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Lecture Notes History of the Modern World Since 1750
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English lecture notes of History of the Modern World Since 1750. More than 50 pages long!
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Lecture - noteslecture 1 - september 6th → inroduction
History & Political Science
The analysis of society became modern → modernity, in the 18th century
big themes of this course:
Modernity, originating in Europe, and its consequences
Political, social, economic and cultural studies
World history, European history, Dutch history
Historical case-studies
Historiography and debate
Dutch history is mostly used as case studies and/or examples.
The Enlightenment as a Historical Concept
The conceptualisation of Enlightenment: Age of Reason → but can also be
conceptualised as more complex definitions → reality is knowable → the
rational, experimental and empirical scientific method will be able to answer
all questions concerning nature and society.
There also is a great believe in progress. (faith in progress)
Descartes
systemic doubt of observation and ideas → importance of logical
reasoning (importance of the scientific method)
Deduction → you look at general truths and then base everything else
out of those truth.
Francis Bacon
Understanding and controlling nature (through scientific method)
Empiricism: reliable knowledge must be based on observations.
Induction
Lecture - notes 1
, The New Atlantis (1627) → work where he described an ideal world in
which scientist have the power
Deism
God is ‘The Watchmaker’ or ‘almighty intelligence’ that just created
the world.
It’s a rational religion
Dismissive of organized religion
Tolerance of religion → religions cannot be discriminated → Voltaire
The Enlightenment as a social and cultural phenomenon
Culture of Salons → formed the Rebupblic of Lettres → were
forefighters for education
Salons had woman as gatekeepers → mme. Condorcet.
Natural Law and Enlightened political Ideas
The Natural law is a moral guideline → through reasoning we discover
fundamental rights and/or wrongs
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
Famous because his stato of nature and explaining of natural
law. → humans have a natural tendency to compete with
eachother → weak against strong, you need a system against
this state of nature.
You have to give away your rights to be protected by the
state.→ the state has to have the monopoly of power →
absolutism
John Locke
more positve to the state of nature → you can have personal
liberty
He was an advocate for the rights of property and labor.
There has to be an internal order but not a large role for
government
There should be representation → constitutionalism
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Lecture - notes 2
, critique of the French class society
The people have a general will, but how do you take the will into
practice? (only can work well in a small state?) → very vague,
many intrepetations.
Social contract theory
Contract amongst people that leads to a general will → that will
is sovereign.
In case of breaking with the social contract by the rulers, the
people can overthrow their leaders.
Montesquieu (1689 - 1755)
Most famous work: L’ Esprit des Lois (1748)
→ Protecting liberty in society → doing it by introducing the Trias
Politca (seperate powers → legislative, executive, and judicial
powers). → balancing act between the powers.
Condorcet (1743-1794)
Condorcet was called a “Intellectual in politics”
Rights of woman:
There is a Natural equality
Differences between men and women are based on social
norms, context and opression.
Enlightened Despotism
It was a secular perspective by hereditary rulers:
centralising many aspects of society → laws, infrastructure,
government, taxes
It was driven by military necessity (wars → strong rulers) and by the
philosophes.
Because of the need for strong leaders, there was a certain limit to the
abilities to reform hierarchical society. → as well as war, social unrest
and problems must be catalysed.
lecture 2 - september 8th → Revolutionary Times
Industrial revolution in Enland
Lecture - notes 3
, Proces from moving from hand labour → industrialized labour
factor: Technological innovations and the increase of scale:
agriculture was accelerated by technological innovation → James
Hargreaves’ spinning jenny
factor: the gradual disappearance of Commons and Open Fields
Rising prices of wool,wheat → agricultaral goods → more invention →
led to enclosures in England → caused more private ownership in
agriculture
parliament anacted laws to facilitate the Enclosure Movement
led to the effect of technological innovations.
led to greater production and profit motive
Jethro Tull had a great impact on the enclosures → brought new
technologies
factor: new scientific knowledge about the importance of hygiene:
use of soap
improved hygiene in obstetrics: decrease in infant and maternal
mortality-rates
Development of smallpox vaccine (Edward Jenner 1796)
This all leads to the demographic transition → increase in population
Consequences of this all:
Migration of ‘excess’ labor from rural areas to urban areas →
urbanisation
Further increase of production and scale
This led to an industrial working class
Laissez-faire capitalism, factory labor and poverty
Lecture - notes 4
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