UNIT 3: ABSOLUTISM AND CONSTITUTIONALISM 1648 – 1815
3.1 CONTEXTUALIZING STATE BUILDING
Unit 3: Learning Objective A
Explain the context in which different forms of political power developed from 1648 to 1815.
KC-1.5 The struggle for sovereignty within and among states resulted in varying degrees of political centralization.
KC-1.5.I The new concept of the sovereign state and secular systems of law played a central role in the creation of new political institutions.
KC-1.5.III The competition for power between monarchs and corporate and minority language groups produced different distributions of governmental authority in European states.
KC-1.5.III.B Monarchies seeking enhanced power faced challenges from nobles who wished to retain traditional forms of shared governance and regional autonomy.
KC-1.5.III.C Within states, minority local and regional identities based on language and culture led to resistance against the dominant national group.
KC-2.1 Different models of political sovereignty affected the relationship among states and between states and individuals.
KC-2.1.I In much of Europe, absolute monarchy was established over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries.
KC-2.1.II Challenges to absolutism resulted in alternative political systems.
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES Competition between monarchs and nobles: § Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu § The Fronde in France § The Catalan Revolts in Spain Competition between minority and dominant national groups: § Celtic regions of Scotland, Ireland, and France § Dutch resistance in the Spanish Netherlands § Czech identity in the Holy Roman Empire/ Jan Hus/Defenestration
3.2 THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR AND THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION
THEMATIC FOCUS States and Other Institutions of Power SOP
European states and nations developed governmental and civil institutions from 1450 to the present to organize society and consolidate political power, with a variety of social, cultural, and economic effects.
Unit 3: Learning Objective B
Explain the causes and consequences of the English Civil War.
KC-1.5.III.A The English Civil War—a conflict among the monarchy, Parliament, and other elites over their respective roles in the political structure— exemplified the competition for power among monarchs and competing groups.
KC-2.1.II.A The outcome of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution protected the rights of gentry and aristocracy from absolutism through assertions of the rights of Parliament.
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES Competitors for power in the English Civil War: § James I § Charles I § Oliver Cromwell Outcomes of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution: § English Bill of Rights § Parliamentary sovereignty
3.3 CONTINUITIES AND CHANGES TO ECONOMIC PRACTICE AND EVELOPMENT
THEMATIC FOCUS Economic and Commercial Developments ECD
Economic development, especially the development of capitalism, played an important role in Europe’s history, often having significant social, political, and cultural effects.
Unit 3: Learning Objective C
Explain the continuities and changes in commercial and economic developments from 1648 to 1815.
KC-2.2.I.B The Agricultural Revolution raised productivity and increased the supply of food and other agricultural products.
KC-2.2.II.D The importation and transplantation of agricultural products from the Americas contributed to an increase in the food supply in Europe.
KC-2.2.I.A Labor and trade in commodities were increasingly freed from traditional restrictions imposed by governments and corporate entities.
KC-2.2.I.C The putting-out system, or cottage industry, expanded as increasing numbers of laborers in homes or workshops produced for markets through merchant intermediaries or workshop owners.
KC-2.2.I.D The development of the market economy led to new financial practices and institutions.
KC-2.2.I Early modern Europe developed a market economy that provided the foundation for its global role.
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES New financial practices and institutions: § Insurance § Banking institutions for turning private savings into venture capital § New definitions of property rights and protections against confiscation § Bank of England
3.4 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND MERCANTILISM
THEMATIC FOCUS- Economic and Commercial Developments ECD
Economic development, especially the development of capitalism, played an important role in Europe’s history, often having significant social, political, and cultural effects.
Unit 3: Learning Objective C
Explain the continuities and changes in commercial and economic developments from 1648 to 1815.
KC-2.2.II The European-dominated worldwide economic network contributed to the agricultural, industrial, and consumer revolutions in Europe. KC-2.2.II.A European states followed mercantilist policies by drawing resources from colonies in the New World and elsewhere.
KC-2.2.II.B The transatlantic slave-labor system expanded in the 17th and 18th centuries as demand for New World products increased.
KC-2.2.II.C Overseas products and influences contributed to the development of a consumer culture in Europe.
KC-2.2.II.D The importation and transplantation of agricultural products from the Americas contributed to an increase in the food supply in Europe.
KC-2.2.II.E Foreign lands provided raw materials, finished goods, laborers, and markets for the commercial and industrial enterprises in Europe.
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES Transatlantic slave-labor systems: § Middle Passage § Triangle trade Overseas products: § Sugar § Tea § Silks and other fabrics § Tobacco § Rum § Coffee
3.5 THE DUTCH GOLDEN AGE
THEMATIC FOCUS States and Other Institutions of Power SOP
European states and nations developed governmental and civil institutions from 1450 to the present to organize society and consolidate political power, with a variety of social, cultural, and economic effects.
Unit 3: Learning Objective D
Explain the factors that contributed to the development of the Dutch Republic.
KC-2.1.II.B The Dutch Republic, established by a Protestant revolt against the Habsburg monarchy, developed an oligarchy of urban gentry and rural landholders to promote trade and protect traditional rights.
3.6 THE BALANCE OF POWER
THEMATIC FOCUS I States and Other Institutions of Power SOP
European states and nations developed governmental and civil institutions from 1450 to the present to organize society and consolidate political power, with a variety of social, cultural, and economic effects.
Unit 3: Learning Objective E
Explain how European states attempted to establish and maintain a balance of power on the continent throughout the period from 1648 to 1815.
KC-1.5.II The competitive state system led to new patterns of diplomacy and new forms of warfare.
KC-1.5.II.A Following the Peace of Westphalia, religion declined in importance as a cause for warfare among European states; the concept of the balance of power played an important role in structuring diplomatic and military objectives.
KC-2.1.I.D The inability of the Polish monarchy to consolidate its authority over the nobility led to Poland’s partition by Prussia, Russia, and Austria, and its disappearance from the map of Europe.
KC-2.1.III After 1648, dynastic and state interests, along with Europe’s expanding colonial empires, influenced the diplomacy of European states and frequently led to war.
KC-2.1.III.B After the Austrian defeat of the Turks in 1683 at the Battle of Vienna, the Ottomans ceased their westward expansion.
KC-2.1.III.C Louis XIV’s nearly continuous wars, pursuing both dynastic and state interests, provoked a coalition of European powers opposing him.
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES Louis XIV’s nearly continuous wars: § Dutch War § Nine Years’ War § War of the Spanish Succession States that benefited from the military revolution: § Spain under the Habsburgs § Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus § France
THEMATIC FOCUS II Technological and Scientific Innovation TSI
Scientific and technological innovations have increased efficiency, improved daily life, and shaped human development and interactions, having both intended and unintended consequences.
Unit 3: Learning Objective F
Explain how advances in technology contributed to a developing balance of power on the continent throughout the period from 1648 to 1815.
KC-1.5.II.B Advances in military technology led to new forms of warfare, including greater reliance on infantry, firearms, mobile cannon, and more elaborate fortifications, all financed by heavier taxation and requiring a larger bureaucracy. New military techniques and institutions (i.e., the military revolution) tipped the balance of power toward states able to marshal sufficient resources for the new military environment.
3.7 ABSOLUTIST APPROACHED TO POWER
THEMATIC FOCUS States and Other Institutions of Power SOP
European states and nations developed governmental and civil institutions from 1450 to the present to organize society and consolidate political power, with a variety of social, cultural, and economic effects.
Unit 3: Learning Objective G
Explain how absolutist forms of rule affected social and political development from 1648 to 1815.
KC-2.1.I.A Absolute monarchies limited the nobility’s participation in governance but preserved the aristocracy’s social position and legal privileges.
KC-2.1.I.B Louis XIV and his finance minister, JeanBaptiste Colbert, extended the administrative, financial, military, and religious control of the central state over the French population.
KC-2.1.I.E Peter the Great “westernized” the Russian state and society, transforming political, religious, and cultural institutions; Catherine the Great continued this process.
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES Absolute monarchs: § James I of England § Peter the Great of Russia § Philip II, III, and IV of Spain Extended power of the state: § Intendants § Modernized, statecontrolled military Russian westernization: § Russian Academy of Sciences § Education § Western fashion § Expanded military
3.8 COMPARISON IN THE AGE OF ABSOLUITISM AND CONSTITUTIONALISM
Unit 3: Learning Objective H
Compare the different forms of political power that developed in Europe from 1648 to 1815.
KC-1.5 The struggle for sovereignty within and among states resulted in varying degrees of political centralization.
KC-1.5.I The new concept of the sovereign state and secular systems of law played a central role in the creation of new political institutions.
KC-1.5.III The competition for power between monarchs and corporate and minority language groups produced different distributions of governmental authority in European states.
KC-1.5.III.B Monarchies seeking enhanced power faced challenges from nobles who wished to retain traditional forms of shared governance and regional autonomy.
KC-1.5.III.C Within states, minority local and regional identities based on language and culture led to resistance against the dominant national group.
KC-2.1 Different models of political sovereignty affected the relationship among states and between states and individuals.
KC-2.1.I In much of Europe, absolute monarchy was established over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries.
KC-2.1.II Challenges to absolutism resulted in alternative political systems.
KC-2.2 The expansion of European commerce accelerated the growth of a worldwide economic network.
KC-2.2.I Early modern Europe developed a market economy that provided the foundation for its global role.
KC-2.2.II The European-dominated worldwide economic network contributed to the agricultural, industrial, and consumer revolutions in Europe.