AP European History/Neiffer

Reading Guide:
Chapter 17: The Age of Enlightenment

Formative Influence on the Enlightenment

Ideas of Newton and Locke
• Issac Newton
◦ law of universal gravitation
• John Locke
◦ An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
◦ tabula rasa

The Example of British Toleration and Political Stability

• What impact did the post-Glorious Revolution have on the
enlightenment?

The Emergence of Print Culture

• print culture
• volume of printed material
• increased literacy
• increase in non-religious books
• increase in libraries
• Samuel Johnson (1709-1719) John Locke... better known as
• The Spectator J.Lo.
• Alexander Pope
• public opinion
• impact on government

The Philosophes
philosophes

Voltaire-- First Among the Philosophes

• Background
• Letters on the English
• Elements on the Philosophy of Newton
• Candide

The Enlightenment and Religion

What criticisms did the philosophes lodge against religion and formal churches?

Deism
• deism
• Christianity Not Mysterious by John Toland
• What did deists believe?

Toleration
• How did Enlightenment thinkers argue for religious toleration?

Radical Enlightenment Criticism of Christianity

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 • Inquiry into Human Nature by David Hume
• The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
• How close were Enlightenment thinkers to wanting atheism?

Jewish Thinkers in the Age of the Enlightenment

• Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)
◦ Ethics
◦ Theologico-Political Treatise
• Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786)
◦ On Ecclesiastical Power and Judaism

Islam in Enlightenment Thought

• How was Islam received in Europe among scholars?
• What were common arguments for and against Islam among Enlightenment writers?

The Enlightenment Society

The Encyclopedia: Free and Economic Improvement
• Encyclopedia
• Denis Diderot (1713-1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717-1783)
• What was the impact of the Encyclopedia?

Beccaris and Reform of Criminal Law

• Marquis Cesare Beccaria
• On Crimes and Punishments

The Physiocrats and Economic Freedom

• physiocrats
• Francois Quesnay

Adam Smith on Economic Growth and Social Progress Denis Diderot liked really,
• Adam Smith (1723-1790) REALLY long books...
• Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
• laissez-faire
• The Wealth of Nations

Political Thought of the Philosophes

Montesquieu and The Spirit of Laws
• Baron de Montesquieu
• The Persian Letters
• Spirit of the Laws
• parlements

Rousseau: A Radical Critique of Modern Society

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• The Social Contract
• What was Rousseau's larger argument?

Enlightened Critics on European Empires

• What was the criticism from Enlightenment thinkers concerning Europe's governments? … Europe's
empire? … the treatment of Native Americans? ...slavery?

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Women in the Thought and Practice of the Enlightenment
What role did women salon owners play in the Enlightenment?
Emile
Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wolstonecraft

Rococo and Neoclassical Styles in Eighteenth-Century Art

What is Rococo style?
What is Neoclassical style?

Enlightened Absolutism

History of the Russian Empire under Peter the Great by Voltaire

Frederick the Great of Prussia

• Merit-based promotion
◦ Prussian Civil Service Commission
• Religious toleration
• Administrative and economic reforms

Joseph II of Austria
• Joseph II and the concentration of government authority
• Extension of religious toleration
• Relations with the Roman Catholic Church
• Reversal of peasant tradition
• Leopold II

Catherine the Great of Russia

• Catherine I → Peter II → Anna → Ivan VI → Elizabeth → Peter III
• Catherine the Great Joseph II of Austria,
• Catherine and the Enlightenment sometimes known as the
• Administrative reformation "Musical King"
• Economic Growth
• Russia expansion policy

The Partition of Poland

• Why was Poland partitioned?

The End of the 18th Century in Central and Eastern Europe

Review Questions
1. How did the Enlightenment change basic Western attitudes toward reform, faith, and reason? What were
the major formative influences on the philosophes? How important were Voltaire and the Encyclopedia in the
success of the Enlightenment?

2. Why did the philosophes consider organized religion to be their greatest enemy? What were the basic
tenets of deism? How did Jewish writers contribute to Enlightenment thinking about religion? What are the
similarities and differences between the Enlightenment evaluation of Islam and its evaluations of Christianity
and Judaism?

3. What were the attitudes of the philosophes toward women? What was Rousseau’s view of women? What

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were the separate spheres he imagined men and women occupying? What were Mary Wollstonecraft’s
criticisms of Rousseau’s view?

4. How did the views of the mercantilists about the earth’s resources differ from those of Adam Smith in his
book The Wealth of Nations? Why might Smith be regarded as an advocate of the consumer? How did his
theory of history work to the detriment of less economically advanced non-European peoples? How did some
Enlightenment writers criticize European empires?

5. How did the political views of Montesquieu differ from those of Rousseau? Was Montesquieu’s view of
England accurate? Was Rousseau a child of the Enlightenment or its enemy? Which did Rousseau value more,
the individual or society?

6. Were the enlightened monarchs true believers in the ideals of the philosophes, or was their enlightenment
a mere veneer? Was their power really absolute? What motivated their reforms? What does the partition of
Poland indicate about the spirit of enlightened absolutism?

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