Deck 5: The Transformation of Eastern Europe, 1648-1740

Question 1

In the mid-seventeenth century, most of eastern Europe belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, the Republic of Poland, and the empire of the Ottoman Turks. These three political entities were similar in all of the following ways except:

A) all lacked efficient systems of administration.
B) all were overcome by Prussia, Austria, and Russia.
C) all were overly centralized.
D) all were loosely organized.

Answer 1

all were overly centralized.

Question 2

In eastern Europe, the seventeenth-century commercial revolution:

A) created a class of skilled free laborers.
B) undermined the institution of serfdom.
C) encouraged small-scale farming.
D) strengthened the great landlords.

Answer 2

strengthened the great landlords.

Question 3

After the Peace of Westphalia, the Holy Roman Empire:

A) officially became a Catholic state.
B) lacked most of the resources of a functioning imperial system.
C) refused to grant its member states freedom from central control.
D) created a massive army that specialized in artillery.

Answer 3

lacked most of the resources of a functioning imperial system.

Question 4

In the context of the Holy Roman Empire, the "knights of the empire" were:

A) persons who acknowledged no overlordship except that of the emperor himself.
B) landowners who owned more than 1,000 acres of land.
C) the emperor's personal bodyguards.
D) representatives of the emperor in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Poland.

Question 5

After 1648, the Holy Roman Empire:

A) excelled in the field of science.
B) faced an unfavorable economic situation.
C) made no significant contribution in music.
D) expanded its commerce across the Atlantic world.

Question 6

After the Thirty Years' War, the rulers of the German states:

A) used the power of the imperial diet to raise taxes for the Holy Roman Empire.
B) established democratic governance in all the major cities of the Holy Roman Empire.
C) established absolutist rule in their individual courts.
D) ceded power to the emperor to establish a strong central administration.

Question 7

The Guelph family, which ruled in Hanover, inherited the throne of:

A) Spain.
B) Germany.
C) Great Britain.
D) Poland.

Question 8

The following are all true about the Polish state except:

A) most of its kings were of non-Polish origin.
B) the urban population was largely German or Jewish.
C) the aristocracy made up less than 1 percent of the population.
D) the official language of the country was Latin.

Question 9

The liberum veto, a key practice of the Polish diet , _____.

A) allowed the noble-run upper house to veto any law passed by the commoner-dominated lower house of the diet
B) allowed as few as ten members to veto the actions of the diet
C) allowed the king to veto any law
D) allowed a single member of the diet to veto any action

Question 10

Before 1650, the Ottoman Empire had:

A) a powerful military force, strong in heavy artillery.
B) a standardized administration for the entire empire.
C) forced the majority of its population to convert to Islam.
D) uniform legal codes throughout the empire.

Question 11

Extraterritorial privileges granted by the Ottoman Empire:

A) were seen by the Turks of the seventeenth century as impairments of their own sovereignty.
B) exempted Europeans from the laws of the empire.
C) gave Turks the right to seize property from Jews and Christians residing in the empire.
D) gave Europeans the freedom to trade but not to actively practice their religion within the empire.

Question 12

What explains the growth of Habsburg power after the disaster of the Thirty Years' War?

A) Their family connections with the wealthier Habsburgs of Spain
B) Their leadership of the Holy Roman Empire
C) Their conquest of a new empire, largely at the expense of the Ottoman Empire
D) Their conquest of a new empire at the expense of Spain and France

Question 13

The Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683, the high point of Turkish power in Europe, _____.

A) was broken by Austria acting alone
B) was broken by a multinational force
C) was abandoned voluntarily by the Ottomans
D) ended the wars between Europe and the Ottomans

Question 14

More than anyone else, the founder of the modern Austrian state was:

A) King John Sobieski of Poland.
B) Prince Eugene of Savoy.
C) Duke Charles of Lorraine.
D) Emperor Charles V.

Question 15

The Peace of Karlowitz in 1699:

A) freed Habsburgs to pursue their ambitions in the west.
B) restored Spain to the Habsburgs.
C) removed the Turks from Europe.
D) had no real impact on Austria.

Question 16

To consolidate their rule after 1648, the Habsburgs:

A) created a shared national feeling in the people of all the territories they ruled.
B) created a strong central administration to bring all their territories under a single ruler.
C) devised a form of insurance to guarantee an undivided succession.
D) dealt directly with the rural masses to gain their support.

Question 17

Which of the following is true of the Pragmatic Sanction?

A) It required the Habsburgs to yield most of Hungary, together with Transylvania and Croatia, to the Turks.
B) It proposed that the diverse holdings of the Habsburgs were indivisible and only inheritable by the Habsburg line of heirs.
C) It declared that the Bourbons would succeed to the throne of Austria if the Habsburg line became extinct.
D) It stated that the Habsburg territories could be equally divided between the Hohenzollerns and the House of Hanover if the Habsburg line became extinct.

Question 18

After the reign of the Great Elector, Prussia became famous for its:

A) severe restrictions on military spending.
B) laissez-faire policies designed to produce economic growth.
C) militarism, under which military needs and values permeated all spheres of life.
D) commitment to developing a modern navy.

Question 19

Charles XII of Sweden:

A) consolidated the Swedish empire after conquering much of Poland.
B) lost a piece of his Baltic empire to the Russians.
C) briefly became king of Poland and later annexed Danzig.
D) lost all of Sweden's empire except Sweden itself.

Question 20

All of the following are true of seventeenth century Brandenburg-Prussia except:

A) it was thinly populated.
B) it had poor soil.
C) it had rich mineral deposits.
D) it was formed of widely scattered territories with little in common.

Question 21

After 1415, the Electors of Brandenburg were always of the _____ family.

A) Habsburg
B) Hanover
C) Hohenzollern
D) Hohenstauffen

Question 22

Frederick William, the Great Elector, learned from the Thirty Years' War that the security of his state must rely mainly upon the support of:

A) France.
B) the Holy Roman Emperor.
C) Sweden.
D) his army.

Question 23

In order to promote the Prussian economy, Frederick William, the Great Elector, _____.

A) virtually sealed the borders against immigration
B) admitted Jews from Poland and Huguenots from France
C) encouraged the Junkers to finance manufacturing enterprises
D) promoted a free market and discouraged government intervention in the economy

Question 24

All of the following are true of Prussia's social structure except:

A) the Junkers commanded the army and there were few bourgeois officers.
B) legislation forbade the sale of noble lands to commoners.
C) it was easier for the bourgeoisie to attain noble status than in France.
D) the Prussian middle class was not wealthy.

Question 25

Prussia established itself as a great power in 1740 with the successful conquest of:

A) the Rhineland.
B) Bohemia.
C) Pomerania.
D) Silesia.

Question 26

In the context of its geography, government, economy, and social structures, the Russian empire in the eighteenth century most closely resembled:

A) Austria.
B) Prussia.
C) France.
D) Poland.

Question 27

The Time of Troubles, 1604-1613, was a period during which:

A) the bubonic plague devastated Russia.
B) the Habsburgs seized Moscow.
C) there was a civil war in Russia.
D) the Prussians conquered western Russia.

Question 28

In the eighteenth century, the lives of serfs in Russia came to resemble those of:

A) the peasants of France.
B) slaves in the American colonies.
C) small farmers in England.
D) Turkish farmers.

Question 29

Identify a true statement about Old Believers.

A) They welcomed the church reforms to correct mistranslations in Russian versions of the Bible.
B) They saw the reformers as a band of cunning Greek scholars perpetrating the work of Antichrist.
C) They refused to support Stephen Razin's rebellion and the sporadic peasant uprisings that followed.
D) They believed the writings of the Old Testament to be the true word of God and rejected the New Testament.

Question 30

Peter the Great was able to defeat the Swedes in the Great Northern War because:

A) the Swedish king, Charles XII, was a madman.
B) he was a military genius.
C) he had reformed the Russian army into a professional force.
D) the Baltic provinces revolted against Sweden.

Question 31

Peter the Great financed his reforms by imposing a large number of new taxes, the burden of which fell mainly on the:

A) landowners.
B) peasants.
C) urban middle classes.
D) urban working classes.

Question 32

Between 1648 and 1711, how did the house of Habsburg manage to rebuild its power and refound its empire after the disastrous losses of the Thirty Years' War?

Question 33

Both Louis XIV and Peter the Great established royal absolutism in their countries. Compare and contrast their policies, methods, and results.

Question 34

Consider the Holy Roman Empire or the Ottoman Empire. How did the failure to become more "modern" lead to their decline?

Question 35

What role did the military play in the emergence of Russia and Prussia as major powers in the 17^th and early 18^th centuries?

Question 36

To what extent did Peter the Great carry out a "revolution" in Russia? Examine the social, political, and economic aspects of his policies.

Question 37

Why did serfdom strengthen as an institution in the east and decline in the west from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries?

Question 38

What events and transformations account for the changes seen in the Holy Roman Empire, the Republic of Poland, and the Ottoman Empire between 1660 and 1795?

Question 39

How did the house of Austria acquire such an extensive empire?

Question 40

How and when did the Habsburgs gain such considerable territories from the Turks?

Question 41

How did the culture of militarism facilitate Prussian expansion?

Question 42

What areas did Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and Tsar Alexander I acquire for the Russian empire?

Question 43

Why did Peter the Great focus his territorial ambitions on the Baltic?

Question 44

Why was the founding of St. Petersburg significant within the context of Peter the Great's modernizing and westernizing initiatives?

Question 45

What were the "Germanic liberties" and sovereign rights of the states within the Holy Roman Empire after the Thirty Years' War?

Question 46

What made the Austrian Empire international and cosmopolitan?

Question 47

How did the Turks treat non-Muslim subjects living in the Ottoman Empire in the seventeenth century?

Question 48

How did Frederick William, the Great Elector, contribute to the modernization of Prussia?

Question 49

How did Prussian militarism limit social mobility?

Question 50

In what ways was Russia considered both a European and non-European nation in the seventeenth century?