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Chapter 5
The Transformation of Eastern Europe, 1648-1740
Chapter Summary
In the century following the Peace of Westphalia, the three powers dominating eastern
Europe, the Holy Roman Empire, the Republic of Poland, and the Ottoman empire, were
pushed aside by three new, more modern powers. Prussia, Austria, and Russia rose to
dominate eastern Europe. These three states did not participate in the commercial
revolution that transformed social classes in western Europe. Instead, the landed
aristocracy retained a strong hold on political and economic life. Serfdom in eastern
Europe became more entrenched between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries even as
it disappeared in western Europe. In Austria, the Habsburgs recovered their power,
repulsed the Turks, and resolved, albeit temporarily, problems of succession. Prussia
soon dominated eastern Europe by cultivating militarism among the Junkers, the Prussian
land-owning nobility. In Russia, the early Romanov tsars pursued strategies of absolutism
similar to the policies of their western counterparts. Peter the Great pursued the rapid
westernization of Russian society, which resulted in a social revolution. All three of the
new powers benefited from the partitions of Poland, which unsettled the system of
sovereign states recently established by the Peace of Westphalia and shifted the balance
of power among European states.
Chapter Outline
5.23 Three Aging Empires
a. The Holy Roman Empire after 1648
i. Effects of the Thirty Years’ War
ii. The “Germanic liberties”
iii. Austria and Prussia
b. The Republic of Poland about 1650
i. Poland and Lithuania
ii. Weakness of central government
iii. Pressures on Poland
c. The Ottoman Empire about 1650
i. Tolerance of non-Muslim subjects
ii. “Extraterritorial” privileges
iii. Disputed regions
5.24 The Formation of an Austrian Monarchy
a. The Recovery and Growth of Habsburg Power, 1648-1740
i. Dominions of Austria
ii. Vienna besieged by the Turks
iii. Prince Eugene of Savoy
b. The Austrian Monarchy by 1740
i. An international empire
ii. Charles VI and the Pragmatic Sanction
5.25 The Formation of Prussia
a. Sweden’s Short-Lived Empire
i. Swedish territorial victories
ii. Charles XII
b. The Territorial Growth of Brandenburg-Prussia
i. Germans expand eastward
ii. Territorial acquisitions of the Hohenzollerns
iii. The Great Elector
c. The Prussian Military State
i. The Prussian army
ii. Maintaining the army
iii. The army and Prussian society
iv. Limited social mobility
v. Frederick William I
vi. The advances of Frederick the Great
5.26 The “Westernizing” of Russia
a. Russia before Peter the Great
i. Russian estrangement from Europe
ii. The Romanovs
iii. Serfdom in Russia
iv. The Russian Orthodox church
v. Old Believers
b. Peter the Great: Foreign Affairs and Territorial Expansion
i. Exposure to the West
ii. Polish threat recedes
iii. The Swedes
iv. War and imperial Russia
v. The founding of St. Petersburg
c. Internal Changes under Peter the Great
i. Mercantilism encouraged
ii. Serfs in industry
iii. New administrative system
iv. Peter’s social revolution
d. The Results of Peter’s Revolution
i. Resistance to reforms
ii. Exclusion of peasants
Learning Objectives
Chapter 5 teaches students about:
1. how three old-fashioned political organizations, the Holy Roman Empire, the
Republic of Poland, and the Ottoman empire, were pushed aside by newer,
stronger powers.
2. the expansion and westernization of Russia.
3. the declining freedoms of peasants east of the Elbe in the sixteenth, seventeenth,
and eighteenth centuries.
4. the power of landlords in eastern Europe, and their control of the agricultural
estate, the main social unit of the region.
5. the common factors of weakness among the aging empires, including a lack of
central authority, inefficient administration and government, and the diversity of
the peoples within those empires.
6. the renewed power of the Habsburgs, who recovered from the humiliation of the
settlement dictated by the Peace of Westphalia and created an international
empire.
7. the Swedish transition from a great power to a small one.
8. the ascendancy of the Hohenzollerns, and their triumph over the Holy Roman
Emperor in acquiring the title of king of Prussia.
9. Prussian militarism and its impact on Prussian society.
10. how the three new powers in eastern Europe borrowed ideas and administrative
systems from western Europe while maintaining their distinctive political, social,
and cultural characteristics.
11. the process of westernizing Russia undertaken by Peter the Great, which provoked
a social revolution.
Lecture/Discussion Topics
1. How did the Thirty Years’ War weaken the Holy Roman Empire?
2. Why were the many German states intent on preserving their “Germanic
liberties”? Why were other European powers interested in assisting those states?
3. How did the dominance of the landed aristocracy shape government in Poland?
4. What resulted from the lack of an effective, centralized government in Poland?
5. How did the Turks govern their empire? Compare their policies to those of
Christian empires.
6. What role did Prince Eugene of Savoy play in the struggle against the Turks?
7. What obstacles did Charles VI overcome for the Habsburgs with the Pragmatic
Sanction?
8. Why did the Swedish empire prove so short-lived?
9. When did modern Prussia become visible as a political unit? How did the
Hohenzollerns continue their territorial expansions?
10. How did the military come to play such an important role in Prussia? What were
the ramifications, economically and socially, of Prussian militarism?
11. Serfdom became more entrenched throughout eastern Europe between the
sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Compare the rights and obligations of serfs in
Poland, Prussia, and Russia.
12. Why had Russia not been part of the general development of Europe before the
seventeenth century?
13. How did Russia compare with Prussia? Why was Prussia considered more
European than Russia?
14. What did Russia share with western Europe?
15. In what ways did the Romanovs follow the pattern pursued by other monarchs in
Europe?
16. How did Russian serfs resist the loss of freedom imposed upon them in the
seventeenth century?
17. Why did the Russian Orthodox church undergo crisis and reform in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries?
18. What was the role of the Holy Synod? What parallels do you find between Peter’s
reforms of the Russian Orthodox church and England’s experiences?
19. How did Peter gain his knowledge of the West?
20. Why did Peter expend so much energy on reforming the Russian army? Were his
efforts successful?
21. How did Peter increase the revenues needed to support the new army, the
founding of a new city, and an expanding government?
22. How did Peter’s state service requirements alter Russian society?
23. How did peasants, making up the bulk of the Russian population, fare under
Peter’s reforms?
Multimedia Resources
Web Sources
1. The following two sites contain virtual tours and information about the
construction of St. Petersburg, undertaken by Peter the Great in 1703.
http://www.interknowledge.com/russia/peter01.htm
http://www.cityvision2000.com/history/whenandhow.htm
2. This site provides a general history and maps of the Ottoman empire.
http://www.friesian.com/turkia.htm