Unit 5: Absolutism to Revolution
World History 10
Review and Study Guide
NOTE: This is simply designed to help you in reviewing/preparing for the Unit #5
Exam, particularly the multiple-choice portion of the objective exam. There is no
guarantee that all material for all questions is covered here or anything. Similarly, there
are certainly items here that are NOT covered directly on the exam.
To make reading easier, I did NOT put most foreign words in italics. (Titles, however,
are italicized.)
Chapter 21 – Absolute Monarchs in Europe, 1500 - 1800
People, places, terms and events:
21:1 – Philip II, Reconquista, Battle of Lepanto, Escorial, El Greco, Velazquez, Don Quixote, inflation,
Dutch Revolt, Rembrandt, Jan Vermeer, absolute monarch, divine right
21:2 – Huguenots, Henry of Navarre, Edict of Nantes, Cardinal Richelieu, skepticism, Montaigne, Rene
Descartes, Louis XIV, “The Sun King,” Cardinal Mazarin, intendants, Jean Baptiste Colbert, Versailles, War
of the Spanish Succession
21:3 – Peace of Augsburg, Thirty Years’ War, Hapsburg, Gustavus Adolphus, Peace of Westphalia, Maria
Theresa, Hohenzollerns, Junkers, Frederick the Great, Seven Years’ War
21:4 – Ivan III (Ivan the Great), Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible), boyars, oprichnina, Time of Troubles, Mikhail
Romanov, Peter the Great, “Grand Embassy,” westernization, St. Petersburg
21:5 – Parliament, Puritans, Charles I, Petition of Right, English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell, Cavaliers,
Roundheads, Restoration, habeus corpus, Glorious Revolution, William and Mary, constitutional monarchy,
cabinet
Major concepts/questions:
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What were the ways in which Spain was affected by the rule of Philip II?
What political, economic and social factors contributed to weaken the Spanish empire?
Who were some of the major contributors to art and literature during the era of Philip II?
What were the major causes of absolutism?
What were the dominant characteristics of the rule of France’s Louis XIV?
How did Louis XIV weaken the nobility and establish absolute control?
What was the legacy of Louis XIV for France?
Continued 
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What were the major events in the Thirty Years’ War?
What were the lasting effects of the Thirty Years’ War?
How did Ivan III and Ivan IV affect Russia during their reigns?
What legacies did Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV) leave for Russia?
What were the main components of Peter the Great’s “westernization” campaign?
What were the underlying and immediate causes of the English Civil War?
How did Oliver Cromwell impact England?
How did a constitutional monarchy evolve in England?
Chapter 22 – Enlightenment and Revolution, 1550 - 1789
People, places, terms and events:
22:1 – geocentric theory, Ptolemy, Scientific Revolution, heliocentric, Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho Brahe,
Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Inquisition, scientific method, Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, Isaac
Newton, Edward Jenner, Robert Boyle
22:2 – Enlightenment, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, social contract, John Locke, philosophes, Voltaire,
Montesquieu, separation of powers, Rousseau, Cesare Beccaria, Mary Wollstonecroft
22:3 – salons, Diderot, Encyclopedia, baroque, neoclassical, enlightened despots, Frederick the Great, Joseph
II, Catherine the Great, Partitions of Poland
22:4 – Navigation Act, French and Indian War, “no taxation without representation,” “Boston Tea Party,”
Lexington and Concord, Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, Articles of Confederation,
Constitution, checks and balances, federal system, Bill of Rights
Major concepts/questions:
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What factors contributed to the Scientific Revolution?
How did Nicolaus Copernicus contribute to the Scientific Revolution?
Why did Galileo come into conflict with the Catholic Church?
What did Thomas Hobbes and John Locke each see as the desirable “social contract?”
What were the major views of the philosophes?
What were the lasting legacies and impacts of the Enlightenment?
What were the features of the rule of an “enlightened despot?”
How did Catherine the Great impact Russia?
What were the key underlying causes of the American Revolution?
How did the ideas of the Enlightenment influence the American Revolution?
How did the American colonists win their independence from the British?
How did the Americans attempt to govern their new state?
Continued 
Chapter 23 – The French Revolution and Napoleon, 1789 - 1815
People, places, terms and events:
23:1 – Old Regime, bourgeoisie, First Estate, Second Estate, Third Estate, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette,
Estates General, National Assembly, Tennis Court Oath, Bastille, Great Fear
23:2 – Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” Legislative
Assembly, émigrés, sans-culottes, Jacobins, Jean-Paul Marat, Georges Danton, guillotine, Maximilien
Robespierre, “Republic of Virtue,” Committee of Public Safety, Reign of Terror, Directory
23:3 – Napoleon Bonaparte, coup d’etat, plebiscite, lycees, concordat, Napoleonic Code, Louisiana
Territory, Battle of Austerlitz, Battle of Trafalgar
23:4 – blockade, Continental System, Peninsular War, guerrillas, Czar Alexander, scorched-earth policy,
Elba, Hundred Days, Waterloo
23:5 – Congress of Vienna, Klemens von Metternich, balance of power, legitimacy, conservative, Holy
Alliance, Concert of Europe, peninsulares, Creoles
Major concepts/questions:
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What were the dominant features of France’s “Old Regime?”
What were both the underlying and immediate causes of the French Revolution?
How did the French Revolution escalate from a moderate phase to an extreme one?
What were the key components of the “Reign of Terror?”
How did Napoleon build his power and contribute to the growth of French strength?
What were the key events in Napoleon’s expansion of French power?
What foreign policy mistakes caused the eventual downfall of Napoleon?
What were the key events in the last years of Napoleon’s rule?
What were the major concerns on the agenda at the Congress of Vienna?
What were the major outcomes of the Congress of Vienna?
Continued 
Chapter 24 – Nationalist Revolutions Sweep the West, 1789 - 1900
People, places, terms and events:
24:1 – peninsulares, Creoles, mestizos, mulattos, Haiti, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Simon Bolivar, Jose de San
Martin, Miguel Hidalgo, Brazil, King John
24:2 – conservative, liberal, radical, nationalism, nation-state, Balkans, 1848 Revolutions, Louis Napoleon,
Alexander II
24:3 – unification, separation, state-building, Russification, Camilo di Cavour, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Junkers,
Otto von Bismarck, realpolitik, kaiser
24:4 – romanticism, romantic poets, Victor Hugo, Mary Shelly, Beethoven, realism, daguerreotypes,
impressionism, Monet
Major concepts/questions:
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How did social class impact life in Latin America?
Who were the dominant figures in the age of Latin American revolutions?
What were the key outcomes of the revolutions in Latin America?
What were the major political philosophies of the early 1800s?
How did the rise of nationalism affect Europe in the 19th century?
What were the common elements of the Revolutions of 1848?
How did nationalism affect the “aging empires” of Europe?
How were the various states of Italy united?
What were the key events in Prussian nationalism and the unification of Germany?
What were the key elements in the Romanticism movement?
What were the key differences that emerged in the growth of realism?