Western Civilization II / Unit 3 WC2 0223 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Classifying a Reform: Westernization, Militarization, Serfdom, Compromise
The idea
The exam describes a measure and asks what kind of change it was. This unit supplies four kinds, and each answers one question. Westernization changes how the elite looks and thinks. Militarization changes what the state spends on. Serfdom changes what the peasant may do. A compromise changes what the nobles get for consenting.
In practice
Five cases. A tax on beards and long robes, with noble sons sent to Dutch shipyards: the elite's appearance and learning, westernization. One serf in twenty conscripted for life and two-thirds of revenue to the army: spending, militarization. A law binding peasants to the land and forbidding flight to Siberia: the peasant's freedom, serfdom. Nobles granted a land monopoly and their peasants in exchange for a standing army's taxes: the nobles' price, compromise. Every male noble required to serve as officer or official, ranked and promoted by merit: this one is a trap, because it westernizes the state and militarizes the nobility at once; classify it by what it changed most, the nobility's relation to the crown, and call it the Table of Ranks.
Where people slip
The kinds overlap because the states built them together. Peter westernized in order to militarize, and Prussia militarized by compromising. Classify by the question each measure answers, and expect the exam to test the Table of Ranks against conscription: the first bound nobles, the second bound peasants.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
- 0202Brandenburg-Prussia: Scattered Lands and the Great Compromise of 1653
- 0204King in Prussia, 1701, and an Army With a Country
- 0211Serfdom by Law, 1649: Too Much Land, Too Few Peasants
- 0213Westernizing the Nobility: Beards, Dress, Schooling Abroad, Service
- 0215The Table of Ranks, 1722: A Service Nobility
Unlocks
- Nothing yet depends on this.
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