New Directions in Thought and Culture in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: Reign of Louis XIV

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European State Consolidation in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth century and New Directions in Thought and Culture in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Before the Scientific Revolution, the Renaissance was the biggest cultural and scientific movement in Europe. As a result of the Renaissance, new ideas were introduced, partially influenced by the formation of Protestantism and new skepticism towards the Catholic Church. There were numerous religious disputes in countries like France and England, where monarchs tried to adopt either Catholicism or Protestantism in order to unify their empires. This led to conflicts between different kings trying to gain the throne, as they each embraced different religions. By embracing a certain religion, countries started to become independent and very powerful by expanding their territory and forcing religious conversion onto the conquered people. Similarly, nations like Spain tried to exert their political dominance through the conquest of contesting states and persecution of Calvinists and Lutherans. After the Renaissance, powerful monarchs like Queen Elizabeth, I, and Philip II emerged, determined to increase the power of their nation and gain prosperity. During the Scientific Revolution, new monarchs like Louis XIV adopted similar authoritative practices and tried to make their empire focused on one powerful ruler. From the Renaissance to the Scientific Revolution, governments continued to be centralized around one powerful monarch, and countries’ desire to conquer new territory and expand their influence was maintained, while intellectual movements shifted from being based on religious art and baroque design to more secular thoughts based on scientific observations.

From the Renaissance to the Scientific Revolution, governments continued to be centralized around one powerful monarch. Similar to how Elizabeth I and Philip II set up a powerful empire revolving around a monarch, Louis XIV adopted a monarchy based on political absolutism in France. Louis XIV’s absolutism had been laid by Cardinal Richelieu and his successor Mazarin, whom helped centralize the empire( Kagan, 179). Richelieu was able to represent Louis XIII like a very powerful king, and ultimately paved the way for Louis XIV’s power. In Addition, he was able to bring the center of culture back to France, allowing Louis XIV to have an extremely powerful empire to control. However, this centralization by Richelieu and Mazarin led to rebellions by French nobles known as the Fronde(Kagan, 179). As a result, Louis XIV couldn’t trust the nobility and concentrated even more power on the monarchy, to ensure that the monarchy was the single most powerful institution in France(Kagan, 179). On the other hand, although he concentrated enormous amounts of power into the monarchy, he never tried to abolish institutions made out of nobility, and even tried negotiating with the parlements, when making a decision that might affect them( Kagan, 180). Similar to how Philip II built El Escorial, Louis XIV built a very large palace called Versailles. Not only did it exemplify the power of the monarchy, but it was the largest secular structure in Europe(Kagan, 180). Louis XIV wanted to show that he was above the nobility, and denied Bernini’s request to build Versailles. Instead, he wanted only French people to build the palace in order to preserve French culture. With the help of John Baptiste Colbert, new mercantilist policies were created such as a surplus of receipts over expenses, shipbuilding, and expansion of the military. Colbert also led to more French territory in the Americas and increased production in the wool industry. Through his economic and cultural surplus, Louis XIV increased French nationalism and showed that he was the center of the universe and deserved the title of “Sun King” through his absolutist empire.

From the Renaissance to the Scientific Revolution, countries’ desire to conquer new territory and expand their influence was maintained. One example of how

From the Renaissance to the Scientific Revolution, intellectual movements shifted from being based on religious art and baroque design to more secular thoughts based on scientific observations. Through the Renaissance, baroque design and religious art were idealized, as new groups of thought such as realism influenced a variety of painters and writers. With the coming of the Scientific Revolution, however, realism and individualism faded away as new competing ideologies such as empiricism and rationalism overwhelmed philosophers. Shifts towards a more secular form of study started when different astronomers started to form different pictures of the universe and developed several alternative Ptolemaic systems, which were very controversial(Kagan, 204). In addition, two different forms of reasoning emerged, being deductive and inductive reasoning. While deductive reasoning, formed by philosophers like Descartes, focused on translating a general hypothesis into data, inductive reasoning used by Francis Bacon started with the data. In Addition, Bacon was regarded as the father of empiricism and criticized the belief that most truths had already been discovered(Kagan, 209). While women in the Renaissance were idealized to be the perfect housewife and were deemed unfit to participate in political and scientific affairs, some women such as Maria Sibylla Merian and Emilia du Chatelet made significant strides in astronomy and physics. Margaret Cavendish, another example of such a woman, critiques men’s experimental beliefs in Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy(Cavendish,10-11). Cavendish’s purpose is to highlight the errors in some men’s beliefs, and emphasize that women could have an equally impactful influence in science as men. As the Scientific Revolution arrived, women’s role in science and education drastically increased with new and influential women making major strides in astrology and medicine.

From the Renaissance to the Scientific Revolution, countries’ desire to conquer new territory and expand their influence was maintained, and their governments continued to be centralized around one powerful monarch, while intellectual movements shifted from being based on religious art and baroque design to more secular thoughts based on scientific observations. A similar figure to King Louis XIV was Alexander the Great of Macedonia. Both Alexander and Louis shared a similar type of government, with a powerful monarch being in charge. In Persia, Alexander adopted the absolutist type of monarchy, identical to that which Louis XIV ruled within France. Through his absolutist rule, Alexander the Great was able to conquer vast territories and increase the amount of power held in his empire. Although Louis XIV poured money into palaces and architecture to represent the power of his nation, Alexander the Great showed his power through conquering new lands and making a powerful military. While King Louis XIV and Alexander the Great had different political environments, both of them utilized an absolutist form of government in order to increase the power of their nation.

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New Directions in Thought and Culture in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: Reign of Louis XIV

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