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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS

XXV. ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND, 1603-1715 A.D.

Em. Macron, Rediscovering the Path to Europe

» Contents of this Chapter

The Divine Right of Kings   * The Absolutism of Louis XIV, 1661-1715 A.D.   * France under Louis XIV   * The Wars of Louis XIV   * The Absolutism of the Stuarts, 1603-1642 A.D.   * Oliver Cromwell and the Civil War, 1642-1649 A.D.   * The Commonwealth and the Protectorate, 1649-1660 A.D.   * The Restoration and the "Glorious Revolution," 1660-1689 A.D.   * England in the Seventeenth Century

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THE WARS OF LOUIS XIV

AMBITIOUS DESIGNS OF LOUIS XIV

How unwise it may be to concentrate all authority in the hands of one man is shown by the melancholy record of the wars of Louis XIV. To aggrandize France and gain fame for himself, Louis plunged his country into a series of struggles from which it emerged completely exhausted. Like Philip II, Louis dreamed of dominating all western Europe, but, as in Philip's case, his aggressions provoked against him a constantly increasing body of allies, who in the end proved too strong even for the king's able generals and fine armies.

THE BALANCE OF POWER

The union of the smaller and weaker countries of Europe against France illustrates the principle of the balance of power. According to this principle no state ought to become so strong as to overshadow the rest. In such a case all the others must combine against it and treat it as a common enemy. The maintenance of the balance of power has been a leading object of European diplomacy from the time of the Thirty Years' War to the present day.

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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents

url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp

IN PRINT

Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy