European History
1. Introduction: European modernity
I. Deconstructing European History
II. Deconstruct: critically interrogate a particular concept, historical event, development, social
phenomena,…
i. Deconstructing Europe
A. Places and spaces of Europe
▫ Europe:
♦ As a continent
♦ The symbolic geography of Europe versus the physical geography of Europe
♦ As a civilization
♦ As a project
♦ As a memory
♦ As an inheritance
♦ As a responsibility
ii. Deconstructing History
A. Why study history?
▫ To escape the present, nostalgia, a longing for "what is forever lost"
♦ Risk: the "pastness of the past" and overstating rupture/discontinuity
▫ To learn lessons from the past - how to deal with moral dilemma
♦ Risk: biases in what counts as the "great men and women of history"
▫ To identify structural laws - teleology (Marx/Fukuyama)
♦ Risk: causality and the risk of overdetermination
▫ For political or ideological purposes
♦ Examples: a selection mechanism in higher education; nationalist projects;
post-colonial "reclaiming of the past"
♦ Risk: conflation science and politics
▫ Historicism and the limitations of linear and singular conceptions of history:
♦ Imaginary "waiting rooms": one man's present becomes another man's
future
a. To understand change and how "the present came to be"
♦ Understand continuity and change
♦ Understand institutionalisation and revolution/transformation
b. Put the present day into perspective, to dismantle its "for granted" character
To acknowledge the power struggles that are the basis of today's
institutions, ways of life, etc.
To question the uniformity of the European experience
To "provincialize" Europe; to account for multiple paths/meanings of
"modernity"
♦ Dipesh Chakrabarty (2008): critique on "historicism"
◊ Historicism = the idea that "to understand anything, it has to be seen
both as a unity and in its historical development"
◊ As if there is a singular, linear trajectory to modern civilisation
♦ Of particular relevance for the 19th century - "The birth of modern Europe"
◊ A tendency to mask the heterogeneity of the "European" experience
◊ A tendency to attribute a singular meaning to "modernity" and a
singular trajectory to "modernity"
B. The long 19th Century
,▫ 1789 the collapse of French absolutist monarch - the eruption of the First World
War in 1914
♦ From a society of orders ("estates") to a society of classes
♦ Popular sovereignty and new modes of political legitimation
▫ Economic and social transformation
▫ Demographic explosion and mass migration
▫ Dramatic changes in the political landscape
♦ Birth of new European powers: unification of Italy and Germany
♦ The consolidation of nation-states and imperialism
♦ The incorporation of the masses in politics
▫ The normative pulse of Europe's narrative of "modernity"
♦ The 19th century is often conceived as the era that put the "Enlightenment
ideals" into practice
♦ But:
"What is the Enlightenment? There is no official answer, because the era
named by Kant's essay was never demarcated by opening and closing
ceremonies like the Olympics, nor are its tenets stipulated in an oath or
creed”
a. century modernity
♦ Henry Martyn Llolyd (2018)
"On either side of the Atlantic, groups of public intellectuals have issued a
call to arms. The besieged citadel in need of defending, they say, is the one
that safeguards science, facts and evidence-based policy. The white knights
of progress - such as the psychologist Steven Pinker and the neuroscientist
Sam Harris - condemn the apparent resurgence of passion, emotion and
superstition in politics. The bedrock of modernity, they tell us, is the human
capacity to curb disruptive forces with cool-headed reason. What we need
is a reboot of the Enlightenment, now"
◊ "White knights" present a selective reading of the Enlightenment
◊ Enlightenment thinkers, especially French intellectuals placed a high
value on the role of sensibility, feeling and desire
♦ Hegel (1770-1831): emphasis on rationality produces citizens who are
alienated, dispassionate and estranged from nature
♦ David Hume (1711-1776): morality is grounded in sense-experience: we
judge the good/beautiful directly and without need of reason
♦ 19th century romanticism, nationalism and fascism
b. Modernity, what is in a name?
01 A category of historical periodisation
The modernisation paradigm (sociology, 1960s)
◊ Modernisation
= the transformation from a traditional, rural, agrarian society to a
secular, urban industrial society
Macro-structural changes:
Rationalisation, industrialisation and urbanisation (from
feudalism to capitalism)
Birth of nation-states and institutions of democratisation
(representative democracy, modern bureaucracy, public
education)
Micro-individual changes - birth of "modern man"
Reason-giving rather than tradition and habit
Individualism, freedom and formal equality, meritocracy
, Faith in social, scientific and technological progress and
human perfectibility and rationality
02 A quality of social experience
◊ Modernity
= the self-definition of a generation about its own technological
innovations, governance, and socio-economics
= a particular relationship to time, characterised by intense
historical discontinuity or rupture, openness to the novelty of the
future, and a heightened sensitivity to what is unique about the
present
◊ Reinhart Koselleck (1979) Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical
Time
"der Moderne", "les temps modernes", "Neuzeit", "nieuwe tijd": a
temporal distinction, yet one claiming a distinctive breach with the
past
A historical consciousness and its transformation into a general
model of social experience
An ability to conceive of a future as distinct from the present
and past
18th Century Enlightenment: a qualitative claim about the
newness of the times; valorising substantive changes
03 An (incomplete) project
◊ Modernity = a paradoxical form of temporality
In a sociohistorical sense, all modernity's grow old
To remain "off today", modernity needs to constantly re-establish
itself in relation to an ever-expanding past
◊ As a result of such "updates", modernity: becomes less of a concept to
describe a historical period
◊ Becomes more of a qualitative criterion to express a desired
present/future
◊ As part of the project of "updating" our relationship to the past:
There is a tendency to:
Associate meanings of "modernity", "modern man" with
normative values, ideals and beliefs
Re-interpret the past as a logical and orderly path to a
cherished present
Define modernity in terms of "progress" or "development”
- "progress" = defined in terms of the projection of certain
people's present as other people's futures
◊ This course:
= an attempt to:
Describe the factual specificity of 19th Century Europe
Account for the diversity of European experiences
Showcase the limitations of determinist accounts of
"modernisation"
Acknowledge the non-linear character of key evolutions and
trends
2. Interpreting the French Revolution
I. Context of the French Revolution (1789 - 1815)
o 1789 July 14, the storming of Bastille
, i. Context
introduction
▫ Not the first revolution in its kind
♦ Glorious Revolution (1688-1689, England)
◊ Abdication of Catholic king and replacement by Protestant king
♦ The American revolution (1775-1783)
◊ American independence from Great-Britain
▫ Impact of these revolutions:
♦ England: breach with tradition of "divine right to rule"
◊ If no Roman Catholic could be king, then no kingship could be
unconditional
♦ USA: rights of representation and revolt against "unjust" rule
John Locke (1689) - Two Treatises of Government
▫ Two main premises
♦ No government can be justified by one's appeal to the divine right of Kings
♦ Legitimate government needs to be founded on the consent of the
governed
▫ Social contract theorist - justification for the "state":
♦ State of Nature - rational man
♦ Civil government founded on popular sovereignty
♦ Ideas of 'popular sovereignty'
Run-up to the French revolution
▫ Economics - Financial bankruptcy
♦ Louis XIV mass expenditures - Palace of Versailles
♦ French campaign in support of the American Revolution
♦ Seven Year War (England/France): loss of many colonies
♦ Poor harvests, famine, and already harsh taxes and income inequalities
▫ Politics: struggle with provincial "parliaments"
♦ Louis XVI: inherited struggle with provincial courts who held the right to
appeal to the King's edicts
▫ The dismissal of Jacques Necker, controller-general of Finance
♦ Necker was critical of tax exemptions for nobility and clergy
♦ Published King's finances
♦ Favours borrowing money abroad, rather than increasing taxes on
commoners
▫ The gamble of Louis XVI (1787-1788)
♦ Proposes a "land tax" on all land-holders
♦ "Assembly of Notables" rejects the King's proposal
♦ King attempts to bypass them; by calling for a meeting of the Estates-
General
◊ Instigates discussions on institutional design, leading to the French
Revolution
ii. Ancien Régime system
Economics
▫ Demographic growth
♦ 1700: 20 million - 1780: approaching 25 to 28 million
▫ An agricultural nation
♦ 80% of the French people live on the country side
♦ 20% live in urban areas; only eight cities with a population over 50.000
people
