AP European History Flashcards: Absolutist Approaches to Power
Written by AP Content Team, Verified for 2026 AP Exams, Last updated: May 2026
Review key ideas with interactive flashcards. This set includes 10 cards to help you master important concepts.
What aspect of the aristocracy's status was typically preserved under absolutism?
Absolute monarchies preserved the aristocracy's high social position and their legal privileges, even as their governing power was reduced.
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What aspect of the aristocracy's status was typically preserved under absolutism?
Absolute monarchies preserved the aristocracy's high social position and their legal privileges, even as their governing power was reduced.
Identify four key areas where Louis XIV extended the control of the French central state.
Louis XIV extended the administrative, financial, military, and religious control of the central state over the French population.
Who was Jean-Baptiste Colbert?
Jean-Baptiste Colbert was the finance minister under Louis XIV who was instrumental in extending the financial and administrative control of the French central state.
How did absolutist rulers affect political development between 1648 and 1815?
Absolutist rulers centralized power by extending state control over finance and the military while limiting the nobility's role in government.
What was the fundamental trade-off absolute monarchs offered the nobility?
Absolute monarchies limited the nobility's participation in governance in exchange for preserving the aristocracy's social position and legal privileges.
Who was Catherine the Great?
Catherine the Great was a Russian ruler who continued the process of westernization initiated by Peter the Great.
How did Peter the Great's reforms exemplify an absolutist approach to power?
His top-down 'westernization' of political, religious, and cultural institutions demonstrated the extension of central state control over society, a key feature of absolutism.
Who was Peter the Great?
Peter the Great was a Russian ruler who 'westernized' the Russian state and society by transforming its political, religious, and cultural institutions.
What does the term 'westernization' mean in the context of Peter the Great's rule?
It refers to the transformation of Russia's political, religious, and cultural institutions to align them more closely with those of Western Europe.
Who was Louis XIV?
Louis XIV was an absolute monarch of France who, with his finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, extended the central state's control over the population.