Absolute Monarchy in Russia Chapter 4 Section 5 pp. 129-133.

Absolute Monarchy in RussiaChapter 4 Section 5pp. 129-133

Peter the Great• Peter was just 10 years old when he claimed the

throne• Took control of government in 1689

• Not very educated• Very curious• Spent hours in “German Quarter”• Moscow suburb where Dutch, Scottish, English, and

other foreign artisans and soldiers lived• Heard of the advanced technology in Western

Europe

Journey to the West• 1697- Peter sent out to study western technology• Spent hours walking the streets of European cities• Visited factories and art galleries• Learned anatomy• A dentist taught him how to pull teeth

• Peter was impressed by England’s parliament• Peter brought back a group of technical experts,

teachers, and soldiers back to Russia• Embarked on policy of westernization • Russians weren’t easily persuaded• Peter became the most autocratic of Europe’s

absolute monarchs

Autocrat and Reformer• Peter pursued several related goals• Wanted to strengthen the military• Expand Russian borders• Centralized royal power

• To achieve his goals, he brought all Russian institutions under his control• Including the Russian Orthodox Church

• Forced boyars to serve the state in civilian or military jobs

Autocrat and Reformer cont.• Serfdom spread long after it had died out in

Western Europe• Peter pushed through social and economic

reforms• Imported western technology• Improved education• Simplified science and engineering

• To pay for reforms, he adopted mercantilist policies• Like encouraging exports

• Improved water-ways and canals, developed mining and textile manufacturing, backed new trading companies

Autocrat and Reformer cont.• Changes had symbolic meaning• Peter insisted boyars shave their beards• Forced them to replace their old-fashioned robes with

Western European clothes• Ended the practice of secluding upper-class women in

separate quarters• Held grand parties where women and men were expected

to dace together • Russian nobles resisted the radical mixing of men and women

in public

• Peter had no mercy for those you resisted• Over 1,000 rebels were tortured and executed when

elite palace guards revolted• As an example of his power, he left the rotting corpses

outside the palace walls for months

Expansion Under Peter• Peter worked to build Russian’s military power• Created the largest standing army in Europe• Set out to extend Russian borders to the west and

south

Search for a Warm-Water Port• Russian seaports were frozen during the winter• Located in the Arctic Ocean

• Peter wanted a warm-water port to increase Russia’s ability to trade with the West

• Nearest warm-water port was located along the Black Sea• To gain control of this territory, he had to push through

powerful Ottoman empire• Peter was unable to defeat them in the end

• A later Russian monarch, Catherine the Great, would achieve that goal before the century ended

War With Sweden• 1700- Peter began a long war against the

kingdom of Sweden• Sweden dominated the Baltic region• Swedish force had only 8,000 men and defeated

the Russian force which was five times its size• Peter rebuilt the army along western lines• 1709- he defeated Swedes and won land to the

Baltic Sea

Peter’s City• Peter built magnificent capital city on land won

from Sweden• Called St. Petersburg

• Located the city on the swampy shores of the Neva River near the Baltic coast• Wanted to open a window on the West• Forced tens of thousands of serfs to drain the

swamps• Many died, but Peter got his city

• Peter then invited Italian architects and artisans to design palaces in western style

• St. Petersburg became a symbol of Peter’s desire to forge a modern Russia

Toward the Pacific• Russian traders and raiders crossed the plains and rivers

of Siberia toward the Pacific• Russia sign a treaty with Qing China defining their

common border in the east• Treaty recognized Russia’s right to lands north of Manchuria

• Early 1700s- Peter hired the Danish navigator, Vitus Bering, to explore what was later known as the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska

• Russian pioneers crossed into Alaska and migrated as far south as California

• Not many Russians moved east of the Ural Mountains• Russia was already the largest country in the world, and

still is

Legacy of Peter the Great• Peter died in 1725• Left behind a mixed legacy

• He expanded Russian territory• Gained ports on the Baltic Sea• Created a better army• Ended Russia’s long period of isolation

• From the 1700s on, Russia was increasingly involved in affairs of Western Europe

• Many of his reforms died with him• Nobles soon ignored his policy of service to the state

• Peter the Great brandished terror to enforce his power• Polices contributed to the growth of serfdom

• Widened the gap between Russia and the West the Peter had sought to narrow

Catherine the Great• Peter died without naming a successor• Set off power struggles

• Catherine the Great took the throne• She was a German princess by birth

• Came to Russia at 15 to wed the heir to the Russian throne

• She learned Russian, embraced the Russian Orthodox faith, and won the loyalty of the people

• 1762- her mentally unstable husband, Czar Peter III, was murdered by a group of Russian army officers

An Efficient Ruler• Catherine proved to be an efficient and energetic

empress• Reorganized the provincial government, codified

laws, and began state-sponsored education for both girls and boys

• She embraced western ideas • Encouraged French language and customs at court• Wrote histories and plays• Organized court performances

• She was a serious student of the French thinkers who led the intellectual movement • Known as Enlightenment

A Ruthless Absolute Monarch• Catherine granted a charter to the boyars

outlining rights• Such as exemption from taxes

• When peasants rebelled, she took firm action to repress them• As a result, conditions grew worse for Russian

peasants

• Catherine was determined to expand Russia’s borders• Achieved Peter’s dream of a warm-water port on the

Black Sea after a war against the Ottoman empire• Took steps to seize territory from Poland

Partition of Poland• Polish rulers were unable to centralize their

power• The divided Polish government was ill prepared

to stand up to Russia, Prussia, and Austria• 1770’s- Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great,

and Emperor Joseph II of Austria agreed to partition Poland• 1772- Catherine took part of eastern Poland

• Many Russians and Ukrainians lived there

• Frederick and Joseph got lands to the west

Partition of Poland cont.• 1793- Poland was partitioned again and for a

third time in 1795• By that time Austria, Prussia, and Russia had taken

the land they wanted• Poland had vanished from the map

• 1919- Free Polish state would reappear

Looking Ahead• Mid-1700s- Absolute monarchs ruled four of the

five leading powers in Europe• Britain was the only exception

• The five nations often ended up fighting to maintain the balance of power

• Radical changes soon shattered the French monarchy, upset the balance of power, and revolutionized European societies

Vocabulary• Westernization- Adoption of Western Europe’s

ideals and technology, as in Russia• Boyar- Russian Nobles• Warm-Water Port- Port free of ice all year long,

Russia longed for this• Partitioned- to be Split Up

Review Questions• What Russian Czar was 7ft tall? Peter the Great• What spread in Russia dealing with low class

people that had been all but abolished in Europe? Serfdom

• What was Peter the Greats new capital city? St. Petersburg

• Who became the leader of Russia after her husband Peter III was assassinated? Catherine the Great

• By the mid 1700s what was the only major country in Europe not ruled by an Absolute Monarch? Great Britain/England