ABSTRACT
In response to Reformation-era turmoil, the rulers of both kingdoms modified already relatively sophisticated political systems by steadily expanding and strengthening them over the course of the sixteenth century. By the end of the seventeenth century, the only two major states in Europe that had not adopted and intensified absolutism were the Netherlands and England. An important aspect of absolutism were economic policies known collectively as mercantilism, which gave the state a larger direct role in the economy in the interest of strengthening the overall kingdom. Under the kings of the Stuart Dynasty, political, social, and religious divisions created a civil war, and its aftermath saw the emergence of the first modern constitutional monarchy. The relative stability and rationalization of government during the absolutist age laid a steady foundation for the economic, social, and intellectual growth that stimulated other elements of modernization during the eighteenth century and beyond.
