Topic 4.6 Notes – Enlightened and Other Approaches to Power

What Enlightened Absolutism Was

Enlightened absolutism meant absolute or highly centralized monarchs adopted some Enlightenment reforms without giving up sovereignty. The ruler still ruled from the top down. No elections, no popular sovereignty, no right of the people to remove the monarch.

Frederick II of Prussia summed it up with “the first servant of the state.” That sounds modern, but notice what it means. The monarch claimed to serve the public good through reason and efficiency, yet the monarch alone decided what that good was.

What they usually supported

• Codified laws so justice looked more uniform and less arbitrary.
• Regular courts and some limits on torture or brutal punishments, partly because philosophes attacked cruelty.
• Religious toleration for at least some minorities, since persecution was seen as wasteful and irrational.
• State control over churches because rulers wanted religion to serve the state, not act independently.
• Education, bureaucracy, and economic improvement to create productive subjects, better tax collection, and stronger armies.
• Some limits on serfdom or noble abuses when peasant productivity or state power was at stake.

What they usually rejected

• Consent of the governed
• Democracy or broad representation
• Free political opposition
• Full equality before the law and in society
• A total attack on noble privilege

Monarchs adopted these ideas because Enlightenment writers criticized irrational laws and intolerance, but also because states needed money, soldiers, and efficient administration. In central Europe, cameralism pushed rulers to manage resources directly for state strength.

Central Europe After Westphalia

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ended the Thirty Years’ War and confirmed that the Holy Roman Empire was a patchwork, not a centralized state like France.

The map helps you see that fragmentation, with dozens of territories inside the empire and especially important powers like Brandenburg-Prussia and the Austrian Habsburg lands standing out.

Holy Roman Empire after the Peace of Westphalia, 1648

• The imperial estates kept major autonomy, so the emperor’s power stayed limited.
• Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism were all recognized within the empire.
• The old dream of one united Christian Europe lost more ground.

This mattered because:

• Brandenburg-Prussia had room to rise as a centralized military state.
• The Habsburgs focused more on their hereditary lands in Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, and southeastern Europe.

This is about dynastic state-building, not nationalism. Prussia and Austria were building stronger ruling states, not trying to unite peoples into nations.

Prussia and Austria as the Main Cases

Prussia and Austria both used reform to strengthen the state, but they did it in different settings.

Prussia

Frederick William I, the “Soldier King,” built the machinery.

• Expanded the standing army
• Enforced strict fiscal discipline
• Created the General Directory in 1723 to coordinate administration and military affairs
• Worked with the Junkers, who kept power over serfs and served as army officers

Frederick II is the main AP example of enlightened absolutism.

• Read and wrote in French Enlightenment culture and corresponded with Voltaire
• Supported religious toleration, judicial reform, limits on torture, education, and economic development
• Preserved Junker privilege, kept censorship, and did not abolish serfdom on noble estates
• Jews still faced restrictions
• Strengthened Prussia through war by seizing Silesia, keeping it after the Seven Years’ War, and joining the First Partition of Poland in 1772

Austria

Maria Theresa was not deeply Enlightenment-minded, but military defeat pushed reform.

• Improved taxation, army, bureaucracy, and education
• Issued 1774 schooling regulations
• Reduced torture and regulated some peasant obligations

Joseph II was the most ambitious enlightened absolutist.

• Josephinism meant stronger state control over the church and less papal influence
• Dissolved contemplative monasteries
• Issued the Patent of Toleration in 1781
• Eased some Jewish restrictions in 1782
• Issued the Serfdom Patent in 1781
• Tried tax reform, legal uniformity, and centralization

His problem was resistance. Nobles, clergy, Hungarians, and the Austrian Netherlands pushed back, and many reforms were later revoked. The lasting pieces were greater toleration and a partial end to personal serfdom.

Religious Toleration and Jewish Civil Equality

By 1800, many states were moving from enforcing religious unity to managing diversity.

Toleration did not mean full liberty or equality.

Motives were mixed. Enlightenment criticism mattered, but rulers also wanted peaceful, productive, taxable subjects.

Why This Topic Matters

The biggest continuity is simple. Monarchs stayed powerful. Armies, taxes, bureaucracy, and noble cooperation still mattered.

The biggest change is in how power was justified and used. Rulers talked more about reason, utility, welfare, and reform. Law, education, and toleration became normal state concerns.

Westphalia, confessional pluralism, and the Prussian-Austrian rivalry weakened the idea of one Christian political order. Europe still shared diplomacy, dynastic ties, and Enlightenment culture, but political unity was weaker than before.