Catherine, Frederick and Louis - Unenlightened Despots in an Enlightened Age

Catherine, Frederick and Louis - Unenlightened Tyrants in an pundit Age

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

-- Niccolo Machiavelli, - The Prince

The Enlightenment is touted by modern historians as a sequence of intellectual and social advancement, an era of optimism and freedom unheard of in earlier terms. The era of absolutism is seen as a time of mounting liberty that contributed to the rise of democracy in the Americas and elsewhere. In reality, the Enlightened Despotism of the absolutist leaders was more in keeping with the tyrannical rulers of the pre-reformation Holy Roman Empire than with the egalitarian republic of modern America. Three of the most prominent absolutist leaders were Catherine the Great of Russia, Frederick the Great of Prussia and Louis XIV of France - these three leaders are perfect examples of the avarice, tyranny and lust for power that characterizes the Enlightened Despots.

Catherine the Great was an absolutist leader who preached the benefits of the Enlightenment but do policy decisions in complete contradiction to Enlightenment ideals. subsequently the death of her husband, Peter III (which Catherine whitethorn or may not have instigated) she assembled a legislative commission to draftsmanship a document that would reform Russias code of laws.



Not just now were the serfs not represented at this meeting, but after the Pugachev uprising, Catherine laid-off the commission alto obtainher, choosing to draft the code herself. Her reforms of the Russian government lonesome(prenominal) reinforced to the power of the oppressive Russian nobility and change magnitude serfdom within Russia and her newly conquered frontiers and colonies. Catherines reign was rife with cronyism at its most severe, friends and lovers were granted complete control over long swathes of land and the people who lived within them, tens of thousands of people were forced...

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