Modern government (GURPS terms)

[Anders]

In Sweden we got a professional bureaucracy in the early 17th century, when Axel Oxenstierna and Gustavus Adolfus reformed the state and the army top to bottom. It was that modernization of the state that allowed Sweden to dominate Northern Europa in the 17th century.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

When did modern centralized government happen (modern bureaucracy, government buildings near the throne, educated workforce, etc.)? Leaving aside the ancient Chinese. :-) (I'm thinking Louis XIV, the Sun King.)

All ancient empires did this to one degree or another, with the Eastern Roman and Ottoman empires making it a pretty continuous history even in Europe. But yeah, from a Western European perspective late in the reign of Louis XIV is about right. The Chinese link is real too - the evolution of French bureaucracy was in fact influenced by the Chinese model. Translations of Confucian and Legalist stuff started to trickle back into Europe through the Jesuits around this time, and interest really took off around 1690. Voltaire and Leibnitz both had positive things to say about the Chinese system in their political works.

The word bureaucracy itself is slightly later, ca 1740.

Other question, when did national military academies get started?

Roughly the same time. The Danish Naval Academy (1701) is commonly said to be the first, though it's possible to argue about that. The Ecole Militaire de Soreze is another claimant, but the school opened there in 1682 does not seem to have originally been military focused.