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Enlightened Absolutism: Joseph II And Catherine The Great Of Russia

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What will be discussed is how far did two of the enlightened absolutists, Joseph II of Austria and Catherine the Great of Russia, try to apply the principles of the Enlightenment. The main enlightened ideas were the toleration of religious minorities, reform of institutions and patronage. Joseph II of Austria was born in 1741 and died in 1790. It wasn’t until the last 10 years of his life Joseph became sole ruler of Austria where he and his mother, Maria Theresa, ruled jointly until her death in 1780. Certainly one could argue most of his policies were influenced by the ideas of the enlightenment. For one he introduced The Edict of Tolerance, which was a religious reform by Joseph which gave Protestant Christians permit of private worship …show more content…

She was a big admirer of the enlightened thinkers. From a young age she felt she must prepare herself for her rule.Historians consider Catherine as a patron because she purchased Diderot’s library then paid him a salary to be her librarian. The first reform Catherine carried out was the reform of Russia’s legal. Inspired by the writings of Montesquieu, she wrote the “Instruction," which was a set of guidelines for those entrusted with reforming the legal system. It proposed a system providing equal protection under the law for all persons and emphasised prevention of criminal acts rather than harsh punishment for them. In addition, Catherine successfully implemented the first effective local government. She made sure the local government started building local schools and hospitals. This set out to be the longest of Catherine’s reforms as there were no major serf revolts. Catherine passed a series of important education reforms. One of which was the network of founding hospitals, which was established by boarding schools in turning orphaned children into entrepreneurs, artists and …show more content…

He gave religious toleration to the Jews and did his best to take control of the Catholic Church as he believed his society shouldn’t have to believe the narrow teachings of the Church. How he took a liberal approach to the economy in which resulted in Joseph creating the largest free trade was a clear indication of his influence on the Enlightenment. The fundamental point when looking at how Joseph disagreed with some of the enlightenment thinking however was how we refused to step down as role of

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