Euro New Horizons: 1648-1815

Transformation of Europe: English Civil Wars

-Conflict from 1640 to 1660; featured religious disputes mixed with constitutional issues concerning the powers of the monarchy; fought between Parliamentary forces and those loyal to Charles I
-Charles I forced to sign the Petition of Right, 1628 (challenged the idea of the divine right of kings and declared that even the monarch was subject to the laws of the land); executed in 1649 -Oliver Cromwell led the parliamentary army then established a Puritanical military dictatorship

Transformation of Europe: Thomas Hobbes

(1588-1679)

-Political theorist advocating absolute monarchy based on his concept of an anarchic state of nature. -English father of modern political philosophy, who advocated absolute sovereignty as the only kind of government that could resolve problems caused by the selfishness of humans - wrote "Leviathan" and believed people were naturally cruel, greedy, and selfish; believed only a powerful government could keep an orderly society -thought that all people should have equal rights and nobody should have more power over anyone else (except the king)

Transformation of Europe: Glorious Revolution

-the bloodless coup in 1688 in England when James II (a Catholic) gave up the throne and his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange (of the Netherlands)

- both Protestants

- replaced James II to reign jointly.

-signed the English Bill of Rights (1689): guaranteed certain rights to English citizens and declared that elections for Parliament would happen frequently; supported a limited monarchy, in which they shared their power with Parliament and the people

-Constitutionalism: Basic principle that government and those who govern must obey the law; the rule of law

Transformation of Europe: John Locke (1632-1704)

-Wrote "Two Treatises of Government". Said human nature lived free and had the natural rights of life, liberty, and property; advocated the idea of a "social contract" in which government powers are derived from the consent of the governed and in which the government serves the people; and if the government failed to do so it was the duty of the people to rebel.
-opposed the Divine Right of Kings

Revolutions: 18th c Agricultural Revolution

-unprecedented increase in agricultural production in Britain due to increases in labor and land productivity between the mid-17th & late 19th centuries.
-crop rotation: practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil.
-Robert Bakewell: pioneer in the field of selective animal breeding. He bred animals for certain characteristics
-Enclusures: process of consolidating small landholdings into a smaller number of larger farms in England during the eighteenth century
-Jethro Tull: English inventor advocated the use of horses instead of oxen, developed the seed drill.

Revolutions: Cottage industry/Putting-out system

-A system of textile manufacturing in which laborers (rural proletariat or urban migrants) worked in homes or workshops through merchant intermediaries or workshop owners; marginalized guilds hold over production

Transformation of Europe: Louis XIV, France (1638-1715)

-king of France from 1643 to 1715; his long reign was marked by the expansion of French influence in Europe and by the magnificence of his court and the Palace of Versailles (used palace to exert political control; housed 1000's of important people= nobility grew dependent upon King)
-epitomized Absolutism in Europe; expanded role of Intendants (bureaucrats that reported directly to the king)
-Cardinal Mazarin: Chief minister and regent to Louis XIV; tried to continue Richelieu's centralizing policies, but his attempts to increase royal revenue led to the civil wars known as the Fronde; He could not control nobility as Richelieu had.

Transformation of Europe: Peter the Great (1672-1725)

-ruled from 1689 to 1725
-Made Russia a military and naval power using European technology; defeated the Swedes, took their Baltic territories, and created a "Window to the West" (St. Petersburg)
-Enforced economic, educational, administrative, military, and social reform focused on imitation of western Europe

Transformation of Europe: Catherine the Great (1729-1796)

-German born Russian tsarina in the 18th century; ruled after assassination of her husband; gave appearance of enlightened rule;maintained nobility as service aristocracy by granting them new power over peasantry, entrenching serfdom
-continued Peter's Westernization of Russia & economic development, created a new law code, greatly expanded Russia; influenced by French philosophes; promoted education and the Enlightenment among the elite

Revolutions: Enlightenment

-Philosophical movement which started in Europe in the 1700's and spread to the colonies. It emphasized reason and the scientific method. Writers of the enlightenment tended to focus on government, ethics, and science, rather than on imagination, emotions, or religion. Many members of the Enlightenment rejected traditional religious beliefs in favor of Deism, which holds that the world is run by natural laws without the direct intervention of God.

Revolutions: Voltaire (1694-1778)

-French philosopher. He believed that freedom of speech was the best weapon against bad government; spoke out against the corruption of the French government, and the intolerance of the Catholic Church.
-was the embodiment of 18th century Enlightenment; attacked injustice and intolerance.

Revolutions: Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

-British feminist of the 18th century who argued for women's equality with men, even in voting & education, in her 1792 "Vindication of the Rights of Women."
-opposed Rousseau's view of women

Revolutions: Montesquieu (1689-1755)

-wrote 'Spirit of the Laws', said that no single set of political laws was applicable to all - depended on relationship and variables, advocated the separation of executive and legislative and judicial powers (checks & balances)

Revolutions: Rousseau (1712-1778)

-Believed that society threatened natural rights and freedoms. Wrote about society's corruption caused by the revival of sciences and art instead of it's improvement. He was sponsored by the wealthy and participated in salons but often felt uncomfortable and denounced them. Wrote "The Social Contract."
-championed the "General Will": concept in political philosophy referring to the desire or interest of a people as a whole.

Revolutions: Adam Smith (1723-1790)

-political economist and philosopher. His Wealth of Nations (1776) laid the foundations of classical free-market economic theory, government should not interfere with economics. Advocates Laissez Faire and founder of "invisible hand"

Revolutions: French Revolution

(1789-1799)

-Reacting to the oppressive Old Regime (the period of time in France under the rule of the monarchy when society was sharply divided into three estates and the majority of the people lived with few rights in poverty), the French middle and lower classes overthrew the king (executing him) and asserted power for themselves in a violent and bloody revolution.
-National Assembly: congress established by the Third Estate to enact laws and reforms in the name of the French people
-Declaration of the Rights of Man & the Citizen: (1789) outlined what the National Assembly considered to be the natural rights of all people and the rights that they possessed as citizens, except women
-Olympe de Gouges: demanded the same rights for French women that French men were demanding for themselves. In "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen" (1791)
-Constitution of 1791: created by the French Revolution that had a limited monarchy; didn't go far enough
-uprising was inspired by America's independence from England and the Enlightenment ideas.
-Thermidorian Reaction: against the radicalism of the French Revolution; associated with the end of the Reign of Terror and reassertion of bourgeoisie, conservative power in the Directory.

Revolutions: King Louis XVI

(1754-93)

-the last king of France (1774-92) in the line of Bourbon monarchs preceding the French Revolution of 1789; monarchy was abolished on Sept. 21, 1792; later Louis and his queen consort, Marie-Antoinette, were guillotined on charges of counterrevolution.

Revolutions: Maximilien Robespierre

-served in the National Assembly, called for universal male suffrage and the abolition of capital punishment and slavery in the colonies; wished to create a new deistic civic religion; single handily cause the radical phase of the Revolution
-leader of the Committee of Public Safety: set up to defeat all enemies of the revolution; instigated the Reign of Terror (thousands were executed for "disloyalty")
-implemented a levee en masse: conscripting all males into the army; mass participation and a fully mobilized economy (Total War?)

Revolutions: Congress of Vienna (1815)

-tried to fix everything Napoleon messed up
1. Enacted a settlement that was acceptable to both the victors and to France
2. Created a balance of power that lasted until the unification of German in 1871
3. Underestimated the forces of liberalism and nationalism
4. Used the principle of legitimacy to restore the Bourbons to the French throne
5. United Belgium with the Netherlands to form a single kingdom of the Netherlands
6. Created a loose confederation of 39 German stated dominated by Austria
-Klemens von Metternich: Foreign Minister of Austria; he had the most influence at the Congress of Vienna.

Revolutions: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

-French general, political leader, and emperor of the late 18th & early 19th centuries; rose swiftly through the ranks of army and government during and after the French Revolution and crowned himself emperor in 1804;
-Napoleonic Code: body of French civil laws introduced in 1804; influenced by Napoleon's interpretation of the French Revolution, which was built upon the ideals of Enlightenment; served as model for many nations' civil codes=Nap's most enduring achievement
-Continental System: policy of preventing trade between Great Britain and continental Europe, intended to destroy Great Britain's
economy.
-Peninsular War: France vs Spain; France's loss weakened Napoleon
-1812 invasion of Russia most pivotal mistake, weakened France
-after loss at the Battle of Waterloo, he was exiled to the island of St. Helena

Revolutions: Conservatives, Liberals, Radicals

-Three forces that struggled for supremacy in Europe
-Conservative: holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion.
-Liberal: open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values; emphasizes rule of law, representative democracy, rights of citizens, and the protection of private property; derived from the Enlightenment, was especially popular among the property-owning middle classes.
-Radical: Favoring drastic political, economic, or social reforms.

Jean Baptiste Colbert

-An economic advisor to Louis XIV; he supported mercantilism and tried to make France economically self-sufficient. Brought prosperity to France.

Maria Theresa of Austria
(r. 1740-80)

-of the Austrian Habsburgs, she was to succeed her father after his death by way of the Pragmatic Sanction (Charles VI that stated that Hapsburg possessions were never to be divided, in order to allow his daughter to be ruler).
-War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748): War over the control of Austria due to the fact that Maria Theresa became queen. Prussia took over land, France helped him in order to humiliate their enemy (Austria.) Great Britain allied with Austria to prevent France from gaining more land. The colonies of F and GB began to fight also.
-successfully manages to preserve Habsburg power. She won support from her subjects, as well as the Magyar nobility in supporting her in the war.

Joseph II of Austria

The most radical royal reformer; son and successor of Maria Theresa; introduced legal reforms & freedom of press; supported freedom of worship; abolished serfdom and ordered that peasants be paid for their labor with cash

Frederick II (the Great)
(1740 - 1786)

-Known as the Great, worked to expand territory and prestige of Prussia, king of Prussia from
-militaristic leader who he encouraged religious toleration and legal reform. According to his theory of government, he believed that a ruler should be like a father to his people (Enlightened Despot)

Edmund Burke
(1729-1797)

-conservative British politician who was generally sympathetic to the colonists' grievances, and who felt that Britain's colonial policies were misguided. He also opposed the early feminist movements.
-criticized the underlying principles of the French Revolution

Constitutionalism

Basic principle that government and those who govern must obey the law; the rule of law

War of the Spanish Succession
(1701-1713)

-A war fought over the Spanish throne. Louis XIV wanted it for his grandson and fought a war against the Dutch, English, and the Holy Roman Empire to gain the throne for France. The Peace of Utrecht ended the war.
-Bourbon control of Spain brought new ideas in government and administration that had developed in France, allowing Spain to more rapidly modernize its political infrastructure
-Britain is usually seen as the main beneficiary, controlled the asiento
-weakened the Dutch
-contributed to French debt

Seven Years War
(1756-63)

-worldwide struggle between France and Great Britain for power and control of land
-resulted in Prussian seizures of land from Austria, English seizures of colonies in Indian and North America (French & Indian War)
-British debt = American Revolution
-destroyed France's supremacy in Europe, thus altering the European balance of power.
-brought French power in India to an end
-Prussia emerged from the war as a great power whose importance could no longer be challenged.

Philosophes

intellectuals of the Enlightenment; applied reason to the study of many areas of learning, including philosophy, history, science, politics, economics, and social issues; had a critical eye and looked for weaknesses and failures that needed improvement.; intellectuals tfrom different countries freely exchanged books and ideas; most philosophes were men, but some were women.
-strongly endorsed progress and tolerance, and distrusted organized religion (most were deists) and feudalism

Denis Diderot
(1713-1784)

-Published work of many philosphes in his Encyclopedia. He hoped it would help people think more rationally and critically.
-spread Enlightenment ideas to educated people all over the world

Physiocrats

-group of economists who urged the French government to make the tax system more equitable to encourage agricultural productivity. Claimed guilds should be abolished in order to establish a free market and strongly influenced Adam Smith.
-Francois Quesnay: leader of the physiocrats, said natural economic laws governed society

David Hume
(1711-1776)

-emphasized civic morality and religious skepticism; built on Locke's teachings on learning, he argued that the human mind is really nothing but a bundle of impressions. These impressions originate only in sensory experiences and our habits of joining these experiences together. Since our ideas ultimately reflect only our sensory experiences, our reason cannot tell us anything about questions that cannot be verified by sensory experience (in the form of controlled experiments or mathematics), such as the origin of the universe or the existence of God. Paradoxically, his rationalistic inquiry ended up undermining the Enlightenment's faith in the power of reason.

Romanticism

-a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual; appealed to emotion rather than reason

Jane Austen
(1775-1817)

-English novelist famous for Romantic Fiction. She gained fame after the release of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815).

Neoclassicism

-style of art and architecture that emerged in the later 18th century; part of a general revival of interest in classical cultures, characterized by the utilization of themes and styles from ancient Greece and Rome.
-the revival of a classical style or treatment in art, literature, architecture, or music.

Baroque/Rococo

An artistic style of the seventeenth century characterized by complex forms, bold ornamentation, and contrasting elements; the art of the Catholic Reformation
-Rococo: very elaborate and ornate (in decorating or metaphorically, as in speech and writing); relating to a highly ornate style of art and architecture in 18th-century France

James I of England

declared King of England by will of Elizabeth; first Stuart ruler, son of Mary Stuart, Queen of the Scots; viewed his authority superior to Parliament; saw the divine right of kings; leans towards Catholicism, angering Puritans
Jamestown 1607
King James Bible 1611