Enlightened
Despotism
Consolidating
Power through War
and Reform
In the wake of Enlightenment
• Conditions of Poverty
• Markets and Tax Reform
• Extension of Education
• Religious toleration
• Heeded advice of French Philosophes
The New Warfare
• No longer are wars fought over
religion
• Wars are fought over empires and
overseas markets.
• Empires are fighting using muskets
• Military use became more cautious
• Extensive militarism-Prussia
Balance of Power forges
Alliances
• Since the days of the War of Spanish
Succession, the balance of power
principle has been the order of the day.
• Alliances formed and switched to
prevent any European power from
becoming too large.
War of Austrian Succession
• Pragmatic Sanction of 1713
• Death of Charles VI
• Ascension of Maria Theresa
• Issue the lands of Silesia and
Frederick the Great’s power grab
Alliances
• France/Prussia and
their colonies
• France driven by
their hatred of their
arch rival-Austria
(Habsburgs)
• Great
Britain/Austria/Rus
sia and their
Colonies
Treaty of Aix-La Chapelle
• Extremely disappointing in the
American colonies.
• Gave Theresa the right to rule and her
husband Joseph I the title of HRE
• Prussia gains Silesia
Seven Years War (French and
Indian War)
• Prussia and UK
• North America
• France/Austria/Russ
ia/Sweeden.
• France switches
sides?
• Balance of Power
• Russia’s curious
withdrawal.
Treaty of Paris 1763
• France loses Canada
• France looking for revenge would
support the Americans 15 years later in
their revolution.
Partition of Poland
• 18th Century: Poland-Lithuania very
weak, the prey of larger absolute
monarchs.
• Division of (Partition)
Wars Cause Reform
• Increased military power by
modernizing, increasing naval power
and economic strength.
• Promote tax reform by granting social
reform
• State independence from Church
Austrian Reform
• “A properly constituted state must be
exactly analogous to a machine…and
the ruler must be the foreman, the
mainstrping…which sets everything in
motion.”
• “A single mass of people all subject to
impartial guidance”
Prussian Reform
• “I am the first
servant of the state”
Reformers: Frederick II (Great)
• French official language of his court
• Voltaire an advisor and confidant
• Justice system redesigned to limit
cruel and unusual punishment.
• School code of 1763—providing
funding for education of children.
• Agricultural reform
• Building projects benefitting all
Joseph II
• Revised legal code
• Limited role of church in
Austria
• School ordinance
• Religious tolerance
• Tax restructuring
• Abolished serfdom
Catherine the Great
•
•
•
•
Legal reform/punishment
Bureaucracy based on Merit
Legislative reform
Expanded elementary
education
• Expanded education for
women
• Punishment and Pugachev’s
Rebellion
Pugachev’s Rebellion
Catherine retracts reform
• Tells Denis Diderot: “You write on
paper, but I have to write on human
skin, which is far more ticklish”.
• Illustrating the fine line between
being a philosophe and being a
monarch employing their ideas.
Louis XV
• Abolished the Parlement of Paris
• Abolished hereditary control of public
office
• Opened up the grain trade
• Attempted to tax the Nobility