AP European History

Crash Course

Absolutism in Eastern Europe, 1600-1725

I. Three Declining Empires

• A. Eastern Europe in 1648
  • 1. The Holy Roman Empire, the Republic of Poland, and the Ottoman Empire occupied the area from the French border to Russi
  • 2. All three empires were declining. Each lacked a strong central authority and efficient systems of government.
  • 3. Each of the declining empires contained diverse ethnic and language groups.
• B. The Holy Roman Empire
  • 1. The Reformation left the Holy Roman Empire religiously divided between Catholics and Protestants.
  • 2. The Thirty Years’ War left the Holy Roman Empire politically divided into 300 independent states.
  • 3. The empire had an elected emperor who had no imperial army, revenues, or centralized authority.
  • 4. Led by the Habsburgs and the Hohenzollerns, Austria and Prussia gradually emerged as the leading German states.
• C. The Republic of Poland
  • 1. On a map of Europe in 1660, Poland appears to be a large, united country. In reality, the king of Poland was elected by Polish nobles who severely restricted his power.
  • 2. Poland did have a central diet. However, action required the unanimous consent of each aristocratic member. Any member could break up or “explode” the diet by objecting to a policy or act.
  • 3. Poland’s lack of centralized power created a power vacuum that left it vulnerable to stronger and more aggressive nations.
• D. The Ottoman Empire
  • 1. Led by Suleiman the Magnificent (reigned 1520-1566), the Ottomans threatened Vienna.
  • 2. In the middle of the seventeenth century, a series of ambitious rulers revitalized the Ottoman Empire. In 1683, a powerful Turkish army once again besieged Vienna.
  • 3. Austrian forces reinforced by Poles and Germans successfully repelled the Turks. This marked the beginning of a steady decline in Ottoman power.

II. The Habsburgs

• A. The Revival of Habsburg Power
  • 1. The Habsburgs were one of the oldest dynasties in Europe. Beginning in the early 1400s, most of the Holy Roman emperors were Habsburgs.
  • 2. Habsburg power suffered a series of setbacks following the devastation of the Thirty Years’ War and the extinction of the Habsburg line in Spain.
  • 3. Despite these defeats, the Habsburg rulers successfully reaffirmed their power over Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary. In addition, the Treaty of Utrecht gave the Habsburgs control of Naples, Sardinia, and Milan in Italy and the Spanish Netherlands (subsequently renamed the Austrian Netherlands).
  • 4. It is important to note that the Habsburg empire embraced a large number of ethnic groups who were unified only by their Catholic faith and their loyalty to the Habsburg dynasty.
• B. Charles VI and the Pragmatic Sanction
  • 1. Emperor Charles VI (reigned 1711-1740) did not have a male heir.
  • 2. Determined to insure a safe succession for his daughter, Maria Theresa, Charles drew up a document called the Pragmatic Sanction. It stated that the territories of the Habsburg empire were indivisible and that Maria Theresa would inherit the throne and all Habsburg lands.
  • 3. England and other foreign powers forced Charles to make a number of concessions before agreeing to the Pragmatic Sanction. Charles died believing he had guaranteed the peace and integrity of his realm.
  • 4. Be sure that you can Identify the Pragmatic Sanction. Charles VI devoted a significant part of his reign to winning European approval for this agreement. You should devote a few moments of study time to understanding the purpose of the Pragmatic =¬Sanction. As you will see In chapter 12, Frederick the Great S promptly violated the agreement by attacking Silesia.

III. The Rise of Prussia

• A. The Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg-Prussia
  • 1. Brandenburg was a small state located between the Oder and Elbe rivers with its center in Berlin.
  • 2. The ruler of Brandenburg was one of seven princes who elected the Holy Roman emperor.
  • 3. The Hohenzollern family became the hereditary rulers of Brandenburg in 1417.
  • 4. In the early seventeenth century, the Hohenzollerns inherited Cleves and some neighboring lands on the Rhine River and the duchy of Prussia on the Baltic coast to the northeast.
  • 5. These diverse and geographically separated Hohenzollern possessions had no natural boundaries, few resources, and a population of just 1.5 million people.
• B. Frederick William, The Great Elector (Reigned 1640-1688)
  • 1. Although scattered and weak, the Hohenzollern possessions were the second-largest block of territory in the Holy Roman Empire. Only the Habsburgs could claim more land.
  • 2. Known as the Great Elector, Frederick William began the process of forging the Hohenzollern territories into a strong power. He recognized that a well-equipped army would protect his territories and enable him to play a role in European balance-of-power politics.
  • 3. Frederick William demanded and received the loyalty of the Junkers, the German landowners. In exchange, the Junkers received full power over the serfs who labored on their estates.
• C. Frederick William I (Reigned 1713-1740)
  • 1. Like the Great Elector, Frederick William I was determined to build a powerful army. During his reign, the Prussian military doubled to over 80,000 men. Although Prussia had Europe’s thirteenth-largest population, it boasted the continent’s third- or fourth-largest army.
  • 2. Under the Hohenzollerns, military priorities and values dominated all aspects of Prussian life. Led by the Junkers, the officer corps became Prussia’s most prestigious class. As noted by one foreign diplomat, “Prussia is not a state that possesses an army, but an army that possesses a state.”

IV. Russia Before Peter the Great

• A. Isolation
  • 1. Russia was geographically isolated from the rest of Europe. Sweden prevented Russia from reaching the Baltic Sea while the Ottoman Empire prevented Russia from reaching the Black Sea.
  • 2. Russia was culturally isolated from the rest of Europe. The ideas of the Renaissance and Reformation and all the discoveries of the Age of Exploration and the Scientific Revolution scarcely affected Russia.
• B. The Romanov Dynasty
  • 1. Following the death of Ivan the Terrible in 1584, Russia experienced a period of weakness and disorder known as the Time of Troubles.
  • 2. Hoping to restore order, an assembly of nobles elected Michael Romanov to be the next czar. The Romanov Dynasty ruled Russia from 1613 to 1917.

V. Peter the Great (Reigned 1789-1825)

• A. Modernizing Russia
  • 1. Peter the Great recognized that Russia had fallen behind western Europe. Determined to learn from his rivals, Peter visited Holland and England, where he toured shipyards, examined new military equipment, and observed western customs.
  • 2. Peter returned to Moscow vowing to transform Russia into a great power. He began by expanding Russia’s army and constructing a new navy.
  • 3. Peter did not limit his changes to military organization and technology. He improved Russian agriculture by introducing the potato, strengthened the Russian economy by importing skilled workers, and liberated Russian women by allowing them to appear in public without veils. In a famous and much resented act, Peter forced nobles to shave off their traditional long beards.
• B. Defeating Sweden
  • 1. The Thirty Years’ War left Sweden in control of the Baltic’s entire eastern shore.
  • 2. In 1700, Peter ordered his army to end Sweden’s dominance of the Baltic. The Great Northern War between Sweden and Russia lasted from 1700 to 1721.
  • 3. After suffering initial defeats at the hands of Sweden’s king Charles XII, Peter ultimately won the war, thus gaining control over warm-water outlets on the Baltic shore.
  • 4. The defeat contributed to Sweden’s decline as a major European power. At the same time, Russia now became the dominant power on the Baltic Sea.
• C. Building St. Petersburg
  • 1. Peter the Great began building St. Petersburg in 1703. Named after his patron saint, St. Petersburg would be “a great window for Russia to look out at Europe.”
  • 2. St. Petersburg quickly became a symbol of Peter the Great’s new and more powerful Russia.
• D. Controlling the Boyars
  • 1. The boyars were the old nobility who supported traditional Russian culture.
  • 2. Peter the Great did more than order the boyars to shave off their long beards and wear Western clothing. He also compelled them to construct costly town houses in St. Petersburg and required every noble to serve in the army or in the civil administration.
• E. Exploiting the Serfs
  • 1. Russia’s peasants did not enjoy the benefits of Peter the Great’s reforms. Instead, they were conscripted into Russia’s army and forced to build St. Petersburg.
  • 2. In central Europe, serfs were bound to the land. In contrast, Russian serfs could be sold apart from the land. This enabled nobles to force serfs to work in mines and factories.
• F. Evaluating Peter the Great
  • 1. Peter the Great provided a model of how an energetic and ruthless autocrat would change a nation. He successfully transformed Russia into a great power that would play an increasingly important role in European history.
  • 2. Peter the Great’s policies increased the disparities between the nobles and the peasants. Millions of exploited serfs formed an estranged class that did not share in Russian society.

NOTE: Peter the Great’s momentous reign has been the subject of numerous multiple-choice questions and free-response essays on the APEURO exam. Peter the Great’s successes Include his program of modernization, construction of St. Petersburg, and victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War. However, Russia’s economy continued to rest on the exploitation of serfs.