Unit 3.2 - Adminstrations

key terms/events and significance

Divine Right of Kings

• Definition: A doctrine that asserts a monarch is subject to earthly authority, deriving right to rule from God

• Significance:

  • The king was a political and religious authority

  • Strengthens the king's power / challenges the king = challenge God -> punishment

English Bill of Rights (1689)

• Definition: Helped to curb the power of the monarch & increased individual liberties

• Significance:

  • Protected English rights and liberties for citizens & limited the power of Justices

  • Required legal process before someone could be arrested & charged

  • Required Parliament on matters of taxation & raising an army (protection against tyranny)

Absolutism

• Definition: French government

• Significance:

  • In contrast to England's development

  • Sun King / Louis XIV (a dictator) advocated for the theory of divine right / wanted to hold absolute power & expand France

English Justices of the Peace & French Intendants

• Definition:

  • Officials selected by the monarch by the landed gentry to maintain peace in the counties of England, even setting some legal matters & carry out monarch's law

  • Royal officials (bureaucratic elites) sent out to the provinces to execute the order of the central government / tax farmers

• Significance:

  • Became among the most important & powerful groups in England and France / power of feudal lords weakened under Tudor rule / gave legitimacy to monarch's claim to authority

  • Oversaw the collection of taxes in support of the royal gov

Ivan IV & Boyars

• Definition:

  • Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584) set out to expand the Russian border eastward / mainly relying on gunpowder

  • Boyars: noble landowning class stood at the top of the pyramid

• Significance:

  • Used cossacks or peasant warriors to fight local tribes & the Siberian Khan (The Golden Horde) 

  • Gained control over the Volga Rover → more trade

  • Ivan tried to control the boyars / confiscated land & established oprichinina

Peter the Great & St. Petersburg

• Definition:

  • Romanov dynasty (1613) after Ivan's death in 1584 / Peter I rose to power / defender of Orthodoxy / created provinces after defeating his sister → replaced the old system of local officials

  • Peter moved the Russian capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg

• Significance:

  • Military conquest → warm water port on the Baltic Sea, St. Petersburg → further connected Russia to Europe & facilitated trade

  • Peter built St. Petersburg to be more European compared to Moscow / desire to have his own capital / Peter’s admiration of Europe and its rulers

Devshirme & Janissaries

• Definition:

  • Selection system to staff their military & government

  • An elite force in the Ottoman army

• Significance: Christian boys were recruited by force → trained to be fiercely loyal to the Sultan / some were trained for administrative positions as scribes, tax collectors, diplomats… / path of upward mobility

Tokugawa Shogunate

• Definition:

  • Tokugawa Ieyasu and his successors’ rule → a period of peace and stability

  • Shoguns: military leaders

• Significance:

  • Set about reorganizing the governance of Japan to centralize control over what essentially is the feudal system

  • Kept daimyos (landholding aristocrats) under control

Zamindars

• Definition: Paid government officials who were in charge of specific duties such as taxation, construction, and water supply

• Significance: Later given tracts of land rather than pay & they eventually began building their own personal army

Explain how rulers legitimized and consolidated their power in the land-based Empires from 1450 - 1750.

Rulers centralized their power and established their own administration to manage their authority. European leaders adopted the theory of divine power of the monarch and controlled the nobles to protect their position. Islamic rulers consolidated their power by their strong military, loyal officers, and occasional display of power.