Constitutionalism and Absolutism (A History of Western Society)

  • 1492: Columbus reaches the Americas.

  • 1518: Spanish king authorizes slavery in the colonies.

  • 1602: Dutch East India Company established

  • Financial incentives: Wealth in spices and minerals; rising population post-Black Death increased demand

  • Religious incentives: Crusading spirit from the Reconquista inspired conquest and colonization

  • Caravel: Small, maneuverable Portuguese ships ideal for exploration 

  • Ptolemy’s Geography: 2nd-Century map with latitude and longitude, revived in ~1410, improved European maps.

  • Technological innovations: Caravel, astrolabe, gunpowder, astronomical knowledge, advanced maps.

  • Prince Henry (Portugal): Supported voyages, conquest of Ceuta (1415).

  • Portuguese trading posts: West coast of Africa; controlled Asian trade.

  • Portuguese vs. Spanish: Portuguese focused on trade; Spanish aimed to conquer and control.

  • 1493: Columbus’s second voyage included colonists, livestock, and crops; established Hispañola as a gold-mining hub.

  • Amerigo Vespucci: Realized Columbus had discovered a new continent.

  • Treaty of Tordesillas (1494): Divided lands between Spain (west) and Portugal (east).

  • Ferdinand Magellan: Circumnavigated the globe (1519).

  • Encomienda system: Spanish forced Native labor in exchange for food, shelter, and Christianity.

  • New Laws (1542): Tried to protect indigenous people; largely ineffective.

  • Women in colonies: Translators, nuns, missionaries, cultural intermediaries.

  • Columbian Exchange: Trade of raw materials, goods, and enslaved people among Americas, Europe, and Africa.

  • Impact on Natives: Many killed by disease or colonial violence.

  • Sugar and slavery: Labor-intensive crop; enslaved people cultivated it for European demand.

  • American silver: Financed Spanish empire; caused inflation and economic turmoil under Philip II.

  • Indigenous religions: Suppressed through persecution, shrine destruction, forced conversion.

  • Bartolomé de las Casas: Dominican friar who opposed Native brutality; famous for the 1550 Valladolid debate.

  • Race: Shifted to focus on skin color as a tool for subjugation.

  • Skepticism: Montaigne’s philosophy questioning absolute knowledge.

  • Montaigne: French author, essay pioneer, supported cultural relativism.

  • Ivan the Terrible's rule: 1533–1584.

  • Time of Troubles (Russia): 1598–1613.

  • English Civil War: 1642–1649.

  • Louis XIV moves to Versailles: 1682.

  • Cromwell's Protectorate: 1653–1658.

  • Edict of Nantes revoked: 1685.

  • Glorious Revolution (England): 1688–1689.

  • Shakespeare and race: Plays introduced African characters, promoting the idea of shared humanity.

  • English monarchy restored: 1660, under Charles II.

Thirty Years' War (1618–1648):

  • Cause: Ferdinand II's efforts to Catholicize Protestant Bohemia led to the Defenestration of Prague (1618).

  • Czech leader: Frederick V of the Palatinate.

  • First major battle: Battle of White Mountain (1620) – Protestants defeated.

  • Protestant allies: Swedish King Christian IV joined after initial Protestant losses.

  • Ferdinand II's ally: Albrecht von Wallenstein.

  • Edict of Restitution (1629): Re-Catholicize conquered lands.

  • End of the war: Peace of Westphalia (1648).

Consequences of Peace of Westphalia:

  • The Holy Roman Empire dissolved.

  • Habsburg power weakened.

  • Germany fell into feudalism and lost land.

  • Staatensystem: Established autonomous states free of church control.

  • Wars of religion ended; church power diminished.

Decline of Absolutist Spain (1610–1690):

  • Inflation, Dutch competition, declining agriculture, workforce loss (Moriscos expelled in 1609), 30 Years' War costs, Portugal's independence (1688).

France's Path to Absolutism:

  • Cardinal Richelieu: Strengthened monarchy under Louis XIII by reducing noble power and independently enforcing taxes and laws.

  • Protestants: Richelieu stripped them of power.

  • Fronde (1648–1653): Tax and control protests ended with Louis XIV's rise.

  • French in 30 Years' War: Financially supported Protestants (like Sweden) to weaken the Habsburgs.

  • Cardinal Jules Mazarin: Took over administration for young Louis XIV (1643).

  • Divine Right of Kings: Belief that kings derive power from God and answer to no one else.

  • Louis XIV's total control: Avoided delegating to a first minister, appointed modestly born ministers, and never convened the Estates General.

  • Louis XIV and Protestants: Suppressed Protestants; revoked Edict of Nantes (1685), destroyed churches, forced conversions, or exile.

  • Versailles: Helped Louis XIV monitor and control nobles through rituals and loyalty tests.

Louis XIV's Military and Wars:

  • Military transformation: Standardized practices, tripled army size, frequent campaigns (successful in the 1660s–70s, less so in the 1680s–90s).

  • War of Spanish Succession (1701–1713): Began when Louis refused to divide Spain; ended with the Peace of Utrecht, allowing his grandson to remain Spain's king under the condition that France and Spain never unite.

  • Louis XIV's legacy: Left France weakened and near bankruptcy (1715).

Economic Policies:

  • Mercantilism: Policies to boost trade, benefiting merchants and increasing national wealth.

  • Jean-Baptiste Colbert: Applied mercantilism to France (1665).

Serfdom in Europe:

  • Western Europe: Abandoned serfdom after the Black Death.

  • Eastern Europe: Strengthened serfdom, worsening conditions for serfs.




Habsburgs:

  • Ferdinand II (Post-30 Years' War): Stripped power from Protestant nobles in Bohemia, replacing them with loyal Catholic nobles. By 1650, Bohemia was firmly under Habsburg Catholic control.

  • Ferdinand III: Consolidated German-speaking territories and built a centralized army, pushing the Ottomans out of Hungary (starting 1683).

  • Hungary and Habsburgs: Repeated rebellions, with the last in 1703 (Spanish War of Succession), forced Habsburgs to restore Hungarian aristocratic rights. Hungary never became an absolutist Habsburg state.

Prussia:

  • Frederick William (The Great Elector): United Brandenburg and Prussia under absolutist rule by convincing Junkers (nobles) to allow independent taxation (1660).

  • Junkers: Brandenburg-Prussian noblemen who reluctantly allied with Frederick William.

  • Frederick I: First King in Prussia (1701).

  • Frederick I's nickname: "Soldiers' King" – focused on expanding the army, introduced mandatory conscription, and embedded military culture throughout Prussia.

Russia:

  • Ivan III (Ivan the Great): Expanded Russian borders to the Baltic Sea and Ural Mountains, gained independence from Mongols (1480), and used Mongol systems like taxation to weaken rivals.

  • Boyars: Russian nobility and aristocracy.

  • Russian legitimacy: Claimed to protect Christian Orthodoxy after Constantinople's fall (1453); Ivan III solidified this by marrying a Byzantine emperor's niece.

  • Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible): Became Tsar at age 16 (1533). After his wife’s death, he persecuted and executed boyar families suspected of disloyalty.

Russian Society and Expansion:

  • Cossacks: Runaway serfs formed outlaw armies on Russian Empire borders.

  • Ivan IV and Cossacks: Tied serfs more permanently to land, later allied with Cossacks as mercenaries (e.g., conquest of Siberia in the 1580s).

  • Expansion under Ivan IV: Conquered Muslim Khanates, secured the Volga River (1550s), and began Siberian conquest.





Russian History:

  • Time of Troubles (1598-1613): A chaotic period after Ivan IV's death where a third of the population died due to political, social, and military upheavals.

  • End of Time of Troubles: Election of Michael Romanov reestablished the hereditary Tsarist line (1613).

  • Romanov Changes: Conquered western Ukraine (1667), completed Siberian conquest, and expanded serfdom across the empire.

Peter the Great:

  • Rise to Power: 1682.

  • Early Goal: Gain access to the Black Sea, achieved by conquering an Ottoman fort (1696).

  • Westernization Efforts: Traveled to Europe in 1697, bringing back political, military, and cultural knowledge.

  • Great Northern War (1700-1721):

    • Fought against Sweden for Baltic access.

    • Initially defeated but reformed the army, bureaucracy, and education.

    • Victory at Poltava (1709) and decisive wins (1721) gained Estonia and Latvia.

  • Celebration of Victory: Built St. Petersburg using unpaid labor and funds from nobles.

  • Cultural Reforms: Enforced Western clothing, beard shaving, and social mingling at parties.

Ottoman Empire:

  • Land Ownership: Sultan owned most land, simplifying politics of inheritance.

  • Janissary Corps: Elite army of Christian slaves trained to serve the Sultan; by the 1650s, it became prestigious and voluntary.

  • Millet System: Allowed religious communities (Christian, Muslim, Jewish) autonomy within the empire.

  • Preparation of Heirs: Heirs ruled small sections of the empire to gain governing experience.

English Constitutionalism and Conflict:

  • Constitutionalism: A government where power is balanced by law between authority and citizens' rights.

  • Republicanism: A government without a monarch, where power resides with elected representatives.

  • James I (1603): Believed in divine rights of kings, rejecting parliamentary challenges.

  • Charles I (1625):

    • Alienated people by marrying a Catholic princess and refusing to call Parliament (1629-1640).

    • Funded himself through illegal stopgap levies.

    • Called Parliament in 1640 due to a Scottish revolt.

  • Triennial Act (1641): Required the king to call Parliament at least once every three years.

English and Dutch History:

  • Irish Rebellion Significance: Increased pressure on Charles I, leading him to arrest members of Parliament.

  • Main Factions in the English Civil War: The Parliamentarians (Roundheads) vs. the Royalists (Cavaliers).

  • Decisive Battle: The Battle of Naseby (1645), which cemented the Parliamentarians' victory.

  • Charles I After Defeat: Captured in 1648 and beheaded in 1649.

  • Oliver Cromwell: Leader of the Puritan Protectorate (1649-58), which was effectively a military dictatorship.

  • Mercantilism under Cromwell: Implemented the Navigation Act (1651) requiring English goods to be transported on English or friendly ships.

  • Collapse of the Puritan Protectorate: Began with Cromwell's death in 1658 and ended in 1660 with the restoration of the monarchy.

  • Restoration of the English Monarchy: Charles II restored to the throne in 1660 after the Protectorate ended.

  • Charles II's Challenges: Failed to resolve issues with religious dissenters (Puritans, Catholics, etc.) and the relationship between the king and Parliament.

  • The Test Act (1673): Denied religious dissidents the right to hold public office or attend university.

  • Charles II's Agreement with Louis XIV: Entered into a deal for financial support in exchange for relaxing anti-Catholic laws, which led to anti-Catholic sentiment.

  • Succession: James II (1685) succeeded Charles II.

  • Glorious Revolution (1688): Opposition to James II invited William of Orange and Mary (James's daughter) to take the throne. By 1691, they had secured their rule, and the victory was official.

  • Bill of Rights (1689): Established constitutional limits on the monarchy's powers.

Dutch History:

  • Independence (1648): The Dutch Republic gained independence with the Peace of Westphalia.

  • Dutch Government: A republic where power was exercised by elected representatives with provincial autonomy.

  • Economic Wealth in the 17th Century: Controlled European shipping with cheaper rates, wealth from overseas colonies, and a center of money minting.

  • Hereditary Republic (1673): In response to French advances, William of Orange was elected as Stadholder of all seven provinces, effectively becoming the ruler. This consolidation allowed them to defend against French expansion.

  • Suppression of French Domination: The Netherlands, under William of Orange, played a key role in stopping French advances in the late 17th century. His becoming king of England in 1689 added further pressure on France.

Scientific Revolution:

  • Muslim Scholars: Reintroduced classical scientific texts to European society in the 1400s.

  • Thomas Aquinas: Harmonized Aristotle's ideas with Christian theology in the 13th century.

  • Nicolaus Copernicus: Formulated the heliocentric model of the universe in his book On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres (1543).

  • Tycho Brahe: First astronomer to observe an exploding star (1572), challenging the permanence of the universe.

  • Johannes Kepler: Published detailed calculations of planetary movements in Rudolphine Tables (1627).

  • Galileo Galilei: Known for the Law of Inertia and his observations of motion.

  • Isaac Newton: Wrote Principia Mathematica explaining the Law of Universal Gravitation.

  • Francis Bacon: Pioneered the scientific method and inductive reasoning, known as empiricism.

  • René Descartes: Bridged algebra and geometry, proposed Cartesian dualism (reality reduced to mind and matter), and tried to explain the world mathematically.


Scientific and Enlightenment Figures:

  • Paracelsus: The first to propose that illness could be caused by chemical interactions, not just imbalances in humors.

  • William Harvey: Discovered the circulation of blood (1628).

  • Robert Boyle: Developed Boyle's Law, which governs the pressure of gases (1662).

  • Andreas Vesalius: Dissected human bodies and published On the Structure of the Human Body (1543), the first comprehensive guide to human anatomy.

  • Rationalism: A secular, critical way of thinking that rejects faith and emphasizes reason.

  • Pierre Bayle: An Enlightenment philosopher who, in Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697), concluded that nothing can be completely known.

  • Baruch Spinoza: A Dutch Jewish philosopher who applied natural philosophy to human society, believed in monism, and was expelled from the Amsterdam Jewish community for his views on a deterministic universe.

  • Leibniz: A German mathematician who believed we lived in the best of all possible worlds because it was created by God, as expressed in Theodicy (1710).

  • John Locke: Believed that all human knowledge comes from experience and was a pioneer of sensationalism. His ideas are outlined in Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690).

  • Philosophes: A group of French intellectuals who proclaimed they were bringing knowledge to their fellow humans during the Age of Enlightenment.

  • Montesquieu: Author of Persian Letters (1721) and The Spirit of Laws (1748), where he argued that forms of government are shaped by history and geography.

  • Voltaire: Known for his many philosophical works and belief in Deism, the idea of a distant, non-interventionist deity.

  • The 17-volume Encyclopedia: A significant achievement of the Philosophes, compiling Enlightenment beliefs into one comprehensive work (1766).

  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Believed in the basic goodness of the individual and argued for the protection of the unspoiled child from the corrupting influences of civilization. His ideas are outlined in The Social Contract (1762).

  • Scottish Enlightenment: Emphasized common sense and scientific reasoning.

  • David Hume: A central figure of the Scottish Enlightenment who believed that the human mind is made up of sensory impressions.

  • Adam Smith: A central figure of the Scottish Enlightenment who believed feelings were paramount and argued for minimal trade restrictions in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776).

  • Sensibility: A philosophical idea explaining human emotions as the brain's reaction to outside stimuli.

  • Immanuel Kant: Credited as the greatest German philosopher of his time; his motto was "Have the courage to use your own understanding." Kant also pioneered German Idealism, the belief that a gap exists between reality and perception within a shared (divine) framework.

  • Cesare Beccaria: The Enlightenment philosopher who wrote On Crimes and Punishment (1764), advocating for penal system reform.

  • The Enlightenment: An influential intellectual and cultural movement of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries based on reason, the scientific method, and progress.

  • Carl Linnaeus: The man who wrote The System of Nature (1735), where he organized nature into a God-given hierarchy.

  • Ideas about Race during the Enlightenment: Some thinkers, like Linnaeus or Kant, viewed White Europeans as the "dominant" race, while others like Montesquieu or Beattie advocated for more racial equality.

  • Mary Astell: An Enlightenment thinker who advocated for women's rights to education and the dissolution of marriage.


Key Aspects of the Enlightenment and Gender Equality:

  • Enlightenment Period: The Enlightenment spanned roughly from the 1650s to 1789. It was a time of intellectual flourishing that emphasized reason, individualism, and the questioning of traditional authorities.

  • Salons: Salons were regular social gatherings organized by wealthy and talented Parisian women, which served as informal forums for discussing literature, science, and philosophy. These gatherings helped to shape Enlightenment ideas and facilitated the exchange of intellectual thought.

  • Rococo Art: Rococo art emerged in the early 18th century in Europe. It was characterized by soft pastel colors, intricate ornamental details, asymmetrical patterns, and themes centered around pleasure, sensuality, and the aristocratic lifestyle. It often reflected the lighter, more decorative side of the Enlightenment period.

  • Ideas of Gender Equality during the Enlightenment:

    • The "Argument about Women" or "querrel des femmes" became a prominent discussion during this period. Thinkers like Mary Astell advocated for women's rights to education and broader social freedoms, challenging the traditional subordination of women.

On the other hand, thinkers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau propagated more conservative views, arguing that women should focus on domestic roles and motherhood, reinforcing traditional gender norms.