Enlightenment, and

Revolution

McCoy 2011
 Europe in Crisis

Religious Crisis…
 New religions established across Europe
 Lutheranism/Calvinism in Germany
 Calvinism in Scotland
 Lutheranism in Scandinavia

 Power and influence of the Catholic Church in decline

 Holy Roman Empire defunct/Spanish Empire in decline

 Ottoman Empire threat to the east contained

 Austrian Habsburgs win series of wars and gain control
of southear Europe

Political Crisis
 How to maintain the peace?
 What type of governments work?
 How do they rebuild from the devastation?

 Absolutism
 Many monarchies evolve into absolutism to restore
order and maintain authority
 Oppression and tyranny under absolutism begins to
encourage new thoughts/ideas about rights, property,
liberty, etc…

 Birth of radical thought…

 New ideas begin to challenge centuries old social norms
and hierarchy
 Absolutism

 Divine Right of Kings

 Right to rule directly from God
 James I of England
 Louis XIV of France
 Nobility loses much of their feudal power and
influence
 Catholic church loses influence over Catholic
kingdoms

 England (Stuarts)
 James I/II, Charles I/II
 English Civil War- ends 1651
 Charles I beheaded
 Charles II king until 1685
 Glorious Revolution (1688-89)
 Limited monarchy established under the Hanover
kings
 English Bill of Rights establishes theory that man has
NATURAL RIGHTS to be protected

 France (Bourbons)
 Henry IV of Navarre (r. 1589-1610)
 Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715)- The Sun King

 Austria (Habsburgs)
 Joseph II (r.1741-1790)
 Empress Maria Theresa (r. 1745-1765)

 Russia (Romanovs)
 Catherine II (r. 1762-1796)
 Peter the Great (r. 1682-1725)
 The Scientific Revolution
 Galileo (died 1642, published Dialogue Concerning the
Two Chief World Systems in 1632)
 Took previous ideas by Kepler and Tycho about the nature of
the solar system and proved them via the telescope
 Direct challenge to the Church supported geocentric view of
universe
 Galileo’s challenge opened the door for later intellectuals to
explore the physical world

 Rene Descartes (died 1650 published Discourse on

Method 1637)
 “I think therefore I am”
 Mechanical philosophy
 Rejected all emotion and intelligence in nature, everything is just Francis Bacon
matter
 Nature is not some “entity” but instead bound by physical
laws

 Francis Bacon (died 1626 published Novum Organum in

1620)
 Pioneered an empirical approach to studying nature- the
scientific method
 Nature will only give up it’s secrets through intense study,
experimentation, and research
 Inductive Reasoning- abandon assumption and learn with an
open mind

 Significance
 Promoted reason and study of the natural world
Rene Descartes
 Set the foundation for Enlightenment thinkers to build upon
 Ideas about the natural world would be applied to society and
government
 Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

 Leviathan (1651)
 Man in a State of Nature lives without
government
 Man without government would lead to
“war of all against all”
 Man is EVIL
 Leviathan will be appointed by the
people to protect their basic needs
 Social Contract is implied
 Written during the English Civil War
 Period of intense violence and
instability

 Social Contract Theory

 To avoid war, men in a state of nature
accede their rights to a central authority
 Any abuses of power are to be accepted
as the price of peace
 Rejected separation of powers,
sovereign must have total control
 John Locke (1632-1704)

 2nd Treatise on Government (1689)

 Argues in favor of a Social Contract
 Men are GOOD and will work
together
 Government must protect property,
life, and liberty of the people
 Supported Separation of Power and
advocated revolution against tyranny
as an obligation

 The Tabula Rasa

 The mind is a “blank slate”
 Knowledge through experience
 Major influence upon Enlightenment
thinkers

 Locke’s Influence
 His “theory of mind” would inspire
thinkers to re-evaluate the ability to
learn and reason
 Isaac Newton (1643-1727)

 Principia (1687)
 Universal gravitation
 Apple story is almost true
 Several descendants of the tree still
exist
 Three Laws of Motion
 Newton successfully connected the
theories of planetary motion by
Kepler to his laws of gravitation
 Effectively removed the last
doubters of heliocentrism

 Newton’s Natural Laws applied

by Enlightenment thinkers to
society and government
 In the same way these laws govern
nature, there are also laws that
should govern society
 The Enlightenment

 -1655 to 1815
 Rene Descartes publishes the Discourse on Method
 Argues in favor of using reason to understand
nature, math, and society
 Ends with the defeat of Napoleon and collapse of
French Empire

 Movement occurs simultaneously across Europe

 France, England, Scotland, Germany
 Many Scottish thinkers found colleges in the
Americas

 Term “Enlightenment”
 Created by the English in the 1800’s to describe
French/German philosophy
 Metaphor for bringing the “light of reason” into
society
 Challenged those that sought to obscure the
truth…
 Tyrants and the Church

 Major force behind a series of Revolutions in the late

1700’s and early 1800’s

 Exchange of Enlightenment ideas occurred…

 Literature (novels, pamphlets, journals)
 Universities
 Salons
 Intellectual gatherings, usual upper class, to
discuss and exchange ideas about Voltaire,
etc.
 Diderot (died 1784), French  Kant (died 1804), German
 Encyclopedie,
Encyclopedie, 1751
 Collection of various ideas and theories being produced
 Incredibly influential to modern philosophy
during the period  Critical method- philosophical support of the
 Wanted to give everyone an opportunity to examine the scientific method
new outpouring of intellectual thought
 The Critiques, 1787-88
 Voltaire (died 1778), French  Attempted to define the Enlightenment period
 Wrote more then 20,000 letters and 2,000  Argued that church and government impeded
books/pamphlets
 Social commentator through his writings ability to achieve enlightenment
 Candide, 1759- satire/novel ridiculing society
 Treatise on Tolerance, 1763- superstitions and beliefs
can poison people’s minds  Rousseau (died 1778), Swiss
 Opponent of France’s ancien regime
 Supported freedom of religion
 Emile, 1762- Education of the whole person for
 “Crush the infamous thing” citizenship (republican education)
 On the Social Contract, 1762- democratic gov’t/social
 Jefferson (died 1826), American empowerment
 Declaration of Independence, 1776
 Considered to be the political expression of the  Deism
Enlightenment
 Religious philosophy in which reason/observation
 Ideal “republican farmer”- worked the land yet
educated, did not like cities or large financial of the natural world can determine the supreme
institutions being who created the universe
 Later became associated with the extremism of
 Montesquieu (died 1755), French
 The Spirit of the Laws,
Laws, 1748 the French Revolution
 Work not widely accepted in France
 Advocated consitutionalism, seperation of powers,
abolition of slavery, civil liberties, and that political  David Hume (died 1776), Scottish
institutions should reflect the character of those it governs
 Enormous influence on the American founding fathers  A Treatise on Human Nature, 1739
and Catherine the Great  In opposition to many thinkers, believed that desire governed
human behavior

 Adam Smith (died 1790), Scottish

 The Wealth of Nations,
Nations, 1776
 The Age of Revolutions

 Glorious Revolution
 1688-89
 Absolute monarch Charles II dethroned
 New limited monarchy established under the
Hanover family from Germany

 American Revolution
 1776-1783
 American colonists declare independence from
George III of England
 Establish republican government based upon
Separation of Powers and a constitution

 French Revolution
 1789-1799
 French king and queen executed and republic
established
 Republic fails and France is consumed by violence
until Napoleon seizes power and creates the French
Empire

 Latin American Wars of Independence

 1799-1830
 Haitian Revolution (France)
 Brazilian Independence (Portugal)
 Venezualan Independence (Spain)
 Mexican Independence (Spain)

 Latin American wars coincided with French

conquest of home countries Spain and Portugal