Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov, better known as Peter the Great, was Tsar of Russia from 1682-1725. He is best known for his efforts to reform Russia in order to make it a stable and strong nation. Voltaire once proclaimed, “At last Peter was born, and Russia was created. Before the reign of Peter the Great, Russia was behind most European countries in many aspects. Russia did not make good use of the bodies of water surrounding it because the Russians didn’t trade with other countries and they didn’t even have a single ship. Also the agriculture and manufacturing industries were ignored. When Peter the Great came into power, he realized that Russia had many things to improve on. Without reforms, Russia would not move forward, but rather backwards and would be susceptive to attack from foreign nations. Peter the Great’s plan was to modernize Russia so the life of the citizens would be improved and to remove Russia’s inability to defend itself. Peter the Great was strongly influenced by other European countries, as this was seen in many of his reforms. Peter the Great made Russia more modern by reforming the military, changing the way people were educated, and improving the economy of Russia. Peter the Great had a lot to do if he wanted to reform and strengthen Russia’s military. Russia’s army was very inexperienced and powerless before Peter the Great’s reforms. The army mainly consisted of villagers, which were led by the elders of the village. They were trying to protect Russia but didn’t do so well because they lacked knowledge about the military and war. Peter combated this issue by introducing recruitment of members and the same training regime for all members of the military. This led to them being more organized and effect...
... middle of paper ...
...very important to Russia’s trading industry. After the Northern War, Peter acquired some land. With this land he established the city of St. Petersburg. This is where the warm water port was located. Not only was St. Petersburg warmer but it was located near the Baltic Sea, which gave Russia more opportunities to trade with other countries. Russia’s trade industry skyrocketed one year after the reforms. Around 200 vessels came to St. Petersburg to trade with Russia. The water ports were successful as well as they did receive 1000-1200 vessels annually. Without a doubt, Russia would need a way to fund these reforms, so Peter the Great introduced a poll tax. During the reign of Peter the Great the poll tax increased the government’s revenue by 600% Peter the Great’s economic reforms paid off because it stimulated the economic growth of Russia in the 18th century.
During Peter the Great’s reign a major problem in Russia was serfdom. Serfs were peasants that were forced to work on a noble’s land and were basically slaves. Serfdom was a major organization in Russia up until 1723 when Peter converted the household slaves into house serfs. Unfortunately, conversion to serf status and the later ban of the sale of serfs without land did not stop the trade in household slaves, it simply changed its name. Peter the Great was generally well liked by his nobles, even though he taxed them for absurd things like beards, beehives or corners in a house. The fact that the nobles still sided with Peter on everything after being taxed for ridiculous things showed their loyalty. However, Louis XIV had economic difficulties. To help fix this he hired Jean-Baptiste Colbert who invented Mercantilism, an economic system where exports exceed imports to maximize profit and create a self-sufficient state--great for an absolute monarch. However Colbert did not address Louis’ real issue which was him not taxing the nobles. The nobles refused to pay taxes and also did not like Louis; they just couldn’t do anything about it. Since, Louis could not sufficiently tax his nobles instead he relied on the bourgeoisie and peasants to pay excessive taxes. As you can see,
I believe that there was so much attention given to Peter the Great because of his extensive reforms. Peter brought both social and economic changes to his country. He wanted to make Russia big. Peter transformed the culture; he wanted his people to wear the western European fashion. Many of the people were not thrilled with the change because they did not like the ways of the western European societies. He made his navy stronger, he reformed his army to meet the western standards, and he gained control over the church.
They were both autocrats, believing that all decisions concerning the countries in which they lived should be made by them. They both wanted to expand their countries—not only physically, in the context of gaining more and more land, but also building up strong armies and increasing their countries prestige. They both invested a lot of time and money into the creation of their own “places,” for Louis XIV, Versailles, and for Peter the Great, St. Petersburg (specifically the Hagia Sofia.) They both also put a great deal of time, effort and energy into the military forces where they ruled. Louis IV did this with the help of Turenne, the marshal general of France. Peter the Great created the first Russian navy, reorganized the army, got rid of the Streltzky, and adopted the western idea of colleges. To provide for all this expanding of his military, Peter the Great introduced many new taxes, including a soul tax—a tax for simply being alive.
Catherine the Great, one of Russia's most notorious leaders, never once struggled to give Russia the edge it so hoped for. She considered herself to be an enlightened leader and attempted to rule in that fashion. Her reforms transformed Russia into a strong nation for their time. She’s remembered as the greatest reformer of Russia, she continued to westernize Russia, widened the borders, and strengthened the education system. Catherine the Great proceeded to finish what Peter the Great started; she made sure that by the end of her reign Russia was westernized.
Peter realized that Russia seemed like a backwards country compared to Western Europe. He recruited western figures to come to Russia as his ministers and help him fulfil his policy of Westernization.
The main driving force behind Peter I’s consolidation of power and reformation of Russia was the goal of ultimately enhancing military efficiency, allowing Russia to become a world power. Throughout his reign, war raged on and became a huge part of daily life. Compulsory lifetime military
Peter the Great had many goals during the time he ruled. One of his biggest goals was to modernize and westernize Russia. The main reason Peter the Great modernized Russia was because he did not want the country he ruled to be left vulnerable to expansionist powers in Europe. The powers were constantly at war, fighting to take over each other’...
The personal history of Peter, the methods he employed to help achieve mother Russia's prerogative, and finally what he has accomplished for Russia in his life span. Peter was born in Moscow of the second marriage of his father, Alexis I, who ruled Russia from 1645 to 1676. Alexis's first marriage to Maria Miloslavsky, had produced 13 children, but only two of the sons, Fyodor and Ivan survived. After Maria died in 1669 Alexis married Natalia Naryshkin in 1671, and Peter, a stro... ... middle of paper ... ...
Being a soldier became a lifetime job and by the time Peter died the army was about 200,000 men. In order to pay for the soldiers Peter imposed heavy taxes. In France, they had a large army that had the goal of expanding. It began to be hard on the people because of the high taxes. There was a war against France in 1701 which ended in the Peace of Utrecht. This made it so France had to stop expanding. Austria had a standing army was always at the ready to squash rebellions. They focused mostly on pushing the Ottomans out to gain control of what was formerly Hungary. In all three countries, in order to have a stable enough country they all had a strong army even though their techniques were slightly
Peter the Great was trying ultimately to make the Russian Empire more Europeanized or Westernized. He wanted to protect and enhance the vulnerable Russian Empire. Peter the Great saw that other European countries are colonizing in other regions like the New World, Asia, and Africa. Peter saw this as a threat and didn’t want for the Europeans to conquer Russia. Through decrees to shave and provisions on dress, he was trying to make them European. He also wanted to make military and economic reforms that could help the empire itself. If they built factories, they didn’t need to get supplies from Europe.
Absolutists during the 16th and 17th centuries were often times focused too heavily on military or other such rather than the people they were ruling. Peter the Great is a good example of this type of ruler because he did great things for Russia like improving the navy; however, Peter the Great did nothing to help the people of Russia, and according to Michael Gibson in document 8, he "failed to create the large, thriving
His reforms were tested immediately in 1700 by Charles XII of Sweden in the Great Northern War. The more experienced Swedes initially held the upper hand, but as the Russian army developed, they began to hold their own and eventually beat back the Swedes at Poltava in 1709, marking the first signs of Russia’s prominence. In 1721, Peter signed the Treaty of Nystad, granting him the Baltic States and the all-important water access. He built his new, Western inspired capital city, St. Petersburg, on the Gulf of
Observing that European technological superiority allowed it to enjoy extraordinary benefits, he adopted many European practices to assert his own dominance and increase Russia’s protection against its adversaries. In doing this, Peter the Great formed himself a lasting legacy. Although Peter the Great originally mimicked Louis XIV in his staunch practice of absolutism, he ultimately surpassed Louis XIV in his goal of supremacy. Peter replaced the previous head of the Orthodox Church, and had both religious and earthly supremacy. Thus, Peter achieved something that Louis could never manage: a control of both church and state. Outside of Russia’s borders, Peter succeeded in his endeavors to a much greater extent than Louis XIV. The Great Northern War against Sweden effectively gave Russia access to a warm water port: Saint Petersburg, where Peter created his own Versailles, the Winter Palace, that fulfilled goals similar to those of Louis. Thus, where Louis fell, Peter
Peter the Great, the Russian Czar, inherited his absolutist power from his brother, Ivan V. Born in aristocracy, Peter’s dad was the Czar, and later his brother, and after his brother’s death, him. He was a firm believer in the possible benefits from the control of a single leader to make decisions for the people, and he exercised this divine right to create many renouned institutions. At the beginning of Peter’s reign, Russia was in a poor condition: many rejected modernization from the Renaissance, and large spending from his brother’s reign caused economic droughts. He took advantage of his absolutist power to help ameliorate Russia’s situation and first decided to minimalize power from the other aristocrats. The subduction of the rich allowed
Before 1917 in Russia there was one supreme ruler with full autocratic power, there were no elected policies by law and the tsar was seen to have been put into his position by god. Between 1894-1917 the tsar came under pressure generally not suffered by any of his predecessors. The opposition came from four main sides;