Absolute Monarchs Abby H

Philip II of Spain

Philip II was an absolute monarch in Spain in the 1500’s. He, like his father Philip I, was very religious. Portugal, being an empire that had colonies in Africa, the East Indies, and India, was one of the most powerful empires in the world. After the King of Portugal died, Philip II took over. He had right to the throne because he was the nephew of the king. After taking over Portugal, he had the biggest empire in Europe during this time. American mines helped him gain tons of silver and gold. The Americas supplied him with about 339,000 pounds of gold. Philip II made every fifth boat of gold and silver a royal share. He did this so that the Spaniard army could expand to 50,000 soldiers with superb training and weapons. With his army, he battled to punish protestant england. He was defeated and set back the empire majorly. 

The downfall began after Philip was defeated in battle. With so much silver coming in from America, it was too common for everyone in the empire and the value dropped. When the value dropped it increased costs of everyday necessities. Philip then kicked out all Jews and Muslims from Spain. Doing so, they lost skilled workers and people who would have helped the economy by bringing more skilled jobs that others have not been trained to do. These things were bad, but the worst thing Philip II did while he was in power was make the nobles not pay taxes. Without the nobles paying taxes, the poor had to pay more than what they had. This created the problem of not having a middle class in spain.

Louis XIV of France

After the Thirty Years' War, France was one of the most powerful countries in Europe due to the peace treaty from the war. Louis XIII died when the war ended, and when Louis XIV was a child, before he was old enough to be in power. While Louis XIV was growing up, Cardinal Mazarin was in charge of France. The people of France did not Mazarin because he raised taxes continuously and strengthened the central government. Once Mazarin died and Louis XIV took over, he tried to make every part of France perfect. Once Louis was in charge he trusted no one, and made nobles no longer part of his council so they didn't have as much power as they did with Mazarin. He also communicated with everyone that had any type of authority. He communicated with local officers every day just so he could know what was going on every day in his country. Louis also kept trading to a minimum so he would not have to worry about other countries. The French colonies in Canada was something he was proud of, and he encouraged people to settle there. Because nobles did not have a big role anymore, he would pick out of 100 nobles every day a few people to help him dress for the day. Louis spent a ton of the countries fortune on himself.

The downfall of Louis XIV was when Europe ganged up on him to stop fighting. After Louis kept getting into battles and wars Europe made an alliance to stop France from expanding and killing more Europeans. Because France was the biggest army in the world, it was hard to stop them. Fighting against everyone for no reason was not smart of Louis XIV because it loses money and makes taxes raise.

Peter the Great of Russia

At this point in time, in the 1700's, Russia was a little behind Western Europe's ways of living. They still had Serfs during the 1700's. Due to geographical features, it was very hard to get to western Europe. Peter the Great of Russia wanted to learn more about western Europe, so he went. He visited the Dutch, England, and Austria. He lived undercover while he was at these seaports and worked as a ships carpenter at all these seaports. He stood out in a Dutch seaport due to his size, and people ended up finding out who he was. 

After Peters trip, he realized Russia needed to be westernized. He also knew the only way to do it was to force his people. He believed this would make Russia stronger. Peter took over the Russian Orthodox Church and appointed new leaders to the church called the Holy Synod. They led the church under the direction of the king. The rich landowners had their power reduced. He promoted lower class families with positions of authority and land. This way they were loyal to him no matter what he did because he gave them a better job and land. European officers were brought in to train the Russian armies in European ways. They had European tactics and weapons. By the time Peter the Great died, 200,000 men were in the Russian army. Taxes were extremely high because there were so many men. After Peter built up his army he fought Sweden for part of the Baltic coast. It took 21 years, but Russia gained that small part of the coast. He built the city of St. Petersburg on a swampy area that took 25,000 to 100,000 deaths every summer to build.

Although he succeeded reforming Russia, he killed a lot of people doing it.

Frederick the Great of Prussia

Frederick the Great ruled as an absolute Monarch from 1740-1786. Frederick was practical and an atheist. Frederick wanted religious toleration and legal reform. In fact, he encouraged it. He greatly enlarged Prussia by fighting with Austria. Frederick believed he needed to have a strong army to make sure that if another Thirty Years' War was to happen, Prussia would be prepared. In Prussia, The landowning nobility were called the Junkers. They resisted the kings power. That is, until Frederick the Great. Frederick bought their cooperation by giving them the right to be in the army as officers. When Frederick fought Austria, he aimed for Silesia. Silesia was an industrial city that made iron ore, food products, and textiles. Because Frederick the Great wanted that land, he started the Seven Years' War.

Maria Theresa was the leader of Austria at the time, and knew they alone could not fend off Prussia. She went to the Hungarians, who agreed to help her. Then, France also allied with Austria, because the French hated the Prussians. After Frederick heard her allies, he then created an ally with Britain. Eventually, every European country that was successful was fighting each other. This war was called the Seven Years' War. In the end the territories stayed the same and the fighting was worthless.

The low-point of Frederick the Great and Prussia was starting The Seven Years' War. It was worthless, because it changed nothing. It was also economically expensive.

Akbar the Great

Akbar was only 13 when he came into power of the Mughal Empire.He was in power during the 1500s. There were sometimes religion conflicts with Akbar and the Mughal people because he was Muslim whereas most of the people in the empire were Hindu. In order to help his empire, he needed to bring Hindus and Muslims together. He accomplished this by allowing Hindus into the military and government. He also lessened the taxation of farmers. Throughout Akbars ruling, he conquered the many lands around him. He made the people he conquered become loyal to him. When he conquered places, he created a central government their instead of letting them rule how they did before. He was very curious about religion and even married a hindu and let her practice her own religion. He was the best Mughal leader during the Mughal empire. Out of the 5 leaders, Akbar was one of best.

Argument of Absolute Monarchs

Every single empire listed above have one thing in common: They all started to fail when they went to war to conquer more land and power. They went into war, which raised taxes, hurting the economy and killing troops, sometimes for no reason. For example, Frederick the Great went into war with all dominant empires for seven years and the territories stayed the same. The war just hurt everyone economically, having to pay for weapons and soldiers. All of them were selfish and just wanted more land so they could have more power.

MLA

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Anderson, Matthew Smith. "Frederick II (king of Prussia)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 14 May 2014

"Absolutism in France (Overview)." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 14 May 2014.

"Ab al-Fat Jall al-Dn Muammad Akbar." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 15 May 2014.

"Absolute Monarchs in Europe." Absolute Monarchs in Europe. McDougal Littell, n.d. Web. 13 May 2014

"World History." : Was Louis XIV an Absolute Monarch? N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2014.

"Louis XIV." Louis XIV. UCC, n.d. Web. 8 May 2014.