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Divine Right
Definition: The idea that the monarch’s power to rule came directly from god.
Significance: Rulers started to use this in order to justify their ruling, resulting in more Absolutist monarchies
Jean Bodin
Definition: Philosopher who believed that true sovereignty can only be derived through a centralized government; power cannot be split between various factions.
Significance: Led to the increase in absolutist regimes
Philip IV
Definition: Spanish absolutist king who sought to decrease all diversity within Spain
Significance:
Completed the work of unification as started by Ferdinand and Isabella
Expulsion of the Moriscos
Definition: The forces expulsion of former Muslims out of Spain
Significance:
Resulted in a significant drop in skilled labor
Economic Issues in 17th Century Spain
Lack of skilled labor in Spain after expulsion of minority groups
Spain greatly depended on trade from the New World to increase profits. Disease in the Americas greatly decreased trade.
Little Ice Age resulted in a decline in agriculture
30 Years’ War made Spain broke
Independence of Dutch Republic and Portugal
Definition: Dutch Republic successfully broke apart from Spain due to differing religious circumstances.
Significance:
Spain lost a bunch of territory
Cardinal Richelieu
Definition: Chief minister to Louis XIII who sought to centralize power and expand France’s territory
Significance:
Politique
Greatly expanded France
Louis XIII
Definition: King of France representing the first “Absolute Monarch.”
Significance:
Helped expand France
Kept the nobility in line
Intendants
Definition: Administrative officials under the Ancien Regime who served as a “king” of the various regions of France
Significance:
Helped with tax collection
Curbed nobles’ power
Cardinal Mazarin
Definition: French minister after Cardinal Richelieu
Significance:
Secured territory after 30 years’ war
Inability to successfully raise money resulted in rebellions
The Fronde
Definition: Uprisings occuring during the reign of Louis XIV in response to increased taxation
Significance:
Final attempt by the French nobility to prevent absolutism
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes
Definition: Done by King Louis XIV in order to enforce religious uniformity in France
Significance:
Huguenots were greatly persecuted and forced to convert
Loss of skilled merchant population
Versailles
Definition: Administrative palace created by Louis XIV in order to strengthen his claim to the throne and to keep a closer eye on the nobles.
Significance:
The Palace served as an inspiration to other monarchs (Winter Palace, Russia)
Physically separated the monarch from his people
Jacques Benigne Bossuet
Definition: French author who strongly upheld absolutist beliefs.
Significance:
Author of “Politics Drawn from the Very Words of the Holy Scripture”
Argued that although kings have power from the Divine, they have limits and must act benevolently
Court Life at Versailles
Definition: Life in Versailles was extremely luxurious and flamboyant, with constant entertainment for the monarch and the nobles
Significance:
Allowed for the growth in poetry and theatre
System of Patronage
Definition: A system where a higher-ranked individual protected a lower-ranked individual in exchange for services
Significance:
Allowed Louis XIV to gain control over the nobles
Women in Louis XIV’s court
Women played a large role in the French court by recommending male relatives for various positions and advocated for policy changes
Salons
Definition: Place where noble women would chat as well as intellectuals, allowing for the creation of new ideas
Significance:
Development of new ideas
Creation of colloquialism
Military Revolution
Definition: In response to military competition among European states, countries began to expand their military and standardize uniforms and training
Significance:
Allowed France to become especially successful in territory acquisition
More wars ._.
War of Spanish Succession
Definition: Louis XIV didn’t abide by the agreement to share Spanish possessions with HRE upon death of Charles II
Significance:
Created a big alliance system, dividing Europe momentarily
Union of Utrecht
Definition: Ended the war of Spanish Succession, allowing Philip of France to become King of Spain.
Significance:
Established that France and Spain could never be united under one monarch
France had to give up its Canadian territories to Europe
“Balance of Power”
Definition: Term used in the Union of Utrecht to justify the reason why French and Spanish crowns couldn’t be unified
Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Definition: French economist who helped Louis maintain a strong economy
Significance:
Implemented Mercantilist policies to France
Redressed France’s economy by creating new industries and encouraging domestic production
Pressured expansion into the Americas
Mercantilism
Definition: The idea that a country’s success is based on it’s wealth accumulation, and more exports than imports
Significance:
- This idea helped France flourish under Louis XIV
French Expansion in America
Definition: The French sought to expand into North America for acquiring various minerals
Significance:
Another source for economic gain
Caused tensions with other countries
Continuing Serfdom in Central and East Europe
Definition: Nobles dealt with labor shortages after the Black Death by increasing serfdom
Significance:
Prevented Russia and Eastern Europe from seeing the economic benefits Western Europe saw
Large serf population resented the nobles
Ferdinand II
Definition: Ruler of the HRE who sought to expand Eastward and reduce Protestants’ power
Significance:
Reduced power of the Bohemian states and Protestant assembly
Enforced Catholicism over HRE
Habsburg Conquest of Hungary
Definition: The Habsburgs took back Hungary from Ottoman control
Significance:
Marked a significant achievement in Habsburg state-building
Since the Hapsburgs weren’t completely able to squash Hungarian rebellions, Hungary wasn’t completely adopted as an HRE state
Hohenzollern
Definition: Prussian family in the HRE that was given the ability to elect the HRE emperor.
Significance:
Electors were often from this family
Elector
Definition: Someone who has the ability to choose the HRE emperor. (only 7 people could hold this position)
Significance:
Helped maintain the balance of power in the HRE
Formed legitimacy to the emperor’s rule
Frederick William, the Great Elector
Definition: Member of the Hohenzollern Family, wanted to unify his 3 territories (Brandenburg, Prussia, Rhine)
Significance:
Used taxes in order to increase the power of the standing army
Was able to win over the Junkers
Junkers
Defeinition: Nobles in Brandenburg and Prussia who reluctantly accepted Frederick William the Great Elector’s plans to consolidate power
Significance:
Winning them over gave William the Great a leg-up in consolidation
Held considerable political power
many became high ranking military officers
Frederick I
Definition: Completely removed any traces of a Parliamentary system in Prussia
Significance:
Made Prussia absolutist
Increased Prussian Militarism
Built up the bureaucracy
Frederick William I
Definition: Prussian ruler who emphasized the necessity of a standing army
Significance:
Enforced conscription
Appeased the Junkers by making them high-ranking military officers
Prussian Army
Despite Prussia being an extremely small state, its army was the 4th most powerful in all of Europe at the time.
Russian Ruling Tactics from Mongols
Definition: Russia borrowed the tax system, postal routes, and census from the Mongols.
Significance:
Allowed Russia to consolidate power fast
Ivan III (the Great)
Definition: Used power to declare autonomy from the Mongols
Significance:
Expanded Russia
Centralized Russia w/ Boyars
Used Divine Right
Boyars
Definition: Highest ranking members of Russia nobility
Significance:
Helped with state consolidation
Role of Orthodox Church in Russia
Definition: Many Russians believed that it was their responsibility to uphold the Orthodox Church
Significance:
Caused Ivan III to marry a Byzantine heir to legitimize power
Ivan IV (the terrible)
Definition: First tsar of Russia
Significance:
Threw out all the Boyars
Took feudalism to an extreme, and completely bounded serfs to their master’s land
Expanded Russia, setting the stage for multiethnic empire
Removed Mongol control completely
Cossacks
Definition: Groups of serfs who fled eastward
Significance:
Caused Ivan IV to make more strict rules on serfdom
Time of Troubles
Definition: Period of instability in Russia after the death of Ivan IV
Significance:
Resulted in the Romanovs becoming the ruling family
Cossack uprisings
Russian Territorial Expansions
Definition: Under the Romanovs, Russia expanded into Ukraine and Siberia
Significance:
Russia became extremely powerful land-wise
Became a multi-ethnic empire
Peter the Great
Definition: Russian tsar who sought to expand Russia into the Black Sea
Significance:
Failed to create a military alliance against the Ottoman Empire
Fought the Great Northern War
Great Northern War
Definition: Peter the Great wanted access to the Baltic Sea, but had to fight Sweden first, ended up losing
Significance:
Inspired Peter the Great to modernize Russia
Caused Peter to expand the army
St. Petersburg
Definition: Western-style capital city
Significance:
Helped with consolidation
Very ornate
Table of Ranks
Definition: Russian ranking system created by Peter the Great in order to categorize civil and military jobs
Significance:
Established a meritocracy
Centralization of power
Increased social mobility
Sultan
Definition: Land owner in the Ottoman Empire
Significance:
Controlled the military
Devshirme
Definition: Ottoman system where Christian boys were taken away from their families and raised as Muslims
Significance:
Allowed more people to join administrative jobs
Served as a way for minority groups to rise ranks
Janissary Corps
Definition: Skilled group of individuals who worked for the Sultan’s army.
Significance:
Highest of the Devshirme were sent here
Gave opportunity to Christian groups
One of the strongest armies in Europe
Millet System
Definition: In order to regulate the diversity of the Ottoman Empire, this system was used to separate various people by religion.
Significance:
Gave minority communities the ability to collect their own taxes and make their own regulations
Suleiman I (The Magnificent)
Definition: Sultan of the Ottoman Empire who boldly married his Concubine
Significance:
Built up Constantinople as the capital
Codified the legal system
Expanded the territory of the Ottoman Empire
Hurrem
Formerly enslaved woman from Ukraine who became Suleiman the Magnificent’s wife, which was against the marital laws at the time
Ottoman Crisis in the Late 16th/Early 17th Century
Definition: Instability in the Ottoman Empire due to consecutive unskilled Sultans
Significance:
Finances suffered during this time period, letting Dutch Netherlands to take the lead
Military strength declined
Siege of Vienna
Definition: War between the Ottomans and HRE. Started with the Ottomans attempting to gain power over Vienna, but ultimately lost to the Hapsburgs
Significance:
Marked a decline in the Ottoman’s power
Ottomans had to cede Hungary to HRE
Constitutionalism
A form of government in which power is limited by law and balanced between the authority and power of the government, on the one hand, and the rights and liberties of the subjects or citizens on the other hand; could include constitutional monarchies or republics.
Republicanism
A form of government in which there is no monarch and power rests in the hands of the people as exercised through elected representatives.(ex. Dutch Netherlands)
Constitutional Monarchy
A monarch continues to rule but has checks and balances on their power (England, Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth)
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Definition: Two territories ruled by one common monarch
Significance:
One of the first constitutional monarchies
Sejm
Definition: Noble parliament who balanced out the monarch’s power
Significance:
Helped select and choose the monarch
Compact of Warsaw
Definition: Compact providing religious toleration to everyone who lived there
Significance:
Made Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth one of the most diverse states
James I
Definition: Son of Mary Queen of Scots, wanted to enforce absolutism in England
Significance:
Set a precedent for his son, Charles I
Charles I
Definition: English king who sought to establish absolutism by ignoring the Parliament
Significance:
His neglect for the nobles resulted in the passing of the Triennial Act
Fought the English Civil War
Puritans
English Calvinists
Rebellions in Scotland and Ireland
Multiple rebellions in Scotland and Ireland in response to Charles I tyranny
Scotland: Against Charles’ religious policies
Ireland: In response to the English nobles’ poor treatment of the Irish
English Civil War
Definition: War fought between the English king’s forces and the Parliament
Significance:
King was EXECUTED at the end; England couldn’t become absolutist anymore
Allowed for the rise of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Definition:
Member of the House of Commons and leader of the New Model Army, turned the tide of the English Civil War
Significance:
Turns England into a republic
Wipes out all the Puritans; become more dictatorial
Increased mercantilism
Petition of Right
Definition: The subjects assert their rights under established laws that protect them from being taxed or compelled to lend money without consent. They request that future contributions or taxes require common consent and that no one be imprisoned without lawful judgment
Significance:
Laid foundation for Constitutionalism
People reaffirmed their rights
Thomas Hobbes
Definition: English philosopher who argued that people are naturally evil, and the only way to balance them is through an absolute monarch.
Significance:
Wrote the Leviathan
Argued for state authority
Protectorate
Definition: English republic (military dictatorship) undr Cromwell
Significance:
Strong standing army
Didn’t really convene with Parliament
Charles II
Definition: Son of Charles I who restored the English monarchy and parliament
Significance:
Brought back the Anglican Church
Restored England to its previous state
Test Act
Definition: Legislation passed by the English Parliament in 1673 to secure the position of the Anglican Church by stripping Puritans, Catholics, and other dissenters of the right to vote, preach, assemble, hold public office, and teach at or attend the universities
Significance:
England had tensions with Catholic countries
Minorities in England were in a bad position
James II
Definition: King after Charles II, allowed toleration for Catholics
Significance:
Acceptance of Catholics into high-ranking positions caused the Parliament to get angry
Led to the Glorious Revolution
Glorious Revolution
Definition: Replacement of James II with William and Mary to restore Anglicanism
Significance:
Relatively peaceful transfer of power
Marked the transfer of England to a constitutional monarchy
William and Mary
Definition: Protestant King and Queen of England
Significance:
Signed the Bill of Rights, ending absolutism
Brought back the Parliament
No more standing army
Bill of Rights
Definition: Documents entailing the new rights and checks on the monarch’s power
Significance:
Marked the end of English absolutism
FIrmly established that all laws must go through parliament
No standing army in peace
John Locke
Definition: Philosopher in contrast with Hobbes
Significance:
Two Treatises of Government
Believed that Absolutism results in tyranny
“Natural Rights”
Economic Prosperity in the Dutch Netherlands
Definition: After the secession of the Netherlands from Spain, the United Provinces experienced improved trade, as well as political stability
Significance:
Netherlands had a leg-up in trade compared to other countries
Stadholders
Definition: The executive officer in each of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, a position often held by the princes of Orange
Significance:
Carried out ceremonial functions
responsible for military defense
Religious Toleration in the Dutch Netherlands
Definition: The Dutch Netherlands was relatively welcoming of various religions
Significance:
Many Jews and Muslims fled here after being persecuted in their home countries
Note 
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