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baroque style
A style in art and music lasting from roughly 1600 to 1750 characterized by the use of drama and motion to create heightened emotion, especially prevalent in Catholic countries.
boyars
The highest-ranking members of the Russian nobility.
Charles I
Stuart king of England who lost the civil war and was executed by Parliamentary forces
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.
Cossacks
Free groups and outlaw armies originally comprising runaway peasants living on the borders of Russian territory from the fourteenth century onward. By the end of the sixteenth century they had formed an alliance with the Russian state.
Ferdinand III
Habsburg emperor; expanded and centralized Austrian power
fiscal-military state
Centralized bureaucratic states that appeared in Europe in the seventeenth century and that harnessed domestic resources to maintain large armies.
Frederick William the Great
elector; founder of Prussian absolutism
janissary corps
The core of the sultan's army, composed of slave conscripts from non-Muslim parts of the empire; after 1683 it became a volunteer force.
John Locke
English political philosopher promoting constitutionalism
Junkers
The nobility of Brandenburg and Prussia, who were reluctant allies of Frederick William in his consolidation of the Prussian state.
Louis XIV
the "Sun King" and founder of French absolutism
mercantilism
A system of economic regulations aimed at increasing the power of the state based on the belief that a nation's international power was based on its wealth, specifically its supply of gold and silver.
millet system
A system used by the Ottomans whereby subjects were divided into religious communities, with each millet (nation) enjoying autonomous self-government under its religious leaders.
Oliver Cromwell
military ruler of England under the Protectorate
Peace of Utrecht
A series of treaties, from 1713 to 1715, that ended the War of the Spanish Succession, ended French expansion in Europe, and marked the rise of the British Empire.
Peace of Westphalia
The name of a series of treaties that concluded the Thirty Years' War in 1648 and marked the end of large-scale religious violence in Europe.
Peter the Great
tsar; westernized Russia
Protectorate
The English military dictatorship (1653-1658) established by Oliver Cromwell following the execution of Charles I.
Puritans
Members of a sixteenth- and seventeenth-century reform movement within the Church of England that advocated purifying it of Roman Catholic elements such as bishops, elaborate ceremonials, and wedding rings.
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.
stadholder
The executive officer in each of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, a position often held by the princes of Orange.
Suleiman the Magnificent
Ottoman sultan at the height of its power
sultan
The ruler of the Ottoman Empire; he owned all the agricultural land of the empire and was served by an army and bureaucracy composed of highly trained slaves.
Test Act
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.
the Fronde
A series of violent uprisings during the early reign of Louis XIV triggered by growing royal control and increased taxation.
Thomas Hobbes
political theorist in favor of strong centralized government; offered secular defense of absolutism
William and Mary
king and queen of England after the Glorious Revolution
