Write an historical research essay related to some aspect of Absolutism.
Choose ONE of the following topics for your essay, or ask the instructor if you have an alternative idea you would like to explore.
1) Define absolutism. How did political theorists justify absolutism? Analyze how monarchs strove to achieve absolutism by describing their relations with representative assemblies, local assemblies, nobles, bureaucrats, and the army.
2) Compare and contrast absolutism in France and Spain in the seventeenth century. How did monarchs centralize their power? What resistance did they encounter? What economic policies did they pursue? How did the arts convey the values of the period? Which monarchy fared better during the period?
3) Discuss the reign of Peter the Great in Russia. In what ways did he try to Westernize Russia? How did he increase the power of the tsar? Why did he fight wars with the Turks and Swedes? How did St. Petersburg symbolize his reign?
4) Discuss England in the seventeenth century. What evidence suggests that the Stuart family sought to rule as absolute monarchs? Why did the Stuart family fail to establish absolutism in England? How did the Glorious Revolution and Bill of Rights end the possibility of absolutism in England?
5) How did the power of the middle class determine the successes of both the constitutional and absolutist forms of government?
6) Describe and analyze the requirements for becoming an absolute ruler.
7) Compare and contrast the political theories of Locke and Hobbes. Take into consideration their attitudes toward the English Civil War and their theories about human nature.