Tokugawa Shogunate And Absolutism

Tokugawa Shogunate, Hapsburg Empire, Louis XIV, and Peter the Great were absolute leaders. Absolutism is a political system in which the rulers hold supreme power in the governing principles and matters. The rulers governed their territories in their own way but have similarities. The paper will compare and contrast the four rulers.

The four rulers had similarities between them. One of the similarities is that they got to power through succession. Peter the Great was chosen to power after the death of his half-brother Ivan after suffering from chronic physical and mental disabilities. Louis XIV became a king after the death of his father. Rudolf IV, Albert’s son, was elected as the King of Germany. His son Albert 1 became the German king while Rudolf II became the king of Austria, and this led to the growth of the Hapsburg Empire. Tokugawa Shogunate fought for his leadership, which was the norm in the Tokugawa clan. This was the form in which a leader could become the next in the region.

The differences among the rulers are based on the style they used to rule. In 1598, the Tokugawa Shogunate started to rule Japan. There are different factors which led to the rise of the power. During his rule, banking did well, and the medium of exchange was the power of money. This influenced the growth in the number of farmers who grew the cash crops. In turn, it causes the decline of the small-scale farmers. Tokugawa Shogunate also led to the start of the legal classes. Most of the people were Buddhists. To prevent outsiders from negatively influencing the people in the region, the Shogunate ordered that all citizens register with their local Buddhist temple.

Louis XIV referred to himself as the light of the people he ruled. This made his governance to be strong. He did this by influencing art and literature in the country. He also “his country as the dominant power on the continent until the War of the Spanish Succession, which lasted from 1701 to 1714”. Louis also influenced the relocation of the court to the Palace of Versailles. This also encouraged population growth in the area. Louis did not give people religious freedom but wanted the territory to have a religious uniformity. He wanted to unite the French region by having one king, one law, and one faith. This made the country have one religion, and this made it easy for the people to influence each other.

When Peter became the czar in 1689, he tried to solve the problems that had been faced in the region by the previous ruler. Peter introduced heavy taxation to the people. This affected the serfs and peasants. He created the Synod. This contributed to the rise in the church control system in lands, monasteries and church possession. Peter collected money for the war to face the enemies from the system. This made the region stronger, although the believers were against it. Peter also influenced Westernization in Russia. He forced the men to shave their beards. Women could attend schools of science and technology, and the calendar was changed. He brought foreign experts to the country and introduced the state service.

The Habsburg Empire had different nations which were brought together by the common rule of the Habsburgs. What led to the rise of the empire was the land the Habsburg family possessed. In 1453, Fredrick III accepted the rights and privileges of the people. The empire also influenced the creation of alliances through marriages. The empire supported the Roman Catholic Church, which had the largest population of the protestant reformation, and this resulted in less or no religious violence in the region.

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