Eastern

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Eastern Absolutism
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PRUSSIA
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Frederick William "The Great Elector"
Controlled Nobility

• 1653 Convinced Junkers to grant him the money
  to build an army
• In exchange Junkers maintained privileges
  allowed to keep control of the peasantry

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Frederick William "The Great Elector"
Established Military

• Created a permanent standing army
• Junkers Officers
• Peasants Soldiers
• This was the 1st modern civil service

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Frederick William "The Great Elector"
Other Policies

• Increased taxes to the equivalent of France (had
  to pay for military)
• Religious Toleration welcomed 20,000 Huguenots,
  Polish Jews and other refugees

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Frederick I

• Took the title of King of Prussia
• Establishing the power of the Hohenzollern family
  in Europe
• Modeled himself after Louis XIV

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Frederick William I "Sergeant King"

• Continued policies of his Grandfather
  centralization
• Turned Royal Gardens into a military training
  ground
• Increased army from 39,000 80,000
• All young men HAD TO register for military
  service
• Created the 1st Military reserves

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Frederick William I "Sergeant King"
Eccentricities of the Sergeant King
He had a strange preference for Tall men, and
would send recruiting agents out throughout
Europe to find them. He even gave bonuses to
parents who surrendered their tallest sons to
him. At one point he instituted a breeding
program that ultimately turned out to be too slow
a process. Many of the giants resorted to
desertion or suicide, despite the great pay. He
doted on his Giants and didnt waste them in
battle, rather he liked to paint portraits of
them. When he was depressed he would have a few
100 of them march through his bedroom to cheer
him up.
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What distinguishes the Prussians from other
people is that theirs is not a country with an
army. They have an army and a country that
serves it.
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RUSSIA
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PETER the GREAT r. 1682 - 1725
ROAD TO POWER

• Youngest son of Tsar Alexis he was a child from
  Alexis second wife
• Alexis had 3 children with his 1st wife
• Feodor an invalid
• Sophia
• Ivan a semi imbecile

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PETER the GREAT r. 1682 - 1725

• 1676 Alexis died and Feodor became Tsar
• 1682 sickly Feodor died and Peters mother
  campaigns to have him made Tsar over Ivan

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PETER the GREAT r. 1682 - 1725

• Peter is made Tsar at 10 years old
• Ivans Family instigates a coup detat
• Peter watched as his supporters and family were
  thrown form the Red Stairs of the Faceted Palace
  in Moscow onto raised pikes
• Coup is successful and Peter is forced to share
  Tsarship with Ivan
• Sophia acts as the regent

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PETER the GREAT r. 1682 - 1725
EARLY TROUBLES

• Miserable Peter leaves Moscow and becomes
  interested in war games
• He becomes acquainted with Western strategies and
  tactics
• He establishes a military support base

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PETER the GREAT r. 1682 - 1725

• Sophia tries another coup, this time loosing to
  Peter
• Peter exiles Sophia to a convent
• 6 years later Ivan dies and Peter is left to rule
  alone

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PETER the GREAT r. 1682 - 1725

• 1st Tsar in 100 years to make contact with the
  West in peacetime
• Met with Western Monarchs such as William III of
  England to establish a mutually beneficial
  trading relationship
• Conducted diplomacy

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• In England he stayed at a house in Deptford
  belonging to writer John Evelyn. During his stay
  he and his companions caused a great deal of
  damage. He had a party full of nasty people
  wrecked the house and garden, carpets were left
  filthy with grease and ink. Paintings looked
  like they were used as shooting targets. Locks
  and windows were broken. Every one of the 50
  chairs in the house vanished probably burned in
  fires.

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PETER the GREAT r. 1682 - 1725

• Traveled incognito (in Holland he worked as a
  ships carpenter)
• His trip created a desire to Modernize Russian
  state and to Westernize its society

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PETER the GREAT r. 1682 - 1725
Another Coup

• 1698 Forced to return home when he hears of
  another rebellion by Sophia
• Responds with force ordering a mass execution
  of the surviving rebels
• Next day he stared his program to recreate Russia
  in the image of the West

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Peter hung the bodies of the rebels outside of
Sophias convent window, and Sophia apparently
went mad.
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Peter's Westernization
Translation Right Corner The barber went to
cut off an Old Believers beard Left
Corner The Old Believer says Listen,
barber, I neither want to cut my beard nor shave
watch out, or I will call the guards to teach you
to behave.
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PETER the GREAT r. 1682 - 1725
WESTERNIZATION

• Military Conscription
• Technical schools
• Replaced church patriarchy with himself
• Simplified the alphabet

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PETER the GREAT r. 1682 - 1725
WESTERNIZATION

• Changed Calendar to fit the West
• Changed his title from Tsar to Emperor
• Moved capital from Moscow to St.
  Petersburg (a new modernized city)

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The Original Downtown of St. Petersburg
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Peter the Great's 1st Cabin in St. Petersburg
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Peter the Great's Winter Palace
Peter used forced peasant labor to build his
palace.
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PETER the GREAT r. 1682 - 1725

• Conservative Clergy
• Nobility
• His son Alexis
• Sentenced to death by Peter
• Died while being tortured

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Alexis renounced his right to succession and fled
to Austria. Peter thought he fled to get foreign
backing and had him arrested and tried for
treason. He was sentenced to death. Died from
the torture wich occurred before the execution
could ever take place.
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PETER the GREAT r. 1682 - 1725

• Peter died in 1725
• In November 1724 he leapt into freezing water
  and worked throughout the night to assist in the
  rescue of 20 sailors whose ship had been
  grounded. The resulting fever helped lead to his
  death in early 1925

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AUSTRIA
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The Hapsburgs

• The Holy Roman Empire
• 300 German States
• Austria
• Bohemia
• Hungary

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The Hapsburgs

• Major Obstacles in the way of an Absolute
  Monarchy
• Not a nation-state included too many languages,
  traditions and nationalities.
• Germans
• Czechs
• Magyars
• Slovaks
• Croatians

• Slovenes
• Rumanians
• Italians
• Poles

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Leopold I r. 1657 - 1705

• Successfully resisted both Ottoman Empire and
  King XIV of France
• Acquired virtually all of Hungary and imposed his
  authority over the Magyar aristocracy
• Most Magyar nobles had become Protestant during
  the Reformation. Hapsburg persecution of
  Hungarian Protestants sparked an insurrection in
  1679

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Leopold I r. 1657 - 1705

• 1684 Leopold led a Holy League against the
  Turks
• Victory forced the Hungarian Estates to declare
  that the Hungarian throne would be a hereditary
  possession of the Hapsburgs recognizing the
  sovereignty of the Hapsburg dynasty
• Magyar Nobles would continue to be tax exempt

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Leopold I r. 1657 - 1705

• War of Spanish Succession
• Won Battle of Blenheim over the French
• Confirmed Austrias position as one of the great
  powers of Europe

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Charles VI r. 1711 - 1740

• Took throne after Joseph I 1705 1711
• War of Spanish Succession awarded the Spanish
  Netherlands and Spains holdings in Italy
• The Pragmatic Sanction allowed the throne to be
  passed down to his daughter Maria Theresa

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Maria Theresa r. 1740 - 1780

• War of Austrian Succession 1740-1748 she
  successfully defended her right to inherit the
  Austrian Hapsburg domains
• Created a centralized bureaucracy to control
  local affairs
• Established the states control over the
  administration of the Roman Catholic Church
• Husband had the title Holy Roman Emperor

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• Schoenbrunn Palace
• Versailles

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• Versailles

• Schoenbrunn

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• Schoenbrunn

• Versailles