Please respond to the following post. please refrain from saying i agree with you.... etc. 100 words per response thank you. Number 1 Lindsey Hello Everyone, This week we learned that Absolutism is a type of government that, in theory, gives power to one individual to control all church and state matters. Even though an absolutist monarch held supreme over all things regarding the region, he or she still relied on the support of the aristocracy to accept and carry out his or her policies.  After reading about Louis XIV, I truly think Louis’s reign can be considered that of a quintessential absolutist monarchy. According to the textbook, he “[used] a systematic policy of bestowing pensions, offices, honors, gifts, and the threat of disfavor or punishment, Louis induced the nobles to cooperate with him and made himself the center of French power and culture” (Hunt., et. al., 518).  This was quite an ingenious tactic of Louis’ to manipulate the aristocracy by playing into their own vanity to conform to his policies and edicts. By buying the ‘love’ of the nobility, Louis XIV gained their support and favor which allowed him to solidify his rule across the region. Besides the fact that Louis “believed that he reigned by divine right” (Hunt., et.al., 521), I believe one of the most important absolutist characteristics of his regime was his insatiable desire to extend his power and influence to territories surrounding his lands. His greed to expand his reign beyond French boundaries fueled his hostilities towards neighboring countries and gained him many new enemies of the state.  Louis would spend most of his reign at war with the Holy Roman Empire, Dutch Republic, England, Spain, Sweden, and Prussia. Without the temporary alignment of these powerhouses, Louis would probably have succeeded in expanding his territory and power further. -Lindsey Lynn Hunt, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein and Bonnie G. Smith,  The Making of the West:  Peoples and Cultures, Vol. 2:  Since 1500,  4th edition (Boston:  Bedford / St. Martin's, 2012). Number 2 Kyle    Louis XIV can be sen as the quintessential absolute monarch due to his centralization of power, expansion of territory, and pursuit of personal glory.       He centralized his power by 5 different methods: The first was reigning in of the Nobility. For centuries, nobles had unchecked power. So Louis XIV replaced the Nobles with Intendants that were loyal to him. Second he eliminated freedom of religion and put limits on the power of the Catholic church in turn limited the Pope’s power in France. Third he centralized the military, this was second order effects from reigning in the nobles and replacing them with Administrators. Fourthly he arrested the old finance minister and gave the post to a trusted ally. Lastly he changed the law from a system that used several different codes of law and instituting the “Code Louis.” (Ashley, 1946)      Louis XIV monarch was known for its vast expansion. One fron.

1. Please respond to the following post. please refrain from saying
i agree with you.... etc. 100 words per response thank you.
Number 1 Lindsey
Hello Everyone,
This week we learned that Absolutism is a type of government
that, in theory, gives power to one individual to control all
church and state matters. Even though an absolutist monarch
held supreme over all things regarding the region, he or she still
relied on the support of the aristocracy to accept and carry out
his or her policies. After reading about Louis XIV, I truly think
Louis’s reign can be considered that of a quintessential
absolutist monarchy. According to the textbook, he “[used] a
systematic policy of bestowing pensions, offices, honors, gifts,
and the threat of disfavor or punishment, Louis induced the
nobles to cooperate with him and made himself the center of
French power and culture” (Hunt., et. al., 518). This was quite
an ingenious tactic of Louis’ to manipulate the aristocracy by
playing into their own vanity to conform to his policies and
edicts. By buying the ‘love’ of the nobility, Louis XIV gained
their support and favor which allowed him to solidify his rule
across the region. Besides the fact that Louis “believed that he
reigned by divine right” (Hunt., et.al., 521), I believe one of the
most important absolutist characteristics of his regime was his
insatiable desire to extend his power and influence to territories
surrounding his lands. His greed to expand his reign beyond
French boundaries fueled his hostilities towards neighboring
countries and gained him many new enemies of the state. Louis
would spend most of his reign at war with the Holy Roman
Empire, Dutch Republic, England, Spain, Sweden, and Prussia.
Without the temporary alignment of these powerhouses, Louis
would probably have succeeded in expanding his territory and
power further.
-Lindsey

2. Lynn Hunt, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein and
Bonnie G. Smith,
The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures, Vol. 2: Since
1500,
4th edition (Boston: Bedford / St. Martin's, 2012).
Number 2 Kyle
Louis XIV can be sen as the quintessential absolute monarch
due to his centralization of power, expansion of territory, and
pursuit of personal glory.
He centralized his power by 5 different methods: The first
was reigning in of the Nobility. For centuries, nobles had
unchecked power. So Louis XIV replaced the Nobles with
Intendants that were loyal to him. Second he eliminated freedom
of religion and put limits on the power of the Catholic church in
turn limited the Pope’s power in France. Third he centralized
the military, this was second order effects from reigning in the
nobles and replacing them with Administrators. Fourthly he
arrested the old finance minister and gave the post to a trusted
ally. Lastly he changed the law from a system that used several
different codes of law and instituting the “Code Louis.”
(Ashley, 1946)
Louis XIV monarch was known for its vast expansion. One
front was the Wars in Europe (Franco-Dutch War, War of the
Grand Alliance, and War of Spanish Succession). He then
Expanded into the Americas one of the biggest land grabs was
the French claimed the entire Mississippi River Basin. (Ashley,
1946)
Last Louis XIV monarch was known for its pursuit of Glory
and showed this by its lavish lifestyle and spending. The most
notable could be the Palace of Versailles. The Palace of
Versailles took 20 years to construct, and is widely regarded as
the most magnificent palace in Europe. (Nolan, 2008)
With the previously stated characteristic it clearly shows
why this regime is regarded as the absolute monarch. I believe

3. that the one characteristic that really stands out is the reigning
in of the Nobles. During this time period Nobles ran territories
France was the first to take the power away and centralize it.
Sources:
Ashley, Maurice Percy. Louis XIV and the Greatness of France.
London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1946.
Nolan, Cathal J. Wars of the Age of Louis, 1650-1715: An
Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization. Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press, 2008.
Number 3 Dustin
A large portion of Rousseau’s political ideology was derived
from his philosophy of the development of human society.
Rousseau extensively uses the state of nature, or, the concept of
what human lives would be like before the establishment of
society. In many ways, Rousseau believed that the progression
of society was the root cause the growth of immorality, because
progression induced greed, envy, and so on with the divisions of
labor and property. As a result of this, Rousseau developed an
ideology of government that placed the power of laws into the
people’s hands, equally across all men themselves. This
balancing of power in society Rousseau defined as the general
will of the people. Rousseau believed that there was not natural
rights of men to power or property, and those liberties should be
divided equally based on needs. Rousseau also had a vision for
how the laws should be established and regulated. The power of
the sovereign, or, the government of a nation, was only to fill
the role of enforcing laws, but not establishing them itself. The
establishment of the laws belonged to the general will. It is also
worth mentioning that the general will of the people is
established through mass consensus, much like a modern
democracy. All of these tenants of Rousseau’s political ideology

4. have many parallels with democracy. As for Rousseau’s
religion, he was a Calvinist that broke from the earlier
dedication of Roman Catholicism. He had a strong sense of
religious tolerance, however, that resulted in many to refute his
ideologies on the basis of indifferentism, which is basically the
idea that no religion is better than the other. This led somewhat
of a discrediting of Rousseau’s religious philosophy among the
Calvinist population. Because of Rousseau’s philosophy on the
development of human society, he opposed the doctrine of
original sin, asserting that men develop sin as we materially and
scientifically progress.
Reference:
Halverson, W. H. (1981). Concise readings in philosophy. New
York: Random House.