Absolutism in Eastern Europe

ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE
èThree aging empires: gave way to new empires of Austria Prussia and Russia
Holy Roman Empire: religious divisions and war in 16th and 17th century
Ottoman Empire: could not maintain possessions in E. Europe and Balkans
Poland: liberum veto – voting in Polish parliament had to be unanimous (= weak gov’t)
serfdom: beginning in 16th century and continuing into 18th century, mass of peasantry became serfs
robot: peasants owed lord 3 to 4 days a week of forced labor
Austrian Empire
· Multinational empire: Austrian, Hungarian, & Bohemian kingdoms
· Cosmopolitan aristocracy: serfdom
· Leopold I (1658-1705),: successfully repelled Turks
è Turkish threat: relatively religiously tolerant empire
· Suleiman the Magnificent (d. 1566): nearly conquered Austria in 1529, captured Belgrade (Serbia), nearly 1/2 of Eastern Europe including all Balkan territories, most of Hungary, and part of southern Russia.
· “Janissary corps”: former Christian children dedicated fully to the military
· siege of Vienna, 1683: last attempt by Turks to take Central Europe
· Pragmatic Sanction (1713) issued by Charles VI: Habsburg territories indivisible; only Habsburgs could rule
Prussia: House of Hohenzollern
èFrederick William – The “Great Elector”(1640-1688)
Brandenburg-Prussia rule consolidated after 30 Years’ War: military force & taxation
Junkers: nobility sided with king for stability; hereditary serfdom in 1653
Created most efficient army in Europe
Frederick I (Elector Frederick III) “The Ostentatious” (1688-1713); 1st “King of Prussia”
Allied with Habsburgs in War of League of Augsburg and War of Spanish Succession
Frederick William I (1713-1740) “The Soldiers’ King”
Established Prussian abolutism
“Sparta of the North”: Largely a military state – best army in Europe
Junkers became officers caste in army in return for king’s absolutism
Russia
Slavic and Viking ancestry: 1st millenium AD
Boyars: Russian nobles
Mongols – “Golden Horde” took control in 13th c: left legacy of ruthless rule
Ivan III “Ivan the Great” (1442-1505)
“Third Rome”: Assumed leadership of Orthodox Christian Church;
èIvan IV “Ivan the Terrible” (1533-1584), first to take title “tsar”
Married a Romanov
Defeated last of Mongels: conquered Baltic, Far East, and Black Sea region
Began westernizing
Peasants fled oppressive rule: became “Cossacks”; led to more severe serfdom
“Time of Troubles”, 1584: period of chaos after Ivan’s death
Romanov Dynasty (1613-1917)
Michael Romanov (1613-1645)
Created Russian empire across Asia to the Pacific (largest nation by 1689)
“Old Believers” (The Raskolniki): resisted westernization, severely persecuted.
èPeter the Great (1682-1725)
1698, put down revolt by strelski (Moscow Guards)
westernization (modernization): mostly for military purposes
state-regulated monopolies created; industrial serfdom
Table of Ranks: educational training for new civil service (mostly of nobles)
St. Petersburg begun in 1703 on Baltic; largest city in Northern Europe by his death.
“Winter Palace” sought to emulate Versailles.
Great Northern War (1700-1721)
Charles XII, 18-yr-old Swedish king
Battle of Poltava, 1709: Peter defeated Sweden
Treaty of Nystad (1721): Peter gained Baltic states “window to the West”
Catharine II, “Catharine the Great” (1762-96) – (see Enlightened Despotism)