Advanced Modern World History - Unit 2: Revolutionary World (1750-1848)

Scientific Revolution

Emergence of modern scientific thinking through inductive and deductive reasoning

Geocentric Theory

First Medieval idea challenged by the Enlightenment, belief that all the heavenly bodies revolved around the earth

Heliocentric Theory

Theory that heavenly bodies revolve around the sun. It was first developed by Nicolaus Copernicus in 1543 and later backed up by Johan Kepler and Galileo Galilei.

Scientific Method

Modern method of scientific thinking that involves observing, forming a hypothesis, and testing it

Inductive Reasoning

A method of scientific reasoning developed by Francis Bacon in 1620. It was utilized during the Scientific Revolution and involves gathering facts and using them to reach a conclusion or theory

Deductive Reasoning

A method of scientific reasoning developed by Rene Descartes that involves coming up with a conclusion or theory and then gathering evidence to support it. Used to develop Heliocentric Theory.

Sir Francis Bacon

English philosopher who developed the concept of deductive reasoning and published it in his *Novum Organum* (“New Instrument”) in 1620. He also believed that science was best pursued collaboratively.

Rene Descartes

French mathematician and philosopher who further developed deductive reasoning. He believed in the capacity of human mind to achieve knowledge through logic and reasoning and that it was necessary to question all preconceptions and assumptions for any investigation. During his life, he also developed analytic geometry.

Sir Issac Newton

Used inductive reasoning to discover gravity.

Enlightenment

“Age of Reason,” period of time during the 18th century caused by the Scientific Revolution in which its theorists sought to apply the scientific method to human behavior and society in order to find the natural laws that governed human institutions. Built around three new theories about human beings: individualism, relativism, and rationalism

Individualism

Enlightenment theory that revolved around the importance of the individual and their rights

Relativism

Enlightenment theory that different ideas, cultures, religions, values, and behaviors have equal merit

Rationalism

Enlightenment theory that humans could arrive at the truth through the power of reasoning

Comenius and Grotius

Philosophers that believed only defensive wars were justified, writings foreshadowed the later patterns of the Enlightenment

Thomas Hobbes

Philosopher who witnessed the English Civil War and provided a justification for absolute monarchy in his treatise “Leviathan” in 1651 to express his beliefs that humans were naturally selfish and destructive, and therefore needed a ruler to surrender their rights to in exchange for order and protection from themselves.

John Locke

The father of democratic theory, rejected Hobbes’s philosophy and believed that humans were naturally peaceful and lived in freedom and equality. He claimed that the government’s job was to protect the people’s inalienable rights of life, liberty, and property, and that the people had the right and responsibility to overthrow their rulers if they failed to do so. His beliefs became an important part of the Enlightenment.

Philosophes

A group of French philosophers who spread the ideas of the Enlightenment through publications

Voltaire

Philosophe and leader of the French Enlightenment, popularized Enlightenment ideas through his humorous and satirical writings. He was also very critical of orthodox Christianity.

Montesquieu

Philosophe who believed that the type of government that would be best suited for a society depended on its climate, geography, history, and social and economic conditions. Also created the theory of separation of powers, which meant individual rights were best upheld when the government was divided into executive, legislative, and judicial branches to provide checks and balances for each other. His latter theory had a great impact on the US Constitution.

Diderot

Philosophe and Editor of the Encyclopedia, which he used to collect the writings and discoveries from the Enlightenment.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

The most radical of the philosophes. He rejected civilized society and believed that in a perfect world, the people would rule themselves. His ideas would become a bridge between the ideas of the Enlightenment and Romanticism.

Louis XVI

French king that was dull-minded and insensitive, leaving him ill-prepared for the French Revolution and leading to his death by guillotine on January 21st, 1793.

Parlements

Rival to the french king’s judiciary power in earlier centuries; 13 courts of law that could abolish the king’s decrees if they deemed them beyond the king’s authority. It’s power was taken away during Louis XIV’s rule.

Estates-General

Rival to the french king’s legislative power in earlier centuries; institution that supposedly represented all of France’s citizens. However, the majority of the population only made up one of the three Estates while the clergy and nobility each got their own.

National Assembly

Created in May 1789 when the Third Estate refused to go to their separate meeting hall during the meeting of the Estates-General and demanded that they vote by head rather than by estate. It was later accepted by the king as the new ruling power of France after the Fall of the Bastille, where it later evolved into the National Convention.

Fall of the Bastille

Took place on July 14th, 1789, when French Revolutionaries stormed a medieval armory, fortress, and political prison that represented royal authority in the center of Paris.

Jacobins

A radical faction in support of the French Revolution that wanted to make France into a republic. They used propaganda and occasionally even terrorism to achieve their goals. Their extreme nature lead to the Reign of Terror.

Reign of Terror

Period of time in which the extreme extent the Jacobin party took the ideas of the Revolution to caused the death of thousands by the guillotine. Caused the people of France to sour on the idea of Revolution.

Maximilian Robespierre

Leader of the Jacobin party. He grew so extreme during his time in power that even his supporters feared him, leading to him getting shot in the jaw when a mob arose to prevent him from listing more “traitors” at the National Convention, and then getting guillotined the next day.

Directory

New government that was established in France after the Reign of Terror and Robespierre’s death; an executive body of five men that were chosen by a two house legislature. Many of the leaders were corrupt , and it was eventually overthrown in a coups d’et\`at that resulted in the Napoleonic Era.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Revolutionary in the Coup of Brumaire turned dictator of the majority of Europe. Early on, he gained a reputation for his daring, military genius, loyalty of his troops, and the sheer amount of victories under his belt. Along with spreading ideas of nationalism and liberalism throughout Europe, he was responsible for the system of laws that became the basis of the French legal system even to this day.

Klemens von Metternich

Conservative creator/leader of the Congress of Vienna/Concert of Europe. His goal was to bring back and preserve the status quo of pre-Napoleon Europe. Succeeded up until the unification of Italy and Germany.

Alexander I

Tsar of Russia and most powerful member of the Congress of Vienna. Was a big contributor to the preservation of the status quo but had ulterior motives that may or may not have had something to do with the decaying Ottoman Empire.

Restoration

First of the Congress of Vienna’s two primary goals; reinstating rulers and borders from before Napoleon took over. Centered around the idea of maintaining the old status quo.

Compensation

Second of the Congress of Vienna’s two primary goals; rewarding regions of land to the main contributors in the fight against Napoleon. Sort of undermined the plan to maintain the old status quo.

Concert of Europe

Name often used when referring to the countries in the Congress of Vienna working together to maintain the status quo with Metternich as their “conductor.”

Burschenschaften

“Honor, Liberty, Fatherland” was the saying of this liberal, nationalist movement that strived for a unified Germany with more rights. The movement was mostly made of college students from big cities that had learned about nationalism and liberalism in school. They mostly acted through rallies and marches celebrating German culture. After the festival in Wartburg in 1817, Metternich met with the Concert of Europe to organize the Carlsbad Decrees, which suppressed nationalism and liberalism in Germany for the time being through censorship.

Risorgimento

The idea of Italian unification

Giuseppe Mazzini

A liberal nationalist and the soul of Italian unity; was exiled after leading Young Italy in the failed 1830 uprising. He wanted the Italian states to become a unified nation where the people could have more rights under a constitutional monarchy.

Greek Independence

Established with the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829 after the Concert of Europe decided to assist in the war against the Ottoman Empire for freedom

Revolutions of 1848 (France, Germany, Austria)

Three attempts at revolution that were unsuccessful due to the intervening of the Concert. However, the third one did manage to cause the fall of Metternich and break up the Concert of Europe

Realpolitik

Political policy or practice based on power or national interests, rather than on morals or ideals., and stemmed from Machiavellian and Hobbesian principles. It was utilized by leaders in the unification of Italy and Germany.

Piedmont

The most powerful Italian state; the state that the rest of the Italian peninsula would unite around under the rulership of the House of Savoy

Cavour

The nationalist Prime Minister of Piedmont and the brains behind the unification of Italy. His utilization of realpolitik allowed for the Italian peninsula to be unified through events like the Treaty of Turin

Garibaldi

A popular liberal nationalist and the sword behind Italian unification

Prussia

The most powerful German state. It was ruled by the Hohenzollern monarchy and became the state that Germany unified around

Bismarck

The “Iron Chancellor” and brains behind German unity. His utilization of realpolitik allowed for the creation of the German Empire through events like the Ems Dispatch and Austro-Prussian War

Austro-Prussian War

War in 1866 following the Danish War in which Prussia backstabbed Austria and managed to defeat them within six weeks

Ems Dispatch

Altered transcript of a conversation between Napoleon III and Wilhelm that Bismarck used to provoke France and start the Franco-Prussian War of 1871

Franco-Prussian War

War between France and Prussia that served as a way for Bismarck to unite Germany against a common enemy. It was started by the Ems Dispatch and ended with the Siege of Paris and the Declaration of German unity.

Thermidorian Reaction

Period of time after Robespierre dies, resulting in the fall of the Jacobin party and the creation of the Directory