1. Absolute and Parliamentary Monarchies
a. Feudal monarchies come to end
i. Nobles lose influence after wars
ii. Heavy wars require more taxes/better administration
b. Absolute Monarchy
i. Modeled after France
ii. Parliament doesn’t meet
iii. Blew up castles
iv. Bureaucracy from merchants/lawyers
v. Appointed representatives to provinces
vi. Professionalized army
a. formal training officers – no longer nobility
b. uniforms and support
c. military hospitals/pensions – Hotel des Invalides
c. King Louis XIV of France– “I am the state”
i. Patron of arts – government has cultural role
ii. Versailles – keep nobles busy
d. Mercantilism – protect economy of nation
i. Reduce internal tariffs
ii. Support manufacturing
iii. Limit imports from other nations – lose $
a. Heavy import taxes
b. Need colonies for natural resources/market
c. Borrowed in Spain, Prussia (Germany today), Austria-Hungary (Hapsburg)
e. Focus on military, expansion/protection
2. Tsarist Autocracy of Peter the Great
a. Autocrat
b. Put down revolts with cruelty
c. Organized military
d. Devalued parliament
e. Recruited bureaucrats from outside nobility
f. Secret police to watch bureaucrats/prevent dissent
g. Chancery of Secret Police to 1990
h. Foreign policy
i. attacked Ottoman Empire, but didn’t win a ton of battles
ii. weakened Sweden – sea port
i. shifted capital to St. Petersburg
j. What Westernization Meant
i. Political changes
ii. Small bureaucratic departments (think Ministries or Departments)
k. Military
i. Improved weaponry
ii. First Russian navy
l. Got rid of nobility for advisors – got specialized people
m. Tsar-appointed local magistrates – can control provinces
n. Systemized law codes/tax system (stuff China did 2000 years ago)
o. New training institutes for bureaucrats
p. Economic changes
i. Metallurgy and mining
q. Unlike W. Europe, didn’t urbanize, develop middle class
r. Serfs used for manufacturing – nobles rewarded
s. economics funded military
t. Cultural changes
i. Power to upper class women
ii. wear Western clothing
iii. Attend public events
iv. Peasant relations stayed the same
a. Take power from elite
v. shave beards, wear western clothes – Mongol connection
vi. altered appearance
u. Borrowing from the West
i. Education in math/sciences
ii. Western cultural zone
iii. imported ballet from France
iv. Christmas trees from Germany
v. To what extent was West imitated? Selective
i. Didn’t change poor
ii. Not wage labor, but serf (slave/coerced) labor
iii. Economics for military purposes not for commercial expansion
iv. Ideas to strengthen aristocracy, not create political rebellions
w. Hostile Responses
i. Peasants resented nobles – some didn’t speak Russian
ii. Elite discouraged Western change – losing Russian identity
iii. Set precedent for cycle of enthusiasm > revulsion
3. Consolidation Under Catherine the Great
a. Weak rule following Peter the Great
b. Military leaders fought for power
c. Anti-western leaders emerged
d. Peter the Great’s daughter’s nephew – Peter III – mentally challenged
e. Wife Catherine – German princess – takes over
i. Put down rebellions
ii. Centralized power
iii. Used Pugachev Rebellion as an excuse for more power
f. Catherine II – fascinating women rulers
i. Hated husband/son
ii. Helped overthrow husband
iii. Enlightened leader + realist/needed to centralize
iv. Selective westernizer
a. Brought some ideas of French Enlightenment
b. Brought some reformers to discuss law codes
c. Image vs. Reality – centralized authority – serf life gets worse
g. New powers to nobility – could increase punishment
i. Nobles then gave more power to central authority
ii. Became service aristocracy – sold out?
h. Role of landlord
i. Requisition peasant labor
i. Levy taxes
j. Impose punishments
i. Fading from Western influence – still selective
k. Improved St. Petersburg
l. Encouraged nobles to travel
m. Closed Russia after French Revolution – hmmm…why?
i. Censored intellectuals – here’s a pattern/precedent
ii. Russian expansion
iii. Fought Ottoman Empire
iv. ii. Extended holdings all the way down to modern day Alaska, Oregon, N. California
n. Russia’s interests in Europe
i. Divided Poland between Austria and Prussia
ii. Poland’s parliament kept crippling gov’t flexibility
iii. Set precedent of involvement in W. Europe
a. Eventually, Russia would stop Napoleon
o. Success by 1800 – summary – here’s what they accomplished
i. Won independence
ii. ii. Centralized gov’t
4. Themes in Early Modern Russian History
a. Introduction
i. Nobility extremely important
a. Two types
a. Great landowners/absentee owners living in the cities – westernized
b. Smaller owners live out in the countryside – less Westernized
ii. Serfdom: The Life of East Europe’s Masses
a. Nobles power over serfs increases
a. Free farmers before
i. Fell into debt – repay through servitude
ii. worked land, but didn’t own it
b. Gov’t encouraged process – why?
c. Made nobles happy – won’t revolt
d. Method of controlling masses, when bureaucracy wasn’t effective
iii. Serf laws
a. 1649 – hereditary status – born a serf – can’t escape
b. Similarity to slavery
iv. Bought and sold
v. Gambled away
vi. Punished by masters
vii. Differences
a. nation enslaved own people, not outsiders
viii. relied on community ties (see precedent for commun-ism)