Absolutism in Europe

Many countries in Europe experienced hardships in the year 1500s due to a lot of ideologies that led to reforms and freedom of the populace form peasantry. Such reformation also embodied the equality among common masses and the continuous spreading of protection of rights for every people in a particular country. As this philosophy continued to flourish in Europe, more conflict began to arise by the common people to be able to claim and fight for that rights they want. In addition to that, countries like France, England, and Germany also suffered from struggles due to the political breakdown in their lands. Because of that, many sought ways on how to improve the situation in their country and all of these efforts led to the decision of having a single ruler to govern over the land. This also meant the denial of such rights claimed by the common people like freedom from forced labor and land ownerships. Absolutism is defined as a type of government where the full power resides solely in the monarchial rule or the corresponding King of a country. This principle is based on the heavenly right of a ruler to govern a country and that this person should not be queried or challenged. According to this belief, the kingship was given to a person by God, therefore, no one should go against the will of God. With respect to the natural law, the end study still resulted to absolutism. Moreover, while absolutism provides great power on the monarch leader, they still have to maintain good relationship with the aristocrats and other nobles in the country. Members of the aristocracy played a major role in maintaining the rule of king in its good condition. These people supported the ruler by leading the armies of the land against rebels and insurgencies. On the contrary, these nobles can also dispute the authority of the single ruler, making its government shaky. France is a good example of an absolute type of government. Under this government, the political power of France was centered on the kingship and all control over military, taxation and other state affairs is in the hand of the king. However, such control is still fragile because the king should maintain good standing with the other nobles and aristocrats and should maintain a standing army to preserve his rule. With France, King Henry IV laid policies that further strengthened the monarchial rule over the French territory which in turn, provided benefits on the public. In addition to that, King Henry also acquired the services of religious ministers to establish an improved management and as a result, many structures were built that further improved the lives of the people. Conversely, rebellions emerged when higher taxation was imposed by the French ministers, and this made the government weaker and its influence limited. The uprising was led by other aristocrats that defied the orders of the king to collect dues that were beyond the normal taxation. As a result, compromises were made between the two parties to restore peace in France. In countries like Austria and Prussia, absolutism is said to be very effective and was less challenged by wars or rebellions by its citizens and nobles. When the Ottoman Empire attempted to conquer nations like Austria, the nobles joined together that eventually led to the defeat of the Turkish armies. As a result, the authoritarian rule of the present leader on that country was further supported by the people of Austria. The same happened in Prussia when wars continued to plagued the nation and the leader of this country emerged to have saved the country over the possible hardships that â€Å"war defeat† might bring to them. The war also weakened  Ã‚   the power of the nobles who antagonize the Prussian government at that time. In Russia, absolutism was developed and can be traced back when Russia then was conquered by the Mongolian army. The Mongol leader made the people of Russia suffer and even imposed huge taxes against the people. The Mongol leader also appointed Russian nobles to do the tax collection job over the Russian cities which eventually turned against them. When the Russian nobles already gained much resources and support from the populace, they started to revolt against the Mongol rule over their country. When they finally beat their enemies, the ruler of Russia justified the need of absolutism in their country to further strengthen the defense of Russia over its enemies. The tsar also improved the structures of the Russian country like the St. Petersburgh construction. The distinctiveness of absolutism that was in eastern part of Europe by the year 1600s was significantly unusual from that of nations like Spain and France in the western side of the continent. Eastern Europe was able to recover from the stage of scarcity and malady in the 1300s in a diverse way. On the other hand, when population levels in the countries in the western part of Europe were small and there was a lack of manual labor in the medieval era, the peasants were able to attain greater liberty from the said limits occurred in the feudalism epoch. Conversely, in Eastern Europe the landlords and the aristocrats were still clever to constrict the peasants on their lives and as a result, weaken their struggle for freedom. A valid hypothesis for that scenario is that this might happened because those rulers in places in the western part of Europe were much more prominent than in the Eastern towns for the reason that of extensive commercial revolution that happened in the West. These towns gave a substitute and usually a sanctuary for the masses that were not in their original land. Additionally, monarchies in the western part of the continent frequently seen by the populace to protect them from their enemies who would want to plunder their land. The policies made by these rulers were also for the ordinary public to be protected from mistreatment of those who are in the noble families. There are three known countries with powerful kingdoms and these are Prussia, Austria and Russia. All of these nations proved to their citizens the worth of having a single ruler to oversee the whole kingdom and toe welfare of the entire public. They also provided protections for the people who were vulnerable from their enemies like barbarians and other nomadic groups. On the other hand, landlords in the eastern part applied pressures to the peasants to produce goods for other nations rather than for their own spending. As such, the populace was not satisfied with the rule of their landlords in the east, thus, adding mistrust on the kingship of the rulers in the Eastern Europe. In addition to that, there was limited growth in the population in the Eastern Europe and as a result, nobles easily dominated these lands. The rulers perpetually received support from the aristocrats and letting them a liberated life in controlling their own populace. References Absolute Monarchy and Enlightened Absolutism. Retrieved on Feb 25, 2009. Retrieved from Absolutism. Retrieved on Feb 26, 2009. Retrieved from Reign of Louis XIV. Retrieved on February 26, 2009. Retrieved from