Summary of the political testament of Frederick II PDF

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Summary of the political testament of Frederick II...

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Summary of the political testament of Frederick II (“The Great”) from 1752.

Huseyin Kabasakal HIST2510A [33074] 19th Century Germany (LEC) Fall 2020 September 26, 2020

Frederick II (“The Great”) believes that peasants should not be given opportunities to buy land from nobles. Also, he thinks peasants shouldn’t be allowed to taking service abroad because if too much freedom is given to peasants it may result in them resisting their lord. So, to keep them under control all the time they shouldn’t be allowed some things that nobles can do. By keeping them under controller sovereign will be preventing potential chaos.

Also, he thinks the sovereign should keep this balance between nobles and peasants and therefore sovereign should have much more power than the others. And a smart sovereign will use his power to keep himself in power by filling empty chairs with his trusted men. However, he still thinks he has to be in charge of important stuff because he is unpredictable, and no one can decide on an important matter as he does.

Frederick II (“The Great”) shows the French system as an example of a bad system. He thinks by having all control at the hands-on one person, who knows what he is doing, everything will go according to the government's philosophy. Decision-making will be much faster, and the government will have much more power when everything is controlled by one enlightened person.

By reading the document we can see that Frederick II thinks enlightened absolutism is the best way to rule a state correctly. By having all control over him he will have every door opened to achieve his dreams. And the person who gets to rule this state should think about only the state's future so the state can defeat its enemies easily....