Kangxi vs. Louis Xiv- Absolutism Essay

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Kangxi vs. Louis XIV- Absolutism

Absolute monarchy or absolutism means that the sovereign power or ultimate authority in the state rested in the hands of a king who claimed to rule by divine right. Kangxi and Louis XIV were both shining examples for absolutist rule. Age of Absolutism was between 1610 and 1789. Absolutism is a term used to depict a type of monarchical power that was not at all restrained by institutions, for example, legislatures, social elites, or churches.

Both Kangxi and Louis X1V were absolute monarchs associated with the coming to power of professional bureaucracies, professional standing armies, and the coding of state laws. They possessed ideologies that justify the absolutist monarchy. As absolute
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He sought the elimination of the remnants of Feudalist parts of France. Under his rule, France represented the mainstay of European power, involved in three major wars: the Franco Dutch War, the Nine Years War, the League of Augsburg War, and the War of the Spanish Succession. A highly skilled politician and statesman Louis X1V supported and profited from the work of major political, military and cultural figures such as Mazarin, Colbert, Turenneaud, Vauban, Moliere, Racine, Boileau, La Fontain, Lully and Le Notre to name just a few. Days before his seventy-seventh birthday after death, Louis was succeeded by his great-grandson who became Louis XV at age 5.

Both Kangxi and Louis XIV were shining examples for absolutist rule, and they both were effective absolutist who did a great job governing their kingdom. However, in my opinion Kangxi was the more effective Absolutist of the two. Whereas Louis XIV relied heavily on collaborating with other great men in order to achieve effectiveness, Kangxi relied on utilizing his supreme intellect and succeeded exerting his own true absolute power which was his intelligence. Kangxi ran a more organized society as opposed to Louis XIV, who had a volatile reign filled with wars. Kangxi’s reign consisted of education and prosperity.

Bibliography

Hearn, Maxwell K.. "The Kangxi and Qianlong Emperors."