Summary+-+Chapter+15+(State+Building+and+the+Search+for+Order+in+the+17th++Century)


 * __State Building and the Search for Order in the 17th Century__**

//PS: This is taken STRAIGHT from the Chapter fifteen Study Guide//

The political and religious crises of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, with fears, wars, and rebellions, led philosophers and rulers to consider alternatives to what they considered the insecure and often chaotic institutional structures of the day. For over a century both groups defended the growth of strong monarchies that could keep the peace and the order, who could enforce social uniformity, who could take measures to increase national prosperity. Government moved increasingly toward absolutism, toward kings stronger than any known in Europe before, kings with power to provide order and prosperity. While absolutism reached its apex in France with the reign of Louis XIV, it had significant successes in Spain, the German states, Italy, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire. Everywhere there was a movement toward centralized power, the weakening of local rulers, and state control of economies. Only in a few nations did royal power diminish and begin to share rule with parliamentary and constitutional systems. It did happen in Poland, in the United Provinces of Holland, and most importantly in Britain. In the latter there occured in 1688 a bloodless revolution against James II, whom Parliament replaced with the dual monarchy of William and Mary, who promised certain rights to British citizens. There the way was paved not only for limited monarchy but also for democracy. This Age of Absolutism was an age of cultural and philosophical achievement. El Greco's Mannerism and Bernini's Baroque styles were succeeded by the French Classicism of Poussin and the Dutch Realism of Rembrandt. It was an age when the French theater caught up with Shakepeare's English style and gained world dominance, as demonstrated by the work of Molière and Racine. It was a time of ferment in political theory: the penetrating analyses of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. The Enlightenment was beginning.