ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE TO 1740

1. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE TO 1740

2. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE Lords and Peasants in Eastern Europe

3. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Overall, between 1400 and 1650 the princes and landed nobility of eastern Europe rolled back the gains made earlier by the peasantry • Serfdom was reimposed.

4. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE The Medieval Background (1400-1650)

5. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Personal and economic freedom for peasants increased between 1050 and 1300. • Serfdom nearly disappeared. • Peasants bargained freely with their landlords and moved about as they pleased.

6. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • After 1300, powerful lords in eastern Europe revived serfdom to combat their economic problems.

7. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Laws that restricted the peasants' right of free movement were passed. • Lords took more and more of the peasants' land and imposed heavier labor obligations.

8. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE The Consolidation of Serfdom

9. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • The re-establishment of hereditary serfdom took place in Poland, Prussia, and Russia between 1500 and 1650.

10. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • The consolidation of serfdom was accompanied by the growth of estate agriculture. • Lords seized peasant land for their own estates. • They then demanded unpaid serf labor on those estates.

11. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Political reasons for changes in serfdom in eastern Europe were the most important.

12. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Weak monarchs could not resist the demands of the powerful noble landlords.

13. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • The absence of the western concept of sovereignty meant that the king did not think in terms of protecting the people of the nation.

14. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Overall, the peasants had less political power in eastern Europe and less solidarity.

15. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • The landlords systematically undermined the medieval privileges of the towns. • The lords sold directly to foreign capitalists instead of selling to local merchants. • Eastern towns lost their medieval right of refuge.

16. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE The Rise of Austria and Prussia

17. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE Austria and the Ottoman Turks

18. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Aftermath of the Thirty Years' War • The Austrian Habsburgs lacked any real power in the Holy Roman Empire • turned inward and eastward to unify their holdings.

19. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • The Habsburgs, having defeated the Protestant Czechs in Bohemia during the Thirty Years’ War, replaced the Bohemian nobility with a foreign nobility loyal to the Habsburgs • Ferdinand II (r. 1619-1637)

20. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Serfdom increased • Protestantism was wiped out • Absolutism was achieved.

21. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Centralized the government in Austria • Ferdinand III (r. 1637-1657) • Created a standing army • Turned toward Hungary for land.

22. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • This eastward turn led Austria to war against the Turks over Hungary and Transylvania.

23. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Under Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520-1566), the Ottoman Turks had built the most powerful empire in the world, which included part of central Europe.

24. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • The Turkish sultan was the absolute head of the state. • Ottoman System • There was little private property, and a bureaucracy staffed by slaves.

25. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Ottoman System • Other slaves formed the heart of the Sultan’s army, the janissary corps

26. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Suleiman led an unsuccessful Turkish assault on Vienna in 1529

27. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • After Suleiman, the empire declined

28. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • In the late 17th century, a fading Ottoman Empire regrouped for one more attack on the Habsburgs • An Ottoman attack on Vienna in 1683 was turned back

29. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • When the Ottomans retreated, the Habsburgs attacked • The Habsburgs conquered all of Hungary and Transylvania by 1699.

30. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Attempts to develop Habsburg absolutism fail – especially in Hungary • The three main areas of the empire – Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary – are united only through allegiance to their ruler, not through any connection to each other

31. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • To preserve the union, Charles VI issued the Pragmatic Sanction in 1713

32. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • stated that the possessions should never be divided. • The Pragmatic Sanction • became critical when it became clear that Charles VI would leave a daughter, Maria Theresa, but no male heir

33. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE Prussia in the 17th Century

34. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • The Hohenzollern family ruled the electorate of Brandenburg, but had little real power.

35. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • The Thirty Years' War, however, weakened the Estates, the representative assemblies of the realm, and allowed the Hohenzollerns to consolidate their absolutist rule.

36. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Frederick William (the Great Elector) (r. 1640-1688) used military force and taxation to unify his Rhine holdings, Prussia, and Brandenburg into a strong state.

37. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • The traditional parliaments, or Estates, which were controlled by the Junkers (the nobles and the landowners), were weakened.

38. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • 1) Wars strengthened the elector • The Estates gave the Elector support to fight off various invaders

39. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • 2) The Junkers were unwilling to join with the towns to block absolutism being more concerned with • control over their peasants and • freedom from taxation

40. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE The Consolidation of Prussian Absolutism

41. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Frederick William died in 1688 and was succeeded by Frederick III (r. 1688-1713) • Frederick III was award the title of King by the Holy Roman Emperor, but accomplished little else politically

42. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Frederick III died in 1713 and succeeded by Frederick William I (r. 1713-1740) • encouraged Prussian militarism • created the best army in Europe plus an efficient bureaucracy.

43. Frederick William I

44. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • The last traces of the parliamentary Estates and local self-government vanished • The Junker class became the military elite and Prussia a militarist state, the “Sparta of the North”

45. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE The Development of Russia

46. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • Between 1250 and 1700, Russia and the West became strikingly different • After 1700 Russia's development was closer to that of the West.

47. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE The Mongol Yoke and The Rise of Moscow

48. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • The Mongols • conquered the Kievan state in the 13th century • unified it under their harsh rule.

49. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • The Mongols used Russian aristocrats as their servants and tax collectors.

50. ABSOLUTISM IN EASTERN EUROPE • The princes of Moscow • served the Mongols well • became the hereditary great princes.