Social Groups; Races; Classes; Ethnicities - AP European History

The Decembrist Uprising began when Tsar Alexander I died with an unclear succession plan, leading to confusion in the Russian leadership. A group of Russian Army officers, calling themselves "The Union of Salvation," took the chance to try and overthrow the Tsarist regime entirely, promoting serious electoral and governmental reforms. All of the leaders of the revolt, who were called Decembrists for the month in which the revolt took place, were executed by Tsar Nicholas I in early 1826.

The Edict of Fontainebleu was specifically used by King Louis XIV to drive the minority Protestant population of France out of the country. The Protestant Huguenots had been legally protected in Catholic France by the Edict of Nantes, signed by Henry IV in 1598; however, they faced certain kinds of persecution. The Edict of Fontainebleu took away all privileges, which led to hundreds of thousands of Huguenots leaving the country to move toward Protestant nations.

The Black Hand hoped to unify the South Slavic ethnic groups much as Italy and Germany had successfully done. The Black Hand was founded in 1911, and was completely disbanded, with most of its primary members dead or imprisoned, by late 1917. The group was composed of a fairly eclectic group of young people and disgruntled military officers. T

Pied-noir was a term used to describe French citizens living in Algeria before the Algerian War befan in 1954. One million pied-noirs left Algeria prior to independence in 1962. Many members of this group would ultimately end up between nations, alientated both from the newly independent Algeria from which they fled, and mainland France, the country of their cultural origin, to which they were strangers.

Bohemia remained within the Austrian Empire at the time of German unification. Baden and Bavaria were both incorporated into Germany in 1871 as a condition of the Treaty of Frankfurt.

British Prime Minister Robert Peel attempted a program of public works. He tried to repeal the Corn Laws and failed initially, but ultimately succeeded. Prime Minister Lord John Russell maintained that laissez-faire would feed the Irish and ended food and relief works. He would later also attempt a program of public works. Irish food exports, in particular the export of corn as a money crop, continued during the worst of the famine years.

Anti-Semitism was on the rise in Germany in the 1870s. Notable examples of Anti-Semitic sentiment include when Wilhelm Marr wrote the popular "The Victory of Judaism over Teutonism" in 1873 and Richard Wagner's condemnation of Jewish musical influences.

During his reign, Napoleon significantly bettered the lots of the peasant class by both lowering their taxes and re-distributing land for their use. While he was a harsh and uncompromising conqueror, Napoleon was also a thoughtful and forward-thinking public administrator, and was responsible for setting up many of the civil service institutions and laws that are still in use, and of benefit to French society, today.

Robert Owen owned a mill and factories in Scotland and attempted to demonstrate that the Industrial Revolution did not have to exploit the workers in order to be profitable. He limited working days to ten hours, provided education for the children of his workers, made his factories safe and sanitary, and established paid leave for sick workers. His innovations inspired many (as did the fact that his factory continued to be profitable), but his ideas of utopian socialism never spread to mainstream British society.

According to Karl Marx, the class-based and economic progression of society was inevitable. It begins with communalism, where everyone worked the fields and shared in the agricultural bounty. It then proceeds to slavery, autocracy, and feudalism. Following feudalism is commercialism (the rise of the middle class and mercantilism), followed shortly thereafter by capitalism. Capitalism then creates an entrenched working class (the proletariat) who become more and more disenfranchised in society until they affect revolution and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat, or socialism. This is then finally replaced by communism whereby everyone has an equal share in the production and consumption of everything.

The Peasant’s War took place in Germany between 1524 and 1525. It began when a large proportion of the rural peasant population rose up to demand an end to manorialism, the economic and social hierarchy of feudalism that made the peasants the subjects of the lord who owned the land on which they lived and worked. It famously appalled Martin Luther, who supported the German princes in their violent repression of the rebellion.

Cardinal Richelieu was the chief advisor to King Louis XIII, one of the most important French monarchs. Richelieu and Louis XIII undertook a massive project to strengthen the French economy and centralize power under the monarchy. One of the steps taken by Richelieu was the institution of what is called the “intendant system.” Under this system, the administration of France’s various provinces was taken out of the hands of the nobility and given to bourgeois officials who owed allegiance only to the king.

The French Wars of the Fronde were fought during the early years of the reign of King Louis XIV (the Sun King). The Frondeurs were noblemen who were frustrated by the centralizing mission of the French monarchy. They wanted to destabilize and decentralize government to reduce the power of the monarchy and increase their own influence. They were defeated by the monarchy, who were aided by the bourgeoise and the peasantry.

The Hundred Years’ War, fought between the English and the French, actually lasted for one hundred and sixteen years. Naturally, such a lengthy conflict exhausted the finances of wealthy aristocratic families of France, and as such, in the century that followed, the nobility declined in influence as the bourgeoise were welcomed (somewhat) into government and asked to finance the centralizing mission of the monarchy.

In all of these countries, the emerging middle class was welcomed into government participation, albeit often in a very limited fashion, except in Russia, where the old order of feudalism and rule through the aristocracy persisted for several more generations.

In 1628, Parliament and the British King, Charles I, were engaged in a power struggle. Charles wanted Parliament to raise money to fund wars being fought on the continent, but Parliament refused to do so unless Charles signed the Petition of Rights, which included all of the listed answer choices except the demand for freedom of speech for members of Parliament; this would come later with the Glorious Revolution. Charles dismissed Parliament, but was forced to recall them after defeat in another war.

After the dictatorship of Cromwell came to an end, the Stuart family was restored to the throne in Britain. The Tories and the Whigs quickly emerged as the two dominant political parties in Parliament. The Tories were composed of noblemen and lower gentry, favored the supremacy of the monarchy over Parliament, and wanted to make Anglicanism the state religion of Britain. They were therefore not in favor of religious tolerance.

Napoleon is one of the greatest and most brutal conquerors in European history, but he is also one of the most important political reformers. His Code Napoléon became the backbone of legal codes across Europe, he created a meritocratic system in the French government, and he spread the ideals of the French revolution and nationalism around Europe. He also helped to elevate the status and self-sufficiency of the French peasant population. He reduced taxes on the peasantry and redistributed church lands (a large portion of the French countryside) into the hands of peasants and farmers.

The Great Reform Bill of 1832 is often considered to be the true beginning of universal suffrage in Britain, although it would be some time before the working class, minorities, and women were fully included in the electorate. As well as extending suffrage rights to the industrial middle class, it also got rid of the “rotten boroughs” that were so common around Britain. The last time representation in Parliament had been adjusted was the Glorious Revolution in 1688, and in the time that had passed since then, the demographic makeup of the country had changed significantly. Many of the boroughs that elected representatives no longer had more than a handful of people living there, whereas some urban areas had hundreds of thousands of people who had no representation. The Great Reform Bill of 1832 fixed this by reapportioning representation.