Deck 13: The Struggle for Survival and Sovereignty: Europes Social and Political Order, 1600-1715

Question 1

The traditional society of seventeenth century Europe

A) Was overthrown in a revolution
B) Was destroyed by the pressure put upon it by absolute monarchs
C) Was based on a hierarchy of ranks and subranks that covered everyone from the highest to the lowest
D) Believed that all men (but not all women) were created equal

Answer 1

Was based on a hierarchy of ranks and subranks that covered everyone from the highest to the lowest

Question 2

Seventeenth century rural life was characterized by

A) Low taxes paid to the government
B) Poverty, disease and famine
C) Early marriages and numerous and healthy children
D) None of these options are correct

Answer 2

Poverty, disease and famine

Question 3

Kings in the seventeenth century faced all of these problems except

A) A great increase in the cost of war
B) A resistance to royal authority by major aristocrats
C) A violent popular movement for a republican form of government
D) The desire by town and provincial officials to maintain their authority in local matters

Answer 3

A violent popular movement for a republican form of government

Question 4

The roots of French royal absolutism were laid in the days of

A) James I
B) Suleiman the Magnificent
C) Peter the Great
D) Henry IV

Question 5

The Cardinal Richelieu

A) Became king of France, deposing Louis XIII
B) Strengthened royal authority by curbing the powers of the nobility and the Huguenots (French Protestants)
C) Used his influence with Louis XIII to have himself elected pope
D) Won the gratitude of French peasants by his peaceful and low tax policies

Question 6

Cardinal Jules Mazarin

A) Successfully reasserted royal authority that had been badly shaken by the mid-seventeenth century rebellion known as the Fronde
B) Was executed by orders of Louis XIV when the latter became old enough to rule by himself
C) Virtually ruled France during the reign of Louis XIII
D) By his religious intolerance, started the Thirty Years' War

Question 7

The great palace of Versailles

A) Took more than 40 years to construct
B) Was used as the seat of the French government by Louis XIV
C) Set such a pattern of royal splendor that other European monarchs soon copied it
D) All of these options are correct

Question 8

It can be said of the reign of Louis XIV

A) That it became the model of absolute monarchy, but was disfigured by high taxes and growing misery caused by expensive wars
B) That it ended in a major revolution that made France a constitutional monarchy
C) That it was an era of peace and low taxation
D) That French culture nearly collapsed, due to the negligence of the virtually illiterate monarch

Question 9

Jean-Baptiste Colbert was known for

A) Freeing French industry from minute government regulations
B) Giving France a European reputation for the quality of its products
C) Virtually bankrupting France by his increase of royal expenses
D) Dominating the government by means of his high noble birth

Question 10

The "Age of Louis XIV" saw all of the following except

A) A major flowering of French literature and theater
B) A development in the visual arts, moving from baroque to classical style
C) For attempts, though unsuccessful, to promote industry and increase exports through government subsidy and regulation
D) For an attempt to increase social equality by curbing the privileges of the nobility

Question 11

The wars of Louis XIV

A) Were fought primarily against the Huguenots
B) Led to the French conquest of Britain
C) Were so expensive that they left France with a legacy of high taxes and increased poverty
D) Were fought to secure the independence of the Dutch from Spain

Question 12

Eastern Europe differed sharply from western Europe in the seventeenth century in many ways, in that

A) There were fewer nobles and greater social equality
B) The towns were far wealthier
C) All the monarchies were absolute, except for Russia
D) The peasants of Eastern Europe tended to be serfs rather than free

Question 13

In which of these Eastern European countries did royal or princely power decline rather than increase?

A) Russia
B) Poland
C) Austria
D) Brandenburg-Prussia

Question 14

Frederick William, the "Great Elector" of Brandenburg-Prussia, succeeded because

A) He freed the serfs, thus undermining an overly powerful nobility
B) He prevailed over the Estates, raised a strong army and gave nobles greater control over the serfs
C) He promoted town growth as a counterbalance to noble power
D) He united the German principalities

Question 15

The most important accomplishment of Austria in the seventeenth century under Leopold I was

A) The defeat of the Ottoman Turks and the conquest of Hungary
B) The conquest of Poland
C) The construction of the great palace of Versailles
D) The imposition of Protestantism in his domains

Question 16

Before the reign of Peter the Great, Russia

A) Had a very weak monarchy
B) Abolished serfdom
C) Established a tradition of strongly autocratic monarchy
D) Conquered Poland

Question 17

Peter the Great made Russia a European power by his defeat of

A) Sweden
B) Austria
C) Spain
D) France

Question 18

In his policies, Peter the Great of Russia did all of the following except

A) Introduce Western customs into Russia, bringing women out of seclusion
B) Travel to Western Europe to learn about politics and technology
C) Wage a series of wars that made Russia a European power
D) Introduce constitutional monarchy into Russia

Question 19

Seventeenth century Poland

A) Became a monarchy as absolute as that of Russia
B) Had a flourishing commerce
C) Was so dominated by its nobility that no strong centralized monarchy arose there
D) Greatly expanded its territories at the expense of Russia and Austria

Question 20

The English Puritans

A) Wanted to overthrow the Church of England
B) Wished to purify not only the Church of England, but also daily life by outlawing theaters, cock-. fighting and other "frivolous" activities
C) Reunited Protestant and Catholic churches
D) Strongly advocated submission to the will of the monarch

Question 21

During the reign of James I

A) The monarch renounced the idea of divine right of kings
B) The king successfully resolved the Puritan problem
C) The colonies of Jamestown in Virginia and Plymouth in Massachusetts were established
D) None of these options are correct

Question 22

Charles I of England did all of the following except

A) Marry a Catholic princess, sister of the King of France
B) Engage in expensive and fruitless wars abroad
C) Disband Parliament when the members demanded concessions
D) Persecute the Puritans

Question 23

The civil war in England

A) Resulted in the destruction of Parliament by Charles I
B) Saw complete social equality established in England by the Levelers
C) Saw no women serve as soldiers
D) Resulted in a Parliamentary victory over Charles I, who was captured

Question 24

The Levelers in England during the English Civil War

A) Managed to seize control of the Parliament
B) Believed in the total equality of men and women
C) Advocated that Parliament be elected by all male heads of household and that the members be paid
D) Were not perceived as threats to the right of property ownership

Question 25

The trial of Charles I by the English Parliament was of grand significance because

A) The heart of the matter was whether the king was subject to the laws of Parliament and had broken them or whether a king who ruled by divine right could ever be charged by a subordinate body
B) It raised the issue of freedom of the press when newspapers, which had started to spring up during the English Civil War, were not permitted to cover the trial
C) The real issue was whether the Stuarts, as Scots, had the right to succeed to the English throne
D) The Reformation itself was at stake-the maintenance of Protestantism or the restoration of Catholicism

Question 26

In English history, the Commonwealth refers to

A) The period after the execution of Charles I, when Oliver Cromwell ruled
B) The period when the monarchy was restored under Charles II
C) The period of the Reformation
D) The period of the Hundred Years' War

Question 27

Cromwell's political power in England was based on

A) His control of the army, with the resulting military dictatorship
B) His ability to play king and Parliament against each other
C) His blatant, amoral, irreligious opportunism
D) His high moral character

Question 28

In his political treatise, The Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes argued

A) That human beings once lived in a benevolent state of nature and that this state can be reconstituted
B) That it is possible to reconcile the idea of sovereignty, in which the people have the right to rule, with
That of absolute monarchy
C) That because of defects in human nature, only a monarchy unrestricted by popular opinion could exist
D) That the idea of popular sovereignty precludes hereditary absolute monarchy

Question 29

The English monarchy was restored in 1660 with

A) Charles II
B) James II
C) William II
D) George II

Question 30

Samuel Pepys

A) Was a noted English political philosopher of the seventeenth century who wrote extensively on popular sovereignty
B) Was a seventeenth century English Puritan who, after the collapse of the Commonwealth, wrote Pilgrim's Progress
C) Was a lesser government official in Restoration England who kept a diary that reveals much about the politics and the society of that time
D) Was a close friend of Isaac Newton and himself prominent in the English scientific world

Question 31

Charles II of England

A) Succeeded in destroying Parliament, making himself an absolute monarch
B) Had some of the fiscal problems of his predecessor and was suspected of having Catholic sympathies
C) Was overthrown and executed in a revolution that had eerie parallels to the revolution that destroyed his father
D) Was a Puritan

Question 32

The Glorious Revolution in England

A) Led to William of Orange coming to the English throne
B) Was caused in part by the Catholic policies of James II
C) Led to the reduction of Ireland to virtual colonial status
D) All of these options are correct

Question 33

John Locke, in The Second Treatise of Government,

A) Agreed with Hobbes that people, for their own security, must turn over their sovereignty to the monarch
B) Argued that the people had made a contract with the king and could depose the monarch if he broke the contract
C) Argued that the Glorious Revolution was illegal and that James II was the rightful king of England
D) Argued that landless men and women were included in the "people," who had sovereignty

Question 34

The Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century was noted

A) For its political instability
B) For its fierce persecution of religious minorities
C) For its prosperity and religious toleration
D) For its strong support of Spanish policies

Question 35

The Dutch were able to maintain their tradition of local sovereignty when most successful states of the seventeenth century were developing strong central governments because

A) The nobility was extremely wealthy and proud and did not want a king-or any central government- over them
B) They were able to exclude religious dissenters from their small state so that there was no organized . minority that had to be controlled by centralized force
C) The great prosperity of the Dutch in the seventeenth century moderated any pressure to impose a strong authority from above
D) The African slave trade was an important source of Dutch prosperity and there was fear that a strong central government might abolish this lucrative business

Question 36

The society of Europe in the seventeenth century is properly described as hierarchical, with people ordered in ranks and sub-ranks.

Question 37

The major expenses for kings were on their vast palaces and increasingly elaborate court entertainments.

Question 38

Richelieu appointed a reliable set of royal agents called the intendants.

Question 39

Cardinal Mazarin was dismissed from office in France because of his inability to suppress the revolt known as the Fronde.

Question 40

Louis XIV used his grand palace at Versailles in part to attract important members of the nobility away from important local centers of power.

Question 41

Louis XIV's wars left France with major problems of debt that were never resolved during the Old Regime.

Question 42

Unlike Charles I of England, who was dethroned by his Parliament, Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia prevailed in his struggle with his Estates, gaining enhanced tax powers.

Question 43

Leopold I of Austria's success was based on strong cooperation with the Hungarian nobility.

Question 44

Peter the Great made Russia an important European power through his overwhelming defeat of the Ottoman Turks.

Question 45

The kings of Poland crushed the resistance of Polish nobles, townsmen and peasants, making them the strongest rulers in Eastern Europe except for Russia.

Question 46

The English Puritans were noted for their strong insistence on strict moral practices while showing indifference to the doctrines and practices of the Anglican Church.

Question 47

James I not only believed in Divine Right of Kings, but, like a good professor, he published books on the subject.

Question 48

Charles I lost the English Civil War because the Cavaliers failed to support him.

Question 49

At his trial Charles I acknowledged the jurisdiction of Parliament but denied the specific charges against him.

Question 50

Oliver Cromwell, although he rose to power because the king and the Parliament could not cooperate, himself was unable to work effectively with Parliament.

Question 51

In The Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes tried to show how a very strong monarchy was compatible with the idea that sovereignty ultimately resided in the people.

Question 52

Charles II of England, unlike his Catholic brother, undertook strongly Protestant religious policies in England.

Question 53

The Glorious Revolution in England changed the monarch, established constitutional monarchy with a Bill of Rights and insured that the king or queen would be Protestant.

Question 54

Unlike Hobbes, who believed that the people surrendered all their sovereignty to the monarch, John Locke believed that the people retained sovereignty and under some circumstances had the right to depose the monarch.

Question 55

The Dutch were so interested in commerce that they ignored the world of art.

Question 56

The Dutch showed unusual religious tolerance for the seventeenth century.

Question 57

Life expectancy for a person in the seventeenth century was probably less than ________ years.

Question 58

In many seventeenth century countries, half of government expenses went not to royal palaces, but to the ________.

Question 59

The elevated royal authority of the seventeenth century was often referred to as ________.

Question 60

The roots of French absolutism can be traced to the reign of King ________.

Question 61

The chief minister of France in the reign of Louis XIII was Cardinal ________.

Question 62

The great palace of Louis XIV was built at ________.

Question 63

_________ undertook mercantilist economic policies during the reign of Louis XIV.

Question 64

The last of the great wars of Louis XIV was the ________.

Question 65

The Elector of Brandenburg who greatly increased that area's power was ________.

Question 66

Leopold I of Austria was only partially successful in his attempt to control the nobility of ________.

Question 67

A major seventeenth century peasant revolt, led by Stenka Razin, took place in ________.

Question 68

Peter the Great made Russia a major power by his defeat of ________.

Question 69

A monarchy large in territory but suffering decline because of a lack of a strong central government was ________.

Question 70

The seventeenth century alternative to absolute monarchy is called ________.

Question 71

The seventeenth century English Protestants who worked to alter the rituals of the Anglican church and ban frivolous activities were the ________.

Question 72

James I believed strongly in a political theory referred to as the ________.

Question 73

The ___________ were a group of radical Protestants during the English Civil War who demanded that Parliament be elected by all the male householders.

Question 74

The dominant figure in the English Commonwealth, virtually a military dictator, was ________.

Question 75

The great political treatise on sovereignty, written during the English Civil war by Thomas Hobbes, was ________

Question 76

After the death of Cromwell, ________ was restored as king of England.

Question 77

Religious issues began to come to the fore once again under Charles II of England because of his ________ sympathies.

Question 78

The English revolution of 1688 that overthrew James II is often called the ________.

Question 79

The Second Treatise on Civil Government, which argued that the people had the right to depose the sovereign if he violated his contract with the people, was ________.

Question 80

Perhaps the area in which the Dutch differed the most from other European countries was their policy of ________.