We explain what absolutism was, how was the beginning and end of this government regime. In addition, its characteristics, economy and more.
What was absolutism?
Absolutism was a form of government and political regime typical of the old regime (Historical period prior to the French Revolution of 1789), whose ideology dictated that the political power of the ruler, that is, the king, should not be subject to any limitation that was not the law of God.
This means that The power of the sovereign was formally unique, indivisible, inalienable, uncontrollable and full . In other words, it was an absolute power, where the name that is conferred both to this ideology and its historical realization, that is, absolutism.
Absolutism proclaimed that the monarch was the state so the public authorities emanated from their will and were subordinated to their decisions. There was no authority above the king, who was also not subject to laws.
The doctrine of absolutism arose in Europe in the 16th century, but its most characteristic exponents ruled in the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, as Louis XIV of France (1643-1715), Federico Guillermo I of Prussia (1713-1740) and Fernando VII of Spain (1808 and 1814-1833).
The origin of the term absolutism
The term absolutism (or the adjective absolutist) It was first employed with a political sense in the nineteenth century, to highlight the despotic aspects of some monarchical governments. However, currently It is a historiographic concept used to describe a doctrine and a form of government arising in Europe in the 16th century and characteristic of the Modern Age until the beginning of the 19th century.
It is believed that its origin It can be related to Latin expression princeps legibus solutus est (“The prince is not subject to the law”), used by the Roman jurist Ulpiano in the years of the Roman Empire.
The term “absolutism” It should not be confused with other more contemporary concepts of use, such as totalitarianism which also implies an authoritarian regime with a personalist leadership but that, unlike absolutism, is constituted on the basis of a political party that merges with the State and is usually legitimized through the charism of the leader, propaganda and a speech that appeals to popular or national will.
In an absolutist monarchy, there is no ruling political party, but The state melts with the king’s person and the law is expressed as the will of the king, who does not govern for a popular mandate but for a divine right.
The beginnings of absolutism
An antecedent of Absolutist monarchies were the centralized monarchies of the fourty and fifteenth centuries (as the Catholic Monarchs in the Iberian Peninsula or Carlos VII in France). The administrative and centralizing reforms introduced by these monarchs anticipated the posterior absolutist reorganization. Both monarchical forms laid the foundations of the modern state.
In the years of absolutism the tendency to concentrate power in the person of the king to the detriment of the nobility and the church . This was largely due to the greatest incumbency of the absolute monarchs in government affairs, advised by ministers of trust, and the doctrine according to which the kings ruled by divine right.
Absolutism had Theorists who defended him as a legitimate and efficient mode of government . One of them was the French intellectual Jean Bodin (1530-1596), who questioned the author’s authority about governments and favored the idea of a national monarchy in which the king will concentrate power.
In the seventeenth century Other intellectuals such as English Thomas Hobbes stood out (1588-1679), which considered that an authoritarian government was the only solution to political and social conflicts, and the Frenchman Jacques Bossuet (1627-1704), which defended the idea that the monarch received his authority from God and ruled by divine right.
The maximum historical expression of absolutism took place in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially after the peace of Westfalia (1648) that ended the War of the Thirty Years, promoted the idea of territorial sovereignty of each European State and triggered the political boom of Bourbon’s house. The maximum exponent of absolutism was Louis XIV of France .
The end of absolutism
In France, the French Revolution ended the absolutist monarchy in 1789 but absolutism remained in other European nations that allied with the French counterrevolutionaries to restore Bourbon power in France. At this time, some European monarchs tried to merge the absolutist form of the reformist ideas of the Enlightenment (which had influenced the French revolutionary burst), which was known as enlightened despotism.
After the defeat of Napoleon in 1814 and 1815, the European monarchies restored absolutism in France and in the nations that had been conquered by the French general. This restoration was agreed in the Vienna Congress (1814-1815), which stipulated that rulers should help each other in case of future threats. Anyway, throughout the 19th century, liberal and nationalist uprisings occurred, often called bourgeois revolutions, which challenged absolutism.
In particular, The Revolution of 1848, called “The Spring of the Peoples” forced many monarchies to adopt liberal and democratic measures (and in France it caused the proclamation of the Second Republic), which for some historians meant the end of absolutist restoration. However, sometimes it is considered that the Tsarist autocracy, which ruled the Russian Empire until 1917, was a form of absolutist monarchy that survived until the beginning of the 20th century.
Characteristics of absolutism
The absolute monarch and the state administration
Absolutism was based on the idea that the well -being of the subjects depended on the person from the monarch, and that it ruled by divine right. Thus, No earthly authority was recognized that was above the king and this should not undergo any law.
However, although the absolute monarchs concentrated political power and were the ones who made the most important decisions, The administration of the kingdom demanded the existence of an official body that were in charge of the hacienda, justice, diplomacy and the army. This bureaucracy was largely integrated by bourgeois, while some nobles also occupied positions, especially in the provinces.
The king also had the advice of ministers who were trusted people and occupied a place of great political importance, although their advice was subject to the king’s final decision. In the France of Louis XIV, Jean-Baptiste Colbert and Michel Le Tellier stood out. Another importance was the Army, which was generally renovated and professionalized.
The economy of absolutism
The economic form characteristic of absolutism was mercantilism . This was an economic doctrine disseminated in Europe and implemented by the monarchies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, whose clearest exponent was the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Minister of Louis XIV.
Mercantilism consisted of state intervention in the economy to favor export and reduce import . The objective was the enrichment of the nation through a self -supply of merchandise (which reduced the dependence on imported manufactures, especially luxury) and obtaining gold, silver and currencies through export.
In France, Colbert implemented measures for the protection of export manufacturing industry such as work regulation to reduce calls in calls real manufactures (who in Spain received the name of Royal factories). This generated conflicts between nations (especially between France, England and the Netherlands), which competed for maritime trade, which caused an extension of merchant and armed fleets.
In the long term, this system failed . In France, this was related to the large expenses derived from the luxuries of the court and wars, which increased the dependency of the Court in the tax collection and in the loans of bourgeois bankers. These measures also affected the peasant populations and the urban poor, who suffered hunger and expressed their discomfort when they combined bad harvests with the tax pressure of the State.
Religion under absolutism
Since the absolutist monarchs considered that their authority came from God, in principle They had no religious limits or had to submit to the authority of the Church . For example, in France, Louis XIV promoted the Galicanismwhereby the papacy had no greater authority than the king on the clergy and religious affairs of France. Even so, Pope’s religious authority was not questioned.
On the other hand, there were also situations of understanding between monarchical and papacy authority, such as Louis XIV decided to force the religious unification of France through the persecution of Protestant groups (like Jansenists). On the other hand, in Sweden King Gustavo III, whose monarchy was Protestant, ruled religious freedom for Catholics and Jews (influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment).
The limits to absolutist power
In principle, the power of absolutist monarchs had no limits. Nevertheless, Some traditions established limits that, in general, they were not explicitly expressed. For example:
- God’s law . This legal and religious principle established that the king was subjected, in his condition as a Christian, to the moral laws of religion and the Church.
- Natural law . Certain parts of the law, which concerned the most fundamental aspects of culture, were not subject to the king’s consideration. For example, inheritance laws, mayorazgo, etc.
- The fundamental laws of the kingdom . Some inherited laws were not questioned because they were part of the tradition, even when they were not necessarily written, such as the rules of succession of the monarchs.
Examples of absolutist monarchies
Louis XIV of France
The clearest example of an absolute monarchy was The reign of Louis XIV in France also called the “Sun King”, who ruled between 1643 and 1715. In fact, his style of government and the ostentatious courtly life of the Palace of Versailles were imitated by many European monarchs that implanted absolutism in their kingdoms.
Louis XIV Inherited the throne of France when he was a child so he initially exercised his mother, Ana de Austria, who trusted government affairs to his minister, the Italian cardinal Mazarino. This continued the measures initiated by his predecessor, Cardinal Richelieu, who consisted of ensuring the position of France in Europe and strengthening the French royal court to the detriment of the nobility.
At the death of Mazarino, in 1661, Louis XIV was already an adult and ruled on a strong and orderly kingdom, so He personally decided to assume the driving of the government, although advised by a cabinet of ministers (The most prominent was Colbert). The bureaucratic reorganization of the State promoted the appointment of officials who depended directly on the king, many of them from the bourgeoisie. This concentration of power (which erected it in absolute monarch and consolidated the dominant position of France in Europe) is usually illustrated with the famous phrase that has been attributed to it: “The State is me.”
Other absolute monarchies
Absolutism was adopted in almost all European monarchies of the seventeenth century . The most notable exception was England, which had two often considered absolutists, such as Carlos II (1660-1685) and Jacobo II (1685-1688), and an anterior monarch that some historians characterize as absolute, as was Enrique VIII (1509-1547), but that since 1688 he saw a constitutional monarchy consolidated.
- Federico Guillermo I of Prussia (1713-1740) inaugurated Prussian absolutism, more austere and less ostentatious than other European examples. It was surrounded by ministers, implemented administrative and military reforms, and established specific norms for the performance of public office.
- Gustavo III of Sweden (1771-1792) It represented the combination between absolutism and illustrated ideas that is usually called “enlightened despotism.” In his reign, he implemented reforms such as the freedom of printing or the moderation of penalties and punishments, but also concentrated the political authority and removed power from Parliament.
- Fernando VII occupied the throne of Spain In 1808 and, after the Napoleonic invasion, between 1814 and 1833. When he returned to the throne in 1814, he abolished the Constitution of Cádiz of 1812 and restored Bourbon absolutism. During his reign there were a series of periods defined by the relationship between the liberal and conservative sectors of Spanish politics: the absolutist sexennium (1814-1820), the liberal triennium (1820-1823) and the ominous decade (1823-1833).
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References
- Anderson, P. (1998). The absolutist state. 21st century.
- Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2022). Absolutism. Britannica Encyclopedia. Britannica
- Duchhardt, H. (1992). The era of absolutism. Alliance.
- Hunt, L., Martin, Tr, Rosenwein, BH & Smith, BG (2016). The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures. 5th edition. BEDFORD/ST. Martin’s.
