OPTIONAL STUDY GUIDE FOR CHAPTER 18:

THE BALANCE OF POWER IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE

TERMS, PEOPLE, AND EVENTS

Great Northern War Treaty of Nystad Leopold I

Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Passarowitz Peter the Great

poll tax Senate fiscals

Table of Ranks Catherine the Great czar

Charter of the Nobility Pugachev's revolt Charles VI

Joseph II Frederick William, the Great Elector Peter III

Frederick William I Frederick II (the Great) Poltava

Pragmatic Sanction Joseph II George I

Maria Theresa War of the Austrian Succession John Wilkes

Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle Kunersdorf Diet

partitions of Poland placemen mixed government

Whigs Tories Robert Walpole

George III Sugar Act Stamp Act

Seven Years' War Declaratory Act Boston Tea Party

Peace of Paris (1763) James III William and Mary

KEY GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS

New France Mexico Central America

Great Lakes Ohio River Louisiana

Mississippi River Gulf of Mexico Flanders

Philippines Livonia Estonia

Norway Silesia Galicia

Lille Flanders Duchy of Bar

Potsdam St. Petersburg Dunkirk

Gulf of Finland Moravia Archangel

Brandenburg-Prussia Spice Islands Stettin

New France Saint Lawrence River New Orleans

Magdeburg Riga Pomerania

Kazan Minorca Java Sea

Ural Mountains Maine Georgia

Charleston

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

1. Peter the Great's death inaugurated a period in Russia known as "the emancipation of the nobility." Why is it called that? How did the status of Russia’s nobles change from Peter's reign to that of Catherine the Great?

2. Why was Catherine the Great considered "great"? Which of the era’s “great” monarchs do you think was greatest—Peter, Frederick II or Catherine II? Why?

3. Consider the approaches to government taken by Louis XIV and Frederick the Great. Did the two monarchs differ fundamentally in their visions for their realms and their techniques of rule? If so, how?

4. What changes affected peasant life in eastern Europe in the eighteenth century? How did the life of Russian peasants differ from that of Austrian peasants in 1700? In 1790? In what ways was peasant life more or less unchanged?

5. What were the “mixed constitution” and the “King-in-Parliament”? How does the British Constitution succeed in the age of absolute monarchs?

6. What role did alliances play in creating and maintaining a European balance of power?