• textbook --> 528 - 538.
• atlas --> pp. 50-51.
• CD--> music from Bach, Handel and Vivaldi.
• Powerpoint presentation on Versailles.

1. Why were absolute monarchies established in several 17c European countries?
2. Summarize the views of the various political theorists of the 16c and 17c regarding absolutism.
3. How was divine-right monarchy, recognized by these theorists, different from pure arbitrary despotic power (arbitrary monarchy)?
4. How did Henry IV lay the groundwork for strong monarchical authority in France?
5. Cardinal Richelieu's two goals, as Louis XIII's chief minister, was to strengthen the power of the king/central government and to make France the dominant power in Europe.  How did he attempt to achieve these goals [detail his domestic and foreign policies]?
6. Why did the Fronde occur in France between 1648 and 1653?  What were the immediate and long-term results of this uprising for the future of the French monarchy?
7. What were the three ways in which Louis XIV attempted to rule the provinces?
8. How did Colbert's policies as Louis XIV's finance minister illustrate the objectives of mercantilism?
9. What were the strengths and weaknesses of Colbert's economic policies?
10. Why did Louis XIV build his palace complex at Versailles?  What was life like there for the French nobility?
11. Why did Louis XIV revoke the Edict of Nantes in 1685?  What were the repercussions of such a move?
12. What were the limits of royal absolutism in France?
13. Evaluate the success of Louis XIV's foreign policy in these areas:  What were his aims?  Were they realistic?  To what extend did he attain his goals?
14. What were the provisions of the Treaties of Utrecht?
15. When he died, in what shape did Louis XIV leave France?

                          ASSIGNMENT 2:

• textbook --> pp. 540 - 550.
• film --> short biography of "Peter the Great".
• atlas --> pp. 41; 42 - 43; 50 - 51.

1. How did Frederick William, the "Great Elector," strengthen the power of the Hohenzollern family and increase the prestige of Brandenberg-Prussia?
2. What is meant by the phrase:  Let others wage war.  You, happy Austria, marry [to prosper]?
3. What territories were controlled by the two different branches of the Habsburg family in the 16c and 17c?
4. Why was the Habsburg Empire's heterogeneous, polyglot structure of territories of different nationalities her major weakness?
5. What was Italy's major political problem throughout the 16c to the late 19c?
6. What were the accomplishments of Ivan IV of Russia?  Why did he receive the nickname, "The Terrible"?
7. How was Russia organized politically and economically in the 17c?
8. What did Peter the Great learn from the European countries he visited on his "Grand Tour" of Europe in the late 17c?
9. How did Peter the Great modernize his military?  his government?  Russian society?  the Russian Orthodox Church?
10. Where did Peter the Great push to expand Russian territories?  Why did he choose those directions?
11. What were the major achievements of Peter the Great's reign?
12. How did Sweden play such a large role in European affairs in the 17c?  What finally caused her power and influence to decline?
13. Why was the Ottoman Empire considered to be a "sleeping giant? by the Europeans at the end of the 17c?
14. What were the limitations of royal absolutism?

                         ASSIGNMENT 3:

• textbook --> pp. 551 - 554;  560 - 565.
• atlas --> pp. 46 - 47.
• slides --> 17c Dutch artists.
• DBQ --> on the Dutch Republic.

1. Identify the major centers of political power in the United Provinces in the 17c.
2. How was each province governed?
3. Why was Holland the most important of the Dutch provinces?
4. What role did William III of the House of Orange play in the history of the Dutch Republic?
5. Why was Amsterdam so prosperous in the 17c?
6. How did the arts, especially painting, reflect 17c Dutch life?  What were some of the major themes that were stressed by Dutch artists of the period?
7. How was the religious climate in Holland different from that in England and France in the 17c?
8. What was the Dutch Republic's foreign policy agenda in the 17c?  Why were its major foreign rivals?
9. Why did the Dutch Republic decline at the end of the 17c?
10. What is the doctrine of mercantilism?  How did the various countries in Western Europe practice it in the 17c and 18c?
11. How is mercantilism related to European colonialism?
12. Why did French commercial companies experience a lot of problems in the Far East in the 17c and early 18c?
13. What were the characteristics of French Classicism in the arts?  How was it a response to the Baroque movement?

                          ASSIGNMENT 4:

• textbook --> pp. 554 - 560.
• doc. reader --> pp. 22 - 24;  57 - 59.
• document --> Act of Settlement
• document --> English Bill of Rights

1. Why was James I so unpopular with his British subjects?  What alienated him from Parliament?
2. How did Charles I continue his father's political and fiscal policies?  Where did he go even further than his father?
3. Why was the Petition of Rights a significant document in the constitutional evolution of England?  What was Charles I's response to it?
4. Why was the Scottish rebellion, begun in 1637, a turning point in Charles I's reign?
5. What was Parliament's view of its political and constitutional role within the British government structure?
6. How did Charles I anger most economic/political groups in England?  What were their chief complaints about his regime?
7. What parts of English society initially supported the Roundheads during the English Civil War?  the Cavaliers?  Why?
8. What type of split occurred in the parliamentary forces by 1646?  How did Oliver Cromwell respond to this division?
9. Describe the government of England under the Commonwealth and the Protectorate.  What is meant by the "regime of the major generals"?
10. How did the 1652 Act of Settlement serve England's hold on Ireland?
11. Why did the Parliament restore the monarchy under Charles II in 1660?
12. What deal did Charles II make with Louis XIV of France?
13. Over what issues did Parliament and Charles II collide?
14. Why was James II forced to flee England in 1688?  What did he do that so angered the British people?
15. Why was the change in power from James II to William and Mary called the "Glorious Revolution" in British history?
16. Identify the major political/constitutional principles highlighted in the English Bill of Rights [refer to the document on pg. 558 in the textbook].  Why was it considered a milestone in British history?
17. Create a CHART which compares and contrasts the political philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.
18. Why was Hobbes viewed as the apologist for divine-right monarchy?
19. How did Locke's writings convert the English Revolution of 1688 into an event of universal meaning?