Download Eastern Absolutism - Los Alamitos Unified School District

1589-1740
By: Andrew Bailey & Ryan Castro
 Absolute
kings regulated religious sects. And
abolished liberties long held by certain areas,
groups, provinces.
 Absolute rulers found that creation of a new
State bureaucracies that directed economic life
of the country in the interests of the king, was a
way to raise revenue.
 Maintained permanent standing armies,
different from Medieval monarchs in that kings
depended on feudal lords to raise armies.

France was in terrible condition since 1561
• Poor harvest left the peasants to starve, while trying to fight off
bands of demobilized soldiers
• Nobles, officials, merchants, and peasants wanted peace

Henry IV first ruler since Louis IX to care about his
people, and was able to keep peace in France
• Appointed Protestant Maximilien de Bethune, duke of Sully, as
Chief minister

Tried to gain Protestant confidence by issuing the Edict
of Nantes in 1598, which granted huguenots liberty of
conscience and of public worship in 150 towns
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Introduced Paulette- annual fee paid by royal officials
to guarantee heredity in their offices
Sully combined indirect taxes on salt, sales, and transit
and leased their collection to financiers, though taxes
declined, revenues increased
Cardinal Richelieu first minister of the French Crown
• Divided France into 32 Districts to help run the country
• Got rid of any opposition

Soon centralizing idea lead to the Fronde “civil wars” in
France 1648-1653
• Led Louis XIV to believe that the only alternative to anarchy
was absolute monarchy
 Louis
XIV revoked Edict of Nantes this
called for a state under only one religion
 France economically weak, due to failed
collecting methods
 King Jean-Baptiste Colbert came up with
Mercantilism which is a collection of
governmental Polices for the regulation
of the economic activities by and for the
state

Louis began to expand the boarders of France by
invading Flanders, part of Spanish Netherlands, and
Franche-Comte in the east in 1677, and kept expanding
• Later years brought bad harvest and rising debt to force Louis
to make peace but only to build up forces for another war
 War
of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713)
• Who would take over the Spanish throne, if France won it would
cause a power upset in Europe


1701 England, Dutch, Austrians, and Prussians formed
grand Alliance to prevent France from being to
powerful
Peace of Utrecht represented a balance of power
setting limits on the extent to which any one power
could expand
• Helped the decline of Spain
• Gave European powers experience in international
cooperation
 Focused
on Classical
antiquity, resembled
that of Renaissance
Italy
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Spain had developed the standard features of absolute
monarchy
Spain depended financially on an international
absolutism based on silver bullion from colonized
countries like Peru
Spanish Kings had to continuously cancel the national
debt, making people lose faith in the govt.
High inflation occurred due the large amounts of gold
and silver in the country
• Led Spain’s collapsed
 Limitations
of govt. on law
 Elizabeth I of England(1588) was able to
exercise great personal power due to political
shrewdness and flexibility
• Leaders after her didn’t possess the same traits and
led England to reject absolutism
 James
I and Charles I believed they only
answered to God and began to control
everything

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Puritans felt Reformation of the Church of England
hadn’t gone far enough in cleansing Roman Catholics
Charles I seemed to be sympathetic to Catholics
• From 1629-1640 dissolved Parliament do their restrictions on
taxes he wanted to impose Parliament didn’t trust him

Gave to the English civil war (1642-1649) which be
headed Charles and left England in a big pile of S*@%


Commonwealth formed after the beheading of Charles
• Power rested in Parliament executive power lodged in a council
of state

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Oliver Cromwell had controlled the army that defeated
Charles I, and he the “ Protectorate” exercised military
dictatorship
After his death in 1658 English people were fed up with
military rule
By 1660 England Returned to monarchy with Charles II
as their king

Didn’t solve two problems
• What was going to be the attitude of the state toward religious
sects.
• What was to be constitutional position of kings


Charles II wanted good relations with Parliament
James II took the throne and granted high position in
England to Catholics , going against the Test Act
• Forced James II and his family to flee to France 1688
• Gave the power to his daughter Mary and her husband William
1689
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Destroyed theory of divine right monarchy
Bill of Rights made in response to Stuart absolutions
John Locke: “Second Treatise of Civil Government”
• Civil govts. are to protect Life, Liberty, and Property i.e. natural
rights
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Had fought against Spanish rule and won
independence in the Peace of Westphalia
Became model for the modern const. state
Virtually all power rested in the provincial Estates, the
Dutch were fiercely republican
They were a confederation that led to many countries
wanting to take over the 7 provinces
Strong middle class due to commercial wealth and
practice religious toleration unlike all of Europe
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This movement was inspired by Louis XIV
and the absolute rulers called on the
artistic talent of the age to glorify the power
and magnificence
Baroque was a style that evoked
exuberance and grandeur in sculpture
Baroque art was intended for the Catholic
Church and became to symbolize absolutist
power
Summer Palace Vienna expressed baroque
delight and bold sweeping statements
which provided a dramatic emotional
expirience
 Austria-
Hungary
 Bohemia region
 Prussia
 Kingdom of Poland
 Balkan Provinces
 Holy Roman Empire
 Ottoman Turks
Empires losing Power:
A. Holy Roman Empire
B. Republic of Poland
C. Ottoman Empire
Up and coming Empires
A. Austria
B. Prussia
C. Russia
 Weaker
ruling in the east with poor
monarch leadership
 Nobility
had control over economic &
legal control over serfs/peasants
 Nobility
had ruling power in their
province
 Habsburgs
were trying to the unite the
Holy Roman empire under one banner
 Desperate for a ruler the Bohemian
region looked to become independent
and not part of the Holy Roman Empire
 After the 30 years war Ferdinand the III
began to take over rule of Austria

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Because of having a permanent standing army from
Ferdinand the III the Austrian’s begin to become a
military power
Religious views were seen as a direct threat to the
Austrian’s, the neighboring Ottoman Empire was
largely Islamic and posed threat to the Austrian
Catholic way of life
This lead to a long lasting conflict between the two
sides for another 150 years
 Suffered
tragically from the war
 The
Habsburgs were exhausted after the Thirty
Years’ War, but they still remained emperors of
the Holy Roman Empire
 30 Years’ War brought the decline
• economics arts, literature, and science
• religious turmoil
• No central authority
*40% of German population was killed
•
Numerous ethnic groups, religions &
languages within empire
 The
real power lay with 300 varying
political entities that shared a geographic
region, but had very little else in
common.
•
Brandenburg-Prussia began as a small,
landlocked state on the Elbe River
 • Through marriages and alliances –
including French support during the
 Thirty Years’ War –it slowly added
lands
 • Frederick William of Hohenzollern
wielded states together in absolutist
state
Hohenzollern rulers- elector of
Brandenburg & duke of Prussia
• elector of Brandenburg – helps choose Holy
Roman emperor
• 1618 – Prussia became possession of elector of
Brandenburg when junior branch of
Hohenzollern family died out
 Frederick William, the “Great
Elector”
(r. 1640-1688)
 Frederick
III, “the Ostentatious”
(r. 1688-1713)
 Frederick William
(r. 1713-1740)
I, “the Soldiers’ King”
 Brought
together the dispersed
territories into a single unified Prussia
 Established
himself and his kin as the
future leadership
 Frederick William
broke apart the power
of the German nobility ( Junkers)
 Established a royal bureaucracy with a
less in powered nobility from coming to
power
 Built a large and powerful army, the best
army in all of Europe at the time
 Cultural
developments
 Built large palaces for his wealthy
 Because of the support towards the
Hapsburgs he was awarded to be king of
all Prussia
 Less active in foreign policy more
towards his peoples domestic attitudes
 Pushed
Prussia towards being absolutist
unification
 Strived for utter loyalty and nationalism,
wanted service from his citizens
 Increased size of government
bureaucracy
 “Sparta of the North”

Focused on the best military personal
and weapons
 Large
and efficient government
bueacracy
 Centralized
control ( Monarchy)


Ivan III (1442-1505) ended Mongol domination of Russia and
took the title Tsar (Caesar) proclaiming himself heir to the
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire). He confiscated
80% of Novgorod, keeping half and gave the rest to his
nobles, causing a rise in service nobility.
Ivan IV "the Terrible" grandson of Ivan III who started
westernizing Russia was a contemporary of Queen Elizabeth
I of England. Ivan the Terrible claimed all nobles had to
serve the tsar in order to hold office. His purges
depopulated much of Russia, forcing many peasants to flee
west to hide and form groups called Cossacks. Ivan
believed he owned all the trade and industry which sharply
contrasted with capitalism in western Europe.
 10
years-old when he became the tsar
 Reorganized government finances based
on west
 Had a great interest for the western
ideology
 Built strong army & equipped it with
modern weapons
 Built
new schools & an academy for the
 sciences
 Women were given a more public role in
society
 Introduced cultural changes to upper
classes – new hair style, western clothing,
lavish palaces and western language.
 Established
metallurgical industries in
the Ural Mountains
 Divided the realm into 52 provinces, each
with governor
 Put towns under the control of provincial
government
 All men were required to enter state
service – army, navy or bureaucracy
 Had
intentions of conquering
Constantinople
(Control of the straits would give passage
from Asia to Europe)
 Defeated King Christian XII of Sweden at
Neva River in 1703
 • Quickly built a new capital city, St.
Petersburg