Transcript Chapter 17 Notes - Martin`s Mill ISD

The Age of Absolutism
Extending Spanish Power
Phillip II and Divine Right
 42 Year Reign
 Sought to expand Spanish influence
 Strengthen Catholic Church
 Make his own power absolute
 Made Spain foremost power in Europe
 Centralized Royal Power
 Absolute monarch –
 Divine right  Guardian of Roman Catholic Church
 Wanted to defend Catholic Reformation and turn back
Protestant tide in Europe
 In own lands, enforced religious unity and brought back the
Inquisition
France Under Louis XIV
St. Bartholamew’s Day Massacre
• There were many religious conflicts between the
Huguenots (French Protestants) and Catholics
between 1560-90
• August 24, 1572 – at a royal wedding, 3,000 Huguenots
were massacred by Catholic nobles; thousands more
during the next few days
• Symbolized the complete breakdown of order in
France
Rebuilding France
 Henry IV
 Inherited the French throne as a Protestant but converted to Catholicism to
avoid the certain outcry from the largely Catholic country
 Edict of Nantes (1598)
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Granted the Huguenots religious toleration and let them fortify their own towns and
cities
 Government reached into every area of French life
 Royal officials administered justice, improved roads, built bridges, and revived
agriculture
 Laid the foundations for royal absolutism
 Richelieu
 Henry IV was assassinated in 1610 and his 9 year old son, Louis XIII, rose to the
throne.
 Cardinal Armand Richelieu was appointed chief minister and spent 18 years
strengthening the central government
 Did everything he could to take power away from the Huguenots and nobles
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Outlawed their armies and tore down their fortifications
Reduced independence of nobles by tying them to the king
Louis XIV, The Sun King
- Inherited the throne at age 5
- Cardinal Mazarin was his chief minister
- Faced many uprisings from the French people
 “I am the State”
 Firmly believed in divine right; took the sun as a symbol
of his absolute power
 Just as the sun is the center of the solar system, so the
Sun king stands a the center of the nation.
 Never once called on the Estates General
Louis XIV, The Sun King
 Strengthening Royal Power
 He expanded the bureaucracy and appointed intendants
Went to wealthy, middle-class men in order to gain favor of middle class
 The French army was the strongest in Europe
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The state paid, fed, trained, and supplied soldiers to enforce policies at
home and abroad
 Colbert and the Economy
 Jean Baptiste Colbert was Louis’s finance minister; followed
mercantilist policies to bolster economy
 Stretched natural resources as much as possible (farming, mining),
built up luxury trades, put tariffs on imported goods to protect
home merchants, and encouraged overseas colonies
 Made France the wealthiest state in Europe
 Still couldn’t offset the lavish spending of Louis XIV
Versailles, Symbol of Royal Power
- Turned a royal hunting lodge in the countryside into the
palace of Versailles
- Spared no expense to make it the most magnificent
building in Europe
 Court Ceremonies
 Very elaborate rituals performed by nobles to emphasize the
kings own importance
 Levee -
 Cultural Flowering
 In painting, music, architecture, and decorative arts, French
styles became the model for Europe
 Ballet gained popularity in French courts
Successes and Failures
 Successes
 Reigned for 72 years
 French culture replaced those of Renaissance Italy as the
standard of European taste
 Wars of Louis XIV
 Poured vast resources into expanded territory
 Rival rulers created alliances to maintain the balance of
power  Persecution of the Huguenots
 Louis saw the Huguenots as a threat to unity a revoked the
Edict of Nantes; 100,000 Huguenots fled France
 Were among the hardest working and prosperous French
subjects; serious blow to the French economy
Triumph of Parliament in England
The Tudors and Parliament
 Tudor dynasty ruled from 1485 t0 1603
 Believed in divine right but shrewdly recognized the
value of good relations with Parliament
 Turned to the Parliament to get things done
 Helped Henry VIII break from Catholic Church and
approved Act of Supremacy
 Levy taxes to pay for wars
The Early Stuarts
- Elizabeth died without an heir, so power went to the ruling
family of Scotland
- The Stuarts struggled to gain support of Parliament
 The Royal Challenge
 James I agreed to rule according to English customs but
clashed with Parliament over money and foreign policy
 Eventually dissolved the Parliament and collected own taxes
 Also had to deal with dissenters –
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Clashed with the Puritans, people who wanted to “purify” the
Church of Catholic practices
Did lead to the translation of the Bible into English; King James
Version (1611)
The Early Stuarts
 Parliament Responds
 Charles I acted as an absolute monarch but revived Parliament to
raise taxes
 Parliament made Charles sign the Petition of Right which
prohibited a king from raising taxes without consent of Parliament
 Charles signed it but still dissolved Parliament which led to revolts
against the government by Parliament and Protestants
 The Long Parliament
 Between 1640-53, Parliament was on and off because of clashes with
the king and his bishops (Church of England)
 Parliament finally tried and executed his chief ministers and
declared that Parliament could not be dissolved without its consent
 Charles responded by storming the House of Commons to arrest its
radical leaders
 Led to conflicts on the battlefield
The English Civil War
 Lasted from 1642-49 and posed a major challenge to absolutism
 Cavaliers and Roundheads
 Cavaliers
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Wealthy nobles, plumed hats, long hair; well trained in warfare; expected quick victory
 Roundheads
 Country gentry, town-dwelling manufacturers, and Puritan clergy; called roundheads
because hair was cut close to their heads
 Oliver Cromwell
 Leader of the roundheads; skilled general that whipped parliament into a disciplined
fighting force
 Won a series of decisive battles and eventually had the king in their hands
 Execution of a King
 Set up a court and tried Charles I and condemned him to death
 Was the first time a monarch was tried and executed by his own people
 Sent a clear message that in England no ruler could claim absolute power and
ignore the rule of law
The Commonwealth
- House of Commons abolished the monarchy, House of
Lords, and the official Church of England
- Declared England a republic, or Commonwealth, with
Cromwell as the leader
 Challenges to the Commonwealth
 Faced many threats
 Supporters of the heir to the throne, Charles II, attacked from
Ireland and Scotland; Cromwell countered and past a law exiling
Catholics and ordered the killing of anyone found outside restricted
area
 Levellers- group of poor men who thought they had as much right in
government decisions as the gentry; Cromwell responded by ruling
through the army and squashing any dissenters as Lord Protector
The Commonwealth
 Puritan Society
 Parliament enacted series of laws to root out godlessness
 Sunday set aside for religious observance, over age 14 could be fined
for “profaning the Lord’s Day”, closed all theaters, and looked down
on dancing, taverns, and gambling
 Encouraged education so they could read the Bible
 Pushed for more fidelity in marriages
 Looked to be more tolerant of other religious opinions, even Jews
 End of the Commonwealth
 The Commonwealth died with Cromwell in 1658
 People were tired of military rule and brought back the monarchy
and the exiled Charles II
 Puritan ideas about morality, equality, government, and education
remained and would play an important role in shaping the United
States
From Restoration to Glorious Revolution
 Charles II
 Popular ruler; reopened theaters and taverns, and restored
official Church of England but tolerated Protestants
 Even though he believed in absolutism and was Catholic, he
accepted the Petition of Right and tried to avoid mistakes of
his father in handling the Parliament
 A New Clash with Parliament
 New monarch, James II, flaunted his Catholic beliefs and
appointed Catholics to high office; threatened to restore
Roman Catholic Church
 Parliament called on James’ sister Mary and her husband
William to become rulers of England
 James fled to France and this bloodless overthrow of a king
became known as the Glorious Revolution (1688)
From Restoration to Glorious Revolution
 The English Bill of Rights (1689)
 Had to be signed before William and Mary could inherit
throne
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Ensured the superiority of Parliament over monarchy
Required monarch to summon Parliament regularly and House of
Commons was given “power of purse”
Monarch could not interfere with debates or suspend laws
Barred Roman Catholic from sitting on the throne
 Restated traditional rights of English citizens
 Trial by jury, abolished excessive fines and cruel and unusual
punishment, affirmed habeas corpus
 Toleration Act of 1689
 Granted limited religious freedom to Protestant dissenters but no to
Catholics
 Only members of Church of England could hold public office
Absolute Monarchy in Russia
Peter the Great
- Took throne at age 10, but did not rule until 1689
- Very curious about what was going on in England and
other countries in the west; learned as much as he
could about the West
 Journey to the West
 Spent hours walking the streets of European cities
learning all he could about western society and
government
 Started a policy of westernization –
 Was very hard to persuade Russians to change way of life
 Became very autocratic
Peter the Great
 Autocrat and Reformer
 Strengthen the military, expand Russian borders, and
centralize royal power
 Brought all institutions including Russian Orthodox Church
under his control
 Made boyars and peasants serve the state; forced serfdom
 Pushed for educational reform; simplified alphabet and set up
academies
 Encouraged mercantilist policies
 Encouraged changes in dress and appearance to further
impose westernization
 Did away with any resistance; killed thousands
Expansion Under Peter
- Worked to rebuild military power; created largest standing
army in Europe; began to expand west and south
 Search for Warm-Water Port
 All ports were located on Arctic Ocean which froze in winter
 Nearest warm port was on Black Sea controlled by Ottoman
Empire; unable to defeat them; not achieved until Catherine
the Great
 War with Sweden
 Wanted to gain land along Baltic Sea; suffered humiliating
defeats at first but eventually gained land in 1709
Expansion Under Peter
 Peter’s City
 On new land, built new capital city called St. Petersburg
 Invited Italian architects and artisans to design in
western style
 Became a symbol of Peter’s desire to forge a modern
Russia
 Toward the Pacific
 Pushed through Siberia to the Pacific
 Made a treaty with China that gave rights to lands in
Manchuria
 Explored Bering Strait, into Alaska and California.
Legacy of Peter the Great
 Expanded Russian territory, gained ports of Baltic Sea,
and a mighty army
 Became more involved in the affairs of Western
Europe
 Resentment from nobles and serfs widened the gap
between Russia and the West
Catherine the Great
 German princess who married into the royal family;
learned Russian, and embraced Russian Orthodox
faith, and won loyalty of the people
 Ascended to the throne after husband was
assassinated
 An Efficient Ruler
 Reorganized the provincial government, codified laws,
and began state-sponsored education
 Embraced western ideas
Catherine the Great
 A Ruthless Absolute Monarch
 Kept tight grip on boyars and extended serfdom
 Gained a warm-water port on Black Sea through war
with Ottomans; looked to take land from Poland
 Partition of Poland
 Agreed to a partition of Poland with rulers of Austria
and Prussia
 Gained eastern Poland; by 1795, all of Poland was gone
until 1919 (WWI)