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The formation of modern countries in Europe began with the time of the absolute monarchs in the 1600’s. The term “absolute monarchs” combines two terms that describe the style of leadership during this time period. The term “monarch” describes a leader who is a king or queen, who inherited their power to rule over an area of land, called a kingdom. Monarchy was the traditional style of leadership in Europe going back into the period of the Middle Ages. The absolute monarchs were different from the traditional monarchs in how they ruled their countries. The term “absolute” describes these rulers has having complete and total control over the countries they ruled. There was no other person or group in the country who could challenge the absolute monarchs’ power. This power was summed up by the French King Louis XIV when he said, “I am the state” meaning he was the government.
The absolute monarchs ruled during a period when the kings and queens of European countries consolidated their power to rule over their countries. Over the long run, the way that the absolute monarchs centralized their authority helped these countries become unified modern nations.
In order to understand the changes that happened in Europe during this period, it is first important to understand how Europe had been ruled prior before the Absolute Monarchs, during a period called the Middle Ages. The term "Middle Ages" is used to describe a thousand-year period of time between the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of modern nations. The Middle Ages is generally associated with knights and castles. This image of the period is appropriate because it was a time of constant warfare in which armored warrior knights fought to control lands, which were defended by castles. Society during this time was self-sufficient, which means that they produced everything they needed themselves, because the constant fighting prevented trade. In general, most people were either peasants, working to grow food and make basic crafts, or nobles, who were warriors.
During the Middle Ages, Europe was ruled by monarchs, who inherited their power. However, these monarchs were not very powerful because knights (who trained from a young age to fight) and castles (which were large building projects) were very expensive. In order to control enough land to support a large army, monarchs used an indirect way to control large amounts of land called the feudal system. In the feudal system, monarchs depended on other nobles, such as lords, dukes and barons, to supply them with knights and castles. In return, the monarch gave these nobles control over part of their kingdom. Nobles were able to support groups of armored knights and build castles because they could force the peasants who lived on their lands to work for them. These peasants were called serfs. They had to do work for the nobles in return for the protection of living on nobles’ land. The food grown by the peasants and the castles built by peasants supported the nobles and their armies of armored knights. The noble’s castles protected the monarch’s lands and nobles’ armored knights would also fight as part of the monarch’s army when needed.While a monarch was more powerful than the other nobles, they were dependent on the nobles for their power. There were many times when the nobles would become so powerful, that they could challenge a monarch for their power. This could happen when a monarch died and there was a dispute over who should be the next monarch (because the monarch who died did not have a son or daughter – or the son or daughter was very young). The rise of the Absolute Monarchs in France and Russia happened because the nobles fought each other for power to be king. The British philosopher Thomas Hobbes said that it was good to have a strong centralized government, like an absolute monarch, because they could prevent these brutal civil wars.
At the end of the Middle Ages, the relationship between the monarchs and the nobles began to change. The development of guns and cannon reduced the importance of knights and castles. These technologies meant that a peasant commoner with a gun could kill a highly trained knight, and cannons could reduce a castle to rubble. This change meant that monarchs did not need nobles for their military power. The absolute monarchs began to centralize military power under their command by building professional armies by hiring and equipping trained peasants with guns and cannon. At the same time, they weakened the power of the nobles in their kingdoms by forcing the nobles to give up their armies and to tear down protective walls around their castles. Without their own source of military power, the nobles could no longer challenge the king.
The process of building and maintaining a professional army cost a lot of money and required a skilled workforce to make the equipment. The development of towns and cities gave the absolute monarchs a source of money and a skilled workforce. Merchants and craftsmen, who lived in towns, were commoners with skills useful for managing money and making military equipment. In addition, these skilled commoners did not have a title or special privileges like the nobles. The absolute monarchs began to hire skilled commoners because their organizational and management skills were useful to a monarch who wanted to control his kingdom without challenges to his power.
The direct control that the absolute monarchs had over their lands allowed them to collect the tax money needed to pay for the soldiers and government administrators. The absolute monarchs supported an economic system called mercantilism, in which the government regulated and controlled the way the economy developed in order to increase the power of the government. The absolute monarchs worked to increase the size of the economy because the wealthier the country became, the more the absolute monarch could tax the people, which meant that they could employ a larger army. In the mercantile system, the government financially supported the building of industry and manufacturing, built roads and canals to promote trade within the country, and increased the amount of gold and silver in the country by exporting more than importing. These mercantilist policies were focused on benefiting the absolute monarchs. Often, the people in their countries suffered and became poorer (because of high taxes) despite the growing economies.
The absolute monarchs also engaged in large building projects that helped them increase their power and prestige. The absolute monarchs hired the best artists and builders to build large palaces, and even cities, which became centers of culture and art. These displays of wealth were important because they impressed both the absolute monarch’s subjects and people in other countries. This impression made it less likely that people rebel against the monarchs or want to attack a country that seemed so powerful. The absolute monarchs used these building projects to further weaken the nobles by requiring them to live in the monarch’s palace or city so the monarch could keep an eye on them. However, often the nobles usually wanted to live in these places because of the glamorous art and culture associated with the absolute monarchs.
The period of the absolute monarchs is important because the large lands they were able to unite under their direct control became powerful countries. These lands that were originally tied together by the army, roads and administration of the absolute monarchs over time became countries that were connected by common language and culture. These connections of language and culture slowly became more powerful than the absolute monarchs, and in the long run became the building blocks for the creation of modern nations.
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