AP Euro-Lively
Unit4: Absolutism, Constitutionalism, and a New Worldview
Chapters 16-18 Study Guide
Directions: Part I of the study guide will not be assessed as part of the Study Guide grade; however, it
is a crucial component of the Course Notebook grade. You are required to provide a 2-3 sentence
identification of each term that appears below. This identification should include a basic definition of
the term (who, what, where, when) and also a statement of significance (So what?). After each unit,
you should print these terms and place them in your Course Notebook. At times, I will ask you to bring
these notebooks to class so that I can check your progress in this matter.
Part I
Identifying Key Terms
Notable People
Cardinal Richelieu
King Louis XIV of France
Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Peter the Great
King James I of England
King Charles I of England
Oliver Cromwell
King Charles II of England
King James II of England
William and Mary
John Locke
Thomas Hobbes
Nicolaus Copernicus
Tycho Brahe
Johannes Kepler
Galileo
Sir Isaac Newton
Francis Bacon
Rene Descartes
Baron de Montesquieu
Voltaire
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
David Hume
Denis Diderot
Adam Smith
Mary Wollstonecraft
Frederick the Great of Prussia
Catherine the Great of Russia
Maria Theresa of Austria
Joseph II of Austria
Terms and Events
Absolutism
Act of Toleration
English Bill of Rights
Divine Right
Fronde
Glorious Revolution
Intendants
Boyars
Cossacks
Janissaries
Junkers
Bourbon dynasty
Stuart monarchy
Romanov dynasty
Hohenzollern dynasty
Cartesian Dualism
Deductive method
Empiricism
Hermeticism
Inductive method
Rationalism
Royal Society
Scientific Revolution
Alchemy
Querelles de femmes
Deism
Laissez-faire
Natural law
Natural rights
Neoclassicism
Methodism
Philosophe
Physiocrat
Pietism
Rococo
Salon
Tabula rasa
Tories vs Whigs
Peace of Utrecht
Peace of Paris
Stadholder
Puritans
Enlightenment
Enlightened Despots
Versailles
Constitutionalism
Republicanism
1
AP Euro-Lively
Part II
Review Questions
Directions: Check your understanding of this chapter by answering the following questions in a
minimum of four-five well written and effective sentences each.
1. What were the common crises and achievements of seventeenth-century European states?
2. Louis XIV declared his goal was “one king, one law, one faith.” Analyze the methods the
king used to achieve his objective and discuss the extent to which he was successful.
3. Analyze the major ways through which Tsar Peter the Great sought to reform society and its
institutions in order to strengthen Russia and its position in Europe.
4. How and why did the constitutional state triumph in the Dutch Republic and England?
5. What was revolutionary in the new attitudes toward the natural world?
6. Contrast the Aristotelian-medieval world-view with that of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. In your answer, refer to the contributions of Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Galileo,
and Newton?
7. How did the new worldview affect the way people thought about society and human
relations?
8. What impact did the Enlightenment have on political developments and monarchical
absolutism?
9. Why can it be said that the palace of Versailles was used as a device to ruin the nobility of
France? Was Versailles a palace or a prison?
10. Trace the development of arguments for religious toleration during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. How did these arguments change over time? What contributed to this
change?
11. What were the immediate and long-range causes of the English Civil War of 1642-1649?
What were the results?
12. Why is it said that Locke was the spokesman for the liberal English Revolution of 1689 and
for representative government?
13. Compare and contrast John Locke’s theory of the social contract and Thomas Hobbes’
theory of the social contract. Describe how one of these figures influenced the work of JeanJacques Rousseau.
14. What were the reasons for the re-emergence of serfdom in eastern Europe in the early
modern period?
15. Why would the reign of the Great Elector be regarded as “the most crucial constitutional
struggle in Prussian history hundreds of years”? What did he do to increase royal authority?
Who were the losers?
16. What role, if any, did war play in the evolution of absolutism in eastern Europe?
17. How did the new scientific theory and discoveries alter the concept of God and religion? Did
science, in fact, come to dictate humanity’s concept of God?
18. To what extent did the Enlightenment express optimistic ideas in eighteenth-century
Europe? Illustrate your answer with reference to at least 3 specific individuals and their
works.
19. To what extent were women affected by the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment?
Part III Chronological Awareness
Directions: Place the following events in the correct chronological order. Provide the year of each
event. Since the events are given to you in a sequence that is out of chronological order, please
reorder the events correctly. In the event that one or more of the events listed below do not have a
2
AP Euro-Lively
single year in which it took place, provide the appropriate date ranges. Rewrite this list in the
correct chronological order, providing the year of the event, occurrence, or trend.
1. King Louis XIV of France revokes the Edict of Nantes
2. King Charles I of England is executed
3. Glorious Revolution
4. Publication of Diderot’s Encyclopedia
5. Peace of Paris
6. Galileo appears before the Roman Inquisition
7. Frederick II ascends the throne of Prussia
8. Copernicus publishes On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
9. Peace of Utrecht
10. Thomas Hobbes publishes Leviathan
Part IV Multiple Choice Practice
Directions: Each of the questions or incomplete statements below is followed by five suggested
answers or completions. Select the one that is best in each case, and then write the letter and the
answer of your choice on your study guide.
1. All of the following are true of Jean Baptiste Colbert EXCEPT
a. He attempted to eliminate internal tariffs.
b. He promoted mercantilism.
c. He supported transportation improvements such as canals and roads to facilitate trade.
d. He attempted to abolish tariffs on foreign goods.
e. He regulated the quality of French manufactured goods.
2. Which of the following explains the significance of the 1683 Siege of Vienna?
a. The defeat of the Ottomans at Vienna ended any significant threat to Europe from the
Turks.
b. It showed that the Europeans would never be safe from Ottoman aggression.
c. It proved that rifts between European nations were too deep for them to unite against a
common enemy.
d. The defeat of the Ottomans at Vienna led to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
e. The defeat of the Polish armies at Vienna showed Poland’s weakness.
3. Which of the following was true of the English Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell?
a. Cromwell gained support from the Levellers, a radical group that called for freedom of
speech and religious toleration.
b. Despite fighting for the rights of Parliament in the English Civil War, Cromwell
disbanded the Rump Parliament.
c. Cromwell ruled in accordance with the Instrument of Government, a formal written
constitution that had been in existence since 1215.
d. Cromwell disbanded the New Model Army, fearing it would overthrow him.
e. Cromwell concluded a treaty with Ireland, hoping to keep the Irish loyal to England.
4. The major reason why the Catholic Church did not immediately reject the writings of
Copernicus was because most Church leaders
a. Believed he was right.
3
AP Euro-Lively
b. Welcomed his theory as a chance to prove the truth of the Ptolemaic system.
c. Thought that reasonable people would immediately reject his theory as too outrageous to
be true.
d. Believed that his theory would not attract much following and thought it best not to call
attention to it.
e. Ignored it since many Protestant leaders had denounced it – the Catholic leaders did not
want to be like the Protestants in any way.
5. All of the following statements about Bacon and Descartes are true EXCEPT
a. Both demanded proof for theories.
b. Descartes promoted rationalism while Bacon promoted empiricism.
c. Both rejected mathematics as proof of knowledge.
d. Descartes promoted deduction while Bacon promoted induction.
e. Both believed that medieval scientific traditions should be rejected since there was no
proof of their accuracy.
6. All of the following are true of the relationship between religion and science during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries EXCEPT
a. Almost all scientists rejected religious beliefs.
b. Galileo believed religion and science should not be pitted against each other.
c. The growing split between religion and science emerged largely because churches clung
to medieval beliefs about the universe and the world.
d. Pascal tried to unite Christianity and science by showing that science rests on a basis of
order and reason, and religion on faith.
e. The growing rift between religion and science by the end of the seventeenth century led
thinkers to a more secular basis for their ideas.
7. Which of the following books supported the basic tenets of the physiocrats?
a. Voltaire’s Philosophic Letters
b. Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations
c. Denis Diderot’s Encyclopedia
d. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract
e. Marie-Jean de Condorcet’s The Progress of the Human Mind
8. All of the following helped lead to the Enlightenment EXCEPT
a. scientists’ study of the physical world.
b. John Locke’s belief in the idea of a tabula rasa.
c. the widespread impact of Rousseau’s theory of general will.
d. Isaac Newton’s mechanized view of the universe.
e. European monarchs’ support of scientific societies.
9.
Vesalius challenged the ideas of Galen by
a. asserting that diseases originated from chemical imbalances.
b. publishing an illustrated thesis that outlined the structure of the body and the organs,
correcting Galen’s misconceptions about human anatomy.
c. affirming that the same blood in the body flows in both the veins and the arteries; Galen
thought there were two systems.
d. stating that diseases could be cured with chemical treatments.
e. asserting that the heart rather than the liver is the center of the circulatory system.
4
AP Euro-Lively
10. Which of the following best explains Poland’s weakness in the seventeenth century?
a. It had a strong king who clashed with an equally strong nobility.
b. It had a weak monarchy that could not act independently because of the power of a
somewhat divided nobility.
c. It had a strong army that dominated government decisions.
d. It suffered from severe partitioning by the major powers surrounding it.
e. It suffered from serious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants.
Note: Incomplete study guides will receive a 10 point penalty. This will not be allowed to be made
up via redo. Organize your time and work on your study guide a little bit at a time. Substantially
incomplete study guides will be graded, but considered late, and only allowed to be redone up to 25
points.
Study Guide Grading Rubric. 50 points.
Review Questions (20 points) - 4 questions will be selected at random from those above. Each will
be worth 5 points.
Multiple Choice (10 points) - This section is worth 10 points. 1 point will be deducted for each
incorrect response.
Chronology (10 points) - This section is worth 10 point. Points will be deducted for each incorrect
response.
Overall Completion (10 points) - 10 points will be awarded for completion of all questions and
parts.
5