(1) What was “enlightened absolutism”?
Enlightened Absolutism refers to when certain absolutist rulers implement “enlightened” ideas and such into their country. People in favor of this would see just about any expansion of the government as a good thing. In certain instances of enlightened absolutism, the government seized church property and forced it into further submission. The dictators with this mentality also established compulsory education, in which political propaganda was pushed the students.
(2) What was the constitutional dispute between the colonists and the British government that led to the American Revolution?
Throughout the history of England, there was no written constitution, but everyone understood what the government could and couldn’t rightfully do. Rather, their constitution was grounded in history and tradition. If the government stepped over the boundaries recognized by the people, then there would be uprisings.
When the colonists settled in America, they expected to govern themselves and to have the same rights as any natural born Englishman. While the British government would be in charge of foreign policy, all of the internal affairs would be managed by the colonists’ own elected representatives. Any taxes that were extracted from them would need to be through their own elected representatives. While the British government could make trade policies (including protective tariffs), they could not directly impose taxes on the colonists..
This was the case for a long time, as the English government had been relatively uninvolved in the colonies. The colonists viewed this as tradition, and therefore the active constitution. They were extremely concerned about taxation without representation, because if the Brits started taxing them directly, then it would be the Brits–not their own elected representatives–that were governing them. Without an internal tax system, they could not maintain control over who their governors were.
However, the British government had a different view of how their constitution worked. Rather than adhering to tradition, they pushed to be able to do whatever they wanted. They considered themselves to have the right to exercise whatever power they wanted over the colonies. They also thought themselves able to interpret and decide what the constitution was and what its implications were.
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