Vocabulary
Divine Right of Kings: A theory that states that monarchs are answerable and appointed by God only.
Glorious Revolution: In 1668, William and Mary replaced James II as the English monarchs and it began the constitutional monarchy in Britain.
Parliamentary Monarchy: A result of the Glorious Revolution that limited the monarchy set up in Britain, and that the monarch was subjected to law and ruled by the consent of parliament.
Pragmatic Sanction: The legal basis negotiated by Charles VI for the Habsburg succession through his daughter Maria Theresa.
Jansenism: A movement in the seventeenth century within the Catholic Church that taught humans that they were corrupted by sin.
Puritans: The English Protestants who soughed to purify the English Church.
Fronde: A series of religious rebellions against the royal authority in France between 1649 till 1652.
Junkers: The noble landlords in Prussia.
Sejm: The legislative assembly of the Polish nobility.
Gallican Liberties: The ecclesiastical independence of the French Roman Catholic and the French crown from the papal authorities.
Parliaments: The regional French courts that were dominated by the heredity nobility. The Parliament of Paris was the most important and claimed their right to register royal decrees before they became laws.
Table of Ranks: The official hierarchy that was established in imperial Russia by Peter the Great that equated a person’s social position and his privileges of rank in the state army.
Review Questions
1 The economic prosperity was the source of the Dutch prosperity. The Dutch had achieved remarkable economic achievements and were founded off of the foundations of transformed agriculture, extensive trade and finance, an overseas commercial empire and high urban consolidation. Unlike most European countries during this time period, most people lived in the cities of the Netherlands more than any other area. The Dutch had a key transformation from agriculture to urbanization which many European countries modeled them. The Dutch also dominated the markets, especially the fishing industries. The Dutch fisherman controlled the market and supplied most of the continents dried fish. The textiles in the Netherlands were also very useful and supplied a great portion of Europe. However, the economic decline that took place in Netherlands was a reflection of the United Provinces of Netherlands in the eighteenth century. Also after the death of William III of Britain, the provinces prevented the emergence of stadtholder. Furthermore, the unification of political leadership then vanished. As a result, the Dutch lost their naval supremacy to the British and both the textile and fishing industries both declined. England and France developed different systems of religious and government policies due to the response of the military challenges of international conflict. The two models were Parliament monarchy and political absolution. These two models resulted from each countries historical development and political personalities that modeled each of the nations during the seventeenth century.
2 The English king and parliament often had heavy disputes in the 1640s. These two sides often quarreled due to the landowners and merchant classes that represented Parliament used to resent the Kings paternalistic rules and his financial measures. Therefore, the Puritans in the Parliament resented the King's religious policies and distrusted the influence on his wife who was Roman Catholic. Parliament then was demanding that the Kings power should be limited. This then leads to the King starting to build an army against Parliament, so he bears the greatest responsibility to start the war. The Glorious Revolution was when the heirs to the English throne had been claimed by Mary and William. They then established the Bill of Rights, which helped limit citizens power and their civil liberties. This helped the English to replace the strong Catholicism religion. Religion played a key role in the English politics because political leaders were able to gain power through divine right. Devine right was the theory that states that monarchs are answerable and appointed by God only. So any questions that came from the authorities or monarchies was supposedly a direct question from God.
3 France had become an absolute monarchy because they had realized that a dispersion of power among the nobles and rebellions that came as a result of and it would furthermore put the entire country at risk. Therefore, France had come to a conclusion that it is better for a God-inspired leader to take control of their nation. This was because his only limitation was God itself so it would help them succeed as a country. Louis’s religious policy mainly focused on repression of the Protestants and the Catholics. This was evident by him revoking the Edict of Nantes, he also suppressed the Jansenist’s. Louis also created a court system and a palace to show his daily lifestyle and his duties as a leader. This also earned him the nickname as “The Sun God”. In the seventeenth and the eighteenth century, however, France consisted of the largest army throughout the continent which consisted of over four hundred thousand soldiers. This army was very intimidating to governments located outside of the French. Therefore, this helped them gain economic power.
4 The Hohenzollern’s were a Prussian family who had ruled Brandenburg since 1417. The Hohenzollerns controlled a lot of scattered lands, which they had kept in control by having feudal ties. This was how they were able to forge their diverse landholdings, as well as inheritance through the family. The main person who would forge these lands was the Great Elector, better known as Frederick William. He was able to prove himself as a central uniting power by organizing a royal bureaucracy, building a strong army and dismantled the noble states. The military was very important to Prussia because it established themselves as a strong ally for countries. However the Hapsburg faced a major problem, Charles had died and he had only a daughter. Charles V had only one daughter, Maria Theresa which the Pragmatic Sanction needed to protect at all costs because the Hapsburg had recognized her as their rightful heir. Another major problem that they faced was the size of their land. It was so large that many rulers created central councils, therefore it was extremely difficult to keep it unified. In my opinion, I feel as if the Hohenzollern’s were more successful. This is because they were able to form such a strong army (The strongest in Europe) and were able to have full control over their nobility and government.
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