what is the difference between an enlightened depot and an absolute monarch?

Question

i don't want a definition, i want an explinations

Answer 1

They are terms that apply to how they ruled, but that doesn't necessarily mean there is a difference. For example, Louis XVI is both an enlightened despot and an absolute monarch.

An enlightened despot is a ruler who generally uses his power to advance the power and granduer of his country. Louix XVI did this by building palaces and making France appear to be a very rich country. Peter the Great and Catherine the Great of Russia did it during their respective reigns by expanding Russia's borders and trying to make Russia more like Western Europe. Some consider Napoleon to be an enlightened despot because he continued many of the reforms of the French Revolution, if not all of them.

An absolute monarch is a monarch who generally has absolute power in the government and over the country, including over lesser nobles. This is best seen in Louis XVI of France who, through loyal ministers, usually Cardinals of the Catholic Church, reduced the powers of the French nobles and insured that the King was the most important person in the government. However, the lack of technology and a major political ideology behind their power, absolute monarchs couldn't bring their authority all the way down to the individual level, which wouldn't begin to be done until Napoleon in the nineteenth century and wouldn't be perfected in the form totalitarianism until the twentieth century with the development of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Answer 2

An enlightened despot embraced the ideals of Enlightenment, like religous tolerance, freedom of speech, and the right to hold private property. An enlightened despot believed in the social contract - that since he or she was the ruler of his or her people, then he or she had a duty to make life as good for all those people. An absolute monarch just claimed the right to do whatever the hell he or she wanted, and let the people be damned. An example of an enlightened despot would be Catherine the Great, who worked to lighten the loads of her serfs and introduce Enlightenment ideas into her country. An example of an absolute monarch would by Henry the Eighth, who started a new religion and sent his country into a series of bloody religous wars just so he could conceive an heir.

Answer 3

The enlightened depot is a warehouse with good illumination, whereas an absolute monarch is a ruler ( king, emperor ) who obeys no one

Answer 4

For a good definition of the two titles "an enlightened DESPOT" and an "absolute monarch" see:

www.thenagain.info

www.nipissingu.com.ca/department/history/muhlberger/2155