Essential Question: How did the Enlightenment shape intellectual and ideological thinking affecting reform and revolution after 1750?
The Enlightenment, occurring in the 17th and 18th centuries, emphasized reason over tradition and individualism over community values.
These ideals challenged the roles of monarchs and church leaders.
Planted the seeds of revolution in the United States, France, and around the world.
An Age of New Ideas
Enlightenment thought grew out of the Scientific Revolution and Renaissance humanism.
Many believed applying reason to natural laws would result in progress.
While not denying God, they emphasized human accomplishments in understanding the natural world.
Natural laws governed social and political spheres.
Traditional religion became less pervasive.
New ideas emerged about how to improve society.
Schools of thought, including socialism and liberalism, arose, leading to the period being called "the Age of Isms."
Conservatism opposed socialism and liberalism, particularly among the European ruling class.
The clash between new ideas and old political structures led to revolutions with two aims: independence and constitutional representation.
The breakup of empires and emergence of new governments followed.
Nationalism, a feeling of intense loyalty to others who share one's language and culture, threatened Europe’s multiethnic empires.
New Ideas and Their Roots
In the 17th century, Francis Bacon emphasized empirical methods of scientific inquiry.
Empiricism: The belief that knowledge comes from sensed experience.
Bacon based conclusions on observation of natural data rather than tradition or religion.
Hobbes and Locke: Viewed political life as the result of a social contract.
Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651):
People's natural state was a bleak world; life was "nasty, brutish, and short."
By agreeing to a social contract, people gave up some rights to a strong central government for law and order.
John Locke (Two Treatises of Government, 1690):
The social contract implied the right of citizens to revolt against unjust government.
People had natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of property.
In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), Locke proposed that a child was born with a mind like a "blank slate” (tabula rasa) waiting to be filled with knowledge.
Emphasized environment and education in shaping people, radical for the time.
The Philosophes
In the 18th century, a new group of thinkers and writers called the philosophes explored social, political, and economic theories.
They popularized concepts that followed rationally from the scientific thinkers of the 17th century.
Philosophes included Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Adam Smith, and French thinkers.
Baron Montesquieu (The Spirit of Laws, 1748):
Praised the British government’s use of checks on power.
Influenced the American system by separating the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet):
Best known for his social satire Candide (1762).
Advocated for civil liberties.
Appreciated England's constitutional monarchy and civil rights.
Campaigned for religious liberty and judicial reform in France.
His idea of religious liberty influenced the U.S. Constitution.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau:
Expanded on the idea of the social contract.
Emile, or On Education (1762): Laid out ideas on child-rearing and education.
The Social Contract (1762): Presented the concept of the General Will of a population and the obligation of a sovereign to carry out that General Will.
Inspired many revolutionaries of the late 18th century.
Adam Smith:
In The Wealth of Nations (1776), Smith responded to mercantilism by calling for freer trade.
Advocated for laissez-faire, meaning governments should reduce their intervention in economic decisions.
Believed the "invisible hand" of the market would guide businesses and consumers to make choices beneficial for society.
His ideas provided a foundation for capitalism.
Capitalism: An economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for profit.
Deism:
The Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason led some thinkers to reexamine the relationship of humans to God.
Deism: The belief that a divinity simply set natural laws in motion.
Deists compared the divinity to a watchmaker.
Believed these laws could be best understood through scientific inquiry.
Many Deists viewed regular church attendance as an important social obligation.
Thomas Paine:
Militant in his defense of Deism in The Age of Reason (1794).
Common Sense (1776) advocated for liberty from Britain.
The Age of New Ideas Continues
Enlightenment thinkers reacted to social ills caused by increasing urbanization and industrialization.
Poverty in cities increased.
Poor workers lived in slums without proper sanitation and political representation.
Some wanted more government regulations and programs.
Many Christians called for greater private charity.
Some conservatives blamed the poor themselves.
Conservatism: A belief in traditional institutions, favoring reliance on practical experience over ideological theories.
Utopian Socialism:
Socialism: A system of public or direct worker ownership of the means of production.
Utopian socialists felt society could be channeled in positive directions by setting up ideal communities.
Henri de Saint-Simon:
Believed scientists and engineers, working with businesses, could operate clean, efficient places to work.
Advocated for public works.
Proposed building the Suez Canal.
Charles Fourier:
Identified 810 passions that, when encouraged, would make work more enjoyable.
Believed in harmonious living in communities rather than class struggle.
Robert Owen:
Established intentional communities in New Lanark, Scotland, and New Harmony, Indiana.
Believed in education for children who worked, communal ownership of property, and community rules.
Fabian Society:
Formed in England.
Gradual socialists favored reforming society by parliamentary means.
Writers H. G. Wells, Virginia Woolf, and George Bernard Shaw were prominent Fabians.
By the mid-20th century, socialist principles would influence most of Western Europe.
Classical Liberalism:
A belief in natural rights, constitutional government, laissez-faire economics, and reduced spending on armies and established churches.
Most classical liberals were professionals, writers, or academics.
In Britain, they pursued changes in Parliament.
Backed the Reform Bills of 1832, 1867, and 1884, all of which broadened male suffrage.
Feminism:
The movement for women's rights and equality based on Enlightenment ideas emerged.
Olympe de Gouges:
Fought for women's rights in the era of the French Revolution.
Published a "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the (Female) Citizen" in 1791.
Mary Wollstonecraft:
Published A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792.
Argued that females should receive the same education as males.
Her ultimate goal was for women to gain the same rights and abilities as men through the application of reason.
Women won the full right to vote in 1928.
Seneca Falls Convention (1848):
Activists gathered to promote women's rights and suffrage.
Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton declared, "All men and women are created equal."
They demanded women deserved the right to vote and hold office, hold property, and be the legal guardians of their children.
Abolitionism:
The movement to end the Atlantic slave trade and free all enslaved people gained followers in the 18th century.
Slave trading was banned earlier than slavery itself.
Denmark banned the slave trade in 1803, Great Britain in 1807, and the United States in 1808.
The last country in the Americas to end slavery was Brazil, in 1888.
The End of Serfdom:
Serfdom in Europe had been declining as the economy changed from agrarian to industrial.
Queen Elizabeth I abolished serfdom in 1574.
The French government abolished all feudal rights of the nobility in 1789.
Alexander II of Russia abolished serfdom in 1861.
The Russian emancipation of 23 million serfs was the largest single emancipation of people in bondage in human history.
Zionism:
The desire of Jews to reestablish an independent homeland in the Middle East.
After centuries of battling anti-Semitism and pogroms, many European Jews concluded that living in peace and security was not a realistic hope.
Theodor Herzl led the movement.
Support for Zionism increased after the Dreyfus Affair.
The Zionist movement grew in strength until 1948, when the modern country of Israel was founded.