Open Book Study Questions for Chapter 13
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What precipitated the War of the Spanish Succession? What did Spain gain and lose?
 The cause of war was that in his will, Charles II made his heir the grandson of Louis XIV, Philip of
Anjou, who became Philip V of Spain (r. 1700-1746). The thought of a relative of Louis XIV
controlling Spain and its empire terrified most of Europe. A Grand Alliance was formed by
England, the Netherlands and the Holy Roman Empire.
 Philip V kept Spain but lost his possessions in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy
What is the Divine Right of Kings? Who first postulated this theory?
 The Divine Right of Kings stated that a king was God’s regent on earth and subject of NO earthly
authority.
 Jean Bodin wrote a 1576 treatise, The Six Lives of the Republic, in which he defended the sovereign
rights of a monarch in his famous quotation that The Sovereign Prince is accountable only to God.
What was the Eighty Year’s War? What was its result?
The Eighty Year’s War was the Dutch struggle to win its freedom from Spain. They won it.
What role is the Fronde play in shaping the policies of Louis XIV?
The Fronde was a series of widespread rebellions against the policies of Cardinal Mazarin. Although
put down the Fronde convinced Louis that heavy handed policies were counterproductive. So Louis
concentrated unprecedented power in the monarchy but in a unique manner. Louis did not attack or try
to destroy the nobility and their social structures but worked with and through the nobility to make
himself the head of the social establishment in France.
How did James I of England get around Parliament’s purse strings?
James did not want to call Parliament into session so he turned to a source of income called
Impositions, which were the charging of customs duties on imports such as tobacco.
What were the foundations of Dutch prosperity in the seventeenth century?
 The first was the growth of Dutch of cities (or high urban concentrations) which – on average were more populous than most other cities in Europe.
 The second was that the Dutch became more efficient farmers by creating farming techniques
which leaped out ahead of the rest of Europe and released surplus farmers (farmers no longer
needed to farm) to move into the cities. The Dutch drained flooded land and reclaimed it from the
sea, which they then used to increase crop production. This in turn allowed them to create highly
profitable grain crops along with dairy, beef, and cash crops such their famous tulips.
 A Third Foundation of Dutch prosperity was industry. Dutch fishermen dominated the Herring
markets and supplied Europe with enormous quantities of dried fish. They also had a thriving textile
industry and exported fine tapestries and other cloth products to much of Europe. The Dutch created
an enormous shipbuilding industry and Dutch merchants called in all European ports, buying and
selling goods of all kinds.
 The Final Foundation for Dutch prosperity was the Dutch Empire, which grew to become one of the
major seafaring /economic empires of the 17th century. This was the Dutch Golden Age, in which
colonies and trading posts were established all over the world. Dutch settlement in North America
began with the founding of New Amsterdam, on the southern tip of Manhattan in 1614. In South
Africa, the Dutch settled Cape Town in 1652. But it was in East Asia, in what came to be called the
Dutch East Indies (roughly modern Indonesia) where the Dutch built an incredibly lucrative spice
trade.
What was the Petition of Right? What was its major provision?
The Petition of Right, which forbade taxation (including Forced Loans) without the consent of
Parliament, the quartering of soldiers in private homes, imprisonment without (sufficient) due cause
and the use of martial law except under specific conditions.
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What did Louis XIV mean when he declared: L’etat, c’est moi or “The state, I am the state.”
Louis meant that he was king by divine right?
Why was William Laud tried for treason and beheaded?
 Archbishop Laud tried to force the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and Episcopal system of
church government on the Calvinist-Presbyterian Church in Scotland and the Scots immediately
rebelled.
 In the closing days of the English Civil War, Laud was tried for treason and sentenced to death.
Outline the roles the Great Elector, Frederick I and Frederick William I played in the growth of Prussia
 The Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William (r. 1640-1688), called the Great Elector, centralized
authority by weakening the power of the local nobility, organizing an efficient bureaucracy
(government) and laying the foundation for one of the finest armies (albeit still small) in all of
Europe. When he needed money, he ignored the Estates and collected the money by force so he
could build an army strong enough to enforce his will - with or without the agreement of the
nobility. He nevertheless won the loyalty of the Junkers by giving them more power over their serfs
and made all state officials swear an oath of loyalty to him.
 Frederick I, his son, was a man of many accomplishments. He was the least Prussian of the Prussian
kings (i.e., noted for frugality and hard work). He built palaces, founded Halle University (1694),
patronized the arts and lived luxuriously. In the War of the Spanish Succession, he put his army at
the disposal of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, who in exchange gave Frederick the much
coveted title, King of Prussia in 1701.
 He was succeeded by his son Frederick William I (r. 1713-1740) who was one of the most eccentric
and yet “Prussian” (i.e., hardworking and efficient) of all the Hohenzollern rulers. He encouraged
farming, reclaimed marshes; stored grain in good times (selling it for profit in bad times); he
organized his bureaucracy along military lines and instilled in it and in the army a discipline that
was fanatical. He doubled the size of the army, making it the third or fourth largest – and the most
efficient – in Europe; an astounding feat since Prussia ranked thirteenth in population in Europe.
Why did Parliament win the English Civil War?
First, Parliament made an alliance with Scotland and committed England to a Presbyterian system of
church government. Second, was the emergence of a dynamic leader, Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658),
who reorganized and galvanized (put new spirit into) the Parliamentary army. Cromwell was a country
squire of strong, Puritan/Independent convictions He rallied followers, who like himself, would only
tolerate an established church, if it permitted Protestant dissenters to worship freely outside of it.
What were the terms of the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699?
By the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, Leopold forced the Ottoman Empire to recognize his sovereignty
over Hungary.
What were the provisions of the Clarendon Code?
The Clarendon Code, which thwarted Charles II, excluded Catholics, Presbyterians and Independents
from official political and religious life of England.
How did Louis XIV deal with the Huguenots and the Jansenists?
 Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes and tried to force the Huguenots to become Catholics. Louis
considered this his most pious act.
 Louis suppressed the Jansenists and either forced them to give up their theology or go underground
which created a strain in the French Church that would not go away.
What were the provisions of the Treaty of Dover?
The Treaty of Dover between Charles II and Louis XIV made the English and French allies against the
Dutch. In a secret section of the treaty, Charles promised to announce his conversion to Roman
Catholicism as soon as conditions in England would permit. In return for this announcement (which
was never made), Louis XIV promised to pay Charles a large amount of money.
16. What was the Popish Plot?
Titus Oates, a notorious liar, swore before a magistrate that Charles’ Catholic wife and her physician
were plotting with Jesuits and Irishmen to kill the king so James could assume the throne. Parliament
tragically believed Oates and in the hysteria that followed – called the Popish Plot – many innocent
people were tried and executed. Charles never forgave the leader of the anti-Catholic forces, the Earl of
Shaftesbury (1621-1683) who led the Whigs in Parliament and tried to exclude James from succession.
17. What was the Mississippi Bubble? How did it hurt France?
 John Law, who was put in charge of France’s finances by the Duke of Orleans, believed that an
increase in the supply of paper money would stimulate France’s economic recovery. So in 1718, he
established the Banque Royale (Royal Bank) in Paris that issued paper money and then organized
the Mississippi Company which held a business monopoly in the French colonies in North America
and the West Indies. The Mississippi Company also took over management of the French national
debt and issued shares of its own stock in exchange for government bonds, which had fallen sharply
in value. To redeem large quantities of bonds, Law encouraged speculation in the Mississippi
Company stock. In 1719, the value of the stock rose strongly and that was the Mississippi Bubble.
The problem was that smarter investors took their profits by selling their stock in exchange for
paper money from Law’s bank which they then sought to exchange for gold. But Law’s bank
lacked enough gold to redeem all the paper money brought to it. So the bubble burst when investors
attempted to convert their paper notes into gold, forcing the bank to stop payment on its paper
notes. The Duke of Orléans dismissed John Law from the government and Law soon fled France.
 The Mississippi Bubble Bust was a fiasco for the government that had sponsored John Law. The
Mississippi Company was later reorganized and run profitably, but the fear of paper money and
speculation schemes haunted French economic life for decades.
18. Why was the Glorious Revolution glorious?
The Glorious Revolution was glorious for two reasons. First, it was relatively bloodless; the losing side
did not suffer murderous reprisals by the winners. Secondly, it marked the beginning of English
Constitutional Government, when William and Mary recognized and endorsed the Bill of Rights of
1689, which limited the powers of the monarchy and guaranteed the civil liberties for the English upper
classes. From this point on English monarchs were subject to the law.
19. What did Peter the Great accomplish?
Peter reformed the army by offering better pay and drafting peasants to serve for life as professional
soldiers. He provided his soldiers with better training and modern European weapons. He demanded his
officers study geometry so as to use artillery effectively. By his death he had built the largest army in
Europe
Peter overhauled the government bureaucracy to make it more efficient in tax collecting and industrial
output. Because Russia had few major cities and was an agrarian land, he required the nobles to serve
as government officials. He established the Table of Ranks, in which officials advanced according to
merit, not hereditary privilege. He underscored the duty of citizens to serve the state and set the
example of himself as an energetic servant, not a privileged parasite thus making an abstract political
concept a political reality.
Socially: brought Russia out of its cultural dark ages. He abolished the Terem, which kept upper class
women secluded from men outside their own families. Peter demanded social mixing of the sexes,
especially in cities and towns. He also required Boyar men to shave their beards and wear Western
clothing
Peter also simplified the Alphabet, reduced the power of the Russian Orthodox Church, built his
“Window to the West” called St. Petersburg, established technical schools, build a navy and merchant
fleet and reformed the calendar.
20. What was accomplished by the Act of Settlement in 1701 and the Act of Union in 1707?
 The Act of Settlement provided that the English crown would go to the Protestant House of
Hanover in Germany if Anne died without children.
 The Act of Union, passed by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland,
formed the Kingdom of Great Britain.
21. 21. Give as many reasons as you can for the importance of Sir Robert Walpole?
 He is generally regarded as the first Prime Minister of Great Britain.
 Under his guidance, Britain’s foreign trade expanded and spread the roots of a colonial empire that
stretched from North America to India.
 He allowed local nobles (or gentry) and landowners to retain their local political influence and so
they were willing to serve as government ministers, judges and military commanders.
 His government was able to produce a strong tax base which supported Britain’s military - and
particularly a strong navy.
 Great Britain began evolving more rapidly into a democracy.
22. What did Jean-Baptiste Colbert do for Louis XIV?
Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683) produced economic policies that made it possible for Louis to
maintain his large army and fight his wars.
23. What did it mean to “explode the Diet?”
The Polish legislature was called the Sejm or Diet. It was crippled by a procedural process called the
Librum Veto which made the passage of any law impossible without a 100% majority. Thus any single
member of the Sejm could “explode the diet;” – often because of foreign or internal bribery - which
kept Poland ineffectual and caused Poland to disappear as an independent nation by 1795.
24. What did Austria gain as a result of the War of the Spanish Succession? And Britain?
 Austria gained the Spanish Netherlands and Spain’s possessions in Italy.
 England got Gibraltar and Minorca and Louis XIV was forced to recognize the succession rights of
the House of Hanover in England.
25. Charles V issued a Pragmatic Sanction which consolidated the Seventeen Provinces under his rule but
what was the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VI?
 The Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VI was an agreement he worked out with the other states of
Europe that they would recognize his daughter, Maria Theresa, as his rightful successor.