Seventh Lesson. The age of Enlightened absolutism. The Eighteenth-century Revolution in Spain (1700-1808)

I. TIMELINE

a) Enlightened Europe

1701     Rise of the Kingdom of Prussia (capital at Berlin).  Frederick of Hohenzollern, son of the Great Elector (of Brandenburg) Frederick William (1640-1688) receives from the Emperor Leopold I, the title of king of Prussia for his support of his son the Archduke Charles of Austria in the Spanish War of Succession.

1704    Beginning of the Spanis War of Succession

1711     Austrian Emperor Charles VI (1711-1740) aspires to the Spanish throne, squaring off against Philip V.  His election precipitates the end of the war and the signing of the Peace of Utrecht (1713)

1713   Frederick William I rises to the throne of Prussia (1713-1740), the “Sergeant King,” who forges Prussia into Europe’s premiere military power.  He is the father of Frederick the Great.

1715, September 1^st  Death of Louis XIV (king from 1643, personal reign from 1661).

1723  End of the Regency of Louis XV of France (born in 1710)

1725 Death of Tsar Peter I the Great (1682-1725), founder of St. Petersburg, after converting Russia into a great European power.  

1740 Frederick II the Great of Prussia (1740-1796) and Maria Theresa of Austria (1740-1780) ascend to the throne.

1746 Ferdinand VI assumes the Spanish throne (1746-1759).

1750 Joseph I takes the throne in Portugal (1750-1777), leaving the government in the ands of the Marquis of Pombal, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo (1699-1782).      The period of Pombal (1750-1777) would be Portugal’s last era of splendor.

1755    Death of Charles Louis de Secondat, better known as Montesquieu (born in 1689).

1756  Birth in Salzburg (Austria) of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).

1759 Charles III (1759-1788) rises to the Spanish throne after having been king of Naples and Sicily (bearing the title of Charles VII) between 1734 and 1759.

1762  The Russian throne is occupied by a German princess married to Tsar Peter III, who she overthrows after organizing a conspiracy against him.  Catherine II (1762-1796),  better known as the Catherine the Great, along with Peter I, will serve as the leading paladins of enlightened absolutism in Russia. 

1774    Death of Louis XV of France after a reign of 59 years. He is succeeded by Louis XVI.

1778    May 30.  Death of François Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire (born in 1694). On 2 July of the same year Jean Jacques Rousseau dies (b. 1712).

1780   Joseph II becomes Emperor of Austria (1780-1790). Unlike his mother, he adopts a policy of aggressive reformism which ultimately fails, rejected by the majority of his subjects.

1784 Death of Denis Diderot, one of the leading French encyclopedists.

1786  Death of Frederick II of Prussia.

1788    Death of Charles III of Spain.

1790  Death of Joseph II of Austria.

1796  Death of Catherine II of Russia.

b) Spain in the Age of Enlightenment

Spanish kings of the period

1700-1724  Philip V

1724 Louis I

1724-1746 Philip V

1746-1759 Ferdinand VI

1759-1788 Charles III

1788-1808 Charles IV

Essential dates

Philip V

1704-1714 Spanish War of Succession.

1707 New Plant Decree for Valencia and Aragon

1711 New Plant Decree for Aragon

1713 Treaty of Utrecht

1714  September 11. The Duke of Berwick conquers Barcelona for Philip V.

1715 New Plant Decree for the Kingdom of Mallorca

1716 New Plant Decree for Cataluña

1724 15 January to 31 August: reign of Louis I of Spain. 

1724 December Furst Spanish Cortes. Prince Ferdinand new heir to the throne.

1735 A son of Philip V and his second wife Elisabeth Farnese becomes Charles VII of Naples (until 1759, when he becomes Charles III of Spain).

1739-1741  José del Campillo y Cossío Ministry of State

Ferdinand VI

1748-1754  Marquis of Ensenada Secretary of State of Ferdinand VI

Charles III

1766, March  Esquilache riots.

1767  Suppression of the Society of Jesus (expulsion of the Jesuits).

1777 Count of Floridablanca becomes minister of Charles III

1778  Free trade decree with America

Charles IV

1792-1797  Godoy prime minister

1801-1808 Godoy again prime minister

1805, October 21  Trafalgar battle

1808  18 March Aranjuez’s mutiny

II. SOME WORDS

Rationalism

Enlightenment

Philosophes

Encyclopedia

Tyrant

Despot

Reformism

General welfare

New Planta Decrees

Intendants

Esquilache Riots

Royal March

III. SOME QUESTIONS

1. What is the difference between Classic Absolutism and Enlightened absolutism?

2. What the “philosophes” though of enlightened

3.  What means that enlightened sovereigns were secular monarchs?

4. Explain the expression “depatrimonialization” of the monarchy

5. Why can we speak of the XVIIIth century revolution as far as Spain is concerned? Think about the main reforms introduced by the Bourbon kings between 1700 and 1808.

6. From Kingdom to State: the Spanish National symbols: the flag and national anthem. 

III. TEXTS

1. The origins and meaning of Enlightenment

The major economic transformations (industrial revolution) which transformed Europe in the 18th century, however, gave rise to the emergence of a new cultural framework which necessarily affected the European kingdoms’ political adaptations to the new times.  The 17th century in Europe was an era of pivotal scientific breakthroughs thanks to thinkers such as Leibniz and Descartes.  It is no coincidence that the best-known work of the latter received the title A Discourse on Method (1637) –  one which reflected  the 18th century’s euphoric embrace of rationalism, which arose from the conviction that men could improve their lives and achieve full happiness through scientific development.  This was the proposition defended by the “philosophes” (friends of wisdom) and the men behind the “Encyclopedia,” leading proponents of the movement known as the Enlightenment (Lumières in French, Aufklärung in German).

2. Enlightened absolutism

It is only to be expected, therefore, that philosophers such as Voltaire, Diderot, D' Alembert, Montesquieu and Rousseau were highly critical of the established order,  particularly the Church and, of course, absolute monarchy.  The philosophes did not, in fact, object so much to the absoluteness of the monarch’s authority as to the way in which he wielded it.  In line with their Enlightenment ideas, they believed that the king’s function was not only to maintain order but to bring progress to his people. The king, then, was no longer envisioned as an agent merely expected to defend an established order, in accordance with the old medieval idea of the “justice-dispensing king.” Rather, the era’s leading lights  viewed monarchs as “reformist” agents  who ought to free their kingdoms and peoples from obscurantism.  In this sense it is significant that Voltaire was a strong advocate of “enlightened  despotism” through which the prince dedicated his government’s action to achieving the greatest level of well-being for his subjects. Today the term “despot” is decidedly pejorative, but in the middle of the 18th century it was not saddled with this negative connotation.  It is extremely telling that one  as cultured and intelligent as Diderot imagined the ideal ruler, the “philosopher king,” to be a “a despot,” and he  best suited to govern wisely. In this sense the case was quite similar to that of the term “tyrant,” which is today one of the worst epithets one can use to label a political leader,  while in classical Greece it was simply a form of government which in many cases preceded and made possible the consolidation of democracy. Such was the case, for example, in Athens under Peisistratus.  After  the French Revolution, however , the term “tyrant”  acquired its negative association.   Thus, beginning in  the mid 19th century some authors preferred to replace the term “enlightened despotism” with “enlightened absolutism,” a term they found to be more accurate and appropriate.

3. The new role of the State

Enlightened absolutism represented public power’s complete embrace of Enlightenment  ideas. It was based on the principle then in vogue   that the state is founded  on a contract between the ruler and his people for the advancement of their general welfare and their security, an objective which the subject  could not (yet) achieve by themselves, as they lacked the knowledge necessary  to advance in the right direction. The prince, in contrast, was fully qualified to do so, having been educated expressly from birth for this purpose. Thus, for Enlightenment monarchs the State, while continuing to play its traditional role as a guardian of order, was also  to protect and educate its  people in order to achieve the highest possible level of development and promote the reforms needed to ensure social progress.

4. Secular monarchs

In contrast, in the kingdoms in which the guiding principles were those of enlightened absolutism, the king was not considered to be chosen by God, nor to be his representative, nor did he base his power on a Divine concession awarded him after the ceremony of anointing, coronation or consecration. Significant in this regard was that Joseph II of Austria refused to be crowned king of Hungary and Bohemia as part of a traditional liturgy. An enlightened king, in his view , did not rule by the grace of God. Rather, his power was based on a new source of legitimacy: that provided by his education, which was, in turn, a consequence of his illustrious origins. As the king is educated from childhood for his office, he is  the one most apt  to achieve those objectives of government which justify  the existence of the state’s apparatus, including  the monarchy itself.  Thus did the ruler stand above interests and prejudices, thanks to an education which enabled him to extract himself from pressure groups and exercise an arbitral role permitting him to resolve conflicts.  Upon shedding his sacred aura the king was unshackled from religious fetters.  Enlightenment principles no longer depended on a particular creed, or dogmas interpreted by an ecclesiastical apparatus, but only on the monarch’s personal conscience.  In this sense the power of the enlightened kings was more “absolute” because they were not subject to particular religious creeds. 

5. Enlightened Absolutism in Spain

Spain was a country ripe for the full application of enlightened absolutism thanks to the abolition of the public/legal institutions of the former Estates of the Crown of Aragon, imposed by Philip V, which was made possible thorough state reform. 

The imposition of Castilian absolutism in Valencia, Aragon, Mallorca and Cataluña after the  promulgation of the “Nueva Planta Decrees,” made possible a renovation of Spanish royal power which stands in contrast to the prostration of the Catholic Monarchy during final stage of the Austrian  monarchies/the Habsburg monarchies. This shift came because, among other things, the Spanish king’s subjects had access to all the different positions in the monarchy’s different territories, which meant that the monopoly of the local oligarchies had been broken, with new people permitted to occupy key posts, in many cases based on their merit and capacities. The peak of enlightened despotism in Spain would come with the reigns of Philip V’s children Ferdinand VI (1746-1759) and Charles III (1759-1788) .  Above all the latter, as Charles had an advantage over his brother: prior  to governing in Spain he had extensive experience, having served as king in Naples and Sicily for 25 years (1734-1759), making  his government more efficient.

The reformism of the early Spanish Bourbons radically transformed Spain, with the abolition of internal customs, tax reform, the liberalization of trade with the American colonies, and economic aid measures which allowed the Spanish Bourbons to impose what the American historian Richard Herr expressively called “the revolution  of the 18th century.”

Major fiscal and administrative reforms allowed the Monarchy to multiply its revenues,  which facilitated the creation of a permanent army and navy, indispensable to defend the country’s overseas territories and allow Spain to regain its status as a great international power. Also noteworthy was the extensive reform of Spain’s governmental structure, with the development of a powerful central government featuring new institutions such as secretariats, ministries and the Council of Ministers, the reinforcement of the Royal Council of Castile as the monarchy’s highest advisory body, the imposition of administrative centralization thanks to the creation of the office of intendente (intendant) ,  and a territorial reorganization of the state at the provincial and local levels.   All of this was made possible by the Bourbons’ appointments of capable government ministers, first foreigners such as Orry under the reign of Philip V and Esquilache under Charles III, with Spanish ministers soon to follow, such as José Patiño, the Marquis of the Ensenada, and the Count of Floridablanca .  The crucial state reform initiatives undertaken by the Spanish Bourbons between the reign of Philip V and Charles III nurtured a feeling of “Spanishness” among the Crown’s subjects, evidenced by the establishment of the Spanish Cortes and the emergence of two of the symbols of the Spanish state still existing today: the flag and the national anthem.

All of this put Spain and its monarchy back on the European map after the crisis of the 17th century.  In 1721 Montesquieu would describe Spain as one of the great European monarchies: “Europe’s most powerful states are those of the emperor and the kings of France, Spain and England. Italy, and a large part of Germany, are divided into an infinite number of small states whose princes are, to be accurate, the martyrs of sovereignty.” 

“The most powerful states in Europe, are those of the emperor, the kings of France, Spain, and England. Italy, and a large part of Germany, are divided into a great many little states, the princes of which are, strictly speaking, the martyrs of Sovereignty” (I found the text in English. But your translation is excellent)

In many cases reform went further than the people could bear and ended up failing, such as virtually all those measures imposed by Joseph II in Austria.  In Portugal part of the reform introduced during the reign of Joseph I failed because of the Portuguese nation’s indifference and even hostility to it.  Under Pombal Portugal’s intellectual class would split (as in Spain) into two camps: traditionalists and encyclopedists.  In Spain Charles III had to deal with the Esquilache Riots (1766), instigated by the privileged classes who frowned upon the king’s reform measures.  In the end, however, Charles demonstrated the ability to implement his policies in a very effective manner, thanks to which Spain managed to regain its status as a major international power.