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Name: ____________________________
European State Building Strategies: 1450-1750
Task: Read pp. 475-483 (Bentley Text)
Identify strategies for state building for each of the following: Portugal, England, Netherlands (the Dutch), Spain, and Russia
Annotate the map (on reverse) with key locations and/or information regarding state building
Portuguese
English
Dutch
Spanish
Russian
Portuguese
English
Dutch
Spanish
Russian
Name: ____________________________
Mapping European State Building Strategies: 1450-1750
Name: ____________________________
Mapping European State Building Strategies: 1450-1750
European Interest in Asia: Overview
• Search for “water routes” to Asia
– B/C Muslim domination of Silk Road
(Ottomans)
• Late 1400s - 1500s: Access to
Asian goods/products
– Dominated by Portugal and
Spain
• 1600s: England and the
Netherlands challenge S & P for
dominance
– Political, religious, and
nationalist reasons…
• India, China, and Japan
= Strong govts
• No European ports (initially)
• Just grateful to trade
• SE Asia = Weak govts
– Desirable products
– Ripe for domination
• Portuguese stronghold
• Spain takes Philippines
(Named after King Philip II)
European State Building Strategies: 1450-1750
Directions for Each Station:
Portuguese
English
Dutch
Spanish
• Review Maps:
– Add locations to your world map
– Color code based on empire
• Review Materials:
– Materials include: Maps, Text, Art, Timelines
– Evenly divide tasks and resources between group members
• Your Notes
– Be sure to address:
• Motivations for imperial expansion
• Development / State Building Strategies
• Impact of Interactions
Russian
Portuguese Strategies
• Late 1400s:
– Prince Henry “the Navigator”
• Using navigational developments: compass
– Portuguese: Developing a slave trade in Africa
• Indian Ocean Trade:
– Vasco da Gama rounded Cape of Good Hope
• 1498: Calicut
– Alfonso d’Alburquerque
• Fortified stations at: Aden, Ormuz, Goa, Malacca
– Strategic locations to control trade!!!
Portuguese 1
A Century of Portuguese
Domination of SE Asia
– Controlled lucrative spice and exotic goods trade
• China: Posts on Macao and Ilha Formosa (Taiwan)
• Control of shipping lanes
• Piracy in areas not under their control
• Portuguese: Zealously Catholic and anti-Muslim
– Christian missionaries
Portuguese 2
Portuguese Holdings/Possessions
Brazil
Vasco da
Gama:
1490s
Treaty of Tordesillas
1494
Portuguese MAP 1
Portuguese MAP 2
The Portuguese in Africa, 1415–1600
Access to commodities such as fabrics, spices, and gold motivated a European quest for a faster means to reach
South Asia. It was this search that led the Portuguese down the coast of West Africa to Sierra Leone in 1460. Due
to several technological and cultural advantages, Portugal dominated world trade for nearly 200 years, from the
fifteenth to the sixteenth centuries. While, in the fifteenth century, the rest of Europe was decimated by the Black
Plague, Portugal was protected by its physical isolation. Additionally, Portugal had an unusually strong national
identity, due to its natural geographic borders, allowing the pooling of the considerable economic resources
necessary to fund these ambitious explorations. Additionally Portugal's extended contact with Islam, and therefore
with its superior mathematical knowledge and sailing technologies, including sail shapes, hull designs, and
maritime weaponry, resulted in a Portuguese fleet capable of negotiating the high Atlantic seas.
As a consequence, most of the West African coast was explored in the period from 1415 into the 1600s.
Preserved maps from this period show a remarkably accurate understanding of the complicated coastline. African
exports consisted primarily of gold, ivory, and pepper. However, over 175,000 slaves were also taken to Europe
and the Americas during this period. In 1600, with the involvement of the Dutch and English, the magnitude of the
slave trade grew exponentially.
From the time of their arrival on the shores of Sierra Leone in 1460, and until their gradual decline as leaders in
world exploration in the sixteenth century, the Portuguese had an ambiguous relationship with their African trading
partners. Disembarking at cities that were equally large, complex, and technologically advanced as Lisbon at the
time, the Portuguese actually experienced far less culture shock than we might expect. In fact, they encountered
urban centers in West Africa comparable to those back in Europe, governed by elaborate dynasties, organized
around apprenticeship-based artistic guilds, and with agricultural systems capable of feeding their large
populaces. Many African cities were even deemed to be larger, more hygienic, and better organized than those of
Europe. Additionally, the Portuguese shared many beliefs about magic, the supernatural, and the treatment of
illness with the African societies they encountered. Protective amulets in both cultures were considered
medicinally valuable, and sickness in general was attributed to witchcraft.
Source: Emma George Ross
Department of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Portuguese Text
Portuguese Timeline
1.
2.
3.
4.
Salt Cellar
What is the salt cellar holding? Why?
Why would this image appear to European buyers?
How does the representation of the Portuguese differ in the 2 works?
What can you infer about Portuguese –African relations?
Portuguese / Benin ART 1
1.
2.
3.
4.
What is the salt cellar holding? Why?
Why would this image appear to European buyers?
How does the representation of the Portuguese differ in the 2 works?
What can you infer about Portuguese –African relations?
Bronze Plaque
Portuguese / Benin ART 2
Spain
• Wanted in on Indian Ocean Trade – couldn’t
crack Portuguese dominance
– Needed a different route
• 1492…
• 1519-1522: Ferdinand Magellan: Circumnavigation
• Philippines: Colonized and Christianized
– Manila: Hub and Entrepôt of trade between China,
Spanish controlled Americas, and Spain
Manila-Acapulco galleon
Spanish 1
Spanish Holdings/Possessions
Treaty of Tordesillas
1494
Spanish MAP 1
Spanish MAP 2
Manila-Acapulco Trade
Spanish Trade 1
Columbian Exchange
Casta
System
-Peninsulares
-Criollos
-Mestizos
-Mulatos
-Indios
-African
Slaves
Encomienda
Triangular Trade
Hacienda
Spanish Trade 2
Spanish Timeline
Spanish Colonial Empire
Portugal, not Spain, was the first European nation to make contact with the Far East. Under the able leadership and
training of Prince Henry, the Navigator, Portuguese mariners pushed down the West Coast of Africa opening trade in ivory, gold and
slaves as they looked for a direct route to the Far East . In 1486 Bartholomew Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope. A short time
later, by following the African route, Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498 and opened a Far Eastern trade that brought prosperity to
Portugal. By the early decades of the 16th century Portugal had established lucrative trading post in Africa, India, China, Japan and
the East Indies.
However, Portugal's monopoly over the eastern sea route forced Spain to the east by sailing westward. Following the
accidental Columbus discovery of the Bahamas in 1492,believing that Spain had a God-given right to dominate non-Christian
peoples and bring to them the word of Christ and that the "new" lands were revealed to Columbus while he sailed under the Spanish
flag was proof enough of divine intent, the Spanish monarchy began to commissioned several New World expeditions. 1493
Columbus's second voyage to the New World. Gold mines produced $1,000,000 on an annual basis In 1500 Spaniards arrive in
Hispaniola (Haiti). By 1515 the Spaniards took controlled of several islands, including Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Cuba. The voyage of
Americus Vespucius Proved that America was a continent. In 1513 Balboa and several hundred men traveled across Panama to the
continental divide. Viewing the Pacific Ocean from the mountains, he named it the South Seas and claimed all the land (beaches) for
Spain. Spanish claims were further legitimized by Pope Alexander VI, himself a Spaniard, who issued a papal bull in 1493 giving
Spain the right to explore westward and southward and claim any territory not already under Christian rulership.
Both Spain and Portugal laid claim to the newly discovered land int the west. In 1493 Spain and Portugal agreed to
divide between themselves the right to explore and conquer unknown parts of the world. The Treaty of Tordesillas declared a line of
demarcation, which passed through the Atlantic Ocean 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands (which Portugal already
claimed). Spain had rights to everything to the west of this line; Portugal over all lands to the east. Spain, though intending to claim all
of America, had inadvertently yielded to Portugal the eastward-projecting mass of Brazil.
Once Spain's rights to American territory had thus been formally recognized, the process of invading, remapping and
conquering these lands began.Native peoples who declined to recognize Spanish dominion were by definition rebelling against their
lawful rulers and thus inviting violent retaliation and suppression. Native groups that submitted peacefully to Spanish rule were merely
performing their duty as Spanish subjects. This "myth of pacification" served to justify the Spanish invasion and mask its
accompanying brutality behind a facade of legitimate statecraft.
The conquest of America was an aggressive campaign against peoples who had never heard of, let alone threatened,
Spain. The new frontier provided new employment for soldiers and new opportunities for sons of the aristocracy to rule over territory
and subjects that they had helped to conquer. Spain had been purged of Jews and Muslims, and the new lands also would be
uniformly Christian. Also, the economic decline of Spain could be temporarily stalled by an influx of wealth from America. Although
the cities of gold that filled Spanish dreams never materialized, Spanish colonists extracted enough silver, gold, and other precious
substances to enrich their homeland. However, the result of flooding Europe's markets with American silver was similar to what would
happen if a modern nation sought to offset economic problems by printing additional currency: It set off a cycle of inflation that only
furthered Spain's long-term decline. Thus, even though millions of pounds of silver poured into Spain, its New World colonies were
never profitable.
Spanish Text
The Dutch
• Independence from Phillip II of Spain in
1581
– Hapsburgs, Treaty of Westphalia…
• Dutch Republic 1581-1795
– Republic of the 7 United Netherlands
• Provinces- autonomous (own govnt)
– Represented in the Hague
• Grew to become one of the major
seafaring and economic powers of
the 17th century
– 1st thoroughly capitalist country in
the world
• Wealthiest city = Amsterdam
• 1st full time stock exchange
Dutch 1
“Batavian Rep”
Netherlands/Holland/Dutch Rep
Dutch Holdings/Possessions
Persian
Gulf
London
Strait of
Hormuz
LisbonGranada
Japan
Nagasaki
Cairo, Egypt
Hormuz
Songhai
Ghana
Mali
Canton &
Macao
Mumbai/
Bombay
Goa
Arabian Calicut
Sea
Port Sao
Jorge da
Mina
South
Malucca, Siam China
Malay
Peninsula
Manila,
Philippines
Sea
Malaysia
Sumatra
Indian
Ocean
Sri Lanka/
Ceylon
Batavia
Java
Cape Town
Dutch MAP 1
Dutch East India Company
• Established in 1602
– 21-year monopoly
• To carry out colonial activities in Asia
– Remained powerful for nearly
200 years!!!
– 1st multi-national corporation
– 1st company to issue stock
• Possessed quasi-governmental
powers:
– Ability to wage war, negotiate
treaties, coin money, establish
colonies
Dutch Batavia in the 17th Century,
built in what is now North Jakarta
Dutch Trade 1
Merchant
Ship of the
Dutch East
India
Company,
1782
Nagasaki
School,
published by
Toshimaya
Hand coloured
woodblock print.
65 x 58 cm
Dutch Trade 2
The Dutch East Indies
Dutch MAP 2
The submission of Prince Diponegoro
to General De Kock at the end of the
Java War in 1830
Dutch Trade 3
Dutch MAP 3
Dutch East India Company, Trade Network, 18th Century
The Dutch East India Company (VOC; Verenigde Oost-indische Compagnie), founded in 1602, is often
considered as the first true multinational corporation. From the 17th to the 18th century trading companies such as VOC
(and its British counterpart; the East India Trading Company) acted on behalf of European governments in Asia. As joint
stock companies they were private mercantilist tools with a guarantied trade monopoly in exchange of rights paid to their
respective governments. They were almost states by themselves with their own ships (military and merchant) and military
forces. Their initial goal was to develop trade links for prized commodities such as pepper and as time progressed they
became increasingly involved in the control and development of their respective territories.
In 1610, VOC gained a foothold in Batavia (Indonesia / Dutch East Indies) and conquered most of the island
of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) by 1640, establishing the stronghold of Galle. The major trading hub of Malacca was taken from the
Portuguese in 1641. By the mid seventeen century VOC has replaced most local trading networks with their own with a
series of fortified trading posts. Cape Town (South Africa) was also founded in 1652 as a crucial stage for the long EuropeAsia voyage. Later, plantations, which forced the introduction of new forms of cultivation such as coffee in West Java
(1723), were established. It resulted in a growing quantity and variety of cargo being traded. The company essentially
achieved for about a century a monopoly on nutmeg (meat preserver) and cinnamon trade and raked substantial profits.
Most of it was coming from the "Spice Islands" in the Dutch East Indies. By 1750, VOC employed around 25,000 people
and was doing business in 10 Asian countries. However, mainly due to corruption and mismanagement the company
faced bankruptcy in 1799 with its holdings transferred to the Dutch Crown.
When VOC first came to Asia, ships made the long distance trip back and forth from Europe. Later, a trade
network composed of two layers was established, reminiscent of a hub-and-spoke structure. A regional trade network was
serviced by smaller ships that called along coastal trading routes a variety of ports throughout the region. The goods
where then collected in large warehouses in protected strongholds; Batavia (Indonesia) and Galle (Sri Lanka) were the
most significant. Traded commodities included textiles, pepper and yarn from India; cinnamon, cardamon, and gems from
Sri Lanka. Some were traded only over short distances, while others traveled greater distances, such as between
Indonesia, China and Japan. Other commodities, such a cinnamon and nutmeg were mainly exported back to Europe. To
do so, much larger "return ships" of 500 to 1,000 tons were used for the long haul which included a stopover in Cape
Town. The route and the season these ships traveled was configured to take maximum advantage of dominant winds. On
the inbound route from Amsterdam, ships essentially crossed the Atlantic to reach the South American coast and then
catch the fast Westerlies that would bring them to Cape Town. From there, the Westerlies brought the ships straight
across the Indian Ocean towards Australia and then a sharp turn north to Batavia or Galle. The return route was more
direct and took advantage of the southeast bound winter monsoon winds.
Dutch Text
"First British Empire" (1583-1783)
• 1578: Sir Humphrey Gilbert granted a patent by Q E I for
“discovery and overseas exploration” (West Indies)
– Failed
• 1583: 2nd attempt, Newfoundland (died)
• 1584: Sir Walter Raleigh (Gilbert’s cousin), granted a
patent for Roanoke colony, NC
• 1600s: Treaty with Spain
– Free to colonize overseas
– North America and smaller islands of the Caribbean
• North America: 13 colonies
British 1
“Batavian Rep”
Netherlands/Holland/Dutch Rep
British Holdings/Possessions
Persian
Gulf
London
Strait of
Hormuz
LisbonGranada
Japan
Nagasaki
Cairo, Egypt
Hormuz
Songhai
Ghana
Mali
Canton &
Macao
Mumbai/
Bombay
Goa
Arabian Calicut
Sea
Port Sao
Jorge da
Mina
South
Malucca, Siam China
Malay
Peninsula
Manila,
Philippines
Sea
Malaysia
Sumatra
Sri Lanka/
Ceylon
Indian
Ocean
Batavia
Java
Cape Town
British MAP 1
British East India Company
aka The Honourable East India Company
• Early English joint-stock company
– Trade with India and SE Asia
• Main Trade: Tea, cotton, silk, indigo dye, saltpeter, and opium
• English Royal Charter by Q E I on Dec 31, 1600
– 21-year monopoly
• Virtually ruled India and other Asian colonies
– Until 1858 British Crown assumed direct rule
• Finally dissolved: January 1, 1874
British Trade 1
• Caribbean:
– Original lucrative colonies
– 1600s: St. Lucia, St. Kits,
Barbados, Nevis,
Jamaica, Bahamas,
Bermuda…
• Sugar plantations = slave
labor, triangular trade
• Asia:
– Challenge Portuguese
dominance
– Intense rivalry with
Netherlands (Dutch)
– India: Madras,
Bombay, Calcutta…to
be continued
British Trade 2
British Timeline
Robert Clive, 1st Baron
Clive, became the first
British Governor of Bengal
British Trade 3
The British East India Company
The East India Company had the unusual distinction of ruling an entire country. Its origins were much humbler. On 31
December 1600, a group of merchants who had incorporated themselves into the East India Company were given monopoly
privileges on all trade with the East Indies. The Company's ships first arrived in India, at the port of Surat, in 1608. Sir Thomas Roe
reached the court of the Mughal Emperor, Jahangir, as the emissary of King James I in 1615, and gained for the British the right to
establish a factory at Surat. Gradually the British eclipsed the Portugese and over the years they saw a massive expansion of their
trading operations in India. Numerous trading posts were established along the east and west coasts of India, and considerable
English communities developed around the three presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. In 1717, the Company
achieved its hitherto most notable success when it received a firman or royal dictat from the Mughal Emperor exempting the
Company from the payment of custom duties in Bengal.
The Company saw the rise of its fortunes, and its transformation from a trading venture to a ruling enterprise, when one
of its military officials, Robert Clive, defeated the forces of the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-daulah , at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. A
few years later the Company acquired the right to collect revenues on behalf of the Mughal Emperor, but the initial years of its
administration were calamitous for the people of Bengal. The Company's servants were largely a rapacious and self-aggrandizing lot,
and the plunder of Bengal left the formerly rich province in a state of utter destitution. The famine of 1769-70, which the Company's
policies did nothing to alleviate, may have taken the lives of as many as a third of the population. The Company, despite the increase
in trade and the revenues coming in from other sources, found itself burdened with massive military expenditures, and its destruction
seemed imminent. State intervention put the ailing Company back on its feet, and Lord North's India Bill, also known as the
Regulating Act of 1773, provided for greater parliamentary control over the affairs of the Company, besides placing India under the
rule of a Governor-General.
The first Governor-General of India was Warren Hastings. Under his dispensation, the expansion of British rule in India
was pursued vigorously, and the British sought to master indigenous systems of knowledge. Hastings remained in India until 1784
and was succeeded by Cornwallis, who initiated the Permanent Settlement, whereby an agreement in perpetuity was reached with
zamindars or landlords for the collection of revenue. For the next fifty years, the British were engaged in attempts to eliminate Indian
rivals, and it is under the administration of Wellesley that British territorial expansion was achieved with ruthless efficiency. Major
victories were achieved against Tipu Sultan of Mysore and the Marathas, and finally the subjugation and conquest of the Sikhs in a
series of Anglo- Sikh Wars led to British occupation over the entirety of India. In some places, the British practiced indirect rule,
placing a Resident at the court of the native ruler who was allowed sovereignty in domestic matters. Lord Dalhousie's notorious
doctrine of lapse, whereby a native state became part of British India if there was no male heir at the death of the ruler, was one of
the principal means by which native states were annexed; but often the annexation, such as that of Awadh [Oudh] in 1856, was
justified on the grounds that the native prince was of evil disposition, indifferent to the welfare of his subjects. The annexation of
native states, harsh revenue policies, and the plight of the Indian peasantry all contributed to the Rebellion of 1857-58, referred to
previously as the Sepoy Mutiny. In 1858 the East India Company was dissolved, despite a valiant defense of its purported
achievements by John Stuart Mill, and the administration of India became the responsibility of the Crown.
British Text
British MAP 2
The "triangular trade“
Ships travelled from Europe to Africa
with goods to exchange for captives.
In the second leg (the
"middle passage", c.two months)
they crossed the Atlantic
"Human cargo" was sold,
and the vessel returned home
with sugar, rum and tobacco
The journey lasted a year
For centuries (c1500–1860) European merchant ships transported captive Africans across the Atlantic to the
Americas. These people were victims of the transatlantic slave trade, a global phenomenon binding together three
continents and bringing about the African diaspora: the largest forced migration in human history. An estimated 11
million Africans endured the infamous "middle passage" to the Americas, where they and their descendants
played a formative role in shaping the modern Atlantic world.
Britain played a major part in this slave trade. As the recently compiled transatlantic slave trade database reveals
every second slave entering the Americas between 1660 and 1807 arrived on a British vessel. Altogether, more
than three million people were transported on British ships, with the great majority disembarking in the Caribbean.
Jamaica and Barbados were the main points of entry, and a staggering 980,000 Africans are estimated to have
arrived in Jamaica alone between 1700 and 1800. Most of these people were put to work on plantations growing
cane sugar, the primary export crop of the British Caribbean.
http://www.archaeologyuk.org/ba/ba94/feat1.shtml
British MAP 3 and Trade 4
The Princes of Moscow
State Building
• Liberation from the
Mongols
• Gathering of the lands
• Centralization of
administrative power
Theoretical justification
• Claim to the throne of
Vladimir
• Gathering lands of
ancient Kiev
• Claimed to be successors
of princes of Kiev
Cap of Monomakh
The great
lawgiver of Kievan
Russia
Russia 1a
Russia 1b
Development of Russia
Kievan Russia: 800s +
Slavs
Byzantines (St, Cyril)
Vikings (Novgorod)
Golden Horde:
Mongol Rule
1230s – 1450s
More Asian
than
European
100 years
behind,
Still feudal
Rise of Moscow
Independence
from Mongols
1480
Ivan the Terrible:
1560
St. Basil’s Cathedral
Warm
Water
Ports!!!
Peter the Great:
1672-1729
Window on the West:
1703 **Boyars
**Beard Tax
Catherine the Great:
1762-1796
Pugachev’s Rebellion: 1774-1775
Russia Timeline
The rise of Moscow was a complex process.
It included not only the defeat of the Mongols and the gathering of the many Russian principalities under
the authority of Moscow but also the centralization of administration and justice.
Of course, that centralization was very imperfect. The government in Moscow had neither the money nor
the personnel necessary to govern the country and the rules of law were often violated.
But the princes of Moscow sketched out the shape of Russia's future absolute government and laid a
solid foundation for the later tsars.
They also established the theoretical justification of the tsars' authority by basing their right to rule both
on the traditions of the past and on the authority of the Church.
https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/RussianHeritage/2.RM/2.TOC.html
Russia MAP 1
A charter dated 1501 may be considered the first evidence of the arrival of Roma in the Russian Empire. In this
document Alexander Kazimirovich, Prince of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and King of Poland allowed the “Senior voyt Vassil and his
Gypsies” full freedom of travel in the lands of the duchy and gave their leader the right to “judge Gypsies and resolve all disputes
among them”. Whether these territories, which were added to the Russian Empire only later, could be called a part of the Russian
Empire is a subject of dispute.
With certainty “Gypsies” in the Russian Empire are mentioned for the first time in 1733 in a decree issued by Empress
Anna Ioanovna, which concerns the settlement of the annuity of three regiments through taxes, gathered from the population of
certain territories, including “Gypsies”. Not much later a new decree was adopted by the Senate of St. Petersburg, in answer to a
petition by “Gypsies, born in these lands”, which allowed them to reside and trade with horses in the area around the capital St.
Petersburg, with the obligation to register “wherever they wish”. The passus “born in these lands” points to an earlier settlement of
Roma in the Russian Empire. [Ills. 1-4]
Russia MAP 2
Ivan the Terrible
Before 1560
After 1560
• Reformer
• Death of wife (suspected Boyar plot)
• Split kingdom in 2:
– Revised Law Code
– Reformed Orthodox Church
• Allowed self-government for
regions (sort of)
• Defeated the last of the Golden
Horde
– Ruled 1 absolute
– Boyars ruled 1
• Reign of terror
• Destruction/massacre of
Novgorod
• War with Poland & Sweden
– Blocked from sea trade by
Hanseatic League
• Killed son (accidently?)
Russia 2
Peter the Great: 1672-1729
Dragged Russia out of Medieval era (sort of)
Pros
• Centralized government
– Civil service = meritocracy
• Never fully utilized
• Modernized army
• Created Navy
•
Cons
• Economy = state
dominated
• Agriculture = feudal
• Continued subjugation
of peasants
Pro or Con?
• Autocratic Rule
Aggressive foreign policy (war with Sweden)
• Indirect taxes (beard)
Russia 4
Peter the Great and
St. Petersburg
1703+
New Capital
In 1712 he ordered 1000 men
of the lesser nobility to come
with their families to St.
Petersburg
A similar order went to 500
merchants and shopkeepers
Russia 5
St. Petersburg = to regain access to the Baltic Sea and Baltic trade
Russia MAP 3
Russia Text
The Russian Empire 1795-1914
• 18th century
– Muscovy = transformed
– From a static, somewhat isolated, traditional
state
– To more dynamic, partially Westernized, and
secularized Russian Empire.
• Although its retention of serfdom
precluded economic progress of any
significant degree
Russia 6
Catherine the Great
Catherine II was Empress of Russia for more than 30 years and one of the country’s most influential rulers.
Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst was born on 2 May 1729 in Stettin, then part of Prussia (now Szczecin in
Poland), the daughter of a minor German prince. In 1745, after being received into the Russian Orthodox Church, and
changing her name to Catherine, she married Grand Duke Peter, grandson of Peter the Great and heir to the Russian throne.
The marriage was unhappy, but the couple did produce one son, Paul. In 1762 Catherine's husband became Tsar Peter III but he was soon
overthrown with Catherine being declared empress. Peter was then killed shortly afterwards and it is not known whether Catherine had a part in
his death. She subsequently had a series of lovers whom she promoted to high office, the most famous and successful of whom was Grigori
Potemkin.
Catherine's major influences on her adopted country were in expanding Russia's borders and continuing the process of
Westernisation begun by Peter the Great. During her reign she extended the Russian empire southwards and westwards, adding
territories which included the Crimea, Belarus and Lithuania. Agreements with Prussia and Austria led to three partitions of Poland, in
1772, 1793, and 1795, extending Russia's borders well into central Europe.
Catherine began as a political and social reformer but gradually grew more conservative as she got older. In 1767 she convened the Legislative
Commission to codify Russia's laws and in the process modernised Russian life. She presented the commission with her Nakaz, (or 'Instruction'),
a strikingly liberal document that presented the empress’s vision of the ideal government. The commission produced no desired results and the
outbreak of war against the Ottoman Empire in 1768 provided a good opportunity to disband it.
The Pugachev Rebellion of 1774-1775 gained huge support in Russia's western territories until it was
extinguished by the Russian army. Catherine realised her heavy reliance on the nobility to control the
country and instigated a series of reforms giving them greater control over their land and serfs. The
1785 ‘Charter to the Nobility’ established them as a separate estate in Russian society and assured
their privileges. Catherine therefore ignored any concern she may previously have had for the plight
of the serfs, whose status and rights declined further.
Catherine's main interests were in education and culture. She read widely and
corresponded with many of the prominent thinkers of the Enlightenment era,
including Voltaire and Diderot. She was a patron of the arts, literature and
education and acquired an art collection which now forms the basis of the
Hermitage Museum.
Catherine died in St Petersburg on 17 November 1796 and was succeeded by her
son Paul.
Russia Text
Russia MAP 4
How Russians Viewed the World
Russia MAP 5