| 1. |
Focus Question: What were the major features of life
in the ancien régime and how did those basic traits vary in different
parts of Europe, why? |
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What were the social, economic, and political characteristics of the
ancien regime? Was this a static society? What was the general
attitude toward tradition? What "element" tended to enforce the hierarchy
of society? How large was the aristocracy in the 18th century?
How many families made up the British aristocracy? How did the aristocracy
in Great Britain differ from those in France and Eastern Europe?
What was the position of the nobility in Eastern Europe and Russia in comparison
to Western Europe? Why was this the case? What was the aristocratic
resurgence and how did the function?
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| 2. |
Focus Question: What was the basic condition of the tillers
of the Land? |
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What constituted the economic basis of 18th century life? What type
of life did the tillers of the land live? What is the difference between
a peasant and a serf? Why (do you think) the condition of the serfs was
harsher in Russia than in other parts of Europe? How did the status
of serfs make them especially vulnerable to exploitation by landlords and
rulers? What "recourse" did serfs have against their lords?
What were the main causes of serf/peasant revolt and to what extent were
the "conservative"?
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| 3. |
Focus Question: What was the nature of the family,
how did it function and what "strategies" of survival did families practice?
How did the family unit in western Europe differ from that of eastern Europe? |
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In preindustrial Europe, what was the basic unit of production and
consumption? Where did the overwhelming majority of European live in the
eighteenth century? How were the households in northwestern Europe different
from those in eastern Europe? What factors limited the household in northwestern
Europe? What was the position of the servant in the household? Where did
they come from? Why did people in eastern Europe tend to marry earlier
than in northwestern Europe? How and why did the family economies of northwestern
Europe differ from those of the east? How "secure was the family
economy"? What place did women have in the family economy? Why did girls
in artisan families tend to remain at home longer than farm girls?
Why was wet nursing a common practice? Why did illegitimate children become
more frequent over the course of the 18th c.? What could account
from the increase in the number of foundlings (orphans and abandoned children)
during the eighteenth century? In Paris, what percentage of abandoned
children lived to the age of ten?
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| 4. |
Focus Question: What new pressures did society face
in the course of the 18th century? What caused this new pressure and how
can it be measured? |
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What was the main goal of European peasant society? Why did bread
prices increase throughout the 18th century? Who benefited from the inflation?
Why did the lords generally support agricultural reforms? Which nation
first attempted agricultural innovations? Why was the open field method
of farm production inefficient? In England, how did the landowners manage
to enclose the traditional common lands? What were the advantages of enclosure,
what were its "negative" results? Did the enclosures depopulate the land?
Which class tended to benefit the most from improving agriculture, why?
Why was the agricultural revolution less dramatic in Eastern Europe? How
did the Eastern European lords attempt to increase their production and
income? What accounted for the population explosion of the eighteenth century?
How important were medical advances in this initial process? What role
did the potato play in increasing Europe's food supply? Where did it originate?
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taille
dowry
Emelyan Pugachev
puerperal fever
enclosure
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