Mod Wrld Civ Midterm

Second estate

Consisted of the nobility who helped many of the leading positions in government, military, law courts, and higher church offices; most exempt from taxes

Scientific revolution

Exposed Europeans to a new way of viewing the universe and their place in it. Affected only a small number of Europe's educated elite. Caused a dramatic reexamination of all aspects of life

Treaty of Utrecht

ended the War of Spanish Succession; French gave up some of their American possession to the British

Percent of nobles vs. percent of peasants in Europe in the eighteenth century

2-3% nobles and 85% peasants

Separation of Powers

A doctrine enunciated by Montesquieu in the eighteenth century that separate executive, legislative, and judicial powers serve to limit and control each other

Scientific Method

A method of seeking knowledge through inductive principles; uses experiments and observations to develop generalizations

Rococo

A style that developed from the Baroque and spread throughout Europe by the 1730s; emphasized grace, charm, and gentle action

What were two main reasons for the growth in population in Europe in the eighteenth century?

Falling death rate and more plentiful food

The philosophers of the Middle Ages had used the ideas of...

Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Christianity to form the idea of the geocentric theory of the universe.

What was the issue with a nation's army being at war?

Army could not prevent a rebellion because they were far away.

What were some of the other problems facing the French monarchy?

Bad harvests resulted in food shortages, rising prices for food and other goods, and unemployment in cities

What was carnival?

Began after Christmas and lasted until the start of Lent; time of great indulgence in food, drink, and love life

Kepler

Brilliant German mathematician and astronomer who came up with the laws of planetary motion and destroyed the basic structure of the Ptolemaic system

What leads to the American Revolution?

Britain won the Seven Year's War. However, war is very expensive and Britain is left in a great debt. Britain decides to tax the colonies in America which angers the colonists because Britain is not following the "no taxation without representation" rule. This leads to the American Revolution.

Who won the French and Indian War?

British and Colonies

How do the ideas of the scientific revolution and enlightenment spread?

By word of mouth

Estates-General

Called by Louis XVI when France was on the verge of a complete financial collapse; consisted of representatives from the three orders of French society; Third Estate received double representation

Rationalism

a system of thought based on the belief that human reason and experience are the chief sources of knowledge

How was rebellion avoided?

Colonization

First estate

Consisted of the clergy who were exempt from taxes; radically divided between the higher clergy and the parish priests

Third estate

Commoners and majority of French society; craftspeople, shopkeepers, peasants; also included the bourgeoisie

What were the root causes of the French Revolution?

Condition of French Society

The church banned __________________ because it threatened not only scripture, but also an entire conception of the universe

Copernicien system

The concentric spheres were made up of...

Crystalline, a transparent substance and moved in circular orbits around the earth.

Cartesian dualism

Descarte's principle of the separation of mind and matter (and mind and body) that enabled scientists to view matter as something separate from themselves that could be investigated by reason

Who were the first to set up settlements in North America?

Dutch

Why did the Third Estates rebel from the Estates-General?

Each Estate was getting one vote as a whole which made it easy for the First and Second Estate to outvote the Third Estate. The Third Estate wanted voting by head count to make it more fair.

Maria Theresa

Empress of Austria who managed to make administrative reforms that helped centralize the Austrian Empire

Hudson

English explorer hired by the Dutch East India Company discovered the river that bears his name

Wollstonecraft

English female writer and feminist who argued with male Enlightenment thinkers such as Rousseau; wrote Vindication of the Rights of Woman; viewed by many as the founder of modern European feminism

Newton

English mathematician who defined the three laws of motion; wrote the Principia at Cambridge University; came up with the world-machine concept; has been called the greatest genius of the Scientific revolution

Hobbs

English philosopher who believed in royal absolutism; major work was The Leviathan; believed that all humans were bad; absolute monarch

Locke

English philosopher who made a social contract the included that people had the natural rights to life, liberty, and property; known for liberal views; wrote Essay concerning Human Understanding; tabula rasa; believed that people are good and are molded by their environment; constitutional monarch

What is another phrase for enlightened absolutism?

Enlightened desposition

What three continents was the Seven Year's War fought on?

Europe, Asia, and North America

the seven years war

Fought between France/Russia and Prussia- Frederick kept fighting against heavy odds and was saved when Peter III took Russian throne and called off the war; led to both the American and French Revolution

Taille

France's chief tax (land tax)

What was the American name for the portion of the seven years war fought in North America?

French and Indian War

Champlain

French explorer who established a settlement at Quebec; caused French to seriously consider Canada as a colony

Cartier

French explorer who explored the St. Lawrence river and laid claim to Canada as a French possession

Watteau

French painter who painted Return from Cythera

Fragonard

French painter who painted The Swing

Voltaire

French philosopher and writer known as the greatest figure of the Enlightenment; criticized traditional religion and supported deism; wrote The Ignorant Philosopher and Candide

Rousseau

French philosopher who argued that people had become enslaved to the government by being too focused on their own self-will; wrote Discourse on the Origins of the Inequality of Mankind, The Social Contract, and Émile

Diderot

French philosopher who condemned Christianity and wrote the best-selling Encyclopedia, or Classified Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Trades

Descartes

French philosopher who said he would accept only things that his reason said were true; famous words in his work Discourse on Method were "I think, therefore I am"; focused on the absolute dualism between mind and matter; has been called the father of modern rationalism

Montesquieu

French political philosopher who distinguished three basic forms of government: republic, monarchy, and despotism; contributed checks and balances and the separation of powers; wrote The Spirit of the Laws

Where is modern-day Prussia?

Germany

Neumann

German architect and Rococo painter who is known as one of the greatest architects of the eighteenth century; designed the pilgrimage church known as the Vierzehnheiligen in Southern Germany

Winkelmann

German female astronomer who was denied a position at the Berlin Academy even though she was highly qualified

Kant

German philosopher who said "Have courage to use your own intelligence!"

Patrician

Great landowners who were the ruling elites of the cities

What were some of the results from the increase in overseas trading patterns?

Increase in slaves from the plantations and England and Northern Europe experiencing a consumer revolution

Why did the Catholic Church condemn Copernicanism?

It threatened not only Scripture but the entire conception of the universe.

Galilei

Italian astronomer and mathematician who was the first European to make systematic observations of the heavens by means of a telescope; published The Starry Messenger

Which Austrian ruler actually sought to make changes based on Enlightenment ideas?

Joseph II

Louis XVI

King of France from 1774-1792; very inexperienced and was king at the age of 20; wife was Marie Antoinette; forced to call the Estates General

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité

Liberty, equality, fraternity

What was the immediate cause of the French Revolution?

Near collapse of government finances

world-machine concept

Newton's conception of the universe as one huge, regulated, and uniform machine that operated according to natural laws in absolute time, space, and motion.

Smith

One of the founders of the modern discipline of economics; said that government had only three basic functions: protect society from invasion, defend its citizens from injustice, and keep up certain public works; wrote Wealth of Nations

William Pitt the Elder

One of the key reasons England won the Seven Year's War; served as prime minister under George I

Wedgewood

Owned the most noticeable large showroom in London

Laissez-faire

Policy that government should interfere as little as possible in the nation's economy; French for "leave it alone"

Copernicus

Polish mathematician and astronomer who came up with the heliocentric theory

What are the pros and cons of Diderot's Encyclopedia?

Pros: it had a lot of good information that people did not have other ways of knowing Cons: extremely long; very expensive to print because you needed a printing press so only the wealthy could read it

Fredrick the Great

Prussian king who was one of the best educated and most cultured monarchs of the eighteenth century; created a massive Prussian army; excluded and taxed Jews and attempted to improve the lives of peasants

Marie Antoinette

Queen of France, wife of King Louis XVI; she was queen during the French Revolution and disliked by many French citizens. She was found guilty of treason and guillotined

Catherine II the Great

Queen of Russia who favored the nobles by exempting them from taxes and increased the measures against peasantry; expanded Russia west and south

What is enlightened despotism?

Rule by a monarch or autocratic ruler who governs with the goal of improving the lives of the citizens.

Feminism

belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes; also, organized activity to advance women's rights

Joseph II

Son of Maria Theresa who made too many reforms to the Austrian Empire; abolished serfdom, supported public education, abrogated the death penalty, and established the principle of equality of all before the law

What was an important aspect in the growth in publishing and reading in the eighteenth century?

The development of magazines for the general public

What two contradictions did Wollstonecraft point out in her Vindication on the Rights of Woman?

The subjection of woman to men was wrong and woman have reason so they should have the same rights for education and political life as men

Pop culture

The unofficial written and unwritten culture of the masses, much of which is passed down orally; centers on group activities and recreation such as festivals

Why is it significant that soldiers belong to the Third Estate?

They have just helped the Americans break away from their corrupt king which makes them want more equality and fairness

What was the social structure of the Old Regime?

Three estates

What were the three basic functions that Smith said the government had?

To protect from invasion (with an army), defend its citizens from injustice (with a police force), and to keep up certain public works that private individuals could not afford (such as roads and canals).

Bourgeoisie

Upper part of the Third Estate; merchants, industrialists, bankers, lawyers, public office holders, doctors, and writers; many members had their own set of grievances

Jefferson

Wrote the Declaration of Independence

Bastille

a royal armory filled with arms & ammunition; also a state prison

Rentiers

a person who lives on income from property and is not personally involved in its operation

The starry messenger

a series of newsletters written by galilei that made Europeans aware of a new picture of the universe

Cottage industry

a system of textile manufacturing in which spinners and weavers worked at home in their cottages using raw materials supplied to them by capitalist entrepreneurs

Salutary Neglect

an English policy of relaxing the enforcement of regulations in its colonies in return for the colonies' continued economic loyalty

Enlightened absolutism

an absolute monarchy in which the ruler follows the principles of the Enlightenment by introducing reforms for the improvement of society, allowing freedom of speech and the press, permitting religious toleration, expanding education, and ruling in accordance with the laws.

Enlightenment

an eighteenth-century intellectual movement, led by the philosophes, that stressed the application of reason and the scientific method to all aspects of life.

Why did the church ban the Copernicien system?

because it threatened not only scripture, but also an entire conception of the universe

Deism

belief in God as the creator of the universe who, after setting it in motion, ceased to have any direct involvement in it and allowed it to run according to its own natural laws

Tabula rasa

blank mind

Festival

broad name used to cover a variety of celebrations such as community festivals that celebrated saint feast days, annuals festivals like Christmas, and the ultimate festival, Carnival

Natural rights

certain inalienable rights to which all people are entitled, including the right to life, liberty, and property; freedom of speech and religion; and equality before the law

reason, natural law, hope, progress

common words to the thinkers of the Enlightenment

Philosophes

intellectuals of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment who believed in applying a spirit of rational criticism to all things, including religion and politics, and who focused on improving and enjoying this world, rather than on the afterlife; literary people, economists, and social reformers

Agricultural revolution

the application of new agricultural techniques that allowed for a large increase in productivity in the eighteenth century

Geocentric Theory

the idea that the earth is at the center of the universe and that the sun and other celestial objects revolve around the earth

Heliocentric theory

the idea that the sun (not the earth) is at the center of the universe

High culture

the literary and artistic culture of the educated and wealthy ruling classes

Old order/old regime

the political and social system of France in the 18th century before the revolution

Scientific revolution

the transition from the medieval worldview to a largely secular, rational, and materialistic perspective; began in the seventeenth century and was popularized in the eighteenth