Enlightenment Relations
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Absolute Monarchy
The Enlightenment was all about how everyone was
equal and had the right to make their own decisions, and not always trust what
the government was telling them. The monarchs wanted everyone to obey and not
question their orders. For the people living in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, an absolute monarchy appeared to be the only way to dealing with the
problems that disturbed it. “France, for example, had been torn apart from
religious wars, the citizens hade no respect for law and order, the feudal nobility
had seized control and the finances of the central government were in chaos.”
After the development of a strong national government and powerful monarchy, in
countries such as Prussia, Austria, and Russia, strengthened their standing armies,
gained new territories, improved commerce, dealt accordingly with religious
problems, and made important compromises with the nobility and aristocracy. The
differences between monarchies and democracies are monarchies are a form of
government where the King or Queen, decide everything for the people while a democracy
is a form of government where the people have much more freedom and the right
to choose and vote on things related to government.
Constitutional Monarchy
According to Rousseau, the society has to be one,
and there are no divisions in society. John Locke criticized monarchy and
social inequality. “According to John Locke, everyone has inalienable human
rights and government should protect these inalienable rights, not to take it
away.” Napoleon, however, also thought in the same way as Rousseau did. He thought
that women were unqualified and that was why there was no education given to the
women society. Absolute monarchies were the opposite of constitutional
monarchies.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)