Question

PLEASE HELP!

1. What is the chief characteristic of an absolute monarchy?
2. What was one of the major causes of the Thirty Years’ War?
3. What was one effect of the Peace of Westphalia?
4. Absolute monarchs in Europe often claimed a {your response here} to rule, which meant they believed their authority came directly from God.
5. Tsar {your response here} wanted to expand Russia’s border with the goal of acquiring a warm-water port for the country. He also wanted to modernize and westernize Russia. That warm-water port would finally be acquired during the rule of {your response here}. (1 point)
6. Louis XIII chief minister, {your response here}, weakened the power of nobles and the {your response here} in order to strengthen the power of the king of France. (1 point)
7. A {your response here} is an agreement where people voluntarily give up some freedoms in exchange for a secure and organized society. (1 point)
8. The Enlightenment thinker {your response here} believed that all people had the right to life, liberty, and property. He also believed that when governments violate those rights that people then have the right to overthrow their governments. (1 point)

Answer 1

1. The chief characteristic is that a ruler rules with unlimited power. They don't have to worry about the people or parliaments or the constitution or anything similar since their word is the law even if if is opposite to the actual law. Absolutists have absolute power over governing and nobody is allowed to question them.

2. One of the major causes was religious turmoil. The Holy Roman Empire was split into numerous smaller kingdoms which were fighting over protestantism and catholicism and they started the thirty years' war which eventually got everyone in Europe to join and was utterly devastating killing millions of people.

3. One of the results is that supporters of the protestants got the religious freedom to practice protestantism along with Princes who ruled the smaller kingdoms. This resulted in a heavy reduce of Catholic power in the central and northern Europe and let to later counter reformation movements to get power back.

4. The correct answer is divine right, also known as the divine right of kings. According to them, they were rulers of people on earth because god chose them to be the rulers and they were allowed to reign supreme because they represented the will of god. Naturally, many people disliked this so revolutions started rising.

5. The Tsar who modernized the country and started spreading towards the warm waters was Peter the Great. He went to Europe to learn about how to modernize his country and implemented many of the things he learned. The Tsarina who managed build a port on the warm-water area was Catherine the Great.

6. The minister's name was Cardnial Richelieu. He was a cardinal of the Catholic church and he reduced the power of both the nobles and of the Catholic church in order to centralize power. Even though he was a member of the Catholic church, he often supported protestants in order to reduce the power of the Catholics and make sure that the King reigned supreme.

7. The correct answer is the social contract. This is an idea of the enlightenment era that people should give away certain freedoms in order to ensure the functioning of the society. In return, they would get stability and protection from the state and the state and the individuals would prosper in the long run.

8. The correct answer is John Locke. He was an enlightenment thinker who developed numerous ideas on democracy and how a government should work and these ideas were one of the main ones that influenced things like the declaration of independence and the constitution in the United States.