When Louis XIV died in 1715, he had outlived his son and his grandson.  When his great-grandson Louis XV succeeded him, the world was well on its way to a new order.  Writers like Montesquieu were dreaming up ideas like the separation of powers.  Voltaire and Rousseau debated the nature of the relation between man and his government.  Louis XV's engineers dreamed of a new navy.  They dug "forms" like this one to build new classes of warships.