The West in the World, 4th Edition (Sherman)

Chapter 15: Competing for Power and Wealth

Chapter Summaries

During the eighteenth century, monarchs attempting to magnify their own power and extend their state's influence within the European balance of power engaged in a heated struggle of state-building. European states competed for this power and influence both in Europe and overseas in the race for colonies. At the same time as the relationship among monarch, aristocracy, and political institutions was changing in Britain and France, monarchs in other parts of Europe attempted to justify their rule by turning to Enlightenment ideals. Social and economic transformations outpaced political ones, however, as changes in rural life held repercussions for manufacturing and population growth, and in turn, life in the cities. Cultural innovation accompanied this social change. It was only at the end of the century, as the American Revolution came to a conclusion, that the major transformations that would soon appear in European political life were foreshadowed.