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AP European History Unit 3: Absolutism and Constitutionalism

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Unit 3: Absolutism and Constitutionalism

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Question 1

The English Civil War (1642–1651) ultimately resulted from a fundamental conflict between:

A.Charles I's assertion of divine right prerogative and Parliament's insistence on controlling taxation and religionB.The English nobility's demand to restore feudal rights that Tudor monarchs had abolishedC.Scottish Presbyterians' desire to reunite with the Catholic Church against Protestant English governanceD.London merchants' demand to abolish the monarchy and establish a commercial republic

Question 2

The Glorious Revolution of 1688 is considered "glorious" primarily because it:

A.Restored Catholicism to England without violence, ending decades of religious persecutionB.Transferred power from James II to William and Mary with minimal bloodshed, preserving parliamentary libertiesC.Established England as a republic, abolishing the monarchy permanentlyD.Created a democratic republic in which all English men had the right to vote for Parliament

Question 3

Louis XIV's decision to revoke the Edict of Nantes in 1685 had which of the following economic consequences for France?

A.France gained a large new tax base as Huguenots were forced to convert to Catholicism and pay church tithesB.The emigration of skilled Huguenot craftsmen and merchants weakened French industry and strengthened France's rivalsC.French trade expanded as Catholic merchants gained a monopoly over Huguenot commercial networksD.The seizure of Huguenot property provided the French Crown with revenues sufficient to fund Louis's wars

Question 4

The Russian boyar aristocracy's resistance to Peter the Great's reforms was most fundamentally based on their objection to:

A.Peter's adoption of Western Enlightenment philosophy, which threatened Orthodox religious authorityB.Peter's Table of Ranks and compulsory service requirements, which undermined hereditary privilege with merit-based hierarchyC.Peter's decision to build St. Petersburg, which displaced Moscow nobles from their traditional power baseD.Peter's alliance with Sweden against Ottoman Turkey, which threatened traditional Russian trade routes

Question 5

Peter the Great of Russia pursued his modernization program (c. 1700–1725) primarily by:

A.Adopting Western European administrative, military, and cultural practices while maintaining autocratic ruleB.Establishing a constitutional monarchy modeled on England's parliamentary systemC.Granting the Russian Orthodox Church greater authority over education and government administrationD.Encouraging noble independence through a system of regional estates similar to the Polish Sejm

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Question 6

A historian comparing English constitutionalism and French absolutism argues that the decisive variable was not ideology but the structural capacity of representative institutions to resist royal centralization. Which of the following pieces of evidence most strongly supports this argument?

A.English Puritans had stronger religious convictions than French Huguenots, motivating fiercer resistance to royal authorityB.The English Parliament had a long tradition of controlling taxation and had to be summoned for revenue, while the French Estates-General met rarely and could be bypassed by royal tax courtsC.English monarchs were personally more willing to compromise than French kings, reflecting differences in royal temperamentD.France's Catholic Church supported royal absolutism more strongly than the Church of England supported English monarchs

Question 7

Which of the following best explains why absolutism was stronger in France and Prussia than in the Dutch Republic and England during the 17th century?

A.France and Prussia were predominantly Catholic, while the Dutch Republic and England had adopted Calvinist constitutionalismB.France and Prussia faced land-based military threats requiring centralized authority, while the Dutch and English relied on commercial wealth and sea power that empowered merchant elitesC.France and Prussia had larger populations that demanded authoritarian governance, while smaller states required consentD.Dutch and English monarchs were personally weaker individuals, while French and Prussian rulers were exceptionally gifted

Question 8

Louis XIV's construction of the Palace of Versailles served which political function beyond mere display of royal magnificence?

A.It relocated the French government away from Paris to prevent urban popular revolts like the Fronde from threatening the courtB.It served as the headquarters of the French Academies, placing intellectual production under royal patronageC.It provided a fortified military base from which Louis could project power against the Spanish NetherlandsD.It symbolized France's alliance with the papacy by incorporating Catholic iconography throughout its design

Question 9

Louis XIV's famous statement "L'état, c'est moi" ("I am the state") best reflects which political theory?

A.Divine right absolutism, in which sovereign authority is God-given and undividedB.Constitutional monarchy, in which the king's power is limited by law and representative institutionsC.Mercantilism, the economic theory that national wealth depends on trade surplusesD.Social contract theory, in which rulers derive legitimacy from the consent of the governed

Question 10

The Dutch Republic in the 17th century achieved an unusual combination of commercial prosperity and political decentralization that allowed it to resist Spanish rule and compete with larger monarchies. Which of the following best accounts for this success?

A.The Calvinist faith of Dutch merchants provided a theological justification for commercial accumulation and resistance to Catholic SpainB.The States General's ability to coordinate among semi-autonomous provinces, combined with Amsterdam's financial innovation (the Amsterdam Bank, the East India Company), created sufficient state-building capacity without strong centralizationC.Dutch military supremacy on land, derived from a large professional army paid from colonial revenues, defeated Spain definitivelyD.France and England voluntarily restrained themselves from competing with the Dutch because they valued Dutch maritime trade routes

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Question 11

Thomas Hobbes argued in Leviathan (1651) that an absolute sovereign was necessary because, without it, human life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Which of the following most directly challenged Hobbes's justification for absolute authority?

A.John Locke's argument that natural law guaranteed rights to life, liberty, and property that government could not alienateB.Jean Bodin's claim that sovereignty must be absolute and indivisible to maintain orderC.Cardinal Richelieu's raison d'état argument that the state's interest overrides all other considerationsD.The divine right theory of Bishop Bossuet, which derived sovereignty from God rather than from a social contract

Question 12

The English Bill of Rights (1689) limited royal authority by establishing that the monarch could not:

A.Suspend laws, raise taxes, or maintain a standing army without parliamentary consentB.Make peace treaties or declare war without a vote of the House of CommonsC.Appoint judges or clergy without approval from ParliamentD.Hold any religious beliefs other than Protestantism

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