Mr. Haskell
World History
30 October 2004
Chapter 18 Outline
1. A world of progress and Reason
A. Joseph Priestly and Antoine Lavoisier built the framework for modern chemistry during the 1700s.
B. Edward Jenner developed a vaccine against smallpox which was a disease whose path of death spanned for centuries.
C. Natural laws were laws that govern human nature. Through the use of reason enlightenment thinkers could solve every social, political, and economic problem.
2. Two Views of the Social Contract
A. Thomas Hobbes wrote Leviathan in which he argued that people were naturally cruel, greedy, and selfish and if they were not strictly controlled they would fight, rob, and oppress one another. Hobbes said that people entered into a social contract which was an agreement by which they gave up the state of nature for an organized society. Hobbes was in favor of an monarchy.
B. John Locke said that people were basically reasonable and moral and that people had natural rights which were rights that belonged to humans from birth. These rights include the right to life, liberty and property.
C. The bet kind of government in Locke�s eyes was a government that had limited powers and was accepted by all citizens. He said that the government had an obligation to those it governs and if a government were to fail or violate people�s natural rights then the people could overthrow the government.
3. Montesquieu Spirit of the Laws
A .Baron de Montesquieu studied the governments of Europe from Italy to England. He learned about Chinese and native cultures and read about ancient and medieval Europe. He had sharp criticism of absolute monarchy which opened the doors for later debates.
B. Montesquieu published The Spirit of the Laws in which he discussed governments throughout history and wrote admiringly about Britain�s limited monarchy. The best way to protect liberty was to spread separate power.
C. He also felt that each branch of government could serve as a check on the other two what is what we call checks and balances today. The check and balances were written into the Constitution of the United States.
4. The World of the Philosophes
A. Philosophes were a group of enlightenment thinkers that applied the methods of science to better understand and improve society.
B. The most famous philosophe was Francois- Marie Arouet had a controversial life in which he used biting wit to expose the abuses that corrupt officials and idle aristocrats would do. For his acts he was imprisoned and exiled by the offended government and the Catholic Church and saw his books censored and burned.
C. Denis Diderot labored 25 years to produce a 28-volume encyclopedia in which his purpose was �to change the general way of thinking�. The encyclopedia shaped the French public opinion in the mid-1700s and it also helped spread enlightenment ideas across Europe and into the Americas.
5. Rousseau: A Controversial Figure
A. Jean- Jacques Rosseau was the most controversial philosophe, he was strange and difficult man. He came from a poor family which never made him feel comfortable in the great world that enlightenment thinkers lived in.
B. Rosseau believed that people in their natural state were basically good. This natural innocence was corrupted by the evils of society which was especially the unequal distribution of property. Many reformers and revolutionaries later adopted the view of Rosseau.
C. Rosseau thought the good of the community as a whole should be placed above individual interests which were entirely different than what other enlightenment thinkers thought which was placing individual interests first over everything.
6. Limited �Natural Rights� for Women
A. Women did have natural rights and were excluded from the slogan �free and equal� The natural rights however were not like the men�s at all and were limited to the areas of the home and family.
B. Germaine de Stael, Catherine Macaulay and Mary Wollstonecraft argued that women had been excluded form the social contract and in which their arguments were ridiculed and sharply condemned.
C. Wollstonecraft felt that a woman should be able to decide what is in her own interest and should not be completely dependent on her husband. She also argued that women should have the same education as men so that women would have the tools that they would need to participate equally in public life.
7. New Economic Thinking
A. Physiocrats were thinkers that focused on economic reforms and also looked for natural laws to define a rational economic system. They rejected mercantilism which required the government regulation to achieve a favorable balance of trade.
B. The urged a policy of laissez faire which allowed business to operate with little or no government interference. Agriculture, mining, and logging produced the most wealth which is what the physiocrats thought.
C. In The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith argued that the free market or the natural forces of supply and demand, should be allowed to operate and regulate business. He tried showing how manufacturing, trade, wages, profits and economic growth were all linked to the forces of supply and demand.
8. The Challenge of New Ideas
A. Enlightenment thinkers taught that a just society should ensure material well- being, social justice, and happiness in the world. This way of thinking had spread throughout the society and made people question old ways of life.
B. The government and Church felt a sacred duty to defend to defend the old order because they felt that the old order was set up by God. They waged a war of censorship in which they banned and burned books and imprisoned writers.
C. To avoid censorship writers would have their work printed in the few countries that allowed freedom of the press. Writers like Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau disguised their ideas in works of fiction.
9. Salons
A. Salons were informal social gatherings at which writers, artists, philosophers and others exchanged ideas.
B. The salons originated in the 1600s when a group of noblewomen in Paris began inviting a few friends to their homes for poetry readings
C. In the 1700s some middle class women began holding salons in which middle class citizens could meet with the nobility on an equal footing to discuss and spread Enlightenment ideas.
10. The Salon in the Rue Saint Honore
A. Madame Geoffrin set up her own salon in the house on Rue Saint Honore in which she entertained poets and philosophers, artists, and musicians.
B. In Madame�s home she brought together the brightest and most talented people of her day such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Catherine II of Russia and Maria Theresa of Austria corresponded with Madame�s salon.
C. Salonieres were not educated but became educated after listening to educated men in conversation in their salons. Elisabeth Vigee Lebrun said �Women ruled then� in which he was talking about the salons and women in the early 1700s.
11. Enlightened Despots
A. Fredrick II was King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786 and saw himself as the �first servant of the state�. Fredrick�s reforms were directed at making the Prussian government more efficient. With a rationalized bureaucracy the monarchy became stranger which meant more power for Fredrick II
B. Catherine II of Russia became empress in 1762 and like Fredrick II she intended to give up no power and in the end of her rule her contribution to Russia was not reform but an expanded empire.
C. Joseph II was the successor of Maria Theresa and his efforts to improve the peasants lives won him the nickname �peasant emperor�. Joseph chose middle class officials rather than nobles to head departments and impose a range of political and legal reforms. He ended censorship and attempted to bring the Catholic Church under royal control.
12. The Arts and Literature
A. Two styles of painting emerged during the enlightenment in which they were called baroque which were paintings that were huge, colorful and full of excitement and the other style was Rocco style which was personal refined, elegant and charming.
B. During the 1700�s ballets and operas were very popular being played at royal courts and two musical figures Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart made there name historical with their music and operas.
C. By the 1700s literature developed new forms and a wide new audience one writer was Daniel Defoe who wrote Robinson Crusoe which was a tale about a sailor ship wrecked on a tropical island.
13. Lives of the Majority
A. In the west serfdom had disappeared instead some peasants worked their own patches of land. Others were tenants of large landowners, paying a yearly rent for the land they farmed.
B. In Central and eastern Europe serfdom was firmly rooted in which peasants were bound to the land owed labor services to their lords and could be bought and sold with the land.
C. In France peasants still had to provide free labor while in England country squires had the right to hunt foxes across the plowed and planted fields of their tenants. In the 1800s war and political upheaval as well as changing economic conditions would transform peasant life in Europe
14. Global Expansion
A. In the treaty of Utrecht France gave Britain Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in North America. In 1763 the treaty of Paris was signed ending the Seven Years war which brought Britain all of French Canada. By 1763 Britain had a more powerful navy then their greatest rival France.
B. England offered a more favorable climate to business and commerce than it European rivals did with fewer restrictions on trade because it followed mercantilist policies.
C. The Act of Union united England and Scotland into the United Kingdom of great Britain. This act brought economic advantages to both lands because it allowed trade to pass freely between both lands which created a larger market for farmers and manufactures. Catholics were taken over by Protestants in Ireland coming to the point where a catholic couldn�t own a weapon, marry non-catholic or serve as a teacher
15. Growth of constitutional Government
A. The Tories and the Whigs were the political parties that emerged in England in the late 1600s. Conservative Tories were generally landed aristocrats who sought to preserve powers and a dominant Anglican Church. The Whigs backed the more liberal policies of the Glorious Revolution.
B. The cabinet was made up of leaders of the majority party in the House of Commons and remained in power so long as it enjoyed the support of the commons. If the commons voted against a cabinet decision the cabinet would resign.
C. The prime minister headed the cabinet and was the leader of the majority party in Parliament and in time the chief official of the British government. Robert Walpole molded the cabinet into a unified body and is often called Britain�s first prime minister.
16. Politics and Society
A. Landowning aristocrats were seen as the natural ruling class and in which the highest nobles held seats in the House of Lords. Wealthy landowners controlled elections to the House of Commons and in which votes were often bought.
B. Wealthy landowners would buy up and take over common lands throwing out tenant farmers and small landowners. The result was many landless families drifted into towns where they faced a harsh and desperate existence.
C. The affairs in towns and cities were controlled by a small but growing middle class that included merchants and manufactures. The middle class produced talented inventors and entrepreneurs who helped usher in the industrial revolution.
17. George III Reasserts Royal power
A. George III set out to reassert royal power in which he wanted to end Whig domination, choose his own ministers, dissolve the cabinet and make the House of Commons follow his will.
B. Because Parliament passed harsh measures to force them the English colonists to obey rules. The colonists protested and started the American Revolution and a disaster for Britain.
C. In 1788 cabinet rule was restored during the crisis leadership. Later Britain was dragged into long wars because of Napoleon storming through Europe, during this time cabinet ruled the government and the prime minister was seen as the real political leader
18. The 13 English Colonies
A. By 1750 a string of 13 colonies stretched along the eastern coast of North America in which all were a part of Britain�s growing empire. Boston, New York and Philadelphia were busy centers of commerce linking North America, the West Indies, Africa, and Europe together.
B. In the 1600s parliament passed the Navigation Acts to regulate colonial trade and manufacturing. Smuggling was common and was not considered a crime by the colonies.
C. Colonies shared common values, respect for individual enterprise, and a growing self confidence and an increasing sense of their own destiny separate from Britain.
19. Growing Discontent
A. In 1770 British and Bostonians fought in the Boston Massacre and in 1773 a handful of colonists staged the Boston Tea Party hurling a cargo of recently arrived British tea into the harbor to protest a tax on tea.
B. War exploded in April 1775 and a Continental Congress was held in which the name of John Adams, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and many other met to discuss the action that was to be taken.
C. Congress set up a Continental Army with George Washington at the command and a year later the congress voted for independence and Thomas Jefferson drafted the declaration of Independence. On July 4, 1776 American leaders adopted the declaration, pledging �our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor� to the cause of the United States of America.
20. The American Revolution
A. The British had professional soldiers, a huge fleet and plentiful money and they occupied most of the major American cities. One third of the colonists were loyalists to Britain and some of the colonists wouldn�t fight for either side. The advantages that Americans had were that they were fighting on their own ground for their farms and towns. The British held New York and Philadelphia while Americans held the countryside
B. The battle of Saratoga was the turning point of the war in which the Americans won and convinced France to allie up against Britain. France brought much needed supplies, trained soldiers, and French warships.
C. The British surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781 and two years later American, British and French negotiators signed the treaty of Paris ending the war. The Treaty of Paris made Britain recognize the independence of the United States of America and accepting the new nation�s western frontier as the Mississippi River.
21. A New Constitution
A. The Constitution created a federal republic with power divided between the federal government and the states. There would be separation of powers in the legislative, executive and judicial branches which was an idea borrowed directly from Montesquieu. Each branch was provided with checks and balances on the other branch.
B. The Constitution became a law in 1789 and set up representative government with an elected legislature to reflect the wishes of the government. Only white men who met certain property requirements could vote.
C. The new republic showed a symbol of freedom to European countries and to Latin America. In 1789 a revolution in the name of liberty and equality toppled the monarchy. Monarchies in the mid-1800s would see their powers greatly reduced.