A History of Western Society: Printed Page 500
A History of Western Society, Value Edition: Printed Page 514
Think about the larger developments and continuities within and across chapters.
This chapter has argued that, despite their political differences, rulers in absolutist and constitutionalist nations faced similar obstacles in the mid-seventeenth century and achieved many of the same goals. Do you agree with this argument? Why or why not?
Proponents of absolutism in western Europe believed that their form of monarchical rule was fundamentally different from and superior to what they saw as the “despotism” of Russia and the Ottoman Empire. What was the basis of this belief and how accurate do you think it was?