Ch. 4 Sec. 5

1
Ch. 4 Sec. 5

• Absolute Monarchy in Russia

2
Peter the Great

• Tsar - ruler of the Russian empire
• First tsar to gain absolute power to direct
  Russia out of Time of Troubles
• Took the throne in 1682 (10 years old)
• Took control of government 1689
• Pursues westernization
• Studied and traveled to learn the ways of a more
  advanced Western Europe

3
Autocratic imposition

• Forced Russians to change their way of life
• Forced boyars to serve
• Technology
• Set up acadamies
• Improved mercantilism
• Waterways, developed mining and textiles
• Social reforms
• Clothing, beards, womens roles

4
Autocratic imposition

• Maintained and strengthened serfdom
• Severe punishments for those who resisted the new
  order

5
Expand borders and a Warm-Water Port

• Desperately sought a port open year-round (unable
  to defeat Ottomons)
• Not achieved until Catherine the Great
• Northern War (1700-1709)
• Weak armies rebuilt after western model
• Defeat the Swedes and build St. Petersburg
• Magnificent city on the Baltic coast
• Expansion east all the way to the Pacific
• Makes Russia the largest nation in the world

6
Catherine the Great

• Peter left no heir, followed by power struggle
  and ineffective rulers in the Romonov family
• Catherine wed into the Russian throne and took
  over for her murdered unstable husband in 1762
• Followed in Peters footsteps, some consider even
  more ruthless

7
Catherine the Great

• Gains warm-water ports on the Black Sea through
  the Russo-Turkish War
• Swallow up Poland through partition agreements
  with Prussia and Austria
• Both tsars made great advancements but used
  terror and force that distinguished them from the
  rest of Europe