Final answer:
Louis XIV centralized the French government by increasing the monarchy's power, utilizing royal intendants, and curbing the nobility's influence; he did not implement a system of checks and balances.
Step-by-step explanation:
King Louis XIV of France restructured the administration of the French government in several key ways, but not by implementing a system of checks and balances. His administrative reforms included centralizing power in the monarchy, appointing royal intendants to oversee the provinces, and weakening the power of regional nobility. Unlike the English model of governance at the time, the French monarchy did not incorporate a parliamentary system to balance the king's power, and the king ruled with absolute power, by divine right.
Louis and his administration also bolstered French commerce and trade by establishing new industries in France and instituted reforms in military administration that curbed the independent spirit of the nobility by imposing order at court and in the army.
Louis also attempted uniform regulation of civil procedure throughout legally irregular France by issuing a comprehensive legal code, the “Grande Ordonnance de Procédure Civile” of 1667, also known as the Code Louis. One of his most infamous decrees was the Code Noir, which sanctioned slavery in French colonies.