AP Euro Unit 3: Absolutism and Constitutionalism

Economic Contextualization for Absolute Monarchies

• Commercial Revolution: the Columbian exchange led to higher prices in Europe (from increased silver imports), which spurred a fast-growing urban population

• Beginning of Modern Banking System: Large-scale banking emerges following the rise in trade due to the discovery of the New World

• Mercantilism: Prevailing economic theory that states there was only a set amount of wealth in the world, and to become richer, you must make another nation poorer and vice versa

Societal Contextualization of Absolute Monarchies

• Robe Nobles: People who gained prestige and the title of noble through accumulation of wealth

• Landed Gentry: Early middle class, began to have small surplus of wealth and separated themselves from the rest of the peasantry

• Collapse of Serfdom: Western regions in Europe were starting to be freed from the hierarchical feudal system, allowing more opportunity

Religious Contextualization of Absolute Monarchies

• Church is still the centre of daily life and unites people even after the division of the Protestant Reformation

New Monarchies Contextualization of Absolute Monarchies

• New monarchies wanted to centralize power and eliminate the power of the nobility because of the power struggle between the two

  • Reduced noble power via a professional army, increased oversight over finances, bureaucracy, etc.

Principles of Absolutism

• Divine Right of Rule: Claiming authority as a mandate of God

• Control Over Finances: Raising funds for the nation, strengthening economic standing of the nation (mercantilism), weaken nobility 

• Standing Armies: Reduce reliance upon nobility and force them to do their will

French Absolutist Monarchs

Henry IV, Louis XIII, Louis XIV

Henry IV

• Began France’s movement to an absolute monarchy 

• Weakens power of the nobility 

• Supports rise of Robe and Sword Nobles

• Mercantilism: Imports > Exports

How did Lous XIII Consolidate Power

• Intendant System: Royally appointed officials of the bureaucracy were sent to nobly controlled provinces to collect taxes, cutting out the nobility 

• Professional Military: Standing army that was loyal to the monarch, making France less reliant on noble armies and levies

• Religious Control: Maintained the Edict of Nantes (privileges granted to Huguenots) but used the military to end Huguenots’ military and political independence 

• Economy: French merchants were granted commercial monopolies in French ports, eliminating foreign competition

Cardinal Richelieu

• Chief Minister to Louis XIII

• Helps Louis XIII with strengthening the absolutist monarchy by diminishing the influence of potential rivals (eg. nobility, Huguenots)

Fronde Rebellion (1648-1653)

• Rebellion against Louis XIV when he was an infant 

• Nobility unhappy with their decreasing power, following centralization efforts of Cardinal Richelieu and Mazarin

• Though defeated, Louis learns to never trust nobility

Palace of Versailles

• Louis XIV converts his fathers’ hunting lodge in the countryside into a palace away from Paris 

• Makes nobility move in to keep an eye on them and keep them away from the capital where all the decisions are made

• Also a representation of the Monarchy’s extravagance 

How did Louis XIV Consolidate Power Domestically

• Expansion of the Bureaucracy 

• Expansion of Army

• Mercantilist Policies 

• Religious Policies

Edict of Fontainebleau (1685)

• Louis XIV views the Huguenot population of France as a threat to his rule (10% of France was Protestant)

• Wanted to have on dominant religion to support his divine right of rule (French Calvinists - Huguenots - were theocrats)

• Revoked Edict of Nantes - suspends the religious freedom of French protestants

  • gives them the choice between leaving with nothing and converting to catholicism 

• Creates huge economic hardship from migration, as Protestants were wealthy and educated

Expansion of Bureaucracy under Louis XIV

• Intendant system: While nobles were at Versailles, Louis XIV was able to strengthen grip on tax collection through intendants

• Gave positions to middle class: Louis gave positions to well educated middle class who were loyal to him

Expansion of Army under Louis XIV

• France’s army became larger than ever before, largest in Europe during Louis’ reign

• Rebellions quelled by the army, loyal to the king

Mercantilist Policies under Louis XIV & Jean Baptiste Colbert

• High tariffs imposed on foreign goods and traders, promoting French domestic goods

• Exports > Imports

• No tax on domestic luxury goods 

• Increase supply of gold and silver at Versailles 

• Limited Nobility’s power to interfere in the economy

Jean Baptiste Colbert

• Chief minister of Finance for Louis XIV

• Weakened power of nobility by limiting their chance to interfere in the economy by centralizing economy under the monarchy

• Works with the Bureaucracy to further strengthen Louis XIV’s power

Louis XIV Foreign Absolutism

• Wars that weakened France’s economy

  • Waging wars would expand France’s economy (aligned with mercantilism)

• 5 expensive wars

  • War of Devolution (1667-1668)

  • Dutch War (1672-1678)

  • War of Reunions (1679-1684)

  • Nine Years’ War (1688-1697)

  • War of the Spanish Sucession (1702-1714)

The Dutch War (1672-1678)

• Dutch were an economic powerhouse because they began adapting Capitalist ideas instead of Mercantilism

• Louis XIV was jealous of Dutch power, and wanted to seize the Netherlands to take control of Dutch maritime power

• Louis does this in the name of Mercantilism

• A coalition forms against Louis XIV and he is defeated by the Dutch and their allies led by William of Orange

• Represents a conflict that was fought because of the balance of power, stopping France from becoming too powerful

Nine Years’ War: League of Augsburg (1688-1697)

• French want the mineral rich region of Alsace-Lorraine

• Alsace-Lorraine went back and forth between France and Germany throughout History

• Louis XIV wants the region, launching war against the region and the Hapsburgs 

  • Protestant England, United Provinces, and Austrian Hapsburgs come together to fight Louis

• Protestants and catholic countries come together to maintain the balance of power

War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714)

• Death of Charles II (last Spanish Habsburg monarch) without an heir

  • Closest male relative was Philip of Anjou, Grandson of Louis XIV)

  • Europe was alarmed by the chance of France and Spain uniting, changing the balance of power, starting the conflict

• England, Prussia, United Provinces, and Austria, come together to prevent France from upsetting the balance of power

  • Treaty of Utrecht (1714): ends the war of Spanish succession

Treaty of Utrecht (1714)

• Philip of Anjou gets Spanish throne, Hapsburgs lose Spanish throne

  • Dynastic union between Spain and France is forbidden

• France gets Alsace-Lorraine

• England gains new territory in the new world

• Austria receives Spanish Netherlands

• Elector of Brandenburg is given title of King of Prussia - emergence of Prussia as a new power

Contextualization for Absolutism in Austria

• Austria loses the 30 years war

• Leopold I ascends to the throne and attempts to modernize Austria

King Leopold I

• King of Austria

• Goal was to modernize, centralize and strengthen government, and strengthen alliances

King Leopold I relationship with Nobility

Did not weaken nobility, but trusts nobility with power

King Leopold Modernization Efforts

• Work with nobility to strengthen Austrian power

• Expand Bureaucracy 

• Consult Foreigners

  • Prince Eugene of Savoy: military commander from France (brought up in the court of Louis XIV but was rejected from service)

  • Served as the head of the Austrian army through multiple conflicts, including the War of Spanish Succession

  • Helps ibcrease Austria’s territory: Hungary and the Balkan Peninsula 

Contextualization of Absolutism in Prussia

• Brandenburg-Prussia gained independence from the Habsburgs after the Thirty Years’ War (through the Peace of Westphalia)

• Prince Frederick I of Prussia lends his military to Leopold I of Austria during the Wars of the Spanish Succession

• As thanks, Leopold crowns him King in Prussia and is given the status of a Kingdom

Frederick William I 

• 12th largest population, 4th largest military

• modernized agriculture

• Embraced religious toleration

• Nobles (Junkers) must be loyal to the military, military service required to stay a noble 

• Educated population, teaching all his citizens reding, writing, and basic math

Frederick II (Frederick the Great)

• Was raised as a military kid (no childhood, being trained his entire life)

• Puts Prussia on a path towards economic modernization

• Bureaucracy in control of taxation

• Economic Policies

• Religious toleration, diest (believed in God but had no specific affiliation), invites Jews from Poland to Prussia

• Reclaimed land (filled marsh land and made it into farm land), famine prevention (Potatoes) 

• Wanted to help his people 

Frederick II Economic Policies

• Tariffs on imported goods

  • Revenue from taxes to build infrastructure (roads and bridges to increase trade)

  • Bank of Berlin

    • loans 

  • Trade with China

  • Lottery

  • Silk Factories

  • Coffee Monopoly

  • Fire Insurance

Contextualization for Absolutism in Russia

• Russia was untouched by the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation

• Dominated by Boyars (Russian Nobility) and the Eastern Orthodox Church

• Peter the Great wants to make Russia a European power, and traveled to Europe for ideas on how to Westernize

Peter I 

• Traveled to the west and realized Russia was behind

• Takes on Mercantilist policy 

• Goal: Modernize Russia

  • Military

  • Expansion

  • Centralize Power

  • Westernize

  • Educate

Peter I Modernization Efforts

Military: Established a standing army, built a Navy, and introduced new training, tactics, and weapons

Bureaucracy: Centralized bureaucracy, governing senate 

Social: Imposed Western customs such as adopting Western clothing and social etiquette, education, sciences, and secularism 

Economic: Developing manufacturing and mining industries like roads and canals to encourage trade

Religious: Reduced power of Russian Orthodox Church by creating a state-controlled church body

Technology: Encouraged adoption of Western Technology 

Table of Ranks

• Reorganized state and military positions into 14 ranks based on merit rather than birth 

• Commoners were able to rise through government and military service, diluting hereditary noble power 

• Meritocratic

Beard Tax

• Peter I viewed beards as a sign of Russian backwardness and wanted to align Russia with Western European customs

• Being clean-shaven was fashionable in the rest of Europe

• All men except priests and deacons were required to shave their beards or pay a yearly tax to keep them

  • The tax varied based on social status, higher rank = higher prices

The Great Northern War (1700-1721)

• Peter I seeks to seize a warm-water port, which would increase Russia’s participation in trade with the rest of Europe

• Russia wins with the help of Denmark and Saxony against the Swedish, led by Gustavus Adolphus

Contextualization for Constitutionalism in England

• Magna Carta (1215)

• Elizabeth I accepted the role that parliament had a great degree of power and worked with them to achieve her agendas

English Civil War

• Caused by the continuous conflict between Charles I and Parliament

• Civil War led by Oliver Cromwell, parliamentarians defeated the royalists, and Charles I was put on trial for treason against England and executed

The Interregnum

• Parliament is now the supreme lord of the land, but had no real power 

• Cromwell dissolved Rump Parliament and established himself as Lord Protectorate of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland

England Under Cromwell

• Cromwell was a Puritan, so rules were based upon Puritan doctrine

  • Established the Directory of Public Worship

  • Outlawed Dancing

  • Closed all Theaters

  • Closed all taverns and pubs

  • Cancelled the press

Restoration of the Monarchy (1660)

After Cromwell’s death, his son rules for a year before Parliament invites back the son of Charles I, Charles II, who was in exile in France to restore the Stuart Monarchy to the throne of England

The Glorious Revolution (1688)

• After Charles II dies, his brother, James II takes the throne of England 

• James was Catholic and parliament feared a restoration of Catholic rule to England 

• Parliament invited the protestant daughter of James II, Mary, and her husband William of Orange to become co-monarchs of England, William III and Mary II

Bill of Rights (1689)

• Following the accession of William and Mary, parliament presented the monarchs with the Bill of Rights

• Put heavy limits on their power and marked the shift in England to a monarchy restricted by parliament

• Gave way to the future figure head status of the Monarchy

Contextualization for Constitutionalism in the United Provinces

• United Provinces just emerged from the destructive rebellion against the Spanish Habsburg’s and had secured their independence after the Thirty Years War

• Their new nation reflected their desire to throw off the oppression of absolutism 

Make up of the United Provinces

• Limited Monarchy: Didn’t have any real power over the stadholder and couldn’t intervene in the role of the economy

• Stadholder: Provincial executive from each of the 7 provinces of the United Provinces who ran the provinces they were elected to

• States General: Controlled the running of the seven United Provinces and made decision on war and trade regulation

• Focused on Maritime Expansion: Unable to exert power in Europe, so merchants turned to the seas

Constitutionalism in Sweden

• King Gustavus Adolphus helped Sweden emerge as a dominant power in Northern Europe

• Sweden were defeated by a coalition of Russia, Denmark, and Saxony in the Great Northern War, diminishing its power in the region

• Following the death of Gustavus, Charles XII becomes King of Sweden

  • Once Charles dies, a conflict between his sister and the nobility over the succession

  • Following Charles XII death, the nobility rose up and took control over the government

  • Eventually, Charles XII sister, Ulrika Eleonora, succeeded and became the new queen of Sweden, but was forced to sign a constitution that limited the monarchy’s power

  • led to the creation of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag)

Contextualization of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

• Nobility (Szlatcha) 

• Nobility Elected the King 

• Sole role of the monarch was to protect Poland on the global stage

• new taxes were not passed unless there was unanimous approval consent from nobility