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Merits and demerits of dictatorship
Absolutism and democracy dbq
Absolutism and democracy dbq
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In general, absolute monarchs developed their nations more than they harmed them. With Catherine the Great being a absolute monarch she did a lot for her country. Catherine ruled for a total of 34 years. During which she made good educated choices for her country. She was a patron of the arts because she believed it to be important and that is could build Russia a reputation as a center of civilization. She also built more schools for girls and boys. Catherine also write up the “Nakaz” declaring that every man be equal. She also worked to change the feudal system for people that were owned by landowner for life. These laws she wrote from the ideas of another absolute monarch. Catherine did many things for her country during her reign. By also winning wars to get new and more territory. Another absolute monarch that did a lot for their country was Peter the Great. Like Catherine he established a great nation. Peter built the up his army and made them better trained. Plus, he put the Russian orthodox church under his control. As well as reducing the power of the nobles. He gave power to his country with him as ruler. Overall, absolute rulers were better for their country because they knew what was wrong and knew how to fix it. …show more content…
In general, absolute monarchs harmed their nations more than they developed them.
Using Maria Theresa as an absolute monarch harmed her country more than helped. She forced labor on peasants and that lead to riots in villages.As well as having peasants pay crazy taxes to lords. She also put her country in a 7 year war that drained resources. Philip the second is another example of a absolute monarch that harmed more than helped. He was obsessed with keeping with his faith and awencering to God. He made sure that there were no heretics in his country. Philip was also known to be a prudent. He did not have clear ideas that he wanted for his country. To finalise absolute monarch harmed their countries a
lot. Absolute monarchs were more beneficial than harmful to their countries during their tenure. With Catherine and Peter as absolute monarchs they made their countries better. They did a lot of things to change for the better. Philip the second and Maria Theresa were harmful to their countries were more beneficial. Philip the second helped developed his country more than he harmed it . Philip was the most powerful monarch with a powerful nation. He gained a lot of territory during his reign. He also helped the Prostence in the counter reformation. Philip the second helped his country as an absolute monarch. Maria Theresa also helped her country a well. She limited the power of nobility, and created a strong structured miliary. In conclusion absolute monarchs helped more than they harmed.
Absolutism was at its most popular in the 17th century. Monarchs Louis XIV who ruled France from 1643 to 1715, and Peter the Great who ruled Russia from 1682 to 1725 both secured absolute power in their kingdom. Peter the Great, however, managed to accomplish more during his reign than Louis XIV with politics and military. Peter was able to tax his nobles but still keep their loyalty and also change how his army was run by using Prussian organization and discipline.
I believe that there was so much attention given to Peter the Great because of his extensive reforms. Peter brought both social and economic changes to his country. He wanted to make Russia big. Peter transformed the culture; he wanted his people to wear the western European fashion. Many of the people were not thrilled with the change because they did not like the ways of the western European societies. He made his navy stronger, he reformed his army to meet the western standards, and he gained control over the church.
Differently, England failed at absolutism as a result of unstable, unpowerful, and differently minded kings and their failure at overpowering the nobles. France was able to gain more royal power than England, leaving them with complete control over their country, and left Europe without complete control. Learning how countries gained an absolute monarchy is important in the modern world because from this, people learned how to develop modern governments. Afterwards, countries started to decide whether it would be in their best interest for sovereigns to be under the law, rather than above the law. The old need for an absolute monarchy turned into a need for a government that was right for the
Monarchy was not at all a new institution in the 15th, 16th, or 17th centuries. It wasn’t even very different with respect to the goals that prevailed in each monarchy. However, the differences between the New and Absolute Monarchy come in the way of the methods, theories, and conditions prevalent throughout the different monarchical reigns.
Absolutists during the 16th and 17th centuries were often times focused too heavily on military or other such rather than the people they were ruling. Peter the Great is a good example of this type of ruler because he did great things for Russia like improving the navy; however, Peter the Great did nothing to help the people of Russia, and according to Michael Gibson in document 8, he "failed to create the large, thriving
They still were going to have an absolute power but it was going to be in a different way. I think that Catherine was really trying to make the monarch look like a better person so that she would be well respected with certain laws or decisions that she would make. The reason behind her enlightened views may not be known, but I feel that she wanted to have more territory to rule over and knew she needed to gain support in order to take over a larger area. Overall, I think Catherine the Great was a wonderful ruler. She knew she was in charge and seemed to try to please everyone. Even though she may not have succeeded in doing that, she did come up with laws such as human torture should be abolished, no man should be looked at as guilty before he has a sentence, and the society should be a fixed order. Knowing what her role was and coming up with laws that benefited the society definitely showed that Catherine II did earn to be called “Catherine the
During the reigns of King Louis XIV of France and King Peter I of Russia, also known as Peter the Great, the nobility was under strict control to limit its power and status in society and government. Both autocrats, or absolute rulers, put the nobles in an area separate from the rest of society to keep them under close watch. The kings’ opinion in religion also impacted the status and power of the nobility because most of them were skilled Protestants. This would prove itself as a problem in the long run for Louis XIV. Overall, Peter the Great and Louis XIV despised the nobility and their power in the government and went to many measures to subdue them.
Absolute monarchs ruled though the policy of absolutism. Absolutism declared that the king ruled though divine right with a legitimate claim to sole and uncontested authority (French State Building and Louis XIV). On this basis, Louis XIV of France and Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire were both absolute monarchs. Each ruler believed that his power belonged to him and him alone due to divine right. They showed their absolute power by living lavishly, increased their power by waging wars, and kept their power by ensuring complete loyalty of their subjects.
A Comparison of the Characteristics of the Absolutist Rule of Charles I of England and Louis XIV of France
Of all the absolute rulers in Europe, by far the best example of one, and the most powerful, was Louis XIV of France. Although Louis had some failures, he also had many successes. He controlled France’s money and had many different ways to get, as well as keep his power, and he knew how to delegate jobs to smart, but loyal people.
Peter redefined the duty of the Russian autocracy by binding together the notion of an autocrat who rules over the populace without any limitations and the notion of the autocrat who reforms society for the benefit of the populace (Whittaker, 1992, p. 78). Catherine wanted to become the enlightened and reforming despot that Peter the Great was, but she also realized the flaws that he possessed that she saw in herself. She criticized Peter for moving the capital to St Petersburg as opposed to moving it elsewhere and Peter’s failure to change the Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1649 (Rasmussen, 1974, p. 56). However, Catherine was also unsuccessful in changing the Russian legal code as the Legislative Commission was a failure because it had not accomplished its task and she realized that this showed she herself had shortcomings much like Peter did (Rasmussen, 1974, p. 59). Nevertheless, Catherine had a vast amount of respect toward Peter and she used his image to her advantage as a political device. She used his image to overthrow Peter III and gain power over the throne. She realized that this was a necessity because “her claim to power was shaky and she worked to buttress it by projecting the image of a reforming tsar […]” (Whittaker, 1992, p. 92). Catherine did not ascend to the throne by legal right, but she had ascended to it because she had usurped her husband in order to claim power. Therefore, she
Peter the Great, was, as his name implies, “great”. He made many accomplishments during his lifetime including expanding Russia’s land, heightening their military, and improving the Russian’s ways of life overall. He assisted with most of the reform in Russia, helped them defeat other countries, and formulated one of the strongest armies in Europe.
The reign of Maria Theresa definitely had its accomplishments. Maria Theresa She was able to rule successfully as an absolute monarch for an eventful forty years. She improved the economy by extinguishing an embargo between Austria and Bohemia. She also revised the tax system, for the better. In addition, Maria Theresa was able to put up a good fight
...so fast before it was too late for Russia. He introduced new technologies and ideas of top countries and was capable of transforming Russia. Peter the Great is the exact definition of an absolute ruler because every part of Russia’s people were changed or controlled by him. Peter the Great westernized his country, built important cities, and reformed the church. He had total power and control over the whole country. He was definitely above the law, unlike anyone else. He was even allowed to arrange a massacre of 1,200 rebels and did not suffer any consequences for his actions. An absolute monarch has to affect every single aspect of their people’s lives. Few rulers, if any at all, were able to accomplish that to the degree Peter the Great was able to. Without the rule of Peter the Great, Russia might not have been able to become the powerful nation that it is today.
This historical study will define the absolute monarchy as it was defied through the French government in the 17th century. The term ‘absolute” is defined I the monarchy through the absolute control over the people through the king and the royal family. All matters of civic, financial, and political governance was controlled through the king’s sole power as the monarchical ruler of the French people. In France, Louis XIII is an important example of the absolute monarchy, which controlled all facts of military and economic power through a single ruler. Udder Louis XIII’s reign, the consolidation of power away from the Edicts of Nantes to dominant local politics and sovereignty in Europe. These forms of absolute power define the role of the monarch in controlling the people without the influence of the nobility or a parliament in the decision making process. In essence, the various aspects of absolute monarchy will be defined win the example of , Louis XIII as the sole sovereign of his people during the 17th century.