$Unique_ID{how00712}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Civilizations Past And Present
Conclusion}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Wallbank;Taylor;Bailkey;Jewsbury;Lewis;Hackett}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{
}
$Date{1992}
$Log{}
Title:       Civilizations Past And Present
Book:        Chapter 19: The Crisis Of The Old Regime, 1714-1774
Author:      Wallbank;Taylor;Bailkey;Jewsbury;Lewis;Hackett
Date:        1992

Conclusion

     Western European society in the eighteenth century was struggling hard
against itself. The established regimes were becoming more fixed, while at the
same time forces of change were growing with such intensity that they could
not be permanently resisted.

     These forces generated countless frustrations in conflicts arising from
new middle-class interests, urbanism, expanding population, and tremendously
widening opportunities for profit. Overseas expansion contributed, in one way
or another, to the whole process. Free-enterprise capitalism was also common
to all the forces of change. It substituted social incentives - mainly profit
incentives - for the force and fear that drove the engines of absolutism. This
new fuel could not fire safely in the old cylinders.

     The situation called for radical adjustment, a complete retooling rather
than a little tinkering. European monarchies were heavily in debt; their
revenues could not meet expenses; they wasted vast sums on an upper class that
gave little service; they openly perpetuated injustices; and their
administrations were not only hopelessly inefficient but flagrantly corrupt.
Even more dangerous was the growing alienation among nobles, as well as among
the middle and lower classes.

     Attempted reforms by kings produced too little and came too late. The
policies of benevolent despots, for the most part, touched only the surface of
the problems. Other monarchs, particularly the later Bourbons in France, were
so lazy, bored, or nave that they could not face realities. The nobles were in
position to act decisively, but their efforts were naturally directed toward
resisting necessary reforms.