AP Euro
LMHS
2008-09
Montaigne
Outlines for “A History of the Modern World” 9th Edition
Palmer, Colton, and Kramer
Chapter 4: The Establishment of West-European Leadership
4.17: The Grand Monarque and the Balance of Power
I. Introduction
A. A circle, 500 miles in diameter and centered on Paris, would encompass the
“western” world in 1650
1. secular society
2. modern natural science
3. capitalism
4. modern state
5. parliamentary government
6. democratic ideas
7. machine industry
B. Region was the earth’s principal center of cultural diffusion
C. The growing power of Western Europe had a tremendous impact on the rest of
Europe, the Americas, and the world
D. Several factors make way for the Dutch, English, and French
1. fading of the Italian Renaissance
2. subsiding of the religious wars
3. the ruin of the HRE
4. decline of Spain
E. France rises in status
1. Dutch are small in numbers
2. England will go through its civil wars
3. Louis XIV comes to power in 1643 at age 5 and reigns for 72 years
(1715)
a. took personal direction in 1661 at age 23
b. his policies are adopted , methods of gov, war, diplomacy are
models
c. French language, clothing, thought, architecture, cooking
etiquette are standard for Europe
d. known as the Sun King
e. becomes more than a figurehead
f. takes over the institutions created by Richelieu
g. Makes France the strongest country in Europe
4. Weakness in Spain
a. Charles II comes to the throne in 1665
b. known as “The Bewitched”
1. had Mandibular prognathism (called Hapsburg Jaw)
genetic disorder where the lower jaw outgrows the
upper
2. tongue was enlarged and he could barley be understood
3. imbecilic product of generations of inbreeding
4. could not have children (was well known)
c. Lingers on the throne until 1700
d. Spain was what Turkey was later called “sick man of Europe”
e. Fate of Spain and its colonial holdings uncertain
F. Louis XIV and expansion
1. Marries Charles II’s sister
a. uses his position to advance France’s borders
b. Annex Spanish Netherlands, French Compte, and Burgundy
c. Further weakens HRE
2. Moves to secure Spain under his rule
a. to achieve this he takes various interests into his pay
1. royalists in England
i. including Charles II of England
2. republicans in Netherlands
3. Potential for universal monarchy under throne of France is increasing
a. Response to universal monarchy is the use of balance of power
II. Balance of Power
A. condition of equilibrium in power distribution
1. power is distributed among many separate states
2. if one state preponderates the others form a coalition against it
a. the coalition becomes the “balance”
3. holding the balance of power refers to the power one state may bring
to bear by tipping the balance
4. foreign policy become the pursuit of preserving the independence of
action to the utmost
5. the basic rule became the practice of allying against the state
threatening domination to restore the balance
6. objective was preserving sovereignty rather than peace
a. had little to do with ideologies or sympathies (allies supported
or rejected)
7. balance model was effective during period of large number of small
and medium sized states
a. later will become downfall of Europe
8. Key players of the period are Louis XIV and William of Orange
(William III) of the Dutch
9. Key event of the period is the War of the Spanish Succession
4.18: The Dutch World
I.
The Dutch Republic
A. Dutch Civilization and Government
i. Republic of the Netherlands was the most wealthy, flourishing, and
most important in international diplomacy and culture
1. most bourgoisie of Europe
ii. Wealth helped to avoid direct war
1. Cultural achievements
a. Literature
i. Hugo Grotius wrote Law of War and Peace
(pioneering work on international law)
ii. Baruch Spinoza
1. Desc. from Portuguese Jewish
refugees
2. wrote philosophy on human conduct,
church and state
b. Leeuwenhoek – biological science
c. Huyghens – improved the telescope, wave theory of
light, saw rings of Saturn
d. Anna Maria van Schurman – education of women in
The Learned Maid or Whether a Maid May Be Called A
Scholar
e. Painting
i. Jan Vermeer portrayed typical domestic scenes
(Girl with the Pearl Earring)
ii. Rembrandt Masters of the Clothe Hall show
businessmen and judges we see the men who are
running the Republic (Calvinistic)
iii. burghers – personal simplicity in the face of
wealth
2. Religion
a. Adopted tolerance
b. Calvinists split – orthodox regroup – stay split by 1632
i. Arminius questioned predestination
c. Catholics are granted rights
d. Jews were welcomed
e. Christian sects found refuge
i. Pilgrims
3. Dutch Exploration and Settlement
a. Dutch shipping controlled most of Europe’s shipping
1. had 10 thousand ships in 1600
b. Carriers between France, Spain, England, and the Baltic
c. 1602 founded the Dutch East India Company
1. began to displace the Portuguese
2. Founded Jakarta (Batavia)
d. Trade with Japan was achieved by 1600
1. Japan was very isolationist
2. Expelled all other Europeans
1. 1612 New Amsterdam
2. 1621 the Dutch West India Company
3. 1652 Cape of Good Hope
1. Afrikaners
B. The Bank of Amsterdam (1609)
1. European money was chaotic with kings, cities or private
individuals minting their own coins which were often debases
with other alloys (uncertain values)
2. Amsterdam accepted mixed monies, accessed their value and
exchanged European currency for gold florins (known and
unchanging weight)
3. Florins became the currency of trade
4. Amsterdam is the financial center of Europe until 1790s
5. High Mightinesses
a. were delegates from 7 provinces who made up estates
general & passed on interests of the provinces
C. Stadholder – elected representative (executive) of the province (but none for
the provinces as a whole)
1. Most provinces elected the same person head of the house of
Orange
2. Much status but the burghers were running the financial affairs
of the country
D. When the country was threatened the status of the stadholder went up
1. The stadholder had not be selected for 22 years (since William
II died in 1650) as peace prevailed
E. William III of Orange changes the role of the stadholder
1. small, stocky, grave, determined
2. Multilingual- spoke English, French, Dutch, German, Latin and
Spanish fluently
3. Disliked pomp and circumstance, hated flattery
4. Preferred to focus on the affairs of state
5. 1677 married Mary Stuart (king of England’s niece)
II.
Foreign Affairs: Conflict with English and French
A. 1651 England passes the Navigation Act
1. Ships carrying goods to England or England’s colonies
must be from England or the country of origin – not middle
party
2. aimed directly at the Dutch
3. Dutch must salute English ships when in the English
Channel
B. 1652 – 1674 three wars take place
1. English take New Amsterdam
C. 1667 Louis XIV takes the Spanish Netherlands (southern provinces) and
the French Comte
D. Dutch form the Triple Alliance with the English and the Swedes
1. Louis XIV drops claim to Spanish Netherlands briefly
E. 1673 Louis XIV took three provinces of the Spanish Netherlands
1. Dutch are unable to defend them against the French army
F. 1673 Dutch make William III stadholder and make the office hereditary
1. William III moved the Dutch toward absolutism and works
to centralize his power with limited success
2. William III develops a new alliance
a. Denmark, Brandenburg, Austria, and Spain
b. Dutch and Hapsburg alliance illustrates the
complete shift to balance of power politics
3. Treaty of Nimwegaen (1678)
a. unstable peace is made with France
b. Spain loses the French Comte to France
c. HRE loses city-states in Flanders to France
4. Dutch provinces are preserved
G. 1689: William III becomes king of England
1. Fate of European affairs turn as England becomes the
sword of William’s balance of power political strategies
4.19: Britain: The Puritan Revolution
I. Introduction
A. At the time of Westphalia England was embroiled in a civil war
1. A variation of the Wars of Religion
2. Fought between more extreme Protestant Calvinists called
Puritans and moderate Protestant Anglicans
3. Religious interests are mixed with political interests
4. Monarchy against Parliament
5. Wars in England are relatively mild
6. Wars between England and Ireland are savage
II. England in the Seventeenth Century
A. Age of expansion
1. driven by population growth
a. pop. Of five million in 1600
2. Puritan migration to New England and the Caribbean (40,
000 total)
3. Scots settle in Ireland
4. Catholics in Maryland
5. Anglicans in Virginia
6. Policy of private colonization shifts to state directed
colonization
7. take NY from Dutch, Pa, Carolinas, Jamaica taken from
Spain
B. English culture blossoms
a. Shakespeare
b. Rugged in form, deep in content
1. English could not yield to “French
standards”
b. Sir Christopher Wren
C. Economic Activity
1. By 1660 outdistanced by the Dutch
2. had a larger and more productive population and didn’t depend
exclusively on seafaring
a. Coal for industry is available
2. Sheep and woolens were main export
3. Putting out system used in textiles
i. 1600 East India Company
ii. Wealth was still tied to the land
B. Background to the Civil War: Parliament and the Stuart Kings
1. New Monarchs clashed with medieval representative institutions
2. In England the Parliament won out
3. In most places that popular institutions (estates general) won out
anarchy followed
4. Uniqueness of England’s “workable” solution ushered in the
modern institutions of liberalism and representative institutions
5. 1603 Elizabeth I dies with no heir
6. James the IV of Scotland (son of Mary Stuart) became James I of
England uniting Scotland and England under one crown
(Protestant)
1. Absolutist as a father taking care of family
2. Called “the wisest fool in Christendom”
3. Adopted the theory of the Divine right of
kings
4. Begins to lecture Parliament on the royal
rights
5. Said he should not have to ask for money
6. Wars with Spain left big debt and James
wasn’t thrifty
7. Puritan Parliament refused to accommodate…
1. Disliked doctrine of Anglican Church
2. Discontent with prerogative courts like the
Star Chamber
3. Puritans were property owners and wanted
protection
4. Parliament was the single representative
body for all of England (unlike Dutch,
Spain, France, Germany or Poland with
local estates)
5. landed interests controlled both houses:
nobles and gentry
6. HOC was mixed with merchant interests
7. Secularized as no Abbots remained in either
house
8. the strong make up of Parliament forced
Kings to submit to its will
9. came to a deadlock in 1629 as Charles I
attempted to ignore Par
8. Ship money dispute (taxes on shipping to pay for protection)
1. Charles I needed money
2. Extends medieval policy of ship money to
all towns in England not just coastal cities
3. Parliament disagreed with the kings efforts
to tax without Parliament’s consent
9. Scotland rebels and Charles I needs Parliament
1. Scots rioted against Anglicizing their
country
2. In 1640 he called Parliament and it refuses
his demands
3. Charles I dissolved the Parliament, called
for new elections and the same members are
returned
4. The same body of members sat for 20 years
and are known as the Long Parliament –
landowners with merchant support
10. Long Parliament
1. Does not assist the King against the Scots
but uses it to get their demands through
2. Demanded royal advisers be removed and
put to death
3. Abolished the Star Chamber
4. Abolished bishops (Calvinist view against
clergy)
5. Solemn League and Covenant made
Presbyterianism established religion of
England, Scotland, and Ireland
C. The Emergence of Cromwell
1. Roundhead (Puritans) defeated the royalists
a. Close haircuts of the Puritans
2. Cromwell organized a military force to advance the Puritan effort
a. More effective military (called the Ironsides)
religiously motivated
3. Army is of more “popular” make up than Parliament and demand
broader religious policies
4. Cromwell calls for the execution of Charles I
a. Parliament resists
b. Cromwell purges the Parliament to a “Rump” with
the army
c. had 500 members in 1640 and sunk to 150 in 1649
1. Cromwell reduced it to 50-60
2. called this operation Pride’s Purge(after
Puritan general in charge of intimidating
Parliament)
3. 1649 King is condemned of treason and
executed “regicide” in 1649
5. British Isles is declared a republican commonwealth
6. Cromwell subdues Ireland and Scotland by force
i. Scots not pleased with Stuart execution (he was a Scot)
ii. Ireland:
a. Protestants were massacre in 1641 in Ulster
b. Garrisons of Wexford and Drogheda are massacred
by Cromwell
1. Priests, as well as “women and children
dispatched in cold blood”
2. Protestants now take over aristocracy of
entire island (not just Ulster) (mostly
absentee landlords)
3. Redistributed land to adventurers that ruled
in absence
7. Cromwell was more successful abroad
i. Ireland, Navigation Act of 1651, maritime attack on the
Dutch, preying on the Spanish empire
8. In domestic affairs Cromwell had to continually become more
strident…
i. Levellers (liberal and popular) ask for universal male
suffrage, a constitution, and equal representation
ii. led by John Lilburne (civilian)
iii. George Fox founded the Society of Friends or Quakers
a. insisted that believers can have revelations of
spiritual truth and rejected hierarchies
iv. Diggers rejected the idea of property
v. As a regicide (King killer) he cannot turn to the royalist
(conservative and elite)
vi. 1653 Cromwell bans Parliament and becomes “Lord
Protector”
a. Provides a constitution “Instrument of Government”
b. In reality: military dictatorship
1. Closed ale houses, prohibited cock fighting
vii. 1658 Cromwell dies and his son is unable to maintain the
Protectorate
viii. 1660 the crown in restored “Restoration” with Charles II
a. Religious intolerance was equated thereafter with
military dictatorship
b. Reaction is in full swing as “levelling” is considered
abhorrent and popular interests are abandoned
4.20: Britain: The Triumph of Parliament
I. The Restoration, 1660 – 1688: The Later Stuarts
A. Along with the monarchy, the Anglican church and the Parliament were
restored
B. Charles II is wary of Parliament
C. Parliament is more loyal to king to keep the peace
D. Parliament cleans up property rights by abolishing feudal payments
1. Rents are replaced with taxes that Parliament controls by placing taxes
on themselves
2. Payment of taxes gives Parliament control over England
1. arranged to have the king paid from taxes (Parliamentary
control)
3. Landowners became the justices of the peace “squirearchy”
1. decided small lawsuits, punished misdemeanors, cared for
roads
E. Exclusion of the Dissenters
1. Puritans are excluded from government participation
1. forbidden to teach school, excluded from two corporations,
gov. jobs, from having religious meetings, to sit in the HOC
2. Commoners are excluded as well Act of Settlement of 1662 limited the
movement of the poor
1. each parish is responsible for its own poor (keep them
immobile)
F. Re-Catholicization was a slow drifting tendency in much of Europe
1. England remained staunchly anti-Catholic
2. Charles II was Catholic at heart
1. Secret treaty of Dover of 1670
a. Charles agreed to help Louis against the Dutch
b. Louis agreed to give Charles 3 million livres
2. James the heir of Charles announced his conversion to Rome
3. Declaration of indulgence
a. Charles II announced non-enforcement of laws against
dissenters
1. feared as a way to promote Catholicism
G. Parliament passes the “Test Act” 1673
1. All office holders had to take communion in the Church of England
(1828)
2. Movement to exclude James from the throne by law grows
3. Exclusionists (known as Whigs) were mostly from Upper Aristocracy
(great nobles)
4. Kings supporters (Tories) Lower Aristocracy and gentry
II. The Revolution of 1688
A. 1685 James II becomes king
1. Suspends the Test Act and appoints Catholics to important positions
2. The alienation created by James II moves Tories over to Whig side
B. 1688 a son is born to James II and baptized Catholic
1. Leading political figures abandon James II and offer the throne to his
daughter Mary (Protestant)
2. Mary is the wife of William III who is focused solely on the plight of
the Dutch
3. William III “invades” England and James II flees
4. 1689 a skirmish with James II in Ireland (Catholic) ends the dispute
and James II flees to France (Pretenders)
5. Louis XIV refuses to recognize William III as king and supports James
II
C. 1689 Bill of Rights
1. no law could be suspended by the king
2. no taxes could be raised or army maintained without Parliament’s
consent
3. no subject could be arrested without legal process
D. 1701 Act of Settlement
1. no Catholic could be king of England
E. Toleration Act
1. Allows Dissenters to practice their religion but not be in gov
F. Existence of Catholic interests eventually was accepted ending wars over
religion in England
G. 1707 Scotland unites with England
1. Keeps Catholicism off the throne in Scotland
2. Gives Scotland economic rights in England
1. rights to the East India Company, English colonies,
mercantilism, and Navigation Acts
H. England establishes a “penal” code over Ireland to keep it in check
1. Catholic clergy was banned
2. Catholics could not vote
3. Catholic teachers could not teach
4. Catholic parents could not send children to Catholic schools
5. Catholics could not take a degree at Trinity College
6. Catholic Irishmen could not purchase land
7. Catholic Irishmen could not own a horse worth more than 5 pounds
8. Irish exports are prohibited
9. Irish imports must come from England
10. Ireland was the most repressed population in Europe
I. England joins the coalition against France under William’s leadership
1. England lends money to the Dutch
2. Create the Bank of England
1. Creates liquidity that the Continent cannot match
2. British National Debt
a. Merchants of London, Whig aristocrats, having lent
money to gov had big reason to defend it
J. Sum of events after 1688 became known as the Glorious Revolution
1. Parliamentary government
2. Rule of law
3. Right of rebellion against tyranny (not in Ireland)
4. Restrictions on the power of English kings
5. Participation in government in England is limited
1. no salaries
2. serves the landed aristocracy
3. 1710 Act requires large, landed incomes of HOC members
4. This class in many ways was the only class fit to lead
4.21: The France of Louis XIV, 1643 to 1715: The Triumph of Absolutism
I. French Civilization in the Seventeenth Century
A. By 1700 France had 19 million people
1. 3X England, 2X Spain
2. Good, fertile soil for agriculture
3. Uneven distribution of wealth
1. millions lived in poverty, large number were also wealthy
2. more merchants in France than GB or Neth (but smaller
proportion)
iv. Nicholas Poussin and Claude Lorrain produced great school of
painters, architecture was copied throughout Europe, excelled in literature
(Moliere’s comedies), math (Descartes), and science (Pascal)
B. Louis XIV was a great patron of the arts
1. He established Royal academies
1. taught correct principles in art, literature, music…
2. Classicism in the arts
1. emphasized order, harmony
2. copied the themes of the Ancients
3. the Moderns argued that modern lit and knowledge surpassed
the Ancients and that Boileau’s academic writers held too
rigidly to Ancients
a. Louis couldn’t control everything
C. Salons develop by upper class women
1. Debate without restraint of an academy
2. Contributed to the spread of French ideas
II. The Development of Absolutism in France
A. The Parlements (NOTE the spelling)
B. Had same feudal liberties as other Europeans
1. Estates General (not met since 1615), Provincial Estates, (which had
some self gov.)
2. Were about 12 bodies called Parlements
1. unlike the English Parliament developed as courts of law with
each being the supreme court for a certain area
2. upheld certain fundamental laws which they believe king
couldn’t go over
3. wouldn’t enforce royal edicts they deemed unconstitutional
3. very diverse (as much as Germany)
1. 300 customs or regional systems of law
2. neither coinage nor weights of measure were uniform
iv. But people began to see local medieval liberties as disorderly (all they
needed was a push to get absolutism going)
C. The Fronde
1. Fronde was a short lived revolution led by elements of parliament and
nobility that would lead the 1789 revolution
1. broke out after Peace of Westphalia (xiv was still a child)
2. A Rev led by the parlements and nobility
a. Demanded the right to declare certain edicts
unconstitutional
3. Barricades went up in Paris
4. Conflict is taken up by nobility challenging for leadership of
France and call in troops from Spain
a. Nobility called for Estates General
i. Hoped to dominate the bourgeoisie and clergy
5. unemployed soldiers pillaged and terrorized peasants
a. if nobles won France would have been like Poland,
Russia
6. Nobles called in Spanish (France’s enemy) troops
7. Bourgeoisie and the parliaments withdrew their support and the
uprising fails
a. Frondeurs offered no systemic plan for reform; just a
power grab
8. After close call with the nobility the bourgeoisie stayed closer
to the King and accepted absolutism
2. Louis XIV takes the reins of power in 1661 (18)
1. Marzarin died
2. didn’t have a great education, made easy
3. but had ability to see and stick to policy, extremely methodical,
worked hard
4. loved himself, flattery
5. Lavish and opulent displays
6. Development of the “state”
a. It really didn’t exist yet in the modern sense
b. A fusions of justice and power
i. A sovereign state possesses a monopoly of
justice and use of force not private persons or
private armies (feudal)
c. He claimed a monopoly over law and army
d. Private persons neither pass legal judgments or control
private armies
e. Louis XIV claimed these powers
i. L’etat, c’est moi” (the state is myself)
f. Louis XIV had little regard for other rulers or states
g. Modern state as developed by Louis XIV served to
keep peace at home and keep at war against other states
3. Absolutism
1. Divine Right of Kings-the king is the earthly representative of
God\
a. Theory developed by Bishop Bossuet
2. the king is accountable to God and therefore will do what is
right and conform to the higher authority of God
a. Royal power was absolute but not arbitrary and must be
reasonable and just like the will of God but free from
dictation from parlements, estates
3. More a legal principle than a fact in Europe
a. Kings had to deal with advisers, bureaucrats, local
customs, lawyers, ecclesiastics, nobles, grandees,
hereditary officeholders, and miscellaneous dignitaries
b. Slow passage of information required some element of
local control
D. Government and Administration
1. Louis XIV took over control of the army
1. Soldiers of fortune were preying upon all for support
a. Worked for gov as they chose for money or political
office
b. Hard for gov to start and stop them fighting (30 Years’
War)
2. Louis XIV centralized the army and directed it at other states
a. Made sure all armed men only fought for him
b. Put the artillery into the army
c. Systematized the ranks and grades
d. Defined the chain of command (Louis XIV at the top)
e. Government maintained the military
f. Discipline and order become the rule of the day
i. Housed troops in barracks which made it easier
to control them
3. Army could be used to suppress rebellion at home
4. Size of army created new bureaucratic demands
a. He increased army from 100, 000 to 400, 000
b. Modern administrative systems were developed
i. Created the 1st ministers of war (bureaucracy)
E. The Splendor of Versailles
1. located about 10 miles from Paris
2. monument to worldly splendor (Hall of Mirrors, gardens,
chandeliers)
3. Public building for most part
4. Developed complex system of behaviors
a. Lever, diner, coucher (rising, eating, going to bed)
b. Six different entries of person at the lever (rising)
c. Noblemen a specified moment held the right sleeve of
the king’s nightshirt
d. Induced great nobles to live a Versailles
5. Debilitating effects on the French aristocracy
F. Louis XIV never called the estates general
1. used new class of talent
a. councils of state were administered by intendants
i. they were mostly bourgeois or newly ennobled
ii. intendants supervised the flow of taxes and
recruiting of soldiers while keeping an eye on
the nobility
2. Economic and Financial Policies: Colbert
1. Taxation
a. Tradition of not taxing the nobles so only the
unprivileged classes (peasants) paid taxes
i. Louis didn’t want to give up control to nobles
(so he didn’t tax them)
b. Toward the end of Louis XIVs reign his is able to tax
the nobility and a step is taken toward equality under
the law
2. Sources of income
a. Raise taxes (not effective)
b. Devalued currency (inflation)
c. Sold titles (limited number of candidates)
d. Sold government offices (corruption)
e. Sold military commissions (dangerous)
f. Annul town charters and sell liberties back to the cities
(dangerous)
3. Reforms by Colbert
a. Mercantilistic policies
i. Expanded export of French goods and increased
wealth from which government income could
increase
b. Reduced internal tariffs
1. Great Five Farms promoted free trade
c. Commercial code (uniform laws of trade over local
customs)
d. Built Roads and canals
e. Required uniform standards of manufacture (Quality
Control)
i. More foreigners would trust buying French
goods
f. Subsidized development of certain manufactures
i. Silk, glassware, tapestries, woolens
g. Founded colonies
h. French East India Company
i. Supplying large army drove much manufacturing
j. Result is government works to restrict nobility at the
same time it is protecting privileges of nobility
III. Religion: The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685
A. Louis XIV exercised control over French Church
1. He believed that religious unity necessary for strength of his rule
2. He repressed Janenism (type of Calvinism in Catholic Church)
3. Pressure to re-Catholicize Huguenots increased
4. Dragooning (mounted infantrymen) were quartered in Huguenot
homes
5. In 1685 he revoked the Edict of Nantes
6. Persecution of Huguenots drives them out of France
1. Went to Holland, Germany and AmericaLoss of Huguenots is
social blow to France
IV. Accomplishments of Louis XIV
A. Reforms are partial but legitimate
B. Strain of war causes discontent with populace
4.22: The Wars of Louis XIV: The Peace of Utrecht, 1713
I. Before 1700
A. France has Spanish territory on three sides
1. Spain is weakened and the territories are less protected
2. 1667 Louis XIV invades the Spanish Netherlands
3. Blocked by the Triple Alliance of Dutch, English and Swedish
interests
2. 1672 Louis XIV invades the Spanish Netherlands again
1. Alliance with Charles II of England keeps the British at bay
2. William of Orange formed an alliance with Habsburgs
(Spanish and Austrian) blocks France
3. Treaty of Nimwegen 1678 France takes the Franche-Comte’
3. 1679 Louis XIV invades Alsace and Lorraine
1. Leopold I of Austria is engaged with Turks that are supported
by the French
a. In 1683 they had moved up the Danube and laid siege
to Vienna
2. Western border of the HRE is eroding…
B. League of Augsburg (1686) is developed to respond to French threat
C. HRE, Spain, Sweden, Dutch and England
1. Huguenots, Catholics, Lutherans, aligned with each other
against France
a. Revocation of Edict offended protestants
D. 1688 War of the League of Augsburg (Glorious Revolution)
1. Louis XIV has a fight on several fronts and leans on the
nobility for taxes
2. 1697 Peace of Ryswick leaves matters along original lines
III. The War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713)
A. A Modern, formal war against states not against civilians
B. Religion counts for very little in the conflict
C. English are becoming noteworthy political force
D. First “world war” events on several continents are involved
E. Charles II of Spain is without an heir
1. Louis XIV is married to Charles II of Spain’s sister
2. Leopold I married Charles II of Spain’ s sister
3. Each could put a young family member on the throne
4. Groups explored the idea of dividing French holdings to maintain the
balance of power (Austria and France)
5. 1700 Charles II of Spain died and left everything to the grandson
(17 yrs. old) of Louis XIV (not a capable leader)
1. French influence would run from Belgium to Gibraltar
a. “the Pyrenees exist no longer”
b. great threat to political balance
F. William III organizes the “Grand Alliance” of 1701
1. War aims
1. England support Dutch, keep Stuarts off throne of England,
keep France out of Spanish American trade
2. Holland keep France out of Belgium and keep Scheldt closed,
France out of Spanish American trade
3. Austria put Habsburg back on Spain’s throne and crush
Bavaria
4. Brandenburg, Italian duchy of Savoy: opportunists
5. Portugal, interests in Spanish territory
IV. The Peace of Utrecht (1713-1714)
A. Partitioned the world of Spain
1. Britain’s Queen Anne raised 12 commoners to peerage so to give a
Tory majority (the party in favor of signing a peace treaty)
2. Britain gets Gibraltar and Minorca
3. Savoy gets Sardinia
4. Austrian Habsburgs get Milan, Naples, Sicily, and Spanish (now
Austrian) Netherlands
5. Grandson of Louis XIV was crowned Philip V of Spain
1. keeps new world territories
2. Crowns of France and Spain can never be united
3. Absolutism comes to Spain (lasted until 1931)
4. New World markets are available to French goods
B. Domination by France is prevented
C. Consequences of the war
1. France is weakened
1. depopulation
a. famine
2. Peasant uprisings are brutally put down
a. taxes
3. Aristocratic and parliamentary opposition begin again
4. Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Hudson Bay territory are
British
5. Retain Alsace and the Franche-Comte’
6. Influence is strong in Spain
2. Dutch are strengthened against France
1. “Dutch Barrier”- a string of forts and garrisons in Belgium are
granted
2. Never play a prominent role in European political affairs
3. Rulers of Brandenburg and Savoy are elevated to title of King
4. British
1. Major presence in the Mediterranean (Gibraltar and Minorca)
2. Asiento opens the Spanish New World up to British trade
(slaves and smuggling)
a. right to supply Spanish America with African slaves
(very lucrative)
3. Assure Protestant monarchy
a. Louis ceases to recognize the Stuart pretender as king
5. Confirmation of the European system
1. Powers accepted each other as members of the system
2. Recognized each other as sovereign states
a. free to negotiate, make war, and treaties
3. adjusted balance of power through exchange of territories
(third party territories?)
6. Leaves France and England as the two major powers to export
Europe to the world