Absolutism in France

Other Patterns of Absolutism

Alternatives to Absolutism

The International System

Chapter Seventeen: The Emergence of the

European State System

Absolutism in France

In the wake of the mid-seventeenth century

crisis, a strong impetus for a powerful and

centralized government grew

The institutions and practices which were created became the

essential components for the modern state

*Absolutism: the belief that power

emanated from the monarch’s unlimited

authority

Absolutism was based on a theory

known as the *divine right of kings

God’s representative on earth

The Rule of Louis XIV

The most famous absolutist state was the

Kingdom of France, which became the most

powerful regime in Europe

Louis XIV (1643-1715)—an archetype

God’s lieutenant and the authority from the Bible

VersaillesThe court and setting of

a kings rule is a reflection of his power

and the authority of the central government

Near Paris, a remote and elaborate court

was created (c. 1680)

The largest building in Europe

“Domestication of the aristocracy” —

authority and statues of lords no longer came from lineage but from

service to the thrown

Control of nobles and Lords and who controlled the land

Court Life

French culture was shape by the king’s patronage of those

artists and writers who appealed to the royal taste

Official taste is what counted

What exalted the king, dazzling displays at

Versailles—a reflection of France and the King

Paris and Versailles

One alternative center of society and culture was

Paris

Versailles was overwhelmingly a male

society, except for the royal mistresses in his

early years

Rigidly pious in later years

In Paris, women established and dominated the

*salons: gathering places which

promoted discussion—comedy, political

discussion, and lively entertainment

A converse to the somber court of the

King

Government

Absolutism was more than a device of royal

arrogance

The rebuilding of the state and the

reorganization of government institutions

Centralization of authority around the

throne

The long-lasting results of Louis’ Absolutism—control over these three

areas:

The use of armed force, the formulation and

execution of laws, and the collection and

expenditure of revenue

These required a centrally controlled bureaucracy

The King’s Dual Functions

In addition to his administrative skills,

Louis created an extravagant court life:

Hunting, cultivating arts, huge banquets

His court consumed an excessive share of the state’s resources and

became an end in itself

Like court life, government policy

under Louis XIV was tailored to the

aim of state building

Competing Ministers

Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Advocated a mercantilist policy

He argued that the government’s policy

should be to increase France’s

wealth

Marquis of Louvois

The son of a military administrator,

Louvois consistently emphasized the

army as the foundation of

France’s power

Foreign Policy

The international scene of his court was

to serve the la gloire (the glory) of France

His efforts to expand that power prompted

their neighbors to form coalitions and alliances together

against France

Louis versus Europe

These alliances led to the concept of *balance

of power

Leopold I, the Holy Roman Emperor, was

distracted by war against the Turks in

the East

After 1683, the war turned in HRE’s favor

HRE’s attention and subsequent joining of

the war led to the halting French

expansion

When Louis lost territories in the 1680’s,

he sought peace

Eventually France got involved in a bitter war

with the Spanish to gain the throne

Economic strains emerged which reduced the tax

revenue size and the workforce, leading to an

extensive decline of French

economic, and therefore

political, power

The War of Spanish Succession

Louis pushed for Philip, Louis XIV’s grandson to take the

Spanish throne

He pushed for Spain and France to be united and to be

closed off to foreign trade

Leopold and William formed the Grand Alliance to fight

back against this gathering of power

A long battle emerged in Europe and overseas, in India,

Canada, and the Caribbean

Led by brilliant generals, the Grand Alliance won a series of

great victories

France endured a terrible famine in 1709

Despite the setbacks, he maintained his boarders and secured the Spanish throne

Domestic Policy

Control and Reform

The “Sun King” extended centralization to religion

and social institutions

Persecution and exile of Huguenots and the Catholic Jansenists

Revoked the Edicts of Nantes (1685)

The End of an EraFrance became the envy of Europe

An extreme contrast existed between the glittering court

and the misery of most French

Taxes and rents rose dramatically

Many began to see commoners as assets to the

state

France after Louis XIV

Traditional ambitions of the nobles

reasserted themselves after he died in 1715

A rejection of centralization emerged

Louis XV left with much debt from his

father’s wars

Louis XV and Fleury

He gave almost unlimited authority to

his tutor Cardinal Fleury

Silent Absolutism

Gradually the populace had abundant harvests, a rising population, and

increased commercialism

Political Problems

Following Louis XV’s death in 1743,

War Hawks plunged France into more wars which led to an

increased strain on the lower classes

The Long Term

The 1700s were a time of notable advancements

Expansions in population, in the

rural economy, commerce, and empire building

Other Patterns of Absolutism

Four other monarchs built absolute states:

Vienna, Berlin, Madrid, and St. Petersburg

All varied in strengths and weaknesses

The Habsburgs at ViennaThe Habsburg Leopold I, the

Holy Roman Emperor (1658-1705)

He transformed Vienna into a city for nobles as well as small-

time traders

Leopold had no fondness of the pomp like Louis XIV

He supported many composers and musical culture

Government Policy

After the 30 Years War, it was discovered that the princes could

not be controlled

The Privy Council, dominated by

aristocratic families, ran Leopold’s government

The Power of the Nobility

Unlike Louis XIV, Leopold gave his aristocracy

influence in the government and the lands

Limited centralization beyond Austria

Leopold’s absolutism— the nobility retained far

more autonomous power

The Hohenzollerns at Berlin

A new power emerged in Brandenburg-Prussia

State-building was made possible by a close alliance between powerful rulers

and his nobles

Frederick William of Hohenzollern (r. 1640-1688)

He ruled the scattered territories

which stretched over 700 miles

Foreign Policy

Built a massive army some 8,000 strong by

1648

Military became a major factor in his foreign policy, a

major influence on the future policies

Prussia and Germany

Domestic Policy

The Elector Fredrick William was given the right to raise

taxes from the Diet of Brandenburg in 1653

With this power, he had no use of the

officials

Military expansion

The Junkers

Prussian nobles (“young lord”) formed an alliance with with

Frederick Williams that undermined the diet and representative

assemblies

They reimposed serfdom and

consolidated their land holdings

Frederick III

Frederick William’s heir, Elector Frederick III, had

no love of “pomp”

He fashioned Berlin as a cultural center, founding

libraries, fostered the arts, Academy of

Sciences, and sponsored German scientists and philosophers—Leibniz

Frederick only lacked one thing:

a crown

To fight with Leopold I against France in the War

of Spanish Succession

Fredrick was given the title

“King of Prussia”

Rivalry and State Building

Poland failed to centralize and was partitioned three times by Russian, Austria,

and Prussia

Absolute rulers built their states by increasing the size of armies, collecting larger revenues, and developing bureaucracies for the war

effort

The Prussia of Frederick William I (r. 1713-1740) sought to

strengthen absolutism at home and abroad

Uncluttered by royal ceremonies, he supervised all

government activities personally

The Prussia of Frederick William I

Emphasis on the Military

Organized his state to serve his military power

Fourth largest military in Europe behind France,

Russia, and Austria

Intensive drilling and standardized uniforms

Frederick the GreatFrederick II (r. 1740-1786)

—opposite to the temperament of his

Father

deist, sentimental, artistic, composer of

music, and admirer of French culture

His father forced him to work at all levels to gain

experience

Frederick’s Absolutism

Sought to expand political power not because it was his “divine mission” but because

absolute rule could bring results

An enlightened monarch who sought rational and

moral existence

Religious toleration and judicial reform

The Habsburg Empire

The Habsburg Empire held

diverse territories under one crown

They hoped to integrate Austria,

Bohemia, and Hungary

International Rivalry

Leopold’s successor, Charles VI (r. 1711-1740) was sonless, only having

his daughter Maria Theresa

He sought to pass the Pragmatic Sanction (1713),

declaring that all Habsburg dominions to pass to the eldest heir,

male or female

The focus on this succession ultimately weakened the HRE

This weakening was taken advantage by Austria and Prussia

She eventually solidified this kingdom through

military strength—completely convinced of

the divine mission

Reform in Church and State

She disdained religious toleration and loathed atheists—thus she sought to reform the Church

She abolished the clergy’s exemptions

from taxes

Habsburgs and Bourbons at Madrid

In Spain the Habsburgs had little

success in state building

Charles II (r. 1665-1700)—

incapable of having children, which led

to the War of Spanish Succession

Bourbon SpainWhen the Bourbons

gained the crown, they challenged the power of

the Jesuits who had gotten involved in the political

landscape

Expelled from Spanish territory in 1767

This led Jesuits to break free from the Spanish

Empire

Peter the Great of St. Petersburg

While many capitals were improved and

made cultural centers which reflected absolutism, St.

Petersburg in Russia was the only entirely

new capital

Tsar Peter I (the Great)—1682-1725

Peter’s Fierce AbsolutismNone of the state-

building rulers of the period had Peter’s terrifying energy to

exercise absolute power

Forced labor to build his capital in a cold swamp resulting in thousands

of deaths

Named after his patron saint

Western Models

After a humiliating military defeat, Peter sought the advances

that the Western nations had developed

While disguised, he traveled the European

countries

He built a Western modeled court, an

Academy of Sciences, and encouraged the first

Russian newspaper

Italian artists, Scandinavian army

officers, German engineers, and Dutch

shipbuilders

Bureaucratization

Peter ignored the Duma, the traditional advisory council, and

focused on his bureaucracy

He copied the models set by Prussia,

establishing a complex system of government

departments

The Imposition of Social Order

Peter’s policies laid the foundation for a two-class

system society

All peasants were reduced to one level, only slightly above

Serfs

Peter created a single class of nobles who found power in the bureaucracy rather than in the

traditional titles

The Subjugation of the Nobility

There was no voluntary alliance between nobles

and the government

The Tsar’s offered privilege and wealth in

exchange for public service

They coerced the nobility to follow the crown’s

wishes

Control of the Church Peter also absorbed the authority and wealth of

church lands by abolishing ecclesiastical

independence

He refused to replace the patriarch of the

Russian church who had died

The Church became a branch of the government

Military Expansion

Peter established a huge standing army, more than three hundred thousand

by the 1720s

He extended Russia’s frontier to the south and west, and, at the battle of Poltava in 1709, reversed his earlier defeat by the

Swedes

Alternatives to Absolutism

Alternative models did

develop: governments dominated by aristocrats or

merchants

Some of these systems are called constitutionalism

Aristocracy in the United Provinces, Sweden, and Poland

In the Dutch republic, the succession of William III seemed to move toward

absolutism

soon, however, the power of merchants and provincial

leaders

William sought the English crown and given attempts at

political centralization

Dutch Society

Instead of ancient families and bureaucratic

dynasties, the nobility was composed of

merchants and mayors

The elite were composed of hard-working financiers

and traders

Sweden

The Swedes created yet another non-absolutist model of state building

Charles XI (1660-1697), the monarchy was able to force

the great lords to return land to the throne

Stayed out of Europe’s wars and conserved resources

Charles XII (r. 1697-1718) revived

Sweden’s tradition of military conquest

In treaties signed from 1719 to 1721, Sweden

reverted to roughly the territory it had a century earlier

A splendid court arose in Stockholm

Poland

The sheer chaos and disunity that plagued

Poland until it ceased to exist as a state in the 18th

century was the direct result of the aristocracy blocking centralization

Poland was divided among the three major

powers

The Triumph of the Gentry in England

The model for a non-absolutist regime was

England

King Charles II (r. 1660-1685) seemed to hold

similar power to most absolutist rulers but was actually restrained by the

Parliament which had deep roots in England

He could not raise taxes but was given a fixed annual income financed by a tax on

beer

The Gentry and Parliament

The real control of the country’s affairs passed to

substantial land owners known as the gentry

The gentry were an independent force over various regions of land

Policy was still set by the King and his ministers, but the

Commons had be persuaded

The Succession

Despite divided authority, the

structure worked

Under James II (r. 1685-88), disaster

emerged

A zealous Catholic in a Protestant

country

The gentry invited the

Protestant ruler of the United

Provinces, William III

James II fled to France

A bloodless victory called the

“Glorious Revolution”

William and Mary

He gained what little title he could from his

wife Mary

The Parliament proclaimed them joint

monarch in 1689

*Bill of Rights determined the

succession of the throne

William guided England into an

aggressive foreign policy

He insisted that Parliament not meet while he was out of

country

But unlike James, William recognized

his limits

Politics and Prosperity

A small elite controlled the

countries policy and its institutions

A party system had developed during Charles

II’s reign

*Whig party, which opposed to the

throne, Catholicism, and rebellion against

James II

*Tory party, stood for independence

and authority of the crown, Anglicanism

The Sea and the Economy

England was winning for itself

unprecedented prosperity and laying the foundations of it’s

world power

England founded new colonies across the

globe

War and TaxesAs the financial and military needs of the

government expanded

A fully bureaucratized state

developed

Wars required an increase of resources and troops; 1690: 2 Million—1770: 30

Million

Contrasts in Political Thought

Intensive development of

new political systems led to an

outpouring of ideas about the nature and purpose of

government

Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes, from a poor family who

tutored aristocrats’ sons, attempted to use

the scientific method to analyze political behavior

Leviathan (1651)

People are selfish and ambitious and unless

they are restrained, they will fight perpetual wars

*State of nature—the state of war

Absolutism and sovereign power will

maintain peace

Locke

John Locke, a professor at Oxford,

sought to soften Hobbes

He based his theories on knowledge; tabula

rasa

Locke believed an underlying order

exists in every person

Second Treatise of Civil Government

Published in 1690, deeply influenced by Hobbes

He agreed with Hobbes but that the government should not encroach on three areas: life, liberty,

and property

He became the voice for the gentry

The International System

An orderly system on how nations are to

get along became a

major concern

Diplomacy and Warfare

Traditional dynastic interests still dominated policy

Family succession and arranged marriages to gain

new titles or alliances

Eventually, these dynastic interests gave way to the

impersonal conception of the state

“Balance of Power” and the Diplomatic System

The concept of equilibrium among state powers in Europe was

quickly taking hold

The Routinized management of foreign

relations fostered a collective European

identity

THE END