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Absolute Power

 

            "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
             This comes to truth in the 17th and 18th century. Most of the monarchs, when .
             faced with controlling powerful nations, became corrupt and greedy. One example would be .
             Charles I, who came into power after his father James I died. He felt that he should control .
             England as a sole ruler, without Parliament. He tried to force the Puritans to accept his .
             religous ways, which drove many of them out of England. In 1642, he was finally .
             overthrown in a civil war against forces led by Oliver Cromwell, who later removed the .
             Parliament by force. Charles I is a obvious example of the corruption of power. .
             Another figure in the corruption of power was Louis XIV. Louis, after gaining the throne in .
             1661, removed all high nobles from the royal council and replaced them with nobles from .
             the new aristocratic families. By doing this, he hoped to remove all opposition from his .
             control of power. His new council obeyed every word he said. In addition, to insure that the .
             high nobles did not complain, he created the court of Versailles, which busied the nobles .
             with court life rather than politics. The court had costed the government untold amounts of .
             money. He had complete power iver the traditional sections of power: foreign policy, the .
             church, and taxes. Concerning military, Louis XIV pursued war constantly. As a "Sun .
             King", he felt that he needed to acheive military glory. All he accomplished was spending .
             increasing amounts on his troops. By the end of his reign, Louis XIV had left France with .
             great debts and with numerous enemies. His own personal goals had overwhelmed his sense .
             of duty to his country. .
             The corruption of power was brought up again by Peter the Great in Russia. Peter, who .
             made a trip to the West, realized that he needed to modernize Russia. He created an army .
             using Western tactics and technology. He also divided Russia up into provinces to create .


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