The enlightened despots during the age of enlightenment reflected many principles of the time, but at the same time they were effective in balancing their power with the ideals of despotism. A variety of documents from many sources will be used as support for the ideals of the enlightened despots and thereafter, it will be clear that in order to be an effective enlightened despot the three most important and impactful criteria must be met: allowance of religious freedom, assertion of power and the display of a reliable and responsible leader.
Religious wars before the age of enlightenment were very common and extremely brutal. This eventually led enlightened despots to discover that these wars were detrimental to their society and its economy. This led them to the allowance of religious freedom and equality. Catherine the Great, a despot at the forefront of this issue said that she granted ".all foreigners coming into (the) empire the free and unrestricted practice of their religion" and she also declared these foreigners "shall (not) be required to pay the slightest taxes to (the state's) treasury." This decree shows that Catherine believes the money of foreigners to be vital to the empire's economy and to encourage them she must allow them religious freedom.
The survival of a nation is built on the importance of peace and equality. Frederick the Great's Political Testament demonstrates that if any religion is put above another ".little by little persecutions will commence" and the persecuted eventually ".will leave the Fatherland". This concern of his of course is relevant because citizens leaving the state is detrimental to the state's well being. An example of persecution of the people is the Moravian Jews. In Moravia the Jewish population was prosecuted against and they wished that their intentions be "reconciled with the existing laws against the Jewish People". This want for equality is very important for the survival of a nation, as described by Frederick II and the edict by the Jews of Moravia shows it is not an irrelevant concern.
He succeeded his father as magistrate and lived during the Enlightenment. ... The general spirit of despotism is fear. ... Desert life is suited to despotism since the conditions in a desert are harsh and resources scarce. ... Vast empires come under the rule of despotism in many cases. ... He was a reformed for the Age of Enlightenment and believed slavery, torture and persecution because of religion are wrong. ...
He succeeded his father as magistrate and lived during the Enlightenment. ... The general spirit of despotism is fear. ... Desert life is suited to despotism since the conditions in a desert are harsh and resources scarce. ... Vast empires come under the rule of despotism in many cases. ... He was a reformed for the Age of Enlightenment and believed slavery, torture and persecution because of religion are wrong. ...
He succeeded his father as magistrate and lived during the Enlightenment. ... The general spirit of despotism is fear. ... Desert life is suited to despotism since the conditions in a desert are harsh and resources scarce. ... Vast empires come under the rule of despotism in many cases. ... He was a reformed for the Age of Enlightenment and believed slavery, torture and persecution because of religion are wrong. ...
This was provided by the philosophes, as the main French thinkers of the Enlightenment period were called. ... The start of France's descent into disorder can probably be traced back to Louis XIV (1643-1715), who, during his long reign started the country on its way to bankruptcy by engaging in a number of costly wars and by over-indulging on his court at Versailles. ... The term "philosophes" refers to the great philosophers, writers, scientists and economists of the Enlightenment, also know as the Age of Reason. ... Although the Enlightenment consisted of many other philosophers and soc...
These ideals stemmed from the Enlightenment, the intellectual product of the right of the bourgeoisie emphasizing the link between various factors which ultimately led to the outbreak of the French Revolution. ... Conversely, post revisionist interpretations focus more closely on culture and language, shifting away from the socio economic factors which provide the basis for the Marxist outlook which they so heavily critique.12 This approach includes notable historians like Furet asserting that the Revolution was centred on the impact of the new Enlightenment thinking.13 By emphasizing how a ...
The implications for this revelation were refined in the course of the Middle Ages and are here examined by Professor Ralph McInerny. McInerny observes that in modernity, liberty is considered as "immunity from obstacles and impediments,"" so that one may fulfill the choices made by his own will, while in the Middle Ages scholars believed liberty's proper meaning referred to one's capacity for something. ... The sixteenth century witnessed the emergence of philosophies of liberty opposed to those found in antiquity and the Middle Ages. ... Allen, a scholar of Enlightenment thought, m...
The statement above is accurate and reasonable and is born out fantastically well by spiralling events in both France and Russia in their ages of revolution. ... The "Age of Enlightenment" had also capsulated some of the French intellectuals who began to challenge the dogmas of absolutism. ... During the Civil War Lenin proclaimed to one doubter, "Do you really think we will be victorious without using the most cruel terror? ... Thus what began as a protest against tyranny, ended in a totalitarian state and a despotism of a vigorous type. ...
The Enlightenment utopia once dreamed of by the French and similar thinkers seems to have never succeeded. It failed in both its Enlightenment theory and in all manifestations in practice, even Sweden. ... He observed that all incarnations of Enlightenment utopia failed to live up to their promised perfection. ... Introduction Enlightenment thought served as the central basis for utopian politics. ... The Enlightenment ...
Pornography inspires many diverse and strong debates even today in the 21st century despite this topic's notorious history throughout the ages. ... Books at that time were separated into work of the Enlightenment and pornography. ... The murder and mayhem characterising that time is it not communicated to us through the nature of Sade's writing The pirating of illegal books, the State's clamp down on books relating to sexual practise in a culture that embodied the very essence of decadence and despotism. ... Thus a sexy girl in a story plants the seeds for revolution Alt...
