This thesis compares the use of religion by Russian and English monarchies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as the response of the public in each country. It examines official religion in each state, as well as the kinds of toleration each extended to other religions. In both cases, the outlook of the monarchy changed over the course of the period under study; while both monarchies clearly understood the key role religion played in the lives of their subjects and the power it afforded the state and its sovereigns, the “official” use of religion continued in Russia and ultimately dwindled in England in the eighteenth century. The fate of competing religious tendencies in each society also contrasted during these key centuries. Drawing on scholarly literature on religion and politics in Russia and England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this essay argues that the two cases can be usefully contrasted. One country, Russia, focused on changing religious forms of practice, while the other, England, focused more on changing the substance of the religion itself. The Russian monarchy explicitly sought to use religion as a tool, preserving its position in society and the people’s beliefs. The monarchy in England sought to make substantive changes in religious belief and worship, clearing the way for the rise of other popular religions.

For many years, scholarship covering the Napoleonic satellite kingdoms has centered on the overriding presence of Napoleon Bonaparte without looking a great deal at the kingdoms that supported him. Since the recent publication of Stuart Woolf's Napoleon's Integration of Europe the focus of study on these satellite kingdoms will change. Bavaria's history in particular needs to be examined, especially since a clear study will reveal much of Bavaria's modernization during these years was already underway before Napoleon assimilated it into his empire. However, much of that progressive policy would not have been enacted without Napoleon's protection. This project therefore will represent an attempt to show that the reform policies of Maximilian von Montgelas and his lord, Max Joseph of Bavaria, were well underway before the advent of the Confederation of the Rhine, that Napoleon's dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire was paramount to the success of Montgelas' policy, and that Bavaria's zeal for reform was tightly bound up with a new upper-middle class and was not a German nationalist movement as later historians have assumed. The answers to these questions will reveal much about the nature of reform and modernization in the German minor states and that the intellectuals of the early 19th Century had much less to do with these movements than is generally believed. This project will rest on primary sources from the 1799-1815 period, primarily Montgelas' memoirs and much of the enormous material left by Napoleon Bonaparte and his ministers. Whenever secondary sources are used it will be the intent of the author to utilize primary quotations from within those texts as much as possible. In the end, it will be seen that the "revolution" in Bavaria owed much to Napoleon but not its existence. Likewise it will be clearly seen that these reforms were undertaken by bureaucrats and not on the whole by the supporters of German romantic philosophers, and that Bavaria's allegiance was entirely local and had very little to do with any drive for German unification.

<p> Earlier studies on Hadrian's Wall have focused on its defensive function to protect the Roman Empire by foreign invasions, but the determination is Hadrian's Wall most likely did not have one single purpose, but rather multiple purposes. This makes the Wall more complex and interesting than a simple structure to keep out foreign intruders. Collective research on other frontier walls' functions and characteristics around the empire during the reign of Hadrian are used to compare and determine the possible function or functions of the Wall. The Wall not only served political purposes, but also had economic and social uses as well.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Peter Fritzsche. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 292-325) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jul 15, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-12, Section: A, page: 4817. Adviser: Maria Bucur.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, 2004. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-01, Section: A, page: 0297. Supervisor: James Diehl. Title from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 12, 2006).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History, 2005. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-04, Section: A, page: 1466. Adviser: Hiroaki Kuromiya. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Nov. 8, 2006)."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History, 2005. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-04, Section: A, page: 1467. Adviser: James C. Riley. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Nov. 9, 2006)."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History, 2005. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-04, Section: A, page: 1467. Adviser: Toivo U. Raun. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Nov. 9, 2006)."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4305. Adviser: Peter Fritzsche. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 273-293) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.