, August 23, 1793. Translated in Frank Maloy Anderson, ed., The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789–1907, second edition, 1908.
The decree best illustrates which change in European warfare?
0 of 4 answered