The Spark The Made Our World

THE ENLIGHTENMENT

1700 - 1800

Absolutism

• Bad kings were making people question absolutism.

• Increasingly the nobles thought that blue blood and land made them better than everyone else.

Absolutism 1700s

• The upper classes were more and more frivolous and felt they owed nothing to anyone “beneath” them. – Hairstyles of the 1770s had

the nose in the middle between the top of the hair and the feet.

– Clothing weighed around 18 pounds.

Styles of the 1700s for nobility

But what other way was there?

• Anarchy?– The 30 Years War in

the German lands had people terrified of not having any government structure.

Finding that “something else”

• The Enlightenment.• It was the spark to

light the fuse to set off the explosion of revolution.– The end of

Absolutism.– The rise of the

common person.– The concept of limits

on government.

The Enlightenment

• Finding a new way to rule without absolutism.

• Radical ideas!– Equal rights for men!

• A few thought it should it should also be equal rights for women.

– But only a few!

– Limits on power!

Remember the Scientific Revolution?

• Changed the way people looked at the world in the 1500s –1600s.

• In the 1700s knowledge learned in science was being used to change everyone’s lives.

A cure for the greatest killer

• Smallpox!• First recorded 10,000

B.C.E• Had a 20 – 60%

mortality rate for adults.

• 80% mortality rate for children.– 1/3 of victims blinded.– Almost all scarred.

Edward Jenner

• Noted that milkmaids never got smallpox if they had been infected with cowpox.– Similar to smallpox,

but less deadly.– Tested it by taking

puss from milkmaid’s Sarah Nelmes hand infected by the cow Blossom.

Edward Jenner

• Scraped the puss onto lesions on 8 year old James Phipps arms.

• James Phipps became ill with a fever and achiness.

• Recovered and never caught smallpox.

Edward Jenner

• Eventually shots were developed.

• 1980 – smallpox was ERADICATED from the world.– People born before

1973 carry the scar on their upper arm for the vaccine.

Jenner’s success convinced others of the power of human reason

• NATURAL LAW:– Rules discoverable by

reason for science.– WHY COULDN’T THE

SAME BE USED FOR:• Political Problems.• Economic Problems.• Social Problems.

The Rise of the Salons

• Gatherings where educated people could freely exchange ideas.

• Use reason to try to solve problems.

• More private than coffee houses.

• Some discussions could get you arrested, so invitations were necessary to join a salon.

The “superstars” of the Enlightenment: POLITICS

Thomas Hobbes

John Locke

Both were speaking from their families experiences during the English Civil War.

(Roundheads v. Cavaliers)

The Enlightenment: Thomas Hobbes

• Believed that human nature in a “natural state” is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

• A SOCIAL CONTRACT – an agreement between the ruler and the people was needed to protect life.

John Locke’s ideas contrasted Hobbes

• Believed that people were reasonable and moral.

• All people had NATURAL RIGHTS at birth.– Life – Liberty – Property

John Locke

• A government has an obligation to the people it governs.

• If government fails and violates people’s natural rights …– People had the right

to OVERTHROW that government.

The Philosophes: Improving Society

• Montesquieu• Voltaire• Diderot• Rousseau

Montesquieu: A noble who spoke for democracy

• 1689 –1755• Studying history

made him aware absolutism was not right.

• The only way to prevent dictators was to divide up power so no one person could be too powerful.

The Leader of the PhilosophesVOLTAIRE

• Real name Francois-Arouet (1694 – 1778)

• Using sarcasm and wit he criticised “enemies of freedom.”– Corrupt government– Idle aristocrats– Religious prejudice– Slave trade– Inequality, injustice,

superstition.

Voltaire

• His writing was the “Jon Stewart Daily News” and “SNL” of his time.

• Twice imprisoned, books burned in public, exiled from France.

• IMMENSELY popular in the salons.– Catherine the Great built a

palace for him and invited him to live in Russia.

• The Hermitage.

Diderot: The Encyclopedia

• Created 28 volume set of books “to change the general way of thinking” by explaining topics such as government, philosophy, and religion.

Diderot’s Encyclopedia

• Articles by the leading Philosophes:– Explained science– Praised freedom of

expression– Denounced slavery– Urged education– Denounced Divine

Right Theory.– 4,000 copies sold

between 1751 – 1789.

Rousseau: The Social Contract

• Jean Jacques Rousseau:– People are naturally good,

but society corrupts them.• Interesting “test” for his

theory!

– Society puts too many limitations on people.

– Some government needed – but should be minimal.

– Only a FREELY ELECTED government had the right to rule over the “general will.”

The Slogan of the Philosophes

• Free and Equal.• BUT DID THAT

APPLY TO WOMEN??

Women’s Rights

• The Enlightenment did “discuss” that women had natural rights.

• BUT rights were limited to home and family.

Mary Wollstonecraft

• 1792: A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN.– Women should be free to

decide what is in their own self-interest without depending on a husband.

– Girls, as well as boys, needed an education to have the tools to participate with men in public life.

• Work was banned and ridiculed for over a hundred years.

Adam Smith: A New Economic Thinking

• 1700s: The government (king) decided what to produce, how to produce and for whom to produce. – Decisions were usually

what made the king / nobles wealthy!

– MERCANTILISM

Adam Smith: FREE MARKETS

• Using Natural Law – Smith believed in LAISSEZ-FAIRE – allowing businesses and individuals to decide what to produce, how to produce and for whom to produce. – More products, better

prices, more profit for people!

– Little government interference.

The Enlightenment spreads from the salons:

• Changes in art.• Changes in music.• Changes in literature.

Art

• Changed from rigid formality to more natural surroundings and relaxed subjects.

Enlightenment Art: A salon electrical experiment and a country scene

Enlightenment: Influence on Music

• Until the 1700s the only real patrons of music were the nobility and the church.

• The salons had their own more “intimate” music.

The Enlightenment Changes Music

• Opera and concerts for a paying public – not just for nobles and a king.

• The rise of the symphony and string quartets.– Mozart– Haydn

The NOVEL comes out of the Enlightenment

• Longer books set in present times dealing with current situations for more than just nobles to read.– Robinson Crusoe –

• A shipwrecked sailor survival by Daniel Defoe.

– Pamela• Samuel Richardson told

the story of a servant girl through her eyes.

The Novel: Usually had a moral to it.

• Clarissa– One of the longest ever

written by Samuel Richardson.

• 1 million words over nine volumes.

• Story of a young noblewoman who unexpectedly inherits a fortune and becomes the prey of her family and fortune hunters trying to get her money.

– Showed how powerless women were at that time to control their own fate.

How did the Absolute Monarchs like the Enlightenment?

• A few accepted SOME of the ideas.– Knew that reform was

necessary.

• Became the ENLIGHTENED DESPOTS.– Frederick the Great– Catherine the Great– Joseph II of Austria

The Enlightened Despot: Frederick the Great

• Called himself “the first servant of the state” and felt he had a duty to work for the common good.

• Voltaire’s influence:– Cut down on torture– Allowed some free press.– Religious tolerance– BUT still was an absolute

monarch!

The Enlightened Despot:Catherine the Great

• Exchanged many letters with the Philosophes.

• Allowed free salons in her palaces.

• Cut back on torture, gave religious tolerance.

• Granted a “charter of rights” for the nobles and criticized serfdom.

• BUT DID NOTHING TO CHANGE HER POWER.

In Fact: Catherine the Great

• Voltaire never came to live at the Hermitage.

• When she received word of the beginning of the French Revolution, Catherine said nothing, but went to get her bust of Voltaire, and smashed it on the floor.

Enlightened Despots:Joseph II

• Son of Maria Theresa and student of the Enlightenment:– Brought a free press to

Austria.– Religious tolerance.– Sold most Catholic church

land to pay for education and hospitals for the poor.

– Abolished serfdom in his kingdom.

A monarch who did NOT embrace the Enlightenment

• King George III of England.

• With the Tory Party, embraced privilege being kept for nobles and the landed gentry.

• Ruled England for 60 years.– Had DISASTROUS

policies.

A BRIEF Review of the American Revolution

• The Enlightenment sets off an explosion in the American colonies.

George III’s Policies

• Mercantilist policies made England rich but didn’t help the American colonies.

• Without nobles, wealthy landowners and merchants dominated local government and society.– Free discussions.– Not the national and

religious differences that there were in Europe.

George III’s Policies

• Sought to make “all the world English” and force compliance among the American Colonists.– THE STAMP ACT 1765.

• Americans thought “no taxation without representation”

– Wanted to have a say in policies in the English Parliament.

America’s Break With England

April 1775: Warfare breaks out between the 13 colonies and British troops.

-Lexington and Concord.

-George Washington becomes the general of the army.

July 1776: The Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of Independence:The influence of the Enlightenment

• Government’s obligation is to protect “life, liberty and property.”

• The right of the people to abolish unjust governments.

Signing of the Declaration of Independence

The American Revolution

• The 13 Colonies were up against one of the greatest military powers.

• They needed ALLIES!• France 1777.

– General LaFayette.

The American Revolution Ends

• 1781: The Battle of Yorktown, Virginia.

• Washington blocks the British army by land.

• The French block the ocean escape. – TECHNICALLY: The British

didn’t surrender!

• The Treaty of Paris ends the War and establishes the United States of America in 1783.

Creating a Government: The Enlightenment’s Influence on

America• The US Constitution:

– WE THE PEOPLE create the power.

• Limits on power.• Dividing up power

between executive, legislative and judicial branches.

• THE BILL OF RIGHTS:– Promises of limits on

power of what government can or can’t do to people.

But would the Enlightenment’s influence be in Europe?

• The common people and the peasants had had hundreds of years of unjust absolute rule.

• They were very, very, very angry at so much abuse.

The Spark of the Enlightenment is about to set off a massive explosion