WC 15 Absolutismo na Europa Flashcards
Term
Description
Louis XIV (1638 - 1715)
Called the ‘Sun King,’ he was known for his success at strengthening the institutions of the French absolutist state.
Peter the Great (1672 - 1725)
Energetic tsar who transformed Russia into a leading European country by centralizing government, modernizing the army, creating a navy, and reforming education and the economy.
Charles II
Nominally King of England, Ireland, and Scotland after his father Charles I’s execution in 1649, Charles II lived in exile until he was restored to the throne in 1660. Influenced by his cousin, King Louis XIV of France, he presided over an opulent royal court until his death in 1685.
James II
King of England, Ireland, and Scotland from 1685 - 88 whose commitment to absolutism and Catholic zealotry led to his exile to France in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Mercantilism
A theory and policy for directing the economy of monarchical states between 1600 and 1800 based on the assumption that wealth and power depended on a favorable balance of trade (more exports and fewer imports) and the accumulation of precious metals. Mercantilists advocated forms of economic protectionism to promote domestic production.
French Colonialism
Realizing the profits to be made in responding to Europe’s growing demand for sugar, French Finance Minister Colbert encouraged the development of sugar producing colonies in the West Indies, the largest of which was Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti)
Contract Theory of Government
A theory of government written by Englishman John Locke (1632 - 1704) which posits that government authority was both contractual and conditional; therefore, if a government has abused its given authority, society had the right to dissolve it and create another.
John Locke (1632 - 1704)
English philosopher and political theorist known for his contributions to liberalism. Locke had great faith in human reason and believed that just societies were those that infringed the least on the natural rights and freedoms of individuals. This led him to assert that a government’s legitimacy depended on the consent of the governed, a view that had a profound effect on the authors of the United States’ Declaration of Independence.
Glorious Revolution
The overthrow of King James II of England and the installation of his Protestant daughter, Mary Stuart, and her husband, William of Orange, to the throne in 1688 and 1689. It is widely regarded as the founding moment in the development of a constitutional monarchy in Britain, while also establishing a more favorable climate for the economic and political growth of the English commercial classes.
Balance of Powers
The principle that no country should be powerful enough to destabilize international relations. Starting in the seventeenth century, this goal of maintaining balance influenced diplomacy in western and central Europe for two centuries until the system collapsed with the onset of the First World War.
Treaty of Utrecht (1713)
Resolution to the War of Spanish Succession that reestablished a balance of power in Europe, to the benefit of Britain and in ways that disadvantaged Spain, Holland, and France.
Absolutism
Form of government in which one body, usually the monarch, controls the right to make war, tax, judge, and coin money. The term was often used to refer to the state monarchies in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe. In other countries the end of feudalism is often associated with the legal abolition of serfdom, as in Russia in 1861.
Peter the Great (1672 - 1725)
Energetic tsar who transformed Russia into a leading European country by centralizing government, modernizing the army, creating a navy, and reforming education and the economy.
