Question 1

What did Louis XIV's palace at Versailles symbolize both to his subjects and to foreigners during his reign?

Accepted Answer

A)  Louis's decadent lifestyle and the excesses of the French court 
B)  An outmoded style of architecture and court ritual that was overshadowed by the growing popularity of English manners 
C)  Louis's success in reining in the nobility and dominating Europe 
D)  Louis's lack of success in leading France and his need to flee Paris and hide out in the countryside

Question 2

In 1667, Stenka Razin led a legendary rebellion in Russia against what social and political practice?

Accepted Answer

A)  Polygamy 
B)  Military conscription 
C)  Jewish pogroms 
D)  Enserfment

Question 3

During the upheavals of the civil war in England in the mid-seventeenth century, the fledgling English colonies in North America

Accepted Answer

A)  were as divided as those in Europe and ended up fighting their own version of the civil war, pitting colonies against one another. 
B)  nearly disappeared due to starvation and disease after the English government stopped supplying the colonies. 
C)  developed their own representative governments and consistently resisted English attempts to reaffirm royal control. 
D)  unsuccessfully attempted to secede from England with the support of France and the Dutch Republic.

Question 4

Historians have advanced several different ideas about the increase in the slave trade during the seventeenth century. Which of the following factors might explain this increase?

Accepted Answer

A)  More Europeans began using slaves as household servants and as factory labor, doubling the demand for slave labor. 
B)  Africans stopped resisting European slave traders, making it much easier to capture and transport slaves. 
C)  Improvements in muskets, the rising price of slaves, and growing conflict between African tribes made slave capture easier and more profitable. 
D)  European governments instituted an international law legalizing the slave trade, making it much easier for traders to buy and sell slaves.

Question 5

How and why were women significant in the cultivation of manners and the promotion of the arts?

Accepted Answer

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Question 6

In what ways did governments become involved in the sciences during the seventeenth century?

Accepted Answer

A)  Seeing the sciences as a threat to their power, they condemned scientific practices and banished scientists to the New World. 
B)  They saw science as a means to enhance their prestige and invested monetary and social resources in scientific research. 
C)  They ordered scientists to conform to principles of absolutist rule and established laws governing scientific practices and discoveries. 
D)  They made science the top priority of all government investment, far above the military and other domestic concerns.

Question 7

What was the name given to runaway serfs and poor nobles who formed outlaw bands in the no-man's-land of southern Russia and Ukraine?

Accepted Answer

A)  Sejms 
B)  Chechens 
C)  Cossacks 
D)  Muscovites

Question 8

How did Austria's "liberation" of Hungary hasten the decline of Ottoman influence in Europe?

Accepted Answer

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Question 9

In what ways was the government of Oliver Cromwell even more absolutist than that of Charles I?

Accepted Answer

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Question 10

Seventeenth-century absolutism was a political response to which of the following French developments?

Accepted Answer

A)  Louis XIV's elaborate rule and attempts to conquer western Europe 
B)  The fear of disorder and breakdown that was the legacy of the Fronde revolts 
C)  The rise of the middle classes, who threatened to seize power from monarchs and aristocrats 
D)  The Catholic church's renewed efforts to assert its control over northern France

Question 11

In opposition to Hobbes, John Locke in his Two Treatises of Government (1690) used the concept of a "social contract" to

Accepted Answer

A)  support his argument for constitutionalism. 
B)  argue in favor of democracy based on universal suffrage. 
C)  argue against the institution of slavery. 
D)  call into question the notion of a state or "established" religion.

Question 12

What was the significance of Barbados's slave code of 1661?

Accepted Answer

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Question 13

Which of the following statements about Europe at the end of the seventeenth century is supported by this map?
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Accepted Answer

A)  By this time, most of the Holy Roman Empire was French territory. 
B)  Austria expanded its territory by acquiring lands from the Ottoman Empire. 
C)  Brandenburg-Prussia united its territories by seizing land from Poland-Lithuania. 
D)  Spain lost a considerable amount of territory to the Ottoman Empire.

Question 14

Outline the basic political theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. To what degree did they agree about the basis of political authority? How did their visions of the best form of political authority differ?

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Question 15

How did the Rump Parliament respond to the execution of Charles I on January 30, 1649?

Accepted Answer

A)  It abolished the monarchy. 
B)  It appointed Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector. 
C)  It acknowledged the king's son, Charles II, as the new king. 
D)  It disbanded in the face of popular outcry against the execution.

Question 16

Parliament offered the throne jointly to William (r. 1689-1702) and Mary (r. 1689-1694) on the condition that they accept which of the following?

Accepted Answer

A)  A bill of rights making Parliament a full partner in state governance 
B)  Anglican Protestantism as the official religion of England 
C)  Parliamentary control over taxation 
D)  A bill of reform securing important political and civil liberties for all Catholic citizens of England

Question 17

What was the purpose of Louis XIV's expansion and professionalization of the French military?

Accepted Answer

A)  To keep domestic peace in the wake of new religious conflicts between Protestants and Catholics 
B)  To expand France's overseas empire, specifically in North America and the Caribbean 
C)  To pursue the conquest of the Holy Land and retake Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire 
D)  To expand French power in Europe and increase France's territorial holdings on the continent

Question 18

What compelled Charles I to call a session of Parliament in 1640 after refusing to do so for eleven years?

Accepted Answer

A)  The formation of representative governing bodies in the North American colonies 
B)  The conversion of his brother and heir, James, to Catholicism 
C)  The monarchy's desperate need to raise tax revenues to put down a rebellion in Ireland 
D)  The Scots' invasion of northern England over being forced to use the Book of Common Prayer

Question 19

Why did Louis XIV persecute the Jansenists and drive them underground?

Accepted Answer

A)  They were leaders of an underground constitutionalist movement. 
B)  They criticized his lavish and self-indulgent lifestyle. 
C)  They were sworn to put loyalty to the pope ahead of all other loyalties. 
D)  They prioritized individual conscience over the requirements of the church hierarchy.

Question 20

The series of revolts in France known as the Fronde (1648-1653) broke out when Cardinal Mazarin

Accepted Answer

A)  persuaded Anne of Austria not to sign the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. 
B)  arrested his opponents for demanding that the parlements be given the right to approve new taxes. 
C)  announced the conscription of one hundred thousand men between the ages of seventeen and thirty. 
D)  forced government creditors across France to extend payment deadlines by two years.

Exam 16: Absolutism, Constitutionalism, and the Search for Order, 1640-1700