STATE BUILDING IN THE 17TH AND 18TH

CENTURIESChapter 15 and 18

Bell Ringer

• Briefly explain how the Thirty Years War leads to Absolutism.

• Is there a difference between absolutism and despotism? Explain.

Absolutism

• Pre-Conditions of Absolutism• Consolidation of territorial monarchies

• Thirty Years War

• ¼ population disappeared

• Absolutism Starts• 1650-1750: France, Prussia, Russia, Austria,

Sweden

• Extension of Monarchial Power

• Loyalty to the monarchy

• Levy taxes

• Appoint Bureaucrats

• Extract resources from population, increase dynastic holdings

• (munching smaller states, marriage, or war)

Absolutism• What Absolutist feared?

• Municipal Privileges

• Solution: knock walls down, replace officials with allies, tax

• Why absolutism was allowed?• Absolutism was better than the violence of

the time

• Thirty Years War, Professional Armies (replace private armies), Monetary Kickbacks (little work big reward)… Nobles become junior partners in exchange for protection

• “Swedish Cocktail”

Absolutism

• What Absolutism looked like?• Power greater than those you ruled• Loyalty to monarchy, not the state• Make laws and appoint officials

(growth of bureaucracies)• Must portray idea of benevolent father

• Peter the Great, peasants died thinking he was unaware

• Hurts France in the future• Make Money

• Enforce taxes, Sell Noble Titles, Sell Monopolies

• Peter the Great: Salt, Dice

• Kings ignore representative bodies• Reason for English Civil War,

Parliament must be respected• Peter the Great

• “drunken assembly”, Torture, Raise money

• Powerful Armies• Continental Powers: 1500s- 15,000

soldiers; 1690s-150,000 soldiers• Peaceful Army – 50% of Budget; War

Army – 80% of Budget

CHALLENGES TO ABSOLUTISM:

ENGLAND

Bell Ringer

What conclusions can you reach about the society of The Netherlands compared to France in these pictures?

Versailles and a Dutch Weighing House: TOP

Dutch Realism and French Baroque: BOTTOM

Challenges to Absolutism• Why did Absolutism work out differently

for England and the Dutch?• Large Middle Class

• Small Noble Class

• Global ecomony, commerece

• Two largest trading nations

• “commercial money talks as much as propertied money.”

• Urbanization

• Resist Absolutism

• Did not want to lose their privileges

• Spain and French – threat to their rights

• Dutch recognized as independent in 1648 at Peace of Westphalia

• Decentralization

• English Civil War

• Did NOT want a standing army

• Identified large armies with France and Spain

• Decentralized federal structures

• Many provinces in The Netherlands

• Anti-Catholicism

• Major Reformation Countries

• KHVIII- Pope, The Netherlands = Spain

• Self-Identities: Anti-Absolutists. Anti-Catholic, Anti-Standing Armies, Anti-French, Anti-Spanish

Challenges to Absolutism• James I of England

• “Kings are not only God’s lieutenants, but even by God himself they are called Kings.”

• Restoration of Catholicism??• Desire for Absolutism??

• English Civil War• Charles I threatens the power of Parliament • Charles I beheaded

• Oliver Cromwell rules• As powerful (or more) than a monarchy• Charles II invited back to throne, dies… leaves throne to Catholic

brother King James II

• Glorious Revolution• Parliament turns to James II Protestant Daughter Mary and her

Protestant Husband William of Orange• James flees to France, William and Mary on the throne

• English Bill of Rights: result of the struggle between monarchy and parliament

• Rights of Parliament, property, and fair taxation• Events inspire men like Hobbes and Locke

Challenges to Absolutism• The Dutch Republic

• Grows dramatically because of global trade• Canals used to transport goods…

demonstrates the importance of trade

• 1630: 2,500 trading ships… principal suppliers of grain and fish in Europe… control Baltic Sea

• Reach East Indies = Wealth = Independence from the Spanish empire

Challenges to Absolutism

• Rembrandt, The Night Watch

• Who is being painted?

• Who is paying Rembrandt to paint this?

• What Dutch painters painted reflects their interest?

• How does this compare to France’s paintings?

• Would it look different than what we may find in Spain?

Dutch Architecture

Challenges to Absolutism

• What did England and the Dutch have in Common• Global Trade

• Social Structure

• Self-Identity

• Reconstructing had to do with who they were not

• Not Catholic

• Not French

• Not Spanish

ABSOLUTISM CULTURE:BAROQUE ART AND

MUSIC

BELL RINGERA. How do these

portraits of the French and Russian monarch embody the ideas, or the desired image, of absolute monarchy?

B. How do these portraits illustrate the personalities and ruling style of the two monarchs?

Pre-17th Century Art

• Charles V, Titian, Germany, 1648

Pre-17th Century Art

• Triumph of Death, Bruegel the Elder, 1562, Dutch

• What do you notice in this painting?

• “Why are you killing me, for your own benefit? I am unarmed.” "Why? You do not live on the other side of the water, my friend. If you lived on this side, I should be a murderer. But since you live on the other side, I'm a brave man and it is right that I kill you."

Pre- 17th Century Art

• Slaughter of the Innocence, Peter Bruegel the Elder

Baroque Art

• The Horrors of War, Peter Paul Rubens, 1638

17th-18th Century Art

• Mars, Diego Velazquez, 1640

• How different is this picture than what we saw with Titian’s Charles V painting?

Images of the Thirty Years War

Flourishing of European Culture

• Baroque Art promoted religious feeling and was employed by monarchs to glorify state power.• Two Big Characteristics

• Grandeur and Emotion

• Baroque Art:

• exaggerated motion to create drama and tension

• Reflected political, religious, and cultural changes

• SEE MERRIMEN NOTES!!!!!!

17th – 18th Century Art

• The Massacre of the Innocent, Peter Paul Rubens, 1610

• How can these paintings explain the growth of strong state structures?