Kingdom of France

(Today: France, parts of hte US & Canada, Madagascar, Caribbean)

By taking both domestic and foreign policies king Louis XIV (r.1643-1715) had all power into his hands in from the 1661. For the next nearly fifty years of his reign, he persistently sought to fulfill his dream of French hegemony over Europe, emphasizing that his kingdom was chosen to God and blessed over all other kingdoms. He soon launched, more or less successful, wars in almost all directions of France, in the north and south against the Spanish Habsburgs and then the Netherlands, while in the west against the Austrian Habsburgs. Although it established absolutist rule throughout France, like its successors, it did not in any way mean that people within the borders of that estate could use French as a common language or that they had a common conception of France as a nation.

The Enlightenment in Europe culminates in the works of French philosophers (Voltaire, Montesque, Rousseau, etc.) who were inspired by the United Kingdom. Specifically, the British rapid economic and intellectual rise and successful colonial wars during the 17th and 18th centuries showed them the superiority of the English parliamentary system over the absolutist in France. They attacked a lot: general ignorance and intolerance, outdated privileges of nobles and clergy, all forms of absolutism and tyranny. The philosopher's most productive product was the Encyclopedia (1750), as a work that brought together the knowledge of all human knowledge. However, because of some of their contents that did not conform to Bible teaching, it would be repeatedly banned and subjected to severe censorship under the influence of the Church and the Jesuits. The reflections of the French philosophers will affect the primacy of the rulers of other European states (Prussia, the Habsburg Monarchy, Russia), but not the French.