The Enlightenment

• 17th and 18th centuries - humankind in relation to government

• Divine Right: church allied with strong monarchs, monarchs believed they were ordained by God to rule - people had moral/religious obligation too obey

  • Question of ultimate authority

  • Mandate of Heaven in China - had to rule justly to be appreciated in heaven

• Social contract: governments not formed by divine decree, but to meet social and economic needs

• Philosophers of the age:

  1. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): government should preserve peace/stability - all powerful rule who ruled heavy-handed

  2. John Locke (1632-1704): men are all born equal, mankind is good and rational - primary role of government was to secure and guarantee natural rights and revolting is justified if not

  3. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778): all men are equal, society organized according to general will of people - government is protection by community and both being free

  4. Voltaire (1694-1778): espoused idea of religious toleration

  5. Montesquieu (1689-1775): separation of powers among branches of government

  6. David Hume (1711-1776): lack of empirical evidence casts doubt on religion

  7. Adam Smith (1723-1790): an “invisible hand” will regulate economy if it is left alone

  8. Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797): women should have political rights, including voting and holding office

  9. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): knowledge exists beyond what is deduced from use of only observation or only reason

  10. Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794): criminals retain some rights and state should not practice cruel punishment

• Enlightened monarchs: utilized ideas of tolerance, justice, improving quality of life

• Neoclassical Period: middle of 18th century - imitated style of ancient Greek/Roman architecture

Enlightenment Revolutions in the Americas and Europe

American Revolution

• British defeated France over American territory - French and Indian War/Seven Years’ War - pushed France to northern territory

• Americans revolting against British rulership

• British passed laws on behalf of Crown for the American colonizers (George Grenville, Charles Townshend)

  • Revenue Act (1764), Stamp Act (1765), Tea Act (1773) intended to raise funds for British government

• Colonizers opposed these laws and began battling British troops shortly after - Boston Tea Party (1773): colonists dumping imported tea in harbour to protest Tea Act

• Thomas Paine: wrote Common Sense, encouraging colonizers to form a better government than the monarchy - 6 months later the Declaration of Independence was signed

• France joined forces with Americans in 1777 and defeated the British in 1781 and the American democracy was created

French Revolution

• France was running out of money from monarch spending, wars, and droughts - Louis XVI proposed raising taxes to the Estates-General (governing body infrequently called by the kings)

  1. First Estate: clergy

  2. Second Estate: noble families

  3. Third Estate: everyone else

  • Representatives from each estate

• Third Estate was facing being shut out of new constitution - formed National Assembly in 1789 out of protest and peasants stormed the Bastille shortly after

• Declaration of the Rights of Man - adopted by National Assembly in 1789 and caused big changes in French government structure

• Established a constitutional monarchy at first, but new constitution development led to the Convention being the new ruling body - France become a republic (led by Jacobins who later beheaded the king)

• Convention threw out constitution again and created Committee of Public Safety: enforcer of revolution and murdered any anti-revolution people

  • led by Maximilien Robespierre

• French beheaded Robespierre in 1795 and established another new constitution with the Directory as the government

  • Built up military, with Napoleon Bonaparte as one of the generals

• Napoleon overthrew the Directory in 1799 - Napoleonic Codes (1804) recognized equality of men, dissolved the Holy Roman Empire with French military and fought other countries who eventually met to overthrow him (Prince von Metternich, Alexander I of Russia, Duke of Wellington)

  • Defeated him at Waterloo in 1813 and met at Congress of Vienna to discuss what to do with France

• Congress of Vienna:

  • Balance of power should be maintained among powers of Europe

  • Tried to erase French Revolution

Haiti:

• France enslaved many Haitians, who eventually revolted successfully, led by Pierre Toussaint L’Ouverture

  • Jacques Dessalines, a former slave, became governor-general in 1804

South America

• Napoleon invaded Spain and appointed his brother Joseph Bonaparte to the throne -

  • Colonists ejected French governor and appointed own leader in Venezuela, Simón Bolívar, who eventually helped them declare independence from Spain in 1811

• Established a national congress, but was also opposed by Spanish royalists, who declared a civil war

• Bolívar won freedom for Gran Colombia (Columbia, Ecuador, Venezuela)

• José de San Martin: took command of Argentinian, Chilean, Peruvian armies, and defeated many Spanish forces to also declare independence from Spain

Brazil

• John VI of Portugal fled to Brazil when Napoleon invaded Portugal -

  • His son Pedro became the emperor of Brazil and declared it independent with a constitution

    • His son Pedro II took over and abolished slavery

Mexico

• priest Miguel Hidalgo led a revolt against Spanish rule in 1810, who was later killed by them

  • Jose Morelos picked up where he left off

• Independence achieved in 1821 - Treaty of Cordoba: Spain recognizing their 300-year-old control of Latin America was ending

• Neocolonialism: independent nations still controlled by economic and political interests

  • Riches accumulated often stayed within wealthy landowning class

  • Mexican Revolution: protest of neocolonialism - rejection of Porfirio Diaz’s dictatorship to protest impoverished conditions

Other resistance movements:

1. Peru

   • Tupac Amaru II led a revolt against Spanish occupiers and inspired further resistance movements

2. West Africa

   • Samory Toure led resistance against French colonizers and inspired further resistance

3. US

   • Sioux resisted the US government invading their land, but were shot at during their protests

4. Sudan

   • Muhammad Ahdam led Mahadists in a revolt against colonial rule of Egypt but was stopped by the British

• Slavery still existed in independent nations as well as class inequalities

• Catholic Church still dominated

Comparison of Independence Movements

Industry and Imperialism

• Industrial revolution in Britain can not be separated from Imperialism

• Industrial countries gained power quickly to exploit colony resources

• Industrial Revolution: began in Britain in 19th century - spread through Europe, Japan, US

• Agricultural output increased significantly again - more people moved to cities

  • Enclosure: public lands that were shared for farming became enclosed by fences

  • New farming technologies

  • Urbanization was natural - London grew to over 6 million people

• Domestic system (most work being done on farms or at home or at small shops) preceded

• New advancements that changed production:

  1. Flying shuttle: sped up waving process

  2. Spinning jenny: spinning vast amounts of thread

  3. Cotton gin: invented by Eli Whitney - processed massive amounts of cotton quickly

  4. Steam engine - Thomas Newcomer, James Watt

  5. Steamship - Robert Fulton

  6. Steam-powered Locomotive - George Stephenson

  7. Telegraph: communication with great distances in seconds

  8. Telephone - Alexander Graham Bell

  9. Lightbulb

  10. Internal Combustion Engine for cars

  11. Radio

• Also major developments in medicine and science, theory of natural selection (Charles Darwin)

• Rapid creation of products was done in factories

  • Interchangeable parts: machines could be replaces or fixed quickly

  • Assembly line: each worker had one small part in production - man became the machine

  • Workers were overworked, underpaid, and working in unsafe conditions - child labour was common

  • Despairing conditions

• Formation of new social classes - aristocrats were those rich from industrial success, middle class of skilled professionals, huge working class

• Adam Smith: success achieved through private ownership and free market system (capitalism) - governments removed from regulation = laissez-faire capitalism

  • Start of stock market and other financial instruments

• Karl Marx: The Communist Manifesto - working class take over means of production and all resources would be equally - Marxism was foundation for socialism and communism

  • Luddites: workers who destroyed equipment in middle of night to protest working conditions

  • Marxism mixed with capitalist thought to create partly socialist systems in many places

• Major split among intellectuals and policymakers in regards to response to inhumane factory conditions

• Factory Act of 1883: limited hours of each workday, restricted children from working, factory owners had to make conditions safer

  • Labour Unions: vehicles for employees to bargain for better conditions

  • Living conditions improved - middle class became larger, public education increased, social mobility became more common

  • Slave trade abolished in 1807 in Britain

  • Women became more limited to their traditional roles

Nationalist Movements and Other Developments

• Nationalism was strong after Napoleonic era

• France, Spain, Portugal, Britain, Russia had unified

• Italy and Germany, which were city-states took longer to unify and alter balance of European power

  • Italy: Count Camillo Cavour named prime minister of Sardinia by Victor Emmanuel II who pushed for nationalism - after Giuseppe Garibaldi, another nationalist overthrew other Italian kingdoms, a lot of Italy was unified in 1861

  • Germany: Prussia, which controlled a lot of present-day Germany, under the rule of William I who appointed Otto von Bismarck as prime minister, defeated Austria and engaged in the Franco-Prussian War to create the new German Empire

    • New emperor William II forced Bismarck to resign and built a huge military force

• Other Nationalist Movements:

  

• Russia:

  • Romanov czars had absolute power in 19th century

  • Alexander II began reforms - Emancipation Edict: abolished serfdom but had little effect

  • Small middle class began to emerge which led to an intellectual political group The People’s Will assassinating Alexander II

  • In response, Alexander III started Russification: all had to learn the Russian language and convert to Russian Orthodoxy

• Ottoman Empire: was at danger of collapse so Britain and France worked to maintain it to prevent Russia from gaining control over Mediterranean

The Growth of Nationalism

• Desire of people of common cultural heritage to form independent nation-state/empires that protects their cultural identity

• Had major influence and effects all over the world