AP Euro Chapter 24 Vocab/Concepts

Start of the Modern Age

• Based on Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution

• People began to look at their surroundings

• Politics were still rooted in ancient systems, but people tried to fix them

Emergence of new phsyics and modern science

• People found certainty in science

• Many new discoveries, such as the work of Marie Curie (1867-1947) occurs

  • She discovered radiation and won 2 Nobel Prizes but died of it

Max Planck

Lived 1858-1947 and believed energy levels existed because atoms worked unpredictably (created Planck’s constant for quanta)

Albert Einstein

• Lived 1879-1955

• Wrote The Dynamics of Moving Bodies, which introduced the Theory of Relativity in 1905

• E=Mc² was important to showcase the power of the atom and started the Heroic Age of Physics

  • Also led to the Atomic Age

Friedrich Nietzche

• Lived 1844-1900

• Glorified the irrational and believed in unfiltered emotion/passion

• Believed Christianity made the Western world weak and corrupt

• Believed people wielding true will would be “The Super,an”

• Influenced many unrelenting rulers

Henri Bergson

• Lived 1859-1941

• Believed reason was not great to solve everything

• Found the only way to understand life is to experience it and be present

Georges Sorel

• Lived 1847-1922

• Advocated for Revolutionary Socialism, using irrational thought and action to enforce socialism

• Invents the idea of the General Strike where workers take over production and rise up against owners/managers

Sigmund Freud

• Lived 1859-1939

• Psychologist from Vienna

• Wrote “The Interpretation of Dreams” and believed the unconscious and early-life experiences affected decisions

  • Also led to Psychoanalysis (dream analysis)

• Believed the Id, Ego, and Super-Ego were the parts of a personality

  • Id was center of unconscious and irrational drives for pleasure

  • Ego was center of reason

  • Super-Ego was center of morality

• Ideas were influential and practiced, even if not true

Social Darwinism

• Led by Herbert Spencer

• Believed survival of the fittest applies to societies and the strongest societies survived

• Used it to be racist

Volkish thought

Put forth by Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927), which stated the Aryans were superior

• Counter-intuitive because he was Engligh and only went to Germany

• Obviously influenced the Nazi Party later on

Anticlericalism

• Policies weakening the Church

  • Ex: France outlawed Catholic-controlled education and the government shifted to doing it themselves

  • Ernst Renan (1823-1892) looked at religious texts from a scientific perspective

Modernism

• People updated Christian beliefs to match modern customs

• Catholic Church came out against it in 1907

• Salvation Army in 1865 is example of good change

Naturalism

A completely realistic art style that is not optimistic like Realism

Emile Zola

• Lived 1840-1902

• Wrote about the urban slums of Northern France

• Showed problems with alcoholism and tough environment

• Impressed by Darwin’s Origin of the Species and focused on the struggle to survive and understand life

Len Tolstoy

Lived 1878-1910 and wrote War and Peace

• Set in Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812

• Very realistic characters and thoughts

Fvodor Dostoevsky

• Wrote Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov

• Saw the loss of spiritual belief

Symbolism

• Written in response to Realism and believed objective knowledge of the world is impossible

• Mostly wrote poetry and felt art should just be art and not be used to understand society

• Ex: W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) and Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

Impressionism

• Originiated in 1870s France

• Captured the world around them but made small changes (about 80% real, 20% imagination)

• Brought on by the invention of the camera and need for individual expression

• Ex: Claude Monet (1840-1926) and his painting Impression, Sunrise

Post-Impressionism

• Showed up in 1880s France but spread quickly

• Shifted from objective reality to subjective reality (about 50% real, 50% artist)

• Focused on inner feeling and emotion

• Ex: Paul Cezanne (1839-1923) with his Mont Sainte Victoire

Cubism

Used geometric designs to paint

Ex: Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

Abstract painting

Emerged in 1910 and focused mostly on color

Ex: Wassily Kandinsky (1886-1944) and his Square with White Border

Modernism in music

• Influenced by nationalism

• Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) displayed Norwegian nationalism

• Claude Debussy (1862-1918) is known for Impressionist style of music, stressing elusive moods and haunting sensations

  • Symbolist poet Stephane Mallarme inspired his work