Nueva Planta decreesThe Nueva Planta decrees (Decretos de Nueva Planta, Decrets de Nova Planta, "Decrees of the New Plant") were a number of decrees signed between 1707 and 1716 by Philip V, the first Bourbon King of Spain, during and shortly after the end of the War of the Spanish Succession by the Treaty of Utrecht. The Decrees put an end to the existence of the realms of the Crown of Aragon (Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia and Majorca) as separate political entities within a common monarchy and incorporated them into the Crown of Castile, essentially establishing the Kingdom of Spain as a French-style absolute monarchy.
The FrondeThe Fronde (fʁɔ̃d) was a series of civil wars in the Kingdom of France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. King Louis XIV confronted the combined opposition of the princes, the nobility, the law courts (parlements), as well as most of the French people, and managed to subdue them all. The dispute started when the government of France issued seven fiscal edicts, six of which were to increase taxation.
European balance of powerThe European balance of power is a tenet in international relations that no single power should be allowed to achieve hegemony over a substantial part of Europe. During much of the Modern Age, the balance was achieved by having a small number of ever-changing alliances contending for power, which culminated in the World Wars of the early 20th century. By 1945, European-led global dominance and rivalry had ended and the doctrine of European balance of power was replaced by a worldwide balance of power involving the United States and the Soviet Union as the modern superpowers.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-PérigordCharles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (ˌtælɪrænd_ˈpɛrɪgɔr, ʃaʁl mɔʁis də tal(ɛ)ʁɑ̃ peʁiɡɔʁ, – moʁ-; 2 February 1754 – 17 May 1838), 1st Prince of Benevento, then Prince of Talleyrand, was a French secularized clergyman, statesman and leading diplomat. After studying theology, he became Agent-General of the Clergy in 1780. In 1789, just before the French Revolution, he became Bishop of Autun. He worked at the highest levels of successive French governments, most commonly as foreign minister or in some other diplomatic capacity.
