Introduction

"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." When Lord Acton, the great English historian of liberty, conceived this celebrated dictum, he had in mind rulers like Louis XIV, whose statecraft tended toward absolutism, or the unrestricted exercise of power. It is difficult to define corruption and to apply the definition to a person as complex as this seventeenth-century French monarch. Nevertheless, his contemporaries, as well as modern historians, would probably agree that Louis XIV pursued power single-mindedly for the joy of exercising it and for the glory it brought.

His political prudence failed him, however, as he mismatched the resources of France to the goals that he sought-most likely a French frontier on the Rhine and French dominance in Europe. He also miscalculated the working of the balance of power in Europe. Led by England and the Dutch Republic, the enemies of the French king coalesced ever more effectively against him as they perceived that his policies threatened them all. Although Louis XIV gained Franche-Comté, Strasbourg, and a few other small northeastern territories for the French state, he left it with a cumbersome and costly administration, an enormous debt, and a peasantry burdened with heavy taxes.

The balance of power that checked the ambitions of Louis XIV was maintained throughout the eighteenth century. While Poland and other antiquated great states declined, new powers such as Russia and Prussia emerged and the Habsburg monarchy was rejuvenated. Due to the fragile and frequently changing relationships between the major powers, Europe endured several decades of almost constant diplomatic intrigue and military conflict.

In England and the Netherlands, economic growth and social changes contributed to the establishment of political systems unique from the trend toward absolutism elsewhere in Europe. Although by no means truly democratic in character, the Dutch and English established constitutional governments that limited the power of the monarchy and protected the political and property rights of individuals. The economic and cultural dynamism of the Netherlands far outlasted its brief ascendancy as a major European power. After 1650, England eclipsed the Dutch and began building its world empire. Both nations contributed to a new political paradigm-an alternative to absolutism and the Old Regimes in Europe. By the late eighteenth century, the ideals of constitutional government and individual rights forged by the Dutch and the English provided the theoretical basis for the revolutionary movements in colonial America and France.