Toward a New Worldview: The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment (1540–1789)

Major Breakthroughs of the Scientific Revolution (1540–1789)

Scientific Thought in 1500
- Natural Philosophy: The systematic study of the physical universe, its origins, structure, and functional operations. Prior to the Scientific Revolution, natural philosophy was fundamentally theoretical rather than experimental, relying on classical texts and religious doctrine to explain cosmic mechanics.
- Aristotelian Cosmology: Rooted in the fourth-century BCE physics of Aristotle, this model envisioned a motionless Earth fixed at the absolute center of the universe. The Earth was encircled by ten transparent, concentric crystal spheres:
  - The first eight spheres embedded the Moon, the Sun, the five known planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), and the fixed stars.
  - The two outermost spheres accounted for slight shifts in celestial positions and the passage of time.
  - Beyond the tenth sphere lay the Empyrean Heaven, the dwelling place of God and saved souls.
  - Aristotle posited a fundamental divide between the sublunary world (the earthly realm below the Moon) and the superlunary world (the celestial realm):
    - The Sublunary Realm: Characterized by imperfection, decay, and change; composed of four terrestrial elements: Earth and Water (which possess natural heaviness and move downward toward the center of the universe) alongside Air and Fire (which possess natural lightness and move upward away from the center).
    - The Superlunary Realm: Characterized by perfection, incorruptibility, and eternal circular movement; composed of a fifth quintessence or celestial ether.
- Ptolemaic System: Developed by the second-century CE Greco-Egyptian astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, this mathematical model preserved the geocentric worldview while attempting to account for observable astronomical anomalies, notably apparent planetary retrograde motion.
  - Planets were argued to move along small circles called epicycles, the centers of which traveled along larger circular orbits known as deferents around the Earth.
  - The Ptolemaic system offered complex mathematical calculations that allowed astronomers to predict celestial movements with relative accuracy, reinforcing its acceptance by Christian theologians.
- Scientific Consensus and "The Great Chain of Being":
  - Medieval and Renaissance scholastic thought harmonized classical cosmology with Christian theology.
  - The universe was structured according to "The Great Chain of Being," a strict, divinely ordained hierarchical continuum descending from God, through archangels and angels, down to human beings, animals, plants, and inanimate mineral matter.
  - This theological cosmology provided humanity with a clear, exalted teleological role at the physical and spiritual center of creation.
Origins of the Scientific Revolution
- Medieval Universities: By the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, European universities established chairs in natural philosophy within their faculties of arts, institutionalizing mathematical and philosophical inquiry independent of pure theology.
- The Renaissance: Humanist scholars recovered and translated lost classical Greek texts, discovering ancient mathematicians and astronomers (such as Archimedes, Hero, and Aristarchus) whose theories disputed Aristotle and Ptolemy. Renaissance patrons also financed practical scientific inquiry and technological advancement.
- Navigation and Oceanic Exploration: The expansion of transoceanic commerce created urgent demands for precise navigational instruments, including the magnetic compass, quadrant, astrolabe, and accurate charts, forcing practical collaboration between craftspeople, merchants, and academic theoreticians.
- Astrology and Alchemy: Practitioners sought hidden forces in nature (Hermeticism and occult traditions). Alchemical experimentation and astrological charting laid crucial empirical groundwork for modern chemistry and observational astronomy by advancing the belief that mysterious physical laws could be deciphered and controlled.
The Copernican Hypothesis
- Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543): A Polish canon and mathematician who studied at Krakow, Bologna, Padua, and Ferrara. Skeptical of Ptolemy's unwieldy epicycles, Copernicus sought an elegant, mathematically harmonious cosmic order.
- The Heliocentric Model: Published posthumously in 1543 in On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (De revolutionibus orbium coelestium):
  - Placed the Sun at the center of the universe, with the Earth, planets, and fixed stars revolving around it.
  - Maintained that the Earth's daily rotation on its axis created the illusion of the daily movement of the Sun and stars.
  - Concluded that the annual revolution of the Earth around the Sun accounted for the apparent annual movement of the heavens.
- Revolutionary Implications:
  - Destroyed the basic premise of Aristotelian physics by demonstrating that the Earth was just another planet, stripping away the absolute distinction between earthly and celestial matter.
  - Implied that the universe was unimaginably vast, if not infinite, because the apparent fixed positions of distant stars required immense distance.
  - Deprived humanity of its central location within God's physical universe, provoking profound theological anxiety about the spatial location of Heaven and the throne of God.
Observational and Mathematical Confirmation: Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo
- Tycho Brahe (1546–1601):
  - A Danish nobleman who established the state-of-the-art Uraniborg observatory on the island of Hven with royal Danish patronage.
  - Compiled decades of meticulous, naked-eye observations of planetary movements, measuring celestial positions with unprecedented quantitative precision.
  - Proposed a hybrid geo-heliocentric system (the Tychonic system): all planets except Earth revolved around the Sun, while the Sun and Moon revolved around a stationary central Earth.
- Johannes Kepler (1571–1630):
  - Brahe's German assistant and a brilliant mathematician who analyzed Brahe's massive observational data, particularly on the orbit of Mars.
  - Formulated the Three Laws of Planetary Motion:
    1. First Law (1609): Planetary orbits are elliptical rather than circular, with the Sun situated at one focus ( $r = \frac{p}{1 + e \cos(\theta)}$ ).
    2. Second Law (1609): Planets do not move at uniform speeds; a line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time ( $\frac{dA}{dt} = \text{constant}$ , moving faster when closer to the Sun).
    3. Third Law (1619): The square of the orbital period ( $T$ ) of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis ( $a$ ) of its orbit ( $T^2 \propto a^3$ ).
  - Demolished Aristotle and Ptolemy's core assumption of uniform circular motion while mathematically proving heliocentrism.
- Galileo Galilei (1564–1642):
  - Florentine polymath who pioneered the modern experimental method and applied telescopic observation to natural philosophy.
  - Constructed an improved 30-power telescope in 1609, discovering craters and jagged mountains on the Moon, the four largest moons of Jupiter (the Medicean stars), phases of Venus, and sunspots—proving that celestial bodies were not smooth, perfect, or unblemished.
  - Formulated the Law of Inertia: an object remains at rest or in uniform motion unless acted upon by an external force, dismantling the Aristotelian theory that an object requires a continuous applied force to remain in motion.
  - Demonstrated that falling bodies accelerate uniformly regardless of their mass ( $v = g t$ ; $s = \frac{1}{2} g t^2$ ).
- Conflict with the Catholic Church:
  - In 1616, the Holy Office placed Copernican theory on the Index of Forbidden Books, warning Galileo to abandon it.
  - In 1632, Galileo published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, openly mocking Aristotelian defenders (via the character Simplicio) and validating Copernicus.
  - The Papal Inquisition brought Galileo to trial in 1633; he was forced to recant his heliocentric conclusions and spent the remainder of his life under house arrest near Florence.
Newton’s Synthesis
- Isaac Newton (1642–1727): English physicist and mathematician who synthesized the astronomy of Copernicus and Kepler with the mechanics of Galileo.
- Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, 1687):
  - Introduced the three universal laws of motion: inertia, acceleration ( $F = m a$ ), and reciprocal action ( $F_{\text{action}} = -F_{\text{reaction}}$ ).
  - Formulated the Law of Universal Gravitation: every mass attracts every other mass in the universe with a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them: $F = G \frac{m_1 m_2}{r^2}$
  - Demonstrated that a single set of universal mathematical equations governs terrestrial and celestial mechanics alike, transforming the perception of the cosmos into a rational, predictable, and mechanical system.

Important Changes in Scientific Thinking, Methods, and Institutions

Bacon, Descartes, and the Scientific Method
- Francis Bacon (1561–1626):
  - English lord chancellor and essayist who championed empiricism and inductive reasoning (Novum Organum, 1620).
  - Rejected scholastic reliance on ancient deductive syllogisms, arguing that scientists must collect empirical observations, run controlled experiments, and infer general axioms from observed data.
  - Advocated practical, technological applications of knowledge to improve human welfare and control the physical environment ("Knowledge is power").
- René Descartes (1596–1650):
  - French mathematician and philosopher who developed analytical geometry, connecting algebra and geometry through coordinate systems.
  - Promoted rationalism and systematic deductive reasoning from self-evident axioms, expressed through radical methodological doubt in Discourse on the Method (1637).
  - Famous maxim: "Cogito, ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am"), identifying consciousness as the ultimate indubitable foundation of knowledge.
- Cartesian Dualism:
  - Divided all existing reality into two distinct ontological categories:
    1. Res cogitans (thinking substance/mind): immaterial, unextended, immortal human intellect and soul.
    2. Res extensa (extended substance/matter): physical matter operating mechanically according to universal, mathematically definable physical laws.
  - Stripped physical nature of spiritual agency, viewing the material world as a vast mechanical machine that could be analyzed and mastered.
Medicine, the Human Body, and Chemistry
- Paracelsus (Philippus von Hohenheim, 1493–1541):
  - Swiss physician and alchemist who rejected Galen's ancient humoral balance theory.
  - Pioneered chemical remedies and toxicology, demonstrating that sickness was caused by chemical imbalances in specific organs rather than humors throughout the whole body.
  - Articulated the core principle of pharmacology: the difference between a poison and a medicine is determined by the dosage.
- Andreas Vesalius (1516–1564):
  - Flemish physician who reformed human anatomy by performing dissections on executed criminals.
  - Published On the Fabric of the Human Body (De humani corporis fabrica, 1543), containing 200 detailed anatomical illustrations that corrected centuries-old errors stemming from Galen’s reliance on animal dissections.
- William Harvey (1578–1657):
  - English physician who published On the Motion of the Heart and Blood (De motu cordis, 1628).
  - Discovered the systematic circulation of blood pumped through arteries and returned via veins, proving the heart acts as a mechanical pump with one-way valves.
- Robert Boyle (1627–1691):
  - Irish natural philosopher who helped establish experimental chemistry and co-founded the Royal Society of London.
  - Formulated Boyle’s Law: the volume of a gas varies inversely with its applied pressure at a constant temperature ( $P_1 V_1 = P_2 V_2$ or $P \propto \frac{1}{V}$ ).
  - Rejected the Aristotelian theory of four elements, positing that matter consists of small particles ("corpuscles") that assemble in varying configurations to form compounds.
Empire and Natural History
- Discoveries in the New World:
  - European overseas conquests exposed natural philosophers to thousands of previously unknown plant and animal species, invalidating classical natural histories by Pliny and Aristotle.
  - Global trade facilitated the introduction of novel agricultural and pharmacological resources into Europe, including cinchona bark (quinine for treating malaria), tobacco, potatoes, maize, and cacao.
- Scientific Expeditions: European monarchies and colonial companies sponsored state-financed expeditions to map territories, measure navigational latitudes/longitudes, and collect exotic specimens across the Americas, Asia, and Africa.
- Institutional Science Back Home: European states constructed royal botanical gardens (e.g., Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, Jardin des Plantes in Paris), natural history cabinets, and natural history collections to categorize flora and fauna, transforming natural history into a state-sponsored enterprise.
Science and Society
- Rise of the International Scientific Community:
  - Scientific academies emerged with state support, including the Royal Society of London (1660) and the French Académie des Sciences (1666).
  - These bodies established scholarly journals (Philosophical Transactions, Journal des sçavans) to standardize peer review, disseminate findings, and create an international "Republic of Letters."
  - Rulers sponsored scientific societies to enhance national prestige, secure technological advantages in weaponry, and improve commercial navigation.
- Gender and Science:
  - Women were broadly barred from European universities, academies, and royal learned societies.
  - Elite noblewomen participated informally as patrons, correspondents, and salon hosts (such as Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, who wrote natural philosophical treatises and engaged with the Royal Society).
  - Artisan women in craft-based workshops made crucial scientific contributions, particularly in Germany, where women worked in observational astronomy and scientific illustration.
  - Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717): Entomologist and botanical artist who traveled to Dutch Suriname in 1699 to document insect life cycles, publishing Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (1705), which provided foundational empirical documentation of insect metamorphosis.

Metamorphoses of the Caterpillar and Moth by Maria Sibylla Merian

The Enlightenment: Intellectual Foundations and the Philosophes

The Emergence of the Enlightenment
- The Enlightenment Generation: A movement spanning the late seventeenth to the late eighteenth century that applied the rationalist, empirical methods of the Scientific Revolution to human society, politics, economics, and ethics.
- Pierre Bayle (1647–1706):
  - French Huguenot refugee living in the Dutch Republic who published the Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697).
  - Championed radical philosophical skepticism, arguing that human knowledge is flawed, that moral virtue is independent of religious faith, and that absolute religious toleration is imperative.
- Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677):
  - Dutch-Jewish philosopher excommunicated by the Amsterdam synagogue for heretical views.
  - Developed monism (pantheism), arguing that mind and matter are unified into a single infinite substance: God and Nature are identical (Deus sive Natura).
  - Advocated a deterministic model of human action, denying human free will and viewing moral laws as natural necessities rather than divine mandates.
- John Locke (1632–1704):
  - Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690): Rejected Cartesian innate ideas; posited that the human mind begins as a tabula rasa (blank slate). All ideas and knowledge derive directly from sensory perception and empirical reflection. Environment and education shape human character.
  - Two Treatises of Government (1689): Articulated the liberal theory of political society. Individuals possess inalienable natural rights to life, liberty, and property. Governments are instituted via a voluntary social contract to protect these rights; if a ruler becomes tyrannical and violates the contract, citizens have a legal right of rebellion.
The Influence of the Philosophes
- Philosophes: The intellectual public figures of the eighteenth century who popularized Enlightenment ideas across Europe. Writing for educated lay publics, they deployed essays, novels, plays, histories, and satires to criticize societal abuses and promote rational reform.
- Baron de Montesquieu (Charles-Louis de Secondat, 1689–1755):
  - The Persian Letters (1721): Satirized French absolute monarchy, clerical tyranny, and social hypocrisy through letters exchanged between two fictional Persian travelers (Usbek and Rica).
  - The Spirit of the Laws (1748): Pioneered comparative political sociology, arguing that governments are shaped by geography, history, and customs. Categorized governments into republics, monarchies, and despotisms.
  - Formulated the principle of the separation of powers among executive, legislative, and judicial branches, with institutional checks and balances to prevent tyranny.
- Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet, 1694–1778):
  - Prolific French satirist, dramatist, and historian exiled to England in the 1720s; praised English constitutionalism, religious tolerance, and scientific culture in Letters on the English (1733).
  - Longtime collaborator and companion of the French natural philosopher Émilie du Châtelet, who translated Newton’s Principia into French.
  - Fierce critic of religious fanaticism, clerical corruption, and judicial injustice (exemplified by his defense of the tortured Protestant Jean Calas).
  - Advocated Deism: a rational theology positing God as a supreme divine clockmaker who designed the cosmos according to natural laws but does not intervene through miracles or revelation.
  - Rallied against institutional religious hypocrisy with the famous slogan: "Écrasez l'infâme!" ("Crush the infamous thing!").
- Denis Diderot (1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d’Alembert (1717–1783):
  - Co-editors of the Encyclopedia: The Rational Dictionary of the Sciences, the Arts, and the Crafts (published in 17 volumes of text and 11 volumes of plates between 1751 and 1772).
  - Sought to assemble all available human knowledge, critically evaluate historic institutions, and liberate the mind from religious dogma and superstition.
  - Secularized science, mechanical trades, and social theory, providing the international intellectual vanguard with a shared ideological reference text.

The Broader Enlightenment: Social Theory, Public Life, and Global Critiques

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)
- Swiss-born philosopher who critiqued Enlightenment rationalism and modern civilization.
- Discourse on the Sciences and Arts (1750): Argued that civil society, science, and the arts corrupt human morality, destroying the natural goodness and primitive freedom of the "noble savage."
- The Social Contract (1762): Outlined a theory of democratic political legitimacy based on popular sovereignty and the General Will:
  - The General Will reflects the fundamental collective interests of the community rather than the simple majority vote.
  - Genuine individual freedom is achieved by conforming to the sovereign collective will: anyone refusing obedience must be "forced to be free."
- Émile, or On Education (1762): Argued that children should be educated through natural curiosity, direct emotional experience, and physical freedom rather than strict rote memorization.
- Gender Philosophy: Rousseau argued that men and women possess distinct natural roles. Men are suited for public life, civic leadership, and intellectual work; women are naturally suited for child-rearing, domesticity, and providing emotional support within the family.
The International Enlightenment
- The Religious Enlightenment: Thinkers throughout Europe attempted to reconcile rational inquiry and Newtonian science with Christian revelation, emphasizing ethical conduct and tolerance rather than rigid dogmatic conformity.
- The Scottish Enlightenment: Centered around the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen; focused on pragmatic philosophy, moral psychology, and historical economics.
- David Hume (1711–1776):
  - Scottish empiricist and skeptic (A Treatise of Human Nature, 1739; An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, 1748).
  - Argued that the human mind is merely a bundle of sensory impressions; cause-and-effect cannot be empirically verified and reflects human mental habit rather than objective natural certainty.
  - Critiqued religious belief, arguing that miracles cannot be proven by human testimony and that religious systems stem from human fear and imagination.
- Immanuel Kant (1724–1804):
  - East Prussian philosopher; published What is Enlightenment? (1784).
  - Coined the defining Enlightenment motto: "Sapere aude!" ("Dare to know!")—urging individuals to escape their self-imposed immaturity by having the courage to use their own understanding without external guidance.
  - Distinguished between the private use of reason (fulfilling professional or civic obligations) and the public use of reason (unrestricted scholarly critique in the public sphere).
- Cesare Beccaria (1738–1794):
  - Italian criminologist and jurist who published On Crimes and Punishments (1764).
  - Critiqued the European judicial system, condemning judicial torture to extract confessions and secret trials.
  - Advocated the abolition of capital punishment, argued that the primary purpose of criminal punishment should be deterrence rather than vengeance, and insisted that punishments must be proportionate to crimes.
Urban Culture and Life in the Public Sphere
- The Reading Revolution:
  - A profound shift in European reading habits from traditional intensive reading (repeatedly reading a limited set of religious works, primarily the Bible, out loud in family groups) to modern extensive reading (rapid, silent, individual reading of a broad variety of secular books, pamphlets, newspapers, and journals).
  - Accelerating literacy rates expanded the reading public across the urban middle classes (bourgeoisie).
- Salons:
  - Informal social and intellectual gatherings hosted by prominent, wealthy women (such as Madame Geoffrin, Julie de Lespinasse, and Madame Necker) in private Parisian townhomes.
  - Brought philosophes, foreign diplomats, nobles, and artists together to debate philosophy, literature, and politics without church or state censorship.
- Rococo Art Style:
  - The artistic style dominant between 1720 and 1780, marked by soft pastel colors, ornate ornamentation, lighthearted motifs, and sentimental, playful imagery of romantic and domestic life (contrasting the monumental, dark, religious drama of Baroque art).
- The Public Sphere:
  - The distinct realm of social and cultural life where private individuals gathered to freely discuss and debate matters of public interest outside state control.
  - Fostered in coffeehouses, lending libraries, debating societies, Freemason lodges, and learned academies, generating a potent new social force: public opinion.

Race and the Enlightenment
- Carl von Linné (Carolus Linnaeus, 1707–1778):
  - Swedish botanist who developed binomial nomenclature in Systema Naturae (1735).
  - Extended taxonomic classifications to human beings, categorizing Homo sapiens into four geographic varieties (Europaeus, Asiaticus, Americanus, Africanus) and attributing rigid psychological and cultural characteristics to each group.
- David Hume and Immanuel Kant on Race:
  - In "Of National Characters" (1748), Hume added a notorious footnote asserting that non-white peoples were naturally inferior to white Europeans, arguing that non-whites had never developed complex civilizations or arts.
  - Kant developed formal lectures on anthropology and physical geography, positing a racial hierarchy that placed white Europeans at the top and African, Indigenous American, and Asian populations in inferior tiers, arguing that races represented immutable biological variations.
- The Concept of "Race":
  - During the late eighteenth century, natural philosophers abandoned older environmental theories of human variation (climate differences) and formulated biological conceptions of human "race."
  - These racial hierarchies were used to rationalize European colonial exploitation, the expansion of Atlantic plantation slavery, and the dispossession of Indigenous populations at the same time European intellectuals were championing universal rights.

Enlightened Absolutism: Prussia, Russia, and the Austrian Habsburgs

Frederick the Great (Frederick II) of Prussia (r. 1740–1786)
- Territorial Expansion and the War of the Austrian Succession:
  - Upon the accession of Maria Theresa to the Austrian Habsburg throne in 1740, Frederick invaded and annexed the rich, industrialized Austrian province of Silesia, violating the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713.
  - Austria failed to reclaim the province during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748); Prussian control over Silesia was confirmed in 1742.
  - Seven Years’ War (1756–1763): Maria Theresa formed a diplomatic coalition with France and Russia to crush Prussia. Frederick defended Prussian territory and, saved by the succession of Peter III to the Russian throne (who withdrew Russia from the conflict), retained Silesia, elevating Prussia to a major European power.
- Enlightened Rule:
  - Referred to himself as the "first servant of the state," declaring that the monarchy existed to advance the common welfare rather than divine privilege.
  - Instituted extensive legal reforms: abolished judicial torture, streamlined Prussian legal codes, and established impartial courts.
  - Granted broad religious freedom to Lutherans, Calvinists, and Catholics; welcomed religious refugees (such as Huguenots).
  - Promoted agricultural improvement, state drainage projects, potato cultivation, and expanded primary schools.
- Limits of Prussian Enlightenment:
  - Did not emancipate Prussian serfs; entrenched the feudal dominance of the aristocratic Junker class over their rural serfs to ensure noble loyalty to the military.
  - Reinforced strict class divisions within the civil service and army, preserving Prussian militarism.

The War of Austrian Succession, 1740–1748

Catherine the Great of Russia (r. 1762–1796)
- German Background and Coup: Born Sophia Augusta Fredericka of Anhalt-Zerbst, a minor German princess. Married the heir to the Russian throne, Grand Duke Peter (Peter III), in 1745. In 1762, she orchestrated a palace coup with her lover Grigory Orlov and the imperial guard, deposing and murdering Peter III to claim the Russian imperial throne.
- Catherine and the Enlightenment:
  - Corresponded with Voltaire and subsidized Denis Diderot when his Encyclopedia faced financial ruination, purchasing his personal library.
  - Convened the Legislative Commission (1767) to reform and recodify Russian laws, producing her Instruction (Nakaz), heavily influenced by Montesquieu and Beccaria.
  - Restricted judicial torture, granted religious toleration to Old Believers and Muslims, and founded colleges and academies for women (Smolny Institute).
- Pugachev’s Rebellion (1773–1775) and Domestic Retrenchment:
  - Cossack soldier Emelian Pugachev led a massive Cossack and peasant insurrection along the Volga River basin, proclaiming himself the true Emperor Peter III, promising the abolition of serfdom, taxes, and military conscription.
  - The rebellion killed thousands of noble landlords before imperial troops crushed the uprising and executed Pugachev.
  - The rebellion ended Catherine’s plans for serfdom reform. In the Charter of the Nobility (1785), Catherine freed the Russian nobility from state service and granted them total judicial and economic dominion over their serfs.
- Territorial Expansion:
  - Waged successful campaigns against the Ottoman Empire, annexing the Crimean peninsula and gaining access to the Black Sea.
  - Engineered the Partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795) with Prussia and Austria, partitioning the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until the sovereign Polish state vanished from the map.

Map 16.1 The Partition of Poland, 1772–1795

The Austrian Habsburgs
- Maria Theresa (r. 1740–1780):
  - Succeeded her father Charles VI via the Pragmatic Sanction. Introduced centralized administrative reforms to strengthen the Austrian state after losing Silesia.
  - Limited the power of the Catholic Church by reducing religious holidays and expelling the Jesuits.
  - Overhauled taxation, ending noble and clerical tax exemptions.
  - Intervened in landlord-peasant relations to limit the robot (compulsory unpaid peasant labor), reducing peasant exploitation to safeguard the state tax base.
- Joseph II (r. 1780–1790):
  - Son and co-ruler with Maria Theresa, known as the "revolutionary emperor" for his rapid, radical reforms.
  - Abolition of Serfdom (1781): Granted peasants personal freedom, legal access, and the right to marry and choose trades without landlord approval.
  - In 1789, decreed that all feudal dues and peasant labor obligations be converted into cash rent payments, sparking outrage from noble landlords and confusion among cash-poor peasants.
  - Edict of Toleration (1781): Granted full civil rights, worship privileges, and occupational access to Protestants and Greek Orthodox Christians, reducing legal liabilities on Jews.
  - Secularized monastic wealth, dissolving non-charitable contemplative monastic orders to finance hospitals and schools.
- Leopold II (r. 1790–1792):
  - Brother and successor to Joseph II. Faced widespread imperial revolts in Hungary and the Austrian Netherlands.
  - Forced to repeal Joseph's most radical agrarian decrees, reinstating mandatory serf labor to restore imperial political stability and conciliate the nobility.

Jewish Life and the Limits of Enlightened Absolutism

Jewish Life in Eighteenth-Century Europe
- The vast majority of European Jews lived under heavy legal, spatial, and economic restrictions.
- In Western and Central Europe, Jews were confined to segregated urban ghettos, excluded from civil offices and professional guilds, and subjected to special head taxes and discriminatory residency laws.
- In Eastern Europe (Poland-Lithuania), the largest Jewish population resided in rural villages (shtetls), operating as commercial intermediaries, estate managers, and craftsmen, subject to periodic anti-Semitic violence and expulsions.
The Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment)
- An intellectual movement that emerged within European Jewish communities during the late eighteenth century, applying Enlightenment ideals to Jewish religious and communal life.
- Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786):
  - Leading German-Jewish philosopher and prominent figure of the Berlin Enlightenment, known as the "Jewish Socrates."
  - Advocated for the modernization of Jewish education, urging integration into mainstream European secular culture while maintaining religious heritage.
  - Wrote Jerusalem (1783), arguing for religious toleration, freedom of conscience, and the separation of religious institutions from civil power.
Toleration and State Restrictions
- Austria: Joseph II went furthest in granting toleration via the Edict of Toleration, permitting Jewish children to attend universities and enter professions, while ending humiliating distinct dress codes, special taxes, and movement limitations.
- Prussia: Frederick the Great maintained heavy discriminatory commercial fees, marriage quotas, and residency bans on Prussian Jews, resisting integration.
- Russia:
  - Acquiring large Jewish populations through the Partitions of Poland, Catherine the Great refused to permit unrestricted migration into the Russian interior.
  - The Pale of Settlement (1791): Catherine established a restricted territory along the western boundary of the Russian Empire (encompassing modern-day Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, and eastern Poland) to which Russian Jews were confined by imperial decree.
  - Jews within the Pale were forbidden to reside in major cities without special imperial exemptions, remaining subject to residency restrictions until the Russian Revolution of 1917.