Absolutism in Eastern Europe
Unit 3: Chapter 17
I.
Eastern Europe
A. Rise of Russia, Austria & Prussia (RAP)
B. Demise of HRE*, Ottoman Empire &
Polish Kingdom (HOP)
C. Eastern European absolutism
D. Foreign threats: Tartars,
Mongols, Turks
1. continual wartime emergencies = monarchs
reduced political power of landed nobility,
in exchange nobles gained unchallenged power
over the peasants
2. Monarchs monopolized political power in three
key areas:
1) collected permanent taxes w/o consent
2) maintained permanent standing armies
3) conducted relations with other states freely (Sovereign Power)
Holy
Roman
Empire, ca.
1600
Ottoman Empire
Poland-Lithuania, 1635
The Transformation
of Eastern Europe:
1648-1795
1795
1660
Partition of Poland
by RAP
II. Serfdom
A. Pre 1300 decline of serfdom
B. Post 1300 increase of serfdom
C. Between 1400-1650 hereditary subjugation
D. Why serfdom in Eastern Europe but not
Western Europe?
III. Austrian Habsburgs
A. Holy Roman Empire: Habsburg Monarchy,
Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony, Hanover, 75
small principalities
B. Consolidation of power: focus inward &
Eastward
1. Bohemia after 30 Years’ War
a. Robot / stamped out Protestantism
2. Centralization of old Austrian provinces:
Austria, Tyrol, Styria
b. standing army
3. Hungary (Magyars)
Growth of Austria 1748
C. Government organization
1. 3 Parts: Austria, K. of Bohemia,
K. of Hungary
2. No single constitutional system – One
common ruler: Habsburg monarch
3. Hungarian nobility (Protestant) –
Austrian Habsburgs (Catholic)
D. Important Habsburg rulers
1. Leopold I (1658-1705)*
a. Drove Turks back after 1683
2. Emperor Charles VI (1711-1740)
a. Pragmatic Sanction – dynastic unity
of the Empire (Maria Theresa)
E. War with Turks
1. Ottoman Empire (Islamic)
2. Fall of Constantinople, 1453
3. Suleiman the Magnificent
(r. 1520-1566)
a. Sultan owned all
property – no landed
nobility
4. Millet system
a. religious autonomy
5. Janissary corps
a. Christian slaves from
the Balkans
The
Ottoman
Empire at
its
Height,
1566
6. Decline of the Ottoman Empire
a. Death of Suleiman the Magnificent
(1566)
b. Monarchial absolutism & strong
centralized rule gave way to palace
intrigue, weak sultans, powerful
oligarchy of top officials
1) establishment of Muslim landowners
2) decline of military might
3) end to expansion
7. Siege of Vienna, 1638 – last attack on
the Habsburgs Balkans:
“Eastern Question ?”
IV. Prussia
A. House of Hohenzollern
1. Brandenburg-Prussia in 1648
2. Frederick William, the “Great
a. Prussian militarism
b. Estates accepted permanent taxation
w/o consent
c. Nobility unwilling to join with towns
in opposition to absolutism
3. Frederick I “The Ostentatious”
(1688-1713)
a. Most popular Hohenzollern
b. Encouraged education
c. Wars
a. War of the League of Augsburg
b. War of Spanish Succession
1) First “King of Prussia”
4. Frederick William I (1713-1740)
“The Soldiers’ King”
a. Established Prussian absolutism
b. Increased army
* “Sparta of the North” –
man for man – strongest military
c. Junkers became official officer caste
Potsdam
Giants
Growth of Brandenburg-Prussia to 1748
V. Russia
A. Mongol Yoke
1. Muscovite princes – became hereditary
“Great Princes” through service to Mongol
Khans (Golden Horde)
2. Ivan I (r.1288-1340)
3. Ivan III (r.1442-1505)
B. Emergence of Muscovy as
European state
1. Ivan the Great (Ivan III)
a. “Third Rome” – Tsar / Czar = Caesar
2. Ivan IV “Ivan the Terrible”
(1533-1584)
a. Service nobility
1) reduced the power
of the Boyars
b. autocratic tsar
1) Kholops “slaves”
Ivan the Terrible
Muscovy, 1533
Ivan IV continued….
c. Married a Anastasia Romanov
d. Territorial expansion westward
e. monopolization limited middle class
f. Costly war with Poland-Lithuania
g. “Cossacks”- outlaw army of peasants
3. “Time of Troubles” (1584-1613)
a. followed death of Ivan IV: fighting
among his relatives, invasion by Poles &
Swedes, social upheaval (Cossacks)
4. Romanov Dynasty (1613-1917)
a. Michael Romanov (r. 1613-1645)
b. Alexis Romanov (r. 1645-1676)
1) Patriarch Nikon vs. Old Believers
2) Stenka Razin – Cossack rebellion 1670
C. Peter the Great (r.1682-1725)
1. Family background
a. Sofia (Tsarina – Peter’s older sister)
b. Strelski, 1698
2. More efficient government
a. Table of Ranks
b. Secret police
c. State regulated monopolies
d. State control of Russian Orthodox
Church
3. St. Petersburg
The Winter Palace
4. More efficient military
a. western methods
b. conscription
5. Great Northern War (1700-1721)
a. coalition of northern states led
by Russia against Sweden
1) Battle of Poltova 1709
b. Resulted in gaining “window to
the West” on the Baltic*
Expansion of
Russia to 1725
6. Westernization