AP EURO UNIT 3 ULTIMATE REVIEW

English civil war context

• Many European states were moving towards absolutism; France, Russia, Prussia, Austria

• but not England and it would take the English Civil war to establish Constitutionalism

• Conflict between the king, parliament, and other elites over their respective roles in the political structure

• war was fought to answer this question: will England be ruled by an absolute monarch or exist as a constitutional monarchy

Causes of the English Civil War

1) Divine rights of kings

• God granted political authority to the king and to challenge that authority would be a direct challenge to god.

• Charles I succeeded James I in 1625

• He was a big believer in the Divine rights of kings as he did whatever he wanted

• ex: believed he could seize any land he wanted because he was king. Which was a problem for parliament who reminded him land could only be seized through the due process of law —> thus tensions as Charles I continued to disobey parliament

2) Thirty years war

• Debt was accumulated through England´s participation in the 30 years (Charles I spent money that wasn´t authorized by parliament)

• Parliament tried to reign him back from spending in the war

• in order to fix this problem, Charles decided to dissolve parliament by refusing to call them into session from 1629-1640 which began to be known as Charles personal rule since he did whatever he wanted

• by 1640, Charles needed money to address a rebellion in Scotland so he called parliament back into session known as the short parliament as parliament wasn´t really cooperating with him so he dismissed them again

3) Anglican Church

• Anglican church wasn´t that much different from Catholic Church

• So a few reformers known as puritans rose up and challenged the lingering catholicsim in the Church

• buttt Charles married a Catholic and wasn´t interested in reform

English Civil War (1642-1651)

• Charles I fled to North England where he raised an army composed of the nobility and rural gentry while parliament created the new model army

• for 3 years these forces clashed and finally the new model army was victorious

• but Charles I refused to accept defeat so a Puritain Parliamentarian named Oliver Cromwell took the leadership of the new model army and crushed the King´s forces and in doing so Cromwell captured Charles I

• after, Cromwell removed all members of parliament who opposed him and the representatives that left were known as rump parliament

• then parliament tried the king, found him guilty and executed him

leadership of Cromwell

• England became a true republic called the protectorate under the leadership of Oliver who was named lord protector

• buttt England was not the constitutional monarchy everyone fought for but rather a military dictatorship

• so while Cromwell tried to work with Parliament to govern England they weren´t doing what he wanted so he dismissed them

• nearly a decade Cromwell ruled England by force and upon his death the protectorate fell apart and the English were ready for a return to a king

Glorious revolution

• restoration period in 1660 in which parliament gave the throne to Charles II

• Charles II schemed with France and didn´t work well with parliament

• then came James II who was worse as he kept appointing Catholics to important positions

• sooo parliament by this point was fed up with Stuart monarchy and offered the throne to Mary and her husband William of Orange

• James II heard of this plan and fled thus glorious revolution of 1689

• with the ascension of William and Mary to the throne, the idea of the divine right of kings was officially put to death

English bill of rights

• limited power of monarchy and protected power of parliament

• only parliament could raise taxes

• laws passed by parliament could not be annulled by the king

• mandated regular parliament sessions

• free elections

• couldn´t mandate standing army without parliament´s consent

• enforced protestant monarchy

Agricultural Revolution

• by the turn of the 18th century farming in Britain and the Dutch Republic began to shift and the techniques they pioneered would eventually spread to the rest of Europe

• Abandoned crop rotation —> English and Dutch discovered that if they alternated grain crops with other crops which restored nutrients to the soil (clover, potatoes) then their fields could produce crops with no yearly fallow period

• with this innovation in farming food output rose significantly which also led to population increase

• new technologies for farming also increased crop yield: seed drill and mechanical hoe

• contributed to longer lifespan among population

Rural Industry

• with the population growth and fewer people needed for farming this meant a lot of people didn´t have enough work which contributed to the rapid expansion of the cottage industry

• rural households supplemented their earnings with the cottage industry

• the cottage industry began competing with guild workers

Rise of money economy

• the Growth of the market economy led to an increasing demand for manufactured goods which means there was a push to get manufacturing out of people´s homes and into these new buildings called factories

• this shift was very profound in England whose wool industry was 2nd to none

• as Europeans began demanding more and more wool, production increased which led to more people working and earning decent wages

• the money economy started to take over mercantilism

• growth of market economy led to new financial practices/institutions like insurance and banks

Mercantilism

• State driven economic system which emphasizes the buildup of gold and silver by means of a favorable balance of trade

• states make all the decisions

• led to rivalry as European states wanted the most gold and silver

• to keep the gold and silver acquired states needed more exports than imports

Mercantilism and empire

• Establishing colonies was a major goal of mercantilism states; colonies were able to provide raw materials in abundance for the manufacturing of goods and new markets for the selling of said manufactured goods —> favorable balance of trade

• ex: Navigation acts 1651 : Created by Cromwell which was laws that mandated that goods shipped from the colonies had to be transported on British ships with British crew and the colonies were only allowed to trade with Britain

effects of Mercantilism policies

• increased demand for New World products: Sugar/rice/cotton —> new consumer culture

• increasing demand for labor of Africans —> triangular trade

Birth of Dutch Republic

The Dutch were under Spanish Hapsburg rule but with the 30 years war and Peace of Westphalia 1648, the Dutch won their independence from the Spanish and the republic of the united provinces of Netherlands was born

Constitutionalism in Netherlands

• rejected a monarchical form of government in favor of a constitutional government

• made no provision for a monarch like England and instead opted for a republican government in which power was in the hands of the people and the government did it´s work by means of the people´s representatives

• There was provincial governments and a federal government

• each province had it´s own assembly called the estate and provincial states held the most power

• each of these estates were ruled by an oligarchy which was made up of wealthy businessmen and rural landholders, and they handled all the province´s domestic policies

• the federal government, which had a lot less power than the estates, was known as the states general and it mostly handled foreign policy and war

• this governmental structure was super successful for the Dutch

Dutch dominance in trade

• wealthiest European state in 1648-1815

• the Dutch invested heavily in shipbuilding and because of their geographical position on the Atlantic ocean they were able to exploit the riches of the growing Atlantic trade and they also made a significant hold in Indian ocean trade

• Dutch had highest standard of living in Europe

Balance of Power

• Last period it was religion that got European states to fight. In this period. States are going to engage in diplomacy and go to war in order to maintain the balance of power in Europe

• Balance of power: states during this period operated on the principle of self interest, and the main goal was to make sure each state had roughly the same amount of power so that no one state could dominate the rest

• in order to maintain the balance of power rulers began building up their armies —> military revolution

Maintaining the balance of power through diplomacy

partition of Poland: idea of maintaining balance of power sealed the fate of Poland and essentially wiped it off the map for about 150 years

• the Commonwealth of Poland was massive but it was very weak. In it´s constitutional monarchy the landed nobles exploited the peasantry and often defied the king. Moreover, they didn´t have a bureaucracy like Britain to unite the country and they were weakened with constant decades of war

• The commonwealth was surrounded by successful absolutist states: Russia, Austria, Prussia

• the balance of power between these 3 states was initially unbalanced by Russia´s victory against the Ottoman Empire which made Russia the stronger nation

• So Frederick II of Prussia proposed to Russia that they should expand into Poland instead of Ottoman empire

• so in 1772, Russia, Austria, and Prussia signed a treaty which was ratified by the Polish Legislature and granted half of Poland´s territory to be divided among the 3 powers

• over the next 25 years all of Poland would be annexed

Ottoman Empire

• had ambitions to push further into central Europe so they attempted to invade Austria in the Battle of Vienna which was the capital of the Habsburg empire in 1683 in order to gain better trading routes and a river

• in order to keep this expansion from happening and upsetting the balance of power the Austrian Habsburgs, Poland (before annexed), and HRE united to stop Ottoman empire —> were successful

• major turning point in European history as the Ottomans officially ceased their expansion in Eastern Europe.

Louis XIV and his wars

• engaged in Constant warfare to pursue his own dynastic/state interests

• reasons for war: expand territory of France, weaken Habsburg influence across Europe, increase his own glory

• fought the Dutch War (1672-1678) to gain territory in Spanish netherlands and to weaken Habsburg —> unsuccessful

• then fought 9 years war in which he tried to push to the HRE to gain territory there —> unsuccessful

• Since Louis XIV was so determined to make France powerful, several states formed the grand alliance to oppose him

• included the Habsburgs of HRE, Dutch Republic, England, Spain, Sweden, and Portugal.

War of Spanish Succession (1701-1713)

• the most significant of Louie´s wars concerning the balance of power

• with fear of Philip V (Louie´s grandson) ascending to the Spanish throne in which France and Spain could unite war immediately broke out among England, Netherlands, Austria, and Prussia against Spain and France

• was a draw and ended with the treaty of Utrecht 1713 which stated Philip V would be Spain´s king but that France and Spain couldn´t unite

• balance of power remained

Military revolution

• prior to this period states would declare war on each other and then raise their armies

• now states commissioned and paid for professional standing armies

• increasing size of armies in this period

• new military technologies were developed like firearms, canon etc

• increased taxes and an expanding bureaucracy to administrate the increased revenue —> military revolution across Europe

Absolutism context

1) weakened influence of Catholic Church

2) economics: Merchant classes desired absolute monarchs for the economic and political stability and privileges they could provide

• one of the main means by which Absolute monarchs consolidated their power was by weakening nobility through creating bureaucracies (privileges and responsibilities taken away)

• bureaucrats were answerable directly to the king

James I

• influenced by the divine right of kings

• spent unapproved money

Philip II

• peak of absolutism in Spain

• rebellion in Spanish Netherlands and defeat of Spanish armada led to a decline in Spain´s power

Louis XIV

1) Intend ant system

• Louis sent bureaucratic agents called intendants to the various districts of France to make sure laws were obeyed and other stuff —> undermined governors

2) Palace of Versailles

• mandated that nobles live at least part of the year in Versailles and in that way he was able to keep an eye on their behavior

• also established an elaborate set of court rituals in which nobles began to fight amongst themselves over who would be closest to the king thus earning his favor both for themselves and the regions they represented

• Louis was able to secure their loyalty and cooperation

3) Religious uniformity

• revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685

• thousands of huguenots migrated to more tolerant states robbing France of a healthy portion of their merchant class

4) wars of expansion

• in order to pay for louis wars Jean Batiste colbert France´s economist shaped french economy according to mercantilism

• had the effect of decreasing France´s debt, creating new domestic industries, expanding France´s colonial holdings, and created favorable balance of trade

• but Louis endless wars costed so much that Colbert´s were made undone

Peter the Great

• by the time peter became tsar in 1682, Russia was still organized by Medieval standards: Feudalism

• nations in the west had adopted new technology and new methods of education/finance while Russia lagged behind

• Peter went on a trip to some of these western nations and realized Russia needed to westernize or else they would be taken over by western nations

• political: required nobles to serve in the army or civil administration —> merit based system

• Culture: required the nobility to shave their beards and wear Western style clothing

• Religion: reorganized the Russian Orthodox Church by eliminating the role of the patriarch and replaced it with the holy synod which peter populated with officials and ministers to do his bidding

• in order to pull this off he tripled taxes and that meant the peasantry despised his reform

• Peter´s work brought Russia into the mainstream of European development

Comparison

Absolutism (France, Russia, Austria, Prussia): absolute power in the monarch, justified by divine right, large standing armies, increased taxation, centralized bureaucracies

Constitutionalism (England, Dutch republic): limited royal power through legal frameworks and representative bodies (parilament, estates). English civil war and Glorious revolution (1689) led to a bill of rights, establishing supremacy of law over the monarch

Society: absolutist states maintained a rigid, tax-exempt nobility, constitutional states allowed more middles class influence in government.

Religion: Absolute monarchs enforced conformity (revoking Edict of Nantes) whereas constitutional states like England allowed more tolerance for dissenters

economy: both used mercantilism but constitutional states (Dutch) created joint-stock companies

Continuity and Change

Continuities: persistent class hierarchies, noble tax exemptions, continuation of agricultural based economies for majority of the population

Change:

Centralization of power: shift from fragment feudal power to centralized state

Balance of power: shift from Habsburg (HRE) dominance toward France, Great Britain, and later Prussia and Russia

military development: larger and costly standing armies

intellectual: Shift from traditional sources of power to enlightenment rationalism questioning monarchical legitimacy

Causation

Cause of absolutism: weakened influence of catholic church, economics, desire for stability following chaos of the 30 years war

causes of English Civil war: divine right of king, 30 year war, Anglican church

Causes of partition of Poland: failure of Polish monarchy to centralize power allowing neighboring absolutist states (Russia, Austria, Prussia) to annex the country

Causes of the Enlightenment: the Scientific revolution´s focus on logic and observation encouraged thinkers to apply these methods to human behavior, government and society, questioning the divine right and promoting natural rights