Enlightenment and Gunpowder Empires Notes

The Enlightenment

• Also known as the Age of Reason.

• Grew out of the Scientific Revolution of the 1500s and 1600s.

• Reason was used to understand the physical world, and reformers believed it could also be used to discover natural laws that shape human experience.

• Natural laws:

  • Unchanged principles.

  • Discovered through reason.

  • Govern all human conduct.

• Reformers studied human behavior and aimed to solve political, social, and economic problems using reason.

• Enlightenment thinkers (philosophes) were concerned with the relationship between government and the people.

• Their ideas influenced the creation of governments in many modern nations.

• Shift away from absolutism and divine right (religion) towards democracy and individual rights (secularism).

• Encouraged revolutionary leaders in Europe and the Americas.

Thomas Hobbes

• Argued that people are cruel, greedy, and selfish.

• Government (law) protects people from each other.

• Without government, people would fight, rob, and oppress one another.

• Social Contract:

  • Arrangement where people give up their rights to be protected by the government.

• Supported absolute monarchs.

• Wrote about his ideas in The Leviathan.

• Quote: "During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if every man, against every man."

John Locke

• Believed people are basically moral and reasonable and want to do the right thing.

• All people are born free and equal with three natural rights: life, liberty, and property.

• Government exists at the consent of the governed to protect their rights.

• If the government fails to protect these rights, the contract is broken, and the people may change or replace the government.

• Wrote Two Treatises of Government.

• Stressed that the best governments had limited power, not an absolute monarchy.

Montesquieu

• Criticized absolute monarchies.

• Admired Britain's limited monarchy for protecting people's rights.

• Believed that having three branches of government would prevent tyranny (absolute ruler that abuses their power; unfair and harsh rule).

• Separation of powers prevents any one branch from gaining too much power over the other two (checks and balances).

• Quote: "In order to have…liberty, it is necessary that government be set up so that one man need not be afraid of another."

• Government should be split into three branches:

  • Executive: enforces laws.

  • Legislative: makes laws.

  • Judicial: applies laws.

• Each branch should be able to serve as a check on the other two.

Voltaire

• Believed in the freedom of the press and used it to expose the abuses of corrupt political and church leaders.

• Fought for civil liberties (the rights/freedoms of citizens):

  • Freedom of Speech.

  • Freedom of Religion.

  • Separation of Church and State.

• Believed humanity's worst enemies were intolerance, prejudice, and superstition.

• His writings angered government and church officials, leading to imprisonment and exile.

• His books and writings were outlawed and burned to stop his ideas from spreading.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Believed that people were naturally good but corrupted by society.

• Unequal distribution of property was a great evil of society.

• Stressed the importance of the general will (the will of the people as a whole).

• Believed the good of the community should be placed above individual interests (the common good).

• Detested all forms of political and economic oppression.

• Wrote The Social Contract.

• Society places too many limits on people's behavior (some controls are necessary but should be minimal).

• Only governments that had been freely elected should impose law.

• Sovereignty (the power to make laws) should be in the hands of the people.

• The only good government is a direct democracy.

Adam Smith

• Scottish economist who admired the physiocrats.

• Wrote The Wealth of Nations, arguing for a free market without government interference.

• Believed the forces of supply and demand should run the market.

• Whenever there was a demand for goods or services, suppliers would try to meet that demand in order to gain profits.

• Believed the government had a duty to protect society, administer justice, and provide public works, but should generally stay out of the economy.

New Economic Ideas

• Physiocrats attempted to solve economic problems using natural laws of economics.

• Rejected mercantilism (government regulation of the economy to achieve a favorable trade balance).

• Promoted laissez faire (hands off) economic practices.

• In a laissez faire economy, the government does not interfere with the operations of business.

Enlightenment for Women

• Natural rights were generally considered to be for men only.

• Women's natural rights were limited to the areas of home and family.

• Some women were exposed to enlightened philosophy through salons.

• Salons:

  • Informal parties hosted by prominent and wealthy women.

  • Enlightened thinkers gathered to discuss literature, the arts, science, philosophy, and politics.

  • Allowed Enlightenment ideas to spread.

  • Guests were forced to speak in vernacular (common language).

Enlightened Women

• Mary Astell:

  • Wrote A Serious Proposal to the Ladies (1694).

  • Questioned the lack of educational opportunities for women.

  • Criticized the unequal relationship between men and women in marriage.

• Mary Wollstonecraft:

  • Wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1972).

  • Believed women need education to participate equally in public life.

The Rise of Russia: Peter the Great

• St. Petersburg was Peter's "window to the west" and the new capital of Russia.

Westernization by Peter

• Reduced the power of great landowners.

• Introduced potatoes.

• Western clothes and fashions and beard tax (a beard tax is one of several taxes introduced throughout history on men who wear beards).

• Created advanced schools (stressed education).

• Increased women status.

• Introduced the newspaper.

• Fought Sweden for the warm water port.

• He was 6 feet, 6 inches tall.

• Prior to becoming czar (an emperor of Russia before 1917) at 24, Peter went and studied in the "west" as a commoner.

• He decided it was best to westernize Russia (Russia needed warm the water port to trade).

Isolation

• Mongol Rule and religious differences had kept Russia from interaction with Europe (missed the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration).

• There was no seaport for trade.

• Russians looked to Constantinople for guidance, not Rome.

Romanov Dynasty

• After years of quarrel, boyars (a member of the old aristocracy in Russia, next in rank to a prince) chose next leader, Michael Romanov beginning the Romanov Dynasty and restored power to the government.

Ivan the Terrible (Grand Prince of Moscow)

• In 1581, Ivan beat his pregnant daughter-in-law for wearing immodest clothing, which may have caused a miscarriage.

• His son, also named Ivan, upon learning of this, engaged in a heated argument with his father, which resulted in Ivan striking his son in the head with his pointed staff, causing his son's (accidental) death.

• Ivan the Terrible turns against Russia.

• Ivan's secret police was called the Oprichniki, who were dressed in all black and rode black horses.

• They murdered anyone Ivan suspected of being a traitor (mostly boyars).

• The Oprichniki murdered a possible of 5,000 or more subjects.

• "The Good Period" was from 1547 to 1560.

• Ivan conquers land in an effort to boost the economy.

• He wants to have sea routes to Russia and goes to war with Sweden and Poland.

• Ivan later loses his new territories.

• Ivan crowns himself Czar of Russia when he is 16 years old (he is the first Czar, or emperor, of Russia).

• Ivan IV takes the throne in 1533, when he is 3 years old.

• Ivan's mother rules on his behalf until her death when Ivan is 5 years old.

Ivan the Third (III)

• He is a Russian Prince and freed Russians from Mongol rule in 1480.

• He crowned himself "czar" and proclaimed Russia would be the 3rd Rome.

• He moved the capital of Russia to Moscow, from St. Petersburg.

The Mongols

• The Mongols invade; between the Crusades and the Mongols, the Kievan Empire declined.

• Kiev was destroyed in 1240 and the Mongols isolated Russians from Europe.

Vladimir

• Vladimir converted Russian people to Christianity and linked the emperor with religion (was influenced by the Byzantine Empire and common trade routes).

City of Kiev

• City of Kiev is the first major city and is present-day Ukraine.

• It is a cold environment and surrounded by water, but there are no warm water ports for trading.

• There are some forests and grasslands too.

Gunpowder Empires (1300 to 1700)

• Three "gunpowder empires" dominated parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia:

  • The Ottoman Empire.

  • The Safavid Empire.

  • The Mughal Empire.

• Shared similarities:

  • Conquered neighboring people because they formed strong armies using rifles and artillery.

  • All three empires were Islamic and ruled by Muslim leaders with well-organized governments made up of loyal bureaucrats.

  • Blended their culture with neighboring societies to create a high point of Islamic culture.

The Decline of the Ottoman Empire

• In 1453, the Ottomans attacked Constantinople and conquered the Byzantine Empire, ending 1,000 years of rule.

• In 1361, Ottoman victory leads to domination of the Balkans.

• In 1402, the Mongol leader Timur gives the Ottomans their first major defeat.

• During the 1400s, the Ottomans control routes to the Indies but limit trade.

• Ottoman rulers were called sultans and they governed with absolute power.

• The greatest Ottoman sultan was Suleiman the Magnificent who came to power in 1520.

• He was known as "Suleiman the Lawgiver" because he created a law code that governed criminal and civil issues.

• He also created a simplified and fair tax system to raise money for his empire.

• Suleiman granted freedom of worship to Christians and Jews living in the empire.

• Art, architecture, and poetry flourished under Suleiman as the Ottoman Empire experienced a cultural renaissance.

• Suleyman's greatest accomplishment was creating a stable government for his empire.

• To maintain their power against rivals, Suleiman and other Ottoman sultans executed their brothers and jailed their sons, which led to progressively weaker leaders.

• By the outbreak of World War 1 of 1914, the Ottoman Empire was so weak it was known as the "sick man of Europe."

The Decline of the Safavid Empire

• Unlike the Ottomans, who were Sunni Muslims, the Safavids believed in Shi'a Islam and strictly converted the people they conquered.

• The Safavids were Turks living in Persia who built a powerful gunpowder army and created an empire in modern-day Iran.

• Safavid rulers were called shahs, using the Persian title for king.

• The greatest ruler of the Safavid Empire was Shah Abbas who came to power in 1587.

• Abbas borrowed ideas from outside groups to improve the Safavid Empire.

• He modeled Ottoman janissaries used merit to employ government workers, and introduced religious toleration which helped Safavids trade with European Christians.

• Art flourished, especially carpets that blended Persian and European designs.

• Like the Ottomans, Shah Abbas blinded or killed his most capable sons in order to maintain power.

• As a result, weak leaders led to a rapid decline of the Safavid Empire.

• While the Ottoman Empire lasted until 1922, the Safavid Empire fell in 1747.

The Decline of the Mughal Empire

• The Mughals were Muslims who descended from Turks, Afghans, and Mongols living in central Asia.

• Like the Ottomans and Safavids, the Mughals built a powerful army with guns and cannons.