Louis XIV: An Absolute Monarchy

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Louis XIV was an absolute monarch because he developed a strong military, controlled the nobility and used huge sums of money to glorify his power. Louis XIV had developed one of the most powerful armies of his time. First, Louis used his army to fight the neighboring country, the Netherlands. His large army succeeded the war and gained several areas from the Treaty of Nijmegen. By this time, “The French army, numbering 100,000 in peacetime and 400,000 in wartime, was far ahead of other states’ armies in size, training, and weaponry”(Beck et al., 522). Louis’ army was feared by many neighboring countries such as Great Britain and Spain. Eventually, a group of European allies were determined to join together to defeat their rival. France

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