Transcript HIS 106 Chapter 23

HIS 106
Chapter 23
European Enlightenment
 Some revolutions took place without
armies and without guns
 The Scientific Revolution and the
Enlightenment are two of these
Scientific Revolution
 New scientific discoveries took shape
from the 1600s onward
 These discoveries affected intellectual
life and promoted changes in how
people looked at their world
 The origins of this scientific revolution
lay, for the most part, in
developments in astronomy
 Old beliefs concerning our universe
were being challenged by these new
discoveries in astronomy in the 17th
century
 The Catholic Church had put forth the
Geocentric view
 The earth is at the center of the universe
 Celestial bodies rotated around the earth
 Nicholas Copernicus
 Polish clergyman
 Disproved the geocentric view of the
earth
 Put forth the Heliocentric view of the
universe; that is the earth revolves
around the sun
 Published his findings just before he dies
to avoid punishment by the Church
 Galileo Galilei
 Openly agreed with and made known the
findings of Copernicus
 For this he was condemned by the
Catholic Church and placed under house
arrest when he would not recant
 He remained under house arrest for the
rest of his life
 Made a telescope, investigated gravity
and planetary motion
 Vesalius
 From Belgium
 Made new medical discoveries dealing
with anatomy
 Advanced knowledge for the time period
 John Harvey
 From England
 Showed how the heart was able to
pump blood throughout the body
 Investigated the circulatory system
 Rene Descartes
 From France
 Felt human reasoning powers could
discover the laws of nature, how the
universe worked
 Felt one should be skeptical and move
from there
 Quick review p. 498
 Isaac Newton
 From England
 1637 in “Principia”, he set forth the laws
of motion – for every action there is
always an equal reaction
 Defined the forces of gravity in
mathematical notation
 Spoke of the scientific method
 Explained the movements of the planets
 Scientists used their reasoning
powers to make discoveries
 They did not blindly accept traditional
beliefs that often proved inaccurate
The Enlightenment
 An intellectual movement of the 18th
century
 Began in France where ideas were
discussed in Salons like Madame
Geofrin
 Initially, it popularized rationalism
and the scientific ideas of the 17th
century
 It was an era that witnessed the emergence
of an informed body of public opinion,
critical of absolutism and political and social
abuses
 Urged reform
 Philosophes, thinkers, put forth new ideas
to better society (in science, social
sciences, politics, and economics)
 p. 499 – formal definition
 These ideas spread to other nations
where others tried out some of the
new ideas and reforms
 Voltaire (1694 – 1778)
 French
 His real name was Francois Marie Arouet
 Admired English intellectual and political
freedom
 Attacked war and religious persecution
 Was for religious toleration
 Not very optimistic about the human
condition in his writings
 Believed society could and should be
improved
Other ideas of Enlightenment
 New ideas on how to treat criminals
 New ideas on how to control the
privileged
 “Laissez-faire” economy of Adam
Smith who wrote about it in The
Wealth of Nations
 Many believed society should work to
improve life for all
 Condemned slavery
 Promoted better agricultural and
industrial methods
 Promoted new political rights
 Baron de Montesquieu
 Charles de Secondat
 For separation of powers and checks and
balances
 P. 501
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed in
equality for all; p. 504, picture
 John Locke
 Promoted life, liberty, and property
 Believed people have the right, the duty,
to overthrow an unjust government
All these ideas were gathered in the
Encyclopedia put together by Denis
Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert
 These ideas were picked up and
practiced by some European rulers
 Frederick the Great of Prussia
 offered freedom of religion
 Encouraged better agricultural methods
 Adopted the potato as a staple crop
 Joseph II of Austria
 lessened the power of the Catholic
Church
 Tried other state-sponsored
improvements
 Catherine the Great of Russia
 Education for elite boys and girls
These rulers became known as Enlightened
Despots
They tried to wield their great authority for
the good of the people but often fell
short
Catherine the Great
 After the death of Peter the Great in 1724,
Russia experienced several decades of
weak rule
 The crown fell into the hands of people with
little talent for ruling
 Peter III came to the throne in 1762
 Was weak and possibly insane
 Married in1745 to a young German princess,
Sophia, who would become Catherine the Great
 She had neither love nor loyalty for
her demented husband
 After a few months of rule, Peter III
was deposed and murdered; it is
thought with Catherine’s approval, if
not aid
 Soon after Peter was removed,
Catherine was proclaimed Empress
 Catherine’s familiarity with the
Enlightenment and the general
culture of western Europe convinced
her that Russia needed reform if it
were to remain a great power
 To have reform, Catherine realized
that she would need wide political
and social support
 So she summoned a Legislative
Commission in 1767 to advise her on
revising the law and government of Russia
 The Empress gave this Commission a set of
Instructions drawn from the political ideas
of the philosophes
 A year later Catherine dismissed the
Commission before several committees had
reported
 Revision of Russian law did not take place
for at least 50 years
 Calling the Commission was not a useless
act
 It gathered great amounts of information
about local administration and economic life
 Information gathered also indicated that
most Russians saw no alternative to the
absolute monarchy
 From this Catherine could see she
had support and she wished to then
introduce some reforms
 She abolished capital punishment,
torture, serf auctions with the break-up
of serf families
 She appointed nobles to most offices
responsible for local affairs
 1785, she issued the Charter of Nobility
that secured rights of aristocracy
 She removed the internal barriers to
trade, and exports greatly increased
 Educational reforms for nobles’ children,
both boys and girls, were introduced
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Elementary schools
Teachers colleges were created
Nobility was hostile to formal education
Only really happened in major cities and
mostly with girls
 Catherine worked to acquire warm
water ports through an aggressive
foreign policy
 Fought Turks to reach the Black Sea
 Moved on into Europe and extended
Russia’s western boundary into Central
Europe
 Destroyed Poland in the process
All this done by the time of her death in
1796
 Her reforms did little for the majority
of the Russian people -- 95% of
whom were serfs
 There was rural unrest
 Pugachev’s Revolt (1773-1775)
 Emelyan Pugachev was a Cossack rebel
who said he was Peter III come back to life
to get Catherine
 Pugachev captured the city of Kazan before
being captured and executed
 Radishev, a liberal reformer, also
worked to make life better for the
serfs; he was imprisoned for his
views
Russian Society and Work
 95% of Russians were serfs
 There weren’t too many other classes in
society, and they weren’t large
 At the top – Tsar and Tsarina
 Then nobles who lived mainly in
countryside
 A few bureaucrats and professionals
 Merchants were mainly foreigners
 No real artisan class
 A merchant group grew under Peter
the Great; however, nobles
dismantled this group because they
were afraid of their power
 Most trade, outside of agriculture, fell
to foreigners or to the state
 Government ran industries in mining,
iron, and munitions
 International trade was organized and
run by Western merchant companies
 Life for the peasants was never good
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Hard work
Traditional farming methods
Harsh climate
Lagged behind the West
 Russia traded with Asia and the West
 They exported furs, grain, and timber
to the West
 Russia’s economy wasn’t advancing
quickly enough for world markets
 Feudalistic labor arrangements
 Little technology, little innovation
 No merchant class, few artisans
 There were periodic rebellions by
peasants and by intellectuals
 They were all harshly put down
 Big gap between haves and have nots
 Elite adopted western art, read
western literature
 Ordinary Russian culture came from
their orthodox religion and oral
stories and songs