Held all power within their boundaries
Goal: control every aspect of society
Believed in Divine Right: Monarch as God’s representative on Earth
Regulated everything from religious worship to social gatherings
Created new bureaucracies to control their economies
Wanted to free themselves from the limitations imposed by nobility and parliaments.The decision to let people into heaven or hell and all world events are predetermined by the Christian God.
Increased Wealth due to Mercantilism
Church authority declined
Monarchs are supported by the Middle Class
Limited Power of Nobles
Wasted Money
Lost wars disastrously
Huge Debt
ETC
Rehab the public image of the Catholic Church/Pope
Improve Education.
Gain new converts to Catholicism.
Stop the spread of Protestantism.
Gold
Glory
New Technology
Renaissance (Wealth)
Prussia
Russia
England
France
Spain
Russia: Peter the Great, Ivan The Terrible
England: Charles I, Elizabeth, Oliver Cromwell
France: Louis XIV
Spain: Philip II