Crisis+&+Absolutism+in+Europe

** 1550-1715 ** **"I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself."**
 * -Peter the Great**

__**10 Key Terms:**__
 * **Militant:** Highly combatant religions**.** Examples would be like Calvinism and Catholicism who were always trying to eliminate each other's authority.
 * **Armada:** A fleet of warships. Used by Phillip II of Spain to invade England but he failed miserably and was forced to return home.
 * **Ultra-Catholics:** An extreme Catholic party that strongly opposed the Huguenots. Since they possessed the sections of northern France they could recruit and pay for large armies to fight for them.
 * **Inflation:** Major economic problem in Europe at the time. Inflation is a rising in prices due to an influx in gold and silver in the Americas and the increased demand for land and food.
 * **Witchcraft:** Magic used by villages for centuries. The inquisition put a stop to a lot of witchcraft since they would torture anyone caught doing it.
 * **Devine right of Kings:** Belief that the kings receive their power from God and are Responsible only to God. This was believed in by James but the Parliament didn't think much of it.
 * **Commonwealth:** "A republic" set up by Parliament. It was set up after Charles I was executed and monarchy and House of Lords were abolished.
 * **Absolutism:** A system used in the seventeenth century in which the ruler holds total power. Louis XIV was a big believer in this system.
 * **Czar:** The Russian word for Caesar. Ivan IV was the first person to use this title back in the sixteenth century.
 * **Boyar:** Russian nobility that Ivan the Terrible had crushed during his rule. He made sure he crushed them so that they would not revolt.

__**5 Key People:**__ __**Links:**__ The Thirty Year's War This is a Great link about everything you want to know about the Thirty Year's War. Examples would be like how it started and the main battles in the war. Queen Elizabeth Here in this link is everything about Queen Elizabeth. It has info on where she grew up and things that she did during her reign. Weapons and armor This link has great information on the weapons and armor used during the 1600's. Examples of weapons would be crossbows, firearms, and swords. Palace of Versailles This site has all you need to know about the Palace of Versailles. It has great info on where it was built and why, etc. Peter the Great Here is a site that has lots of information on Peter the Great. It is basically a biography of his life and what he accomplished.
 * **Huguenots:** French Protestants influenced by John Calvin who made up about 7 percent of French population. They were a powerful group that was a "threat to the Crown".
 * **Roundheads:** Parliamentary forces who fought against the supporters of the King. They were called Roundheads because of their short hair.
 * **James I:** Queen Elizabeth's cousin who was the king of Scotland. He came to the throne after she died and started a new dynasty named the Stuart dynasty.
 * **Louis XIV:** French ruler who believed highly in absolutism. Under his rule he had a large palace built at Versailles that took tens of thousands of people to build.
 * **William Shakespeare:** Famous dramatist during the Elizabethan era. He was best known for his plays and being an actor and shareholder with the Lord Chamberlain's Men.

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**__TIMELINE:__** **1.** 1520- Mannerism movement begins in Italy. **2.** 1558- Elizabeth I becomes queen of England. **3.** 1566- Violence erupts between Calvinists and Catholics in the Netherlands. **4.** 1598- French Wars of Religion end. **5.** 1618- Thirty Years' War begins in Germany. **6.** 1642- English Civil War breaks out between King Charles I and Parliament. **7.** 1648- Peace of Westphalia ends Thirty Years' War. **8.** 1689- Toleration Act of 1689 is passed in English Parliament. **9.** 1690- John Locke develops theory of government. **10.** 1701- Frederick I becomes king of Prussia.

The wars of religion had a huge impact on Europe in the sixteenth-century. The largest of these wars were the French Wars of Religion that lasted from 1562-1598. These wars were fought between Protestants and Catholics all across Europe. The fighting in France came to a stop in 1598 when Henry of Navarre succeeded to the throne as Henry IV. Henry IV was a protestant leader with the Huguenots, but realized that he would never be accepted as a ruler being protestant, so he converted to Catholicism. The greatest supporter of militant Catholicism was King Philip II of Spain, he ruled from 1556 to 1598 and made Spain a world power. He made Catholicism strict in all the territories he owned from Spain to the Netherlands to parts of Italy and in the Americas. Philip also reconquered Muslim areas within Spain and expelled the Spanish Jews. Philip II was very different from the English ruler Elizabeth Tudor. She built England to become a powerful kingdom and a leader among protestant countries. She repealed any laws favoring Catholics, and made a new Act of Supremacy, making herself the ruler of both church and state. She tried to avoid war with Catholic France and England by keeping a balance of power. Either way Spain sent an armada to England but was defeated and returned to Spain without success.

From 1560 to 1650 Europe's economy started to fail. Inflation drove up prices, and an increased demand for land and food drove up prices for both. The population in Europe also went from 60 million in 1500 to 85 million in 1600. Witchcraft trials also started to show up around Europe. Many women above fifty years old and often widows were accused of being witches. They were tortured and killed until around 1650 when the witchcraft hysteria begun to die down. Many religious disputes continued in Germany after the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. The Thirty Years' War was the most destructive conflict that Europeans had yet experienced. By 1648 the Peace of Westphalia officially ended and Germany was in turmoil. Almost all countries of Europe became involved, including England. Many major contenders gained new territories and France emerged as the dominant nation in Europe. After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, James I became the next ruler. He and his son Charles I believed in the divine right of kings. This stated that kings got their right to rule from god, so they only had to answer to him. Charles I also imposed more ritual on the Church of England, provoking many thousands of Puritans to move to America impacting America's history greatly. In 1642 England slipped into civil war between the king and his supporters, and parliament and it's supporters. Oliver Cromwell became the general of the New Model Army, which consisted of mainly Puritans known as Independents. When Cromwell and the parliament won the war they beheaded the king and made England a republic, or commonwealth. Cromwell ruled until his death in 1658, which afterwards Parliament restored England to a monarchy with Charles II as the ruler. James II, the next ruler was a catholic and his son was too. So without bloodshed, the Dutch leader William of Orange "invaded" England and accepted the throne and the bill of rights, giving Parliament more power.

Absolutism is a system in which a ruler holds total power. In seventeenth-century Europe, absolutism was tied to the idea of the divine right of kings. Kings believed that god had given them their right to rule. Louis XIV was regarded as a perfect ruler of absolutism. He led France to a superpower, and many other empires were based off of his ideas across Europe. France was in a time of near economic failure for the fifty years preceding Louis XIV. After the death of Cardinal Mazarin died Louis commanded total control and his philosophy worked. France wasn't the only country focusing on absolutism in Europe. After the Thirty Years' War there were many German states. The two that emerged as strongest were Prussia and Austria. In Prussia Frederick William the Great Elector set up the fourth largest army in Europe. His son became the first king of Prussia, King Frederick I. The Austrian Hapsburgs played a significant role in European politics as Holy Roman emperors. They lost their hope of a great empire after the Thirty Years' War. Their lands consisted of Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, and Slavonia. Although, due to different nationalities, no absolutist empire emerged from Austia. Russia alsp was a great power in Europe. In the sixteenth century, Ivan IV became the first czar or caesar in Russia. After Ivan IV, Michael Romanov and Peter the Great became the next czars. Peter the Great was Russia's first absolutist czar, he used his power to help westernize Russia. Peter helped Russia become one of the strongest countries in Europe with an army of 210,000 men.