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CHAPTER 21 - Absolute Monarchs in Europe (1500-1800) - World History: Patterns of Interaction (Atlas by Rand McNally 2009)

CHAPTER 21 - Absolute Monarchs in Europe (1500-1800) - World History: Patterns of Interaction (Atlas by Rand McNally 2009)

CHAPTER 21.1: Spain’s Empire and European Absolutism

  • Charles V’s son, Philip II, inherited Spain, left the Spanish Netherlands, and the American colonies
  • 1580: the king of Portugal died w/o an heir and Philip seized the Portuguese kingdom because he was the king’s nephew
  • Philip now had an empire that circled the globe b/c of Portuguese strongholds in Africa, India, and the East Indies
  • Philip’s empire provided him with incredible wealth
  • Spain was able to support a large standing army of about 50,000 soldiers b/c of this wealth
  • When Philip assumed the throne, Europe was experiencing religious wars caused by the Reformation
  • Religious conflict familiar to Spain (Reconquista/Inquisition)
  • Philip believed it was his duty to defend Catholicism against the Muslims of the Ottoman Empire/Protestants of Europe
  • 1571: the pope called on all Catholic princes to take up arms against the mounting power of the Ottoman Empire
  • 1588: Philip launched the Spanish Armada in an attempt to punish Protestant England/ Elizabeth I
  • Elizabeth had supported Protestant subjects who had rebelled against Philip
  • His fleet was defeated
  • The setback seriously weakened Spain, but their wealth continued to give it the appearance of strength for a bit
  • The Escorial: Philip II’s palace that demonstrated his power/reflected his faith. Held a monastery as well as a palace inside
  • El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos)
  • Born in Crete, spent much of his adult life in Spain
  • Chose brilliant, sometimes clashing colors, distorted the human figure, and expressed emotion symbolically in his paintings
  • His techniques showed the deep Catholic faith of Spain
  • Painted saints/martyrs as huge, long limbed figures w/ a supernatural air
  • Diego Velázquez:
  • Paintings reflected the pride of the Spanish monarchy
  • Best known for his portraits of the royal family/scenes of court life
  • Also noted for using rich colors
  • Don Quixote de la Mancha often referred to as the birth of the modern European novel
  • About a poor Spanish nobleman who went crazy after reading too many books about heroic knights
  • Sometimes believed that  Cervantes was mocking chivalry/others believe that it’s about an idealistic person who longs for the romantic past b/c he is frustrated w/ his materialistic world
  • Gold/silver made Spain temporarily wealthy, but provided long-term economic problems:
  • Severe inflation along w/ a rise in the prices of goods/services
  • Inflation in Spain had 2 main causes:
  • Spain’s population had been growing
  • As more people demanded food and other goods, merchants were able to raise prices
  • As silver bullion flooded the market, its value dropped
  • People needed more and more amounts of silver to buy things
  • Economic decline in Spain had other causes:
  • Spain expelling Jews/Muslims in approx. 1500 → the loss of many valuable artisans/businesspeople
  • Spain’s nobles did not have to pay taxes → tax burdens fell on lower classes → prevented them from accumulating enough wealth to start their own businesses
  • As a result, Spain never developed a middle class
  • Guilds that had emerged in the Middle Ages still dominated business in Spain/still employed old-fashioned methods → Spanish cloth/manufactured goods were more expensive than those made elsewhere
  • As a result, Spaniards bought much of what they needed from France, England, and the Netherlands
  • Spain’s wealth went into the pockets of foreigners, mostly Spain’s enemies
  • Spanish kings borrowed money from German/Italian bankers to finance wars
  • The economy was so feeble that Philip had to declare the Spanish state bankrupt 3 times
  • In the Spanish Netherlands, Philip had to maintain an army to keep his subjects under control
  • The Dutch had little in common w/ their Spanish rulers
  • The Netherlands had many Calvinist congregations
  • Spain had a sluggish economy, while the Dutch had a prosperous middle class
  • Philip raised taxes in the Netherlands/took steps to crush Protestantism
  • 1566: angry Protestant mobs swept through Catholic churches
  • Philip sent an army under Spanish duke of Alva to punish rebels
  • 1,500 Protestants/suspected rebels executed
  • The Dutch continued to fight the Spanish for another 11 years
  • 1579: The 7 northern provinces of the Netherlands (largely Protestant) united/declared independence from Spain (the United Provinces of the Netherlands)
  • The ten southern provinces (present-day Belgium) were Catholic and remained under Spanish control
  • 1600s: the Netherlands were similar to Florence during the 1400s
  • Had the best banks/many of the best artists in Europe
  • Wealthy merchants sponsored many of these artists
  • Rembrandt van Rijn:
  • The greatest Dutch artist of the period
  • Painted portraits of wealthy middle-class merchants
  • Produced group portraits
  • Used sharp contrasts of light/shadow to draw attention to his focus
  • Jan Vermeer:
  • Like other Dutch artists, chose domestic, indoor settings for his paintings
  • Often painted women doing familiar activities (pouring milk from a jug, reading a letter, etc.)
  • The work of both Rembrandt/Vermeer reveals how important merchants, civic leaders, and the middle class in general were in 17th-century Netherlands
  • The stability of the government allowed the Dutch people to concentrate on economic growth
  • The merchants of Amsterdam bought surplus grain in Poland/shoved it into their warehouses
  • When they heard about poor harvests in southern Europe, they shipped the grain south while prices were highest
  • The Dutch had the largest fleet of ships in the world
  • This fleet helped the Dutch East India Company to dominate the Asian spice trade/Indian Ocean trade
  • Gradually, the Dutch replaced the Italians as the bankers of Europe
  • Many European monarchs would claim authority to rule w/o limits on their power during the next few centuries
  • Absolute monarchs: kings or queens who held all the power within their states’ boundaries with a goal to control every aspect of society
  • Absolute monarchs believed in divine right: the idea that God created the monarchy/that the monarch acted as God’s representative on Earth
  • An absolute monarch answered only to God, not to his or her subjects
  • As Europe emerged from the Middle Ages, monarchs grew increasingly powerful
  • The decline of feudalism, the rise of cities, and growth of national kingdoms helped to centralize authority
  • The growing middle-class often backed monarchs because they promised a peaceful, supportive climate for business
  • Monarchs used the wealth of colonies to pay for their ambitions
  • Church authority also broke down during the late Middle Ages and the Reformation → Monarchs are able to assume greater control
  • Religious and territorial conflicts between states led to almost continuous warfare → Governments built huge armies/levied heavier taxes on an already suffering population
  • These pressures in turn brought about widespread unrest/peasants revolting sometimes
  • In response to these crises, monarchs tried to impose order by increasing their own power
  • They regulated everything from religious worship to social gatherings/created new government bureaucracies to control economic life
  • Their goal was to free themselves from the limitations imposed by the nobility/by representative bodies such as Parliament

CHAPTER 20.2: The Reign of Louis XIV

  • Many Catholics (including the people of Paris) opposed Henry IV
  • Henry chose to give up Protestantism/became Catholic for the sake of his war-weary country
  • 1598: Henry declared that Huguenots could live in peace in France/set up their own houses of worship in some cities (Edict of Nantes)
  • Henry devoted his reign to rebuilding France/its prosperity
  • Restored the French monarchy to a strong position
  • Most French people welcomed peace, but some hated him Henry for his religious compromises
  • 1610: Fanatic leaped into royal carriage/stabbed Henry to death
  • Louis XIII reigned after Henry
  • He was a weak king, but in 1624, he appointed a strong minister that made up for all of his weaknesses
  • Cardinal Richelieu became in effect, the ruler of France
  • A hard-working leader of the Catholic church in France
  • Lead according to moral principles, but was also ambitious/exercised authority
  • Richelieu took 2 steps to increase Bourbon monarchy power:
  • Moved against Huguenots
  • Believed that Protestantism often served as an excuse for political conspiracies against the Catholic king
  • Didn’t take away Huguenots’ right to worship, but forbade Protestant cities to have walls
  • He did not want them to be able to defy the king/withdraw behind strong defenses
  • Sought to weaken noble power
  • Ordered nobles to take down their fortified castles
  • Increased the power of govt agents who came from the middle class
  • Reliance on agents → less need to use noble officials
  • Richelieu also wanted to make France the strongest state in Europe
  • Believed that the greatest obstacle to this was the Habsburg rulers (their lands surrounded France)
  • The Hapsburgs ruled Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and parts of the Holy Roman Empire
  • To limit Habsburg power, Richelieu involved France in the Thirty Years’ War
  • Skepticism: the idea that nothing can ever be known for certain
  • Resulted because of French thinkers witnessing horrific religious wars
  • Skeptic thinkers expressed doubt towards churches that claimed to have the only correct set of doctrines
  • Doubting old ideas was the 1st step towards finding truth
  • Michel de Montaigne:
  • Lived during the worst years of the French religious wars
  • Developed a new form of literature (the essay: a brief work that expresses a person’s thoughts/opinions)
  • Montaigne pointed out that whenever a new belief arose, it replaced an old belief that people once accepted as truth
  • The new belief would also probably be replaced by some different idea in the future
  • Therefore, Montaigne believed that humans could never have absolute knowledge of what is true
  • René Descartes
  • Meditations on First Philosophy: Descartes examined the skeptical argument that one could never be certain of anything
  • Used his observations/his reason to answer such arguments
  • Created a philosophy that influenced modern thinkers/helped develop the scientific method
  • Became an important Enlightenment figure
  • Louis XIV: the most powerful ruler in French history
  • Efforts of Henry IV/Richelieu paved the way for him
  • Was 14 years old when he began his reign
  • The true ruler of France after Louis became king in 1643 was Richelieu’s successor, Cardinal Mazarin
  • Mazarin’s greatest triumph was the ending of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648
  • Many ppl in France (nobles especially) hated Mazarin b/c he increased taxes/strengthened the central govt
  • 1648-1653: Violent anti-Mazarin riots tore France apart
  • Louis never forgot his fear/anger at nobility/sought to become so strong that they couldn’t threaten him again
  • Nobles’ rebellion failed for 3 reasons:
  • Its leaders distrusted one another even more than they distrusted Mazarin
  • The govt used violent repression
  • Peasants and townspeople grew weary of disorder and fighting
  • For many years afterward, the people of France accepted the oppressive laws of an absolute king
  • They were convinced that rebellion was even worse
  • Mazarin died in 1661, Louis took control of the govt himself
  • Weakened the power of the nobles by excluding them from his councils
  • Louis increased the power of intendants, government agents that collected taxes/administered justice
  • To keep power under central control, he made sure that local officials communicated regularly with him
  • Louis devoted himself to helping France attain economic, political, and cultural brilliance
  • Jean Baptiste Colbert assisted Louis in achieving these goals
  • Colbert believed in mercantilism
  • To prevent wealth from leaving the country, Colbert tried to make France self-sufficient/wanted it to be able to manufacture everything it needed instead of relying on imports
  • Colbert gave government funds and tax benefits to French companies
  • Placed a high tariff on goods from other countries to protect France’s industries
  • Also recognized the importance of colonies (they provided raw materials/market for manufactured goods)
  • The French govt encouraged people to migrate to France’s colony in Canada
  • The fur trade added to French trade/wealth
  • After Colbert’s death, Louis announced a policy that slowed France’s economic progress
  • 1685: he canceled the Edict of Nantes
  •  In response, thousands of Huguenot artisans/business people fled the country
  • Louis’ policy robbed France of many skilled workers
  • Louis spent a fortune to surround himself with luxury
  • Had luxury meals, nobles to help him dress, and lesser nobles waiting outside of his palace halls waiting to be noticed by Louis
  • Having nobles at the palace increased royal authority in 2 ways:
  • Made the nobility totally dependent on Louis
  •  It also took them from their homes, thereby giving more power to the intendants
  • Louis required hundreds of nobles to live w/ him at the palace in Versailles
  • Versailles was immense:
  • Faced a huge royal courtyard dominated by a statue of Louis XIV
  • So big that it was equivalent to a small city
  • Rich decoration/furnishings showed wealth/power to everyone who showed up
  • Versailles was a center of the arts during Louis’s reign
  • Louis made opera/ballet more popular
  • No European monarch supported the arts as much as Louis since Augustus of Rome
  • Chief purpose of art under Louis was no longer to glorify God/human potential
  • Purpose of art was to glorify the king/promote values that supported Louis’ absolute rule
  • 1667: Louis invaded the Spanish Netherlands in an effort to expand France’s boundaries
  • Gained 12 towns through this campaign
  • 1672: Personally led an army into the Dutch Netherlands
  • The Dutch saved their country by opening the dikes and flooding the countryside
  • This was the same tactic they had used in their revolt against Spain a century earlier
  • The war ended in 1678 with the Treaty of Nijmegen
  • France gained several towns and a region called Franche-Comté
  • By the end of the 1680s, a Europeanwide alliance had formed to stop France
  • By banding together, weaker countries could match France’s strength
  • This defensive strategy was meant to achieve a balance of power, in which no single country or group of countries could dominate others
  • 1689: Dutch prince William of Orange became the king of England
  • He joined the League of Augsburg, which consisted of the Austrian Hapsburg emperor, the kings of Sweden/Spain, and the leaders of several smaller European states
  • These countries equaled France’s strength
  • France at this time had been weakened by a series of poor harvests/constant warfare/new taxes that Louis imposed to finance his wars
  • French people longed for peace, but got another war instead
  • 1700: Charles II died after promising his throne to Philip of Anjou
  • Other countries felt threatened by this increase in the Bourbon dynasty’s power
  • 1701: England, Austria, the Dutch Republic, Portugal, and several German and Italian states joined together to prevent the union of the French and Spanish thrones
  • The long struggle that followed is known as the War of the Spanish Succession
  • The costly war dragged on until 1714
  • The Treaty of Utrecht was signed in that year
  • Under its terms, Louis’s grandson was allowed to remain king of Spain so long as the thrones of France and Spain were not united
  • The big winner in the war was Great Britain
  • From Spain, Britain took Gibraltar, a fortress that controlled the entrance to the Mediterranean
  • Spain also granted a British company an asiento, permission to send enslaved Africans to Spain’s American colonies
  • This increased Britain’s involvement in trading enslaved Africans
  • In addition, France gave Britain the North American territories of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and abandoned claims to the Hudson Bay region
  • The Austrian Hapsburgs took the Spanish Netherlands and other Spanish lands in Italy
  • Prussia and Savoy were recognized as kingdoms
  • Realizing that his wars had ruined France, Louis regretted the suffering he had brought to his people
  • Died in bed in 1715
  • France ranked above all other European nations in art, literature, and statesmanship during Louis’s reign
  • In addition, France was considered the military leader of Europe
  • This military might allowed France to develop a strong empire of colonies, which provided resources and goods for trade
  • On the negative side, constant warfare/construction of the Palace of Versailles plunged France into major debt

CHAPTER 21.3: Central European Monarchs Clash

  • Lutheran/Catholic princes tried to gain followers
  • Both sides felt threatened by Calvinism, which was spreading in Germany
  • Lutherans united in the Protestant Union in 1608
  • The following year, the Catholic princes formed the Catholic League
  • 1618: Ferdinand II (future Holy Roman emperor) was head of the Hapsburg family
  • He ruled the Czech kingdom of Bohemia
  • Protestants in Bohemia didn’t trust Ferdinand b/c he was a foreigner/Catholic
  • When he closed some Protestant churches, the Protestants revolted
  • Ferdinand sent an army into Bohemia to crush the revolt
  • Several German Protestant princes took the chance to challenge the emperor
  • This resulted in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), a conflict over religion/territory/power among European ruling families
  • The war can be divided into 2 main phases:
  • Hapsburg triumphs:
  • Hapsburg armies from Austria/Spain crushed the troops hired by Protestant princes
  • Succeeded in putting down the Czech uprising/defeated the German Protestants who supported the Czechs
  • Ferdinand II paid his army of 125,000 men by allowing them to plunder German villages
  • Hapsburg defeats:
  • Protestant Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden/his disciplined army of 23,000 drove Hapsburg armies out of northern Germany
  • 1632: Adolphus was killed in battle
  • Cardinal Richelieu/Cardinal Mazarin of France dominated the remaining years of the war, they feared the Hapsburgs more than the Protestants
  • They did not want other European rulers to have as much power as the French king
  • 1635: , Richelieu sent French troops to join the German/Swedish Protestants in their struggle against the Hapsburg armies
  • The war greatly damaged Germany
  • The population dropped from 20 mil → 16 mil
  • Both trade/agriculture was disrupted/German economy was ruined
  • Germany had a long, difficult recovery from the war
  • The Peace of Westphalia (1648) ended the war
  • The treaty had the these important consequences:
  • weakened the Hapsburg states of Spain/Austria
  • strengthened France by awarding it German territory
  • made German princes independent of the Holy Roman emperor
  • ended religious wars in Europe
  • introduced a new method of peace negotiation whereby all participants meet to settle the problems of a war/decide the terms of peace (method still used today)
  • The treaty abandoned the idea of a Catholic empire that would rule most of Europe
  • It recognized Europe as a group of equal/independent states
  • Marked the beginning of the modern state system/was the most important result of the 30 Years’ War
  • Strong states formed more slowly in Central Europe than western Europe
  • The major powers of this region were the kingdom of Poland, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire
  • None of them were very strong in the mid-1600s
  • The economy of central Europe developed different than western Europe
  • During the late Middle Ages, serfs in western Europe slowly won freedom/moved to new towns
  • They joined middle-class townspeople, who gained economic power because of the commercial revolution/development of capitalism
  • The landowning aristocracy in central Europe passed laws restricting serfs’ ability to gain freedom/move to cities
  • The nobles wanted to keep them on land, where they could produce large harvests/sell the surplus crops to western European cities at great profit
  • Landowning nobles in central Europe not only held down serfs but blocked the development of strong kings
  • The Polish king was allowed little income, no law courts, and no standing army
  • As a result, there wasn’t a strong ruler who could form a unified state
  • The two empires of central Europe were also weak
  •  Although Suleyman the Magnificent had conquered Hungary/threatened Vienna in 1529, the Ottoman Empire could not take its European conquest any farther
  • From then on, the Ottoman Empire declined from its peak of power
  • The Holy Roman Empire was seriously weakened by the 30 Years’ War
  • They were no longer able to command the obedience of German states (no longer had real power)
  • These old, weakened empires and kingdoms left a power vacuum in central Europe
  • The Hapsburgs of Austria tried taking advantage of the power vacuum by becoming absolute rulers:
  • During the 30 Years’ War, they reconquered Bohemia
  • They wiped out Protestantism there/created a Czech nobility that pledged loyalty to them
  • After the war, the Hapsburg ruler centralized the govt/created a standing army
  • By 1699: the Hapsburgs had retaken Hungary from the Ottoman Empire
  • 1711: Charles VI became the Hapsburg ruler
  • His empire was difficult to rule:
  • Czechs, Hungarians, Italians, Croatians, and Germans all lived within the borders
  • Only the fact that one Hapsburg ruler wore the Austrian, Hungarian, and Bohemian crowns kept the empire together
  • Charles VI spent his entire reign trying to figure out how to continue his rule over all of his lands
  • He persuaded other leaders of Europe to sign an agreement that declared they would recognize Charles’ eldest daughter (Maria Theresa) as the heir to all his Habsburg territories
  • 1740: Theresa succeeded her father five months after Frederick II became king of Prussia
  • Frederick wanted the Austrian land of Silesia, which bordered Prussia
  • Silesia produced iron ore, textiles, and food products
  • Frederick underestimated Maria Theresa’s strength/assumed that because she was a woman, she would not be forceful enough to defend her lands
  • 1740: he sent his army to occupy Silesia, beginning the War of the Austrian Succession
  • Maria Theresa went to Hungary after recently giving birth/asked the Hungarian nobles for aid
  • Even though the nobles resented their Hapsburg rulers, they pledged to give Maria Theresa an army
  • Great Britain also joined Austria to fight its longtime enemy France, which was Prussia’s ally
  • Although Maria Theresa did stop Prussia’s aggression, she lost Silesia in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748
  • The acquisition of Silesia led to Prussia becoming a major European power
  • Maria Theresa decided that the French kings were no longer Austria’s chief enemies/made an alliance w/ them, which led to a diplomatic revolution
  • When Frederick heard of her actions, he signed a treaty with Britain (Austria’s former ally)
  • Austria, France, Russia, and others were allied against Britain and Prussia
  • Austria/Prussia switched allies, but Russia was playing a role in Euro. affairs for the first time
  • 1756: Frederick attacked Saxony, an Australian ally
  • Every great European power was soon involved in the war
  • The Seven Years’ War was fought in Europe, India, and North America. Lasted until 1763
  • The war didn’t change the territorial situation in Europe

CHAPTER 21.4: Absolute Rulers of Russia

  • Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV) came to the throne in 1533
  • His young life was disrupted by struggles for power among Russia’s landowning nobles, known as boyars, who sought to control the young Ivan
  • Ivan was the first Russian ruler to use the title of “czar” officially
  • 1547-1560 are often called Ivan’s “good period”
  • He won great victories, added lands to Russia, gave Russia a code of laws, and ruled justly
  • His bad period began in 1560 after Anastasia died
  • Ivan turned against the boyars, accusing them of poisoning his wife
  • He organized his own police force, whose chief duty was to hunt down and murder people Ivan considered traitors
  • Using these secret police, Ivan executed many boyars, their families, and the peasants who worked their lands
  • Ivan seized the boyars’ estates and gave them to a new class of nobles, who had to remain loyal to him or lose their land
  • 1581: Ivan killed his oldest son/heir
  • When Ivan died three years later, only his weak second son was left to rule
  • Ivan’s son proved to be physically and mentally incapable of ruling
  • After he died w/o an heir, Russia experienced a period of turmoil (Time of Troubles)
  • Boyars struggled for power, and heirs of czars died under mysterious conditions
  • Several impostors tried to claim the throne
  • Finally, in 1613, representatives from many Russian cities met to choose the next czar
  •  Their choice was Michael Romanov, grandnephew of Anastasia → the Romanov Dynasty, which ruled Russia for 300 years (1613-1917)
  • Over time, the Romanovs restored order to Russia
  • They strengthened govt by passing a law code/putting down a revolt
  • This paved the way for the absolute rule of Czar Peter I (Peter the Great), who was one of Russia’s greatest reformers/continued the trend of increasing the czar’s power
  • When Peter I came to power, Russia was still a land of boyars and serf
  • Serfdom in Russia lasted into the mid-1800s, much longer than it did in western Europe
  • Russian landowners wanted serfs to stay on the land/produce large harvests
  • The landowners treated the serfs like property
  • Landowners could give serfs away as presents or to pay debts
  • It was also against the law for serfs to run away from their owners
  • Most boyars knew little of western Europe
  • In the Middle Ages, Russia had looked to Constantinople, not to Rome, for leadership
  • Mongol rule had cut Russia off from the Renaissance/Age of Exploration
  • Geographic barriers isolated Russia
  • Its only seaport, Archangel in northern Russia, was surrounded with ice much of the year
  • The few travelers who reached Moscow were usually Dutch or German, and they had to stay in a separate part of the city
  • Religious differences widened the gap between western Europe/Russia
  • The Russians had adopted the Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity
  • Western Europeans were mostly Catholics or Protestants, and the Russians viewed them as heretics and avoided them
  • Peter believed that Russia’s future depended on having a warm-water port, only then could they compete w/ more modern states of Western Europe
  • 1697: Peter embarked on the “Grand Embassy”, a long visit to Western Europe
  • One of Peter’s goals was to learn about European customs and manufacturing techniques
  • A czar had never traveled among Western “heretics” before Peter
  • Inspired by his trip to the West, Peter resolved that Russia would compete with Europe on both military/commercial terms
  • Peter had a goal of westernization, of using western Europe as a model for change
  • Although Peter believed Russia needed to change, he knew that many of his people disagreed
  • To force change upon his state, Peter increased his powers as an absolute ruler
  • Peter brought the Russian Orthodox Church under state control/abolished the office of patriarch (head of the Church)
  • He set up a group called the Holy Synod to run the Church under his direction
  • Like Ivan the Terrible, Peter reduced the power of the great landowners
  • He recruited men from lower-ranked families/promoted them to positions of authority/rewarded them w/ grants of land
  • To modernize his army, Peter hired European officers, who drilled his soldiers in European tactics with European weapons
  • By the time of Peter’s death, the Russian army numbered 200,000 men
  • Peter imposed heavy taxes to pay for the huge army
  • Part of Peter’s attempts to westernize Russia:
  • Introduced potatoes → became a staple of Russian diet
  • Started Russia’s first newspaper/edited the first issue himself
  • Raised women’s status by having them attend social gatherings
  • Ordered the nobles to give up their traditional clothes for western fashion
  • Advanced education by opening a school of navigation/introducing schools for the arts/sciences
  • Peter believed that education was a key to Russia’s progress
  • In former times, subjects were forbidden under pain of death to study the sciences in foreign lands
  • To promote education and growth, Peter wanted a seaport that would make it easier to travel to the West
  • Peter fought Sweden to gain a piece of the Baltic coast
  • After 21 years of war, Russia won a “window” on Europe that Peter wanted
  • Peter had actually secured the window many years before Sweden officially surrendered
  • 1703: he began building a new city on Swedish lands occupied by Russian troops
  • Ships could sail down the Neva River into the Baltic Sea and on to western Europe
  • When St. Petersburg was finished, Peter ordered many Russian nobles to leave the comforts of Moscow and settle in his new capital
  • In time, St. Petersburg became a busy port

CHAPTER 21.5: Parliament Limits the English Monarchy

  • Elizabeth I didn’t have a child, her nearest relative was her cousin, James Stuart
  • Stuart became King James I of England in 1603
  • James inherited the unsettled issues of Elizabeth’s reign
  • His worst struggles with Parliament were over money
  • James offended the Puritan members of Parliament by upholding rituals of the Anglican church
  • Puritans hoped that he would enact reforms to purify the English church of Catholic practices
  • He agreed to a new translation of the Bible but refused to make Puritan reforms
  • 1625: James I died
  • Charles I, his son, took the throne
  • Charles always needed money partly b/c he was at war with both Spain/France
  • Several times when Parliament refused to give him funds, he dissolved it
  • By 1628, Charles was forced to call Parliament again, but this time they refused to grant him any money until he signed a document (Petition of Right)
  • The petition had the king agree to 4 points:
  •  He would not imprison subjects without due cause
  • He would not levy taxes without Parliament’s consent
  • He would not house soldiers in private homes
  • He would not impose martial law in peacetime
  • Charles ignored the petition even after agreeing to it
  • The petition was still important because it set forth the idea that the law was higher than the king, which contradicted theories of absolute monarchy
  • 1629: Charles dissolved Parliament/refused to call it back into session
  • To get money, he imposed all kinds of fees/fines on the English people → Charles’ popularity decreasing
  • 1637: Charles tried to force the Presbyterian Scots to accept a version of the Anglican prayer book
  • He wanted both his kingdoms to follow one religion
  • The Scots rebelled, assembled a huge army, and threatened to invade England
  • Charles needed money that he could only get by calling Parliament into session to meet this danger
  • This gave Parliament a chance to oppose him
  • During the autumn of 1641, Parliament passed laws to limit royal power
  • Charles tried to arrest Parliament’s leaders in January 1642, but they escaped
  • A mob of Londoners raged outside the palace, Charles fled London and raised an army in the north of England, where people were loyal to him
  • 1642-1649: supporters/opponents of King Charles fought the English Civil War
  • Those who remained loyal to Charles were called Royalists/Cavaliers
  • On the other side were Puritan supporters of Parliament
  • At first, neither side had a lasting advantage, but by 1644, the Puritans relied on General Oliver Cromwell, whose New Model Army in 1645 began defeating the Cavaliers
  • 1647: they held the king prisoner
  • 1649: Cromwell/Puritans brought Charles to trial for treason against Parliament
  • They found him guilty/sentenced him to death
  • Cromwell now held the reins of power
  • 1649: he abolished the monarchy/House of Lords
  • He established a commonwealth, a republican form of government
  • 1653: Cromwell sent home the remaining members of Parliament. Cromwell’s associate John Lambert drafted a constitution, the first written constitution of any modern European state
  • However, Cromwell eventually tore up the document and became a military dictator
  • Cromwell almost immediately had to put down a rebellion in Ireland
  • English colonization of Ireland had begun in the 1100s under Henry II
  • Henry VIII/his children had brought the country firmly under English rule in the 1500s
  • 1649: Cromwell landed on Irish shores with an army and crushed the uprising
  • He seized the lands and homes of the Irish and gave them to English soldiers
  • Fighting, plague, and famine killed hundreds and thousands of people
  • Cromwell/Puritans sought to reform society
  • They made laws that promoted Puritan morality and abolished activities they found sinful, such as the theater, sporting events, and dancing
  • Even though he was strict Puritan, Cromwell favored religious toleration for all Christians except Catholics
  • He allowed Jews to return (they were expelled from England in 1290)
  • After Cromwell’s death the govt collapsed/a new Parliament was selected
  • The English people were sick of military rule
  • 1659: Parliament voted to ask the older son of Charles I to rule England
  • Charles II reign/the restoration of the monarchy is referred to as the Restoration
  • Under his reign, Parliament passed habeas corpus, which gave every prisoner the right to obtain a writ or document ordering that the prisoner be brought before a judge to specify the charges against the prisoner
  • The judge would decide whether the prisoner should be tried or set free
  • Because of Habeas Corpus, a monarch could not put someone in jail for simply opposing the ruler
  • Prisoners could not be held indefinitely without trials
  • Parliament debated who should inherit Charles’s throne
  • Because Charles had no legitimate child, his heir was his brother James, who was Catholic
  • A group called the Whigs opposed James, and a group called the Tories supported him
  • 1685: Charles II died, James II became king
  • His Catholicism offended his subjects
  • Violating English law, he appointed several Catholics to high office
  • When Parliament protested, James dissolved it
  • 1688: James’ second wife gave birth, English Protestants became terrified at the idea of a line of Catholic kings
  • James had an older daughter, Mary, who was Protestant
  • 7 members of Parliament invited William and Mary to overthrow James for the sake of Protestantism
  • When William led his army to London in 1688, James fled to France
  • The Glorious Revolution: The bloodless overthrow of King James II
  • William and Mary vowed to recognize Parliament as their partner in governing
  • England had become not an absolute monarchy but a constitutional monarchy, where laws limited the ruler’s power.
  • Parliament drafted a bill of rights in 1689:
  •  no suspending of Parliament’s laws
  • no levying of taxes without a specific grant from Parliament
  • no interfering with freedom of speech in Parliament
  • no penalty for a citizen who petitions the king about grievances

CHAPTER 21 - Absolute Monarchs in Europe (1500-1800) - World History: Patterns of Interaction (Atlas by Rand McNally 2009)

CHAPTER 21.1: Spain’s Empire and European Absolutism

  • Charles V’s son, Philip II, inherited Spain, left the Spanish Netherlands, and the American colonies
  • 1580: the king of Portugal died w/o an heir and Philip seized the Portuguese kingdom because he was the king’s nephew
  • Philip now had an empire that circled the globe b/c of Portuguese strongholds in Africa, India, and the East Indies
  • Philip’s empire provided him with incredible wealth
  • Spain was able to support a large standing army of about 50,000 soldiers b/c of this wealth
  • When Philip assumed the throne, Europe was experiencing religious wars caused by the Reformation
  • Religious conflict familiar to Spain (Reconquista/Inquisition)
  • Philip believed it was his duty to defend Catholicism against the Muslims of the Ottoman Empire/Protestants of Europe
  • 1571: the pope called on all Catholic princes to take up arms against the mounting power of the Ottoman Empire
  • 1588: Philip launched the Spanish Armada in an attempt to punish Protestant England/ Elizabeth I
  • Elizabeth had supported Protestant subjects who had rebelled against Philip
  • His fleet was defeated
  • The setback seriously weakened Spain, but their wealth continued to give it the appearance of strength for a bit
  • The Escorial: Philip II’s palace that demonstrated his power/reflected his faith. Held a monastery as well as a palace inside
  • El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos)
  • Born in Crete, spent much of his adult life in Spain
  • Chose brilliant, sometimes clashing colors, distorted the human figure, and expressed emotion symbolically in his paintings
  • His techniques showed the deep Catholic faith of Spain
  • Painted saints/martyrs as huge, long limbed figures w/ a supernatural air
  • Diego Velázquez:
  • Paintings reflected the pride of the Spanish monarchy
  • Best known for his portraits of the royal family/scenes of court life
  • Also noted for using rich colors
  • Don Quixote de la Mancha often referred to as the birth of the modern European novel
  • About a poor Spanish nobleman who went crazy after reading too many books about heroic knights
  • Sometimes believed that  Cervantes was mocking chivalry/others believe that it’s about an idealistic person who longs for the romantic past b/c he is frustrated w/ his materialistic world
  • Gold/silver made Spain temporarily wealthy, but provided long-term economic problems:
  • Severe inflation along w/ a rise in the prices of goods/services
  • Inflation in Spain had 2 main causes:
  • Spain’s population had been growing
  • As more people demanded food and other goods, merchants were able to raise prices
  • As silver bullion flooded the market, its value dropped
  • People needed more and more amounts of silver to buy things
  • Economic decline in Spain had other causes:
  • Spain expelling Jews/Muslims in approx. 1500 → the loss of many valuable artisans/businesspeople
  • Spain’s nobles did not have to pay taxes → tax burdens fell on lower classes → prevented them from accumulating enough wealth to start their own businesses
  • As a result, Spain never developed a middle class
  • Guilds that had emerged in the Middle Ages still dominated business in Spain/still employed old-fashioned methods → Spanish cloth/manufactured goods were more expensive than those made elsewhere
  • As a result, Spaniards bought much of what they needed from France, England, and the Netherlands
  • Spain’s wealth went into the pockets of foreigners, mostly Spain’s enemies
  • Spanish kings borrowed money from German/Italian bankers to finance wars
  • The economy was so feeble that Philip had to declare the Spanish state bankrupt 3 times
  • In the Spanish Netherlands, Philip had to maintain an army to keep his subjects under control
  • The Dutch had little in common w/ their Spanish rulers
  • The Netherlands had many Calvinist congregations
  • Spain had a sluggish economy, while the Dutch had a prosperous middle class
  • Philip raised taxes in the Netherlands/took steps to crush Protestantism
  • 1566: angry Protestant mobs swept through Catholic churches
  • Philip sent an army under Spanish duke of Alva to punish rebels
  • 1,500 Protestants/suspected rebels executed
  • The Dutch continued to fight the Spanish for another 11 years
  • 1579: The 7 northern provinces of the Netherlands (largely Protestant) united/declared independence from Spain (the United Provinces of the Netherlands)
  • The ten southern provinces (present-day Belgium) were Catholic and remained under Spanish control
  • 1600s: the Netherlands were similar to Florence during the 1400s
  • Had the best banks/many of the best artists in Europe
  • Wealthy merchants sponsored many of these artists
  • Rembrandt van Rijn:
  • The greatest Dutch artist of the period
  • Painted portraits of wealthy middle-class merchants
  • Produced group portraits
  • Used sharp contrasts of light/shadow to draw attention to his focus
  • Jan Vermeer:
  • Like other Dutch artists, chose domestic, indoor settings for his paintings
  • Often painted women doing familiar activities (pouring milk from a jug, reading a letter, etc.)
  • The work of both Rembrandt/Vermeer reveals how important merchants, civic leaders, and the middle class in general were in 17th-century Netherlands
  • The stability of the government allowed the Dutch people to concentrate on economic growth
  • The merchants of Amsterdam bought surplus grain in Poland/shoved it into their warehouses
  • When they heard about poor harvests in southern Europe, they shipped the grain south while prices were highest
  • The Dutch had the largest fleet of ships in the world
  • This fleet helped the Dutch East India Company to dominate the Asian spice trade/Indian Ocean trade
  • Gradually, the Dutch replaced the Italians as the bankers of Europe
  • Many European monarchs would claim authority to rule w/o limits on their power during the next few centuries
  • Absolute monarchs: kings or queens who held all the power within their states’ boundaries with a goal to control every aspect of society
  • Absolute monarchs believed in divine right: the idea that God created the monarchy/that the monarch acted as God’s representative on Earth
  • An absolute monarch answered only to God, not to his or her subjects
  • As Europe emerged from the Middle Ages, monarchs grew increasingly powerful
  • The decline of feudalism, the rise of cities, and growth of national kingdoms helped to centralize authority
  • The growing middle-class often backed monarchs because they promised a peaceful, supportive climate for business
  • Monarchs used the wealth of colonies to pay for their ambitions
  • Church authority also broke down during the late Middle Ages and the Reformation → Monarchs are able to assume greater control
  • Religious and territorial conflicts between states led to almost continuous warfare → Governments built huge armies/levied heavier taxes on an already suffering population
  • These pressures in turn brought about widespread unrest/peasants revolting sometimes
  • In response to these crises, monarchs tried to impose order by increasing their own power
  • They regulated everything from religious worship to social gatherings/created new government bureaucracies to control economic life
  • Their goal was to free themselves from the limitations imposed by the nobility/by representative bodies such as Parliament

CHAPTER 20.2: The Reign of Louis XIV

  • Many Catholics (including the people of Paris) opposed Henry IV
  • Henry chose to give up Protestantism/became Catholic for the sake of his war-weary country
  • 1598: Henry declared that Huguenots could live in peace in France/set up their own houses of worship in some cities (Edict of Nantes)
  • Henry devoted his reign to rebuilding France/its prosperity
  • Restored the French monarchy to a strong position
  • Most French people welcomed peace, but some hated him Henry for his religious compromises
  • 1610: Fanatic leaped into royal carriage/stabbed Henry to death
  • Louis XIII reigned after Henry
  • He was a weak king, but in 1624, he appointed a strong minister that made up for all of his weaknesses
  • Cardinal Richelieu became in effect, the ruler of France
  • A hard-working leader of the Catholic church in France
  • Lead according to moral principles, but was also ambitious/exercised authority
  • Richelieu took 2 steps to increase Bourbon monarchy power:
  • Moved against Huguenots
  • Believed that Protestantism often served as an excuse for political conspiracies against the Catholic king
  • Didn’t take away Huguenots’ right to worship, but forbade Protestant cities to have walls
  • He did not want them to be able to defy the king/withdraw behind strong defenses
  • Sought to weaken noble power
  • Ordered nobles to take down their fortified castles
  • Increased the power of govt agents who came from the middle class
  • Reliance on agents → less need to use noble officials
  • Richelieu also wanted to make France the strongest state in Europe
  • Believed that the greatest obstacle to this was the Habsburg rulers (their lands surrounded France)
  • The Hapsburgs ruled Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and parts of the Holy Roman Empire
  • To limit Habsburg power, Richelieu involved France in the Thirty Years’ War
  • Skepticism: the idea that nothing can ever be known for certain
  • Resulted because of French thinkers witnessing horrific religious wars
  • Skeptic thinkers expressed doubt towards churches that claimed to have the only correct set of doctrines
  • Doubting old ideas was the 1st step towards finding truth
  • Michel de Montaigne:
  • Lived during the worst years of the French religious wars
  • Developed a new form of literature (the essay: a brief work that expresses a person’s thoughts/opinions)
  • Montaigne pointed out that whenever a new belief arose, it replaced an old belief that people once accepted as truth
  • The new belief would also probably be replaced by some different idea in the future
  • Therefore, Montaigne believed that humans could never have absolute knowledge of what is true
  • René Descartes
  • Meditations on First Philosophy: Descartes examined the skeptical argument that one could never be certain of anything
  • Used his observations/his reason to answer such arguments
  • Created a philosophy that influenced modern thinkers/helped develop the scientific method
  • Became an important Enlightenment figure
  • Louis XIV: the most powerful ruler in French history
  • Efforts of Henry IV/Richelieu paved the way for him
  • Was 14 years old when he began his reign
  • The true ruler of France after Louis became king in 1643 was Richelieu’s successor, Cardinal Mazarin
  • Mazarin’s greatest triumph was the ending of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648
  • Many ppl in France (nobles especially) hated Mazarin b/c he increased taxes/strengthened the central govt
  • 1648-1653: Violent anti-Mazarin riots tore France apart
  • Louis never forgot his fear/anger at nobility/sought to become so strong that they couldn’t threaten him again
  • Nobles’ rebellion failed for 3 reasons:
  • Its leaders distrusted one another even more than they distrusted Mazarin
  • The govt used violent repression
  • Peasants and townspeople grew weary of disorder and fighting
  • For many years afterward, the people of France accepted the oppressive laws of an absolute king
  • They were convinced that rebellion was even worse
  • Mazarin died in 1661, Louis took control of the govt himself
  • Weakened the power of the nobles by excluding them from his councils
  • Louis increased the power of intendants, government agents that collected taxes/administered justice
  • To keep power under central control, he made sure that local officials communicated regularly with him
  • Louis devoted himself to helping France attain economic, political, and cultural brilliance
  • Jean Baptiste Colbert assisted Louis in achieving these goals
  • Colbert believed in mercantilism
  • To prevent wealth from leaving the country, Colbert tried to make France self-sufficient/wanted it to be able to manufacture everything it needed instead of relying on imports
  • Colbert gave government funds and tax benefits to French companies
  • Placed a high tariff on goods from other countries to protect France’s industries
  • Also recognized the importance of colonies (they provided raw materials/market for manufactured goods)
  • The French govt encouraged people to migrate to France’s colony in Canada
  • The fur trade added to French trade/wealth
  • After Colbert’s death, Louis announced a policy that slowed France’s economic progress
  • 1685: he canceled the Edict of Nantes
  •  In response, thousands of Huguenot artisans/business people fled the country
  • Louis’ policy robbed France of many skilled workers
  • Louis spent a fortune to surround himself with luxury
  • Had luxury meals, nobles to help him dress, and lesser nobles waiting outside of his palace halls waiting to be noticed by Louis
  • Having nobles at the palace increased royal authority in 2 ways:
  • Made the nobility totally dependent on Louis
  •  It also took them from their homes, thereby giving more power to the intendants
  • Louis required hundreds of nobles to live w/ him at the palace in Versailles
  • Versailles was immense:
  • Faced a huge royal courtyard dominated by a statue of Louis XIV
  • So big that it was equivalent to a small city
  • Rich decoration/furnishings showed wealth/power to everyone who showed up
  • Versailles was a center of the arts during Louis’s reign
  • Louis made opera/ballet more popular
  • No European monarch supported the arts as much as Louis since Augustus of Rome
  • Chief purpose of art under Louis was no longer to glorify God/human potential
  • Purpose of art was to glorify the king/promote values that supported Louis’ absolute rule
  • 1667: Louis invaded the Spanish Netherlands in an effort to expand France’s boundaries
  • Gained 12 towns through this campaign
  • 1672: Personally led an army into the Dutch Netherlands
  • The Dutch saved their country by opening the dikes and flooding the countryside
  • This was the same tactic they had used in their revolt against Spain a century earlier
  • The war ended in 1678 with the Treaty of Nijmegen
  • France gained several towns and a region called Franche-Comté
  • By the end of the 1680s, a Europeanwide alliance had formed to stop France
  • By banding together, weaker countries could match France’s strength
  • This defensive strategy was meant to achieve a balance of power, in which no single country or group of countries could dominate others
  • 1689: Dutch prince William of Orange became the king of England
  • He joined the League of Augsburg, which consisted of the Austrian Hapsburg emperor, the kings of Sweden/Spain, and the leaders of several smaller European states
  • These countries equaled France’s strength
  • France at this time had been weakened by a series of poor harvests/constant warfare/new taxes that Louis imposed to finance his wars
  • French people longed for peace, but got another war instead
  • 1700: Charles II died after promising his throne to Philip of Anjou
  • Other countries felt threatened by this increase in the Bourbon dynasty’s power
  • 1701: England, Austria, the Dutch Republic, Portugal, and several German and Italian states joined together to prevent the union of the French and Spanish thrones
  • The long struggle that followed is known as the War of the Spanish Succession
  • The costly war dragged on until 1714
  • The Treaty of Utrecht was signed in that year
  • Under its terms, Louis’s grandson was allowed to remain king of Spain so long as the thrones of France and Spain were not united
  • The big winner in the war was Great Britain
  • From Spain, Britain took Gibraltar, a fortress that controlled the entrance to the Mediterranean
  • Spain also granted a British company an asiento, permission to send enslaved Africans to Spain’s American colonies
  • This increased Britain’s involvement in trading enslaved Africans
  • In addition, France gave Britain the North American territories of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and abandoned claims to the Hudson Bay region
  • The Austrian Hapsburgs took the Spanish Netherlands and other Spanish lands in Italy
  • Prussia and Savoy were recognized as kingdoms
  • Realizing that his wars had ruined France, Louis regretted the suffering he had brought to his people
  • Died in bed in 1715
  • France ranked above all other European nations in art, literature, and statesmanship during Louis’s reign
  • In addition, France was considered the military leader of Europe
  • This military might allowed France to develop a strong empire of colonies, which provided resources and goods for trade
  • On the negative side, constant warfare/construction of the Palace of Versailles plunged France into major debt

CHAPTER 21.3: Central European Monarchs Clash

  • Lutheran/Catholic princes tried to gain followers
  • Both sides felt threatened by Calvinism, which was spreading in Germany
  • Lutherans united in the Protestant Union in 1608
  • The following year, the Catholic princes formed the Catholic League
  • 1618: Ferdinand II (future Holy Roman emperor) was head of the Hapsburg family
  • He ruled the Czech kingdom of Bohemia
  • Protestants in Bohemia didn’t trust Ferdinand b/c he was a foreigner/Catholic
  • When he closed some Protestant churches, the Protestants revolted
  • Ferdinand sent an army into Bohemia to crush the revolt
  • Several German Protestant princes took the chance to challenge the emperor
  • This resulted in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), a conflict over religion/territory/power among European ruling families
  • The war can be divided into 2 main phases:
  • Hapsburg triumphs:
  • Hapsburg armies from Austria/Spain crushed the troops hired by Protestant princes
  • Succeeded in putting down the Czech uprising/defeated the German Protestants who supported the Czechs
  • Ferdinand II paid his army of 125,000 men by allowing them to plunder German villages
  • Hapsburg defeats:
  • Protestant Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden/his disciplined army of 23,000 drove Hapsburg armies out of northern Germany
  • 1632: Adolphus was killed in battle
  • Cardinal Richelieu/Cardinal Mazarin of France dominated the remaining years of the war, they feared the Hapsburgs more than the Protestants
  • They did not want other European rulers to have as much power as the French king
  • 1635: , Richelieu sent French troops to join the German/Swedish Protestants in their struggle against the Hapsburg armies
  • The war greatly damaged Germany
  • The population dropped from 20 mil → 16 mil
  • Both trade/agriculture was disrupted/German economy was ruined
  • Germany had a long, difficult recovery from the war
  • The Peace of Westphalia (1648) ended the war
  • The treaty had the these important consequences:
  • weakened the Hapsburg states of Spain/Austria
  • strengthened France by awarding it German territory
  • made German princes independent of the Holy Roman emperor
  • ended religious wars in Europe
  • introduced a new method of peace negotiation whereby all participants meet to settle the problems of a war/decide the terms of peace (method still used today)
  • The treaty abandoned the idea of a Catholic empire that would rule most of Europe
  • It recognized Europe as a group of equal/independent states
  • Marked the beginning of the modern state system/was the most important result of the 30 Years’ War
  • Strong states formed more slowly in Central Europe than western Europe
  • The major powers of this region were the kingdom of Poland, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire
  • None of them were very strong in the mid-1600s
  • The economy of central Europe developed different than western Europe
  • During the late Middle Ages, serfs in western Europe slowly won freedom/moved to new towns
  • They joined middle-class townspeople, who gained economic power because of the commercial revolution/development of capitalism
  • The landowning aristocracy in central Europe passed laws restricting serfs’ ability to gain freedom/move to cities
  • The nobles wanted to keep them on land, where they could produce large harvests/sell the surplus crops to western European cities at great profit
  • Landowning nobles in central Europe not only held down serfs but blocked the development of strong kings
  • The Polish king was allowed little income, no law courts, and no standing army
  • As a result, there wasn’t a strong ruler who could form a unified state
  • The two empires of central Europe were also weak
  •  Although Suleyman the Magnificent had conquered Hungary/threatened Vienna in 1529, the Ottoman Empire could not take its European conquest any farther
  • From then on, the Ottoman Empire declined from its peak of power
  • The Holy Roman Empire was seriously weakened by the 30 Years’ War
  • They were no longer able to command the obedience of German states (no longer had real power)
  • These old, weakened empires and kingdoms left a power vacuum in central Europe
  • The Hapsburgs of Austria tried taking advantage of the power vacuum by becoming absolute rulers:
  • During the 30 Years’ War, they reconquered Bohemia
  • They wiped out Protestantism there/created a Czech nobility that pledged loyalty to them
  • After the war, the Hapsburg ruler centralized the govt/created a standing army
  • By 1699: the Hapsburgs had retaken Hungary from the Ottoman Empire
  • 1711: Charles VI became the Hapsburg ruler
  • His empire was difficult to rule:
  • Czechs, Hungarians, Italians, Croatians, and Germans all lived within the borders
  • Only the fact that one Hapsburg ruler wore the Austrian, Hungarian, and Bohemian crowns kept the empire together
  • Charles VI spent his entire reign trying to figure out how to continue his rule over all of his lands
  • He persuaded other leaders of Europe to sign an agreement that declared they would recognize Charles’ eldest daughter (Maria Theresa) as the heir to all his Habsburg territories
  • 1740: Theresa succeeded her father five months after Frederick II became king of Prussia
  • Frederick wanted the Austrian land of Silesia, which bordered Prussia
  • Silesia produced iron ore, textiles, and food products
  • Frederick underestimated Maria Theresa’s strength/assumed that because she was a woman, she would not be forceful enough to defend her lands
  • 1740: he sent his army to occupy Silesia, beginning the War of the Austrian Succession
  • Maria Theresa went to Hungary after recently giving birth/asked the Hungarian nobles for aid
  • Even though the nobles resented their Hapsburg rulers, they pledged to give Maria Theresa an army
  • Great Britain also joined Austria to fight its longtime enemy France, which was Prussia’s ally
  • Although Maria Theresa did stop Prussia’s aggression, she lost Silesia in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748
  • The acquisition of Silesia led to Prussia becoming a major European power
  • Maria Theresa decided that the French kings were no longer Austria’s chief enemies/made an alliance w/ them, which led to a diplomatic revolution
  • When Frederick heard of her actions, he signed a treaty with Britain (Austria’s former ally)
  • Austria, France, Russia, and others were allied against Britain and Prussia
  • Austria/Prussia switched allies, but Russia was playing a role in Euro. affairs for the first time
  • 1756: Frederick attacked Saxony, an Australian ally
  • Every great European power was soon involved in the war
  • The Seven Years’ War was fought in Europe, India, and North America. Lasted until 1763
  • The war didn’t change the territorial situation in Europe

CHAPTER 21.4: Absolute Rulers of Russia

  • Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV) came to the throne in 1533
  • His young life was disrupted by struggles for power among Russia’s landowning nobles, known as boyars, who sought to control the young Ivan
  • Ivan was the first Russian ruler to use the title of “czar” officially
  • 1547-1560 are often called Ivan’s “good period”
  • He won great victories, added lands to Russia, gave Russia a code of laws, and ruled justly
  • His bad period began in 1560 after Anastasia died
  • Ivan turned against the boyars, accusing them of poisoning his wife
  • He organized his own police force, whose chief duty was to hunt down and murder people Ivan considered traitors
  • Using these secret police, Ivan executed many boyars, their families, and the peasants who worked their lands
  • Ivan seized the boyars’ estates and gave them to a new class of nobles, who had to remain loyal to him or lose their land
  • 1581: Ivan killed his oldest son/heir
  • When Ivan died three years later, only his weak second son was left to rule
  • Ivan’s son proved to be physically and mentally incapable of ruling
  • After he died w/o an heir, Russia experienced a period of turmoil (Time of Troubles)
  • Boyars struggled for power, and heirs of czars died under mysterious conditions
  • Several impostors tried to claim the throne
  • Finally, in 1613, representatives from many Russian cities met to choose the next czar
  •  Their choice was Michael Romanov, grandnephew of Anastasia → the Romanov Dynasty, which ruled Russia for 300 years (1613-1917)
  • Over time, the Romanovs restored order to Russia
  • They strengthened govt by passing a law code/putting down a revolt
  • This paved the way for the absolute rule of Czar Peter I (Peter the Great), who was one of Russia’s greatest reformers/continued the trend of increasing the czar’s power
  • When Peter I came to power, Russia was still a land of boyars and serf
  • Serfdom in Russia lasted into the mid-1800s, much longer than it did in western Europe
  • Russian landowners wanted serfs to stay on the land/produce large harvests
  • The landowners treated the serfs like property
  • Landowners could give serfs away as presents or to pay debts
  • It was also against the law for serfs to run away from their owners
  • Most boyars knew little of western Europe
  • In the Middle Ages, Russia had looked to Constantinople, not to Rome, for leadership
  • Mongol rule had cut Russia off from the Renaissance/Age of Exploration
  • Geographic barriers isolated Russia
  • Its only seaport, Archangel in northern Russia, was surrounded with ice much of the year
  • The few travelers who reached Moscow were usually Dutch or German, and they had to stay in a separate part of the city
  • Religious differences widened the gap between western Europe/Russia
  • The Russians had adopted the Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity
  • Western Europeans were mostly Catholics or Protestants, and the Russians viewed them as heretics and avoided them
  • Peter believed that Russia’s future depended on having a warm-water port, only then could they compete w/ more modern states of Western Europe
  • 1697: Peter embarked on the “Grand Embassy”, a long visit to Western Europe
  • One of Peter’s goals was to learn about European customs and manufacturing techniques
  • A czar had never traveled among Western “heretics” before Peter
  • Inspired by his trip to the West, Peter resolved that Russia would compete with Europe on both military/commercial terms
  • Peter had a goal of westernization, of using western Europe as a model for change
  • Although Peter believed Russia needed to change, he knew that many of his people disagreed
  • To force change upon his state, Peter increased his powers as an absolute ruler
  • Peter brought the Russian Orthodox Church under state control/abolished the office of patriarch (head of the Church)
  • He set up a group called the Holy Synod to run the Church under his direction
  • Like Ivan the Terrible, Peter reduced the power of the great landowners
  • He recruited men from lower-ranked families/promoted them to positions of authority/rewarded them w/ grants of land
  • To modernize his army, Peter hired European officers, who drilled his soldiers in European tactics with European weapons
  • By the time of Peter’s death, the Russian army numbered 200,000 men
  • Peter imposed heavy taxes to pay for the huge army
  • Part of Peter’s attempts to westernize Russia:
  • Introduced potatoes → became a staple of Russian diet
  • Started Russia’s first newspaper/edited the first issue himself
  • Raised women’s status by having them attend social gatherings
  • Ordered the nobles to give up their traditional clothes for western fashion
  • Advanced education by opening a school of navigation/introducing schools for the arts/sciences
  • Peter believed that education was a key to Russia’s progress
  • In former times, subjects were forbidden under pain of death to study the sciences in foreign lands
  • To promote education and growth, Peter wanted a seaport that would make it easier to travel to the West
  • Peter fought Sweden to gain a piece of the Baltic coast
  • After 21 years of war, Russia won a “window” on Europe that Peter wanted
  • Peter had actually secured the window many years before Sweden officially surrendered
  • 1703: he began building a new city on Swedish lands occupied by Russian troops
  • Ships could sail down the Neva River into the Baltic Sea and on to western Europe
  • When St. Petersburg was finished, Peter ordered many Russian nobles to leave the comforts of Moscow and settle in his new capital
  • In time, St. Petersburg became a busy port

CHAPTER 21.5: Parliament Limits the English Monarchy

  • Elizabeth I didn’t have a child, her nearest relative was her cousin, James Stuart
  • Stuart became King James I of England in 1603
  • James inherited the unsettled issues of Elizabeth’s reign
  • His worst struggles with Parliament were over money
  • James offended the Puritan members of Parliament by upholding rituals of the Anglican church
  • Puritans hoped that he would enact reforms to purify the English church of Catholic practices
  • He agreed to a new translation of the Bible but refused to make Puritan reforms
  • 1625: James I died
  • Charles I, his son, took the throne
  • Charles always needed money partly b/c he was at war with both Spain/France
  • Several times when Parliament refused to give him funds, he dissolved it
  • By 1628, Charles was forced to call Parliament again, but this time they refused to grant him any money until he signed a document (Petition of Right)
  • The petition had the king agree to 4 points:
  •  He would not imprison subjects without due cause
  • He would not levy taxes without Parliament’s consent
  • He would not house soldiers in private homes
  • He would not impose martial law in peacetime
  • Charles ignored the petition even after agreeing to it
  • The petition was still important because it set forth the idea that the law was higher than the king, which contradicted theories of absolute monarchy
  • 1629: Charles dissolved Parliament/refused to call it back into session
  • To get money, he imposed all kinds of fees/fines on the English people → Charles’ popularity decreasing
  • 1637: Charles tried to force the Presbyterian Scots to accept a version of the Anglican prayer book
  • He wanted both his kingdoms to follow one religion
  • The Scots rebelled, assembled a huge army, and threatened to invade England
  • Charles needed money that he could only get by calling Parliament into session to meet this danger
  • This gave Parliament a chance to oppose him
  • During the autumn of 1641, Parliament passed laws to limit royal power
  • Charles tried to arrest Parliament’s leaders in January 1642, but they escaped
  • A mob of Londoners raged outside the palace, Charles fled London and raised an army in the north of England, where people were loyal to him
  • 1642-1649: supporters/opponents of King Charles fought the English Civil War
  • Those who remained loyal to Charles were called Royalists/Cavaliers
  • On the other side were Puritan supporters of Parliament
  • At first, neither side had a lasting advantage, but by 1644, the Puritans relied on General Oliver Cromwell, whose New Model Army in 1645 began defeating the Cavaliers
  • 1647: they held the king prisoner
  • 1649: Cromwell/Puritans brought Charles to trial for treason against Parliament
  • They found him guilty/sentenced him to death
  • Cromwell now held the reins of power
  • 1649: he abolished the monarchy/House of Lords
  • He established a commonwealth, a republican form of government
  • 1653: Cromwell sent home the remaining members of Parliament. Cromwell’s associate John Lambert drafted a constitution, the first written constitution of any modern European state
  • However, Cromwell eventually tore up the document and became a military dictator
  • Cromwell almost immediately had to put down a rebellion in Ireland
  • English colonization of Ireland had begun in the 1100s under Henry II
  • Henry VIII/his children had brought the country firmly under English rule in the 1500s
  • 1649: Cromwell landed on Irish shores with an army and crushed the uprising
  • He seized the lands and homes of the Irish and gave them to English soldiers
  • Fighting, plague, and famine killed hundreds and thousands of people
  • Cromwell/Puritans sought to reform society
  • They made laws that promoted Puritan morality and abolished activities they found sinful, such as the theater, sporting events, and dancing
  • Even though he was strict Puritan, Cromwell favored religious toleration for all Christians except Catholics
  • He allowed Jews to return (they were expelled from England in 1290)
  • After Cromwell’s death the govt collapsed/a new Parliament was selected
  • The English people were sick of military rule
  • 1659: Parliament voted to ask the older son of Charles I to rule England
  • Charles II reign/the restoration of the monarchy is referred to as the Restoration
  • Under his reign, Parliament passed habeas corpus, which gave every prisoner the right to obtain a writ or document ordering that the prisoner be brought before a judge to specify the charges against the prisoner
  • The judge would decide whether the prisoner should be tried or set free
  • Because of Habeas Corpus, a monarch could not put someone in jail for simply opposing the ruler
  • Prisoners could not be held indefinitely without trials
  • Parliament debated who should inherit Charles’s throne
  • Because Charles had no legitimate child, his heir was his brother James, who was Catholic
  • A group called the Whigs opposed James, and a group called the Tories supported him
  • 1685: Charles II died, James II became king
  • His Catholicism offended his subjects
  • Violating English law, he appointed several Catholics to high office
  • When Parliament protested, James dissolved it
  • 1688: James’ second wife gave birth, English Protestants became terrified at the idea of a line of Catholic kings
  • James had an older daughter, Mary, who was Protestant
  • 7 members of Parliament invited William and Mary to overthrow James for the sake of Protestantism
  • When William led his army to London in 1688, James fled to France
  • The Glorious Revolution: The bloodless overthrow of King James II
  • William and Mary vowed to recognize Parliament as their partner in governing
  • England had become not an absolute monarchy but a constitutional monarchy, where laws limited the ruler’s power.
  • Parliament drafted a bill of rights in 1689:
  •  no suspending of Parliament’s laws
  • no levying of taxes without a specific grant from Parliament
  • no interfering with freedom of speech in Parliament
  • no penalty for a citizen who petitions the king about grievances