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Context

After the chaos of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) and a century of religious conflict, Europe was desperate for order.

The Peace of Westphalia (1648) weakened the Holy Roman Empire and ended the dream of a unified Christendom.
Religion no longer dictated international alliances; politics and power did.
Rulers sought to centralize authority, professionalize armies, and stabilize taxation.

France, devastated by earlier internal conflicts like the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598) and the Fronde (1648–1653), became the laboratory for this new model of absolutism — rule by a monarch who claimed all legitimate political power.

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Foundations of French Absolutism

The Idea: Divine Right Monarchy

Rooted in the writings of Jean Bodin (Six Books of the Commonwealth, 1576) and Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Scripture).
Both argued the monarch was God’s appointed ruler on Earth — answerable only to God, not to any earthly institution.
Bossuet wrote that “the king is sacred” and rebellion is blasphemy.
This provided the theological justification for absolute monarchy.

Foundations of French Absolutism

The Architect: Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642)

Served under Louis XIII.
Strengthened royal authority by undermining the power of nobles and Huguenots.
Created intendants — royal officials who administered provinces, collected taxes, and enforced royal decrees.
Pursued raison d’état (“reason of state”) — the idea that the state’s needs outweighed moral or religious concerns.
Entered the Thirty Years’ War against Catholic Habsburgs to weaken them politically.

Agency

The ability to make consequential decisions that affect historical events

Agency is an argument about power, relationships, and the reason things happen.

Agency Analysis Questions

HIPP supports this process and can be intertwined with it.

Corroboration can be used to go deeper into these questions.

Cardinal Richelieu Documents

Louis XIV Documents

Economics and the State: Colbert’s Mercantilism

Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis’s finance minister, practiced mercantilism - the belief that a nation’s wealth depended on accumulating bullion and maintaining a favorable balance of trade.
Built state-run industries, tariffs, and colonial monopolies (esp. in the Caribbean and New France).
Founded the French East India Company to compete with Dutch and English trade.
Infrastructure: roads, canals (Canal du Midi), and port development.
Goal: make France economically self-sufficient and finance royal wars.

Wars of Expansion and the Balance of Power

Series of costly wars: War of Devolution, Dutch War, Nine Years’ War, War of Spanish Succession (1701–1714).
Goal: expand France’s natural borders and secure Bourbon dominance in Europe.
Other states formed alliances to contain French expansion - early version of balance of power diplomacy.
By his death (1715), France was militarily powerful but financially exhausted.