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Alicia Trimmiño Jaramillo Absolutism Paper


Sam Phillips Feb 27,2016

Absolutism Essay

"The extravagance of Absolutist palaces in Europe shows how Absolutist monarchs were
also bad monarchs" I partially disagree with the statement because although monarchs use
some money of the people to make their palaces look pretty they also help in many ways to
expand territories and brought culture to the cities Monarchs developed new ideas so that
their country could be more advance in technology, social, politics and many topics in daily
life. Maybe their palaces were very extravagant, but it doesn’t mean they were bad, because
the extravagance of your home does not define you as a person.

One example that show that the extaravagance of an Absolutist palace didn’t make bad a
monarch was Peter the Great know as this because “he was one of Russia’s greatest
remoremers”. The Winter palace, constructed in 1732 whas the residence for Peter the
Great. “This palace contains 1,075 rooms, 117 staricases, and 1945 windows. The length of
the main facade was of 150 meters long and 30 meters tall and they were richly decorated
with ionic colums.. It has 1 interior courtyard and a big garden at the back of the buliding.”
(Source 1). The palace was big and inside it contain many things such as paintigs and
rooms but this didn’t make Peter a bad monarch. Before Peter took the power of monarch,
Russia was a medieval country were land was bought with serfs to work for people as their
property.When he took control of the power things were going to change in Russia because
he have planned to Westernize it, so in this way he could make Russia stronger. With his
new reforms he achive better things for Russia. One thing he achive was to make Russia a
safer place because the Russian army was untrained and its tactics and weapons were
outdated causing the country to be in danger constantly because there was not much that
protect soldiers against enemies attacks, so Peter brought western European tactics and
weapons that trained soldiers for attacks and in this way officers protected the country from
invaders. He also promote education and growth, in Russia and traded social and economic
needs by making a seaport so people from the west or people that traveled to the west could
bring new ideas, With this ideas he created universities, most of them based on art,
navigation and science. He also introduced a new food to russian people, the potatoe which
soon became part of the daily russian diet. One of the biggest impacts he made on social
CLN 8A
Alicia Trimmiño Jaramillo Absolutism Paper
Sam Phillips Feb 27,2016
life was that he raised women’s status by having them attend social gatherings. All of these
show how Peter the Great change a medieval city into a power to be reckoned with in
Europe.

Another example of a good monarch that had an extravagant palace is Louis XIV of France.
Under Louis reign, France was the most powerful country in Europe. “The palace were he
lived is called Versailles built on 1682 that cost about 2 billion in 1994 dollars. Versailles
has a huge royal courtyard that contains statues of Louis XIV. The palace stretched 500
yards making the palace kind of a small royal city. The palace was decorated with various
masterpieces of art, which included estimated 6,000 paintings and 5,000 pieces of furniture.
The palace have 2,153 windows, 1,200 fireplaces, 700 rooms, 67 staircases and it
accommodate 5,000 people at once.” Versailles had a lot of splendor and was very
extravagant but this didn’t show that Louis was bad, instead he did a lot of things that
helped France be so powerful. During his monarch life he devoted himself to help France
have the best knowledge about economy, politic and culture. For this he expand
manufacturing by giving funds and tax benefits to French companies, he placed high tariff
on goods from other countries to protect industries. He recognizes the importance of
colonies giving away raw materials and a market for manufactured goods. He made far
French commerce in French colonies in Canada. He also patronized the arts by hosting
huge operas and ballets in Versailles. He also expanded French territories by invading
places were he would fight disastrous fights. He achieved many things for France and at the
end France army was conformed of 400,000 soldiers and the country had a population of 20
million people, which showed that Louis have done many things to get France in the best
position.

But regardless everything Peter the Great and Louis XIV did to make Russia and France to
be powerful countries, this 2 monarchs were absolutist monarchs, and as absolutist
monarchs they did bad things.

During the time Peter ruled as an absolutist monarch, he got to do many positive changes in
Russia, but he also abuse of his power as a monarch. When Peter Westernize Europe he
CLN 8A
Alicia Trimmiño Jaramillo Absolutism Paper
Sam Phillips Feb 27,2016
created some reforms so people would gain western culture. He made men pay for keeping
their beard because according to him, the beard shows too much Mongol influence. But this
tax was not fair for officers, soldiers, and court officials because Peter didn’t gave them a
choice of keeping their beards, they have to shave it obligatory. He also ordered people,
mainly the nobles to give up their traditional clothes, the ones they’ve wear all their live for
Western fashion. He also set his own group that will run the church but first he eliminated
the head of the church and didn’t give him some place on the new group. He also reduced
the power of the great landowners. This show that sometimes the power they manage was
so much that they can’t control it or didn’t know what to do with it.

With Louis XIV happened the same as with Peter, he get to do great things in France,
making it the most powerful country of Europe during that period, but as an absolutist
monarch he abuse sometimes of all the power he had, because he didn’t know how to
control it, so with everything on his control, the religion, the economy, the social, the
politics, and the cultural, he made mistakes that made Louis do bad things. One things he
made was that he excluded nobles from councils and only choose people he trusted to be
part of his advisors, not many because he did not trusted many people because he thought
that they were going to steal his power. Another thing was that he claimed taxes and
sometimes use it for his benefit. But even though France was still the most powerful
country in Europe.

In conclusion the extravagance of the palace a monarch lived in didn’t mean that he/she
was a bad leaders because although they make mistakes that lead them to bad things, most
of the ideas they created lead to the prosperity of the countries. With their help people
could achieve things that maybe, they’ve never think of doing, they could get to change,
they could break from the past.

Sources:

Source 1: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/palaces/winter-palace/

Source 2: “Modern World History Book” - most of quotations

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