2. Absolutism and the State

European Civilization, 1648-1945 (HIST 202)

The rise of absolutism in Europe must be understood in the context of insecurity attending the religious wars of the first half of the seventeenth century, and the Thirty Years' War in particular. Faced with the unprecedented brutality and devastation of these conflicts, European nobles and landowners were increasingly willing to surrender their independence to the authority of a single, all-powerful monarch in return for guaranteed protection. Among the consequences of this consolidation of state power were the formation of large standing armies and bureaucratic systems, the curtailment of municipal privileges, and the birth of international law.

00:00 - Chapter 1. The Rise of Absolutism in the Continental States of Europe
11:26 - Chapter 2. Reaction against War: Absolutism as Reassertion of Order
21:56 - Chapter 3. The Shape of Government in an Absolute State: Nobles and Bureaucrats
26:50 - Chapter 4. The Arm of the Absolute State: The Rise of Large Standing Armies
34:58 - Chapter 5. Representations of the Absolutism in Art and Literature

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2008.