Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading

by George Park Fisher

For more extended lists, see Adams's Manual, etc.; and
Fisher's The Reformation (Appendix). For list of works on
colonization in America, see the list at the end of Period III.

PERIOD III. FROM THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. (1648-1789)

INTRODUCTION.

CHARACTER OF THE PERIOD.—One feature of this period is the efforts made by the nations to improve their condition, especially to increase the thrift and to raise the standing of the middle class. An illustration is what is called the "mercantile system" in France. Along with this change, there is progress in the direction of greater breadth in education and culture. In both of these movements, rulers and peoples cooperate. Monarchical power, upheld by standing armies, reaches its climax. The result is internal order, coupled with tyranny. Great wars were carried on, mostly contests for succession to thrones. The outcome was an equilibrium in the European state system, dependent on the relations of five great powers.

FIRST SECTION OF THE PERIOD.—In the first half of the period, the East and the West of Europe are slightly connected. In the West, France gains the preponderance over Austria, until, by the Spanish war of succession, England restores the balance. In the East, Sweden is in the van, until, in the great Northern war (1700-1721), Russia becomes predominant.

SECOND SECTION OF THE PERIOD.—In the second half of the period, the East and the West of Europe are brought together in one state system, in particular by the rise of the power of Prussia.

CHIEF EVENTS.—The fall of Sweden and the rise of Russia and Prussia are political events of capital importance. The maritime supremacy of England, with the loss by England of the American colonies, is another leading fact. In the closing part of the period appear the intellectual and political signs of the great Revolution which broke out in France near the end of the eighteenth century.

CHAPTER I. THE PREPONDERANCE OF FRANCE: FIRST PART OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. (TO THE PEACE OF RYSWICK, 1697): THE RESTORATION OF THE STUARTS: THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION OF 1688.

LOUIS XIV.: MAZARIN.—The great minister Richelieu died in 1642. "Abroad, though a cardinal of the Church, he arrested the Catholic reaction, freed Northern from Southern Europe, and made toleration possible; at home, out of the broken fragments of her liberties and her national prosperity, he paved the way for the glory of France." He paved the way, also, for the despotism of her kings. He had been feared and hated by king and people, but had been obeyed by both. A few months later Louis XIII., a sovereign without either marked virtues or vices, followed him (1643). Louis XIV. (1643-1715) was then only five years old; and Mazarin, the heir of Richelieu's power, stood at the helm until his death (1661). To this Italian statesman, ambitious of power and wealth, but astute, and, like Richelieu, devoted to France, the queen, Anne of Austria, willingly left the management of the government. The rebellion of the Fronde (1648-1653) was a rising of the nobles to throw off the yoke laid on them by Richelieu. They were helped by the discontent of parliament and people with the oppressive taxation. In Paris, there was a rising of the populace, who built barricades; but the revolt was quelled. Its leaders, Conti, the Cardinal de Retz, and the great Condé, a famous soldier, were compelled to fly from the country. Mazarin, who had been obliged to fly to Cologne, returned in triumph. After that, resistance to the absolute monarch ceased,—the monarch whose theory of government was expressed in the assertion, "I am the State" (l'etat c'est moi). In the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659), Spain gave in marriage to Louis, the Infanta Maria Theresa, the daughter of Philip IV., and ceded to France important places in the Netherlands. Maria renounced all claims on her inheritance, for herself and her issue, in consideration of a dowry of five hundred thousand crowns to be paid by Spain. Shortly after, Mazarin, who had negotiated the treaty, in full possession of his exalted authority and the incalculable treasures which he had amassed, died.

LOUIS XIV. AND HIS OFFICERS.—Louis XIV. was now his own master. His appetite for power was united with a relish for pomp and splendor, which led him to make Versailles, the seat of his court, as splendid as architectural skill and lavish expenditure could render it, and to make France the model in art, literature, manners, and modes of life, for all Europe. With sensual propensities he mingled a religious or superstitious vein, so that from time to time he sought to compound for his vices by the persecution of the Huguenots. He was the central figure in the European life of his time. Taking care that his own personal authority should not be in the least impaired, he made Colbert controller-general, to whom was given charge of the finances of the kingdom. Louvois was made the minister of war. Colbert not only provided the money for the costly wars, the luxurious palaces, and the gorgeous festivities of his master, but constructed canals, fostered manufactures, and built up the French marine. Louvois, with equal success, organized the military forces in a way that was copied by other European states. Able generals—Turenne, Condé, and Luxemburg—were in command. The nobles who held the offices, military as well as civil, vied with one another in their obsequious devotion to the "great king." Vauban, the most skillful engineer of the age, erected impregnable fortifications in the border towns that were seized by conquest. In the arts of diplomacy, the French ambassadors were equally superior. The monarch was sustained by the national pride of the people, and by their ambition to dominate in Europe.