Absolute Rulers of Russia

Slide 1:

Ivan the third of Moscow ruled russia for 43 years and accomplished a great deal.

• Conquered much of the territory around moscow
• Liberated Russia from the Mongols
• Began to centralize the Russian government

He would be succeeded by his son who would continue his policies

Slide 2:

1. His son’s name was Ivan IV, also known as “Ivan the Terrible”. Became king at three years old.
2. young life was in constant turmoil fighting with the Russian landowning nobles known as boyars.
3. Ivan seized power at 16 crowning himself Czar, which means “Caesar”. First ruler in Russia to use this title
4. Married Anastasia, who was related to an old boyar family, the Romanovs.

Slide 3:

1. Ivan’s good period lasts from 1547-1560, where he won victories that added lands to russia
2. Gave russia a code of laws, while he ruled justly
3. His bad period began after Anastasia dies
4. Ivan accused the boyars of poisoning his wife and turned against them

Slide 4:

1. Organized his own police force, whose duty was to hunt down and murder people ivan considered to be traitors.
2. Members of the police force dressed in black and rode black horses
3. These secret police murdered boyars, their families and the peasants who worked their lands, thousands died.
4. Ivan took the lands of the boyars and gave it to a new class of nobles, who had to remain loyal to Ivan or lose their land

Slide 5: 

1. Ivan committed an act that was both a personal tragedy and national disaster.
2. After a violent quarrel he killed his oldest son and heir to the throne.
3. Ivan dies three years later and his second, weaker son, was left to rule

Slide 6:

1. Next period was known as the Time of Troubles.
2. Boyards struggled for power and heirs of Czars died under mysterious conditions. several imposters tried to claim the throne
3. 1613 representatives from many Russian cities met to choose the next Czar.
4. their choice was Michael Romanov, grandnephew of Ivan the Terrible’s wife, Anastasia
5. This began the Romanov Dynasty

Slide 7:

1. Romanovs restored order to Russia.
2. Strengthened the government by passing a law code and putting down revolts.
3. Paved the way for the absolute rule of Czar Peter I, who later became known as Peter the Great because of the reforms and also expanded the Czars power
4. When Peter came into power, Russia was still a land of boyars and serfs.

Slide 8:

1. Serfdom in Russia last longer than it did in western Europe.
2. Landowners treated the serfs like property.
3. When a Russian landowner sold a piece of land, he sold the serfs with it.
4. Landowners could give away serf as presents or to pay debts.
5. I was against the law for serfs to run away from their owners.

Slide 9: 

1. Most boyars knew little of western Europe.
2. Russia looked to Constantinople instead of Rome for leadership.
3. Mongol rule cut off Russia from the Renaissance and Age of exploration.
4. Geographic barriers also isolated russia. Its only seaport, Archangel in northern Russia was filled with ice much of the year.
5. The few travelers that did reach moscow were usually Dutch or German, and had to stay in different parts of the city.

Slide 10:

1. Religious differences widened the gap between western Europe and Russia
2. Russian had adopted eastern orthodox branch of christianity.
3. Western Europeans were mostly catholics or protestants.
4. Russians viewed them as heretics and avoided them.

Slide 11: 

1. Peter believed Russia’s future depended on a warm water port. only then could Russia compete with more modern states of western Europe
2. Peter was 24 when he became the sole ruler of Russia
3. Took a “Grand Embassy” throughout Europe where he learned about European customers and manufacturing techniques.
4. First time a czar traveled among western “heretics”

Slide 12: 

Peter had a number of reforms

Russian Church Orthodox was put under state control.

• Abolished the office of patriarch (head of the church)
• set up a group: Holy Synod, to run the church
• reduced power of great landowners
• Recruited men of lower ranking families. Promoting them to positions of authority and rewarded them with grants of land
• modernized his army by hiring European officers
• 200,000 men strong military

Slide 13: 

To westernize Russia peter did the following:

• Introduced potatoes (became a staple of the Russian diet)
• started Russia’s first newspaper (that he edited)
• Raised women’s status by having them attend social gatherings
• ordered the nobles to give up their traditional cloths
• opened a school of navigation
• introduced schools for the arts and sciences

1. Peter believed education was a key to Russia’s progress
2. before peter, citizen could be killed for trying to study sciences in foreign lands.
3. now many were encouraged or forced too.

Slide 14:

1. To get a seaport, Peter fought Sweden to gain a piece of the baltic coast.
2. After 21 years he won the battle.
3. 1703 peter started building a new city on Swedish lands occupied by Russian troops
4. Ships could sail down the Neva River into the baltic sea and onto western Europe.
5. Called the city St. Petersburg

Slide 15:

1. Building the city on a swamp was no easy task.
2. Each summer thousands of serfs left home to work in St. Petersburg
3. 25-100,000 people died from terrible working conditions and diseases.
4. Peter would order many of the nobles to settle in the new capital once it was completed.
5. By the time of his death Peter the Great had tried to westernize and reform the culture and government of Russia
6. Russia was a power to be reckoned with in Europe.

Slide 16:

1.  Elizabeth the 1st is going to die in 1603, without an heir. her nearest relative is her cousin, James Stuart, who was already King of Scotland.
2. The England and Scottish thrones would be united in 1707, but for now are separate.
3. James inherited a lot of unsettled issues from Elizabeth’s reign.
4. His worst struggles were with parliament over money.

Slide 17: 

1. 1625, James I died and Charles I, his son, takes over.
2. Charles always needed money, because he was at war with both Spain and France.
3. when parliament would refuse to give him money, he would dissolve parliament.
4. In 1628, Charles calls for parliament again. This time they refused to give him any money until he signed a document that is known as the Petition of Right.

Slide 18: Petition of Right did four things:

• Would not imprison subjects without due cause
• would not levy taxes without parliament’s consent
• would not house soldiers in private homes
• would not impose martial law in peacetime

After agreeing to the petition, charles ignored it.

This petition set forth the idea though that the king was not higher than the law.

He dissolved parliament again in 1629.

To get money he imposed fees and fines on the English people

Charles became less and less popular

Slide 19:

1. Charles tried to force both his kingdoms to follow the same religion. The scotts rebelled and threatened to invade Europe.
2. Charles needed money, so he called parliament back into session, which gave them a chance to oppose charles.
3. Parliament passed laws to limit the royal power.
4. Charles tried arresting parliament’s leaders, but they escape.
5. This caused a mob of londoners to rage outside the palace. Charles fled London and raised an army in the north, where people still liked him

Slide 20:

1. From 1642-1649 was the English Civil War
2. Those who remained loyal to king charles were called Royalists or cavaliers
3. On the other side were puritan supporters of parliament. because these people wore their hair short over their ears, cavaliers called them round heads.

Slide 21:

1. By 1644 the Puritans found a general in Oliver Cromwell. In 1645 Cromwell’s New Model Army began defeating the cavaliers.
2. In 1647 they capture Charles and hold him prisoner
3. 1649, Charles was brought to trial for treason against parliament.
4. Was found guilty and sentenced to death.
5. This execution was revolutionary. Kings before had often been overthrown, killed in battle, or put to death in secret.
6. Never before had a reigning monarch faced a public trial and execution.

Slide 22:

1. Cromwell now held power
2. He abolished the monarchy and the house of lords
3. Established a commonwealth, which is a republican form of government
4. John Lambert drafted a constitution, the first written constitution of any modern European state.
5. This doesn’t last as cromwell will later tear up the document and become a military dictator.

Slide 23:

1. Cromwell put down a rebellion in Ireland. Ireland had been under english control since the 1500s
2. In 1649, Cromwell will land on Irish shores and crushed the uprising.
3. he then seized the lands and homes of the irish and gave them to english soldiers
4. plague, famine and fighting killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Slide 24:

1.  In England, Cromwell and the puritans were reforming society.
2. made laws that promoted puritan morality and abolished activities they found sinful like the sporting events, theater, and dancing.
3. Cromwell favored religious toleration for all Christians except catholics
4. He even allowed jews to return. they had been expelled from england since 1290
5. Cromwell died in 1658 and his government collapses.

Slide 25: 

1. Tired of military rule, the new parliament asked the oldest son of charles the 1 to rule england
2. Charles the 2nd restores the monarchy, so this period is known as the restoration
3. During Charles’ rule parliament passed an important guarantee of freedom known as Habeas Corpus, which is latin for “to have the body”
4. This law gave prisoners the right to obtain a writ or document saying the prisoner be brought before a judge to specify the charges against the prisoner.
5. Monarchs could no longer just throw someone in jail for opposing the ruler or held indefinitely without trials

Slide 26:

1. Charles did not have an heir, so the throne went to his brother James II, who was catholic.
2. A group called the whigs opposed James. and a group called the tories supported him.
3. These are the ancestors of England's two political parties

Slide 27: 

1. When James became king he violated law by appointing several catholics to high office.
2. When parliament protested he dissolved it.
3. James has an older daughter named Mary, who was protestant and wife of William of Orange, a Prince of the Netherlands.
4. Members of parliament invited william and mary to overthrow James for the sake of Protestantism.
5. When William led his army into London James fled to france.
6. This bloodless overthrow of james II is called the glorious revolution.

Slide 28:

• William and Mary vowed to recognize parliament as their partner in governing.
• England had become a constitutional monarchy. where laws limited rulers power
• Parliament also drafted a Bill of Rights

1. No suspending of parliament’s laws
2. No levying of taxes without a specific grant from parliament
3. No interfering with freedom of speech in parliament
4. No penalty for a citizen who petitions the king about grievances

• After 1688, no British monarch could rule without the consent of parliament and parliament could not rule without the monarch
• Disagreements brought government to a stand still
• Problem was solved by creating a cabinet

Slide 29: Wrong cabinet!

(bottom drawer)

Slide 30: 

1. Cabinet is made up of government officials.
2. They represented the majority party of parliament
3. Over time the cabinet becomes the center of power and policy making.
4. Under the cabinet system, the leader of the majority party in parliament heads heads the cabinet and is called the prime minister.
5. System continues today