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  • acc. PHILLIPS
  • America
    • Introduction
      • Course Overview
      • Policies
      • Essential Documents
    • 1492-1754
      • Colonization
    • 1754-1848
      • Revolution
      • Constitution
      • Expansion
    • 1848-1898
      • The Civil War
      • The Gilded Age
    • 1898-1945
      • The American Empire
      • The Great Depression
      • The Second World War
    • 1945-1991
      • The Early Cold War
      • The Great Society
      • The Late Cold War
    • 1991-Today
      • The Culture Wars
      • The War on Terror
  • Europe
    • Introduction
    • 1200-1450
    • 1450-1648
      • Renaissance
      • Reformation
      • Exploration
      • Readings
    • 1648-1815
      • Sovereignty
      • Commerce
      • Reason
      • Revolution
      • Readings
    • 1815-1914
      • Industry
      • Ideology
      • Empire
      • Modernity
      • Readings
    • 1914-Today
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      • WWII
      • Cold War
      • EU
      • Readings
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      • Introduction
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Sovereignty,
​c. 1648-1815 CE

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Justified and rationalized by theories of political sovereignty, states adopted a variety of methods to acquire the human, fiscal, and material resources essential for the promotion ​of their interests.

Sovereignty,

c. 1648-1815 CE

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Europe in 1762

Contents


A. The English Constitution
  1. The English Civil War
  2. The Glorious Revolution

B. The Dutch Republic
​

C. Absolute Monarchy
  1. The Bourbon Dynasty of France
  2. The Romanov Dynasty of Russia
  3. The Hohenzollern Dynasty of Prussia
  4. The Hapsburg Dynasty of Austria
  5. The Partitions of Poland
Between 1648 and 1815, the sovereign state was consolidated as the principal form of political organization across Europe. Justified and rationalized by theories of political sovereignty, states adopted a variety of methods to acquire the human, fiscal, and material resources essential for the promotion of their interests. Although challenged and sometimes effectively resisted by various social groups and institutions, the typical state of the period, best exemplified by the rule of Louis XIV in France, asserted claims to absolute authority within its borders. A few states, most notably England and the Dutch Republic, gradually developed governments in which the authority of the executive was restricted by legislative bodies protecting the interests of the landowning and commercial classes.
 
Between the Peace of Westphalia (1648) and the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815), European states managed their external affairs within a balance of power system. In this system, diplomacy became a major component of the relations among states. Most of the wars of the period, including conflicts fought outside of Europe, stemmed from attempts either to preserve or disturb the balance of power among European states. While European monarchs continued to view their affairs in dynastic terms, increasingly, reasons of state influenced policy.

Source: https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-european-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf

The English Constitution

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 Objective: Explain the causes and consequences of the English Civil War.​​​
  • The English Civil War—a conflict among the monarchy, Parliament, and other elites over their respective roles in the political structure— exemplified the competition for power among monarchs and competing groups. 

  • The outcome of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution protected the rights of gentry and aristocracy from absolutism through assertions of the rights of Parliament.
English Civil War: Crash Course European History #14
After Elizabeth, things didn't go that smoothly. We'll talk about James I, Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, Charles II, and James II, all of whom ruled England, (and tried to rule all of Britain and Ireland) with varying degrees of success.

The English Civil War

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  • Stuart dynasty
  • James I
  • Gunpowder Plot
  • King James Bible
  • divine right
  • absolute monarchy
  • Parliament
  • Charles I
  • royal prerogative
  • Petition of Right
  • Ship Money tax
  • Short Parliament
  • John Pym
  • English Civil War
  • Long Parliament
  • William Laud
  • Thomas Wentworth
  • Royalist Cavaliers
  • Parliamentary Roundheads
  • New Model Army
  • Oliver Cromwell
  • ​Wars of the Three Kingdoms
  • Pride's Purge
  • Rump Parliament
  • Commonwealth of England
  • ​​Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan)
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Charles I at the Hunt (1635) by Anthony van Dyck depicts Charles resting in a manner described as a "subtle compromise between gentlemanly nonchalance and regal assurance".
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execution of Charles I in 1649 by unknown artist
Article: Why Oliver Cromwell may have been Britain's greatest ever general - new analysis of battle reports
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The Glorious Revolution

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Christopher Wren's plan for the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire of 1666 with St. Paul's Cathedral in the upper-left corner
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Following the Glorious Revolution (1688), William III and Mary II signed the English Bill of Rights establishing constitutional monarchy.
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Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder led Britain against France during the Seven Years’ War.  His son, William Pitt the Younger, led Britain against Napoleonic France.
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George I (1714–1727)
  • Stuart Restoration​​
  • Charles II of England
  • Royal Observatory
  • Royal Society
  • Great Plague of London
  • Great Fire of London
  • Christopher Wren
  • St. Paul’s Cathedral
  • Exclusion Crisis
  • Whigs
  • Tories
  • James II
  • Glorious Revolution
  • William III
  • Mary II
  • English Bill of Rights
  • constitutional monarchy
  • battle of the Boyne
  • Jacobites
  • Bank of England
  • ​Nine Years' War
  • Act of Union
  • United Kingdom of Great Britain
  • War of Spanish Succession
  • Treaty of Utrecht
  • asiento
  • South Sea Bubble
  • prime minister
  • ​Cabinet
  • Robert Walpole
  • William Pitt the Elder
  • William Pitt the Younger
  • ​Anne
  • Hanoverian dynasty
  • George I
  • George II
  • George III
  • Seven Years' War
  • American Revolution
  • French Revolution
  • Napoleonic Wars
  • Agricultural Revolution
Article: Maligned by the History Books, There's More to Queen Anne of Great Britain Than You've Heard
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​Article: America's last king: The unsettling parallels between King George III and Donald Trump
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The English Civil War and Glorious Revolution (comprehensive)
The English Civil War and Glorious Revolution (abridged)

The Dutch Republic

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 Objective: Explain the factors that contributed to the development of the Dutch Republic.
Dutch Golden Age: Crash Course European History #15
​While the English were falling apart a little, with their civil war and their restoration and their succession problems, the Dutch were getting their act together. They were throwing off the yoke of the Spanish Empire, uniting their provinces, and building out their global trade network. Today, we'll learn about how the Dutch came to their Golden Age, and how it ended.
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The Anglo-Dutch Wars and Franco-Dutch War greatly weakened the Netherlands and brought an end to the Dutch Golden Age.
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Windmill of Wijk bij Duurstede by Jacob van Ruisdael (c. 1670)
  • The Dutch Republic, established by a Protestant revolt against the Habsburg monarchy, developed an oligarchy of urban gentry and rural landholders to promote trade and protect traditional rights.
  • Dutch Republic
  • Dutch Golden Age
  • Dutch East India Company
  • ​Amsterdam Stock Exchange
  • Bank of Amsterdam
  • central bank
  • University of Leiden
  • University of Groningen
  • Hans Lippershey
  • Antonie von Leeuwenhoek
  • Christiaan Huygens
  • Scientific Revolution
  • Rembrandt van Rijn (Night Watch)
  • Frans Hals (Laughing Cavalier)
  • Jan Vermeer (Girl with Pearl Earring, Geographer, View of Delft) 
  • speculative investment bubble
  • Tulipmania
  • stadtholder
  • House of Orange-Nassau
  • merchant oligarchy
  • First Anglo-Dutch War
  • Second Anglo-Dutch War
  • New Netherland
  • Third Anglo-Dutch War
  • Franco-Dutch War
  • Year of Disaster
  • Johan and Cornelis de Witt
  • William of Orange 
  • Amboyna massacre
  • English Navigation Acts
The Dutch Republic (comprehensive)
The Dutch Republic (abridged)

Absolute Monarchy

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Objectives: 
  1. Explain the context in which different forms of political power developed from 1648 to 1815.
  2. Explain how absolutist forms of rule affected social and political development from 1648 to 1815.​
  3. Explain how European states attempted to establish and maintain a balance of power on the continent throughout the period from 1648 to 1815.
Absolute Monarchy: Crash Course European History #13
​So far, the rulers of Europe have been working to consolidate their power and expand their kingdoms, and this is it. The moment they've been working toward: Absolute Monarchy. We're going to learn about how kings and queens became absolute rulers in Europe, and where better to start than with Louis XIV of France, who is really the model for absolute rule.
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Portrait of Louis XIV as Jupiter Conquering the Fronde (1655) by Charles François Poerson.  He was just that fabulous.  No lie.
  • The new concept of the sovereign state and secular systems of law played a central role in the creation of new political institutions. 
    ​
  • Monarchies seeking enhanced power faced challenges from nobles who wished to retain traditional forms of shared governance and regional autonomy. 

  • Absolute monarchies limited the nobility’s participation in governance but preserved the aristocracy’s social position and legal privileges. 

  • Until about 1750, Baroque art and music promoted religious feeling and was employed by monarchs to illustrate state power. 
  • ​absolute monarchy
  • Jean Bodin (Six Books of the Republic)
  • divine right of kings
  • Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (Politics Drawn from Holy Scripture)
  • enlightened despotism​

The Bourbon Dynasty of France

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​The Baroque-style Palace and Gardens of Versailles were built to awe French nobility. They were widely imitated in palaces built by other European monarchs.
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Louis XIV, the Sun King (r. 1643–1715)
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French culture and influence were at their height during the reign of Louis XV (r. 1715–1774).  However, his leadership weakened France, and he is credited with saying "Après moi, le déluge" ("After me, comes the flood") foreshadowing the French Revolution and the collapse of the monarchy.
  • Louis XIV and his finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, extended the administrative, financial, military, and religious control of the central state over the French population. 
  • Bourbon dynasty
  • ​Louis XIII
  • Cardinal Richelieu
  • intendants
  • Académie Française
  • Louis XIV, the Sun King
  • Cardinal Mazarin
  • ​parlements
  • Fronde rebellion
  • Palace of Versailles
  • Edict of Nantes
  • Edict of Fontainebleau
  • Molière (Tartuffe, Bourgeois Gentleman)
  • Hyacinthe Rigaud (portrait of Louis XIV)
  • Jean-Baptiste Lully
  • Jean-Baptiste Colbert
  • mercantilism
  • Franco-Dutch War
  • Nine Years’ War
  • universal kingship
  • War of Spanish Succession
  • Philip V of Spain
  • Treaty of Utrecht
  • Louis XV
  • Louis XVI
​Article: How Paris Became the City of Light
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Absolute Monarchy and the Bourbon Dynasty of France (comprehensive)
Absolute Monarchy and the Bourbon Dynasty of France (abridged)

The Romanov Dynasty of Russia

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The Rise of Russia and Prussia: Crash Course European History #17
​In eastern Europe, in the 17th century a couple of "great powers" were coming into their own. The vast empire of Russia was modernizing under Peter the Great, and the relatively tiny state of Prussia was evolving as well. Russia (and Tsar Peter) reformed many aspects of Russian governance, realigning them toward the way things were done in western Europe. In Prussia, efficiency of institutions became a thing, and Prussia turned into "a large army with a small state attached."
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The Russian Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg was built in imitation of Versailles.
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Saint Petersburg in 1744
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Peter I, the Great (r. 1682–1725) elevated Russia from a weak state on Europe's eastern fringe to a Great Power as he modernized and Westernized the nation.
  • Peter the Great “westernized” the Russian state and society, transforming political, religious, and cultural institutions; Catherine the Great continued this process.
  • Peter I, the Great
  • tsarist autocracy
  • Grand Embassy tour
  • streltsy
  • boyars
  • Table of Ranks
  • Russo-Turkish War
  • Great Northern War
  • Saint Petersburg
  • Catherine II, the Great
  • Partitions of Poland
  • ​Russian Alaska
  • ​Vitus Bering
  • Hermitage Museum
  • Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens
  • Pugachev’s Rebellion
​Article: The Great Westernizer: How Peter the Great Earned His Name
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Article: Catherine the Great: An Enlightened Despot?
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Peter and Paul Fortress and Cathedral, Saint Petersburg by unknown artist (1780)

The Hohenzollern Dynasty of Prussia

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Enlightened Monarchs: Crash Course European History #19
In the late 1700s, Enlightenment philosophers and thinkers discussed ideas would shape governance for hundreds of years. This week, we're learning how monarchs across Europe were influenced by those ideas. Adoption of Enlightenment ideas across Europe was...uneven, to say the least. In this episode you'll learn about Catherine the Great of Russia, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Maria Theresa of the Habsburg Dynasty, and Joseph II, her successor. We'll also get into the impact the Enlightenment had on a series of Louis in France.
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Frederick William II ordered construction of the famous Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, completed in 1791.  
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view of Berlin by Merian Matthäus (1652)
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Frederick II, the Great (r. 1740–1786) greatly expanded Prussia's territory and made Prussia a leading military power in Europe. Considering himself "the first servant of the state", he advocated enlightened absolutism. 
  • The struggle for sovereignty within and among states resulted in varying degrees of political centralization. 

  • Following the Peace of Westphalia, religion declined in importance as a cause for warfare among European states; the concept of the balance of power played an important role in structuring diplomatic and military objectives. 
  • Hohenzollern dynasty
  • Brandenburg—Prussia
  • Great Elector Frederick William
  • Junkers
  • Frederick I
  • Frederick William I, the Soldier King
  • Prussian virtues
  • ​militarism
  • Frederick II, the Great
  • ​War of Austrian Succession
  • Diplomatic Revolution
  • Seven Years’ War
  • compulsary elementary education

The Hapsburg Dynasty of Austria

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Schönbrunn Palace was the Habsburg summer residence in Vienna, Austria.  
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Kohlmarkt in Vienna, Austria by Carl Schütz (1786)
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Maria Theresa (r. 1740–1780), the only female leader of the Hapsburg dynasty, modernized Austria, mothered 16 children, and defended her lands against Frederick the Great of Prussia in both the War of Austrian Succession and Seven Years’ War.
  • Hapsburg dynasty
  • Spanish Hapsburgs
  • Austrian Hapsburgs
  • Ferdinand III
  • Great Turkish War​
  • Ottoman siege of Vienna (1683)
  • John III Sobieski
  • winged hussars
  • Francis Rákóczy
  • ​Charles VI
  • Pragmatic Sanction
  • Maria Theresa
  • War of Austrian Succession
  • Diplomatic Revolution
  • Seven Years’ War
  • Vienna General Hospital
  • Joseph II
  • Leopold II
​Article: What made Austria's Maria Theresa a one-of-a-kind ruler
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Wedding Supper at Redoutensaal by Martin van Meytens (1763) celebrates the marriage of Princess Isabella of Parma to Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna.

The Partitions of Poland

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Krakow, Poland besieged by Swedish forces in 1655. 1/3 of the Polish population perished during the Swedish Deluge (1655-1660), a military campaign also involving Russia, Germany, Denmark and Transylvania for control of Baltic Sea trade.
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Poland fell so far from its once Great Power status, that Catherine the Great of Russia, Joseph II of Austria, and Frederick the Great of Prussia began the conquest and Partitions of Poland by the 1770s.
  • The inability of the Polish monarchy to consolidate its authority over the nobility led to Poland’s partition by Prussia, Russia, and Austria, and its disappearance from the map of Europe. 
  • Cossacks
  • Chmielnicki Revolt
  • szlachta
  • the Deluge
  • Sejm
  • Augustus II
  • Silent Sejm
  • Partitions of 1772, 1793, and 1795
  • Jewish Pale of Settlement 
Russia, Prussia, Austria, and the Partitions of Poland (comprehensive)
Russia, Prussia, Austria, and the Partitions of Poland (abridged)
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  • acc. PHILLIPS
  • America
    • Introduction
      • Course Overview
      • Policies
      • Essential Documents
    • 1492-1754
      • Colonization
    • 1754-1848
      • Revolution
      • Constitution
      • Expansion
    • 1848-1898
      • The Civil War
      • The Gilded Age
    • 1898-1945
      • The American Empire
      • The Great Depression
      • The Second World War
    • 1945-1991
      • The Early Cold War
      • The Great Society
      • The Late Cold War
    • 1991-Today
      • The Culture Wars
      • The War on Terror
  • Europe
    • Introduction
    • 1200-1450
    • 1450-1648
      • Renaissance
      • Reformation
      • Exploration
      • Readings
    • 1648-1815
      • Sovereignty
      • Commerce
      • Reason
      • Revolution
      • Readings
    • 1815-1914
      • Industry
      • Ideology
      • Empire
      • Modernity
      • Readings
    • 1914-Today
      • WWI
      • WWII
      • Cold War
      • EU
      • Readings
  • World
    • Ancient
    • Modern
      • Introduction
        • Course Overview
        • Policies
        • Essential Documents
        • Exam
      • 1200-1450
        • Asia
        • Africa
        • Europe
        • Americas
        • Trade
      • 1450-1750
        • Discovery
        • Maritime Empires
        • Land Empires
      • 1750-1900
        • Revolutions
        • Industrialization
        • Imperialism
      • 1900-Today
        • World Wars
        • Postwar World
        • Globalization
  • Research
  • Resources
  • About
  • Contact