Frederick II, the Great was the King of Prussia from 1740-1786, he was the successor of his father Frederick William I (Kishlansky, Geary and O'Brien). Catherine the Great was married to Peter III and the Empress of Russia during the years of 1762-1796 (Kishlansky, Geary and O'Brien). Even though they were both leaders that made lasting changes for their countries they had different methods of ruling, making different contributions along with mistakes. The following paragraphs will give more detail about the accomplishments and failures of both leaders. Frederick the Great did not always get along with his father when it came to things such as music and arts, causing people to think that when he was to inherit the throne he would tear down all of his father’s achievements out of spite (Kishlansky, Geary and O'Brien). Little did everyone know father and son were very similar, except Frederick II was even more ambitious than his father along with ruthless (Kishlansky, Geary and O'Brien). Over the next forty years Frederick reign would transform Prussia building its wealth, military strength, doubling its size, and making Prussia a center of learning and culture (Keithly). One accomplishment of Frederick's was building an alliance with the Prussian nobility in order to organize a central administration (Kishlansky, Geary and O'Brien). By making this alliance he was able to combine military and government issues allowing him to keep a close eye over his government (Kishlansky, Geary and O'Brien). Frederick was hands on regarding himself as “the first servant of the state” he wasn’t afraid to work and appeared to feel equal to his people (Kishlansky, Geary and O'Brien 546). Frederick wanted more equality for the people of Prussia a... ... middle of paper ... ...he Great would also have her success while she reformed Russian government and the education system. Both had made mistakes, Frederick made an alliance that ultimately spurred the Seven Years War and Catherine advocated for the serfs but at the end of the day did nothing to improve their well-being. In my opinion Frederick was a better ruler because it seemed like he cared more about the people than Catherine did. Works Cited Keithly, David M. "Frederick II, the Great." N.p., 4 Apr. 2008. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. . Kishlansky, Mark, Pactrick Geary, and Patricia O'Brien. Civilization in the West. 7th ed. U.S.A: Pearson, 2008. Print. Toscani, Melissa, et al. "Catherine the Great." King's College. N.p., 20 May 2010. Web. 4 Apr. 2014. .
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.
In 1981, Isabel de Madariaga wrote the landmark book, Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great. This book was the first comprehensive study of Catherine the Great’s reign. It was a very long, thoroughly researched, very dense book about later eighteenth-century in Russia and was meant for scholars. The book I read and am reviewing, Catherine the Great: a Short History, also by de Madariaga, is more than a shortened version of her earlier work; it is a manageable, factual examination of only about 200 pages with maps, illustrations and timelines, and genealogical tables.
Nicholas II ruled Russia from 1894-1917 and was to be its final tsar. He ascended the throne under the impression that he would rule his whole life as it's undisputed leader. Accompanied by his wife, Alexandra, they lived a comfortable life of luxury while the country suffered around them. Nicholas was determined to rule as harshly as his father; however, he was a very weak and incompetent character who did not posses the qualities capable of guiding Russia through its time of turmoil.
Frederick was born into slavery. His mother was a slave, and he did not know who his father was, though many suspect it was the slave master who owned him and his mother. Unlike most slaves at the time, Frederick was taught to read and write at a young age, which was illegal. He used these uncommon skills to impact many people in his later years.
Frederick 's mom would walk twelve miles from a neighboring manor to see him. She would just go around evening time so she might be concealed and be back to her ranch by first light so she would not be whipped. Frederick watched his lord whip his Aunt Hester. He portrays the blood and the crazy anger of the beating in grisly detail. You can tell how traumatic the occasion was by the way he portrays it, giving us a photo through the eyes of an alarmed tyke excessively blameless, making it impossible to comprehend what was occurring. This was a defining moment for Frederick, since it was the end of blamelessness. As a much more established author, Douglass recollects the whipping and ponders whether there might have been something sexual in the way the supervisor stripped his Aunt Hester exposed before he whipped her. Her wrongdoing had been investing energy with a slave from another ranch, and the expert appears somewhat
The Enlightened Despots, Frederick? Was he? Maria Theresa? Hardly, Catherine had absolutely no impact whatsoever, and William Pitt, while he was an effective military strategist, was no despot, and surely not enlightened. Louis the XV, who was led around by the nose by Mme de Pompadour, was as ineffective as all the Kings of France would be after his grandfather.
Peter the Great, was, as his name implies, “great”. He made many accomplishments during his lifetime including expanding Russia’s land, heightening their military, and improving the Russian’s ways of life overall. He assisted with most of the reform in Russia, helped them defeat other countries, and formulated one of the strongest armies in Europe.
5. Howe, Helen, and Robert T. Howe. From the Ancient and Medieval Worlds. N.p.: Longman, 1992. Print.
Frederick was born in Tuckahoe, Maryland in the year 1818, to Harriet Bailey and a white man. He did not know who his father was, and was separated from his mother at a young age. She would always make the effort to come visit her son, until she passed away. The death of his mother did not affect Douglass because there was a lack of familial connection between the two. The lack of a real mother-son relationship led to him not understanding what family felt like, until he comes into contact with his aunt Hester. His relationship with his aunt Hester essentially exposed him to the grim reality of slave mistreatment. One day, their master had caught Aunt Hester out with another slave, which resulted in Hester receiving a cruel and gruesome beating from him. Douglass had not known what the reality of inhumane slave treatment was until that day. This essentially led to Frederick having his first epiphany: that he is a slave and that his master would try to dehumanize him whenever the opportunity was presented to him. This is evident when Douglass states the slaves are subject to receiving limited supplies, lack of privacy and cruel whippings whenever their services were deemed to not be up to par (Douglass 14). Masters mistreated their slaves in order to make them feel inferior, which would prevent the slaves from lashing out and fighting for their equality. Yet a human can withstand so much suffering until they realize they deserve
Catherine of Siena. The Dialogue of the Divine Providence . Trans. Algar Thorold. 1907. 25 Feb. 2004 .
They still were going to have an absolute power but it was going to be in a different way. I think that Catherine was really trying to make the monarch look like a better person so that she would be well respected with certain laws or decisions that she would make. The reason behind her enlightened views may not be known, but I feel that she wanted to have more territory to rule over and knew she needed to gain support in order to take over a larger area. Overall, I think Catherine the Great was a wonderful ruler. She knew she was in charge and seemed to try to please everyone. Even though she may not have succeeded in doing that, she did come up with laws such as human torture should be abolished, no man should be looked at as guilty before he has a sentence, and the society should be a fixed order. Knowing what her role was and coming up with laws that benefited the society definitely showed that Catherine II did earn to be called “Catherine the
...er civilizations, its use by Frederick II is what secured Prussian power and him the title of Frederick the Great.
Frederick Douglas was born into the slave trade in Talbot County, Maryland. He was sent to work on a plantation for the Hugh’s Family for about seven years. This is the location where his learning truly began. His mistress was a “kind, tender-hearted, woman” who treated Frederick as a human instead of property the family owned. This was a dangerous thing for both parties at this time in history it was considered wrong. Frederick States “Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me” which I see the connection he had made to her change of personality because of slavery. She had heavenly qualities that slavery was able to divest from her. It was injurious to Fredrick not only for the lashings a salve would receive but to have his former teacher stopped teaching him. Beginning to follow her husband’s teaching who forbid her to teach the slaves she became violent. Douglas says “nothing made her more angry than to see me with a newspapers” and that resulted in her rushing Frederick with a face of fury taking the paper away. His former mistress who gave him his first lesson expressed her new found apprehension to education and slavery co-existing. His mistress gave him an inch by teaching Douglas the alphabet now he was about to take the mile. He began to make friends with the white boys he would meet in the streets while running errands in town. Frederick always took a book and bread when he left for town. The boys who were willing to teach him would be paid in bread which he was allowed to have plenty of. The white boys who were teaching him where considerable poor in comparison to the family that referred to Frederick “chattel”. Young Frederick spoke powerful words to two his teachers who lived on Phil...
Trade and commerce improved, foreign relations improved, he died solvent and his treatment of the nobility and his councils was mainly sound. However, his over-reliance on nobles, his unproductive attack on Scotland and the Woodville marriage were all political mistakes that show that his inability to ensure an undisputed succession was not in fact his only failure.
Frederick the Great exploited the advantages of military evolutions and revolutions to develop a powerful nation-state, Prussia, through the exploitation of economic and social policies forced Prussia advantage of superiority and employed their society norms upon others. The implement of the infantry, cavalry, and artillery assisted with the revolutionized Prussia to military superiority through the delivery of lethal strikes and unwavering means to survive. In conjunction with economic and social policies, the incorporation of increased military professionalism fostered forces that were more disciplined and utilized tactics, enabling military evolutions and revolutions to become more innovated. As Parker stated, “Prussia was thus a state