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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

“The despotic rulers of Europe were influences by the philosophy of Enlightenment and began to follow a benevolent policy towards their subjects.” Critically examine.

  • UPSC 2012
  • Enlightenment and Modern Ideas

The eighteenth century's later decades produced a curious hybrid — absolute monarchs who absorbed the vocabulary of Enlightenment rationalism while never surrendering the substance of their absolutism, a phenomenon historians label "Enlightened Despotism" or Enlightened Absolutism.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of the History Optional PYQ Master Pack.

What the full answer covers

  • Why Enlightenment Ideas Appealed to Despots
  • Enlightened Despots and Their Benevolent Policies
  • Frederick the Great of Prussia (1740–86)
  • Joseph II of Austria (1765–90)
  • Catherine the Great of Russia (1762–96)
  • Charles III of Spain
  • …and 2 more sections, with a conclusion

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