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ESSAY EXAM (100 Points)

ANSWER 3 OF THE FOLLOWING. THREE.   Move from your facts into concepts and your ideas - and the importance of the subject.  I will be looking for knowledge (read the material, gone through helpful parts of the Web and or seen a movie), your thinking and pondering.

Be sure to answer all the parts of each question.  If I ask you to "be someone," then BE that human.

1. ABSOLUTISM
WRITE ON EITHER A OR B.
A. Under Louis XIV, royal absolutism reached its height in France and perhaps in Europe. Despite the often despotic qualities of their rule, Many Europeans supported absolutist rule

OR
B. By the second half of the seventeenth century, England and France were the leading nations of two constrasting systems of government, economics, political institutions. For the 18th century, much of Europe's history centered on this rivalry.
2. THE WARS OF RELIGION
"Catholic against Protestant, dynasty against dynasty, people against people, in the Age of the Reformation. Civil war, foreign war, engulfing nearly every power in Europe until the interests of the State triumphed over the interests of faith."

3. THE ENGLISH SOLUTION
The English took a tortuous path other than strong absolutism. Describe, analyze the direction they took. Then, what was the

4. THE ENLIGHTENED DESPOTS

  • Trace and compare the development of "enlightened" absolutism in  two of these "places.":  Prussia, the Austrian Empire, and Russia.
  • Pay attention to the similarities and dissimilarities?
  • What did the rulers achieve? How did they fail?
  • How important was the character of the ruler in each case?
5.ENLIGHTMENT
  • You are a University of Heidelberg professor in 1780. You are lecturing to your students about the so-called Enlightment.  You must first tell them what it was and in what ways it most prominently manifested itself - in a range of categories.  [DO IT]
  • Then a student asked the following question:  What do we mean by the phrase "enlightened politics" and to what extent is/was politics "enlightened" in the European states of the eighteenth century? [ANSWER THE STUDENT]
6.  WAR AND DIPLOMACY
  • Explain the primary components in the nature of war and diplomacy in the eighteenth century?
  • Then compare the nature of war and diplomacy in the eighteenth century with that of the seventeenth century?
  • How can Balance of Power be seen as Balance of Terror?  
7. LOOK AT HOBBES AND LOCKE
Explain the important keys, points of each of their "ideas, theses, whatever."
Then contrast them.
For each, tell me:
a. after they looked around WHY they came to their very different conclusions (what was happening in the outside world that would contribute)
b. the impact of their ideas, philosophies on the development of types of government, political systems.
8. MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Name 8 humans who, in your mind, made the most difference on Western Civilization and the directions or achievements of WC. From the Reformation on to and including the 16th, 17th, 18th Centuries. You must have at least 2 from each of these centuries.
  • Evaluate why you selected each one.
  • Finally tell me what you think about leadership in this "Middle Period" and if it or humans made a difference and why.
9.  WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO LIVE
Assume first the role of a nobleman and then the role of a merchant in either the 17th Century or the 18th Century. In each role, be that person and analyze and explain your reactions to governments in 3 of the following "places": England, France, Brandenburg-Prussia, and Russia. In which country would you prefer to live? Why?

10.  SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
  • How do you explain the emergence of the Scientific Revolution? How was the new scientific knowledge spread in the seventeenth century?
  • One historian argues that within a few generations the great scientific discoveries of the 17th century had profoundly influenced the ways in which ordinary educated people thought about the universe. 
  • Explore this issue by investigating two or three specific beliefs.
  • Why, for instance, did most educated people stop believing in witches?  After all, no scientist had demonstrated that witchcraft was scientifically impossible.  Wasn't it at least conceivable that someone would discover the scientific basis for the power of witches?And most educated people stopped believing that comets were portents of the future.  Why?

  • Briefly, tersely, the impact in your view of this Revolution?

11.  The Philosophes - Who are Philosophes? Analyze the new ideas that the philosophes contributed on the following subjects: politics, the "new science of man," economics, education, and religion? What was their impact on WC?


12.  Life at Versailles and What it was Really About
Describe and respond to with your thinking on the important areas of court life at Versailles. Some have maintained that the palace and court at Versailles were illustrative of the power, vitality and security of the "Sun King" while others have viewed it as decadent and mundane. Your strong analytical decision.

Dr. KF,  March 2006