Chapter 18 Flashcards
Philosophes
Writers and educated people that met in salons (private gatherings)
Critical of church and state
French term referring to thinkers and critics of the Enlightenment era including Voltair and Rousseau
The Enlightenment
18th Century (1715-1789)
Aka Age of Reason
Question authority of church and state
Intellectual movement brought confidence in human reason and workings of natural law from sciences into political and social thought.
Movement in France and Prussia and Austria spread throughout Europe
Voltair
Writer of short poems
Insulted aristocrats
Exiled from France went to Britain came back with knowledge of freedom and wisdom
Embodied spirit of rationalism
Adam Smith
Scottish economist that developed doctrine laissez-faire in his treaties the Wealth of Nations
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
French philosopher who imagined an egalitarian society governed by the general will in “The Social Contract” and was a sharp critic of aristocratic society
Ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity
Salons
Regular gatherings in 18th-century Parisian private homes where Voltaire and other philosophers read and discussed their works, exchanged ideas
Was facilitated by female salonniers (salon leaders)
Enlightened Despot
Reform-oriented rule of 18th-century monarchs
Enlightened despots applied Enlightenment remedies to economic problems and encouraged education and legal reform but did not dismantle elites’ privileges or share their own power
Frederick the Great
Autocratic king of Prussia transformed the country into a major military power and sponsored enlightened reforms
Was an enlightened despot
Interested in philosophy, poetry, and enlarging army
Maria Theresa
Able, great ruler. Loving and religious.
Habsburg archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and Bohemia who reformed and centralized the administration of her Austrian and Bohemian lands
Guided more by traditional concerns for effective rule and compassion for her subjects than by Enlightenment ideas
Joseph II
Maria Theresa’s son
Followed her on the throne
Counted himself as follower of the Enlightenment
Carried out bold initiatives after Mother’s death such as freedom of press, freedom of religion, abolishment of serfdom
Catherine the Great
Empress of Russia who through an astute policy of wars and alliances, expanded her country’s borders
An enlightened despot, she advanced westernizing reforms began by Peter the great
Agricultural Revolution
Dramatic increase in food production from 16th to 18th centuries brought about changes in agricultural practices and cultivation of new crops and allowed the population of Europe to expand beyond the historic limits
Montesquieu
Separation of government
Advocate of three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial
David Hume
Atheist
Cause & Effect doctrine
Dennis Diderot
Deism, supreme being, encyclopedia
Battle of Culloden
Charles (Bonnie Prince Charlie) army, made up mostly of poor Highland clansmen, was destroyed by British army units
Whigs
Political party formed during the reign of Charles II
Dominant influence of government most of century. Liberal Labour Party
Named derisively by their opponents with a Scottish term for horse thieves
Resisted Charles’s pro-French policies and his efforts to tolerate Catholicism
Generally represented interests of great aristocrats or wealthy merchants
Tories
Political party represented interests of provincial gentry and traditional concerns of landholding and local administration conservative; means cattle rustler
Robert Walpole
Great speaker who denied prime minister of Britain
From a minor gentry family
Brought into government with other Whig ministers in George I’s regime
1st Lord of treasury and chancellor of the exchequer
Pugachev Rebellion
Principal result in a series of popular rebellions
Took place in Russia after Catherine II seized power in 1762 proclaimed end to serfdom
Seven Years War
1756
The first major war between European nations (Britain and France) started and fought largely in their overseas empires
Frederick the Great initiated the land phase
Last major war in Europe until revolution started in America (French & Indian War)
Victory - Great Britain against France
War of Austrian Seccession
Began after death of Charles VI
War began under the pretext that Maria Teresa was ineligible to succeed to the Hapsburg throne of her father Charles VI - Salic law precluded royal inheritance by woman
Reality - convenient excuse put forward by Prussia and France to challenge Habsburgs power
Sides: Austria & Great Britain; Prussia & France
French and Indian War
American name for the Seven Years War
War fought between France and England
French greatly outnumbered so they used Indian allies
France ceded French Louisiana west of Mississippi River to its allies Spain in compensation for Spain’s loss to Britain of Florida
Triangle Trade
Trade among 3 ports or regions
Links Europe, Africa, and European colonies in the Americas
Most important component of this trade for Europe was the plantation agriculture of the Caribbean Islands which depended on enslaved Africans for labor
Great profits, earliest slaves to New World 1647 by Dutch ships
Came to Caribbean to get sugar
Cottage Industry
“Putting Out System”
Small-scale industry carried on at home by family members using their own equipment sewed together patches of cloth
Mary Wollstonecraft
18th Century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights
Wrote “The Vindication of the Rights of Women”
