History 5: Lecture 10
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ABSOLUTISM
Introduction
Dominant political pattern rise of absolutism in western, central
and Eastern Europe
I French Absolutism:
a. Civil strife 1610-1653, culminating in 1648-53
in civil war known as the Fronde (slingshot)
b. Causes: taxation, religion, constitutionalism,
and succession
c. First ministers, Cardinal Richelieu; Cardinal
Mazarin-a regency 1643-53 because Louis XIV still a child.
II Making of absolutism
a. 1660 Mazarin dies and Louis XIV decides to rule
alone.
b. Key ministers all non-nobles: Colbert, Louvois,
Vauban
c. Centralizes political authority>demobilizes
parlements; imposes authority on Church; reorganizes military, becomes
commander in chief, subdues nobility.
Intendants
d. Fiscal and economic reforms of Colbert create
planned economy of national guilds,
Produce large new resources
e. New conception of royal authority: divine absolutism>
king and kingdom are co-extensive; Bossuet, proponent of divine right
monarchy
f. Royal culture and ritual: Versailles (begun 1671);
sleeping and eating ceremonial; royalization of French culture: academies,
societies and dictionary.
III Absolutism in action
a. Expansionist foreign policy directed at Dutch
, Spanish and British
b. Major wars: wars of devolution, 1661-72, expansion
of north and eastern frontiers; Dutch-French wars, 1672-1688; Louis
at war with all Europe, 1689-97; war of Spanish Succession 1703-1713
c. Revocation of Edict of Nantes, 1685; religious
opposition to Louis (Huguenot refugees and Camisards revolt, 1702-5)
IV Austria
a. Post-1648 invention of an Austrian or Habsburg
monarchy distinct from Holy Roman Empire.
b. Struggle against t the other: Ottoman siege of
Vienna 1683 and Austrian recon quest of Hungary 1697
c. Acquisition of Spanish Habsburg territories in
1714 (southern Netherlands, Italian possessions)
d. Landed nobilities retain their assemblies and
entrench their economic control over the rural population, especially
in eastern lands, the “new serfdom”
V Prussia
a. Creation of a Prussian monarchy by the
Hohenzollern dynasty of counts, especially Frederick William, the
“Great Elector” (1640-1688) and Frederick William I (1713-1740)
b. Landed nobility (Junkers) becomes a partner in
government, a bureaucratic nobility, and Prussia develops own intendant
system (landrate)
c. Prussian war machine- “an army with a country
that serves as its headquarters”.
Conclusiona. Absolutism of Louis
XIV makes France predominant European power and royal culture gives
French a sense of national identity.
b. Absolutism in central and Eastern Europe lays
groundwork for 18th c enlightened despotism of Frederick the Great
of Prussia, Maria Theresa and Joseph II of Austria, and Catherine
the Great of Russia.
History 5 Lecture 11
THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
Introduction
Reformations, religious wars, and accelerated social and economic
change create conditions that encourage the questioning of established
authorities and the medieval worldview.
I. Origins of the Scientific Revolution
• Medieval high magic>Hermetic tradition and alchemists (Paracelsus)
• Practical sciences>cartography>measurement, lenses
• The medieval cosmos: Ptolemy+Aristotle+Christian theology
• Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1534): Heliocentrism>Revolution
of the Celestial Spheres (1543)
II. New Data, New Theories
• New Anatomy: Leonardo Da Vinci, Andreas Vesalius (1541-1564):
Treatise on Human Anatomy (1543)>surpasses Galen
• Astronomy: Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), massive astronomical data
collection
• Johannes Kepler (1571-1630): new data>new theories of motion:
ellipses; periodicity; new conception of space as empty
• Galileo Galilei (1564-1642): Revolution in Aristotlean physics:
the telescope; everything in motion; inertia= not rest, but constant
state of motion-in the light of this discovery task was to explain,
not motion, but changes in motion
• Galileo as new social type: the heroic scientist, popularizer:
Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems (1632) put on Papal index
III Triumph of the New Science
• Formulation of the scientific method in the seventeenth century
• Francis Bacon (1561-1626), The Great Instauration (1607):
new data>new theories; empiricism and inductive reasoning
• Rene Descartes (1596-1650). The discourse on Method (1637):
distrust of the senses>deductive reasoning; mathematical rationality:
“I think therefore I am”
• New scientific institutions: the Royal Society (1662); Academie
des Sciences (1662); first scholarly journals
IV Newtonian Synthesis
• Problem in Galileo’s theories of motion; if all in motion
in empty space then how does it all hang together?
• Isaac Newton (1642-1727): the theory of gravitation: balance
created by mutual pull of falling objects.
• Newtonian system> end of the Ptolemaic+Aristotlean universe
V Conclusion
• New science does not mean demise of Christian world view but
a new understanding of it which redefines humanity’s relation
to God: from divine in tervention>God as watch-maker and regulator
• * New science offers tools to question not only material environment
but also human society and institutions so preparing way for eighteenth
century Enlightenment.