all right remember our boy Louis XIV of friends with a sweet butt cut and how he was all like I am the state so he was the template for absolutist rulers in the 18th century but later in the century a new kind of absolutist ruler would emerge namely the enlightened absolutist and so in this video I reckon we ought to talk about so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked absolutely then let's get to so let's start as is proper with a definition lightened absolutism describes 18th century monarchs who wanted to retain absolute power but also aim to shape and temper the exercises of That Power by Enlightenment ideally by the way if you want nose to follow along with this video then get your click your finger out and head down to the link in the description many of the most significant philosophs were surprisingly down with I mean because Royal absolutism was basically a given among several states of the 18th century the philosophs understood that it really wasn't going away therefore according to their beliefs the best way Enlightenment ideals could shape politics is through a powerful Monarch who embodied those ideas and the three rulers who most exemplify this new conception of power were Frederick II of Prussia Catherine II of Russia and Joseph II of Austria and let me introduce you to Egypt first let me introduce you to Frederick II of Prussia also known as Fred now he inherited a powerful Army from his father's Reign and when you have a powerful Army as an absolutist ruler it's hard not to start thinking to yourself sure it would be nice to kill a bunch of people and take some land yeah let's do that so one of Frederick's first acts was to expand his territory in the style of the absolutists of old and so he immediately sees the Habsburg territory of silesha in the war of Austrian succession which doubled precious population and significantly increased its power let them sound very enlightened to me just wait for it but after such a slight Maria Theresa the Habsburg ruler of Austria from whom Frederick took selicia was all like naombra therefore she allied with France and Russia not only to gain Silesia back but to conquer the whole dang Prussian territory entirely and this became one conflict in the larger Seven Years War which we'll talk more about in unit five anyway Frederick the great was besieged on all sides and was only saved when a change in power occurred in Russia namely Peter III who called off the attack against Prussia now everything I've said so far just indicates that Frederick was an absolutist not an enlightened absolutist so let me tell you how that change occurred the great struggle that Frederick endured during the seven years war led him to consider a new kind of rule tempered by more humane policies informed by Enlightenment thought in fact if you compare Louis xiv's assessment of his own power namely I am the state with Frederick's new assessment of his power namely I am the first servant of the state you can clearly see the transition additionally Frederick took pains to justify his rule not by the divine right of kings but rather by implementing policies that improve the lives of his subject so let's have a look at Frederick's more enlightened policy first was the enactment of Greater religious toleration as a non-believer himself Frederick tolerated all faiths in his kingdom however he did seem to favor Protestants over Jews and Catholics when it came time to appoint people to State bureaucratic positions even so he upheld the importance for example of Catholic Jesuits as Educators in Prussia and granted an unheard of degree of freedom for Jews on which second Frederick instigated legal reform he led the effort to simplify precious complex set of laws and abolish torture as a legitimate means of punishment third Frederick engaged in bureaucratic reform and for that he adopted the German principles of cameralism these principles argued that yes monarchy is the most effective form of government and thus all elements of the state and Society ought to be subservient to the modern however the state had the responsibility not to be a power hungry turd and instead use its power for the betterment of society all right that was fun but now let's see how enlightened absolutism is shaping up over in Russian for that let me introduce you to Catherine II also known as Catherine the Great so Catherine married Peter III who was the same guy that I mentioned before who saved Frederick the Great's hind Parts in the seven year war but Catherine wasn't interested in being the wife of a monarch she wanted to be the modern in fact when she wrote her memoirs she said it plain I did not care about Peter but I did care about the crown oh that's cold so she went ahead and hatched a plot to get her husband murdered and thus became Russia's Rule and even though she murdered her way into Power her education was replete with Enlightenment ideals which informed her three major goals first she aimed to continue Peter the Great's efforts to westernize rush to that end she patronized philosophs of whom Voltaire was her favorite thing she also paid for Adida Rose encyclopedia to be published in Russia after it came under the censorship of the French government and additionally she imported Western Architects and artists into Russia second she enacted legal reform to that end she allowed limited religious toleration and like Frederick II outlawed torture in Russia goal centered around territorial expansion and the most significant expansion she participated in was the partition of Poland which we talked about in the last unit if you forgot this was an agreement to divide the entirety of Polish Territory between Prussia Austria and Russia so you know she was pretty enlightened but there was a significant limit to her enlightened absolutism and that came in the pugachev Rebellion now one of the most enlightened moves an enlightened Monarch could make during this period was to emancipate the Surfs which were those lower class citizens who had worked the land of the Nobles and were in practice a little different from slaves but in 1773 a soldier named Emilian pugachev rose up and gathered a ragtag army of sir he summarily proclaimed himself the true Czar of Russia and abolished serfdah but unfortunately for pugachev his untrained militia was crushed by Catherine's Army which was led by Noble and so after executing pugachev any intentions Catherine had about reforming the institution of serfdom were gone and she even increased their oppression okay now Joseph II of Austria was another enlightened absolutist who sought reforms in his state to this end he enacted several Royal decrees which included the following first he signed the edicts of Toleration which granted religious freedom for Jews and other religious minority second he increased the freedom of the press and third he put strictures on the power of the Catholic Church all that was pretty enlightened but unfortunately for Joseph he enacted these reforms real fast without consulting the nobility or the clergy and because they got a little Saucy about it Joseph's reforms led to significant domestic turmoil during his Reign now as you have hopefully witnessed by now one of the chief markers of enlightened absolutism was an effort towards religious toleration but one religious group can serve as a test case for the limits of that Toleration namely the Jews in many European states of the 18th century Jews were significantly marginalized by law but with a rising environment of religious toleration engendered by the enlightenment a Jewish Enlightenment movement called Haskell also emerged their argument was that the widespread religious intolerance of the Jews was unfitting for the enlightened atmosphere in Europe now as I mentioned earlier Joseph II of Austria most fully embraced the call for Jewish Freedom among his reforms were laws allowing Jews to serve in the military or to enter higher education and abolishing the distinguishing symbols that Jews were made to wear Frederick the great and Catherine the Great despite their impulses towards religious toleration rejected any easing of anti-jewish policies in their state in fact after Catherine acquired the large Jewish population of Poland after the partition she created a separate District in which all Jews were required to live all right click here to keep reviewing unit 4 and since we're at the end of a unit you are most likely getting ready for an exam so you can click right here to grab my AP or review pack which will help you get an A in your class and a five on your exam in May I'll catch you on the flip-flop I'm learned