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Examples Of Enlightened Despotism

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The key to Enlightenment during this time period is rationality, meaning rulers probably favored science and philosophy. Rulers actually became more open-minded and provided more freedoms for their subjects during this period of time. For instance, rulers often implemented freedom of religion, and freedom of speech. Rulers also funded the arts, science, and education. They wanted the masses to be more knowledgeable so that the kingdom overall can become more intelligent and productive. Enlightened Despotism is when a monarch adopts the ideas of the Enlightenment, primarily rationality, which means he probably funded arts, sciences, and education, while also allowing his subjects more freedom. An example of an enlightened despot of the eighteenth century was Catherine the Great. She was the ruler of Russia and helped the country in many ways. For example, Catherine built an art museum. It was named the Hermitage Museum. It started off as Catherine's personal art and literature collection. Not only that, but she also invested a great deal of her wealth into creating education institutes throughout Russia. She fought for women’s education rights. She was also the first ruler to issue paper money in Russia, meaning she established …show more content…

He was much like Catherine and helped make his society a much better place to live in. He was also called Joseph of Austria. He reformed the legal system in the Empire. Also, he abolished brutal punishments and even the death penalty in some instances. He also made it so that all offenders were treated equally on the law. He also stopped censoring the press. Lastly, he made education accessible to all children in the empire. He had elementary education available to all boys and girls. He made education more available. Even university-level education was granted to some. All in all, Joseph helped change his empire for the

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