chapter 28 Flashcards
revolutions and national states in the atlantic world
Under what name did Marie Gouze win some fame as a journalist, actress, and playwright?
Olympe de Gouges
During the French Revolution, what did Olympe de Gouges campaign for?
raise the standing of women in French society:
- called for more education and demanded that women share equal rights in family property
- freedom and equality were inalienable rights of women as well as men
- insisted on the rights of women to vote, speak their minds freely, participate in making of law, and hold public office
In what piece of writing did Gouges claim the same rights for women that revolutionary leaders had granted to men in August 1789?
“Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen”
How did Revolutionary leaders react to Olympe de Gouges’s declaration of women’s rights?
- dismissed her appeal as a publicity stunt, refused to put women’s rights on their political agenda
- executed her in 1793 because her affection for Marie Antoinette and persistent crusade for women’s rights
What two main ideas did Revolutionary leaders promote during the Enlightenment?
- political authority arose from the people and worked to establish states in the interests of the people rather than the rulers
- encouraged the consolidation of national states as the principal form of political organization
During the late 19th and 20th centuries, efforts to do what two things created the most powerful and dynamic movements in world history?
- harness nationalist sentiments (attitude, thought, or judgement prompted by feeling)
- form states based on national identity
What is popular sovereignty?
the notion that legitimate political authority resides not in kings but, rather, in the people who make up a society
Isaac Newton’s vision of the universe was so powerful and persuasive that its influence extended well beyond science as thinkers across Europe launched an ambitious project to transform human thought and use what to transform the world?
REASON.
- abandoned Aristotelian philosophy, Christian theology, and other traditionally recognized authorities
- sought to subject the human world to purely rational analysis
What movement was the result of thinkers’ work abandon traditionally recognized authorities, and subject the human world to purely rational analysis
the ENLIGHTENMENT
Which English philosopher sought to discover natural laws of politics and attacked divine-right theories?
John Locke
- advocated constitutional government on the grounds that sovereignty resides in the people rather than the state or its rulers
John Locke provided much of the theoretical justification for what revolution?
Glorious Revolution and establishment of constitutional monarchy in England
Who was a Scottish philosopher who held that laws of supply and demand determine what happens in the marketplace?
Adam Smith
Who was a French nobleman who sought to establish a science of politics and discover principles that would foster political liberty in a prosperous and stable state?
Baron de Montesquieu
Where was the center of Enlightenment thought?
France
- prominent intellectuals known as “philosophes” advanced the cause of reason
Who were the philosophes of the Enlightenment?
not philosophers in the traditional sense, so much as public intellectuals
- addressed their works more to the educated public than to scholars
- composed histories, novels, dramas, satires, and pamphlets on religious, moral, and political issues
Which philosophe epitomized the spirit of the Enlightenment under the pen name Voltarie?
Francois-Marie Arouet (1694-1778)
Who were the targets of Voltarie’s caustic wit displayed through his writing?
Roman Catholic church and French monarchy
What was Voltaire’s battle cry amidst his long literary campaign against the Roman Catholic church?
“écrasez l’infame” (“crush the damned thing”), referring to the church which he considered an agent of oppression
Some philosophes were conventional __________, and a few turned to __________. Like Voltaire however, most of them were ______.
Christians; atheism; deists
What did deists believe?
- in existence of a god, but denied the supernatural teachings of Christianity, such as Jesus’ virgin birth and his resurrection
- universe was an orderly realm
- powerful god set the universe in motion and established natural laws that govern it, but did not take a personal interest in its development or intervene in its affairs
Most philosophes believed that what would bring about a new era of constant progress?
rational understanding of human and natural affairs
Philosophes believed that progress what the ultimate ideology, and in order to achieve progress what two things must occur?
- natural science would lead to greater human control over the world
- rational sciences of human affairs would lead to individual freedom and the construction of prosperous, just, and equitable society
(human control + individual freedom through rational understanding = PROGRESS)
Enlightenment thought encouraged the __________ of Christian values, with a new set of secular values arising from _______ rather than ________.
replacement; reason; revelation
(reason vs. revelation = replacing Christian values)
Some societies, especially those with weak central leadership, also relied on _________ governments, in which privileged elites supervised public affairs.
aristocratic
How did kings and emperors throughout the world often justify their rule?
- identified themselves with deities
- claimed divine sanction for their authority
What is SOVEREIGNTY?
political supremacy and the authority to rule
The philosophes rarely challenged monarchical rule, but sought instead to do what in order to question long-standing notions of sovereignty?
sought to make kings responsible for the people they governed
- regarded government as the result of a contract between rulers and ruled
What influential theories of contractual government did John Locke assert in his “Second Treatise of Civil Government”?
- government arose in the remote past when people decided to work together, form civil society, and appoint rulers to protect and promote their common interests (simple explanation of how government is the product of people, people coming together!!)
- individuals granted political rights to their rulers but retained personal rights to life, liberty, and property (individuals are to grant authority to rulers, and in the process do not give up their own authority over their own lives to another)
Locke’s political thought relocated sovereignty, removing it from _______ as divine agents and vesting it in the ________ of a society.
rulers; people
Philosophes such as Voltaire represented the persecution of __________ _________ and censorship of ______ ________.
religious minorities; royal officials
Who was a French-Swiss thinker who was prominent advocate of political equality, and identified with simple working people, deeply resenting the privledges enjoyed by elite classes.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
In what influential book did Jean-Jaques Rousseau argue that members of a society were collectively the sovereign?
“The Social Contract” (1762)
Enlightenment thought on freedom, equality, and popular sovereignty reflected the interest of whom?
educated and talented men who sought to increase their influence and enhance their status in society
- of common birth and comfortable means but didn’t envision a society in which they shared political rights with women, children, peasants, laborers, slaves, or people of color
Enlightenment ideals didn’t spread naturally or inevitably but, rather, through what?
when social reformers and revolutionaries claimed rights previously denied to them by ruling authorities and elite classes
From 1754 to 1763, British forces waged an extremely expensive conflict in North America known as what?
the French and Indian War
The French and Indian War merged with what other conflict?
Seven Years’ War (1756-1763)
- British and French forces battled each other in Europe and India as well as North America
- ensured British colonies in North America would prosper
What two factors contributed to the weakening of royal power in the British’s North American colonies?
- geographic distance separated England and the colonies
- inevitable inefficiency of imperial bureaucracy
Faced with staggering financial difficulties arising from the Seven Years’ War, what did the British do to the North American colonies?
Parliament passed legislation to levy new taxes and bring order to far flung trading empire
- expected that North American colonies would bear faire share of the empire’s tax burden and respect imperial trade policies
How did the North American colonies react to Parliament’s levying of new taxes to pay off their debt?
extremely unpopular in North America:
- objected to strict enforcement of navigation laws
- resented imposition of taxes through Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Townshend Act, and Tea Act
- took offense at Quartering Act
What were navigation laws imposed on the North American colonies by British parliament?
required cargoes to travel in British ships and clear British customs
What did the Quartering Act require?
required colonists to provide housing and accommodations for British troops
Through all of their expressions of resistance, what did the colonists argue against British Parliament?
- Parliament couldn’t do anything to the colonies that it couldn’t do in Britain because the Americans were protected by all the common-law rights of the British
- embraced legal traditions demonstrated during English civil war; constitutional precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without Parliament’s consent
Colonists were using Brittain’s own argument against them, essentially pointing out the hypocrisy in their actions
In what document was the concept of an ruler being unable to govern without the consent of the greater population (essentially, English monarch being unable to govern without Parliament’s consent) enshrined?
Bill of Rights (1689)
- established that the consent of Parliament is required for the implementation of any new taxes
British colonists responded to new parliamentary levies with what slogan?
“no taxation without representation”
How else did British colonists rebel against the British crown, and further their “no taxation without representation” cause?
- boycotted British products
- physically attacked British officials
- mounted protests like the Boston Tea Party (1773)
- organized the Continental Congress (1744) which coordinated colonies’ resistance to British policies
In what conflict did the war of American independence begin?
1775- British troops and colonial militia skirmished at the village of Lexington near Boston
On July 4 1776, the Continental Congress adopted a document titled what?
“The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America”–the Declaration of Independence
How did the Declaration of Independence echo John Locke’s contractual theory of government?
it argued that:
- individuals established governments to secure those rights (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness)
- held that governments derive their power and authority from “the consent of the governed”
At the beginning of the war for independence, what advantages did Britain enjoy over the colonial rebels?
- clear lines of authority
- most powerful navy in the world
- competent army
- sizable population of loyalists in the colonies
- overall colonial population with mixed sentiments about revolution
What were the people who supported the American revolution called?
patriots
- they were in the majority of the colonial population
What were the people who were loyal to the British monarchy called?
“loyalists” or “Tories”
- made up 20 percent of the white population of the colonies
Which group was most notably neutral in the conflict between colonists and Britain?
Religious Society of Friends of Pennsylvania, religious movement better known as the Quakers
What did most native Americans east of the Mississippi think about the conflict between the colonists and Britain?
distrusted the colonists, and supported the British cause
Rather than advocating slave revolts, how did the British exploit the colonists’ fear of slave revolts while also reassuring loyal slave owners and wealthy planters that their slave property would remain secure?
commonly criticized by irony, ridicule, or sarcasm, American advocates of independence for their hypocritical calls for freedom while many of their leaders were slave holders
What disadvantages did Britain have while waging a war in a distant land full of opponents?
Britain had to ship supplies and reinforcements across a stormy ocean
Who provided strong and imaginative military leadership for the colonial army?
George Washington (1732-1799)
Which European states helped the rebels chip away at the British hegemony in the Atlantic Ocean basin?
France, Spain, the Netherlands, and several German principalities
How did the American Revolution come to an end?
Under command of George Washington, American and French forces surrounded British forces of Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia
- laid 20-day siege, and British forces surrendered in October 1781
September 1783: diplomats concluded the Peace of Paris, by which British government formally recognized American Independence
What major step in the organization of a republic following the war for American independence was taken in 1787?
a constitutional convention drafted the blueprint for a new system of government–the Constitution of the United States–which emphasized the rights of individuals
What rights did the Constitution grant? How was it non inclusive of all peoples, despite encouraging popular sovereignty?
- guaranteed individual liberties such as freedom of speech, of the press, and of religion
- DID NOT grant political and legal equality to all inhabitants of the newly independent land
- according full rights ONLY to men of property, withheld from landless men, women, slaves, and indigenous peoples
With the extension of _______ rights, American society broadened the implications of the ______________ values of freedom and equality as well as popular sovereignty.
civil; Enlightenment
How was the cause of the French Revolution different than the American Revolution, in terms of what revolutionary leaders fought for?
- Revolutionary leaders of the American Revolution sought independence from British imperial rule, but were content to retain British law and much of their British social and cultural heritage
- French revolutionary leaders refused to be content with or associated with existing society, seeking to replace with new political, social, and cultural structures
What did French revolutionary leaders refer to existing society, the one they wanted to escape and reform, as?
“ancien régime” (“old order”)
What financial disparities did the French royal government face in the 1780s?
- approx. half of royal government’s revenue went to pay off war debts and additional quarter went to French armed forces
- King Louis XVI unabled to raise more revenue from the overburdened peasantry, sought to increase taxes on nobility which was met with great protest
What was the Estates General?
an assembly that represented the entire French population through groups known as estates
What is an estate, and how many were there in the ancien régime?
political classes; there are 3 estates
What did the first estate of the Estates General consist of?
about 100,000 Roman Catholic clergy
What did the second estate of the Estates General consist of?
about 400,000 nobles
What did the third estate of the Estates General consist of?
the rest of the population that wasn’t included in the first two estates: about 24 million serfs, free peasants, and urban residents
Even though the third estate of the Estates General consisted of as many delegates as the other two estates combined, how did their numerical superiority not offer any advantage when voting on issues?
voting took place by estate, one vote for each, not by individuals
In May 1789 King Louis XVI called the Estates General into session at the royal palace of Versailles hoping what?
that new taxes would be authorized
What happened when the King Louis XVI called the Estates General into session at Versailles in May 1789?
Louis never controlled the assembly:
- third estate demanded political and social reform
- first and second estates prevented efforts to push measures through the Estates General
On June 17 1789, what happened to the Estates General?
the third estate took the dramatic step of seceding from the Estates General and proclaiming themselves to be the National Assembly
What happened on July 14 1789 in France?
Parisian crowd stormed Bastille in search for weapons, killed defendants of the jail and arsenal
- news of the violent event spread and sparked insurrections in cities throughout France
What document/declaration articulated the guiding principles of the National Assembly’s broad program of political and social reform?
the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen”
What did the “Declaration of the RIghts of Man and the Citizen” declare?
- proclaimed equality of all men
- sovereignty resided in the people
- asserted individual rights to liberty, property, and security
What three things did the National Assembly take as their goals when reconfiguring French society?
liberty, equality, and fraternity
How did the National Assembly alter the first estate?
- seizing church lands
- abolishing first estate
- defining clergy as civilians
- requiring clergy to take an oath of loyalty to the state
What did the constitution promulgated by the National Assembly assert regarding the King’s rights and role in French society?
king= chief executive official, but deprived of legislative authority
With the efforts of the National Assembly redefining the roles of civilians and the king, France became a ____________ _______ in which men of property (about half the adult population) had the right to vote in elections to choose legislators.
constitutional monarchy
What gave the National National Assembly the pretext to declare war against Austria and Prussia in April 1792, and in the following year, on Spain, Britain, and the Netherlands?
- Efforts by the French nobility to mobilize foreign powers in support of the king
- restoration of the ancien regime
What was the Convention created by French revolutionary leaders out of fear of military defeat and counterrevolution?
a new legislative body elected by universal manhood suffrage, which abolished the monarchy and proclaimed France a republic
What was the universal conscription that drafted people and resources for use in the war against invading forces in France?
levée en masse (“mass levy”)
The Convention made frequent use of the _________ that brought about supposedly human executions by quickly severing a victim’s head.
guillotine
Who was a lawyer by training that emerged during the revolution as a ruthless but unpopular radical, dominating the Committee of Public Safety in France?
Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794)
- known as “The Incorruptible”
What was the Committee of Public Safety?
the executive authority of the Republic
What was the Jacobins party in France? What did they believe?
believed passionately that France needed complete restructuring, and they unleashed a campaign of terror to promote their revolutionary agenda
How did the Jacobins party attempt to eliminate Christianity in French society?
- closing churches
- forcing priests to take wives
- promoted a new “cult of reason” as a secular alternative to Christianity
- reorganized the calendar, to eliminate religious observance
In addition to eliminating Christianity in France, how else did the Jacobin party restructure French society?
- proclaimed the inauguration of new historical era with the Year I
- encouraged citizens to display revolutionary zeal by wearing working-class clothes
- granted increased rights to women by permitting them to inherit property and divorce their husbands (did not permit voting or participation in political affairs)
- made frequent use of the guillotine
What rights did the Jacobins grant to women in French society?
permitted them to inherit property and divorce husbands but did not permit for them to vote or participate in political affairs
Many victims of the Jacobin’s reign of terror were ironically who?
fellow radicals who fell out of favor with Robespierre and the Jacobins
- instability of revolutionary leadership eventually undermined confidence in the regime itself
