3.1 Contextualizing State Building

Learning Objective Unit 3.A: Explain the context in which different forms of political power developed from 1648 to 1815.

• KC-1.5 The struggle for sovereignty within and among states resulted in varying degrees of political centralization.
  • KC-1.5.I The new concept of the sovereign state and secular systems of law played a central role in the creation of new political institutions.
  • KC-1.5.III The competition for power between monarchs and corporate and minority language groups produced different distributions of governmental authority in European states.
  • KC-1.5.III.B Monarchies seeking enhanced power faced challenges from nobles who wished to retain traditional forms of shared governance and regional autonomy.
  • KC-1.5.III.C Within states, minority local and regional identities based on language and culture led to resistance against the dominant national group.
• KC-2.1 Different models of political sovereignty affected the relationship among states and between states and individuals.
  • KC-2.1.I In much of Europe, absolute monarchy was established over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries.
  • KC-2.1.II Challenges to absolutism resulted in alternative political systems.

Illustrative examples:

• Competition between monarchs and nobles:
  • Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu §Bullet
  • The Fronde in France
  • The Catalan Revolts in Spain
• Competition between minority and dominant national groups:
  • Celtic regions of Scotland, Ireland, and France
  • Dutch resistance in the Spanish Netherlands
  • Czech identity in the Holy Roman Empire/ Jan Hus/Defenestration

3.3 Continuities and Changes to Economic Practice and Development

Thematic Focus (ECD): Economic and Commercial Developments — Economic development, especially the development of capitalism, played an important role in Europe’s history, often having significant social, political, and cultural effects.

Learning Objective Unit 3.C: Explain the continuities and changes in commercial and economic developments from 1648 to 1815.

• KC-2.2.I.B The Agricultural Revolution raised productivity and increased the supply of food and other agricultural products.
• KC-2.2.II.D The importation and transplantation of agricultural products from the Americas contributed to an increase in the food supply in Europe.
• KC-2.2.I.A Labor and trade in commodities were increasingly freed from traditional restrictions imposed by governments and corporate entities.
• KC-2.2.I.C The putting-out system, or cottage industry, expanded as increasing numbers of laborers in homes or workshops produced for markets through merchant intermediaries or workshop owners.
• KC-2.2.I.D The development of the market economy led to new financial practices and institutions.
• KC-2.2.I Early modern Europe developed a market economy that provided the foundation for its global role.

Illustrative examples:

• New financial practices and institutions: § Insurance § Banking institutions for turning private savings into venture capital § New definitions of property rights and protections against confiscation § Bank of England

3.4 Economic Development and Mercantilism

Thematic Focus (ECD): Economic and Commercial Developments — Economic development, especially the development of capitalism, played an important role in Europe’s history, often having significant social, political, and cultural effects.

Learning Objective Unit 3.C: Explain the continuities and changes in commercial and economic developments from 1648 to 1815.

• KC-2.2.II The European-dominated worldwide economic network contributed to the agricultural, industrial, and consumer revolutions in Europe.
  • KC-2.2.II.A European states followed mercantilist policies by drawing resources from colonies in the New World and elsewhere.
  • KC-2.2.II.B The transatlantic slave-labor system expanded in the 17th and 18th centuries as demand for New World products increased.
  • KC-2.2.II.C Overseas products and influences contributed to the development of a consumer culture in Europe.
  • KC-2.2.II.D The importation and transplantation of agricultural products from the Americas contributed to an increase in the food supply in Europe.
  • KC-2.2.II.E Foreign lands provided raw materials, finished goods, laborers, and markets for the commercial and industrial enterprises in Europe.

Illustrative examples:

• Transatlantic slave-labor systems:
  • Middle Passage
  • Triangle trade
• Overseas products:
  • Sugar
  • Tea
  • Silks and other fabrics
  • Tobacco
  • Rum
  • Coffee

3.5 The Dutch Golden Age

Thematic Focus (SOP): States and Other Institutions of Power — European states and nations developed governmental and civil institutions from 1450 to the present to organize society and consolidate political power, with a variety of social, cultural, and economic effects.

Learning Objective Unit 3.D: Explain the factors that contributed to the development of the Dutch Republic.

• KC-2.1.II.B The Dutch Republic, established by a Protestant revolt against the Habsburg monarchy, developed an oligarchy of urban gentry and rural landholders to promote trade and protect traditional rights.

3.6 Balance of Power

Thematic Focus (SOP): States and Other Institutions of Power — European states and nations developed governmental and civil institutions from 1450 to the present to organize society and consolidate political power, with a variety of social, cultural, and economic effects.

Learning Objective Unit 3.E: Explain how European states attempted to establish and maintain a balance of power on the continent throughout the period from 1648 to 1815.

• KC-1.5.II The competitive state system led to new patterns of diplomacy and new forms of warfare.
  • KC-1.5.II.A Following the Peace of Westphalia, religion declined in importance as a cause for warfare among European states; the concept of the balance of power played an important role in structuring diplomatic and military objectives.
• KC-2.1.I.D The inability of the Polish monarchy to consolidate its authority over the nobility led to Poland’s partition by Prussia, Russia, and Austria, and its disappearance from the map of Europe.
• KC-2.1.III After 1648, dynastic and state interests, along with Europe’s expanding colonial empires, influenced the diplomacy of European states and frequently led to war.
  • KC-2.1.III.B After the Austrian defeat of the Turks in 1683 at the Battle of Vienna, the Ottomans ceased their westward expansion.
  • KC-2.1.III.C Louis XIV’s nearly continuous wars, pursuing both dynastic and state interests, provoked a coalition of European powers opposing him. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS

Learning Objective Unit 3.F: Explain how advances in technology contributed to a developing balance of power on the continent throughout the period from 1648 to 1815.

• KC-1.5.II.B Advances in military technology led to new forms of warfare, including greater reliance on infantry, firearms, mobile cannon, and more elaborate fortifications, all financed by heavier taxation and requiring a larger bureaucracy. New military techniques and institutions (i.e., the military revolution) tipped the balance of power toward states able to marshal sufficient resources for the new military environment.

Illustrative examples:

• Louis XIV’s nearly continuous wars:
  • Dutch War
  • Nine Years’ War
  • War of the Spanish Succession
• States that benefited from the military revolution:
  • Spain under the Habsburgs §Bullet Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus §Bullet France

3.7 Absolutist Approaches to Power

Thematic Focus (SOP): States and Other Institutions of Power — European states and nations developed governmental and civil institutions from 1450 to the present to organize society and consolidate political power, with a variety of social, cultural, and economic effects.

Learning Objective Unit 3.G: Explain how absolutist forms of rule affected social and political development from 1648 to 1815.

• KC-2.1.I.A Absolute monarchies limited the nobility’s participation in governance but preserved the aristocracy’s social position and legal privileges.
• KC-2.1.I.B Louis XIV and his finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, extended the administrative, financial, military, and religious control of the central state over the French population.
• KC-2.1.I.E Peter the Great “westernized” the Russian state and society, transforming political, religious, and cultural institutions; Catherine the Great continued this process.

Illustrative examples:

• Absolute monarchs:
  • James I of England
  • Peter the Great of Russia
  • Philip II, III, and IV of Spain
• Extended power of the state: §Bullet Intendants §Bullet Modernized, state-controlled military Russian westernization: §Bullet Russian Academy of Sciences §Bullet Education §Bullet Western fashion §Bullet Expanded military