Catherine The Great Research Paper Outline

Daniela Restel

Professor Speranza

Western Civilization

5-4-2017

Catherine the Great

Born Sophie Freiderike Auguste on May 2nd 1729, Empress and autocrat of all the Russians Catherine the great started her life. She was one of the few Russian leaders to have been born outside of Russia. In her early years Catherine lived a very privileged life where she gained an interest in philosophy and literature, all while learning different languages including German Russian and French.

Catherine’s mother as well connected with royal families all around Europe. Her mother used that to her advantage and saw it as an opportunity to raise her family’s social standings by arranging a marriage for her daughter. At just sixteen years old her mother arranged

a marriage with the young Grand duke peter that was just as inexperienced with life as Catherine but also heir to the Russian throne. Their marriage proceeded to not be a happy one and they both started having affairs. They had two children named Paul and Anna and both children were questioned in legitimacy.
When Grand duke Peters mother died, he made it to the throne and wasn’t a much liked ruler.

Catherine was also very unhappy with her husband’s ruling and plotted to undermine him with nobles that included her lover Gregory Orlov. When one of her fellow plotters had been arrested Catherine began to follow through with her plans carefully.

At night on June 28th, Catherine set troops out to arrest peter. While successfully doing so, they forced peter to sign a document to leave the throne. Peter turned up dead within a few days of the arrest. He was killed by Alexei Orlov who was the brother of Catherine’s lover.

Catherine soon became the empress of Russia and even though she was a foreigner she proved to be a great leader. She was in charge of a big expansion of Russian territory when a polish Russian war broke out and led to the seize of the European expenditures. Great military wins and a good diplomacy made Russia one of Europe’s greatest powers, expansions into Siberia brought money back into Moscow from the fur trade which led to friendly relations between Russia and Japan.

Her great interest in literature led to a blooming of great culture and bettering of the education. She also signed financial reforms which brought the first of paper money into Russia. She needed to maintain stability and avoid the peasants uprising so she got learned to be conservative throughout her

reign.
Catherine the great had many lovers throughout her life. She was known for her passionate nature. Her lovers were usually rewarded during their love affairs with land and titles and she always ended things on good terms. Even though it was normal to have a lot of affairs, being promiscuous led Catherine to negative reactions from her political opponents. One of the most damaging and known rumors claimed that Catherine had sex with a horse.
The morning of November 16th 1796 Catherine was found passed out on the floor. Further examination led to the belief that Catherine had suffered from a stroke. Even with attempts to revive her back to life she had fallen into a coma and passed away the next day.
Catherine wanted to give the throne straight to her grandson Alexander despite her good relationship with her son; however she died before she could have documented it. One of the fist things her son Paul did when succeeding the thrown was destroys all the documentation that depicted the succession.