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Chapter 17
Eastern Euro and much of central Euro differed in significant ways from western Euro in
the 16th & 17th C – differences that remain important to this day.
 econ & pol changes in western Euro ultimately were providing ordinary people with
greater personal freedom and opportunity,
 Eastern Euro serfdom not only was continuing but in fact was becoming more and
more the bedrock of society.
eastern Euro societies remained rural and agricultural,
o with a relatively small merchant class.
o
Four powerful states emerged:
 Austria
 Prussia
 Russia
 the Ottoman Empire
While the monarchs in Austria and Prussia adopted western Euro models, the Russian &
Ottoman rulers were seen by other Euro as despotic and even fanatic.
All 4 empires, which were frequently at war with each other, lasted until WWI.
The fact that these 4 autocratic states survived up until WWI
w/o becoming constitutional monarchies had major
consequences in the 20th C. The Russian Revolution, Nazism,
and WWI & WWII were outgrowths, directly or indirectly, of the
institutions and traditions estab in eastern Euro in the 17th C
and 18th C.
au·toc·ra·cy
1.A system of government by one person with absolute power.
2.A regime based on such a principle of government.
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While serfdom was disappearing in the West, it reappeared &
became more entrenched in the East. Peasants’ uprisings sought
relief from harsh conditions
The Thirty Years’ War finally resolved religious conflicts in the
Holy Roman Empire but delayed the unification of a German state
for another 200 yrs. The war was devastating to both the German
population & their econ.
Prussia developed an absolutist gov. that was highly efficient and
devoted to militaristic values. Both its effective admin structure &
its well-trained army would help it become the dominant state in
central Euro
Austria under the Habsburgs developed into an absolutist state,
conquered important territories such as Hungary from the
Ottomans, & made Vienna a center of Euro culture.
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Russia developed into an absolute state under the Romanovs,
the princes of Muscovy. The Russian tsars expanded the territory
under their control thru conquest and warfare, and were closely
associated with the Russian Orthodox Church. The most
transformative tsar, Peter the Great, modernized and westernized
Russia, expanded the empire, and built a splendid new capital
city in the early 18th C.
The Ottoman Empire was estab in what is now Turkey when it
defeated the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 and
took over Constantinople. Its emperor, the sultan, was both a
secular and religious ruler as head of the Muslim community. The
Ottomans conquered the Balkans, North Africa, and the Middle
East, acquiring an empire filled with religious and ethnic
minorities who were given religious toleration and some legal
rights.
While Absolute monarchs in western and eastern Euro built
similarly splendid palaces and had similar goals of
aggrandizement of personal power, there were important and
long-lasting differences in the social classes the monarchs
used for this purpose. The merchant and manufacturing
classes were given important roles in France, but were
excluded from power, by and large, in the Austrian, Prussian
and Russian states, which all relied on their aristocracies
instead.
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The rise of serfdom
o Central & eastern Euro regained control of the peasants and re-imposed
serfdom
• After the Black Death the East and West diverged
• Commoners won econ/personal freedoms in the West
• Landlords won control in the East
• Peasants lost freedom of movement in Prussia & Russia
• Land taken
• Labor obligations to landlords increased - up to 6 day a week w/no pay
• Weak monarchies – no royal justice to offset the landlords’ control over the legal
system
• Hereditary serfdom after 1500 became the legal norm.
• Polish nobles were granted complete control
• Legal right to impose capital punishment 1574
• Estate agriculture – large plantations, profitable
There is a useful parallel here between Russia and the US.
Both developed large plantation agriculture, both used forms
of unpaid labor (serfdom and chattel slavery) and both
liberated that population in the 1860s. This freeing up of their
econ is part of the reason that both states rose to become
major powers in the 20th C.
The Peace of Augsburg 1555
 Temp solution of the religious conflict in the Holy Roman Empire
 Spread of Calvinism & changes in religions in several member states,
stirred religious tensions again.
o Catholics & Lutherans felt undermined
o Catholics & Protestants each formed a league in the early 17th C
War 1618 – Defenestration of Prague
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Bohemian Protestants threw 2 reps of their new Catholic king, Ferdinand of
Styria, later Holy Roman Emperor, out the window of a Prague castle
(Defenestration is the act of
throwing someone out of a window)
There were several Defenestrations of Prague, this one in
1618 and another in 1948 when Jan Masaryk fell or was
thrown out of a window in protest against the estab of a
Soviet-dominated communist gov in Czechoslovakia
1st Phase - Bohemian phase
 Civil War over Bohemian religion & independence
 Battle of White Mountain 1620
o Ended with the defeat of Czech nationalism and Protestantism.
2nd Phase – Danish phase
 Protestant King of Denmark aide the Protestant forces,
 Generally the Catholics had the advantage – The HRE reinstated
Catholic rights
 Wallenstein – Catholic leader – divisive
3rd Phase – Swedish phase
 Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden
o Subsidized by Cardinal Richelieu
o Supported the Protestant forces and ended the Habsburg dream of uniting the
German states under one authority
o Battlefield death 1632, led France to intervene on the Protestant side
Religion/politics/culture
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Battle fought near Prague in Bohemia. The battle marked the first major victory of the Roman
Catholic Habsburgs over the Protestant Union, a military alliance among the Protestant states of
Germany, in the Thirty Years' War (1618–48). The victory enabled the house of Habsburg to end
constitutional rule in Bohemia and its neighbours and to establish an authoritarian government that
survived for three centuries, until the reconstruction of central Europe following World War I.
The army raised by the Bohemian rebels and their allies after 1618 achieved initial success,
especially after Frederick V, elector Palatine of the Rhine, accepted their offer of the Bohemian
crown. In 1620, however, the combined forces of the German Catholic League and of the Holy
Roman emperor and king of Bohemia Ferdinand II, under Johann Tserclaes, count von Tilly, gradually
drove them back toward Prague. Christian of Anhalt, Frederick's principal adviser and one of his
military commanders, decided to make a stand on White Mountain, hoping that his opponents would
not dare to attack in winter. He miscalculated: in just one hour Tilly's forces, which included many
notable Catholics (such as the future philosopher René Descartes), routed Christian's men. Prague
fell at once, soon followed by the rest of the areas in revolt.
Ferdinand at once had the rebel leaders tried and executed, confiscated the lands of all their
supporters, expelled all Protestants, and abolished the constitution. In 1627 he issued a “new
constitution,” which created an authoritarian government that lasted until 1918, when
Czechoslovakia was formed out of Bohemia and adjoining regions. He imposed similar measures on
Bohemia's allies in the rebellion against him: Austria, Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia.
Catholics all over Europe celebrated the victory. In Prague, Ferdinand laid the foundations of the
monastery that still stands on the battleground, and he erected a victory column in the heart of the
city, which Czech patriots saw as a symbol of Habsburg tyranny and tore down after 1918.
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The Peace of Westphalia 1648
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Protestants won important victories
Restricted the role of the Papacy
Confirmed the Peace of Augsburg – rights extended to Calvinists.
Princes of the HRE were confirmed in the Calvinist’s power
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Prevented a centralized gov
• Dutch & Swiss independence
• Sweden got some of German territory
• France got Alsace
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Effects of The 30 Years’ War
o Most destructive war up to the 20th C
o Death of 1/3 of population & 2/5 of the peasants w/n Holy Roman Empire
• Warfare
• Refugees
• Disease
o Agriculture, livestock, commerce
• Rapid decline
o Price revolution – inflation
• Influx of Spanish silver
o Nobles were able to expand their estates and enforce serfdom
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Absolutism in the East
o Aided by The 30 Years’ War
o Monarchs trade pol power for econ power with nobles
• Kings won the right to impose taxes w/o the consent of the nobles
• Paid for permanent armies
• In exchange noble had unlimited authority over their serfs
o Austria
• Hapsburgs recognized that the Holy Roman Empire would remain disunified
states – turned toward expanding the Austrian kingdom
• Bohemia – imposed religious uniformity & diminished Bohemian estates
• Ferdinand III redistributed the defeated Bohemian Protestant lands to loyal
Catholics and foreign mercenaries.
• New nobility loyalty to the Habsburgs
• Estab a permanent standing army
• Robot – serf worked 3 days a week or more
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Hungary
o Leopold I 1683
• Forced the Ottomans to lift their siege of Vienna
• Pushed out of Transylvania & parts of Hungary
• Built the palace of Schonbrunn in Vienna to celebrate victory over
Ottomans
• Became the model of many palaces
o Nationalism
• Hungarian nobles developed nationalistic ideas
• 1703 – rebelled against new overlords
• Led by Rakoczy
• Habsburgs defeated the Rakoczy rebellion
• Nobles did win restoration of privileges – allowed Hungary to remain somewhat
indep of Austrian rule
• Common identity with Habsburgs
• Shared Catholicism
• Voted to provide funds for the royal army
• Began speaking Ger.
Austria, Russia & the Ottoman Empire, but not Prussia
developed into multiethnic, multireligious states in this period.
As they expanded from their original heartlands, they
conquered peoples of different faiths & nationalities. Each
state handled its minorities differently – a factor that would
ultimately determine the fate of each empire to a large degree.