AP European History
Practice Test 5 for AP European History: real questions and explanations from the Varsity Tutors practice-test pool.
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A 1945 Soviet directive calls for “screening” of returning prisoners of war and forced laborers, warning of “contamination” by foreign ideas; some are sent to labor camps. Which factor most directly explains this treatment?
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A 1945 Soviet directive calls for “screening” of returning prisoners of war and forced laborers, warning of “contamination” by foreign ideas; some are sent to labor camps. Which factor most directly explains this treatment?
Explanation: Soviet treatment of returning POWs and forced laborers in 1945 involved screening for 'contamination' by foreign ideas, often leading to labor camps, due to Stalinist paranoia about disloyalty and security threats. Captivity was seen as potential treason, reflecting the regime's suspicion of any external contact. This policy stemmed from the totalitarian logic of Stalinism, which prioritized ideological purity over humanitarian concerns. Choice A explains this factor most directly, linking it to Soviet internal dynamics. Options like B or C introduce false narratives, such as liberal commitments or UN enforcement, which did not apply. Such measures contributed to the broader repression in the USSR during postwar reconstruction.
In a secondary-source excerpt, a scholar contends that Britain’s power after 1700 derived from “naval supremacy paired with commercial institutions that integrated colonial markets into metropolitan finance,” allowing Britain to outlast rivals in global wars. Which eighteenth-century conflict most clearly illustrates this dynamic?
Explanation: In the context of Britain's ascendency, this question evaluates how naval supremacy and commercial institutions allowed Britain to outlast rivals in global wars. Choice C, the Seven Years’ War, best illustrates this by demonstrating Britain's use of naval power and credit for global campaigns that expanded trade and colonies, such as victories in India and North America. Choice B distracts by incorrectly stating Britain rejected maritime strategy and relied on Irish peasant levies, whereas Britain emphasized naval tactics in that war. Other options like choice D involve nineteenth-century events or fictional outcomes, such as Russia surrendering Canada. A strategy for these questions is to verify the timeline and outcomes of conflicts, ensuring they match the described dynamic of naval and financial integration in the eighteenth century.
A historian of European gender politics argues that the late 20th century saw a shift from primarily legal equality campaigns to broader struggles over workplace access, reproductive rights, and representation, with outcomes varying by state. The historian situates these changes within postwar prosperity, expanding education, and the rise of second-wave feminism. Which development best supports this interpretation?
Explanation: This question examines the evolution of European gender politics from legal equality to broader workplace and reproductive rights struggles. The correct answer B accurately describes second-wave feminist movements pressing for equal pay, childcare, and reproductive rights, leading to policy reforms across Europe. Option A falsely claims coverture laws were reimposed after 1945. Option C incorrectly states women's suffrage was abolished in the 1960s. Option D wrongly suggests guild restrictions returned to bar women from careers. Option E mischaracterizes feminist organizations as being replaced by apolitical state charities. When analyzing gender politics evolution, focus on the shift from basic legal rights (like suffrage) to broader economic and social equality issues, recognizing second-wave feminism's role in advancing workplace access and reproductive autonomy.
A secondary-source excerpt observes: “The Peace of Westphalia (1648) did not create modern secularism, but it formalized a diplomatic order in which territorial rulers held recognized authority over religion and foreign policy. By widening legal recognition beyond the Augsburg framework, it reduced incentives for imperial coercion while leaving many subjects’ daily lives shaped by confessional institutions.” Which statement best captures the excerpt’s main claim about Westphalia’s significance?
Explanation: This question tests understanding of the Peace of Westphalia's (1648) significance for religious and political order. The excerpt argues Westphalia formalized territorial sovereignty over religion and foreign policy while widening legal recognition beyond Augsburg's framework, reducing imperial coercion but not ending confessional regulation of daily life. The correct answer C accurately captures this nuanced view: Westphalia recognized territorial sovereignty and broadened confessional legality, easing imperial religious coercion without ending confessional social regulation. Options A, B, D, and E misrepresent Westphalia: it didn't create papal monarchy (A), immediate individual freedom (B), restore unified Christendom (D), or primarily address economics (E). To understand Westphalia, recognize it as strengthening territorial sovereignty while maintaining confessional states, not creating modern secularism.
A 2018 secondary-source excerpt on contemporary Western democracies argues that many European parties now compete on a “cultural” axis (immigration, national identity, EU authority) more than a “class” axis. It notes that mainstream center-left parties lost working-class voters after embracing market reforms and EU integration, while new right-populist parties gained support by promising tighter borders and “taking back control” from Brussels. Which development most directly helped create the political conditions described?
Explanation: This question tests understanding of contemporary Western democracies in AP European History, focusing on the shift from class-based to cultural politics in European parties. The correct answer, B, highlights the post-1970s neoliberal policies and deindustrialization that eroded traditional social-democratic support among working-class voters, paving the way for right-populist parties emphasizing immigration and national identity. This development directly aligns with the excerpt's description of center-left parties losing ground after market reforms and EU integration, as these changes weakened labor unions and fueled cultural backlashes. In contrast, distractor A incorrectly references guild privileges from earlier centuries, which do not relate to modern political realignments. Other options like C and D misapply post-1945 or post-1815 contexts, such as one-party states or absolutist monarchies, which did not occur in Western Europe. A useful strategy is to connect the question to broader trends like globalization and EU expansion since the 1970s, eliminating anachronistic choices.
Eighteenth-century states increasingly linked military success to reliable revenue. Ministers argued that predictable taxation, public credit, and centralized accounting were essential to fielding large standing armies and navies. In Britain, parliamentary oversight and a national debt system helped fund global wars; elsewhere, rulers struggled against privileged exemptions. In this context of the “fiscal-military state,” which development most directly strengthened a government’s long-term war financing?
Explanation: This question requires understanding the fiscal-military state within the context of eighteenth-century warfare and finance. The correct answer (B) identifies funded national debt as the key innovation because it provided predictable, sustainable war financing through regular tax revenues and lower interest rates. Options A, C, D, and E all describe practices that would weaken rather than strengthen war financing: barter systems (A) reduce taxable transactions, hereditary tax collection (C) limits predictable revenue, eliminating customs duties (D) reduces income, and relying on plunder (E) is inherently unpredictable. To answer correctly, you must contextualize how modern public credit systems, particularly Britain's model, transformed states' ability to sustain prolonged conflicts by creating reliable mechanisms for borrowing based on regular taxation.
An historian writing about the Northern Renaissance emphasizes that many Northern artists combined close observation of nature with dense symbolic programs, often embedding theological meaning in ordinary objects. The excerpt adds that this approach reflected a devotional culture attentive to sin, death, and moral accountability. Which thematic tendency in Northern Renaissance art aligns best with the excerpt?
Explanation: This question asks about thematic tendencies in Northern Renaissance art that combined naturalistic observation with religious symbolism. The correct answer B identifies the persistent use of moral allegory and vanitas motifs, which linked realistic detail to reminders of mortality, vice, and the need for repentance. This perfectly matches the excerpt's description of embedding theological meaning in ordinary objects within a devotional culture attentive to sin and death. Northern artists like Memling and Bosch exemplified this approach through detailed paintings laden with symbolic meaning. The distractors contradict Northern Renaissance characteristics: A wrongly suggests rejection of Christian themes, C denies the central role of symbolism, D incorrectly claims abstract geometry replaced representation, and E falsely states oil painting was unknown in the North. To answer art history questions about regional styles, identify the combination of technical approach (detailed realism) with thematic content (moral/religious symbolism).
A historian’s excerpt argues that absolutism and constitutionalism both expanded state capacity, but differed in accountability: absolutist ministers answered primarily to the monarch, while constitutionalist ministers increasingly depended on parliamentary confidence and statutory limits. Which development best reflects the constitutionalist accountability described?
Explanation: This question asks you to identify an example of constitutionalist accountability where ministers depended on parliamentary confidence rather than just royal favor. The correct answer B—English practice after 1688 of parliamentary control over taxation and the expectation that ministers align with parliamentary majorities—perfectly illustrates this constitutionalist accountability. Options A, C, D, and E all describe absolutist practices where officials answered primarily to the monarch: intendants reporting to the crown, lettres de cachet reinforcing ministerial power, strengthening serfdom for noble loyalty, and confessional uniformity policies. When identifying examples of political accountability, consider to whom officials must answer and what mechanisms exist for checking their power.
In a 90-word secondary-source excerpt, a scholar contrasts absolutism’s “command model” of governance—royal decrees enforced by officials and armies—with constitutionalism’s “contract model,” in which rulers must negotiate revenue and policy with representative institutions. Which historical example best illustrates the constitutionalist “contract model” described?
Explanation: This question asks you to identify an example of constitutionalism's "contract model" of governance based on negotiation between rulers and representative institutions. The correct answer C—the Dutch Republic's States General bargaining over taxation and war finance—perfectly illustrates this model, as provinces negotiated with each other and limited executive authority through representation. Options A, B, D, and E all describe absolutist practices: revoking religious freedoms, creating service nobility hierarchies, using religious courts for control, and building palaces to domesticate nobles. These represent the "command model" where rulers issue decrees enforced by officials. When identifying examples of political systems, match the specific characteristics described (negotiation vs. command) to the historical evidence.
In the late 1940s, the United States promoted containment and rebuilt West Germany within a Western alliance system. The Soviet Union responded by consolidating communist governments in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia and by portraying Western initiatives as threats. Observers noted that Germany’s status symbolized the new European order. Which event most clearly demonstrated superpower competition over Germany’s future?
Explanation: In the late 1940s, the U.S. pursued containment by rebuilding West Germany and integrating it into Western alliances, while the Soviet Union consolidated communist regimes in Eastern Europe and viewed Western actions as threats. Germany's division symbolized the broader European split under superpower influence. The Berlin Blockade (1948-1949) saw the Soviets cutting off access to West Berlin to pressure the West, but the U.S. responded with an airlift to supply the city, demonstrating resolve. This event clearly showcased superpower competition over Germany's future. Choice A is correct, as it directly tested U.S. and Soviet strategies in Germany. Events like the Treaty of Utrecht or Battle of Lepanto are from much earlier periods and unrelated to postwar Germany.
Secondary source excerpt (scholarly voice, 75–125 words): Studies of Operation Barbarossa stress that Nazi policy fused military objectives with a racialized program of conquest. The campaign’s logistics were strained from the outset, but the deeper rupture lay in the deliberate dismantling of legal restraints: mass shootings, starvation planning, and the targeting of political commissars accompanied rapid advances. German leaders anticipated that Soviet society would collapse under combined military shock and administrative decapitation, yet the invasion instead generated a mobilizational patriotism and facilitated the Soviet state’s relocation of industry eastward. The war in the East thus became simultaneously a struggle of resources and a project of annihilation.
Which development most directly illustrates the excerpt’s claim that the invasion “dismantled legal restraints” and embedded violence against civilians into strategy?
Explanation: This AP European History question focuses on interpreting secondary sources about the ideological and military fusion in Operation Barbarossa. The correct answer, B, exemplifies the dismantling of legal restraints through the Commissar Order, which mandated executing Soviet political officers, and Einsatzgruppen's mass murders, embedding civilian violence into the invasion strategy. These actions targeted perceived racial and political enemies, accelerating annihilation alongside military advances. Distractor A misapplies the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which renounced war but didn't legalize reprisals, confusing interwar diplomacy with WWII atrocities. A useful strategy is to match choices to the excerpt's specific claims, like 'mass shootings' and 'starvation planning,' while eliminating anachronistic options. This highlights how Nazi policy radicalized the Eastern Front into a war of extermination. Understanding this integration reveals the campaign's failure to collapse Soviet resistance quickly.
A German printer in 1520 produces thousands of short pamphlets and woodcut broadsheets attacking clerical corruption and defending reform ideas in vivid, accessible language. These texts circulate quickly through towns and marketplaces, reaching artisans and literate peasants as well as university audiences. Authorities attempt censorship, but enforcement varies by territory, and some city councils protect printers for economic and political reasons. Which factor most directly enabled this rapid spread of reformist arguments?
Explanation: The question describes how reform ideas spread rapidly through printed pamphlets and broadsheets in 1520, reaching diverse audiences despite censorship attempts. The correct answer A identifies the key factor: movable-type printing and expanding urban literacy networks. Gutenberg's printing press, invented around 1450, had created the infrastructure for mass communication by Luther's time. Printing dramatically lowered costs compared to hand-copied manuscripts and enabled rapid reproduction of texts. Combined with growing literacy rates in German cities and the use of vernacular language rather than Latin, printing allowed reform ideas to spread far beyond university circles. The decentralized nature of the Holy Roman Empire, with varying censorship enforcement across territories, further facilitated this print revolution that made the Reformation possible.
A 20th-century cultural survey claims that writers like Kafka and philosophers like Sartre portrayed modern life as alienating and emphasized anxiety, choice, and the absence of inherent meaning in the universe. Which intellectual trend best fits this description?
Explanation: The portrayal of modern life as alienating, with themes of anxiety, individual choice, and the lack of inherent meaning, aligns with existentialism, a mid-20th-century philosophy developed by thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre and reflected in Franz Kafka's literature. Existentialists argued that humans must create their own purpose in an absurd, indifferent universe, emphasizing personal responsibility amid isolation. This differs from positivism (A), which relied on scientific observation for truth, or scholasticism (C), a medieval approach integrating faith and reason. Mercantilism (D) and physiocracy (E) were economic theories unrelated to these existential concerns. Existentialism gained prominence after World War II, responding to totalitarianism and war's horrors by focusing on human freedom. It influenced literature, theater, and ethics, encouraging individuals to confront life's meaninglessness authentically.
A historian argues: “The Dutch Revolt fused confessional change with resistance to composite monarchy. Calvinist communities and urban elites opposed Spanish taxation and the enforcement of religious uniformity; the revolt’s durability depended on maritime commerce and the capacity of provincial institutions to coordinate defense.” Which factor most directly supports the historian’s emphasis on “composite monarchy” tensions?
Explanation: This question focuses on understanding "composite monarchy" tensions in the Dutch Revolt. A composite monarchy consists of multiple territories under one ruler but maintaining separate laws and privileges. The correct answer A perfectly illustrates this tension: Dutch provinces rejected Spanish officials and new taxes while insisting on traditional privileges and local consent, showing conflict between centralized Spanish rule and local autonomy. This resistance combined with spreading Calvinism demonstrates how political and religious grievances merged. Options B through E contain factual errors or misrepresentations: Dutch rebels sought independence, not reunification (B); the revolt lasted decades (C); it involved urban merchants, not just peasants (D); and Ottoman involvement was minimal (E). When analyzing composite monarchy conflicts, look for tensions between central authority and local privileges.
A British census summary shows that between 1801 and 1851, the share of the population living in towns over 20,000 rises sharply, while rural districts stagnate. Which social effect most directly followed this demographic shift?
Explanation: The British census data from 1801 to 1851 highlights a significant demographic shift toward urbanization, as people migrated from rural areas to cities in search of industrial jobs. This rapid urban growth directly led to an increased demand for housing, resulting in the proliferation of overcrowded tenements where multiple families often shared small, unsanitary spaces. Consequently, public health crises emerged, including outbreaks of diseases like cholera due to poor sanitation and contaminated water supplies. These conditions prompted later municipal reforms, such as the Public Health Act of 1848 in Britain, aimed at improving urban infrastructure like sewage systems and water provision. Overall, this shift illustrates how industrialization transformed social landscapes by concentrating populations and necessitating new forms of urban governance and public services.
In the early 1950s, Western European leaders argued that pooling coal and steel production under a shared authority could make another Franco-German war materially difficult and politically unthinkable. This proposal, advanced amid Cold War security concerns and U.S. encouragement for integration, created a supranational institution empowered to regulate key industries across participating states. Which development most directly represents the long-term institutional trajectory of this initiative into today’s European Union?
Explanation: The question asks about the long-term institutional trajectory from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) of the early 1950s to today's European Union. The ECSC began as a sectoral organization managing only coal and steel production among six countries, with supranational authority over these specific industries. Over subsequent decades, this limited cooperation expanded dramatically through treaties like Rome (1957), Maastricht (1992), and Lisbon (2007), which broadened the scope from heavy industry to include a single market, common currency, foreign policy coordination, and many other policy areas. The EU today represents a comprehensive supranational governance system with institutions like the European Parliament, Commission, and Court of Justice exercising authority across numerous domains. This expansion from narrow sectoral management to broad supranational governance is precisely what answer C describes, making it the correct choice.
A secondary-source excerpt emphasizes that Britain’s global power rested on command of sea lanes and the ability to disrupt rivals’ commerce through blockades and privateering. Which eighteenth-century conflict best illustrates this maritime strategy as a source of ascendency?
Explanation: This question tests knowledge of specific conflicts demonstrating British maritime strategy. The correct answer B identifies the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714) as exemplifying Britain's use of naval power and colonial attacks alongside continental alliances. This war saw British naval actions in the Mediterranean and Caribbean while supporting allies against France. Choice A incorrectly portrays Britain in the Thirty Years' War as a land power, while C and D reference conflicts where Britain had minimal involvement. Choice E anachronistically places the Crimean War in the wrong century and misattributes territorial gains.
A 17th-century investor in Amsterdam praises a joint-stock company that pools capital, spreads risk across many shareholders, and maintains armed trading posts overseas. He notes that dividends come from monopoly rights granted by the state. Which institution is the investor most likely describing?
Explanation: The 17th-century Amsterdam investor describes an institution that pools capital, spreads risk via joint-stock shares, maintains armed overseas posts, and benefits from state-granted monopolies, which matches chartered companies like the Dutch East India Company (VOC). These companies combined private investment with government backing to dominate global trade, enabling large-scale ventures that individual merchants could not sustain. This structure was key to Dutch commercial success in the early modern period. In contrast, medieval guilds regulated local crafts, not overseas risks; manorial courts managed feudal agriculture; monastic orders focused on religious finances; and Renaissance patronage supported arts, not trade monopolies. The chartered company thus fits the description perfectly.
A scholarly excerpt states: “Balance-of-power diplomacy prized flexibility: governments could ally across confessional or ideological lines to block a stronger rival. Such ‘reason of state’ logic often overrode religious solidarity.” Which alliance best exemplifies this dynamic?
Explanation: In AP European History, this question tests balance-of-power flexibility, where 'reason of state' overrode religious solidarity for alliances against stronger rivals. Choice C is correct, as France's support for Protestant powers in the Thirty Years' War weakened the Habsburgs, despite France's Catholicism, exemplifying cross-confessional pragmatism. This fits the excerpt's emphasis on allying across lines to block rivals. Choice A distracts by prioritizing confessional uniformity over counterweighting, missing the flexibility aspect. Approach by identifying alliances that contradict ideological norms, eliminating those based on shared religion or non-European contexts. This method underscores diplomacy's pragmatic nature in maintaining equilibrium.
A historian argues that the spread of Romantic nationalism in the early-to-mid 19th century—through literature, folklore collection, and patriotic commemorations—caused political movements to redefine legitimacy around shared language and culture rather than dynastic rule. Which development is most consistent with this cause-and-effect claim?
Explanation: The historian argues that Romantic nationalism's spread through literature, folklore, and commemorations caused political movements to base legitimacy on shared culture and language, challenging dynastic rule. This redefined nationhood in the 19th century. Choice A is consistent, as leaders like those in Germany and Italy emphasized cultural unity for self-determination demands. Options like B, C, D, and E, such as rejecting national languages or declining mobilization, oppose this cultural-political fusion. For example, disappearing rhetoric contradicts nationalism's growth. This cause-and-effect claim explains movements like Pan-Slavism or the Italian Risorgimento. It connects cultural Romanticism to the era's state formations and revolutions.
A historian summarizes the post-1815 settlement: “At Vienna and in subsequent congresses, the great powers sought legitimacy through dynastic restoration and a balance of power, treating revolution as a contagious threat to be contained by coordinated diplomacy and, if necessary, intervention.” Which development best illustrates the conservative order described?
Explanation: This question tests understanding of the Concert of Europe and European conservatism after 1815, focusing on how great powers maintained dynastic legitimacy and suppressed revolutionary threats through diplomacy and intervention. The correct answer, B, highlights the Carlsbad Decrees, which exemplified conservative efforts by imposing censorship and surveillance in the German Confederation to curb liberal and nationalist agitation following the 1819 unrest. This directly illustrates the coordinated response to revolution as a 'contagious threat,' aligning with the historian's summary of post-Vienna diplomacy. In contrast, choice A describes the Crimean War, a later event that actually disrupted the conservative order rather than illustrating its principles, serving as a distractor for those confusing causes with consequences. Other options like C and D misrepresent revolutionary events as conservative, which can mislead if one doesn't distinguish between restoration and upheaval. A strategy for such questions is to match the development to the core conservative goals of dynastic stability and anti-revolutionary measures, eliminating choices that involve nationalism or popular sovereignty. Verifying independently, the Carlsbad Decrees were indeed a key conservative tool under Metternich, confirming the marked answer.
From the late 1940s through the 1980s, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) developed contrasting political economies and alliances, symbolized by the Berlin Wall after 1961. In the late 1960s and 1970s, West German leaders pursued a policy of engaging the East through treaties, recognition, and increased contacts, aiming to reduce tensions and improve human ties across the divide. Which term best describes this West German approach to Eastern Europe?
Explanation: West Germany's approach to Eastern Europe is contextualized in the détente era of the late 1960s and 1970s, amid efforts to reduce Cold War hostilities following the Berlin Wall's construction. Ostpolitik, pursued by Chancellor Willy Brandt, involved treaties normalizing relations with the Soviet Union, Poland, and East Germany, aiming to foster dialogue and human contacts. This policy marked a departure from earlier non-recognition stances, reflecting West Germany's integration into NATO while seeking peaceful coexistence. It contributed to broader East-West thaw, including the Helsinki process. Contextualization illustrates how Ostpolitik facilitated German reunification in 1990, bridging divided Europe through pragmatic diplomacy.
A secondary-source historian writes that the Great Depression undermined the post–World War I financial settlement: reparations and war-debt payments depended on continuous international lending, so when credit collapsed, the system seized up. The author notes that emergency measures attempted to pause payments to prevent total default and political breakdown. Which policy most directly corresponds to this effort to suspend payments during the crisis?
Explanation: The historian explains how the Depression destroyed the fragile post-WWI financial system based on reparations and war debts. The 1931 Hoover Moratorium directly addresses this crisis by temporarily suspending all intergovernmental debt and reparation payments. President Hoover proposed this one-year freeze because the credit collapse made it impossible for Germany to pay reparations, which in turn prevented Allied powers from repaying their war debts to the United States. The moratorium recognized that insisting on payments would cause defaults that could trigger political upheaval and further economic collapse. This emergency measure attempted to break the vicious cycle where financial obligations were strangling economic recovery. The Hoover Moratorium thus exemplifies efforts to pause the unsustainable payment system during the crisis to prevent complete financial and political breakdown.
A Dutch political writer praises Hugo Grotius for arguing that the seas should remain open to all nations for navigation and commerce, challenging Iberian claims to exclusive oceanic control. This argument most directly served which Dutch Golden Age objective?
Explanation: Hugo Grotius's argument for freedom of the seas (Mare Liberum) directly served Dutch interests by justifying their participation in global trade and naval expansion against Portuguese and Spanish claims to exclusive oceanic control. The Iberian powers claimed monopoly rights over certain sea routes and colonial trades based on papal bulls and first discovery. Grotius countered with legal arguments that the seas were international territory that no nation could own, making navigation and commerce rights universal. This principle legitimized Dutch intrusions into Asian and American trades previously claimed by Portugal and Spain. It provided intellectual and legal justification for Dutch merchants and the Dutch East India Company to challenge Iberian monopolies. The freedom of the seas doctrine thus became a cornerstone of Dutch commercial expansion, transforming a practical need for market access into a principle of international law.
A survey chapter on modern European intellectual history states that Darwin’s mechanism of natural selection emphasized variation, inheritance, and differential reproduction in environments. It adds that Social Darwinism often treated “fitness” as a moral category and used it to rank social groups, frequently ignoring the scientific limits of Darwin’s claims. Which critique best aligns with the chapter’s distinction?
Explanation: Darwin's natural selection focused on how environmental factors influence survival and reproduction in species, remaining a descriptive scientific theory. Social Darwinism, however, often transformed 'fitness' into a moral or value-laden term, using it to judge and rank social groups, classes, or races. This conflation turned a neutral biological process into a tool for justifying inequalities, such as economic disparities or racial hierarchies. Critics note that this ignored Darwin's emphasis on chance and environment, extending beyond scientific evidence. Choice B aligns with this by highlighting how Social Darwinism mixed biology with moral judgments to defend inequality. This critique underscores the importance of distinguishing science from ideology in historical analysis.