Catherine, Frederick and Louis - Unenlightened Tyrants in an Enlightened Age

CHY 4U - Modern Western Civilization - The West and the World
Catherine, Frederick and Louis - Unenlightened Tyrants in an Enlightened Age
It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
-- Niccolo Machiavelli, - The Prince
The Enlightenment is touted by modern historians as a time of intellectual and social advancement, an era of optimism and freedom unheard of in earlier times. The era of absolutism is seen as a time of mounting liberty that contributed to the rise of democracy in the Americas and elsewhere. In reality, the "Enlightened Despotism" of the absolutist leaders…