5.1 Flashcards
The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment definition
An intellectual movement during the 18th century that used reason to reconsider accepted ideas and social structures of the time… basically the baby of the Scientific Revolution and the Renaissance’s humanism - the application of human reason to natural laws
Humanism
a thought system where prime importance is attributed to humans rather than a divine being or supernatural things
Old way of truth
by revelation: Quran, Bible, Divine Right of Kings, tradition
Francis Bacon
supported the idea of empiricism
Empiricism
the idea that true reality is discerned by the senses
led to scientific experiments to discern truth from falsehood
John Locke
Wrote Two Treatises on Government
Argued against the Divine Right of Kings
Argued for Natural Rights (life, liberty, property), the idea that humans should have authority in the government, the social contract, and the right to revolution if the government no longer protected rights or served the people –> led to influx in revolutions (Atlantic Revolutions)
Nationalism
the strong identification of a group of people who share things like ethnic identity and language
Loyalty to nations rather than rulers or cities, threatened Europe’s multi-ethnic empires
Adam Smith
Wrote The Wealth Of Nations, which critiqued mercantilist economies, which required a lot of government involvement and aid, in favor of laissez-faire economics (a.k.a. a free market a.k.a. capitalism)
Religious consequences of the Enlightenment
reexamination of God in Christianity
-the emergence of Deism: the belief in a God who created everything but doesn’t intervene in history, a God who you have to discover and get to know through understanding natural laws
-the emergence of atheism
Consequences of the Natural Rights doctrine:
- WOMEN:
Mary Wollstonecraft wrote “A vindication of the Rights of Women”, in which she argued for female education and their ability to perform well in politics and professional spaces
U.S.: Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, where the “Declaration of Sentiments” was wrote (modeled the Declaration of Independence but included women) and where women rallied for suffrage and rights, as well as for increased female independence from their husband’s property and income - SLAVERY/SERFDOM:
U.S.: Slave trade banned in 1808, but the slave population grew significantly anyway between then and mid-19th century - tensions between slaveholders and abolitionists eventually culminated in Civil War and led to the eventual abolition of slavery
23 million serfs were emancipated in Russia
The American Revolution
North America: British Colonies
Over time the colonies developed a disconnect with the crown due to:
- long distance over the Atlantic
- colonist’s suspicion: no representation in Parliament, gov. Kept imposing taxes to pay debts from the seven year’s war
July 4th, 1776: declared independence, U.S. born. Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson saturated with Enlightenment thought
-all men equal: natural rights doctrine (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness)
-social contract doctrine
British Colonies won against Crown w/ help of the French, inspired French Revolution when soldiers returned to Europe
French Revolution
France economically desolate by 1780s due to wars, so King Louis XVI gathered meeting of Estates-General in 1789 –> formation of the National Assembly.
King threatened to arrest leaders of National Assembly, led to protests and demonstrations
-July 14th, 1788: storming of Bastille, sparked rebellion movement across France by peasants against nobles
Louis 16th forced to accept new political structure w/ Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
-influenced deeply by Declaration of Independence
-natural rights
-limited the monarchy
Louis didn’t like the restricted monarchy, and fought against it, leading to his beheading and the Reign of Terror of 1793-1794, led by Robespierre until he was beheaded and it ended
Bastille significance
A prison that symbolized monarchial abused and the aristocracy’s corruption
Estates-General
Unrepresentative form of government in France prior to French Revolution, divided into three estates that had equal vote:
-clergy
-nobility
-commoners (made up 98% of the population)
Haitian Revolution
Haiti: French colony in Island across Atlantic, primarily populated by black slaves and some white French plantation owners.
Slaves rebelled against masters after hearing Enlightenment fervor, killed them and burned their houses
1791: Toussaint L’ouverture led rebellion, victorious, established independent Haitian gov.
Economy was previously focused on exports due to large production of sugar, and led to an increase of slavery to make up that production in….????
Decreased France’s power in western hemisphere as Napoleon was defeated, prompting him to go through with the Louisiana purchase
Triggered resistance amongst slaves in North America and the Caribbean, became a unifying source of African pride (seen through Jamaican slave’s songs glorifying the Haitian Revolution)
Haiti was politically unstable due to impoverishment, the sheer destructiveness of the Revolution
Encouraged social conservatism amongst other Latin American leaders in order to avoid more peasant revolutions
1st successful revolution conducted by slaves
1st black led independent nation in the Americas