Absolutism and the Enlightenment The Formation of Modern Thought and Government

What is Absolutism? - “Enlightened Despot” - Holy - Paternal - Absolute - Reasonable - Educated Catherine the Great of Russia – the epitome of an enlightened despot. She collected artistic masterpieces in her palace, the Hermitage, while raising taxes on Russian peasants.

Why Absolutism Arose - Modern Armies - Instability - Centralization - Decline of the Nobility - Mercantilism - Divine Right of Kings - It Worked! Gustavus Adolphus’ model revolutionized European government.

Louis XIV -1642-1715 -Cardinal Richelieu - The Fronde - Versailles - Huguenots - Effective Bureaucracy

Peter the Great St. Petersburg -1682-1725 -“A Warm-Water Port” - Military and Navy - “A Window on the West” - The New Nobility - Economic Growth - Modern, but unstable

The Scientific Revolution -“Nature and Nature’s laws lay hidden by night; God said ‘Let Newton be,’ and all was light.” – Alexander Pope -Occurred mostly in the 16th and 17th Centuries. -Nicholas Copernicus -Isaac Newton -Gottfried Leibnitz -Galileo Galilei -Francis Bacon -Protestant vs. Catholic -Technology

The Enlightenment -Secularism -Logic. -Optimism: Belief that people could change. -Print Culture -Salons, Scientific Societies

Enlightenment Thinkers Rene Descartes Adam Smith Montesquieu

Enlightenment Thinkers Thomas Hobbes John Locke Jean Jaques Rosseau Voltaire

Voltaire: Severus Snape “ ‘I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren’t as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.’ ” (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, p 137) "I would rather obey one lion than 200 rats of [my own] species." (Voltaire, in reference to the superiority of enlightened absolutism over democracy)

Procession of English Leaders James I 1603 - 1625 Charles I 1625-1649 Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell 1653-1659

Procession of English Leaders Charles II 1660-1685 James II 1685-1688 William III 1688-1702

The Rise of Prussia - The Thirty Years War - A Standing Army - Religious Toleration - Education - High Taxes and Economic Growth - Seven Years War

Causes of the French Revolution -Excess at Versailles -Foreign Wars -Bad Harvests -Incompetent Monarchy -Rise of the Bourgeoisies -The Enlightenment