Transcript French Absolutism - Kentucky Department of Education

French Absolutism
LOUIS XIV
• 17th century was a period of great
transition
• European climate was getting colder - less
food
• Governments spent more - mostly on
armies and raised taxes on the poor
• France and Spain gained control over the
papacy
• England and Germany establish national
churches
• We see the start of absolutism - rulers with
absolute power
• They reigned by divine right not like
medieval monarchs, by the grace of God
• They:
a) controlled the church
b) law courts
c) abolished freedoms and liberties
d) maintained permanent armies
e) used secret police and spies
f) established huge bureaucracies
focused on the king
g) secured the cooperation of the
nobility
• Not total rule because the lacked the
resources
• But it did foreshadow totalitarianism in 2
respects:
i) glorification of the state over all else
ii) use of war and expansionism to divert
attention from domestic problems
• Henry IV and his advisor the Duke of
Sully laid the foundations for absolutism
in France
• Sully:
a) revived the paulette tax
- a tax on hereditary positions
b) started a highway system
c) and dreamed of an international organization
to keep the peace
d) also indirect tax on salt and sales
• But the number of taxes actually declined – and
revenues increased
• Henry died; Marie de Medici ruled for the
boy-king Louis XIII
• In 1624 she appointed Cardinal Richelieu
her Council of Ministers
• Richelieu:
a) subordinated all offices to the
monarchy
b) weakened the power of the nobles
c) recruited for the army
d) supervised tax collection
e) checked on nobility
f) regulated economic activity
• Richelieu’s policy was to weaken the
Habsurgs who surrounded France
• 1631 France joins Sweden in the Thirty
Years’ War against the Catholics
• Richelieu wrote Political Testament which
said power is based on revenue
• French monarchs couldn’t tax at will so
they would never have complete control
• “raison d’etat” - what is done for the state is
done for God
• Richelieu persuaded the king to
appoint Jules Mazarin as his
successor
• Richelieu and Louis both
died
• Queen Anne of Austria
governs for her son Louis
XIV
• Mazarin continues Richelieu’s policies but
leads to a civil war - The Fronde (1648-53)
• The war was between the king and the
nobility - the frondeurs
• Violence continued for 12 years and had
three significant results:
a) government would have to compromise
with the nobility
b) the economy was ruined and would take
years to rebuild
c) Louis XIV would never forget the trauma
• Under Louis (Sun
King) absolutism
reached its height
• 1661 Mazarin died
and Louis took control
of the economy
• “When Louis sneezed,
all Europe caught
cold”
• Reigned for 72 years
• Married Maria Theresa because of a
diplomatic arrangement with Spain
• Had complete control over all classes of
society
• Ruled from Versailles where he required
the nobility to reside for several months
each year
• 60% of revenue was spent on the
maintaining of Versailles
• Never called the Estates General
• Other monarchs imitated Louis and
French replaced Latin as the
language of the educated
• But his weakness was always
finances
• He appointed Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Controller of Finances
• Colbert believed the wealth of the country
should serve the state
• He applied the theory of mercantilism to
France
• Mercantilism - government policies for the
regulation of economic activities by and for
the state
• Colbert sent 4,000 people to Canada
• Marquette and Joliet - Mississippi River
La Salle - Louisiana
• Commercial class prospered while
agriculture declined
• Because of war, bad harvests, deflation of
currency, and emigration Colbert’s goals
were never attained
• 1685 Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes
• Closed schools, destroyed Protestant
churches, and exiled those who would not
renounce their faith
• “one king, one law, one faith”
“un roi, une loi, une foi”
• The revocation won Louis enormous praise
Louis XIV’s Wars
• Kept France at war for most of his reign
• Appointed Marquis de Louvois secretary of
State for War
• Louvois created a professional army
A) feed the troops
b) an ambulance corp
c) standard weapons and uniforms
d) rationalized training
e) regulated promotion
• 1667 Louis invaded Flanders no success
• 1672 he invaded Holland but the Dutch
saved themselves by flooding their land
• 1681 he seized Strasbourg and parts of
Lorraine
• 1689 William of Orange - king of England
• William joined the League of Augsburg, but
neither side won
• Claude Le Peletier, Colbert’s successor
devalued the currency and sold offices and
titles to the nobility
• Between 1688-94 bad harvests sent the price
of wheat skyrocketing
• 1694 Lord Pontchartrain imposed the
capitation raise money
• 1701-1713 The War of Spanish Succession
a) old territorial disputes
b) dynastic question of Spanish throne
• 1700 Charles II was king of Spain he was insane
• Charles died in 1700 and left the
throne to the grandson of Louis XIV,
Philip of Anjou
• The Dutch and British
refused to accept French
control of the Spanish
colonies and Netherlands
• English, Dutch, Austrian and Prussians
formed the Grand Alliance
• Even though the were all fighting the
French internal conflicts developed
• Two soldiers dominated:
Eugene, prince of Savoy representing the
HRE
John Churchill representing England
•
•
•
•
PEACE OF UTRECHT
Philip of Anjou remains king of Spain
Spain and France must never unite
France gave Austria Spanish Netherlands
France gave England Nova Scotia, Hudson Bay,
Newfoundland
• France recognizes the Hohenzollern rulers of Prussia
• Spain gave England Gibraltar
• Spain gave England -asiento- the rights to the slave
trade
The Treaty
• Represented the balance of power
principle
• Saw the decline of Spain
• Saw the rise of the British Empire
• Marked the end of French expansionism
French Classicism
• Poussin was the greatest classicist
painter
Rape of the Sabine Women
• Absolutism and Classicism melded
• Art glorified the king
• Lully, Couperin, and Charpentier created
great orchestral works
• Moliere and Racine wrote powerful plays
on controversial issues
• Les Femmes Savantes - Tartuffe, mocked
intelligent women
Spanish Decline
•
•
•
•
•
•
No middle class
Agricultural decline
Population decline
Failure to invest wisely
Intellectual isolation (religious reasons)
Increase in Dutch and English trade with
Americas
• Americas develop local industries
• Increasing royal expenditure
• 1715 Spain a second-rate power
• Several times the king declares bankruptcy and cancels
national debt
• People dropped out of society or turned to religion
• High rents and taxes drove peasants off the land
• Philip IV left control to Count-Duke Olivares
• Olivares believed in imperialism
• Imperialism meant conflict with the Dutch