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Peter and the Naryshkin family were pushed aside for Fyodor the Miloslavskys to rule. However, when Fyodor died childless Peter and his half-brother Ivan were proclaimed joint tsars. When Ivan's poor health caught up to him, his sister Sophia took his place and his control over the government. After Sophia took power, Peter went to live with his mother and spent his time outside learning and doing different jobs. In early 1689 he married Eudoxia (Yevdokiya Fyodorovna Lopukhina). But, the marriage did not last long and when Peter started to ignore her, Sophia tried to use this to her advantage to kick him out of his position. Instead, she was removed from power and although Ivan and him were still joint tsars, almost all control was given to Peter.

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After he traveled across Europe with the Grand Embassy, Peter was inspired to make changes to the Russian military, church, and factories. Peter became very involved in these projects and worked hard to strengthen Russia's educational system as well as gain access to more waterways. Furthermore, even though Peter was originally not formally educated on war like his predecessors were, he strove to prove Russia's superiority over Western Europe. He ended up defeating Sweden in war and acquiring states like Estonia and Livonia.

Sources:

https://www.worldhistory.org/Peter_the_Great/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Peter-the-Great/The-central-government

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What set Catherine back was the fact that she lacked charity, mercy, and human sympathy. Catherine was a ruthless leader, which was a good thing, but sometimes it would cause her issues with the people. Another setback that Catherine had was the Emergence of Assignation rubles. It ultimately led to a shortage of silver. This impacted the trades because trades were mainly conducted with silver and gold coins.

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Under Catherine's rule, Russia grew in strength on the world stage and for that Russia celebrates her. Those in surrounding countries do not though because of how Russia grew in power. In all, Russia expanded west and south nearly 200,000 miles. She managed to organize this new land splitting Russia into 29 provinces. Additionally she funded towns that would be built up in this new land and expanded old ones. Economically trade expanded in Russia and commodities were bountiful. Millitarily she had success and worked to build the Russian military into a global power.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Catherine-the-Great/Legacy

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He was a king of England, Scotland and Ireland, whose conflicts with parliament and his subjects led to civil war and his execution.

His great achievement was the abolition of the monarchy, unfortunately he happened to be the king.

He made significant contributions to art and architecture in Britain, and founded overseas colonies of Carolina and Maryland.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-I-king-of-Great-Britain-and-Ireland

https://www.biography.com/royalty/charles-i

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Charles I | Accomplishments, Execution, Successor, & Facts

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Charles I, king of Great Britain and Ireland (1625–49), whose authoritarian rule and quarrels with Parliament provoked a civil war that led to his execution. He carried on the belief in royal absolutism that was advocated by his father, James I, who began the antagonistic relationship with Parliamen…

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Peter made a visit to Western Europe in 1697 which solidified his interest in Enlightenment ideas and Western European culture making him want to modernize Russia. In the Netherlands and England, Peter learned much about shipbuilding, and he employed many shipbuilders from the west on this trip, along with other maritime engineers, sending them back to Russia to work on the nascent Russian navy. However, Peter was interested in much more than ships and naval affairs, western arts, literature, science, and philosophy were all fields Peter found of interest. Military reforms from the West lead to Russia becoming a dominant military power in the east. Economic reforms transformed Russia's cottage industries into more structured guilds, allowing greater movement of artisans and increased economic production. All of these reforms and improvements in life happened because of Peter the Great. Later in his rule he focused more on education and in 1714, compulsory education in mathematics and geometry for children of nobles as well as the children of the growing bureaucracy was instated. Peter's insistence on meritocracy lead to the creation of the Table of Ranks in 1722. This system was used to measure individuals and ensure that suitable candidates would achieve promotion to positions within the government and military based upon one's service. Like the Senate Peter had created, this system would last until the revolution of 1917.

https://study.com/academy/lesson/peter-the-great-the-westernization-of-russia.html#:~:text=Peter%20the%20Great%20is%20known,creation%20of%20the%20Russian%20Navy.

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One way he maintained power was by having constant wars with Austria and with him being great with military tactics and strategies he helped expand Prussia. His domestic policies also helped transition his kingdom into a modern state and a great power in Europe. He helped create military tradition in Prussia and rationalism which caused the country to have a highly militaristic system of education. Over the years of his rule, he helped enact many reforms and domestic acts as well as revamp Prussia's justice system. He also loosened control over the press, supported a good amount of religious freedom, and worked hard to help Prussia grow economically. Link

He did have many faults to him though. One is how he couldn't really grasp the idea of power politics very well. He was never actually able to take a lasting blow to his enemies. Since he was always at war with Austria this caused many setbacks for his people such as having many farmlands destroyed and many of his people going broke. They barely had any money or material resources either. Link

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Frederick II - Prussia, Voltaire & Accomplishments | HISTORY

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Frederick II ‑ Prussia, Voltaire & Accomplishments | HISTORY

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Frederick II (1712‑1786) ruled Prussia from 1740 until his death, leading his nation through multiple wars with Austria and its allies. His daring military tactics expanded and consolidated Prussian lands, while his domestic policies transformed his kingdom into a modern state and formidable European power.

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https://www.britannica.com/biography/Louis-XIV-king-of-France

https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history/great-characters/louis-xiv#king-by-divine-right

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How he rose to power- James I rose to power by Getting the English throne from his cousin Queen ELizabeth I since she had no direct heirs, so he claimed the throne from her.

how he maintained it- He maintained it by Having a few privy Councillors in the House of Commons thus allowing for independent members there to seize the initiative

https://www.nms.ac.uk/discover-catalogue/a-brief-history-of-james-vi-and-i#:~:text=In%201603%2C%20James%20VI%20succeeded,as%20James%20VI%20and%20I.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-I-king-of-England-and-Scotland

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A brief history of James VI and I | National Museums Scotland

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James VI and I was a hugely significant Stewart king. But he has been overshadowed by his notorious relations. His predecessor in Scotland was his mother,

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He was a patronage of the arts and commissioned many great works such as the Hall of Mirrors. He helped to reorganize the administrative and financial sections of his realm and helped boost trade. Louis XIV also had many military victories during his rule.

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Charles was born on November 19, 1600. Charles was the King of Britain and Ireland. Parliament provoked a civil war that led to his death. Charles had a great temper, great manners, and was not inappropriate. This helped Charles maintain his power and why people first liked Charles when they met him. Charles was also religious, which people liked about him because religion was strong. Charles also insisted to become a Roman Catholic in his years to being a King. Another reason why people liked King Charles and how he maintained how power, was because he took responsibility for his own actions and owned up to it if the action was his fault. Defects of Charles could be that he was blamed for treason because of uncooperative actions, from the House of Commons. Charles lacked the common touch, travelled about little, and never mixed with ordinary people. These different effects also had different effects on his right for being King.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-I-king-of-Great-Britain-and-Ireland

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Charles I | Accomplishments, Execution, Successor, & Facts

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Charles I, king of Great Britain and Ireland (1625–49), whose authoritarian rule and quarrels with Parliament provoked a civil war that led to his execution. He carried on the belief in royal absolutism that was advocated by his father, James I, who began the antagonistic relationship with Parliamen…

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Major setbacks during Frederick's time of reign were his ruthless exploitation of all resources available. Frederick the Great made it increasingly difficult to keep up with the struggles. He had many awful defeats that led him to thoughts of suicide.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-II-king-of-Prussia/Trials-and-lessons

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How did Catherine The Great Maintain power?

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How did Catherine The Great Maintain power?

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Catherine when initially ascending to power was liberal and believed in the freeing of the serfs. Upon gaining power though she realized that no longer could she set the serfs free. She could not do this because the owners of the serfs were largely where she gained her support from and if she were to take away the serfs she would fall out of favor. Rather instead Catherine tightened her grip condemning all people of the Ukraine to be serfs and further worsening Serf living conditions.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Catherine-the-Great/Legacy

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During his Reign major accomplishments include, becoming ruler in both Scotland and England, as well as cementing The Church of England as the official religion of England. He created King James bible, which is the official translation of the Bible into English.

Major setbacks include the failed gunpowder plot of 1603, inherited corrupted government issues and war with spain. King James I refused to recognize parliament rights and this led to many religious groups choosing to leave England.

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Louis XIV ruled from 1643-1715 in France. Louis hated his people and used his peope's fear to hold onto power as well as his controlling nature. He assumed all the responsibilities of King when his Mazarin died in 1661 and believed he was protected by his claim of divine right. He punished the nobles who had started a civil war 11 years prior.

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Maria Theresa stayed in power using a number of different ways. She introduced important reforms that strengthened Asturias military strength. She employed a man named Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz, who collected millions of dollars in taxes that helped raise an army of over 108,00 men. She took responsibility in centralizing the government, which was previously left to the church to do. This action helped her increased her power and also her grip on Austria. However while she remained in power, she was forced to surrender to the territory of Silesia. She attempted to recapture her lost land during the 7 years war but failed.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/empress-maria-theresa/#:~:text=Maria%20Theresa%20implemented%20significant%20reforms%20to%20strengthen%20Austria's%20military%20and,extracted%20from%20each%20crown%2Dland

https://www.heritage-history.com/index.php?c=resources&s=char-dir&f=maria1a#:~:text=Maria%20Theresa%20remained%20in%20power,Russia%2C%20Spain%2C%20and%20Sweden.

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Empress Maria-Theresa | History of Western Civilization II

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Maria Theresa introduced reforms that improved her empire’s economy, military, education, public health, and administration but left the feudal social order intact.

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Charles I of England was Born on November 19th 1600. He was born as the second son of James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark. Seeing how he was born into a lineage of people who held power, Charles became heir to the throne when his brother Prince Henry died in 1612, He then became the Second Stuart Kind of Great Britain. He was said to be self righteous and had a high concept of the royal authority, this being that he believed in the divine right of kings.

https://www.royal.uk/charles-i

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www.royal.uk needs to review the security of your connection before proceeding.

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Maria Theresa was the daughter of Charles Vl, a holy Roman ruler. Because her father was the last male in this dynasty, he put in place a pragmatic sanction (a sanction for the sole development of a nation) and established his daughter would rule Austria in the 1700s.

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How did Catherine the Great rise to power? 

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How did Catherine the Great rise to power? 

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Frederick had a miserable life when he was younger as he was a victim of his father's bullying. When his father, Frederick William I, died in 1740, he gladly became king of Prussia.

https://www.britannica.com/summary/Frederick-II-king-of-Prussia#:~:text=On%20his%20father's%20death%20(1740,and%20marched%20on%20into%20Bohemia.

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Philip II was a member of the Hapsburg Dynasty, born to Charles V (the Holy Roman emperor) and Isabella of Portugal. Philip II, almost from the moment he was born, was reminded by his father of his responsibilities and prepared to take over the throne. In 1540, Charles V gave the Duchy of Milan- a state in northern Italy- to Philip II. In 1555, he gained control of the Netherlands; and in 1556 the kingdoms of Spain, the Spanish overseas empire, and the Franche-Comté were under his control. He was a divine right absolutist, his father telling him that God had bestowed this duty upon him and to refrain from trusting his advisers too much.

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Philip II was focused on mending defects in his inherited system of government, never leaving the Iberian Peninsula and spending most of his time working in a small office. His methods, however, slowed down an already extremely slow system.

He was also distrustful of even his closest advisors and servants, even once consenting to murder. This led to extremely bitter faction fights within his court.

As a person, Philip II was a lover of reading, an affectionate father to his daughters, and lived a stern, dedicated life. In order to keep the catholic faith, he felt bound to use his royal powers to an almost tyrannical degree; though he was opposed to war, he would not shy away from it if he deemed fit.

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He stayed in power by creating a strong centralized government, and being involved in daily decisions. He also used the Catholic Church to maintain his power by making Spain the defender of catholicism and use inquisition to enforce religious loyalty. He also maintained all factions equal and didn't let any become too powerful and sent out his orders with viceroys and leaders that were willing to give their life to complete them.

Viceroys meaning: Viceroys are high-ranking officials who govern a colony or province on behalf of a monarch, exercising authority, and implementing the king's policies in the region.

sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Philip-II-king-of-Spain-and-Portugal

https://www.habsburger.net/en/chapter/philip-ii-regent-over-spanish-empire

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Philip II (born May 21, 1527, Valladolid, Spain-died September 13, 1598, El Escorial) king of the Spaniards (1556-98) and king of the Portuguese (as Philip I, 1580-98), champion of the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation. During his reign the Spanish empire attained its greatest power, extent, and influence, though he failed to suppress the revolt of the Netherlands (beginning in 1566) and lost the " Invincible Armada" in the attempted invasion of England (1588).

Early life and marriages

Philip was the son of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V and Isabella of Portugal. From time to time, the emperor wrote Philip secret memoranda, impressing on him the high duties to which God had called him and warning him against trusting any of his advisers too much. Philip, a very dutiful son, took this advice to heart. From 1543 Charles conferred on his son the regency of Spain whenever he himself was abroad. From 1548 until 1551, Philip traveled in Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands, but his great reserve and his inability to speak fluently any language except Castilian made him unpopular with the German and Flemish nobility.

Philip contracted four marriages. The first was with his cousin Maria of Portugal in 1543. She died in 1545, giving birth to the ill-fated Don Carlos. In 1554 Philip married Mary I of England and became joint sovereign of England until Mary's death, without issue, in 1558. Philip's third marriage, with Elizabeth of Valois, daughter of Henry II of France, in 1559, was the result of the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559), which, for a generation, ended the open wars between Spain and France. Elizabeth bore Philip two daughters, Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566-1633) and Catherine Micaela (1567-97). Elizabeth died in 1568, and in 1570 Philip married Anna of Austria, daughter of his first cousin the emperor Maximilian II. She died in 1580. Her only surviving son became Philip III.

King of Spain

Philip had received the duchy of Milan from Charles V in 1540 and the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily in 1554 on the occasion of his marriage to Mary of England. On October 25, 1555, Charles resigned the Netherlands in Philip's favour and on January 16, 1556, the kingdoms of Spain and the Spanish overseas empire. Shortly afterward Philip also received the Franche-Comté. The Habsburg dominions in Germany and the imperial title went to his uncle Ferdinand I. At this time Philip was in the Netherlands. After the victory over the French at Saint-Quentin (1557), the sight of the battlefield gave him a permanent distaste for war, though he did not shrink from it when he judged it necessary.

After his return to Spain from the Netherlands in 1559, Philip never again left the Iberian Peninsula. From Madrid he ruled his empire through his personal control of official appointments and all forms of patronage. Philip's subjects outside Castile, thus, never saw him, and they gradually turned not only against his ministers but also against him.

Method of government

By sheer hard work Philip tried to overcome the defects of this system. His methods have become famous. All work was done on paper, on the basis of consultas (that is, memoranda, reports, and advice presented him by his ministers). In Madrid, or in the gloomy magnificence of his monastic palace of El Escorial, which he built (1563-84) on the slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama, the king worked alone in his small office, giving his decisions or, as often, deferring them. Nothing is known of his order of work, but all his contemporaries agreed that his methods dangerously, and sometimes fatally, slowed down a system of government already notorious for its dilatoriness. Philip was painstaking and conscientious in his cravings for ever more information, hiding an inability to distinguish between the important and the trivial and a temperamental unwillingness to make decisions.

This was coupled with an almost pathological suspicion of even his most able and faithful servants. Margaret of Parma, the duke of Alba, Don John of Austria, Antonio Pérez, and Alessandro Farnese-to name only the most distinguished-suffered disgrace. "His smile and his dagger were very close," wrote his official court historian, Cabrera de Córdoba. It was no exaggeration, for in the case of Juan de Escobedo, the secretary of Don John of Austria, Philip even consented to murder. As a result, Philip's court became notorious for the bitterness of its faction fights. The atmosphere of the Spanish court did much to poison the whole Spanish system of government, and this played no small part in causing the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) and the rebellions of the Moriscos of Granada (1568-70) and the Aragonese (1591-92).

Yet the " black legend" that in Protestant countries represented Philip II as a monster of bigotry, ambition, lust, and cruelty is certainly false. Philip's spare and elegant appearance is known from the famous portraits by Titian and by Sir Anthony More. He was a lover of books and pictures, and Spain's literary Golden Age began in his reign. An affectionate father to his daughters, he lived an austere and dedicated life. "You may assure His Holiness," Philip wrote to his ambassador in Rome, in 1566, "that rather than suffer the least damage to religion and the service of God, I would lose all my states and an hundred lives, if I had them; for I do not propose nor desire to be the ruler of heretics." This remark may be regarded as the motto of his reign. To accomplish the task set him by God of preserving his subjects in the true Catholic religion, Philip felt in duty bound to use his royal powers, if need be, to the point of the most ruthless political tyranny, as he did in the Netherlands. Even the popes found it sometimes difficult to distinguish between Philip's views as to what was the service of God and what the service of the Spanish monarchy.

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Philip II | Biography, Accomplishments, Religion, Significance, & Facts

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Philip II, king of Spain (1556-98) and Portugal (1580-98) who was a champion of the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation. During his reign the Spanish empire attained its greatest power, extent, and influence, though he lost the 'Invincible Armada' in the attempted invasion of England (1588).