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Summary History of the modern world since 1750 mid-term (hismo)
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Extensive notes for the mid-term exam in HisMo. Received and 7.8 for this exam.
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Lecture 1. EnlightenmentCh.8
Intro
8.35 - The Philosophes
Montesquieu:
● Political argument that forms of government varied according to climate and
circumstance
● Against royal absolutism (despotism), advocated for separation and balance of political
powers
○ Admired english constitution and its feudal liberties
Voltaire:
● Freedom of thought
○ Based on Bacon’s inductive philosophy: Newton; Lock
● Religious toleration
○ Natural religion and morality
○ Saw organised religion as human inventions
● “Enlightened government”
○ Freedom of thought and religion with development of reason and science -
material and technical progress
Rousseau:
● Civilisation as the source of evil
○ Free life in a “state of nature”
● Impulse as more reliable than judgement (spontaneous judgement vs critical thought)
○ Come up as a big influence of Romanticism
● Social Contract
○ (Hobbes) state of nature is a brutal state without law or morality - human evil is a
consequence and byproduct of evil of society
○ Understanding of all individuals surrendering their natural liberty to each other
and fusing own wills to a general will to accept this as a final ruling will
● Prophet of democracy and nationalism
Political Economists (physiocrats):
● Close to government as administrators / advisors
, ● Political economy: belief that scientific methods should be used to understand human
societies and nature, in this case how to maximise efficiency in uses of resources to
create strong foundations for an expanding national commerce
● Adam Smith: purpose of increasing national wealth by reduction of barriers hindering
this
○ Limit functions of government to defense, international security and provision of
reasonable laws and fair law courts
○ Innovation of enterprise ny privatisation rather than state ownership
○ Free market and trade
○ Pin factory
8.36 - Enlightened despotism
● Grew out of earlier forms of absolutism established in France and Russia.
Characteristically the enlightened despots did things the king had earlier done, such as draining
marshes, building infrastructure, codifying the law etc. The difference was mainly in the attitude
and tempo. It was secular, and wanted to be both rational and reformist.
- In other words: an acceleration of the old centralizing institution of monarchy that now
justified itself in reason and secular usefulness.
Enlightened despotism changed the idea of the state.
They viewed it as an abstract and public authority that public officials exercised to promote and
protect the interests of a whole country.
Became a trend both because of the writers and philosophers, but also as a consequence of the
great wars of the 18th century. The wars created a need for concentration and rationalization of
government power.
● The failure of enlightened despotism in France
The enlightened despotism had the most far reaching influence on the larger continental
countries, such as France and Austria, Prussia and Russia. It had the least success in France.
The lack of taxes on the properties of the church and no land taxes on nobles resulted in France
having a chronically poor government. Most efforts to increase taxes failed.
- Maupeou government
,Maupeou was called toi chancellorship by Louis XV. He aborgated the old parlaments and set
up new ones in their place. By doing so he divided power by for example taking away the judges
property rights in their seats. Furthermore he made law and judicial procedure more uniform
throughout the whole country.
The new parliament wasn't popular and the next king abolished it. The abolishment made
reform impossible, enlightened despotism had failed in France.
● Austria
The European wars of 1740s led to a consolidation of the Bohemian and Austrian provinces and
the former local self-governments were replaced by a unified state government. The area of
Bohemia, Moravia and the Austrian duchies became the largest area of free trade on the
european continent.
The ruler of Austria, Maria Theresa, achieved more to alleviate serfdom than any other
eastern-European ruler during the 18th century, with the exception of her own son, Joseph 2.
The characters and limitations of enlightened despotism can best be seen during the reign of
Joseph 2. His way of acting: “the greatest good for the greatest number”. Amongst other things
he made the state more secular and granted equal civil rights to the Jews.
He was a revolutionary emperor and was a representative of the age of
Enlightenment.
● Prussia
Frederick the Great reigned Prussia from 1740 to 1786. He is known as one of the most
eminent of enlightened despots. He protected religious freedom, and decreed, although not
achieved, a modicum of elementary education for all children of all classes.
8.37
Ch.11.53 - Romanticism
● Reaction to enlightenment
, ○ Consequence of 1815 and industrialisation led to new systematic ways to
approach and describe political, cultural and social beliefs (all the “isms” not just
romanticism) - then used to create different public movements
● Theory of literature and arts against single sided rationality
○ Focus on nature of human knowledge, relation of thought & feeling, creative and
individual idiosyncrasies
● Conceptualisation: to liberate itself, humanity needs to follow its heart and not only
rationality; nature is living and not controllable
Lecture 2: The dual revolution
Introduction to Chapters 9 & 11
- Sections 52, 41, 42, 43, 69
The French revolution
Introduction to chapter 9
● 1789
● The most monumental upheaval of the revolutionary age
● To this day an influence on development of political parties and ideological
conflicts all over the world.
- Atlantic revolutions (1760s-1860s), slave uprising in Saint-Domingue
(1791), revolutionary movements in Latin-America (1808 onwards)
41: social and cultural backgrounds
● The old regime:
- Monarchy with hierarchical organization of the social and political
institutions.
- Legally aristocratic and in some ways feudal.
● The three states:
- The individuals legal rights and personal prestige depended on the category
1. The clergy
- Deeply involved in the prevailing social system
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