Discussion Week 6
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1. Discuss the idea and application of absolute monarchy in
Louis XIV's France. Did Louis "exhaust the French
monarchy"?
[Louis' reign "brought to fruition the growth of absolute monarchy
which for centuries had been the objective of the French kings, their
jurists and administrators." W.M. Church, The Greatness of Louis XIV.
Myth or Reality? p. ix Louis and his ministers centralized and
streamlined administrative, economic, and religious policies, which
emphasized the unity of the nation and the king's rule. But absolute
rule has its limitations: Louis fought many wars to secure French
borders and to extend his own dynastic claims. The result was that
France entered the eighteenth century bankrupt and exhausted.]
2. What, if any, links did nationalism have to other
ideologies, such as liberalism, conservatism, romanticism, and
socialism?
[These concepts, and those who espoused them, are like overlapping
sets. Many Nationalists were Romantics who wrote poetry and were people
of education and culture. Many were also Socialists (and Republicans),
because their distrust or despisement of the institution of monarchy
made them advocates of the democratic rights of common people and of
their economic security.]
3. Compare and contrast the American and French revolutions.
How different were they and can you account for those
differences?
[The spread of Enlightenment philosophy resulted in a
cosmopolitan, international culture embracing rational principles of
just government and liberal reform. America and France were not the
only revolutionary states: reform movements in Poland, Ireland and the
Netherlands also fostered popular demands for self-determination and
liberty. In America the ostensible causes of revolution were the
oppressive rule of George III and his ministers. In France outmoded
governmental structures, financial crises, and elite criticism forced
Louis XVI to summon the Estates General. In 1789 the Third Estate (i.e.
everybody except the clergy and the nobility, though many of these had
already thrown in their lot with the common people) seized control of
the political agenda, spearheaded the creation of a National Assembly,
while popular unrest led to the storming of the Bastille.]
Copyright ©2008 Aidan Breen, Ph.D.
