3.7 Absolutist Approaches to Power

LEARNING OBJECTIVE: How did absolutist forms of rule affect social and political development from 1648 to 1815

INTRODUCTION

• Monarchs believed they wielded unlimited power (they did not)

  • needed ways to pay for wars, faced challanges from elite groups

  • monarch-elite relationship = nature of monarch’s reign

  • challenges weakened absolutism

• Britain was poised to dominate Europe & rest of world

  • constrained monarchy, strong parliament, religious & intellectual toleration, & healthy finances

  • France, Spain, & Hasburg lands could not match