Unit 3: Absolutism and Constitutionalism
AP European History: 50 practice questions with detailed explanations.
Unit Study Guide
Executive Summary
France perfected absolute monarchy; England and the Dutch Republic built constitutional government; commerce and the balance of power shaped Europe.
Absolutism in France
Louis XIV, the Sun King, embodied absolutism: "L'etat, c'est moi." Versailles controlled the nobility; intendants enforced royal policy; Colbert ran mercantilist finance; the Fronde taught Louis to distrust nobles; he revoked the Edict of Nantes (1685), driving out Huguenots. Richelieu and Mazarin had built the state before him.
Constitutionalism in England
The Stuarts' divine-right claims clashed with Parliament: Petition of Right (1628), Civil War (1642-1649), execution of Charles I, Cromwell's Commonwealth, the Restoration (1660), then the Glorious Revolution (1688) bringing William and Mary, and the Bill of Rights (1689) limiting royal power.
The Dutch Golden Age
A republic of commerce and tolerance: banking, the Dutch East India Company, and shipping made Amsterdam Europe's trade hub; Rembrandt and Vermeer painted its prosperity; tulip mania showed speculation's dangers.
Other absolutisms
Peter the Great westernized Russia and built St. Petersburg. Brandenburg-Prussia (Great Elector Frederick William) and Austria (Habsburgs, Pragmatic Sanction) built military states.
The Commercial Revolution and balance of power
Joint-stock companies, banking, the put-out system, and the Price Revolution (American silver) transformed economies. Louis XIV's wars provoked grand alliances; the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) prevented a French-Spanish union and preserved the balance of power.
Exam traps
England and the Dutch Republic are constitutionalist exceptions to absolutist trends. The balance of power opposes hegemony, not war itself.