Absolutism & Constitutionalism
While a child, Louis XIV expierenced these violent uprisings in Paris, which motivated him to centralize control at Versailles.
What was the Fronde?
This controversial movement involved fencing off traditional common fields so wealthy landowners could apply scientific farming methods.
What is the Enclosure Movement?
This 1648 series of treaties effectively destroyed the Holy Roman Empire as a unified political force and established the modern state system.
What is the Peace of Westphalia?
Calling himself the "first servant of the state," this Prussian king reformed the justice system when he wasn't busy invading Silesia.
Who is Frederick II (the Great)?
A French writer and satirist, he famously declared "No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking".
Who is Voltaire?
This 1689 document ensured that no English monarch could rule without Parliament's consent, officially establishing a constitutional monarchy.
What is the English Bill of Rights?
The Dutch East India Company was an early example of this type of business, where multiple investors pooled their money to share the risk of overseas voyages.
What is a joint-stock company?
Following its failed 1683 siege of Vienna, this empire entered a long-term retreat in Europe, ultimately shifting the balance of power toward Austria and Russia in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
What is the Ottoman Empire?
He lost his head in 1649 after a bitter Civil War with Parliament, proving that the "Divine Right of Kings" had some sharp limitations in England.
Who is Charles I?
In his Principia Mathematica, he synthesized the work of Kepler and Galileo into universal laws of motion and gravitation.
Who is Isaac Newton?
Daily Double! Built on the bones of serfs, this "Window to the West" was constructed to centralize Russian autocratic power.
What is St. Petersburg?
Displaced agricultural workers often turned to this home-based system of manufacturing, where merchants provided raw wool for them to spin into thread at home.
What is cottage industry?
This 1713 treaty ended the War of the Spanish Succession, ensuring that the French and Spanish thrones would never be united.
What is the Treaty of Utrecht?
This son of Maria Theresa was arguably the most radical enlightened despot, abolishing serfdom and granting religious toleration, though most of his reforms were undone after his death.
Who is Joseph II?
This Swiss-born philosopher argued in The Social Contract that the "general will" should dictate government, a concept later used to justify democracy.
Who is Jean-Jacques Rousseau?
Although this individual fought to overthrow an absolutist he AND his government ultimately became a military dictatorship and ruled with an iron fist.
Who was Oliver Cromwell and the Protectorate?
To protect against powerful new artillery, military engineers developed the trace italienne, which is commonly known by this shape-based name.
What is a star fort?
Because the new style of warfare and state control was expensive, monarchs had to expand this complex hierarchy of state officials to efficiently collect taxes and administer their empires.
What is a bureaucracy?
Daily Double! Ruling jointly, this British couple established a constitutional monarchy that contrasted sharply with the religious absolutism of the Spanish pair who funded Columbus.
Who are William and Mary & Ferdinand and Isabella?
This Enlightenment economic philosophy, championed by François Quesnay, argued that land was the source of all wealth and advocated for a laissez-faire agricultural market.
Who are the Physiocrats (or Physiocracy)?
Witnessing the chaos of the English Civil War, these TWO British political theorists offered dueling views on human nature and government in their landmark books.
Who are Thomas Hobbes and Leviathan and John Locke and Two Treatises of Government?
Provide three of the major structural shifts from the 15th to 17th centuries that fueled the intense European "balance of power" competition by radically changing how states fought, traded, worshipped, and expanded overseas. (Answers can vary)
What are the Military Revolution, Commercial Revolution, Protestant Reformation, Age of Exploration/Colonization, etc.?
Daily Double! Successive challengers to the European balance of power, these four nations dominated the early spice trade, extracted New World silver, enjoyed a 17th-century commercial "Golden Age," and fielded the armies of the Sun King.
What are Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands (or the Dutch Republic), and France?
Although separating their reigns by several decades, these two "Great" rulers consolidated absolute power in Russia by subduing the boyar nobility and modernizing the state along Western lines.
Who are Peter the Great and Catherine the Great?
This inductive method of scientific reasoning, championed by Francis Bacon, requires drawing general conclusions from specific, observable facts.
What is empiricism (or the empirical method)?