Western Civilization II / Unit 6 WC2 0532 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Classifying an Enlightened Reform: Serfdom, Torture, Toleration, Exams, Schools
The idea
The exam describes a monarch's measure and asks which ruler or what kind of reform. Five kinds carry the questions, and each answers one: who works the land, how the accused are treated, who may worship, who holds office, and who is taught. Ask which question a measure answers, then which ruler's record holds it.
In practice
Five cases. Serfs on royal lands freed while noble lands are untouched: serfdom, partial, Frederick. Full legal freedom extended to serfs and then reversed by landlords: serfdom, complete and undone, Joseph II, on the witness. Torture banned and rich and poor placed under the same law: the accused, Beccaria's program adopted by several monarchs. The Church made a tool of the state and toleration extended: worship, Joseph again. A bureaucracy entered by formal examination: office, Frederick. Russia's first girls' school: teaching, Catherine's Smolny.
Where people slip
Every case shares a limit: none touched the monarch's own power, and only Joseph touched serfdom on noble land, which is why his reforms did not last. The exam may ask what enlightened despots did not do; the answer is surrender authority.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
- Nothing yet depends on this.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it