Absolutism Review World History/Napp
“Peter the Great became czar in 1689. Like the other Romanov czars who preceded him, Peter was an absolutist monarch who claimed the divine right to rule.
A few years after becoming czar, Peter made a trip to the West. When he returned to Russia, he was determined to westernize, or Europeanize, Russia. He was especially eager to borrow European technology. Only this kind of modernization could give him the army and navy he needed to make Russia a great power. Under Peter, Russia became a great military power. By his death in 1725, Russia was an important European state.
One of Peter’s first goals was to reorganize the army. He employed both Russians and Europeans as officers. He drafted peasants for 25-year stints of service to build a standing army of 210,000 men. Peter has also been given credit for forming the first Russian navy.
To impose the rule of the central government more effectively throughout the land, Peter divided Russia into provinces. He hoped to create a ‘police state,’ by which he meant a well-ordered community governed by law. However, few of his bureaucrats shared his
concept of honest service and duty to the state. Peter hoped for a sense of civic duty, but his own personality created an atmosphere of fear that prevented it. He wrote to one administrator, ‘According to these orders act, act, act. I won’t write more, but you will
pay with your head if you interpret orders again.’
After his first trip to the West, Peter began to introduce Western customs, practices,
and manners into Russia. He ordered the preparation of the first Russian book of etiquette to teach Western manners. Among other things, the book pointed out that it was not polite to spit on the floor or to scratch oneself at dinner.
Because Westerners did not wear beards or the traditional long-skirted coat, Russian beards had to be shaved and coats shortened. At the royal court, Peter shaved off his nobles’ beards and cut their coats at the knees with his own hands. Outside the court, barbers and tailors planted at town gates cut the beards and cloaks of those who entered.
One group of Russians – upper-class women – gained much from Peter’s cultural reforms. Having watched women mixing freely with men in Western courts, Peter insisted that Russian upper-class women remove the veils that had traditionally covered their faces and move out into society. Peter also held gatherings in which both sexes could mix for
conversation and dancing, a practice he had learned in the West.
The object of Peter’s domestic reforms was to make Russia into a great state and military power. An important part of this was to ‘open a window to the West,’ meaning a port with
ready access to Europe. This could be achieved only on the Baltic Sea. At that time, however, the Baltic coast was controlled by Sweden, the most important power in northern Europe. Along and hard-fought war with Sweden enabled Peter to acquire the lands he sought. On a marshland on the Baltic in 1703, Peter began the construction of a new city, St. Petersburg, his window on the West. St. Petersburg was finished during Peter’s lifetime
and remained the Russian capital until 1918.” ~ World History
Word Bank:
Czar, Divine, Westernize, Navy, Etiquette, Beards, Women, Window, Warm, Capital
J
Which statement would Louis XIV, Philip II, and Peter the Great most likely support?1. “The king is entitled to unquestioning obedience.”
2. “Parliament should represent the best interests of the people.”
3. “People have the right to revolt against an unjust government.”
4. “Government should be administered by people of all beliefs.”
Which change is most closely associated with Peter the Great of Russia?
1. establishment of Moscow as the capital city
2. extension of Russia’s borders to the Northern Caucuses and Ukraine
3. westernization and modernization of the country
4. emancipation of the serfs on private estates
Louis XIV strengthened the power of the monarchy in France by
1. centralizing control
2. granting democratic reforms
3. practicing religious toleration
4. reducing the size of the bureaucracy
Historians frequently portray Louis XIV’s construction of the palace of Versailles and Peter the Great’s building of the city of Saint Petersburg as
1. shrines to religious beliefs
2. monuments to personal rule
3. examples of colonial architectural influences
4. efforts to isolate and protect the ruler
Which form of government is associated with Peter the Great?
1. constitutional monarchy
2. direct democracy
3. theocracy
4. absolute monarchy
A DEO REX, A REGE LEX – “the king is from God, and law is from the king.”
~ James I
This quotation best reflects the concept of
1.constitutional monarchy
2.separation of powers
3.equal representation
4.divine right rule
Louis XIV and Peter the Great would most likely agree with the expression
1. “government should leave businesses alone”
2. “countries should settle differences without war”
3. “do not question government authority”
4. “all men are created with natural rights”
Which person is credited with saying “L’état, c’est moi” (I am the state)?
1. Louis XIV
2. John Locke
3. Karl Marx
4. Queen Isabella
From the 15th to the 18th centuries, absolute monarchs of Europe and Asia sought to
1. increase the power of the Catholic Church
2. centralize their political power
3. redistribute land to the peasants
4. strengthen feudalism
One similarity in the rule of Peter the Great, Suleiman I, and Louis XIV is that each leader
1. shared power with a legislature
2. practiced religious toleration
3. expanded his territory
4. decreased the amount of taxes collected
Base your answer to the question on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies.
…The power of God can be felt in a moment from one end of the world to the other: the royal power acts simultaneously throughout the kingdom. It holds the whole kingdom in position just as God holds the whole world.
If God were to withdraw his hand, the entire world would return to nothing: if authority ceases in the kingdom, all lapses into confusion…
~ Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet
This passage describes the idea of
1. divine right rule
2. parliamentary democracy
3. Marxism
4. totalitarianism
King Louis XIV of France, Peter the Great of Russia, and Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire were all considered absolute rulers because they
1. broke from the Roman Catholic Church
2. helped feudal lords build secure castles
3. instituted programs that provided more power to their parliaments
4. determined government policies without the consent of their people
Which quotation was most likely made by an absolute monarch?
1. “The government that governs best, governs least.”
2. “I am the state.”
3. “The government must be based on a sound constitution.”
4. “It is the parliament that must make the laws.” / What happened in Russia as a result of actions taken by Peter the Great?
1. Russia was weakened by French invasions.
2. Catholicism was adopted as the state religion.
3. The Duma was reformed and the serfs were freed.
4. Russia borrowed Western ideas and expanded its territories.
One way in which Peter the Great, Louis XIV, and Philip II are similar is that each
1. supported missionary efforts of the Roman Catholic Church
2. sought to centralize power by limiting the power of the nobility
3. fought to block the establishment of British colonies in the Western Hemisphere
4. challenged feudal practices by emancipating serfs
A main goal of the monarchs of Europe during the Age of Absolutism was to
1. establish legislative bodies
2. centralize political power
3. improve the quality of life for the peasant class
4. expand the role of the Catholic Church
What was a key characteristic of an absolute monarchy in the 16th and 17th centuries?
1. centralized governmental authority
2. increased political rights for peasants and serfs
3. freedom of religion
4. a system of checks and balances
The theory justifying a monarch’s rule by God’s authority is called
1. laissez faire
2. totalitarianism
3. predestination
4. divine right
Base your answer to the question on the speakers’ statements below and on your knowledge of social studies.
Speaker A: / Although I spread serfdom in my country, I tried to modernize our society by incorporating western technology.
Speaker B: / I promoted culture with my support of the arts. Unfortunately, I drained my country’s treasury by building my palace at Versailles and involving my country in costly wars.
Speaker C: / I gained much wealth from my overseas empire in the Americas. I waged war against the Protestants and lost.
Speaker D: / I inherited the throne and imprisoned my foes without a trial. I dissolved Parliament because I did not want to consult with them when I increased taxes.
Which type of government is most closely associated with all these speakers?
1. limited monarchy
2. absolute monarchy
3. direct democracy
4. constitutional democracy
Many European monarchs of the 1600s maintained that they should have absolute power to rule because they
1. needed to defend their nations against threats from the Western Hemisphere
2. thought that all people should have the right to a good ruler
3. had been given their power to govern from God
4. thought that communism was the superior political system
Base your answer to the question on the quotation below and on your knowledge of social studies:
…Finally, gather together all that we have said, so great and so august [important], about royal authority. You have seen a great nation united under one man: you have seen his sacred power, paternal and absolute: you have seen that secret reason which directs the body politic, enclosed in one head: you have seen the image of God in kings, and you will have the idea of majesty of kingship.
God is holiness itself, goodness itself, power itself, reason itself. In these things consists the divine majesty. In their reflection consists the majesty of the prince….
~ Jacques-Benigne Bossuet
Which philosophy of government is expressed by this quotation?
1. oligarchy
2. fascism
3. democracy
4. divine right
Base your answer on the poem and on your knowledge of social studies.
“…Here a new city shall be wrought [built]….
Shall break a window to the West…
Here flags of foreign nations all
By waters new to them will call….”
~ Alexander Pushkin, The Bronze Horseman
Which policy was developed to implement the plans described in the poem?
1. westernization
2. isolationism
3. appeasement
4. balance of power politics
Base your answer on the cartoon and on your knowledge of social studies.
The cartoon is commenting on the efforts of Peter the Great to force the Russian nobility to
1. conform to Asian social values
2. adopt Western culture
3. prepare for military battle
4. bow to pressures from the Ottoman Empire
Peter the Great
1672–1725 – Russian czar
Peter the Great, the man who made Russia a great power, was an unusual character. He was a towering, strong man 6 feet, 9 inches tall. He was coarse in his tastes and rude in his behavior. He enjoyed a low kind of humor (belching contests and crude jokes) and vicious punishments (flogging, impaling, and roasting). Peter often assisted dentists and enjoyed
pulling their patients’ teeth.
During his first visit to the West, Peter immersed himself in the life of the people. He once dressed in the clothes of a Dutch sea captain and spent time with Dutch sailors. A German princess said of him: ‘He told us that he worked in building ships, showed us his hands, and
made us touch the callous places that had been caused by work.’”
~ World History
1- Identify unusual facts about Peter the Great.
2- How did Peter the Great transform Russia?