Exploration, Absolutism, &
Enlightenment!
Age of Exploration!
Effects of the Renaissance
• More ideas called into question
• People want a greater understanding of their
world
• Ideas most commonly called into question:
▫ Religion – caused the Reformation
▫ Known world – caused the Age of Exploration
▫ Understanding the world – caused the Scientific
Revolution
Age of Exploration
• Trade and curiosity spark exploration
• Governments used to sponsor most voyages
▫ Government leaders desired land, resources, trade
routes, etc.
• Governments sponsoring exploratory voyages:
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Portuguese
Spanish
French
English
Dutch
Signed the Treaty of Tordesillas (divided
world in half to eliminate conflicts
Main Explorations & Explorers
• Bartolomeu Dias (1488)
▫ Reached Indian Ocean via African coast
• Christopher Columbus (1492)
▫ Pretty well known
• Vasco da Gama (1498)
▫ Sailed around Africa to India
• Hernán Cortés (1519)
▫ Fought Aztecs in South America
• Fransisco Pizarro (1522)
▫ Fought Incans in South America
• Ferdinand Magellan (1522)
▫ Circumnavigated the world
Results of Exploration
• Positives
▫ Columbian Exchange
 Unique products traded
between hemispheres
▫ Mercantilism
 Export more than you
import
▫ Increase in capitalism
 People pooling money to
form larger corporations
(joint stock companies)
▫ New products
▫ New colonies
• Negatives
▫ Slave trade
 Middle passage of Triangle
Trade
▫ Imperialism
▫ Diseases to indigenous people
Absolutism!
Absolutism
• Use your resources to define absolutism.
• How can a government demonstrate absolutism?
• What historical examples of absolutism are you
aware of?
Examples of Absolutism: France
• Louis the XIV
▫ Became king at 23 after riots
▫ Weakened the power of the nobles/strengthened
intendants (civil servants of France)
▫ Increased mercantilism, fur trade, factories = $$$$$
▫ Palace at Versailles ($2 billion)
 2000 rooms, 15,000 acres of gardens, 1400 fountains
 Extravagant meals
 Control of nobles
▫ “I am the State.”
Palace at Versailles
Examples of Absolutism: Spain
• Phillip II
▫ Son of Charles V, takes control of Spain
▫ Gains Portugal in 1580
 Gains control of areas in Africa, India, & West Indies
▫ Begins gaining incredible wealth through gold &
silver
 Gold: 339,000 pounds ($5.97+ billion)
 Silver: 32,000,000 pounds ($8.40+ billion)
▫ El Escorial
Examples of Absolutism: Hapsburgs
• Family ruled Austria, Holy Roman Empire, &
Spain
• Fought Thirty Years War
▫ Catholics vs. Protestants primarily, but also over
internal politics
▫ French Catholics join Swedish Lutherans against
the Catholic Hapsburgs
▫ Peace of Westphalia:
 strengthened French monarchy by expanding lands
 German princes independent of HRE
 Weakened Hapsburgs in Spain & Austria
Examples of Absolutism: Hapsburgs
• Despite weakened state, power continued to
grow
• Austria
▫ Strong Catholic state
▫ United various German groups through
negotiations and violence
▫ Maria Theresa
 First female ruler
 Persuaded Hungarians to support Austrians against
Prussian control
Examples of Absolutism: Hapsburgs
• Prussia
▫ New Protestant power
▫ Peace of Westphalia allowed Prussian states to be organized
under Hohenzollern family
▫ Took power away from nobles (Junkers)
▫ Military state under Frederick William I
 Junkers given military and government positions
▫ Frederick II
 Forced to watch friend’s beheading
 Sparked War of the Austrian Succession w/Maria Theresa
Enlightenment!
Enlightenment Ideas
• Renaissance & Scientific Revolution expanded
knowledge base in Europe & the way people
looked at the world.
• Human reason leads to the question of natural
laws (laws that govern human nature)
• Use of reason could solve problems or answer
questions in every area
Enlightenment Ideas
• Social Contract: people give up natural rights for
an organized society
▫ Thomas Hobbes
 People cannot be trusted
 Absolute monarchy
▫ John Locke
 People inherently good
 Government must be
accepted by the people
Enlightenment Ideas
• Montesquieu
▫ Studied every government possible
▫ Separation of powers
 Limited monarchy of Britain protected against
tyranny, but he misunderstood their organization
 Idea stuck though
• Philosophes (“lovers of wisdom”)
▫ Use of reason could be used to change
government, law, & society
Philosophes
• Voltaire
• Rousseau
▫ Spoke out against corruption
in government
▫ Wrote against inequality,
injustice, slave trade,
religious prejudice, etc.
▫ People good, but corrupted
▫ Minimal controls needed by
elected government
▫ Good of community over
good of the individual
• Diderot
▫ Wrote articles to improve
general knowledge & thinking
▫ Compiled in Encyclopedia
▫ Not accepted by French
government or the Pope
Enlightenment Ideas Spread!
• Economics
▫ Rejection of mercantilism
▫ Laissez Faire
 “hands off”
 Little to no government
interference in the economy
▫ Adam Smith
 The Wealth of Nations
 Market should regulate
business
 Supply & demand drove
economics
• Enlightened despots
▫ Frederick the Great of Prussia
▫ Catherine the Great of Russia
▫ Joseph II of Austria
• Revolutions
▫ American Revolution
▫ French Revolution
▫ Industrial Revolution
 Indirectly, but the result of
changing the accepted ways
of doing things