Hist.

102 Midterm Exam Study Guide

Here is the list of your possible essay topics and identifications. Please be specific with your
answers and support your statements with evidence.

Possible essay topics:

1. Spain under Philip II (1556-1598) was the most powerful state in Europe. Yet, by the
middle of the seventeenth century this power seemed to be diminishing. What happened?
What were the causes of this downfall of Spain (political, social, economic)? What were
its consequences for Spain and Europe.

2. Why did the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) break out in the Holy Roman Empire, who
got involved in it and why, what were its major stages, and what was its significance for
Germany and Europe?

3. Write history of England from the time of Henry VIII (1509-1547) to the Glorious
Revolution (1688). How did England change politically, religiously and socially during
this time period? Make sure to identify major actors of this change as well as their
contributions. Why did so many Enlightened thinkers in continental Europe envy the
post-1688 political model of England?

4. France under Louis XIV was considered the best example of an absolute monarchy.
Define “absolute monarchy.” Summarize the character and political methods of Louis
XIV. What specific measures in administrative, economic, military, cultural, and
religious policy did he promote? What was the significance of the political model Louis
XIV created for France and for Europe?

5. Survey the development of astronomy during the Scientific Revolution. Compare the
theories of Greek astronomers and medieval scholars with those of Copernicus and his
followers. How did the revolution in astronomy affect lives of Europeans? What was its
significance?

6. How would you define the Enlightenment of the XVIII century? What were the chief
concerns of its most prominent representatives, and what connection did their approach to
social problems have with the Scientific Revolution? How did the enlightened thought
impact lives of the Europeans and their contemporaries in the New World?

7. Did Napoleon destroy the ideas of the French Revolution, or did he continue and spread
them? Give reasons for your opinion, citing specific examples from Napoleon’s domestic
and foreign policies as well as his policies towards conquered/defeated powers. How did
Napoleon’s activities relate to the French revolutionary ideas? How did they impact other
peoples of Europe?

6. How would you define the Enlightenment of the XVIII century? What were the
chief concerns of its most prominent representatives, and what connection did their
 approach to social problems have with the Scientific Revolution? How did the
enlightened thought impact lives of the Europeans and their contemporaries in the
New World?

1. Enlightenment as child of Scientific Revolution

1. Scientific Revolution brought
1. Change in human perception of his place in the universe
2. Change in human perception of God
1. God as rational
2. Humans as rational too
2. In regards to Enlightenment. . .
1. Discovery of a genius of a human being
2. Belief in reason and progress
3. Scientific methods to reform society
4. Transnational phenomenon
5. Social reforms through evolutionary means
1. Education

Most prominent representatives and their chief concerns

1. Voltaire
1. Philosophe = “French term referring to thinkers and critics of the Enlightenment
era, including Voltaire and Rousseau.”
2. “French writer, critic, and reformer who embodied the spirit of eighteenth-century
rationalism: its confidence, its increasingly practical bent, its wit and sophistication.”
3. Criticism on church hierarchy
2. Montesquieu
1. Human institutions must be rational
2. Human educability3. Laws were not meant to be arbitrary rules but derived
naturally from human society
3. Adam Smith
1. “Scottish economist who developed the doctrine of ‘laissez-faire’ in his treatise,
The Wealthy of Nations (1776)”
2. Laissez-faire “assumes that an economy will regulate itself, without interference by
government and, of more concern to Smith, without the monopolies and other economic
privileges common to his day.”
4. Denis Diderot
1. Chief editor of the Encyclopedia
2. Belief in the advancement of human happiness through the advancement of
knowledge

5. Marquis de Condorcet
1. Argued for
a) Abolition of slavery
b) Full citizenship rights for women
 1. Equality of all persons
2. Mary Wollstonecraft
1. Full citizenship rights and equal rights to property for women
2. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
3. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
1. “French philosophe who imagined an egalitarian society governed by
the ‘general will’ in The SocialContract and was a sharp critic of aristocratic
society.”
4. Immanuel Kant
1. Effort to reconcile some of the most profound conflicts with
Enlightenment philosophy

Possible Identifications (what/who, when, description of the term/summary of activities,

significance):

Pico della Mirandola Niccolo Machiavelli Gutenberg’s Printing Press

Christopher Columbus Martin Luther John Calvin

Peace of Augsburg Elizabeth I of England The Spanish Great Armada

French Huguenots Edict of Nantes Triangle Trade

Witch Hunts Council of Trent James I of England

Baroque Oliver Cromwell Puritans

Glorious Revolution Peace of Westphalia Louis XIV of France

Mercantilism Versailles Peter the Great of Russia

“Table of ranks” in Russia Brandenburg-Prussia Agricultural Revolution

Nicolaus Copernicus Heliocentrism Johannes Kepler

Galileo Galilei Rene Descartes Francis Bacon

Isaac Newton Thomas Hobbes John Locke

Voltaire Montesquieu Adam Smith

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Diderot Whigs and Tories

Catherine the Great of Russia Louis XVI of France Third estate in France

The Tennis Court Oath Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

French Jacobins Maximilien Robespierre Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon’s Continental System Napoleon’s Civil Code