I've yet to take AP Euro, but I just like history too much (Can you do that?) and I decided to ask my question here. Thank you r/historians, in advance of answering my question.
Also, follow up question, I've read that Napoleon and, subsequently, the Napoleonic Wars were throwing off the European balance of power. Is this true? How so? Explain.
As to the second part of your question, about the balance of power - yes, the conquests that began during the French Revolution and continued through the Napoleonic period (here skirting the historiographical debate about the length of the revolution) did disrupt the European balance of power. From 1792 — the start of the French Revolutionary Wars — France made many territorial gains, and under Napoleon invaded Germany and broke the Holy Roman Empire (a political institution almost a millennia old) as well as the militaries of Russia and Prussia. This was a clear upset of the balance of power: one state, France, was able to successfully (for a time — Napoleon did lose eventually, after all) counter the other major European powers on its own.
Additionally, Napoleon’s goal of establishing the Continental System represents an attempt at overthrowing the balance of power via trade. At its peak extent the Continental System included Spain (ruled by Napoleon’s brother), Italy (as French client states), the German client states of France, Prussia (beaten into submission), and Russia (whose unwillingness to cooperate led to the resumption of war).
Furthermore, after his defeat and exile to Elba in 1814, the Congress of Vienna convened with the explicit goal of restoring the European balance of power by returning and exchanging territories. Naturally Napoleon’s return in the Hundred Days represented a threat, again, to this newly drafted plan for balance.