Level 15
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Transition to the Modern World

The Scientific Revolution and Tsarist Russia

The birth of modern science and the rise of the Russian Empire under the tsars.

Wikimedia Commons · Pieter van der Werff · Public domain

60-Second Review

Express review

A condensed, point-by-point summary of the module, for reviewing right before a test or exam.

  1. The Scientific Revolution: Context and Foundations. Renaissance learning, religious crisis, and new instruments combined to overturn Aristotelian science by 1687.
  2. Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler: The New Astronomy. Copernicus's heliocentrism, Brahe's precise data, and Kepler's laws overturned the ancient geocentric cosmos.
  3. Galileo Galilei: The Telescope, the Method, and the Trial. Galileo's telescopic discoveries and experimental method led to his celebrated 1633 trial by the Inquisition.
  4. Bacon, Descartes, and Newton: Method and the Newtonian Synthesis. Bacon's induction, Descartes's rationalism, and Newton's Principia forged the modern scientific method.
  5. From Kievan Rus to the Mongol Yoke. Kievan Rus, Christianized in 988, fragmented and fell under roughly 250 years of Mongol tributary rule.
  6. The Rise of Moscow, Ivan the Terrible, and the Time of Troubles. Moscow's princes built a centralized, autocratic state that unraveled into the Time of Troubles.
  7. The Early Romanovs and Peter the Great's Forging of the Empire. Peter I westernized Russia and, after defeating Sweden, proclaimed the Russian Empire in 1721.
  8. Catherine the Great, Imperial Expansion, and the Legacy of Tsarist Russia. Catherine II expanded and modernized the empire, whose autocratic, serf-based order endured until 1917.

This module continues after "Absolutism and the Wars of Religion" in the syllabus. If you haven't reviewed it yet, it may help set the context.

Key points

Visual module map

1The Scientific Revolution: Context and Foundations
2Galileo Galilei: The Telescope, the Method, and the Trial
3From Kievan Rus to the Mongol Yoke
4The Rise of Moscow, Ivan the Terrible, and the Time of Troubles
5Catherine the Great, Imperial Expansion, and the Legacy of Tsarist Russia

Alternative visual view: a simplified sequence of some of the module's key points, in their order within the syllabus.

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Final test

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Optional mini-games

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Memory

Match each concept with its definition in as few attempts as possible.

Time Attack

Answer true or false statements before time runs out.

Chronological Order

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Further reading

Bibliography and cited sources used to create this module.

  • Steven Shapin, The Scientific Revolution.
  • Herbert Butterfield, The Origins of Modern Science, 1300-1800.
  • Isaac Newton, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
  • Nicolaus Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.
  • Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Old Regime.
  • Nicholas V. Riasanovsky and Mark D. Steinberg, A History of Russia.
  • The Russian Primary Chronicle (Laurentian Text), translated by Samuel H. Cross and Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor.
  • UNESCO, Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments, World Heritage List, available at whc.unesco.org.