Deck 15: State Building and the Search for Order in the Seventeenth Century

Question 1

Oliver Cromwell remains a polarizing figure in British history. What were his achievements, and how did his contemporaries assess his strengths and weaknesses?

Answer 1

Answers will vary.

Question 2

How did the Ottoman Empire fare in the seventeenth century? Why were Ottomans no longer a credible threat to Europe by the end of the century?

Answer 2

Answers will vary.

Question 3

Define absolutism. Is it accurate to describe the French national government in the seventeenth century as an absolute monarchy?

Answer 3

Answers will vary.

Question 4

What techniques and practices defined warfare in the seventeenth century, and do they constitute a "military revolution"? Why or why not?

Question 5

What role did court life at Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV playing in enhancing royal power?

Question 6

Why were women the most prevalent victims of Europe's witch craze? What does this reveal about the social climate at the time, and especially, ideas about gender?

Question 7

Compare and contrast Mannerism and the Baroque. What explains the popularity of Baroque art and music, particularly in Catholic Europe?

Question 8

What steps did the Spanish monarchy take in the first half of the seventeenth century to reverse Spain's decline? How successful were these efforts?

Question 9

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Thirty Years' War

Question 10

Why did England move toward a limited monarchy while places like Prussia, Austria, and Russia moved toward a more robust and absolutist monarchy?

Question 11

What steps did Louis XIV take to limit the power and autonomy of the French aristocracy?

Question 12

In what sense was the seventeenth century a "golden age" for the Dutch Republic?

Question 13

Compare the reigns of Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia and Peter the Great of Russia. How are their policies similar? How are they different?

Question 14

How did the art and literature of the second half of the seventeenth century reflect the political and social life of that period? Give examples.

Question 15

What were the economic and social problems that troubled Europe from 1560 to 1650? Do these problems constitute a "crisis"?

Question 16

What were the causes of the Thirty Years' War, and what were the short-term and long-term consequences of the conflict?

Question 17

What role did the nobility play in politics and government in Poland and England?

Question 18

How and why did the English Parliament resist the Stuart's efforts to rule as absolute monarchs?

Question 19

What ideas and practices caused conflict between king and Parliament in seventeenth-century England that culminated in civil war? What role did religion play in shaping politics and society during the 1640s and 1650s?

Question 20

What were the most important demographic and economic trends in Europe from 1560 to 1650? What were the social and political consequences of those trends?

Question 21

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Junkers

Question 22

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
absolutism

Question 23

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Vienna and the Ottoman Empire

Question 24

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Cardinal Richelieu

Question 25

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
the Romanovs

Question 26

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Louis XIV

Question 27

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
the Restoration

Question 28

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Louis XIV's wars

Question 29

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Thomas Hobbes

Question 30

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
"divine right"

Question 31

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
the Fronde

Question 32

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
English Civil War

Question 33

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
States General

Question 34

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Oliver Cromwell

Question 35

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Versailles

Question 36

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Question 37

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
John Locke

Question 38

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Peter the Great

Question 39

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Glorious Revolution

Question 40

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Frederick William the Great Elector

Question 41

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
William Shakespeare

Question 42

Which country became dominant in Europe following the Thirty Years' War?

A)Sweden
B)England
C)Germany
D)Spain
E)France

Question 43

Absolutism means that

A)the real power in any state must be religious and exercised by the church.
B)ultimate authority rests solely in the hands of a king who rules by divine right.
C)subordinate powers have an absolute right to overrule the king on conducting the affairs of state.
D)no matter how humble, male citizens have an absolute right to participate in politics.
E)rule by a secular dictator, justifying his/her authority by supposedly serving the people.

Question 44

Which statement best describes the witch hunts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

A)They involved the prosecution of more than 100,000 people.
B)They were often directed against old single men.
C)They were generally directed only at people who denied that they were religious.
D)They were primarily restricted to rural areas.
E)They were minimal in comparison to the late Middle Ages.

Question 45

What did Cardinal Richelieu understand to be the biggest roadblock to building a strong monarchy in Louis XIV's France?

A)The rising cost of warfare
B)The weakness of the Bourbons
C)Resistance by the great nobles
D)Armed uprisings by workers in Paris
E)Peasant revolts in the countryside

Question 46

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Rembrandt van Rijn

Question 47

Which statement best describes the Thirty Years' War?

A)It eventually involved every country in Europe and Asia.
B)It is considered by most to be the first "modern" war.
C)It is considered by most to be part of the larger Bourbon-Habsburg struggle.
D)It was primarily fought in Spain.
E)It was exclusively caused by religious differences.

Question 48

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Baroque

Question 49

The witchcraft hysteria began to subside by the mid-seventeenth century for all of the following reasons EXCEPT

A)a tempering of religious passions in the wake of religious wars.
B)the growing unwillingness of magistrates to accept the conditions generated by trials of witches.
C)the stabilization of governments after a period of crisis.
D)the questioning of traditional attitudes toward religion.
E)the passage of laws recognizing the equality of women in European society.

Question 50

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Bill of Rights

Question 51

All of the following have been identified with the "military revolution" in the century after 1560 EXCEPT

A)the increased use of militias and volunteer soldiers.
B)standing armies based upon conscription.
C)increased use of the musket and bayonet.
D)larger sailing ships, known as "ships of the line."
E)the education of officers in military schools.

Question 52

What was the most destructive war in European history up until the middle of the seventeenth century?

A)The Thirty Years' War
B)The Hundred Years' War
C)The Wars of the Roses
D)The English Civil War
E)The Revolt of the Netherlands

Question 53

Gustavus Adolphus, who led the Lutheran armies in the Thirty Years' War until he was killed at Lützen, was king of

A)Poland.
B)Sweden.
C)Denmark.
D)Hungary.
E)Austria.

Question 54

Nobles rebelled in _____ between 1648 and 1652 to halt the growth of royal power.

A)France
B)Sweden
C)Switzerland
D)Russia
E)Spain

Question 55

Which group was particularly susceptible to suspicion during Europe's prolonged witchcraft craze?

A)Journeymen
B)Young, aggressive men
C)Members of opposing Christian denominations
D)Merchants
E)Old women

Question 56

Mazarin tried to carry on the policies of

A)Locke.
B)Calvin.
C)Henry IV.
D)Richelieu.
E)Louis XVI.

Question 57

Most of the fighting during the Thirty Years' War took place in

A)the Mediterranean islands.
B)Sweden.
C)Germanic lands.
D)Spain.
E)France.

Question 58

As a result of the Peace of Westphalia of 1648

A)the German population was to be converted to Catholicism.
B)all German states could choose their own religions, except for Calvinism.
C)German states were allowed to determine their religion.
D)the institution of the Holy Roman Empire was to be the ruling force in Germany for the next 100 years.
E)the Holy Roman Empire was dismembered.

Question 59

Which economic trend occurred in the first half of the seventeenth century?

A)The Mediterranean region saw a surge in economic activity.
B)Overall, the European economy expanded rapidly.
C)Silver imports from the Americas tripled.
D)Italy declined in economic importance.
E)France was unaffected by the general decline in the European economy.

Question 60

The Thirty Years' War began when _____ in Bohemia rebelled against Habsburg authority.

A)Muslim refugees
B)ethnic minorities
C)Calvinist nobles
D)Catholic peasants
E)Lutheran priests

Question 61

Which group benefited from Peter the Great's cultural reforms?

A)The urban poor
B)Estate owners
C)Priests
D)Peasants
E)Women

Question 62

The Habsburg emperor was

A)archduke of Austria.
B)king of Bohemia.
C)king of Hungary.
D)Holy Roman Emperor.
E)All of these are correct.

Question 63

The object of Peter the Great's domestic reforms was to make Russia

A)a military power.
B)democratic.
C)egalitarian.
D)an Asian monarchy.
E)a wholly agrarian nation.

Question 64

What happened to the Holy Roman Empire after 1648?

A)It became one of the most powerful and centralized monarchies in Europe under the domination of Spanish grandees.
B)It was not really an empire at all but rather a loose association of 300 German states.
C)It became divided into three great warring states: Prussia, Poland, and Silesia.
D)It continued to acknowledge the temporal power of the pope.
E)It was ruled by the Bourbons.

Question 65

What was Cardinal Richelieu's greatest success as Louis XIII's chief minister?

A)Evicting the Huguenot presence from France after the La Rochelle rebellion
B)Expanding the political and social rights of the Huguenots
C)Creating a reservoir of funds for the treasury
D)Emerging victorious from the Fronde revolts of the nobility
E)Strengthening the central role of the monarchy in domestic and foreign policy

Question 66

Which statement best describes the economic policies of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's controller general of finances?

A)They were absolutely unique in Europe.
B)They involved new accounting practices to take the tax burden off the peasants.
C)They were based on the economic theory of mercantilism.
D)They gave Louis a large surplus in the treasury that he needed to carry out his wars.
E)They could best be described as laissez-faire.

Question 67

Peter the Great's ambition was to make Russia more like

A)Austria.
B)Poland.
C)Prussia.
D)its former self.
E)western Europe.

Question 68

Which state threatened Vienna in 1529 and again in 1683?

A)Russia
B)France
C)Prussia
D)Austria
E)The Ottoman Empire

Question 69

What is an accurate characterization of the reign of Louis XIV?

A)It was a time of unprecedented peace.
B)It was a time of almost continuous war.
C)It was a time in which the French monarchy stabilized its finances.
D)It was a time in which the French monarchy went into decline.
E)It was a time when the French and the Austrians formed a lasting alliance.

Question 70

Which statement most closely describes Peter the Great of Russia?

A)His program of Europeanization was predominantly technical and aimed at modernizing the military.
B)His respect for western governments led to increased powers for the nobility.
C)His traditional, conservative attitude stripped away all previous social gains for women.
D)His desire to teach Russians western customs could not be enforced among the old-fashioned nobles.
E)He rejected Westernization in favor of Orthodoxy.

Question 71

Louis XIV described himself as the _____ King.

A)One
B)Sun
C)Accidental
D)Humble
E)God

Question 72

Louis XIV restructured the administration of the French government by all of the following EXCEPT

A)personally dominating the actions of his ministers and secretaries.
B)adding loyal followers from relatively new aristocratic families to the royal council.
C)making the court a main arena where rival aristocratic factions jockeyed for power.
D)using Versailles as a place where powerful subjects came to find favors and offices for themselves and their supporters.
E)removing the central policy-making machinery of government from his own court and household.

Question 73

Louis XIV pursued a(n)____ policy.

A)progressive religious
B)anti-religious
C)pro-Protestant
D)anti-Catholic
E)anti-Protestant

Question 74

What did Louis XIV's Edict of Fontainebleau achieve?

A)It created new ranks of intendants to govern various regions of France.
B)It revoked the earlier Edict of Nantes and curtailed the rights of French Protestants.
C)It established new standards of court etiquette and was intended to diminish the power of great nobles.
D)It removed most French bishops from their sees and replaced them with nobles to strengthen Louis' control of the French Catholic Church.
E)It moved the Estates General from Paris to Fontainebleau.

Question 75

The War of Spanish Succession ended with

A)the Peace of the Pyrenees.
B)the Peace of Westphalia.
C)the Treaty of Ryswick.
D)the Treaty of Nystadt.
E)the Peace of Utrecht and of Rastatt.

Question 76

Leopold I's policy of eastward expansion was challenged by

A)the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War.
B)a coalition of western European powers.
C)an energized Sweden.
D)the collapse of the Romanov dynasty.
E)the revival of Ottoman power.

Question 77

How did Frederick William the Great Elector build Brandenburg-Prussia into a significant European power?

A)He established religious uniformity in his kingdom, as evidenced in his eviction of the Huguenots.
B)He freed the peasants from the dominion of the nobles.
C)He worked through an elected assembly whenever possible.
D)He made the General War Commissariat the bureaucratic machine of his state.
E)He allied Prussia with England and Russia against France and the Holy Roman Empire.

Question 78

How did Louis XIV use his palace at Versailles?

A)To dominate the nobility and display his grandeur
B)To putter around in the garden and enjoy nature
C)To earn money by centralizing the marketplace
D)To get away from politics and spend time with his family
E)To provide a spiritual sanctuary from a troubled world

Question 79

What best describes Russian society in the seventeenth century?

A)It witnessed the reign of Ivan the Terrible.
B)It witnessed profound religious reforms in the Russian Orthodox church.
C)It was highly stratified, with the tsar and landed aristocrats at the top and peasants bound to the land at the bottom.
D)It saw the rise of the merchant class to power.
E)It saw the end of serfdom and the emergence of a prosperous free peasantry.

Question 80

Which uprising in France nearly overthrew Louis XIV early in his reign?

A)Vendee
B)Marseillaise
C)Fronde
D)Jacquerie
E)Revolution