The absolutist war state could not recruit loyal soldiers from its own subjects

Evidence

The Absolutist State was a cause and effect of war. Its economy was a war economy, its foreign trade was combative, its bureaucracy administered the preparations and prosecutions of war. Such a state required standing armies (and, eventually, navies). But for certainly political and sometimes economic reasons, soldiers could not be recruited easily from, in V. G. Kiernan’s phrase, “the mass of ordinary peasants and burghers.” Kiernan puts the situation most simply for France, though it was the same all over Europe: “Frenchmen were seldom eager to serve their king, and their king was not eager to employ Frenchmen.” Loyalty to the state of the monarchy from the exploited ranks of the lower classes was rare. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 189

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the Absolutist State as constituted by war, and explains why it turned to mercenaries.