| abstract
| - “Royal authority is sacred… God established kings and emperors upon this earth as his ministers and reigns through them over the nations… the royal throne is not the throne of a man but the throne of God himself.” – Bishop Boussuet, 1761. The words of Bishop Boussuet underline the organic links connecting the Church and an increasingly absolutist state. The ingredients for a national revolution had been provided by this link, and they were seen in play in the Revolution of 1702. Francis Joseph II, a strong absolutist monarch, was briefly deposed by the masses in that Revolution. The Emperor, who was already old, feeble and suffering from stomach cancer, was under the strict influence of the First Minister, Cardinal Suger. Suger was not popular in the eyes of Alexandrians because of his foreign origins, corruptly amassed fortune and his romantic involvement with the Emperor’s sister, Mademoiselle du Carpignac. In 1702, Suger announced that the royal coffers were empty and that the salaries of Imperial officials would not be paid for the next five years. National rebellion soon followed and the leaders of the opposition assembled a National Convention composed of delegates selected from around the nation. The National Convention called for a definite end to royal tyranny: veto power over new taxes, habeas corpus law, abolition of heavy inheritance taxes, among other things. When Suger had the parliamentarians arrested, Geneva rose in a massive revolt. Suger, along with the Imperial Family, escaped to Wesloderia. Nobility and peasants alike joined the Revolution: urban revolts in Markion City, Franciscania and Gradlia coupled with peasant revolts all over the Empire. The National Convention, now secured in power, proceeded to reform the nation. Despite repugnance for the absolute monarchy, no political entity offered a viable and coherent alternative. Each group thought in terms of its own advantages and produced disorder. Through its existence, the National Convention had to cope with belligerent nobles and peasant revolts. By 1705, the Imperial League, assembled by Suger, marched on Geneva and installed the Emperor back into power. The Revolution had collapsed. Traumatized by the events of 1702-1705, Emperor Louis XIV, the first monarch of the House of Portela, consolidated power in his own hands. Under his reign, the Emperor achieved an unknown amount of control and power over three critical administrative functions: use of armed force, formulation and execution of laws and the collection and expenditure of revenue. Francis II and Phillip IX further strengthened their control over these affairs, creating the most efficient and centralized state of its time. The most fundamental cause of the Revolution of 1774, however, was an economic depression that hit Alexandria after 1755. After a half century of enormous growth, the economy suffered a series of severe setbacks. Just when the massive population expansion from 1730-1755 had produced millions of new mouths to feed, Alexandrian agriculture failed to feed them. To this followed impoverishment, severe unemployment and inflation. The economic downturn resulted in a severe drop in tax revenues, forcing imperial debt higher and higher. Tax rates went along with it. The tax collection process slowly began to disintegrate and army loyalty began to slip. Levels of petty crime and vagrancy rose sharply. To cap it all, horrible harvests made the prices of food such as bread skyrocket out of control.
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