Rise of Austria Key Terms and Reading Questions

Ferdinand II

Habsburg, reduced power of Bohemian Estates (Largely protestant representative assembly), and confiscated landholdings of Protestant nobles gave them to loyal Catholic nobles.

Ferdinand III

continued building state power, centralized govt. in German speaking provinces, permanent standing army formed, recovery of former kingdom of Hungary completed in 1718.

What “deal” existed between the monarchies and nobilities in Eastern Europe in the early modern era?

Monarchs allowed nobles to remain unchallenged masters of their peasants because of the monarch’s growing political authority. Appeased the nobility and the monarchs but left serf’s at their lords ‘mercies. Endless wars allowed monarchs to increase their power by building large armies, increasing taxes, and suppressing representative institutions.

Between 1500 and 1650 the consolidation of ____ in Eastern Europe was accompanied by the growth of commercial agriculture.

serfdom

Explain the basic socio-economic differences between Eastern and Western Europe in the early modern era, and how the resulting economic relationship between the two regions worked.

East: Serfdom got worse along with the conditions, left to their lords’ mercies.

West: losses caused by the black death allowed peasants to escape serfdom by the land they gained (enough to feed themselves).

What became Austria’s new focus, as a result of defeat in the Thirty Years War?

Austria (Habsburgs) focused inwards and eastwards to unify their holdings, which meant they would impose Catholicism in their own domains.

List the three main geographic parts of the “House of Austria,” and explain their differences.

Hungary: never fully integrated into centralized absolute Habsburg state like Austria and Bohemia; Hungarian nobles rose in revolt against absolute rule and allowed a hereditary Habsburg Rule

Austria: more powerful/ruled over others, Hereditary Provinces of Austria, fully integrated into centralized state, Vienna political and cultural center of HRE.

Bohemia: Habsburgs victory in 30 years war, enserfed peasantry worsened, first Habsburg absolute rule opened a gateway to others.