Class 10/24

Essay Review:
What was absolute power (according to the sources)?

• Each source agreed that absolutism is not tyrannical power, so absolutist rulers can't do whatever they want (they still have to answer to God, since He gave them power)

Is an absolutist in power by force?

• Not completely by force - they tried "mild measures at first," but if that failed, they would use force
• Generally, people obeyed Louis XIV because they wanted to, but he could use force if needed

The domestic rivals of absolutism are nobility and the Catholic church

Why was France on the rise as Spain declined?

• First, context is needed:  
• Spain was not in a great place - its New World trade was failing, but they had too much silver, which destroyed their economy
• It was made worse because there was no middle class, so there was a huge disparity between the elite and the peasants
• By expelling the Moors and Jews in the reconquista, the Spanish expelled their entire middle class
• The Moors and Jews were the producers in the economy (farmers, artisans, etc.)
• Without them, the Spanish only had the finite resources from the New World
• The crown declared bankruptcy
• War of Spanish Succession
• Charles II had no heirs because of infertility related to inbreeding (last Habsburg in Spain)



With looks like these, it's a shame his gene pool ended with him

• Spain had a weak ruler, and its future didn't look promising in terms of leadership
• Don Quixote was written as a satire of Spain at this time
• "The Spaniard convinced himself that reality was what he felt, what he believed, what he imagined rather than what it was" - tilting at windmilss
• Philip II was the pinnacle of Spanish absolutism
• The Spanish armada was defeated during his reign, which bean Spain's downward spiral
• Without its armada, Spain lost control of the seas. This enabled other countries, like France, to trade more and earn more money. This money then funded France's military, which made France a powerful state
• France was able to fill the void Spain left after its armada was defeated and the last Spanish Habsburg died. It had been developing in the years leading up to this, but Spain's downward spiral made it easy for France to become a prominent country.

What made it possible for absolutist rulers to increase taxes?

• Growing bureaucracy of the state
• Who is the bureaucracy?
• In some absolutist states, the nobility
• This placated their desire for an illusion of power
• In others, the middle class
• People become directly loyal to the state (they have no past loyalties) 

Russia and Peter the Great

• Wanted Russia to westernize, since it never had a renaissance (unlike most of Europe)
• He was obsessed with a lot of western things, and felt that Russia needed to catch up

• He would literally rip out people's beards to make boyars less "orthodox" and more western
• Peter also wanted a superior navy, which was hard for Russia, since their ports were frozen over in the winter