5 Steps to a 5TM AP European History

CHAPTER

1

‹^81

Economic Change and

Political Consolidation

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: In the first half of the seventeenth century, the traditional, hierar-

chical social structure of European kingdoms came under new pressures. This

chapter describes the economic, social, and political changes as economies

underwent a transformation from an agrarian base to a more complex eco-

nomic system that included expanding the trade that had begun in the later

Middle Ages, compliments of the Black Plague and the Crusades, and the

growth of a middle class of merchants and professionals.

Key Terms:

✪^ Peasantry The class of rural, agricultural laborers in traditional European society.

✪^ Nobility The class of privileged landowners in traditional European society.

✪^ Monarchs The hereditary rulers of traditional European society.

✪^ Divine Right of Kings The theory that monarchs received their right to rule

directly from God.

✪^ Absolutism A theory of government that a rightful ruler holds absolute

power over his or her subjects.

✪^ English Civil War (1642–1646) The war in which forces loyal to King Charles I

fought to defend the power of the monarchy, the official Church of England,

and the privileges and prerogatives of the nobility, while forces supporting

Parliament fought to uphold the rights of Parliament, to bring an end to the

notion of an official state church, and for the ideals of individual liberty and

the rule of law.

KEY IDEA

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CHAPTER

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