Chapter 16 State-Building and the European State System, 1648 1789
Social Crises, War, and Rebellions By the end of the 16 th century, Europe was experiencing a decline in religious passions Growing secularization 17 th century as a turning point in the evolution of the modern state system in Europe More and more people think of politics in secular terms Search for order Economic contraction in the mid-17 th century Silver imports from the Americas decline Recession in the Mediterranean Population From 60 million in 1500 to 85 million in 1600 Stagnation or population decline after 1600 War, famine, plague Social tensions (war, rebellions, witchcraft craze)
The Practice of Absolutism in Western Europe Absolute monarchy, or absolutism Sovereign power or ultimate authority in the state rested in the hands of a king who claimed to rule by a divine right Sovereign power: the authority to make laws, tax, administer justice, control of administrative system, determine foreign policy Rulers who received their power to rule divinely (ordained by God) considered their rule to be absolute
Absolutism in France, 1648 1740 The Sun King at Versailles Louis XIV s court had ten thousand members, half of them nobles, who gained honor, appointments to the royal army, and pensions from their closeness with the king. At court, the entire day focused attention on the king. Louis believed he ruled by divine right. Louis established an absolutist court at Versailles, where he developed a palace and complicated court etiquette. He adopted the sun god Apollo as a symbol of Versailles and identified himself as the Sun King, filling the palace with artistic media designed to celebrate his glory.
Louis XIV
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Absolutism in France, 1648 1740 This gilt medallion of Apollo, the Sun God, decorated Louis XIV s palace at Versailles. Louis, the self-styled Sun King, adopted Apollo as his emblem, and medallions like this were incorporated into many features of the palace.
Absolutism in France, 1648 1740 Forty Years of Warfare After 1668, Louis launched a series of wars, including the Dutch War (1672 1679), which ended in a draw and alienated Dutch stadtholder William. Jean-Baptiste Colbert developed mercantilism as a strategy for increasing France s national wealth. France expanded overseas territories in the Americas (including Saint- Domingue) in order to strengthen the economy. In the War of the League of Augsburg (1689 1697) against Austria and the Dutch, Louis conquered Alsace and Strasbourg. The War of the Spanish Succession was the most devastating war Louis fought. Louis XIV s forty years of warfare increased the size of France by 12 percent but left a bitter legacy with near bankruptcy and the economy a shambles.
Absolutism in France, 1648 1740 Louis XIV embodied the ideal of the vigorous, state-building monarch. During his long reign, he dominated European diplomacy and warfare, and his glittering court established standards of grandeur that other monarchs tried to imitate.
Absolutism in France, 1648 1740 A Unified French State Louis transformed the French state with more effective royal administration, including intendants who supervised the collection of taxes. He also weakened the parlements (royal courts). As royal administration became more efficient, relations between the king and his subjects improved. Louis made the collection of taxes more efficient and favored indirect taxation. Louis s army was well-disciplined and the troops were viewed as protectors. Louis coaxed the most powerful nobles to his court to prevent rebellions. Louis also sought religious unity, so in 1685, he revoked the Edict of Nantes, ending the limited religious toleration of the Huguenots. Louis quarreled with the pope by supporting the Four Gallican Articles, but he improved relations with the papacy by attacking the Huguenots and condemning the Jansenists. During the famine of 1709, Louis asked his subjects for help, which forged a new sense of collective identity. Louis s absolutist reforms fostered better working relations with his subjects and promoted a sense of national unity.
Europe in 1715 In 1715, when Louis XIV died, France was still the dominant power in Europe. But other centers of power the Austrian Habsburg lands, Great Britain, Russia, and a small newcomer, Prussia were prepared to challenge France.
Absolutism in France, 1648 1740 Louis XV Louis XV further developed state administration by creating professional police forces. The state increasingly assumed care of the poor and elderly. Louis XV struggled in religious policy, and by 1730, the Parlement of Paris was defying Louis on
The Austrian Habsburgs, 1648-1740 In 1657, Leopold I (r. 1657 1705) became Holy Roman emperor and head of the Austrian Habsburgs. He set out to rival Versailles by building Schönbrunn on the outskirts of Vienna. In this engraving Leopold I is shown in the Spanish style dress worn at his court, far more somber than the fashions favored at Versailles. Leopold looks out at the viewer with piercing eyes. The elongated lower jaw, characteristic of the Habsburgs, is also apparent.
The Austrian Habsburgs, 1648-1740 The Turkish Siege of Vienna and the Reconquest of Hungary In 1683, a Turkish army led by Kara Mustafa besieged Vienna. After a savage, two-month siege, a unified force defeated the Turks. Mustafa s defeat allowed the Habsburgs to reconquer Hungary. Leopold encouraged Serb, Bohemian, and German peasants to resettle Hungarian lands. Leopold prevented the Turks from retaking Hungary and the Treaty of Carlowitz (1699) confirmed the Habsburg conquests. Despite the Hungarian rebellion led by the Transylvanian prince Francis II Rákóczi, his defeat and the ensuing Peace of Szatmár (1711) tied Hungary to the Habsburg lands.
The Austrian Habsburgs, 1648 1740 The Habsburg Monarchy The Habsburg monarchy depended on the fabulously rich magnates for the smooth functioning of the government. The majority of people were tied to the land as serfs. Unlike France, the Habsburg state had no sense of common identity because Leopold s direct rule over his subjects was limited and there was a high degree of ethnic and religious diversity, particularly in Hungary. Charles VI (r. 1711 1740) was unable to reconstitute Charles V s empire with Spanish and Austrian lands, and instead focused his energy on enabling his daughter Maria Theresa to succeed him. Despite Leopold s plans, after Maria Theresa succeeded to the throne in 1740, the War of the Austrian Succession (1740 1748) broke out.
The Austrian Habsburgs, 1648 1740 The War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) Charles VI, who was unable to produce a son to be heir to the Austrian throne, spent most of his time negotiating the Pragmatic Sanction with other European countries, by which they would agree to recognize his daughter s (Maria Theresa) authority when he died. When Charles died, all that went away and Austria was invaded by Prussia. France and Austria fought each other; Austria made an alliance with Great Britain, who feared French hegemony (absolute power). Prussia, France, and Silesia occupied the Netherlands. France took land in India from the British; the British took French fortresses in North America Fighting ends and all lands to be returned to their original owners (1748). Prussia refused to return Silesia (Austria), setting up another war between Austria and Prussia
The Growth of Austria and Prussia to 1748 Both Austria and Brandenburg-Prussia were expanding in the first half of the eighteenth century. The Austrians continued adding territories in their southeast, but in the north lost Silesia to Brandenburg-Prussia.
The Rise of Prussia, 1648 1740 Territorial Consolidation Frederick William von Hohenzollern, the Great Elector, consolidated territory in Brandenburg and Prussia. In 1655, Sweden went to war with Poland, and Frederick William allied first with Sweden and then with Poland to gain Prussia in 1660. After 1660, Hohenzollern lands were scattered around the Holy Roman Empire.
The Rise of Prussia, 1648 1740 Taxes to Support an Army The Great Elector achieved his two policy goals of building up his army and finding the finances to pay for it. Between 1653 and 1688, the Prussian army grew from 1,800 to 30,000, but a bigger army required more taxes. In 1653 Frederick William levied an excise tax, but only required town to pay it. Frederick William instituted a two-tier tax system: rural nobles paid land tax and towns paid excise tax. The diets (local political assemblies) lost their taxing power and withered away. He received additional revenue from his very large family landholdings. He encouraged economic growth by increasing exports and introducing new manufacturing centers. After 1685, he welcomed 20,000 exiled Huguenots, who played a vital role in economic recovery. In 1701, Frederick William adopted the title, King of Prussia.
The Rise of Prussia, 1648 1740 King Frederick William I King Frederick William I was a strict Calvinist, a strange, violent, and crude man but also a very successful ruler; he strengthened the royal administration (creating the General Directory in 1723) and enlarged the army. The king stood at the apex of the new administrative system and, unlike Louis XIV, seldom consulted his advisors. The government produced an enlarged army totaling 80,000 men by Frederick William I s death in 1740. The military was the one institution common to all Hohenzollern land and the state s financial machinery was geared to its maintenance. Frederick II was everything his father was not refined, an accomplished flute player and composer, and a lover of philosophical discussion, but he suffered bloody beatings, solitary confinement, and the beheading of his closest friend on false charges. Frederick II s first act as king was to attack Maria Theresa of Austria, seizing Silesia and starting the War of the Austrian Succession.
Sanssouci Palace at Potsdam Frederick II built this summer palace near Berlin. It was his answer to Louis XIV s Versailles and Leopold I s Schönbrunn in Vienna. The building is a fine example of eighteenth-century Rococo style architecture and reflects Frederick s refined tastes. Sans souci is French for without a care.
Russia and Europe, 1682 1796 Peter the Great and Westernization Peter the Great westernized Russia by visiting western Europe to observe it firsthand. He began with fashion, cutting off the beards of his courtiers and having them dress in western clothes. In 1700, Peter began a two-decade struggle with Sweden over control of the Baltic Sea. The Great Northern War marked a turning point in Russian history. He founded St. Petersburg using the western examples of Louis XIV and Leopold I. He reorganized his army, ordering a draft for soldiers and introducing western drills and weapons, and he built a Baltic navy. He imposed a new head tax and inaugurated a mercantilist stimulation of the economy by encouraging exports, discouraging imports, and sponsoring new industries. The decisive battle of the Great Northern War, was the Russian victory at Poltava (1709).
Russia and Europe, 1682 1796 Peter the Great and Westernization Peter continued to restructure Russian society. Peter reformed his civil and military administration with the Table of Ranks system of advancement based on merit and established engineering, artillery, and medical schools; a school of mathematics and navigation; a naval academy; and the Academy of Sciences. Peter loved alcohol, coarse language, and practical jokes. He also mocked both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. He abolished the office of patriarch in the Orthodox Church and replaced it with the Holy Synod. Peter s reform centralized and rationalized the government, making Russia a major European power.
Russia and Europe,1682 1796 A young Peter is shown in this painting in the workman s clothes he often wore during his tour of western Europe. His dress and demeanor are nothing like the elegance and majesty typical of royal portraits of the eighteenth century. In this portrait Catherine the Great is dressed in shiny splendor. On her head is the Romanov crown, and in her hands are an orb and scepter, emblems of royal and imperial rule. What might account for the differences in these two images?
Russia and Europe, 1682 1796 Catherine the Great and Russian Expansion Sophie, a princess from a minor German state, deposed the crude and dimwitted Peter III in a palace coup d état to become Catherine the Great. She continued Peter III s seizure of all ecclesiastical lands and then granted large tracts of state land to her favorites. She expanded Russian territory by joining Prussia and Austria (1772) in the first partition of Poland; two more partitions took place in 1792 and 1795. Catherine also fought two wars with the Turks, seizing the north shore of the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula along with northern Caucasus (1792). The Pugachev Rebellion and Russian Society In 1773, Cossack Emelian Pugachev led an unsuccessful rebellion that revealed stresses in Russian society because peasants believed they should be free like their landlords. In 1775, Catherine imposed administrative centralization by reorganizing Russia into fifty provinces and putting landlords in charge of local gov t. Under Peter I and Catherine II, Russia became a first-rate European military and diplomatic power.
The Partition of Poland and the Expansion of Russia Prussia, Russia, and Austria all benefited from the partitions of Poland.
The English Constitutional Monarchy, 1660 1740 The Restoration of Charles II The restoration of Charles II brought a repudiation of Oliver Cromwell s Calvinist moral reform, but continued conflict between king and Parliament. Clashing over religion, Charles II favored religious toleration, but Parliament enforced the Clarendon Code, requiring all clergy to support Anglicanism; 10 percent of clergy refused, becoming dissenters. England s active press supported remarkably open debates about succession, involving Tories, who favored hereditary divine right monarchy, and Whigs, who wanted a Protestant monarch at all costs. James II The Whigs adopted John Locke s contractual theory of government. James II promoted religious toleration of dissenters and Catholics, and used his power to override a provision in the Clarendon Code, infuriating Anglicans. In 1688, Tories and Whigs joined forces to ask William and James s daughter Mary to rule England, while James II panicked and fled to France.
The English Constitutional Monarchy, 1660 1740 The Glorious Revolution In the Glorious Revolution, Parliament approved William and Mary as monarchs, confirming the Whig view that the monarch ruled by contract rather than through hereditary possession, and passing the Bill of Rights, which included a jury trial and freedom from cruel punishments. In support of Protestantism, Parliament repealed the most oppressive portions of the Clarendon Code in the Toleration Act (1689), granting religious toleration to all dissenters except the Unitarians. Large-scale landowners controlled Parliament and local government with little interference from the king. In 1701 royal judges were given life tenure in order to strengthen the rule of law called for in the Bill of Rights. The changes in 1689 laid the foundations for a constitutional monarchy in which the monarch and Parliament ruled as partners following the principles of the rule of law. In 1707, the Act of Union joined Scotland and England in a united Great Britain.
The English Constitutional Monarchy, 1660 1740 The Speaker of House of Commons sits with his hat on at the center behind secretaries. The MPs (Members of Parliament) flank him on either side. What impression does this painting give of the way Parliament conducted its business?
The English Constitutional Monarchy, 1660 1740 The Georges from Germany The Treat of Utrecht recognized George I s right to the British throne and awarded Britain Gibraltar, Hudson s Bay, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the asiento. But recognition of George provoked the son of James II to lead an uprising. Tory sympathy for the uprising led Whigs to accuse them of treason. As a result, the Tories became a minority party The triumphant Whigs were led by Sir Robert Walpole, who contributed the smooth running of the central government. A new collective British identity formed. Britons saw themselves as freeborn as opposed to the slavish Catholic peoples of France or Spain. George II continued the principate of mixed monarchy in which the constitutionally sanctioned Protestant king ruled jointly with Parliament.
Two World Wars, 1740 1763 The shift in alliances among European states that preceded the Seven Years War is referred to as the diplomatic revolution, in part because it resulted in the aligning of France and the Habsburgs, longtime enemies.
Two World Wars, 1740 1763 The Wars The War of Austrian Succession (1740 1748) over Silesia pitted Prussia and France against Austria and Britain. In the Seven Years War (1756 1763), Britain switched sides to back Prussia against the other continental powers in the diplomatic revolution. Prussia amazingly survived. Eighteenth-Century Warfare The eighteenth century saw the growth of big professional armies with less pillaging because of better provisioning and discipline. A science of warfare emerged with the spread of military engineering in the form of fortresses, new drill manuals for soldiers, and new military academies. Statesmen used warfare to enforce the balance of power; the central issues were territory, power, and prestige. Winners and Losers When war ended in 1763, there were clear winners and losers. In central Europe, Frederick II was a winner; Silesia was never returned to Austria.
Two World Wars, 1740 1763 Winners and Losers Austria was a loser; their defeats in war led to radical social reforms. In 1748, Maria Theresa effectively made state taxation permanent. In 1761, Maria Theresa allowed her state council to make binding policy decisions. By this action she repudiated the king-centered decision making of France and Prussia. After the Seven Years War, Maria Theresa focused on the economic improvement of the serfs. Like Leopold I, she tried to reduce serfs uncompensated labor. She also imposed new taxes on the Catholic Church. Defense of the Habsburg lands led to the Polish Partitions. Joseph II enacted even more radical reforms, such as the abolition of serfdom and the abolition of rents and uncompensated work among peasants. Britain was the undisputed winner of the Seven Years War, driving the French off the North American mainland.
European Claims in North America Before and After the Seven Years War In losing the Seven Years War, France lost its continental North American empire. New France went to Britain, and Louisiana went to Spain. France retained only Newfoundland and its island colonies in the Caribbean. A comparison of these two maps shows very significant territorial gains and losses for Britain, France, and Spain as a result of the world wars of the mid-eighteenth century.