Catherine the Great

Catherine the Great: The Unlikely Reign

By: Wesley Brannick

Western Civilization II

Tim Bronstetter

Fall Semester 2012

Coastal Carolina Community College

Catherine the great strongly believed in the Enlightenment but yet ruled by a strong absolute monarch. How did Catherine accomplish this? Over a series of events in her life her relationship with her mother, a highly sophistaced education in the studies of enlightenment, and luck gave her the opportunity. People described her to be obscure and cunning. She would do whatever it takes and by any means wether it be seduction or by power. Catherine was determined to take the thone of Russia. Her love and devotion to one country was be unquestionable. Her ability to expand, form new policies, proving her profficiency at foreign affairs, and create a more modern European Russia would be comparitable to any other European Monarchs accomplishments. She proved that not only man could raise a nation to become on par with the other elite European nations.

Catherines original name was Sophia Augusta Fredericka. Born on April 21, 1729 in Stettin, Prussia. Her father Prince Christian Augustas of Anhalt-Zerbst was an army officer and junker. He was described as “ Exhibited his solid virtues of his Junker lineage: a stern sense of order, discipline, integrity, thrift and piety, along wtih an unshakable lack of interest in gossip, intrigue, literature and the wider world in general.”1 Catherine's father clearly showed that he had little to no ambition of gaining political status or interest. Christian would focus more on his skills of being a soldier than gaining a predecessor for his postition. At the age of fifteen Christian would marry a 15 year old Princess Johanna Elizabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. During the age of only 16 Johanna would give birth to Catherine. Johanna's had a obscure relationship with her daughter Catherine. One explanation of this could be from the death of her son Wilhelm Christian who would pass...