Skyler Eastin
Mr. Ward
World History 1
5-15-14
An Absolute Monarch is a man who rules
over his domain with complete authority. Nothing in the domain happens without
his permission to do so. This doesn’t mean that they micromanage every action
of every person, but an absolute monarch always limits the amount of freedom
the individual or potential rivals of power in one way or another.
Tokogawa Ieyasu- Japan
Tokogawa Ieyasu was the first in a 200
year reign of the Tokogawa family over Japan. He rose to power through military
conquests over competing daimyo, powerful family houses. He personally led his
army to destroy or align with nearly all the daimyo in Japan. When his power
was great enough after the Battle of Sekigahara in
1600 he stopped the conquests settled in the city that would
eventually become Tokyo. The Tokogawa family created a form of government known
as “Bakuhan.” In this system, the reigning shogun of the Tokogawa family acted
as an absolute monarch with smaller daimyo handling smaller local affairs in
their assigned provinces. The shoguns main job was to uphold and enforce a code
by the Tokogawa family to prevent the now unified Japan from returning to the
chaos of daimyo competing for power through warfare. The code forbade commoners
from possessing certain types of weapons, the number of troops a daimyo could
posses, forbade Christianity, and outlawed the construction of ocean-able
ships.
Louis xiv-France
Louis XIV became
the king of France in 1661. When he was very young he and his family were wronged
by the French nobility, losing them political power. When he took the throne,
he wanted to control and limit the power or the nobility so they could not do
the same to him. The first thing he did as king was prohibit the nobles from
passing legislation without his approval. He then built the Palace of
Versailles, one of the largest palaces ever made. It was large enough to accommodate
nobles, who he often invited to stay with him so they couldn’t work at their
homes. Louis was a strong Catholic and frowned on Protestantism. He forced them
to convert by allowing French soldier to be quartered in homes of those he
suspected of being protestant, and encouraged the soldiers to be on their worst
behavior. He increased taxes to support a war to gain control of what are now
Belgium and the Netherlands. This
decreased his popularity significantly, especially because he lost the war,
which crippled the economy and his political stability. However he died before
he was able to lose his grasp on the country.
Peter the great- Russia
Peter the
Great was the first of Russia was bent on getting Russia to to be able to
compete with the advancing European technologies. When he became the only
ruling tsar in 1692 he began his quest to modernize the formerly viewed as
barbaric Russia. His first step was to invite many of Europe’s best engineers
and artists and craftsmen. Secondly, he sent his people to Europe to get a
better education. Thirdly, he went to
war with Sweden in order to gain control of Baltic ports to enable trade. After
he won the war he changed the governing system to make Russia official an
empire, with himself as the emperor. He also increased taxes to support the
country’s trade and production of trade goods, found a navy, and establish an
army. He changed the capital to St. Petersburg, the city founded and named by
him. These reforms were not loved by everyone, but those who revolted were
executed. When peter son was thought to have been conspiring against him, peter
interrogated him personally and had him imprisoned.
James I –England
James I was
the ruler of England and Scotland from 1603-1625. He united the countries of
his homeland, Scotland, and his slightly more powerful neighbor, England. However,
the people of England were not all happy about him sitting on the throne. For one,
he was a foreigner, and two, the parliament had just recently been introduced
in England. Parliament was designed to limit the power of the monarch and
increase the power of the people. James, being a foreigner, wasn’t used to this
system when he took control of England because Scotland didn’t have anything
similar to it. As a result, he didn’t conflicts arose between him and parliament.
He wanted to raise taxes and impose Anglicanism, while parliament wanted to
lower taxes and introduce a church reform. Both of them claimed that the other couldn’t
do what they wanted without the other’s permission. however the protest form parliament
were not enough to keep James from installing Anglicanism as the country’s main
religion, however he was tolerant with other denominations and allowed them to worship freely.
Philip II- Spain
Philip II
was the ruler of Spain in 1555. He increased his empire in 1580 by claiming Portugal
and all its colonies as his when the Portuguese king died and no heir was
found. Through the work of the colonies of both Portugal and Spain, the economy
boomed, and the king took up to a fourth of all the money from every ship
returning with money to Spain. This allowed him to have an army of nearly
50,000 men. He used is army to defend his religion, Catholicism. When the pope
asked for Catholics to take up arms against the growing Ottoman Empire, Philip
was eager to send his huge fleet to defeat that of the Ottomans. He then sent
his armada to the now protestant England, but was defeated. He also used his
vast wealth to encourage the arts. Under Philip II, the only thing that
destroyed the empire was too much money. As more gold and silver came to Spain,
the value went down. This collapsed the economy. In one last attempt to save
his country, he raised taxes on the Spanish Netherlands. However, this was not
well received and Phillip had to finance another war to keep them from becoming
independent which he lost only hurting his economy further. Even during the
country becoming bankrupt, Philip still held absolute power. He refused his
advisors any input and handled all of the country’s problems personally.
All of these men were absolute
monarchs because they all limited the freedom of individuals and the power of
potential rivals in some way. Tokogawa Ieyasu used warfare and a strict code to
govern all competing daimyo and their subjects. Louis XIV restricted the power
of the local nobility and had little religious tolerance for Protestants. Peter
the great made himself the emperor over all of Russia and executed those who
question his power. James I limited the powers of the parliament and imposed
Anglicanism over England. Philip II worked completely alone with no input form
others and enforced Catholicism everywhere in his reach.
Works Cited
"The Emergence of Russia (Overview)." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 15 May 2014.
Stanley, Thomas , and
R.T.A Irving. "Tokugawa Political Controls." Tokugawa Political
Controls. Web. 15 May 2014. <http://www.willamette.edu/~rloftus/H381TokuPolControls.htm>.
Spielvogel, Jackson J.. Western
civilization. 2nd ed. Minneapolis/St. Paul: West, 1994. Print.
Damerow, Dr. Harold . "Louis XIV." Louis
XIV. N.p., 10 Oct. 2009. Web. 15 May 2014.
<http://faculty.ucc.edu/egh-damerow/louis_xiv.htm>.
Damerow, Dr. Harold. "Glorious
Revolution." Glorious Revolution. N.p., 10 Oct.
2009. Web. 15 May 2014.
<http://faculty.ucc.edu/egh-damerow/glorious_revolution.htm>.
No comments:
Post a Comment