The Rise of the Nation State

The late seventeenth, the eighteenth, and the early nineteenth centuries saw political issues move away from religion and onto the issue of monarchies, especially of France and England. During this time, France’s power waned due to bad leadership while England’s, and later Great Britain's, power increased due to technology and overseas colonies.

or the Anglican Church, which was headed by the king of England. Henry’s actions stimulated

However, Protestantism continued to spread to areas in Europe. Other types of churches were made that was similar to Lutherism but different in ways of their own. For example, the Calvinists believed that no matter what people do, God has already decided their fate. One of the churches of Protestantism is the Anglican church. It was made by King Henry VIII, after the pope refused annulment from his wife. In the Act of Supremacy, English Parliament in 1534, Parliament, influenced by the monarchy and declared, “...that the king, our sovereign lord, his heir and successors, kings of this realm, shall be taken, accepted and reputed the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England, called Anglicans

In Imperial Spain, J.H. Elliot examines the history of early modern Spain from the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand, to the reformation of the Spanish government by the first member of the Bourbon dynasty. According to the author, at the start of the 15th century, Spain was internally weak, hopelessly divided and isolated from the continent by the Pyrenees. Yet, by 1492, Spanish society experienced a tremendous transformation which allowed Isabella and Ferdinand to unify the country, secure the largest transoceanic empire the world has ever known, and for a

In the 17th century, the Dutch Republic experienced a Golden Age and was able to maintain security, unity, and prosperity in its society and economy. The nation was considered a leading power, especially in trade and ideas, within Europe. However, it was not long before circumstances changed and the state face many problems establishing peace and agreement. By the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries, there had been a significant change in the Dutch Republic’s power, for multiple factors and reasons. From 1650 to 1713, not only external factors such as European intervention and British trading competition, but also internal division damaged the Dutch Republic and challenged its authority as a

To achieve this goal, I have organized my paper into four main sections. In the first section, I provide an account of what happened during the 17th century

In northern Europe after the Middle Ages, monarchies began to build the foundations of their countries that are still in affect today. During the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries these “New Monarchs” made many relevant changes in their nations. During the middle of the fifteenth century Europe was affected by war and rebellion, which weakened central governments. As the monarchies attempted to develop into centralized governments once again, feudalism’s influence was lessened. This “new” idea of centralization was reflected in the monarch’s actions. Rulers tried to implement peace and restore the idea that the monarchy represented law and order in the nation. These New Monarchs were able to build armies due to taxation, and

Once the seventeenth century began, western civilization became based upon bounds. In a structured and shared-power system known as limited monarchy, rulers either became hastened within their bounds or exploded from them. As the British Isles were frustrated in the religious, political, and national voices going unheard, England developed a Protestant-run nation in conjunction with Scotland as a bounded country in 1707. Their Parliament would make their decisions, distribute the country’s wealth, and stand for the rights of individuals. The model of one man who could not be chained to a Parliamentary system was France’s King Louis XIV. His reign begins in 1643 which brings about the genuine definition of an absolute monarchy and it’s faults. Absolutism was a practice built heavily within the Middle Ages, it would include Kings as the primary shareholders of their land, partnerships with nobles and their Churches. It would prove unsatisfactory for most kingdoms as they failed under civil war and invasion until the seventeenth century shines a new importance on superior command. Through the strife of religious reformations and international conflicts, absolutism grants those in kingship unlimited power. King Henry IV had brought France from fifteenth century centralization and the Reformation’s civil war to cleanse the people’s doubt in their King. The Bourbons built a monarchy for the ages with their grandson Louis XIV, and Boy-King in 1643. Utilizing absolutism to accept

Between the mid-1700s and the mid-1800s, the scientific revolution introduced experimentation, observation, and logic. At the same time a group of people, referred to as Philosophers, started to apply reason to propose a new social order which brought the Age of the Enlightenment. These people believed in the ideals of liberty and equality, which brought revolutions throughout Europe, and the colonies of North and Latin America. Before the Enlightenment, A major problem was that almost everyone was still in the medieval mindset. This consisted of the clergy and the king controlling large masses by using their lack of information and ‘blind trust’ in god.

There were several factors that accounted for the Unification of Spain. Aragon and Castile were strong Spanish kingdoms while the kingdom of Portugal was an independent monarchy. However, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile were Catholic rulers who worked to unite with Spain. As portrayed in the text it states "Seeking to replace the undisciplined feudal levies they had inherited with a more professional royal army, Ferdinand and Isabella reorganized the military forces of Spain." For that reason, the alliance changed the way the Spanish military works from old fashioned duties to a dominant army in Europe. This led Isabella and Ferdinand to understand the significance of ruling the Catholic church with the amount the amount of wealth

New Monarchies drew strength from their sense of nationhood, and more people were giving loyalty to the sovereign, more than local

The appointments of both the Earl of Norfolk and Charles Brandon, Earl of Suffolk, seem indicative of a politically and religiously conservative council. These facts obviously take responsibility for these changes away from Cromwell. The importance of the executive Privvy Council is that it gave drive and continuity to royal government owing to the stability of its membership - no longer did the impetus need to come from the monarch or chief minister. This would be particularly important after Cromwell’s downfall in the 1540s, when Henry did not allow another Cromwell to emerge and his powers were failing, and even more after 1547 when Edward VI was a boy, succeeded by two women.

In the course of the seventeenth century, there were many political and religious conflicts within Europe. These struggles affected countless nations across the continent, but almost none were as troubled as France due to the years of religious wars fought out within their territories, which caused widespread chaos in their lands. Both, the upper and lower class citizens were exhausted by these conflicts and were supportive of a new style of government. In attempt to maintain the integrity and stability of their country, French kings started to gradually adopt the political ideal of absolutism to maintain total control over their nation. The final goal of this ideal was to achieve the good of the state and a higher level of national existence. The development of absolutism in France can be thoroughly analyzed both in theory and in practice by looking at three kings and their cardinal advisors who consecutively ruled France leading up too, and in the seventeenth century. This development of absolutism can be firstly seen through Henry the fourth, followed by Louis the thirteenth and most prominently in Louis the fourteenth.

This writer focuses on two parts of the question ‘The Tudor Reformation was a method of strengthening absolute monarchy in England.’. The first focus is the word ‘method’ and the second focus is the word ‘strengthening’. The word ‘method’ means a planned way of doing something. In this case, the question can be interpreted as ‘The Tudor Reformation was a planned and intentional affair to achieve strenghtened absolute monarchy. Also, this writer is going to put emphasis on the comparison meaning of the word ’strengthen’. Then this essay has to show how the Tudor Reformation made aboslute monarchy stronger than before and what changes did the Tudor Reformation bring out in comparison with the past. According to these focuses, the question can be understood as ‘The Tudor Reformation was a calculated event and it was to accomplish more powerful abosolute monarchy than before in England.’ However, this writer disagrees with the sentence and thinks that the Tudor Reformation was not an affair that had an intention to reinforce abosolute monarchy. Therefore, in the main body, the essay is going to concentrate on whether it was an intentional or unintentional matter that is related to strengthen absolute royal authority. Moreover, figuring out whether the absolute monarchy was consolidated than before. Finally, this essay will examine how the politics was at that time. At the end, in the conclusion part, it puts this issue aside

In War in Human Civilization, Azar Gat asserted that, “Europe experienced a so-called military revolution,” in the 16th and 17th centuries as a result of social, technological, and economic factors. Likewise, historians Williamson Murray and MacGregor Knox affirmed that European militaries experienced revolution during the same period for a variety of other reasons, including the development of the military profession and the disbursement of regular pay. These authors recognized the extensive and lasting impact of the radical military, social, and economic transformations resultant to the rise of the nation state from approximately 1560 to 1700, culminating in a post-Westphalian Europe. The product of this military revolution, subsequently, was a shift from, “bellicose persons… [and] men acting in unison with plenty of brute ferocity but no effective control,” to a professionalized force, with the equivalent of a functioning institutional “central nervous system.” Fundamentally, the emergence of the modern state constituted a military revolution because it subordinated the act of warfare and the monopoly of violence to the newly formed state, enabled the establishment of the modern military institution where none existed previously, and instituted a process for integrating modern and emerging science with military matters. Consequently, the conclusion of feudalism and the emergence of modern states demonstrated a paradigm shift in both the conduct of governance and