We can mark the beginning of the modern era as the years 1648-1700, when most European states changed from disparate conglomerates of semi-independent feudal domains to solid units, with a strictly centralized bureaucratic apparatus. The predominant form of government became an absolutist monarchy, modeled after the France of Louis XIV. There were also a few exceptions. For example, in Great Britain and the Netherlands, a parliament consisting of representatives of the rich bourgeoisie and large latifundists took over the role of the all-powerful monarch. Poland, on the other hand,