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

Question 1

Peter the Great's ambition was to make Russia more like which of the following?

A)Austria
B)Western Europe
C)Prussia

Answer 1

Western Europe

Question 2

Under the liberum veto, who among the following could veto an act of the Polish Sejm?

A)Any member of the Sejm
B)The Holy Roman Emperor
C)The King of Poland

Answer 2

Any member of the Sejm

Question 3

Which of the following statements best applies to 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 representative assembly.
C)His traditional, conservative attitude stripped away all previous social gains for women.

Answer 3

His program of Europeanization was predominantly technical and aimed at modernizing the military.

Question 4

What was the result of Louis XIV's Edict of Fontainebleau?

A)It created new ranks of intendants to govern various regions of France.
B)It revoked the earlier Edict of Nantes, curtailed the rights of French Protestants, and caused thousands of highly skilled Huguenot to flee the country.
C)It established new standards of court etiquette and was intended to diminish the power of great nobles.

Question 5

Which of the following was the chief reason for the wars of Louis XIV?

A)To reduce the power of the Habsburgs
B)His desire to insure the dominance of France in all Europe
C)To destroy the commercial superiority of the Dutch

Question 6

After the conclusion of the Thirty Years' War in 1648, the Holy Roman Empire experienced which of the following?

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.

Question 7

Which of the following exerted the most influence on Italy by the eighteenth century?

A)France
B)Austria
C)Spain

Question 8

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

A)A tempering of religious passions in the wake of religious wars
B)The growing willingness of magistrates to accept the conditions generated by trials of witches
C)The destabilization of governments after a period of calm

Question 9

Louis XIV used his palace at Versailles to accomplish what goal?

A)Dominate the nobility and display his grandeur
B)Pursue his interest in scientific experimentation
C)Cultivate luxury crops and enhance royal revenue

Question 10

In 1529 and again in 1683, Vienna was seriously threatened by which state?

A)Russia
B)France
C)The Ottoman Empire

Question 11

The Fronde, an uprising in France that nearly overthrew Louis XIV early in his reign, was a revolt of which part of French society?

A)Peasants
B)Clergy
C)Nobility

Question 12

As Louis XIII's chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu was most successful in which of the following policies?

A)Evicting the Huguenot presence from France after the La Rochelle rebellion
B)Expanding the political and social rights of the Huguenots
C)Strengthening the central role of the monarchy in domestic and foreign policy

Question 13

How did Scandinavia change in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?

A)Denmark expanded so as to dominate the Baltic.
B)Sweden became a second-rate power after the Great Northern War.
C)Sweden and Denmark joined forces to defeat and occupy Poland in 1660.

Question 14

How is the witchcraft craze of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries best described?

A)It came out of the social unrest deriving from the shift from individualism to communalism.
B)It often targeted old, single women
C)It was minimal in comparison to the late Middle Ages.

Question 15

How are the economic policies of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's controller general of finances, best described?

A)They were noted for their innovation and originality.
B)They used new accounting practices to take the tax burden off the peasants.
C)They were based on the economic theory of mercantilism.

Question 16

In the seventeenth century, how is the prominence of the Dutch Republic as a great power best described?

A)It stemmed from its domination of Mediterranean trade.
B)It was supported by economic prosperity.
C)It was a result of the ejection of the house of Orange from political power in 1581.

Question 17

How did James I of England alienate most of the members of Parliament?

A)He encouraged an alliance with Spain.
B)He insisted on his right to govern through divine right.
C)He began using the army to persecute Puritans.

Question 18

Frederick William the Great Elector built Brandenburg-Prussia into a significant European power by adopting which of the following policies?

A)Making the General War Commissariat the bureaucratic machine of his state
B)Freeing the peasants from the dominion of the nobles
C)Using his army whenever possible to gain his ends

Question 19

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

A)Personally dominating the actions of his ministers and secretaries
B)Removing the central policy-making machinery of government from his own court and household
C)Making the court a main arena where rival aristocratic factions jockeyed for power

Question 20

Russian society in the seventeenth century experienced which of the following?

A)Endless civil wars during the reign of Ivan IV the Terrible
B)Profound religious reforms in the Russian Orthodox Church
C)A highly oppressive system of serfdom

Question 21

John Locke was responsible for which of the following?

A)Writing the Petition of Right
B)Authoring Leviathan
C)A political work called Two Treatises of Government

Question 22

Which of the following incidents prompted the nobles to depose James II?

A)His marriage to the Duchess of Orange
B)The death of his first, Protestant wife under suspicious circumstances
C)The birth of a son to his second wife, a Catholic

Question 23

Baroque art attempted to accomplish which of the following goals?

A)To revolt against the ideals of the Italian Renaissance
B)To blend the feelings of the religious reformations with classical Renaissance art
C)To achieve a representation of the feeling of a particular scene or object

Question 24

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

A)Poland
B)Sweden
C)Denmark

Question 25

The Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn was noted for which of the following?

A)His formation of the French Academy of Painting and Sculptors
B)Reflecting the values of the Dutch aristocracy in his works
C)Being the one great Protestant painter of the seventeenth century

Question 26

Thomas Hobbes held which of the following positions?

A)He felt that humans were suited best to be in a pristine state of nature, without government interference.
B)He stated that human nature was animalistic and needed a strong government to maintain social order.
C)He was a firm believer in democracy.

Question 27

What was the result of the Peace of Westphalia?

Question 28

What is the central idea of "divine right" monarchy?

Question 29

Under Charles II, Parliament passed the Test Act to achieve which of the following results?

A)To control the quality of food and drink coming from English colonies
B)To stipulate that only Anglicans could hold military and civil offices
C)To help Catholics gain government jobs

Question 30

With whose work did the artistic movement Mannerism reach its peak?

A)Fra Angelico
B)El Greco
C)Peter Paul Rubens

Question 31

The French playwright Moliére is noted for which of the following?

A)Writing Tartuffe
B)Perfecting neoclassical tragedy
C)Defending French religious and social customs

Question 32

The "Glorious Revolution" in 1688 in England was significant for which of the following reasons?

A)It restored Charles II and the Stuart dynasty to power.
B)It bloodlessly deposed James II in favor of William of Orange.
C)It returned England to a Catholic commonwealth.

Question 33

After eleven years of personal rule, why was Charles I forced to call parliament into session in 1640?

A)He wished to go to war with France.
B)He was unable to defend England against a Scottish rebellion.
C)He wanted to ratify a peace treaty with the Irish.

Question 34

What was the relationship between "divine right" monarchs and their parliaments?

Question 35

Where did most of the fighting during the Thirty Years' War take place?

A)The Mediterranean islands
B)Sweden
C)Germanic lands

Question 36

Among other things, the Petition of Right had which of the following significant results?

A)It stated that the King of England was elected.
B)It maintained that the King could pass no new tax without the consent of Parliament.
C)It restored order in the English military.

Question 37

What was the result of the English Bill of Rights?

A)It laid the foundation for a constitutional monarchy.
B)It resolved all of England's seventeenth-century religious questions.
C)It reaffirmed the divine-right theory of kingship while limiting the king's power.

Question 38

Why did Europeans suddenly grow concerned about witches?

Question 39

What role did the military play in European states?

Question 40

Describe the impact of Cardinal Mazarin's policies.

Question 41

Following the Thirty Years' War, which country became dominant in Europe?

A)Sweden
B)England
C)France

Question 42

What was the significance of James I's refusal to sign the petition of right?

Question 43

How was enduring conflict and the project of political centralization related? What new policies represented the trend toward concentration of power in royal hands?

Question 44

How did the Dutch configure their new limited monarchy?

Question 45

What is Dutch realism?

Question 46

Why did religious conflict continue to plague Europe in the 1600s? How were these conflicts resolved?

Question 47

Describe the Baroque movement.

Question 48

Describe Austrian motivations for and outcomes of policies of expansion.

Question 49

What is Hobbes's main argument?

Question 50

Which of the following was 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.

Question 51

What limits were there on King Louis XIV's power?

Question 52

What is Locke's main argument?

Question 53

How did the Ottoman Turks become a regional power?

Question 54

Describe Frederik William's reforms.

Question 55

Why did Spanish power decline in the 1600s?

Question 56

What effect did the Thirty Years' War have on Scandinavia?

Question 57

How had the English monarchy been changed by the time of James II's accession?

Question 58

Why did the English Commonwealth not last longer than 20 years?

Question 59

Why did Austria come to dominate former Spanish lands?

Question 60

Why did the schism between Eastern and Russian Orthodox Church occur?

Question 61

All have been identified as part of the "military revolution" in the century after 1560 EXCEPT which of the following?

A)The increased use of militias and volunteer soldiers
B)Standing armies based upon conscription
C)Increased use of the musket and bayonet

Question 62

What policies helped strengthen and maintain the Ottoman state? How did these policies differ from European policies of the same period?

Question 63

How had the idea of divine right monarchy come out of other conflicts between royals and nobles? Did this new doctrine resolve the conflict? Why or why not?

Question 64

How is Jacques Bossuet's Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture best described?

A)It rejected as ungodly Louis XIV's system of absolute rule.
B)It was the fundamental seventeenth-century statement of divine-right monarchy.
C)It stressed that a limited monarchy with representative bodies was the most divine form of human government.

Question 65

Describe how Sweden became an absolute monarchy. How did its path differ to other European states? How was it similar?

Question 66

How similar or different was Russia's experience of political centralization and economic transformation to other states in Western Europe? Why?

Question 67

What role did the aristocracy play in Frederick William's attempts to centralize authority in Prussia? How was this similar or different to the role aristocrats played in other states?

Question 68

Which was a stronger force in early modern English politics: opposition to Catholicism or opposition to absolutist monarchs? Why?

Question 69

Did Richelieu, Mazarin, and Colbert's policies ultimately help or hurt Louis XIV's project of asserting absolute authority? Why?

Question 70

How are the Baroque movement, French classicism, and Dutch realism different from one another?

Question 71

Absolutism means which of the following?

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.

Question 72

How crucial was Dutch economic strength to the creation and maintenance of the new limited monarchy? Why?

Question 73

How did military losses negatively affect Spanish power in the early modern period? Discuss at least two major losses and their effects.

Question 74

Cardinal Richelieu understood that, in Louis XIV's France, the most important roadblock to building a strong monarchy was which of the following?

A)The rising cost of warfare
B)The power of the church
C)Resistance by the great nobles

Question 75

On what points do Hobbes and Locke agree? On what points do they differ? Which are you more persuaded by?