Question

In 3–5 sentences, compare the causes and effects of constitutional monarchy in England with the causes and effects of absolute monarchy in Russia.(4 points)

Answer 1

In England, prolonged conflict between crown and Parliament (English Civil War, Glorious Revolution) plus a growing commercial class and political ideas about rights produced limits on royal power and a settlement (Bill of Rights 1689) that made the monarchy constitutional. In Russia, long-standing autocratic traditions, weak urban/bourgeois institutions, external security pressures and state-building rulers (e.g., Ivan IV, Peter the Great) produced and reinforced absolute tsarist rule. The English outcome was parliamentary supremacy, rule of law, and gradual expansion of civil liberties and representative government. The Russian outcome was a highly centralized bureaucracy, strengthened serfdom and autocratic control, state-led modernization and territorial expansion but limited political freedom and eventual social unrest.