Why Did Absolutism Develop, Essay Example

Although the definitions of absolutism vary, and different political professionals and scholars interpret absolutism in different terms, the latter usually implies the concentration of political power in the hands of a single person – the concept closely associated with the concept of autocracy (Birn 32). The emergence of absolutism was the direct product of the new European philosophy and the logical response to the crisis of Reformation, and in conditions of political doubt and dissent, political philosophers produced a new theory of the Divine Rights of Kings. Accompanied by the philosophic commitment to natural law, the theory of the Diving Rights of Kings confirmed the power of monarchs as granted by the will of God and the opposition to monarchy as the rebellion against God (Birn 44). Hobbes and Bossuet as the two brightest representatives of the new political thought were confident that the single ruler had to control the selfish and violent desires of individuals in society, to keep society together and to deprive individuals of their liberties and rights for the sake of political stability (Wilson 20). Apart from the new philosophy, other drivers of absolutism included the decline of feudalism, the decline of the Church, the growth of the middle class (Wilson 19); strong armies and the growing wealth of monarchs gave them additional opportunities to concentrate the political power in their hands.

That is why the states with historically strong armies became the examples of the most powerful absolute monarchies in Europe – first France, later followed by Prussia, Russia, and Spain. While absolute monarchy in France was mainly in the hands of indecisive and weak politicians (the major cause of the political discontent), absolutism in Russia, especially at times of Peter the Great was the time of the major cultural and social transformations and westernization of society. King Phillip II in Spain was the great supporter of arts, while absolutism in Prussia was also associated with its political and economic rise (Wilson 79). However, as absolutist monarchs grew more rational and enlightened, and as they sought to create more favorable conditions for their subjects through educational reforms, legal codification, abolition of serfdom and religious toleration (Wilson 108), their subjects grew more decisive in their desire to overthrow the absolute power, with which they were never satisfied. Enlightened absolutism actually became the beginning of the end of absolutism in Europe, and the rise of the new revolutionary democratic thinking forever changed the course of historical development in Europe.

Works Cited

Birn, R. Crisis, Absolutism, Revolution: Europe and the World, 1648-1789. University of Toronto Press, 2005.

Wilson, P.H. Absolutism in Central Europe. Routledge, 2000.