Ashkan Torkaman

AP Euro 5
Mr. Brewer
Chapter 18: The Eighteenth Century: European States, International Wars, and
Social Change
The European States
I.

Although the justifications of the previous century for a strong

monarchy held sway, divine-right assumptions were gradually
suppressed by influential utilitarian arguments as Europe became
increasingly secularized.
A. This utilitarian argument was reinforced by the praises of the
philosophes

Enlightened Absolutism?
I.

Closely related to the Enlightenment idea of natural laws was the

belief in natural rights, which were thought to be inalterable
privileges that ought not to be withheld from any person.
A. These natural rights included equality before the law, freedom of
religious worship, freedom of speech and the press, and the
right to assemble, hold property, and seek happiness.

II.

In the opinion of most philosophes, most people needed the

direction provided by an enlightened ruler.
A. Enlightened rulers must allow religious toleration, freedom of
speech and the press, and the right to hold private property.
They must foster the arts, sciences, and education. Above all,
they must not be arbitrary in their rule; they must obey the laws
and enforce them on all subjects.
B. Only strong monarchs seemed capable of overcoming vested
interests and effecting the reforms society needed.
C. Reforms then should come from abovefrom the rulers rather
than the people. Distrustful of the masses, the philosophes

believed that absolute rulers, swayed by enlightened principles,

were the best hope of reforming their societies.
III.

Enlightened absolutism emerged, at least in part, in the 18 thc.

A. Monarchs such as Fredrick II of Prussia, Catherine the Great of
Russia, and Joseph II of Austria supposedly followed the advice
of the philosophes and ruled by enlightened principles,
establishing a path to modern nationhood.
B. Recent scholarship has questioned the usefulness of the
concept of enlightened absolutism.

The Atlantic Seaboard States

I.

As a result of the overseas voyages in the 16 thc, the European

economic axis began to shift from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic
seaboard.

France: The Problems of the French Monarchs

I.

In the 18thc, France experienced an economic revival as the

Enlightenment gained strength. The French monarchy, however,
was not overly influenced by the philosophes and resisted reforms
even as the French aristocracy grew stronger.

II.

France pulled back from foreign adventures while commerce and

trade expanded and the government promoted the growth of
industry, especially in coal and textiles.
A. When Cardinal Fleury died in 1743, Louis XV decided to rule
alone.
B. However, he was lazy and weak and ministers and mistresses
soon b/g to influence him.
C. One example is Madame de Pompadour. She charmed Louis
XV and gained both wealth and power, often making important
government decisions and giving advice on appointments and
foreign policy.

III.

The new king, Louis XVI, knew little about the operations of the
French government and lacked the energy to deal decisively
w/state affairs.
A. As Frances finical crisis worsened, neither Louis nor his wife
seemed able to fathom the depths of despair and discontent
that soon led to violent revolution.

Great Britain: King and Parliament

I.

The 18thc British political system was characterized by a sharing of

power b/w king and Parliament, w/Parliament gradually gaining the
upper hand.
A. The United Kingdom of Great Britain came into existence in
1707 when the governments of England and Scotland united.
B. The king chose ministers responsible to himself who set policy
and guided Parliament. Parliament had the power to make laws,
levy taxes, pass the budget, and indirectly influence the kings
ministers.

II.

The 18thc British Parliament was dominated by a landed aristocracy.

A. There were the peers, who sat for life in the House of Lords,
and the landed gentry, who sat in the House of Commons and
served as justices of peace in the counties.
B. Both were landowners w/similar economic interests, and
frequently intermarried.

III.

Although the British monarchy faced a powerful aristocracy that

monopolized Parliament and held most of the important governing
posts locally and nationally, it still exercised considerable power.
A. B/c the aristocracy was divided by factional struggles based on
family rivalries, the kings could take advantage of the divisions
to win aristocratic support through patronage, awarding them
titles, government posts, and positions in the church and
household staff.

IV.

What enabled the British system of political patronage to work was

the structure of parliamentary elections.
A. The deputies to the House of Commons were chosen from the
boroughs and counties, but not by popular vote and hardly in
any equitable fashion.
B. Past history rather than population determined the number of
delegates from each borough.
C. Who could vote also varied wildly, enabling wealthy landed
aristocrats to gain support through patronage and bribery; the
result was a number of pocket boroughs controlled by a single
person.
D. This aristocratic control also extended to the county delegates,
two from each of Englands 40 counties. Although all holders of
property worth at least 40 shillings/year could vote, members of
the leading gentry families were elected repeatedly.

V.

Since the ministers were responsible for exercising the kings

patronage, who became his chief ministers took on great political
significance.
A. In 1714, a new dynasty, the Hanoverians, was established when
the last Stuart ruler, Queen Anne, died w/o an heir. The crown
was offered to the Protestant rulers of the German state of
Hanover.
B. Since the Hanoverian king did not speak English and neither
George had much familiarity w/the British system, the chief
ministers were allowed to handle Parliament and dispense
patronage.

VI.

Walpole served as prime minister from 1721 to 1742 and pursued a

peaceful foreign policy to avoid new land taxes.
A. But burgeoning trade and industry in the 18 thc Britain led the
ever-increasing middle class to favor expansion of trade and
world empire.

B. The exponents of empire found a spokesman in William Pitt the

Elder, who became prime minister in 1757 and furthered
imperial ambitions by acquiring Canada and India in the 7 Years
War.
C. Despite his successes, however, Pitt was dismissed by the new
king, George III, in 1761 and replaced by the kings favorite,
Lord Bute. George III was determined to strengthen monarchial
authority and to wield the power of patronage personally.
However, as a growing number of newspapers spread
Enlightenment ideas to an expanding public, the clamor for the
reform of both patronage and the electoral system began to
increase.
VII.

An ambitious middle-class member of the House of Commons,

John Wilkes was an outspoken journalist who publicly criticized the
kings ministers. Arrested and soon released, Wilkes was expelled
from Parliament.
A. When he won a seat in Parliament from the county of
Middlesex, he was again denied the right to take his place his
Parliament.
B. Wilkess cause quickly b/g identified w/liberty, and the slogan
Wilkes and Liberty was frequently used by his supporters.
C. His supporters came from two major social groups: the common
people of London, who had no voting rights, and a middle
element of voting freeholders, such as guild masters and small
merchants in London and the surrounding counties.
D. The cry for liberty soon spilled over into calls for the reform of
Parliament and an end to Parliamentary privileges. At the same
time, criticism at home was exacerbated by criticism abroad,
especially by the American colonists, whose discontent w/the
British system had led to rebellion and separation.

E. Although minor reforms of the patronage system were made in

1782, King George managed to avoid more drastic change by
appointed William Pitt the Younger as prime minister in 1783.
Supported by the merchants, industrial classes, and the king,
who used patronage to gain support for Pitt in the House of
Commons, the latter managed to stay in power through the
French revolutionary and Napoleonic eras.
F. King George III remained an uncertain supporter b/c of periodic
bouts of insanity.
G. With Pitts successes, serious reform of the corrupt
parliamentary system was avoided for another generation.
The Decline of the Dutch Republic
I.

After its century in the sun, the Dutch Republic or United

Netherlands suffered a decline in economic prosperity. Both
national and local political affairs were dominated by the oligarchies
that governed the Dutch Republics towns.
A. In the 18thc, the struggle continued b/w these oligarchs (or
regents) and the House of Orange, who as stadholders headed
the executive branch of government.
B. The regents sought to reduce the power of the Orangists but
soon became divided when Dutch burghers who called
themselves Patriots began to agitate for democratic reforms that
would open up the municipal councils to greater participation
than that of the oligarchs.

II.

The success of the Patriots led to foreign interference when the

Prussian king sent troops to protect his sister, wife, of the Organgist
stadholder.
A. The Patriots were crushed, and both Organgists and regents
reestablished the old system.

Absolutism in Central and Eastern Europe

I.

Of the 5 major European states, 3 were located in central and

eastern Europe and came to play an increasingly role in European
international politics.

Prussia: The Army and the Bureaucracy

I.

2 able Prussian kings in the 18thc, Frederick William I and Frederick

II, further developed the 2 major institutionsthe army and the
bureaucracythat were the backbone of the Prussia.
A. Frederick William promoted evolution of Prussias civil
bureaucracy by establishing the General Directory.
B. It served as the chief administrative agent of the central
government, supervising military, police, economic, and financial
affairs.
C. Frederick strove to maintain a highly efficient bureaucracy of
civil service workers. It had its own code, in which the supreme
values were obedience, honor, and service to the king as the
highest duty.
D. Close personal supervision of the bureaucracy became a
hallmark of the 18thc Prussian rulers.

II.

Under Frederick William I, the rigid class stratification that had

emerged in 17thc Brandenburg-Prussia remained.
A. The nobility, known as Junkers, who owned large estates
w/many serfs, still played a dominating role in the Prussian
state.
B. The Junkers held a complete monopoly over the officer corps of
the Prussian army, which Frederick William passionately
continued to expand.

III.

By using nobles as officers, FW ensured a close bond b/w the

nobility and the army and, in turn, the loyalty of the nobility to the
absolute monarch.

A.

As officers, the Junker nobility became imbued w/a sense of

service to the king or state. The Prussian army was the most
important institution in the state.

B. Prussian militarism became synonymous w/the extreme

exaltation of military virtues.
IV.

The remaining classes in Prussia were less important than the

nobility. The peasants were born on their lords estates and spent
most of the rest of their lives there or in the army. They had few
rights.
A. For the middle class, the only opportunity for any social prestige
was in the Prussian civil service, where the ideal of loyal service
to the state became a hallmark of the middle-class official.

V.

Frederick II was well versed in Enlightenment thought and invited

Voltaire to live at his court for several years. He was a
conscientious ruler who made few innovations in the administration
of the state. His diligence in overseeing its operation made the
Prussian bureaucracy well known for its efficiency and honesty.
A. He established a single code of laws for his territories that
eliminated the use of torture except in treason and murder
cases.
B. He also granted a limited freedom of speech and press as well
as complete religious toleration.
C. He was too dependent on the Prussian nobility to interfere w/it
or w/the hierarchical structure of the Prussian society. In fact,
Frederick was a social conservative who made Prussian society
even more aristocratic than it had been before.
D. Fredrick reserved his fathers policy of allowing commoners to
rise to power in the civil service and reserved the higher
positions in the bureaucracy for members of the nobility.

VI.

Frederick took a great interest in military affairs and enlarged the

Prussian army, and he had no objection to using it.

The Austrian Empire of the Habsburgs

I.

Austria, a sprawling empire composed of many different

nationalities, languages, religions, and cultures, found it difficult to
provide common laws and a centralized administration for its
people.

II.

Maria Theresa, stunned by the loss of the Austrian Silesia in the

War of the Austrian Succession, resolved to reform her empire.
A. While she was forced to accept the privileges of the Hungarian
nobility and the right of her Hungarian subjects to have their
own laws, she did abolish the Austrian and Bohemian
chancelleries and replaced them w/departments of foreign
affairs, justice, war, commerce, and internal affairs that
functioned for both territories.
B. She also curtailed the role of the diets or provincial assemblies
in taxation and local administration. Now clergy and nobles were
forced to pay property and income taxes to royal officers rather
than diets.
C. The Austrian and Bohemian lands were divided into 10
provinces and subdivided into districts, all administered by royal
officials rather than representatives of the diets, making part of
the Austrian Empire more centralized and more bureaucratic.
D. These reforms were done for practical reasonsto strengthen
the power of the Habsburg stateand were accompanied by an
enlargement and modernization of the armed forces.

III.

Joseph II was determined to make changes, thought also carried

on his mothers chief goal enhancing Habsburg power w/I the
monarchy and Europe.
A. He abolished serfdom and tried to give peasants hereditary
rights to their holdings. He abandoned economic restraints by
eliminating internal trade barriers, ending monopolies, and
removing guild restrictions.

B. A new penal code was established that abrogated the death

penalty and established the principle of equality of all b/f the law.
C. He introduced religious reforms as well, including complete
religious toleration and restrictions on the Catholic Church.
IV.

Josephs reform program proved overwhelming for Austria. He

alienated the nobility by freeing the serfs and alienated the church
w/his attacks on the monastic establishment.

Russia under Catherine the Great

I.

Catherine claimed that she wished to reform Russia along the lines
of the Enlightenment ideas, but she was always shrewd enough to
realize that her success depended on the support of the palace
guard and the gentry class from which it stemmed. She could not
afford to alienate the Russian nobility.

II.

Initially she seemed eager to reform. She called for the election of
an assembly in 1767 to debate the details of a new law code.
A. In her Instruction, she questioned the institutions of serfdom,
torture, and capital punishment and even advocated the
principle of the equality of all people in the eyes of the law.
B. Catherines subsequent policies had the effect of strengthening
the landholding class at the expense of all others, especially the
Russian serfs.
C. In order to reorganize the local government, Catherine divided
Russia into 50 provinces, each of which was in turn divided into
districts whose ruling officials were chosen by nobles. In this
way, the local nobility became responsible for the day-to-day
governing of Russia/
D. The gentry were now formed into corporate groups w/special
legal privileges, including the right to trial by peers and
exemption from personal taxation and corporal punishment.

III.

Catherines policy of favoring the landed nobility led to even worse

conditions for the peasants.

A. The attempt of the Russian government to impose restrictions

on free peasants in the border districts of Russia soon led to a
full-scale revolt that spread to the Volga valley. It was intensified
by the support of the Cossacks, independent tribes of fierce
warriors who had at times fought against the Turks but now
resisted the governments attempt to absorb them into the
empire.
B. A Cossack, Emelyan Pugachev, succeeded in welding the
disparate elements of discontent into a mass revolt.
C. Beginning in 1773, Pugachevs rebellion spread across
Southern Russia from the Urals to the Volga River. Pugachev
won the support of many peasants when he issued a manifesto
in July 1774 freeing all peasants from oppressive taxes and
military service.
D. Encouraged by Pugachev to seize their landlords estates, the
peasants responded by killing estate owners and their families.
E. The rebellion soon faltered as government forces rallied and
became more effective. Pugachev was captured, tortured, and
executed. The rebellion collapsed, and Catherine responded
w/even greater repression of the peasantry. All rural reform was
halted, and serfdom was expanded into newer parts of the
empire.
IV.

Catherine expanded Russias territory. In the treaty of KuchukKainarji in 1774, the Russians gained some land, the privilege of
protecting Greek Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire, and
the right to sail in Turkish waters.

The Declaration of Poland

I.

The Polish king was elected by the Polish nobles and forced to
accept drastic restrictions of his power, including limited revenues,
a small bureaucracy, and a standing army of no more that 20000
soldiers. For Polish nobles, these limitations eliminated an absolute

king; for Polands neighbors, they were an invitation to meddle in its

affairs.
II.

The destruction of the Polish state in the 18 thc resulted from

rivalries b/w Austria, Russia, and Prussia. To avoid war, the leaders
of these powers decided to compensate themselves by dividing
Poland.
A. The remaining Polish state was supposedly independent; in
truth, it was dominated by the Russians, who kept troops on
Polish territory.
B. After the Poles attempted to establish a stronger state under a
hereditary monarchy in 1791, the Russians gained the support
of Austria and Prussia and intervened militarily in 1792. In the
following year, Russia and Prussia undertook a 2nd partition of
Polish territory.

The Mediterranean World

I.

Bourbon rule temporarily rejuvenated Spain and at least provided

an opportunity to centralize the institutions of the state. Since the
Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 had taken the Italian territories and the
Netherlands from Spain, the latter now had fewer administrative
problems and less drain on its overtaxed economic resources.

Portugal
I.

Portugal had experienced decline since the days of the empire in

the 16thc. Nevertheless, during the long ministry of the marquis of
Pombal, the nobility and Catholic church were curtailed and the
Portuguese empire temporarily revived. After Pombal was removed,
the nobility and church regained much of their power.

The Italian States

I.

After the Treaty of Utrecht, Austria had replaced Spain as the

dominant force in Italy in the 18thc.

The Scandinavian States

I.

After the Battle of Poltava in 1709, Swedish power declined rapidly.

Following the death of the powerful Charles XII in 1718, the
Swedish nobility, using the Swedish diet as an instrument, gained
control of public life and reduced the monarchy to puppet status.
But the division of the nobility into pro-French and pro-Russian
factions eventually enabled King Gustavus III to reassert the power
of the monarchy.
A. Gustavus proved to be one of the most enlightened monarchs of
his age. He established freedom to religion, speech, and press
and instituted a new code of justice that eliminated the use of
torture. His economic reforms smacked of laissez-faire: he
reduced tariffs, abolished tolls, and encouraged trade and
agriculture.

Enlightened Absolutism Revisited

I.

Necessities of the state and maintenance of the existing system

took precedence over reform. Joseph, Catherine, and Frederick
were all guided primarily by a concern for the power and well-being
of their states and that their policies were not altogether different
from those of their predecessors.

II.

Political and social realities limited the ability of enlightened rulers

to make reforms. Everywhere in Europe, the hereditary aristocracy
still held the most power in society. Enlightened reforms were often
limited to changes in the administrative and judicial systems that
did not seriously undermine the powerful interests of the European
nobility.

Wars and Diplomacy

I.

By the 18thc, the European system of self-governing, individual

states were grounded largely in the principle of self-interest.
A. B/c international relations were based on considerations of
power, the 18thc concept of balance of power was predicted on

how to counterbalance the power of one state by another to

prevent any one state from dominating the others.
B. The diplomacy of the 18thc still focused on primarily on dynastic
interests or the desire of ruling families to provide for their
dependents and extend their dynastic holdings.
C. But the 18thc also saw the emergence of a concept of reason of
state, on the basis of which a ruler such as Frederick II and a
minister such as William Pitt the Elder looked beyond dynastic
interests to the long-term future of their states.
II.

International rivalry and the continuing centralization of the

European states were closely related. The need for taxes to
support large armies and navies created its own imperative for
more effective and efficient control of power in the hands of
bureaucrats who could collect taxes and organize states for the
task of winning wars.

The War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748)

I.

After Charles VIs death, the Pragmatic Sanction was pushed aside,
especially by Fredrick II, who had just succeeded to the throne of
Prussia. He took advantage of the new empress, Maria Theresa, to
invade Austria Silesia.
A. The vulnerability of Maria Theresa encouraged France to enter
the war against its traditional enemy Austria; in turn, MT made
an alliance w/Great Britain, who feared French hegemony over
Continental affairs.
B. By 1748, all parties were exhausted and agreed to stop. The
treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle promised the return off all occupied
territories except Silesia to their original owners.
C. Prussias refusal to return Silesia sparked another war b/w
Prussia and Austria.

The Seven Years War (1756-1763)

I.

MT refused to accept the loss of Silesia and prepared for its return
by rebuilding her army while working diplomatically through her
able foreign minister to separate Prussia from its chief ally, France.
A. France left Prussia and joined Austria. Russia also joined the
alliance. Great Britain allied w/Prussia.

Conflict in Europe
I.

The forces of Frederick II were eventually worn down and faced

utter defeat when they were saved by the death of Tsarina
Elizabeth of Russia, which brought her nephew Peter III to power,
who withdrew the Russian troops from the conflict and from
Prussian lands.
A. His withdrawal guaranteed a stalemate and led to a desire for
peace. The European conflict was ended by the Peace of
Hubertusburg in 1763. All occupied territories were returned,
and Austria officially recognized Prussias permanent control of
Silesia.

War in India
I.

The British under Robert Clive ultimately won, not b/c they had
better forces but b/c they were more persistent. By the Treaty of
Paris in 1763, the French withdrew and left India to the British.

The French and Indian War

I.

The 2 primary areas of contention were the waterways of the Gulf

of Saint Lawrence, guarded by the fortress of Louisbourg and by
forts near the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain that protected
French Quebec and French traders; and the unsettles Ohio River
Valley.

II.

Despite initial French success, British fortunes were revived by

William Pitt the Elder, who was convinced that the destruction of the
French colonial empire was a necessary prerequisite for the
creation of Britains colonial empire. A series of British victories
soon followed.

European Armies and Warfare

I.

The professional standing army became a standard feature of 18 thc

Europe. Its increase in size paralleled the development of absolutist
states.

Composition of Armies
I.

The composition of armies reflected the hierarchal structure of

European society and the great chasm that separated the upper
and lower classes.
A. Officers were aristocrats. Middle-class people were largely kept
out of the higher ranks of the officer corps while being admitted
to the middle ranks. Rank-and-file soldiers came mostly from
the lower classes.
B. 18thc armies consisted partially of foreign troops. Most people in
the army came from the lower classes and saw joining the army
as a chance to escape hard times.

The Nature of Warfare

I.

War was no longer driven by ideology as the religious conflicts of

the 16th and 17thc. Rulers regarded wanton destruction of civilian
taxpayers as foolish.
A. Elaborate maneuvers, rather than direct confrontation, became
fashionable. A system of formalities accepted by all sides allowed
defeated opponents to w/d w/o being captured or destroyed.