Unit 3: Absolutism and Constitutionalism

State-building

The long process (c. 1648–1815) by which rulers and elites increased the power of central institutions over people and territory, especially to raise revenue, raise force, maintain order, and project legitimacy.

Absolutism

A political system in which a monarch claims (and often expands) central authority over law, taxation, administration, and the military, with limited accountability to representative institutions, though still facing practical constraints.

Constitutionalism

The principle that government is bound by established rules and that a ruler’s power is constrained by law, representative institutions, and/or entrenched rights (often for elites rather than a full democracy).

Fiscal-military state

A state whose institutions and politics are heavily shaped by the need to finance war through taxation, borrowing, and expanded administration.

Sovereignty

Ultimate political authority; in this era it was debated and redefined (dynastic, territorial, and popular forms).

Dynastic sovereignty

The idea that ultimate authority rests with monarchs and ruling families, who claim broad powers to make laws, levy taxes, and wage war (often more a claim than an uncontested reality).

Territorial sovereignty

The idea that authority is tied to control of a defined territory, borders, and administrative capacity, with legitimacy linked to protecting and governing within recognized boundaries.

Popular sovereignty

The idea that political legitimacy ultimately comes from “the people” and their consent, increasingly influential even when participation remained limited.

Peace of Westphalia (1648)

Treaties that ended the Thirty Years’ War and reinforced a more state-centered Europe by strengthening territorial political authority and treaty-based diplomacy without instantly “creating modern sovereignty.”

Reason of state

Policy thinking that prioritizes the state’s interest and survival over purely religious goals, associated with post-1648 diplomacy and statecraft.

Standing army

A permanent, professional military force maintained in peacetime, increasing a ruler’s coercive power but requiring reliable revenue and logistics.

Bureaucracy

A professional administrative system (offices, councils, ministries) used to enforce policy more consistently across a territory than dispersed feudal structures.

Selling offices

A revenue strategy where states sold government positions for cash, helping short-term finance but sometimes weakening long-run efficiency.

Divine right monarchy

The belief that a ruler’s authority comes from God, making obedience a religious duty and rebellion both a political and spiritual crime.

Edict of Nantes (1598)

Henry IV’s decree granting limited toleration to French Huguenots, used to stabilize France after the Wars of Religion.

Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685)

Louis XIV’s cancellation of toleration for Huguenots to pursue religious uniformity, prompting migration and potential economic loss of skilled workers and merchants.

Huguenots

French Protestants whose limited toleration under the Edict of Nantes was later revoked, leading many to flee France.

Henry IV of France

First Bourbon king (r. 1589–1610) who strengthened the monarchy after religious wars and issued the Edict of Nantes to stabilize the realm.

Cardinal Richelieu

Chief minister under Louis XIII who advanced French centralization, including expanding the use of intendants and weakening independent noble power.

Intendants

Royal officials in France who extended central oversight in provinces (taxation, justice, administration), strengthening the monarchy’s reach.

The Fronde

Uprisings during Louis XIV’s youth that helped convince the monarchy that stability required stronger central authority.

Versailles

Louis XIV’s palace-court used as political technology to discipline the nobility through ritual, patronage competition, and constant visibility.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Louis XIV’s finance minister associated with mercantilist policies to promote manufacturing, regulate the economy, and increase state revenue.

Mercantilism

An economic doctrine in which the state manages trade and production to increase national wealth and power (e.g., encouraging exports, limiting imports, using tariffs and monopolies).

Colbertism

French mercantilist approach under Colbert emphasizing state regulation, promotion of manufacturing, and revenue-building as part of absolutist governance.

English Civil War (1642–1651)

Armed conflict between Royalists (supporting Charles I) and Parliamentarians (led militarily by Cromwell), driven by disputes over religion, taxation, and sovereignty.

Oliver Cromwell

Parliamentarian military leader who became Lord Protector during the Commonwealth/Protectorate, illustrating how republican experiments could become military-backed regimes.

Commonwealth (England)

The English republican period after abolishing the monarchy (following Charles I’s execution), preceding Cromwell’s Protectorate.

Glorious Revolution (1688)

A largely bloodless transfer of power in England where William of Orange replaced James II amid fears of a Catholic dynasty, strengthening parliamentary power.

English Bill of Rights (1689)

A document that reinforced parliamentary supremacy and limited royal power (no suspending laws or levying taxes without Parliament), associated with constitutional monarchy.

Parliamentary supremacy

The principle (reinforced in England after 1688/1689) that Parliament holds final authority in lawmaking and taxation over the monarch.

Thomas Hobbes

Author of Leviathan (1651) who argued strong sovereignty was necessary to prevent chaos and disorder after civil war.

Leviathan (1651)

Hobbes’s work arguing that strong centralized authority is needed to avoid societal collapse into violence and chaos.

John Locke

Political thinker who argued government rests on consent and exists to protect rights; if it fails, people may resist or replace it.

Dutch Republic

A federation of provinces with strong urban merchant influence; a major commercial and financial power showing state strength could come from trade and naval capacity without a king.

Great Elector (Frederick William)

Ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia who strengthened the state through a standing army, improved taxation reliability, and cooperation with the Junker nobility.

Junkers

Prussian landed nobility who supported the army and administration in exchange for strong local dominance over peasants.

Composite monarchy

A state made up of multiple territories with different laws, elites, and languages (e.g., the Habsburg monarchy), making centralization uneven.

Habsburg dynasty

A long-running European ruling family that expanded influence through strategic marriages and ruled diverse territories, presenting themselves as Catholic defenders.

Russian autocracy

A form of absolutism in which the Tsar concentrated authority over government, military, and church with limited institutional checks, reinforced by divine-right ideology.

Serfdom

A coercive labor system tying peasants to the land with restricted rights; especially strong in much of Central and Eastern Europe and closely linked to state and noble power.

Peter the Great

Russian ruler (r. 1682–1725) who modernized the military, reorganized administration, compelled noble service, and promoted elite westernization to make Russia competitive.

St. Petersburg

City founded by Peter the Great as a “window to the West,” symbolizing Russia’s push into European trade and diplomacy.

Liberum veto

A political mechanism in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that allowed nobles to block reforms, limiting centralization and increasing vulnerability.

Balance of power

The diplomatic assumption that peace and independence require preventing any single state from dominating; it often encouraged shifting alliances and wars to contain rivals.

Grand Alliance

Coalition formed against France in the Nine Years’ War (including England, the Dutch Republic, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Savoy) to limit Louis XIV’s power.

Treaty of Utrecht (1713)

Treaty ending the War of the Spanish Succession that rearranged territories and trade advantages to prevent a destabilizing France-Spain dynastic union (balance-of-power logic).

Military Revolution

Early modern changes in tactics, weaponry, and army organization that increased the scale and cost of war, pushing states toward stronger taxation and administration.

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

Swedish king (r. 1611–1632) associated with effective combined-arms tactics in the Thirty Years’ War; killed at the Battle of Lützen (1632).

Agricultural (Agrarian) Revolution

Major changes in farming (16th–18th centuries) that increased productivity, enabled population growth, and supported urbanization through surplus food and higher efficiency.