Deck 18: The Eighteenth Century: European States, International Wars, and Social Change

Question 1

In England, a legislative district controlled by one man or one family was known as a

A)heritable living.
B)pocket borough.
C)sinecure.
D)tenured seat.
E)entail.

Answer 1

pocket borough.

Question 2

In the 1700s members of the British Parliament were

A)appointed by the King.
B)usually overseas and not actually in Parliament voting.
C)chosen in different ways in different districts.
D)elected by a vote of all adult males.
E)elected by a vote of all property owners, male and female.

Answer 2

chosen in different ways in different districts.

Question 3

The potato was first cultivated in Ireland.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Louis XV's most famous mistress was

A)Marie Antoinette.
B)Madame de Pompadour.
C)Mary Wollstonecraft.
D)the marquise du Deffand.
E)Madame Geoffrin.

Question 5

In the War of the Austrian Succession, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria managed to wrest Silesia away from Prussia.

Question 6

By the eighteenth century, the Dutch Republic

A)established a system of male democracy.
B)saw the power of the oligarchy considerably reduced.
C)continued its great economic prosperity of the sixteenth century.
D)suffered a decline in economic prosperity.
E)permanently expelled the House of Orange.

Question 7

In the eighteenth century, the British Parliament was dominated by the urban middle classes, particularly merchants and industrialists.

Question 8

Of the great powers, only Great Britain had no regular standing army, often relying upon German mercenaries to fight their battles.

Question 9

A continuing trend in eighteenth-century Prussia was

A)the uncontrollable growth of the royal state bureaucracy.
B)the social and military dominance of the Junker nobility.
C)an avoidance of military entanglements, especially under Frederick the Great.
D)social mobility for the peasants through the civil service.
E)the emergence of the bourgeoisie as the dominant class of society.

Question 10

Politically, the period from 1715 to 1789 witnessed

A)the rise of the masses in politics as advocated by the philosophes.
B)the waning of monarchical power.
C)the continuing process of centralization in the development of nation-states.
D)"enlightened absolutism" establish its deepest roots in France.
E)a decline in bureaucratic structures and more laissez-faire types of government.

Question 11

France in the eighteenth century

A)thrived under the strong leadership of Louis XV and Louis XVI.
B)suffered from severe economic depression throughout the century.
C)was torn apart by a series of civil wars.
D)lost an empire while acquiring a huge public debt.
E)brought back the Estates General during the reign of Louis XV.

Question 12

Between the death of Louis XIV and the death of Cardinal Fleury, France pulled back from foreign war and promoted the growth of industry.

Question 13

The prime minister who furthered British imperial ambitions by acquiring Canada and India was

A)Robert Walpole.
B)William Pitt the Elder.
C)Lord Bute.
D)William Pitt the Younger.
E)Robert Clive.

Question 14

Eighteenth-century enlightened rulers were not always "enlightened," but they were also hindered in instituting necessary reforms because of the power still held by the hereditary aristocracy.

Question 15

Poland was dismembered through a single partition of its land in 1772 by Austria, Prussia, and Russia.

Question 16

Frederick the Great had no use for the Enlightenment or its philosophes, immersed as he was in building his military.

Question 17

Under the reign of Frederick William I, Prussia

A)saw the size of its army diminish.
B)reduced the size and scope of government.
C)developed a civil service staffed by middle-class officials.
D)failed to establish an efficient civil bureaucracy.
E)remained a decentralized European state.

Question 18

Although Enlightenment intellectuals attacked many elements of their society, they enthusiastically supported the divinely sanctioned division of society into traditional "estates" or "orders."

Question 19

During the eighteenth century, the idea of divine right

A)remained a strong basis for government.
B)was gradually replaced by more republican ideas concerning government.
C)was replaced by the idea of "enlightened absolutism" justified by utilitarian arguments.
D)was best exemplified by the reign of Joseph II of Austria.
E)disappeared with the death of Louis XIV in 1715.

Question 20

As a result of the Seven Years' War, France consolidated its hold on Canada.

Question 21

A diplomatic revolution resulted when Austria succeeded in separating Prussia from its chief ally,

A)England.
B)Russia.
C)France.
D)Spain.
E)Sweden.

Question 22

During the second half of the eighteenth century

A)all of the great powers grew in population except Russia.
B)population growth occurred despite increased death and infant mortality rates.
C)the absence of war and the elimination of most major diseases led to rapid population growth.
D)the rate of population growth was nearly double that of the first half of the century.
E)unsanitary conditions in European cities led to a population collapse.

Question 23

In a sincere effort to reform his domains typical of enlightened rulers, the Austrian emperor Joseph II issued

A)three new court circulars on improved operations for the imperial bureaucracy.
B)6,000 decrees and 11,000 new laws.
C)150 new ranks of imperial bureaucrats.
D)at least 350 imperial decrees for the reform of judicial practice in Hungary.
E)an edict separating the Austrian government from any connection with the Catholic Church.

Question 24

Which war do some historians regard as the first world war?

A)War of the Austrian Succession.
B)The French and Indian War.
C)The Seven Years' War.
D)Queen Anne's War.
E)The Crimean War.

Question 25

Gustavus III of Sweden

A)established freedom of religion, speech, and press.
B)instituted a repressive new code of justice that reinforced the use of torture.
C)increased tariffs and tolls.
D)won the wholehearted support of his nobles for his new policies.
E)All of these are correct.

Question 26

Those rulers associated with enlightened absolutism in the eighteenth century

A)could never completely overcome the political and social realities of the time.
B)exhibited less concern for the power of their states than their predecessors.
C)successfully undermined the interests of the European nobility.
D)were unable to implement any changes in administrative and judicial systems.
E)reduced the size of their armies and waged few wars.

Question 27

As a result of the French and Indian Wars, France

A)gained India.
B)lost California.
C)gained the Ohio River Valley.
D)gained Louisiana.
E)lost Canada.

Question 28

During the eighteenth century, Spain

A)was temporarily rejuvenated by the reforms of Philip V.
B)continued to decline as its empire in the west collapsed.
C)fought a series of successful wars against France.
D)became an international power again with its surprise attack on Florida and Cuba.
E)lost all of its American colonies.

Question 29

The enlightened legal reforms expressed by Catherine the Great in her Instruction

A)succeeded in abolishing serfdom in all of Russia.
B)succeeded in establishing an equal system of law for all Russian citizens.
C)instigated changes in Russian government that sapped the power of the old nobility.
D)accomplished little due to heavy opposition and were soon forgotten.
E)abolished three-fourths of the Russian army.

Question 30

Of the great European powers in the eighteenth century, the only one NOT to possess a standing army and to rely on mercenaries was

A)Prussia.
B)Austria.
C)Russia.
D)France.
E)Great Britain.

Question 31

Under Frederick II of Prussia, the most important offices in the government usually went to

A)high-ranking Lutheran churchmen.
B)members of the nobility.
C)university-educated bureaucrats.
D)French philosophes.
E)commoners who showed outstanding ability.

Question 32

European diplomacy during the eighteenth century

A)wholly repudiated dynastic interests in favor of reason of state.
B)was shaped by the attempt to prevent one state from dominating the others.
C)linked the concept of the balance of power with a desire for peace.
D)failed to achieve any success in resolving conflicts any international powers.
E)All of these are correct.

Question 33

Catherine the Great of Russia

A)followed a successful policy of expansion against the Turks.
B)instigated enlightened reforms for the peasantry after the revolt of Emelyn Pugachev.
C)weakened the nobility with her extensive enlightened reforms.
D)successfully eliminated the power of the Russian representative assembly.
E)established a permanent political and military alliance with revolutionary France.

Question 34

European warfare in the eighteenth century was characterized by

A)the continued reliance on mercenary armies on the mainland.
B)ideological fervor leading to bloody battles.
C)limited objectives and elaborate maneuvers.
D)massive direct confrontations and pitched battles.
E)extensive trench warfare and many military casualties.

Question 35

The young Habsburg empress whose country was attacked in the War of Austrian Succession was

A)Catherine.
B)Elizabeth.
C)Marie Antoinette.
D)Maria Theresa.
E)Anna.

Question 36

The Austrian emperor Joseph II

A)reversed the enlightened reforms of his mother, Maria Theresa.
B)rescinded all of Hungary's privileges.
C)permanently stripped the nobility of its power.
D)provoked general discontent due to his enlightened but radical reforms.
E)created a constitutional monarchy reliant on his representative assembly.

Question 37

The dismemberment of Poland in the late eighteenth century

A)occurred after decades of warfare between its neighbors.
B)was reversed by the successful rebellion of General Kosciuszko.
C)showed the necessity of a strong, centralized monarchy to defend a state in the period.
D)resulted from the Polish king's repeated insults and attacks on his neighbors.
E)was reversed as the result of the Council of Berlin.

Question 38

Pugachev's rebellion broke out after

A)a bad harvest caused massive starvation in Poland.
B)Prussia successfully invaded Russia and seized half of the Ukraine.
C)Catherine the Great's policies worsened conditions for the peasantry.
D)Catherine the Great reduced the power of the landed nobility.
E)Russia's defeat by the Ottoman Empire.

Question 39

The War of Austrian Succession began in 1740 when Prussia attacked the Habsburg province of

A)Transylvania.
B)Bavaria.
C)Silesia.
D)Bohemia.
E)Haupstadt.

Question 40

Which of the following countries participated in the partition of Poland?

A)Sweden
B)the Ottoman Empire
C)England
D)Russia
E)Venice

Question 41

At the end of the eighteenth century, London's population was

A)smaller than that of Paris.
B)under 100,000.
C)between 550,000 and 600,000.
D)750,000.
E)1 million.

Question 42

The European peasantry in the eighteenth century

A)comprised nearly half of Europe's population.
B)was free from serfdom in all countries by 1789.
C)often owed extensive compulsory services to aristocratic landowners.
D)benefited the most in southern Italy and eastern Germany.
E)disappeared in England because of the Industrial Revolution.

Question 43

Europe's unequal social organization in the eighteenth century was

A)determined by the division of society into traditional orders.
B)deemed contrary to Christian teaching.
C)least apparent in Prussia.
D)abolished in Britain by Parliament in opposition to the king.
E)became dramatically more equal as the century progressed.

Question 44

A favorite type of private charity supported by the rich in eighteenth-century Europe was

A)the dowry fund for poor women.
B)neighborhood confraternities to support social welfare programs.
C)foundling homes for poor and abandoned children.
D)church schools to teach the poor obedience to authority.
E)the establishment of safe retreats for prostitutes desiring to leave their profession.

Question 45

A key financial advantage the British government enjoyed over French rulers in the eighteenth century was

A)Britain's capacity to borrow large sums of money at low rates of interest.
B)a lower total amount of British government debt.
C)a strong policy against state borrowing of any kind in Britain.
D)no real curbs on state borrowing in France.
E)the abolishment of the Bank of England's influence in economic matters.

Question 46

The special legal privileges of the European nobility included all of the following EXCEPT:

A)judgment by peers.
B)immunity from severe punishment.
C)exemptions from most forms of taxation.
D)guarantees against becoming poor.
E)access to military and civil offices.

Question 47

Which of the following statements BEST describes eighteenth-century European cities?

A)They were remarkably cleaner than the medieval city.
B)They were decreasing dramatically in population.
C)They were still filthy and lacked proper sanitation.
D)They were becoming more democratic in their government.
E)They were becoming politically and legally independent of monarchial control.

Question 48

European society in the eighteenth century witnessed

A)earlier ages of marriage for both brides and grooms.
B)the continued dominance of the nuclear family.
C)the declining importance of the woman in the "family economy."
D)rapidly declining rates of illegitimate births and a consequent decline in infanticide.
E)the establishment of households containing all members of newly married couples' extended families.

Question 49

All of the following contributed to the growth of population in the second half of the eighteenth century EXCEPT

A)a decline in the death rate.
B)new crops from America such as corn and potatoes.
C)the eradication of typhus and smallpox.
D)the end of the bubonic plague.
E)an increase in women who married during their child-bearing years.

Question 50

Which one of the following non-native, imported products allowed Irish peasants to survive on the small plots of land left to them by English landlords?

A)fish.
B)tomatoes.
C)wheat.
D)rice.
E)potatoes.

Question 51

The problem of poverty in eighteenth-century Europe was

A)most severe in Great Britain, a country lacking a system of poor relief.
B)solved largely through the efforts of private and religious charities.
C)aggravated by the hostile feelings of government officials toward the poor.
D)solved in France in the 1770s through massive royal public works projects.
E)entirely the result of the Industrial Revolution.

Question 52

Andrea Palladio was a noted Venetian

A)general.
B)courtier.
C)architect.
D)musician.
E)composer.

Question 53

New European attitudes toward children are made visible in all of the following EXCEPT

A)changes in the ordinary clothing of children.
B)the production of more games and toys for children.
C)a reinforcement of the custom of primogeniture.
D)the great interest of lower-class mothers in breast-feeding infants.
E)childhood being viewed more and more as a special phase in human development.

Question 54

All of the following are correct about trade and commerce in the eighteenth century EXCEPT

A)international trade had become greater than trade within Europe.
B)trade within Europe was still greater than overseas trade.
C)there was a dramatic increase in trade between European nations and their colonies.
D)the Atlantic trade contributed to the growth of European cities.
E)overseas trade led to the growth of related industries, such as textile manufacturing.

Question 55

The domestic system of textile production in France and Britain is known as

A)the workshop system.
B)the putting-out system.
C)the mercantile system.
D)laissez-faire.
E)the factory system.

Question 56

At the beginning of the eighteenth century,

A)the old order was under severe attack.
B)the old order remained strong.
C)republicanism was in the ascendancy.
D)enlightened absolutism was rejected in favor of constitutional monarchy throughout Europe.
E)democracy was spreading rapidly in both the east and the west.

Question 57

The Grand Tour

A)refers to the travels of French philosophes through Britain to observe Britain's political and economic systems.
B)avoided Italy in favor of a focus on destinations in northern Europe.
C)was greatly facilitated by the ease of travel in the eighteenth century.
D)generally completed the proper education of an aristocrat's sons.
E)was reserved for ambitious members of the bourgeoisie.

Question 58

A key financial innovation of the eighteenth century was

A)the creation of insurance policies.
B)the circulation of paper banknotes compensating for a lack of coinage.
C)the establishment of a new international currency to facilitate trade.
D)deficit spending by enlightened monarchs to pay for vital government reforms.
E)the increased use of bullion in preference to less reliable paper money.

Question 59

Which of the following cities did NOT benefit significantly from eighteenth century Atlantic trade?

A)Bordeaux
B)Marseilles
C)Rome
D)Lisbon
E)Liverpool

Question 60

All of the following were persistent trends in the upper-class eighteenth-century European family EXCEPT

A)childhood being viewed more and more as a special phase in human development.
B)the use of wet nurses.
C)the decline in the total number of children per family.
D)the removal of children from foundling homes to board at state and municipal workshops.
E)the use of a variety of birth control techniques.

Question 61

What is meant by the phrases "balance of power" and "reason of state"? How did those concepts influence international relations in the eighteenth century?

Question 62

What "advantages" did Britain have over the continental nations in the eighteenth century, politically and economically?

Question 63

Why did the governments of Europe develop in such radically different ways during the eighteenth century, particularly when comparing east to west?

Question 64

What were the characteristics of enlightened absolutism, and to what extent did the monarchies of eighteenth-century Prussia, Austria, and Russia meet the aims of enlightened absolutism? How did they fall short of employing enlightened ideals?

Question 65

Was there an agricultural revolution in the eighteenth century? Why or why not?

Question 66

How and why did the nobility play a dominant role in the European society of the eighteenth century?

Question 67

Did the social order in Europe genuinely change during the eighteenth century, or were there simply alterations made to an ongoing system?

Question 68

Given the numerous social and economic changes of the eighteenth century, those at the bottom of society often found themselves much worse off than in earlier centuries.Why?

Question 69

What was the nature of war and diplomacy in the eighteenth century? How would you compare the nature of war and diplomacy in the eighteenth century with that of the seventeenth century?

Question 70

Did family life experience significant change during the eighteenth century? Why or why not?

Question 71

Compare and contrast the development of the two Atlantic seaboard states of France and Great Britain during the eighteenth-century.How were they alike? How were they different?

Question 72

What grievances prompted the Seven Years' War? Which powers gained the most from the conflict, and which powers emerged weakened?