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Seminar notes Modern History
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Seminar notes Modern History
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Week 2 08/09/2020SEMINAR 1
1789-1914: Why “modern” history (Blanning)
- Laid the foundations of our era
- Modern politics (French Revolution)
- Modern economics (Industrial Revolution)
- Formation of modern nation-states (Germany)
- Secularisation (but also a religious revival)
- Rapid change
- International peace
- Modern Ideology
- “the best century ever”
What’s so modern about Modern History
- Modern = break with (ancient) past
- (accelerating) sense of time
- Modern = new
- Modern = better
- Modern = progress
- Modern = European
—> other ways to view modern and modernity: to the 15th century Italians, they were modern; in
Chinese history, modernity begins in 1830 when the British attacked them with opioids; Modernity
begins in the UK with the Industrial revolution which didn’t reach the rest of Europe until much
later.
- Modern is used to indicate something that often implicates European developments.
Contradiction Blanning
- Industrial development, but most people still lived in the countryside
- International peace, but wars and violence still occurred.
- “Small” wars don’t count (only general wars)
- Colonial welfare
- Limitless optimism about the future, but at the same time, also of peerless pessimism
- Liberal century and conservative century
Legacies of the French Revolution
- Abolition of feudalism
- Separation of church and state
- Inalienable civil and human rights
- Abolition of slavery
- Government under, not outside constitution and popular control
- Modern politics (Left and Right)
- Major political ideologies (nationalism, conservatism, liberalism, socialism, communism).
- Political terror and terrorism
Terms to know for exam
- Estates general
- National Assembly
- Jacobins
- Girondins
- Directory
- Thermidorian direction
- Considerate assembly
- Robespierre
- Thermidorian reaction (step back from the most anti-aristocratic power)
—> group these terms in phases
1
, Phases French Revolution: beginning of the FR, moderate phase, radical phase —> it ends with
Napoleons coup d’etat.
Origins of the French Revolution
- Impact of American Revolution
- Example of how things could be done di erently
- War debts and economic crisis (famine, bad harvests)
- Important: France was not the only country with major debts.
- In other words, why did this happen in France?
- —> reform to modernise French government failed
- Public wanted more democracy/ control
- Elite dissatis ed
Week 2 10/09/2020
SEMINAR 2
What is Europe, what is the west and where does it stop?
- The 19th century was an European century, you can’t not look at europe.
- When did modern europeans rst start referring to the continent as europe?
- Europe is a greek word.
- The region now know as europe was referred to as christendom until the reformation
(the words were synonyms).
Stearns - The long 19th century 1789-1914
- Why ‘long’ why not short?
- Politically: it starts with the French Revolution
- Developments last throughout the period.
Hobsbawm
- Very in uentaial
- The long 19th century
- Decicated marxist all his life.
Why do O’Gorman and Stearns reject the long 19th century
- O’Gorman
- British history
- British perspective, anglo-centric.
- Long 18th century > long 19th century, he proposes a short 19th century.
- Sharp break in Franco-centric history, but the UK did not experience this, and therefore
propose a long 18th century rather than a long 19th century.
- Long 19th century
- Stearns
- Global history
Did the French Revolution mark the transition from feudalism to capitalism in France?
- The peasants were the reason that feudalism fell.
The marxist view of the French Revolution
- The revolution was class con ict: bourgeoisie overthrew aristocracy / clergy because
capitalism made them more dynamic and powerful. Thus, it marked the transition form
feudalism to capitalism.
- There were actually four revolutions within the French Revolution
- Aristocratic revolution against the crown (1787-1788)
- Bourgeoise revolution against the aristocracy (1788-1789)
- Working class revolution against the bourgeoise (july-august 1789)
- Peasant revolution against feudalism (august 1789)
Venal o ce —> an o ce you boy, something pre-modern.
2
flffi fi ffi flfi ff
, Negative case against the marxian view (4 mins part 4)
- …
You always need to make a positive case as well instead of just a negative case.
- Short term view: it was the revolutionary … itself that produces the class crashes.
- Opposes the marxist view
Why does this declaration discuss the rights of man and the rights of the citoyen?
- Civil rights ew from inalienable natural rights
Music sources
- Hayden represents 18th century
- Beethoven represents romantic music in the 19th century
- Rock and roll of classical music.
- It became the epitome of middleclassness later on
Week 3 14/09/2020
SEMINAR 1
Archive
- Not marked
- Just do it, you have to hand it in
Writing assignment 1
- 400 words
- There are four components you need to identify
- Theory
- Research question
- Arguments / examples
- Conclusion
- How does the author attempt to answer his research question and with which
arguments.
- It won’t be marked, but you must give peer feedback
- Deadline: 17 September 2020, hand it in under assignments
Why Europe? Why England?
- Economic: it became safer to trade and invest in the 18th century
- Cultural: relatively literate population able to apply theoretical insights of scienti c revolution
- Relatively high number of literacy.
- Agricultural / demographic: growth in agricultural production > (high) population growth.
- Political:
- Strong, relatively centralised, scal military states with highly developed legal systems
to protect private property
- Political division fostering competition.
-
Explain the di erent speeds between industrialisation
- Began in england, didn’t spread to the continet until 1850s
- Belgium then germany then silesia (poland).
- Didn’t industrialise until a century after england did.
- The Netherlands was bypassed, they did not industrialise until the late 19th century, which
was odd because they were a rich country.
- Britain was rst the continent followed.
- Not why europe, but why britain?
Was the industrial revolution a big bang or a more drawn out process?
- 100 year period in your textbook —> longer process.
- New energy, rst they primarily used muscle power and water.
3
flfi fi ff fi fi
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