Knowra Enlightened absolutism Enlightened absolutism A form of monarchy in which rulers adopted selected Enlightenment reforms while retaining centralized, largely unrestricted power. It sought to improve society without giving subjects a share in government.
Frederick the Great : King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, known for military expansion, administrative reforms, and patronage of Enlightenment thinkers. His religious toleration and legal reforms coexisted with an enlarged Prussian army and royal authority.
Absolutism : A system in which a monarch claims concentrated, largely unrestricted authority over the state. Enlightened absolutism retained absolutist government while changing some of its aims and policies.
Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu : French political thinker whose writings analyzed laws, governments, and the separation of political powers. His criticism of despotism framed the limits that reform-minded monarchs often declined to accept.
Prussian Landrecht : The General State Laws for the Prussian States, promulgated in 1794 as a comprehensive legal code. Its attempt to rationalize law illustrates the durable administrative legacy of Prussian reform.
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor : Habsburg ruler from 1780 to 1790 who pursued sweeping reforms in religion, law, administration, and serfdom. His rapid reforms reveal both the ambitions and political limits of rule from above.
Enlightenment : An intellectual movement that emphasized reason, criticism of inherited authority, and reform during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its ideas supplied arguments for legal, religious, and administrative reform.
Voltaire : French writer and philosopher who criticized religious intolerance and arbitrary authority. His advocacy of toleration and contact with royal courts linked Enlightenment criticism to monarchical reform.
Edict of Emancipation (1781) : Joseph II's decree granting non-Catholic Christians in Habsburg lands specified civil and economic rights. It shows how royal policy could widen legal toleration without establishing representative government.
Catherine the Great : Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796 who expanded the empire and sponsored selected cultural and administrative reforms. She corresponded with philosophes yet strengthened noble privilege and autocratic rule.
State bureaucracy : A hierarchy of officials and offices that administers government according to established procedures. Rulers used expanding administrations to carry reforms across diverse territories.
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