| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| absolute monarchy | A form of government in which a monarch holds supreme power with minimal constitutional or legal limitations on authority. |
| governmental authority | The power and right of government to make and enforce decisions and laws over a territory and population. |
| minority language groups | Communities within a state that speak languages different from the dominant national language. |
| national identities | The sense of belonging to a nation, shaped by shared history, language, culture, and political institutions. |
| political centralization | The concentration of political power and authority in a central government, a process that occurred unevenly across European states in the 16th and 17th centuries. |
| political institutions | Formal organizations and structures through which political power is exercised and governmental authority is administered. |
| political sovereignty | The supreme power and authority of a state to govern itself and make independent decisions without external interference. |
| regional autonomy | The right of regions or territories to exercise self-governance and control over local affairs with limited interference from central authority. |
| secular systems of law | Legal systems based on civil authority rather than religious doctrine, which played a central role in the development of new political institutions in the early modern period. |
| sovereign state | A political entity with supreme authority over its territory and population, independent from religious or external control, central to early modern European political development. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| absolutism | A system of government in which a monarch holds complete power and authority, unchecked by laws, institutions, or representative bodies. |
| aristocracy | The hereditary upper class of nobles and titled individuals who maintained social status and legal privileges under absolute rule. |
| English Bill of Rights | A document established after the Glorious Revolution that protected the rights of gentry and aristocracy from royal absolutism and asserted Parliamentary authority. |
| English Civil War | A conflict in 17th-century England among the monarchy, Parliament, and other elites over their respective roles in the political structure. |
| gentry | The class of landowners and elites in England whose rights and power were protected through the outcomes of the English Civil War and Glorious Revolution. |
| Glorious Revolution | The 1688 revolution in England that resulted in the protection of Parliamentary rights and the limitation of monarchical power. |
| monarchy | A form of government headed by a single ruler, typically a king or queen, whose power was contested during the English Civil War. |
| Parliament | The legislative body in England that competed with the monarchy for political power and authority during the English Civil War. |
| Parliamentary sovereignty | The principle that Parliament holds supreme authority in government, established as an outcome of the English Civil War and Glorious Revolution. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Agricultural Revolution | The 18th-century transformation in farming practices and productivity that increased food supply, reduced famines, and enabled population growth. |
| Bank of England | A major banking institution established to support financial practices and provide venture capital for commercial development in early modern Europe. |
| banking institutions | Financial organizations that converted private savings into venture capital to fund commercial and economic enterprises. |
| commodities | Raw materials and agricultural products that are bought and sold in trade, such as goods imported from the Americas. |
| cottage industry | Small-scale manufacturing production carried out by laborers in their homes or workshops, typically organized through merchant intermediaries. |
| insurance | A financial practice that provided protection against commercial risks and losses in early modern trade and commerce. |
| market economy | An economic system in which goods and services are produced and distributed through supply and demand in competitive markets rather than by state direction. |
| merchant intermediaries | Merchants who served as middlemen between producers and consumers, organizing production and distribution of goods in the putting-out system. |
| property rights | Legal protections that defined ownership and prevented confiscation of property and commercial assets in the developing market economy. |
| putting-out system | An economic system in which merchants or workshop owners supplied raw materials to laborers working in their homes or small workshops, who then produced finished goods for market sale. |
| venture capital | Funds invested by banking institutions in commercial enterprises and economic ventures. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Agricultural Revolution | The 18th-century transformation in farming practices and productivity that increased food supply, reduced famines, and enabled population growth. |
| consumer culture | A society organized around the production and consumption of goods and services, enabled by mass production, new technologies, and increased disposable income, featuring domestic comforts like electricity, indoor plumbing, and synthetic materials. |
| European-dominated worldwide economic network | The global system of trade and commerce centered on European commercial interests, connecting Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia from the 17th century onward. |
| finished goods | Manufactured products produced in Europe and traded in colonial and foreign markets as part of commercial networks. |
| industrial revolution | The period of rapid industrialization and mechanization that began in Great Britain and spread to continental Europe, fundamentally transforming economic and social life. |
| mercantilist policies | Economic policies pursued by European states that aimed to accumulate wealth and power by drawing resources from colonies and maintaining a favorable balance of trade. |
| Middle Passage | The forced voyage across the Atlantic Ocean that transported enslaved Africans to the Americas, characterized by brutal conditions and high mortality rates. |
| raw materials | Unprocessed natural resources extracted from colonies and foreign lands that were used in European commercial and industrial enterprises. |
| transatlantic slave-labor system | The forced labor system that transported enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to work in colonies, particularly in the Americas, expanding significantly in the 17th and 18th centuries. |
| Triangle trade | A three-part transatlantic trading system in which goods, enslaved people, and raw materials were exchanged between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Dutch Republic | The independent state established in the northern Netherlands following a Protestant revolt against Habsburg rule in the late 16th century. |
| Habsburg monarchy | The European dynasty that ruled the Spanish Netherlands and other territories, against which the Dutch revolted. |
| oligarchy | A form of government in which power rests with a small number of people, as established by urban gentry and rural landholders in the Dutch Republic. |
| Protestant revolt | The religious and political uprising against Catholic Habsburg authority that led to the establishment of the Dutch Republic. |
| rural landholders | Landowners in the countryside who shared political power in the Dutch oligarchy alongside urban merchants. |
| urban gentry | Wealthy merchants and professionals in Dutch cities who held political and economic power in the oligarchic system. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| balance of power | A principle of international relations in which no single state or coalition becomes dominant enough to threaten the independence of others, maintained through strategic alliances and territorial arrangements. |
| Battle of Vienna | The 1683 military victory by Austria over the Ottoman Turks that halted Ottoman westward expansion into Europe. |
| bureaucracy | Administrative systems and institutions developed by states to organize and manage military forces and resources. |
| coalition | An alliance of multiple European powers formed to oppose a dominant state, such as the coalition against Louis XIV. |
| competitive state system | The system of independent European states competing for power and influence, which led to new patterns of diplomacy and warfare after 1648. |
| diplomacy | The practice of negotiation and communication between states to manage international relations and resolve conflicts. |
| dynastic interests | The political and territorial goals pursued by ruling families to expand their power and secure their dynasty's succession and wealth. |
| firearms | Weapons using gunpowder that gradually replaced traditional medieval weapons like bows and crossbows. |
| fortifications | Defensive structures and military installations designed to protect territory and resist siege warfare. |
| infantry | Soldiers who fight on foot, which became increasingly important in military strategy during this period. |
| Louis XIV's wars | The nearly continuous military conflicts pursued by Louis XIV of France to advance both dynastic and state interests, provoking opposition from other European powers. |
| military revolution | A transformation in military technology, tactics, and organization that fundamentally changed warfare and required states to develop new institutions and resources. |
| military technology | Weapons, equipment, and innovations used in warfare, such as machine guns, poison gas, tanks, and aircraft that fundamentally changed combat tactics in World War I. |
| mobile cannon | Portable artillery pieces that could be moved across battlefields, increasing the effectiveness of military forces. |
| Peace of Westphalia | A series of treaties signed in 1648 that ended the Thirty Years' War and established the principle of state sovereignty in Europe. |
| Poland's partition | The division of Polish territory among Prussia, Russia, and Austria in the late 18th century, resulting from the Polish monarchy's inability to consolidate authority. |
| state interests | The political, economic, and military objectives pursued by a nation-state to increase its power and security. |
| taxation | Revenue collection by states used to finance the increased costs of military technology and larger armies. |
| warfare | Military conflict and combat strategies that evolved with new technologies and techniques during this period. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| absolute monarchies | Centralized governments where a single monarch exercises supreme authority over the state, military, religion, and economy. |
| administrative control | The centralized management and organization of government institutions and bureaucracy by the absolute monarch. |
| aristocracy | The hereditary upper class of nobles and titled individuals who maintained social status and legal privileges under absolute rule. |
| central state | The consolidated authority and institutions of the absolute monarch's government exercising power over the entire realm. |
| financial control | The monarch's centralized authority over taxation, state revenues, and economic resources. |
| intendants | Royal administrators appointed by the French crown to enforce the monarch's authority in provinces and manage local governance. |
| military control | The absolute monarch's direct command and modernization of armed forces as an instrument of state power. |
| nobility | The aristocratic class of hereditary landowners and titled individuals who traditionally held significant political and social power. |
| religious control | The monarch's authority over religious institutions, clergy, and doctrine within their realm. |
| westernization | The adoption of Western European political, cultural, religious, and technological practices and institutions. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| absolute monarchy | A form of government in which a monarch holds supreme power with minimal constitutional or legal limitations on authority. |
| market economy | An economic system in which goods and services are produced and distributed through supply and demand in competitive markets rather than by state direction. |
| nobility | The aristocratic class of hereditary landowners and titled individuals who traditionally held significant political and social power. |
| political centralization | The concentration of political power and authority in a central government, a process that occurred unevenly across European states in the 16th and 17th centuries. |
| political institutions | Formal organizations and structures through which political power is exercised and governmental authority is administered. |
| political sovereignty | The supreme power and authority of a state to govern itself and make independent decisions without external interference. |
| regional autonomy | The right of regions or territories to exercise self-governance and control over local affairs with limited interference from central authority. |
| secular systems of law | Legal systems based on civil authority rather than religious doctrine, which played a central role in the development of new political institutions in the early modern period. |
| shared governance | A system of political power in which authority is distributed among multiple groups, such as the monarch and nobility, rather than held by one entity. |
| sovereign state | A political entity with supreme authority over its territory and population, independent from religious or external control, central to early modern European political development. |