Enlightenment: Intellectual movement in the 18th century that applied new rationalized ways of thinking and the scientific method (from Scientific Revolution) to social and human institutions

French Philosophes (philosophers)

Montesquieu: hated the growth of absolutism under Louis XIV, writes the Spirit of the Laws

The Spirit of the Laws: separating power into multiple branches of government can prevent tyranny and encourage equality. (Separation of Powers)

Voltaire: most famous, wrote 70 books that criticized the social and religious institutions in France, most representative.

He saw that the religious tolerance in England was peaceful, while the forced Catholicism in France was oppressive. He favored absolutism because he didn’t think ordinary people could rule themselves, however, he argues that absolutism must be lessened and modified by enlightenment thought.

Denis Diderot: collaborated with other enlightenment thinkers to create the Encyclopedia, Books influenced how people thought of the world, condemned Catholic chuch

Ideas of the enlightenment spread through books, salons, and coffeehouses

Salons (in France): private meetings held in opulent houses where intellectuals discussed and debated new ideas

Coffeehouses: were more for the poorer people, but were the same as salons

Enlightened Politics

Locke and Rousseau both agreed on natural rights and the political idea of a social contract

John Locke: people were born with rights to life, liberty, and property , that are granted by the Creator (they are not given by a monarch and thus cannot be taken away)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: wrote The Social Contract in which he says that in the end, the power to govern was in the hands of the people.. In order to protect their natural rights, the people choose to give some of that power over to a government.

The contract says that if the government becomes tyrannical, people have the right and responsibility to get rid of that government and get a new one that protects their natural rights.

Men and Women were still not seen as equal in society. Women are expected to be subservient to their husbands and to raise children at home. Men had to power.

Late 18th Century: WOMENNNN

Mary Wollstonecraft: argues that women by nature should have natural rights to men and be entitled to the same education. Indication of the Rights of Women

Enlightened Economics

Adam Smith (Scottish Enlightenment): In the Wealth of Nations, he criticizes the mercantilist (state-driven economy) policies. He argues that governments should not control the economy, but let the people make economic decisions.

Supply and Demand: decisions made based on self-interest rather than state interest would lead to a flourishing economy.. theoretical basis for the concept of free market and free trade

Physiocrats: French Economic thinkers argue for supply and demand (Laissez Faire by Robert Jacques Turgot, chief minister in France) Translates to Let alone. The government should have a minimal role in economics.

Rationalism and Religion

Voltaire popularized Deism: There is a God, but he was not involved in human affairs

Deism challenged Christianity

David Hume: scottish thinker developed skepticism. All human knowledge is gained through our experiences, therefore God cannot be legitimate articles of knowledge because people have never experienced it. Treatise of Human Nature

Diderot: popularizes atheism, no god exists. Consciously regrets the existence of God

Religious belief became more private instead of public concern. Religious revival movements were now about personal piety and individual relationships to God.

German Pietism: led by Nicolas Von Zinzendorf, true piety is through personal experiences with God.

Methodism in Anglican Church by John Wesley argued true affection to God is Christianity. To truly new God, you should have

European Society in the 18th Century

Cause of Growth and its consequences?

Population Explosion: Causes

• significant decline of the death rate.. People live longer lives because the diet is improved, more food (Columbian exchange), improved roads, and food storage. By 1750s, Surplus food supply was 50% in Europe. The wane of the bubonic plague

  Changes in Food supply (Agricultural Revolution)

• Little ice age 16-19 century, ruined crop yields.

• lots of hunger in 17th century

• In 18th century, the agricultural revolution fixed the food decline caused by weather events, low-productivity agricultural practices, and small land upholding in the 17th century

• The cold weather stunts the growth of crops, the two field three field practice was not able to keep up with the exponential growth of people in the population, and all the farmland available to raising crops were small and owned by individuals

  Two-and three-field systems were abandoned, During the warmer period of the little ice age, potatoes and maize crops grew, more land for cultivation

Jethro Tull’s seed drill made farming easier on larger commercial farms

Enclosure acts

Marriage and Family

Children were seen as miniature adults, however, after the enlightenment, childhood became emphasized. Childhood was a distinct stage of development that needed nurture and attention.

For the working class, children worked with their parents on farms, cottage Industry, and while trading for the sake of the family.

Nuclear Family: Parents and children without extended family was the norm since middle-age.

Migration in the 18th century

• Technological advancements such as the seed drill and steel plow, fewer people were needed and they migrated to the cities

• Urbanization: People migrated from rural areas to urban/city areas. Cities became crowded because there was not enough housing. Tenements were apartment buildings that workers could rent, however, they were not properly ventilated and did not have indoor plumbing. Airborne diseases, such as tuberculosis were easily spread within the tenants. Waste was thrown out of the window. There is no proper waste disposal system, further contributing to horrible hygiene and unsanitary.

Culture and Arts in the 18th Century

The Consumer Revolution.

Middle classes and upper classes have more disposable income than before resulting in increasing demands for consumer goods being developed all around Europe.

Porcelain dishes, cotton, linens, and mirror.

Middle class could identify themselves by the things they bought, rather than religion.

Privacy was more concernined

Boudoir: For the wife to be a apart from her husband

Leisure Actvities. Coffee houses became popularized and not talking about revolutionary ideas, blood sports.

The Reading Revolution: The spread of literature educated children and lead to an abundance of printed materials made by the printing press.

Religious books began to decline and science, history, and law were more kinds. Newspapers, encyclopedia,

Art also began to shift from having religious themes and emphasizing royal power of kings to a realistic of the private life and the public good.

Baroque: used to illustrate state power, made church and rulers look powerful

Johann Sebastian Bach: musician

In the 18th century, the nature and subject matter of art shifted form state and religious themes to themes that appealed to bourgeois (middle class with materialistic values) society.

Rembrandt:

Neoclassicism: simplicity, symmetry

Pantheon by Jacque-Germain Soufflot

Literature focused on enlightenment and commerical values of the Bourgeois. For example, Daniel Dafoe wrote Robinson … Goethe’s play emphasized human yearning for meaning, which the bourgeois could relate to.

Enlightened Absolutism: 18th century monarchs that wanted to rule with absolute power, but also lessened by the ideals of the Enlightenment

Philosophes agreed and understood. They believed Enlightenment ideals could shape politics if only a powerful monarch embodied the ideals.

Frederick II of Prussia/ Frederick the Great

• had inherited a strong army from his father

• expanded his territory under absolutists and seizes hapsburg territory of Silesia in the War of Austrian Succession. This doubled Prussia’s population and increased its power

• Maria Theresa (Hapsburg ruler of Austria): allied with France and Russia to take Silesia back and conquer all of Prussia. (part of the seven years war)

• he began to consider a new kind of rule, enlightened absolutism

• implements policies of religious toleration, legal reforms (abolish torture)

• bureautic reform (cameralism)

Catherine II of Russia

• Married Peter III

• She planned for her husband to be murdered so she could take the crown

• continues to westernize Russia and paid Voltaire, import Western

• Legal reforms: limited religious toleration and abolished torture

• territorial expansion: partition of Poland (agreement to divide the entirety of POlish territory betweeen Austria, Prussia, and Russia

• limit of enlightenment

• Pugachev Rebellion: Emelian Pugachev rounded up serfs and declared himself Tsar of Russia and abolished serfdom, which results in his rebellion being crushed by Catherine’s noble army and Catherine lost all her incentive to want to abolish serfdom.

Joseph II of Austria

• signed edict of toleration which granted religious freedom for jews and other religious minorities.

• increased the freedom of the press

• put strictures on the power of the Catholic church

• UNFORTUNATELY, he enacted these acts without talking to the nobility or the clergy, making them mad. Leading to lots of domestical turmoil

Limits of Toleration: The Jews

• Jewish Enlightenment : Haskalah, arguing the widespread relious intolerance of the Jews was unfitting for the enlightened atmosphere in Europe

• Joseph II accepted Jews, but Frederick II and Catherine II rejected getting rid of anti-Jewish politics in their states, despite their religious tolerance

• For example, Catherine, after the gathering of Jews from the partition of poland, had isolated them in one area where they were required to live