6.3 Absolutism - T -

• History
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 2

6. The Time of Regents and Monarchs

6.3. Absolutism

+ disaster hits the Republic

people in this lesson

Baptiste Colbert

Johan de Witt

Willem III

Michiel de Ruyter

king Louis XIV

Important dates in this lesson:

1650 - 1672: First Stadtholderless Period

1672: Disaster Year

1679: William III wins the war against France

1. Louis XIV: the Sun King and absolute power

Louis XIV ruled France alone and said his power came from God.

2. Making France rich: Mercantilism

Colbert made France richer by taxing colonial goods and selling finished products back to the colonies.

3. Power struggle in the Dutch Republic

Orangists wanted a strong stadtholder, while Anti-Orangists wanted power to stay with the States General.

4. The Disaster Year 1672

In 1672 the Dutch Republic was attacked on three sides and quickly lost a lot of land.

5. William III, war and decline

William III saved the Republic in war, but its trade and power slowly declined.

In this lesson :

6. The Time of Regents and Monarchs

6.3. Absolutism

Introduction

Imagine living in a country where one person makes almost all the important decisions.

 He decides about war and peace, taxes, religion, and even what kind of palace to build.

 In the 17th century, several European rulers wanted this kind of total control.

 We call this system absolutism.

In this lesson, you will see how Louis XIV became the model of an absolute king, how France tried to grow rich through mercantilism, and how the Dutch Republic struggled to survive in a world full of powerful monarchs.

1. Louis XIV: the Sun King and absolute power

For many years, the French king Louis XIV ruled together with a powerful chief minister. Then, in 1661, he surprised his court by announcing that from now on he would rule alone. Louis XIV still had a small council of important ministers who advised him, but they only had influence if he allowed it. He could appoint or dismiss them at any moment and could listen to their advice—or completely ignore it.

When a king has this kind of total control, we speak of absolutism. In an absolute monarchy, the king makes all the key decisions in the country. Louis XIV, like many rulers of his time, believed in the divine right of kings. He claimed that God had chosen him to be king and that he ruled on God’s behalf. During his long reign, Louis XIV turned France into a strongly centralised state, where most decisions were made at his enormous and luxurious palace of Versailles, just outside Paris.

 

king Louis XIV

inside Versailles: the Hall of Mirrors

Louis XIV

• He became king at the age of four.
• He married a Spanish princess who was his first cousin
• He built the extravagant palace of Versailles
• He is known as the Sun King. His best known quote: "The state, that's me!"
• he took away the right of worship from French Protestants
• The American state Louisiana was named in his honor.

2. Making France rich: Mercantilism

Louis XIV wanted France to be the richest and most powerful country in Europe, but the many wars he fought in the 17th century cost huge amounts of money. France was close to bankruptcy. To solve this crisis, Louis appointed Jean-Baptiste Colbert as controller of financial affairs and ordered him to improve the royal finances. Colbert introduced an economic system called mercantilism. He argued that a country became powerful by collecting as much gold and silver as possible. To do this, a state had to export more than it imported.

If a country sells more than it buys, it has a favourable balance of trade and makes a profit. Colbert organised the French colonies so that they served this goal. Raw materials like silver, tobacco and spices were brought from the colonies to France and taxed when they arrived. This meant the colonists earned less, while the French state earned more. In France, these raw materials were turned into finished products, such as sugar or cloth, and then sold back to the colonies for a profit. The colonies were not allowed to make their own products from these raw materials or to trade freely with each other. They were forced to send their goods to the mother country. In this way, the extra gold and silver earned through exports helped make France wealthy again.

Colbert

3. Power struggle in the Dutch Republic

While Louis XIV was building absolutism in France, the Dutch Republic was having its own political struggle about who should hold power. Stadtholder Maurice, and later Frederick Henry, tried to make the position of stadtholder hereditary, so that it would pass from father to son. Their aim was to slowly turn the Republic into a strict Calvinist monarchy ruled by the House of Orange. Some regenten in the States General agreed with this plan; they are called the Orangists.

Other regenten strongly opposed this idea. They preferred a Republic in which the States General, made up of representatives from the provinces, held the main power instead of a king-like stadtholder. This group is known as the Anti-Orangists. After Frederick Henry died in 1647, his son William II became stadtholder, but he died soon afterwards of chickenpox. His wife was pregnant, and their son William III was born just eight days after William II’s death. The States General decided that the Republic would have no stadtholder until William III was old enough.

This decision was strongly supported by the grand pensionary and Anti-Orangist Johan de Witt. The period from 1650 to 1672 is called the First Stadtholderless Period. De Witt even tried to abolish the position of stadtholder completely, but he failed. In 1672, a dramatic crisis would show that many people still wanted a strong military leader.

Johan de Witt

In the movie "Michiel de Ruyter", Barry Atsma plays  Johan de Witt and Roeland Fernhout plays his brother Cornelis de Witt. When the two actors heard about the statue of the Witt brothers on the Fishbridge in Dordrecht, the plan was soon made. The actors were in the picture with the statue.

Watch this film clip from the movie: Michiel de Ruyter. You see Johan de Witt (the grand pensionary) giving a speech in the States general.

• note the two factions in the states general:
• orangists (prinsgezinden) and anti-orangists (staatsgezinden)

You get a better understanding of what it all looked like.

Take your notebook and write down:

12 characteristics of the Netherlands in the 17th century:

Copy the characteristics from the film clip.

4. The Disaster Year 1672

In 1672, everything seemed to go wrong for the Dutch Republic. The French king Louis XIV began a war against the Republic because he wanted to conquer the Spanish Netherlands. He claimed these lands belonged to him through his wife, the daughter of the Spanish king. Louis XIV made secret deals with England and the German states of Cologne and Münster, who agreed to join his attack on the Republic. England, jealous of Dutch trade and wealth, was happy to weaken its rival.

When the war started, the English fleet attacked the Republic at sea, while French and German armies invaded by land. At sea, the Republic was very strong. Admiral Michiel de Ruyter defeated the English fleet and prevented an English invasion. After a year of defeats at sea, England left the war. On land, however, the situation was disastrous. The Republic’s land defences were weak, and the French army quickly overran large parts of the country. People feared that the Republic might not survive. The year 1672 is therefore known as the Disaster Year (Rampjaar), because the Republic was attacked from three sides at once and seemed close to collapse.

 

Top: French troops invade the Republic

Source

Presentation of the cruelties committed by the French troops in the Dutch villages Bodegraven and Zwammerdam, at the end of December 1672. The inscription is carried in the air by personifications of the war and the French cruelty. Left to the burning village of Zwammerdam with the pickup bridge. In the foreground rapes, tortures and murder parties.

5. William III, war and decline

As the French army advanced and panic spread, many people in the Republic felt that only a strong stadtholder could save them. The Orangists in Holland and Zeeland used this fear to pressure the regenten of the Provincial States to appoint William III as stadtholder. Grand pensionary Johan de Witt realised he could no longer stay in power and resigned. But the anger of some Orangist supporters did not stop there.

When Johan de Witt went to visit his brother Cornelis in prison, a furious Orangist mob attacked them. Both brothers were murdered, and their bodies were cruelly mutilated. After this shocking event, William III became the clear political and military leader of the Republic. He proved to be a capable commander, and together with allies he managed to stop the French and end the war with France in 1679.

However, the long and costly war had badly damaged the Republic’s economy. Trade slowed down, other countries like England and France caught up, and the Dutch Republic slowly began to lose its leading position in Europe. In the end, William III helped to save the Republic from its enemies, but the Golden Age of Dutch power was already starting to fade.

 

Willem III of Orange

source

Link to find out more about this painting and the brutal murder of the brothers de Witt.

https://historiek.net/schilderij-moord-gebroeders-de-witt-nog-gruwelijker/17980/

Word Duty

KEY WORDS

Absolutism: a system in which a king has absolute power 

Divine right of kings: claim by an absolute monarch that he is made king to carry out God's will

Mercantilism: an economic system in which a country forces its colonies to trade only with the 

mother country.

import: bring products into the country to be sold

export: send products to other countries to be sold

Orangists: regenten who wanted the Republic to reform into a strict Calvinist monarchy with an Orange as a king

Anti-Orangists: regenten who wanted a strong Republic led by the States General.

First Stadtholderless Period: time period from 1650 to 1672 in which the Republic did not have a stadtholder 

Disaster year: 1672. In this year the Republic was attacked from three sides at the same time

"fill in the gap" summary

LINK

11. Upload a printscreen of your finished summary

What you can do or explain after this lesson

• what a creation narrative is
• what the evolution theory is
• how both theories are used to explain where humans come from
• what the "Out of Africa" theory means
• how you can  read the family tree of   modern humans
• what paleontologists and archeologists do

TEST YOURSELF

What you can explain or do after this lesson:

1. What is meant by absolutism or an absolute monarchy?
2. In which year did Louis XIV announce that he would rule France alone?
3. What is the divine right of kings?
4. From which palace did Louis XIV centralise and rule his kingdom?
5. Why were France’s finances in serious trouble during the 17th century?
6. What was the main goal of mercantilism for a country like France?
7. How did France use its colonies to get a favourable balance of trade?
8. What did the Orangists want for the future of the Dutch Republic?
9. Why is the period from 1650 to 1672 called the First Stadtholderless Period?
10. Why is the year 1672 known as the Disaster Year (Rampjaar) for the Dutch Republic?
11. What did admiral Michiel de Ruyter achieve during the war of 1672?
12. What was one important long-term effect of the war with France on the Dutch Republic?

What you can do or explain after this lesson

• what a creation narrative is
• what the evolution theory is
• how both theories are used to explain where humans come from
• what the "Out of Africa" theory means
• how you can  read the family tree of   modern humans
• what paleontologists and archeologists do

KEY

1. Absolutism (or an absolute monarchy) is a system in which the king has almost total power and makes all the important decisions.
2. In 1661.
3. The divine right of kings is the idea that a king’s power comes directly from God and that he rules on God’s behalf.
4. From the palace of Versailles.
5. Because Louis XIV fought many expensive wars that cost huge amounts of money and almost bankrupted the state.
6. To make the country richer and more powerful by collecting as much gold and silver as possible, mainly by exporting more than it imported.
7. The colonies had to send raw materials to France, which taxed them, turned them into finished products, and then sold these products back to the colonies for profit; the colonies were not allowed to trade or produce freely themselves.
8. The Orangists wanted a strong, hereditary stadtholder from the House of Orange, moving the Republic more in the direction of a monarchy.
9. Because during those years the Dutch Republic had no stadtholder, and power was mainly in the hands of the States General and leaders like Johan de Witt.
10. In 1672 the Dutch Republic was attacked at the same time by France, England and German states, lost a lot of land on land, and seemed close to collapse.
11. Michiel de Ruyter defeated the English fleet at sea and prevented an English invasion of the Dutch Republic.
12. The long war damaged the Republic’s economy: trade declined, other countries like England and France caught up, and the Dutch Republic slowly lost its leading position in Europe.

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