Chapter 19,Chapter 18-History

Sovereignty

authority of states that possess a monopoly over the instruments of justice and the use of force within clearly defined boundaries and in which private armies present no threat to central control; 17th century European states

Enlightenment

The influential intellectual and cultural movement of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that introduced new ways of thinking based on the use of reason, the scientific method, and progress.

30 Years' War

a large-scale conflict extending from 1618 to 1648 that pitted Protestants against Catholics in central Europe, but also involved dynastic interests, notably of Spain and France

salons

Regular social gatherings held by talented and rich Parisian women in their homes, where philosophes and their followers met to discuss literature, science, and philosophy.

enclosure

The controversial process of fencing off common land to create privately owned fields that increased agricultural production at the cost of reducing poor farmers' access to land.

Copernican hypothesis

The idea that the sun, not the Earth, was the center of the universe.

Cossacks

free groups and outlaw armies living on the borders of Russian territory from the 14th century onward. By the end of the 16th century they had formed an alliance with the Russian state

Haskalah

A Jewish Enlightenment movement led by Prussian philosopher Moses Mendelssohn.

general will

A concept associated with Rousseau, referring to the common interests of all the people, who have replaced the power of the monarch.

enlightened absolutism

Term coined by historians to describe the rule of eighteenth-century monarchs, who without renouncing their own absolute authority, adopted Enlightenment ideals of rationalism, progress, and tolerance.

economic liberalism

The theory that the pursuit of self-interest in a competitive market suffices to improve living conditions, rendering government intervention unnecessary and undesirable, associated with Adam Smith.

Absolutism

a political system common to early modern Europe in which monarch claimed exclusive power to make and enforce laws, without checks by other institutions; this system was limited in practice by the need to maintain legitimacy and compromise with elites

cottage industry

manufacturing with hand tools in peasant cottages and work sheds, a form of economic activity that became important in 18th century Europe

Puritans

members of a 16th and 17th century reform movement within the Church of England that advocates purifying it of Roman Catholic elements, such as bishops, elaborate ceremonials, and wedding rings

Navigation Acts

mid-17th century English mercantilist laws that greatly restricted other countries rights to trade with England and its colonies

Divine right of kings

the belief propagated by absolutist monarchs that they derived their power from God and were only answerable to him

Moral Economy

the early modern European view that community needs predominate over competition and profit and that necessary goods should thus by sold at a fair price

philosophes

A group of French intellectuals who proclaimed that they were bringing the light of knowledge to their fellow creatures in the Age of Enlightenment.

law of inertia

A law formulated by Galileo that states that motion, not rest, is the natural state of an object, and that an object continues in motion forever unless stopped by some external force.

Protestant Reformation

A religious reform movement that began in the early 16 century and split the W. Christian Church

empiricism

A theory of inductive reasoning that calls for acquiring evidence through observation and experimentation rather than reason and speculation.

public sphere

An idealized intellectual space that emerged in Europe during the Enlightenment. Here, the public came together to discuss important social, economic, and political issues.

Jesuits

Members of the Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius Loyola and approved by the papacy in 1540, whose goal was the spread of the Roman Catholic faith through humanistic schools and missionary activity

law of universal gravitation

Newton's law that all objects are attracted to one another and that the force of attraction is proportional the object's quantity of matter and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Bill of Rights of 1689

a bill passed by Parliament and accepted by William and Mary that limited the powers of British monarchs and affirmed those of Parliament

Constitutionalism

a form of gov't in which power is limited by law and balanced between the authority and power of the gov't, on the one hand, and the rights and liberties of the subject or citizen, on the other; it includes constitutional monarchies and republics

Republicans

a form of gov't in which there is no monarch and power rests in the hands of the people as exercised through elected representatives

Mercantilism

a system of economic regulations aimed at increasing the power of the state derived from the belief that a nation's international power was based on its wealth, specifically its supply of gold and silver

Sensationalism

an idea, espoused by John Locke, that all human ideas and thoughts are produced as a result of sensory impressions

Deism

belief in a distant, non-interventionist deny, shared by many Enlightenment thinkers