Page 120 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

absolutism, european 5

All parties without exception, when they seek for power, are
varieties of absolutism. • Pierre Joseph Proudhon
(1809–1865)

lutism to work. From a global perspective, however, dynasty before opportunistic British and French adven-
Louis was neither original nor excessive in his claims for turers. Of all the absolute monarchs, the most tolerant
divine inspiration. A century before, Süleyman the Great and most successful outside of Europe was Kangxi of
of the Ottoman empire had claimed that his deity Allah China, but even he drew the line on ethnocentric emis-
anointed him as the direct deputy, or caliph, of Muham- saries from the Pope.
mad, the prophet of his faith. A contemporary of Louis
XIV, the Emperor Kangxi of China continued the age-old Bureaucratic Rule
tradition of receiving the “mandate from heaven,” even To ensure religious uniformity and thus national security,
though he was a Manchu outsider. The emperors of monarchs needed professionals whom they could control
Benin and Dahomey wore shoes that stood very high and trust. By constructing large civilian and military
above the ground so as not to dirty their semidivine feet bureaucracies accountable only to the Crown, rulers
with common earth. Their god or gods all insisted, relied on loyal experts rather than on fickle vassals. For
according to the monarchs, that their way was the best example, FrederickWilliam of Prussia based his autocracy
way for their people to worship. upon bureaucracy. Prussian armies and officials became
By insisting upon religious uniformity, rulers hoped synonymous with disciplined and reliable efficiency. Sim-
to pacify through codified intolerance, a strategy used ilarly, Peter the Great of Russia defeated Swedish and
more often in Europe than elsewhere. In particular, Louis Ottoman adversaries by using uniformed soldiers paid by
XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, exiling his him rather than by individual boyars. From Spain through
Huguenot, or French Protestant, minority in the process. Austria to Sweden, agencies censored, and spies opened
His grandfather Henry IV had issued the Edict in 1598, letters, in part to stay on the royal payroll.This feature of
hoping to end thirty years of civil war by granting absolutism again was not unique to Europe. The Qing
Huguenots limited autonomy in a largely Catholic drew upon entrenched Confucian values of scholar-
France. Louis saw the Huguenots, however prosperous bureaucrats as heroes to combat the indigenous gentry.
and assimilated, as a threat to national security largely The Ottomans continued long-held Byzantine traditions
because he saw them as a fifth column sharing the same of big government to rule their diverse dominions.
faith as his Dutch and English rivals. To Protestants in By turning the nobility into decorative dependents
England and Holland, Catholicism became intrinsically with much social but far less political power, monarchs
linked to absolutism.Yet Protestant monarchs claiming to became the major providers of patronage and hospitality
be absolute in the German states and in Sweden could be at artificially ostentatious capital cities. Bureaucrats who
just as insistent on their religion being the only religion could be fired did most of the work of local and central
of their people. In contrast, sixteenth-century Muslim government by 1700, allowing aristocrats who could not
rulers had tried religious tolerance as a cornerstone of be fired even more leisure time. Louis XIV’s Versailles pro-
their leadership. In Ottoman Turkey, Süleyman continued vided the most notorious backdrops for elite partying, all
the early Islamic tolerance of monotheistic faiths such as done at taxpayers’ expense.At Versailles, nobles who had
Christianity and Judaism. Akbar the Great of Mughal once fought over provinces now fought over who would
India, a Muslim, tried to build bridges to his Hindu attend the king’s next soiree. From Madrid to Vienna to
majority by trying to merge the two religions.This trend Saint Petersburg, baroque and rococo palaces under-
did not last, however. By the time Louis XIV came to scored the wealth and majesty of their monarchs. Indeed,
power in France, later Ottomans were far more suspi- Peter the Great created Saint Petersburg in 1703 as his
cious of their Christian subjects. Akbar’s great-grandson answer to the pomp and theater of Versailles, announcing
Aurangzeb, furthermore, viewed his merger as blasphemy to the world that Russia was an absolutist European state
and emphasized Islamic superiority, which doomed his with a gilded window to the West. Of course, the burden