There is no way that the absolutism that occurred in both Europe and Asia during the 17th and 18th centuries could have been by coincidence. By the time the 17th century began, Europe and Asia were not strangers, they had been linked by trade routes for centuries. At the very least, both continents were at least a little about the lifestyle of the other. In fact, there were already ties between the French and the Ottoman Empire. These ties paved the way for the spread of absolutism.
The term absolutism means a monarch has the power to rule their land however they please. In France, rulers would often embellish themselves so that the people admired them, so is true of Louie XIV. These monarchs of Europe feared ever being overthrown by the people, and who can blame them. Can anyone real say they wouldn’t like to have absolute control over an empire? Louie XIV tried to stop this by having people build sculpture or paint portraits of him to make the people of France believe he was a great ruler. Of course by the end of Louie’s reign, the French people still disliked him for using excessive amounts of money for wars. Once stronger relationships were made between the East and the West, the route was paved for absolutism to spread. The East began to show imitate many political practices from the West, and absolutism was reborn.
To think that absolutism occurred out of pure coincidence is crazy. There were enough ties between both Europe and Asia at the time that it only makes sense that each would try and learn from the other.
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