History 4403
Study
Questions 6
Winks
and Kaiser, 113-137.
1. What improvements did Frederick the Great of Prussia (r.
1740-1786) make to Prussia's agricultural economy (name three) and in
what ways did he attempt to improve the lives of peasants?
2. What benefits did the middle class and the nobility gain under
Frederick the Great? Please name at least one for each group.
3. What burdens did the peasants, the middle class, and the
nobles have to bear under Frederick the Great? Name at least one
for each group.
4. How did Frederick the Great reform religion and the judiciary
and in what ways, if any, did he decline to do this?
5. Name three reforms undertaken by Maria Theresa of Austria (r.
1740-1780).
6. During what years did Joseph II rule alone and why did his
reform measures only succeed partially?
7. What reforms did Joseph II make to the area of religion and which
group most objected and why?
8. In what ways did Joseph II try to benefit peasants in his domains
and why did this cause problems?
9. Why did Joseph II's non-Austrian domains (the Austrian Netherlands
and Hungary e.g.) object to his reforms?
10. Choosing Spain, Portugal, or Sweden explain the nature of the
reforms attempted in the latter half of the 18th century and indicate
the degree of their success.
11. What was mercantilism in the 18th century according to Winks and
Kaiser?
12. What happened to the status of the serfs and the boyars after Peter
the Great? How if at all did Catherine the Great (r. 1762-1795)
and Alexander I (1801-1825) attempt to address their status? What
happened to the status of those living in Russia's towns?
13. What was the significance of Yemelyan Pugachev (d. 1775)?
14. What reforms and/or changes were Catherine the Great and Alexander
I able to implement and what were the practical limitations on their
freedom of action?
15. What were the two major foreign policy achievements of Catherine
the Great's reign?
16. What was George III's approach to the constitutional monarchy that
had grown up in Britain and was it out of step with the actions of
monarchs in the rest of Europe?
17. What were the two main causes of the American Revolution and how
can we connect them if at all to the Seven Years' War?
18. In what sense did the secession of the British North American
colonies that became the U.S. effectively end the career of Lord North
and George III's approach to the constitutional monarchy, c. 1760-1782?
19. How did Giovanni Vico (1668-1774) view society and how was his
vision at odds with that of the philosophes?
20. In what ways did Immanuel Kant's ideas agree with and disagree with
those of other Enlightenment thinkers?
21. Given his opposition to mercantilism was Adam Smith (1723-1790)
part of the Enlightenment or not?
22. How did the ideas of the German Pietists and the Methodists vary
from those of many Enlightenment thinkers and who were the major
exponents of these ideas?