Political History - AP European History

Austria, Prussia, and Russia were the three partitioning powers. As the only three nations to border Poland at the time they were also the only nations capable of doing so.

Prussia had amongst the finest military traditions anywhere in Europe. They had such well drilled and experienced troops that they regularly took on nations many times larger than themselves and were victorious.

Louis XVI was the last King of France before the Revolution. He was arrested and executed in 1793. His son, also named Louis, lived until 1795 when he died of illness. However he was never crowned king and therefore is not included in the list of Kings of France.

Catherine was Born in Germany to her father, Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, who was also a Prussian General. Her cousins went on to be Kings of Sweden while she was married off to Peter III of Russia in order to build relations between Prussia and Russia.

Sigismund II died with no heirs and thus his dynasty ended. Before he died though, he declared that Poland and Lithuania would transition to a system of elected monarchs after his death rather than finding a new royal family.

Following the death of Sigismund II Poland and Lithuania changed to become an elected monarchy. This meant that a king would be elected by the Polish noble families to rule for life.

Frederick I was the last Duke of Prussia and the first King of Prussia. Due to the ever-expanding size and power of Prussia he felt simply being a Duchy no longer reflected the importance of Prussia. As such an upgrade to a Kingdom was ordered.

The Edict of Nantes was signed by Henry IV of France in 1598. This consolation to the French Protestants was meant to give them religious freedom and thus put an end to the French Wars of Religion.

The voyage of Christopher Columbus was funded by the Spanish monarchy of Isabella and Ferdinand. Hence Columbus, who was Italian, “discovered” the New World for the Spanish. Isabella and Ferdinand had recently united the Spanish houses of Castile and Aragon and expelled the Moors (the Arab population of Spain at the time) and Jews from the Iberian Peninsula. The newly formed Christian country of Spain sought the opportunity to become an Empire and looked West for opportunities for exploration.

The territory that comprises the state of Virginia was “discovered” by Sir Walter Raleigh in the late sixteenth century (presumably the city of Raleigh in North Carolina is named for him). When Raleigh returned and informed Elizabeth that she ruled a territory with a Native American name she reportedly changed it to “Virginia” to reflect her famous status as the “Virgin Queen” of England.

The phrase "White Man's Burden" comes from a poem with that title written by Rudyard Kipling in 1899, which commented on the United States' war in the Philippines and Cuba against Spain. The poem urges "white men" to take "civilization" to non-white peoples around the globe for their benefit. This idea was then taken up by many Europeans in their colonization efforts throughout Africa and Asia.

Henry was a Portuguese prince who lived from 1394 to 1460 and who believed in the importance of exploring foreign lands. He helped to set up a school to train explorers and also was interested in exploring the coast of Africa. His efforts helped to make Portugal a powerful and rich nation due to its ability to gain resources, conquer lands, and engage in global commerce.

The New Imperialism of the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century differed from the style of imperialism that came before it in a few noticeable ways. Most significantly, in the earlier period of imperialism and overseas colonization, the European powers focused a lot of their efforts on establishing trading posts and ruling through proxy control of the local powers. The New Imperialism model was focused a lot more heavily on using military force to establish direct control over other territories. Although a lot of this New Imperialism was focused on the African continent, it was also practiced in Asia and South America. Religion played a deeply important role in both periods of European imperialism.

The nineteenth century witnessed a noticeable resurgence of Christian thinking that led to a global mission project to convert all the people of the world to Christianity. This was particularly pronounced in the African continent. On numerous occasions missionaries would try to establish contact with native populations only to be rebuffed and attacked. This gave public support to politicians in the mother country who were then able to establish military control over a new territory with the backing of the people.

The Suez Canal was built through Egypt to allow ships to pass from the Arabian Sea into the Mediterranean. Previously ships had had to sail around the Southern horn of Africa in order to bring goods from the Far East to Europe. The construction of the Suez Canal dramatically shortened the time needed to transport goods and thus increased the flow of trade between Europe and the Far East.

Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco all came under French administration in the time period mentioned. Algeria, in particular, would have profound implications for the French imperial experience for the next several decades.

Having once been a part of the Ottoman Empire, Libya was colonized by the Italians in the 1910s. The Italians would also forcibly occupy Ethiopia before their failures in the Second World War cost them their African colonies.

The Belgian King Leopold II wanted Belgium to be a major imperial power like many other European nations and so carved out for himself a personal fiefdom in Central Africa. The Belgian Congo was several times larger than Belgium itself and ruled under the personal control of Leopold until his manifest crimes caught up to him. The Congo provided extremely lucrative quantities of rubber as well as many other raw resources; however, it was administered with profound cruelty and apathy towards the safety and health of the local population. Some modern estimates put the number of people who died during Belgian control of the Belgian Congo in the tens of millions.

The Sepoy Mutiny occurred in 1857 when Hindu and Muslim troops in the army of the British East India Company revolted against their imperial masters. The causes are often debated, but popular history tends to blame British disregard for Hindu and Muslim religious customs. The Mutiny was suppressed and led to the end of the British East India Company’s control over the Indian subcontinent to be replaced by direct control of the British government. This period of Indian history is known as the British Raj.

All of these countries came under the control of European imperialism in the nineteenth century except for Japan, which was able to maintain its independence. Japan even famously defeated the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. China was divided into spheres of European influence; India was under the direct control of the British government; and Vietnam and Laos were controlled by the French as part of the colony of French Indochina.