Chapter 15: Absolutism & Empire, 1660-1789

Absolutism

Absolutism a political theory that claims:

•Rulers have complete sovereignty within their territories. •An absolute monarch can make law, dispense justice, create and direct a bureaucracy, declare war, and levy taxes, without the approval of any other governing body. •Divine Right: legitimizes absolute power under the theory that God granted power and authority to rulers in order to protect the faith.

Purposes of Absolutism• Stability

• control over army, legal system, financial resources• Success of absolutism requires:

• controlling special interests • nobility• church• representative assemblies

• Can a ruler’s power ever be absolute?

Enlightened Absolutism• Ruler accepted many principles of the enlightenment

• Emphasis on education• Support for the merchant class• Support for exploration

• Many absolutist monarchs supported the intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment

• Paradox: “enlightened rulers” supported the Enlightenment but not limits on monarchial power

ABSOLUTIST MONARCHSFrance, Austria, Spain, Prussia, Russia

Who Were the Absolutist Monarchs?

• Louis XIV of France• Frederick William of Prussia• Maria Theresa of Austria• Peter the Great and Catherine the Great of Russia• Philip II of Spain

Louis XIV of France

Cardinal Richelieu mentored Louis XIV

Cardinal Richelieu & the Rise of France

•Cardinal Richelieu’s goals: •Centralize political power around the monarchy—not the church;

•Make France the leading power in Europe.

Louis XIV(1643-1715) of France

• Ruled for 72 years

• Personified France: “I am the State”

• Performing Royalty at Versailles (Sun King)

• Controled nobility • No Taxes on Nobility

• Require Nobility to reside at Versailles for 6 months each year

• Recruited Bourgeois as royal administrators • Bourgeois: educated professionals who were not born into the

aristocracy

• Collected taxes and Administered laws

• Undermined Parliamentary Power– Estates General did not

meet during Louis’s Reign

The Versailles Palace Today

Louis XIV

Maria Theresa & Josef II of Austria

Remaking of Central and Eastern Europe

• Decline of Ottoman Empire and rise of the Austro-Hungarian Empire• 1683 Ottoman’s failed to capture Vienna• 1713 Austria reconquered Hungary, Transylvania and Serbia from

Ottomans• Vienna—cultural and political capital• Hungary—buffer between Austria and Ottomans• Territories were contiguous but deeply divided by ethnicity, language

and religion

Maria Theresa (r. 1740-1780) & Joseph II (r. 1765-1790)

• Enlightened absolutism (?)• Centralized administration• Increased taxation• Professional standing army• Control over Church• System of primary education• Relaxation of censorship• Liberalized criminal code

Austro – Hungarian Empire after 1713

Multiple Ethnic Identities in a Contiguous Space

Prussia• Became a powerful Protestant state.• North German Princes (Hohenzollern) united lands after

the Peace of Westphalia (1648).• Hohenzollerns took power from weaker lords (Junkers),

but gave them powerful jobs in the army.• Government centralized as absolute monarchy under

Frederick William, who formed one of the fiercest militaries ever seen…• “Prussia is not a a state which possesses an army,

rather an army that possesses a state.”

Prussia (continued)

• Frederic William’s son, Frederick II, a brilliant military leader, given the title “Frederick the Great.”

• Austria and Prussia had both arisen as powerful states, and competed with each other for power over central Europe for a long time to come.

Frederick the Great of Prussia

Autocracy in Russia• Peter the Great

• Westernization• Social and Cultural Reforms

• Make Russia a great military power• New tax system • Table of Ranks

• required nobility to serve the state or be reduced in rank

• Peasants as tools of war • By 1750 one half of the serfs were state peasants• State peasants could be drafted into the military• State peasants could be drafted into factories• Peasants had no bargaining power over wages or working conditions• Peasants could not leave jobs for a better job

Autocracy in Russia• Peter the Great replaced the Duma (a “representative”

assembly of nobles) with a hand-picked Senate of 9 administrators

• Assumed direct control of the Russian Orthodox Church by appointing an imperial official who managed its affairs• The Communists would do the same in the 20th century but

contrary to Cold War propaganda, state control over the Russian Orthodox Church did not originate with the Communists

Russian Foreign Policy Goal• Secure a warm water (year-round) port on the Black Sea

and the Baltic Sea• Without a warm water port, Russia was landlocked for at least 6

months out of the year

• Swedes and Ottoman Empire opposed Russian warm water port

• Peter the Great failed to gain a warm water port

Catherine the Great

Catherine the Great• German not Russian• May have participated in the palace coup that deposed

and then executed her husband Peter III• Social Reforms

• Hospitals• Primary schools for children of rural nobility

• In 1769, renewed Peter the Great’s goal of obtaining a warm water port• Defeated Ottoman Turks and gained control of the North Coast of

the Black Sea• Won independence for the Crimea and safe passage of Russian

ships through Bosporus into the Mediterranean• Gained control of Ottoman provinces in the Balkans

ENGLANDLimited Monarchy and the Rights of an Englishman

England’s Limited Monarchy

• Church of England entangled with English Nationalism• Reduced political and social rights for Roman Catholics• Limited rights for Protestant Dissenters (Calvinists: Puritans,

Separatists and Quakers)

• Charles II (1660-1685)• Accepted the Magna Carta• Agreed to follow the Petition of Right

James II of England• James II (1685-1688)• Roman Catholic Convert• Decree of Religious Toleration for Catholics• Declared in 1688 that newborn son would be raised

Roman Catholic

The Glorious Revolution

• 1688—Delegation of Whigs and Tories invited William of Orange and his wife Mary Stuart to invade England to preserve Protestantism

• 1689 William & Mary accepted the English Bill of Rights which affirmed the following as “Rights of Englishmen”:• Habeas Corpus• Trial by Jury• Petition the Monarch through Parliament• Monarchy subject to the laws of England• Act of Toleration granted Protestant dissenters the right to worship

freely but not to hold office• Act of Succession (1701): every future monarch must be a member

of the Church of England

William & Mary

James II was Mary’s father and William’s Uncle/Father in Law. William and Mary wereChildless and when William died in 1702, Mary’s Sister, Anne, ascended the throne of England as Queen Anne.

Who Benefitted Most from the Glorious Revolution?

• Consolidated positions of local control by large property owners• Patronage• War contracts

• Oppressed the Roman Catholic Minority• Another source of the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland that

continue to the present day

John Locke and the Contract Theory of Government

Two Treatises of Government (1690):

•State of Nature•Individual enforcement of Rights•All humans endowed with Natural Rights to life,

Liberty and property•Government established to arbitrate disputes•All rights not expressly granted to government were

reserved to the people•Government authority is both contractual

and conditional•If Government abuses or exceeds its authority,

society has the right to dissolve it and replace it

BALANCE OF POWER SYSTEMWar and Diplomacy

The Balance of Power System

• Diplomatic Goal: To preserve the balance of power• Lasted from 1661 until collapsing with the outbreak of WWI

• Proponents were England, Holland, Prussia, Austria

• Purpose: limit the power and expansion of France through military and diplomatic alliances• Louis hoped to control the throne of Spain• Spanish colonies in Americas

ABSOLUTISM AND WAREurope’s monarchs used war to consolidate power and increase territory

War of the Spanish Succession: 1702-1713

• Who would succeed King Charles II of Spain in 1700?• France and Austria wanted members of their monarchy on the

thrown• England opposed partition of Spain • Phillip V (King Louis XIV grandson) proclaimed King of Spain• England, Netherlands, Prussia Austria declared war on France,

Spain and Bavaria

Treaty of Utrecht• Philip V: retained Spain and its empire• Louis XIV: agreed that Spain and France would never be

united under 1 ruler• Austria: gained control over territories in Netherlands and

Milan and Naples• Great Britain:

• retained Gibraltar and Minorca• gained French territory in North America and Caribbean • gained right to transport and sell slaves in Spanish colonies in the

Americas

Catherine the Great and Balance of Power Politics

• Russia’s gains in the war with the Ottoman Turks threatened the Balance of Power in Eastern Europe

• Monarchs agreed to settle territory disputes• Russia proposed that Austria-Hungary; Prussia and Russia

partition Poland• Russia agreed to give up conquests in the Balkans in return for the grain

fields of eastern Poland• Austria-Hungary obtained Galicia • Prussia obtained coastal regions (Gdansk/Danzig)• Poland ceased to exist as a sovereign territory until

after WWI

In 1939 Hitler and Stalin again divided Poland

Partition of Poland

War and Empire• War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748)

• Austria, Britain and Dutch Republic vs. Prussia and France• Prussia: argued that Maria Theresa could not succeed to the

Hapsburg throne because she was a woman• A series of smaller wars

• Prussia seized Silesia (for coal, copper, zinc, lead, gold, iron, silver) • French and Prussians attempted to invade Austria and further enter

Poland• French declared war on Britain and prepared an invasion in 1744 but

were thwarted by storms on the English Channel• French turned toward Dutch Republic• Spain entered the war to invade Austrian territory in Italy

• Treaty of Aix-la Chapelle (1748)• Only Prussia retained territory (Silesia)• Maria Theresa survived with most of her territory intact

EMPIRE, COLONIALISM, SLAVERYMercantilism, Rise of Capitalism, Trade and Self Government

What is Mercantilism?• An economic theory and the policy directing the economy

of monarchial European states between 1600-1800• Assumed that wealth and power depended on a favorable balance

of trade (exports exceeding imports) and the accumulation of precious metals (gold and silver)

• Advocated forms of protectionism to protect dominance of domestic production and wealth accumulation• Monarchs and Nobility attempted to retain control of wealth through

granting monopolies to favored nobles or as rewards for service to wealthy merchants.

• Competition was for monopoly and contracts—not based on free markets

• Each monarch sought to restrain the trade of rival monarchs by closing markets and colonies to competition

Spanish Colonialism• Colonial governments in the Americas were controlled by

Madrid• Only Spanish merchants permitted to trade with Spanish

colonies• All colonial exports and imports had to pass through a Spanish port

• Seville and Cadiz

• Dominated by mining• Outpost in Manila to trade South American bullion for

Asian silk

Spanish Empire in 17th century

Social Structures in Spanish Colonies• Replaced existing elites with Spanish administrators and

churchmen• Did Spanish uproot or eliminate existing cultures?• Focused on controlling and exploiting native labor

• Didn’t this control and exploitation of native labor and usurpation of existing social structures uproot and eliminate existing culture?

• High degree of intermarriage• Complex social hierarchy: Spanish, Mestizos, slaves, tribal

indigenous people

English Colonialism• North America

• 1607 Jamestown• North American colonies had little material wealth• By 1647: 80,000 English emigrants settled in 20 settlements in New World

• English colonists had little interest in converting the Native peoples• Colonies were private ventures (proprietary or joint-stock companies)• Attempt to recreate life in England• Navigation Acts of 1651 and 1660 required colonies to ship exports on English

ships through English ports and denied direct importation of certain products (sugar and tobacco) from other colonies

• Did not seek to control large native labor force –wanted exclusive control over land• Expulsion• Massacre• Was this what we would call genocide today?• Little intermarriage• Rigid racial distinctions

Dutch Colonialism• Until 1670, Dutch had most prosperous commercial

empire of the 17th century• Fort and Factory Model

• Based on The Portuguese "feitorias" • Fortified trading posts settled in coastal areas• Centralize and dominate the local trade of products • Served simultaneously as market, warehouse, navigation support

(light house), and customs• Governed by a "Feitor" (Factor)

• Managed trade (buying and trading products on behalf of the king)• Collected taxes (usually 20%).

French Colonialism • Sugar producing colonies in West Indies• African slaves in St. Dominguez (Haiti) produced 40% of

world’s sugar• Fur trade in North America did not amount to much• French Colonial Society

• Elites of French colonial society were plantation owners, officers and administrators from Paris

• Peoples of mixed descent were in the middle• Slaves were at the bottom

• Monarchy controlled prices that Planters could charge• Room for merchants in middle to make money• Historians estimate that perhaps 1 million of France’s 20 million

inhabitants lived off the proceeds from the sugar plantations

Triangular Trade in Sugar and Slaves• Refers to trade routes in the Atlantic• Response to European demand for sugar and tobacco• Demand for slaves to work sugar and tobacco plantations

in the Americas• Britain dominated

"New Perspectives on theTransatlantic Slave Trade," Special Issue, William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 58 (2001),between pp. 16 and 17.As shown on www.slaveryimages.org, compiled by Jerome Handler and Michael Tuite, and sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library.

Slave Trade• Run as monopoly in 16th and early 17th century by

European governments (English, Spanish, French)• 18th century slave trade open to private entrepreneurs

• West African ports• Exchange of Indian cloth, metal goods, rum and firearms in return

for human cargo• Middle passage

Gate of No ReturnCape Coast Castle, Ghana (2007)courtesy B. Pilgrim, accessed 1/27/2012 http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/index.php

Economic Growth in 18th Century Europe

• At the beginning of the 18th century ½ of all Europeans still died of infectious disease

• New agricultural technologies made food production more effective

• Immunities and better nutrition caused population boom in major industrial cities like London, Amsterdam, Naples and Paris

• Emerging mass market for consumer goods• Golden age of the shopkeeper• Consumer goods were products of a growing colonial empire

in Asia, Africa and the Americas• England, France and Spain competed for control of colonial

territories, access to colonial resources and manpower

Economic Entanglement between Government and Colonialism

• Value of colonial commerce tied interests of governments and transoceanic merchants together

• Merchants depended on governments to protect their investments• Governments depended on merchants to create wealth that drove

their economies• Ability to wage war depended on loans from wealthy investors

and ability to repay the loans with interest• Bank of England (1690)

• Sold shares of English national debt to investors• Ability of England to repay the debt resulted in moderate rate of interest

• French did not have the same reputation• French government was charged ruinously high rates of interest• Based on size of debt• Unsuccessful wars

Seven Years War (aka) French and Indian War (1756-1763)

• A global war• Europe• North America• Central America• West Africa• India• The Philippines

• Driven by personal antagonisms between Europe’s ruling families• British House of Hanover vs. French and Spanish House of Bourbon• Hohenzollerns of Prussia vs. Hapsburgs of Austria

• Between 900,000 and 1,400,000 people died• British got Canada and India from France• Set the stage for the American War for Independence and the

French Revolution

American Colonies vs. Intolerable Acts

• Acts interpreted as violating the basic rights of Englishmen• Quartering Act: required Colonial subjects to quarter British troops• Boston Port Act: closed Port of Boston until the East India Tea

Company was repaid for losses sustained as a result of the Boston Tea Party

• Massachusetts Government Act: Limited Town Hall Meetings and allowed Crown to appoint most government officials in Massachusetts

• Administration of Justice Act: allowed Colonial governors to remove British officials accused of wrongdoing to England or another British Colony if they believed they could not get a fair trial

• Quebec Act: limited frontier expansion and provided rights to French Catholics

Taxes and the Revolutionary War• Americans saw themselves first as Englishmen• Colonial Governments not Parliament had always decided on

local taxes • Prior to the French and Indian War, English government did not care

what was taxed as long as the required amount of money was raised.• Americans willing to raise money for taxes but wanted a say in what was

taxed and how

• British government needed to pay for wars and the Bank of England was having trouble raising the money

• British sentiment: American Colonies were expensive and England should have more direct control over raising revenue (no doubt to help British merchants obtain even higher profits).

• Colonists insisted that they should decide what should be taxed not whether they should be taxed

Global Connections of the Revolutionary War

• July 4, 1776 Americans declared independence• 1778 France joined war on side of Americans• Spain entered the war in support of France• Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic because it

refused to recognize the trade embargo with the rebellious North American Colonies

• 1781 British surrenderTreaty of Paris (1783)

Great Britain kept control of Canada and Gibraltar and recognized independence of the 13 rebellious colonies

Spain kept possessions West of the Mississippi and recovered Florida

France got the satisfaction of finally defeating Britain and a huge war debt

Absolutism, Colonial Dominance and the U.S. Constitution

• Seen in the context of the broader sweep of western civilization history • American Revolutionary War: the last war in a century-long conflict

for colonial dominance by European monarchies• U.S. constitutional system of checks and balances:

• Based on colonial experience with wars of absolute monarchs who were free to declare war for any reason or for no reason at all

• Intended to check lavish spending of absolutist monarchs who lived in great palaces and spent taxes lavishly on themselves but not for the good of their people

• Fight over the Bill of Rights was essential to some because it was intended to safeguard the basic rights of Englishmen that American colonists had fought for

• Sought to mediate individual rights with the needs of the nation• Contradiction between system of slavery and rights of men