WOH Exam 2
the transatlantic slave trade
began in 1518 when spanish king Charles I authorized traders to bring African slaves to New World colonies. the exchange of peoples captured in local and ethnic wars within sub-Saharan Africa.
sans-culottes
the laboring poor of Paris, so-called because the men wore trousers instead of the knee breeches of the aristocracy and middle class; the term came to refer to the militant radicals of the city. The group was made of the laboring poor and the petty traders. they demanded radical political action to guarantee daily bread. June 2, 1793, armed sans-culottes and the Mountain invaded the convention and forced its deputies to arrest 29 Girondist for treason.
middle passage
african slaves' voyage across the Atlantic to the Americas, a long and treacherous journey during which slaves endured appealing and often deadly conditions.
The Mountain
led by robespierre, the french national convention's radical faction, which seized legislative power in 1793. they wanted to send the king to the guillotine
The Three Estates and the Estates General
traditional representative body of the three estates of France that met in 1789 in response to imminent state bankruptcy. First state of clergy, second estate of nobility, third estate of commoners. legally divided into groups with special privileges; nobles enjoyed exemption from taxation and exclusive rights; special burdens on peasantry commoners
Reign of Terror
the period from 1793-1794, during which Robespierre's Committee of Public Safety tried and executed thousands suspected of treason and a new revolutionary culture was imposed. "enemies of the nation" for political crimes.
Maria Theresa, Joseph II, Leopold II
(1740-1780) traditional power politics, and a little bit of enlightenment teachings. Her son, Joseph drew on Enlightenment ideals, earning the title of "revolutionary emperor." He abolished serfdom in 1781. His brother, Leopold, cancelled all of his radical edicts in order to re-establish order
Rousseau's general will
His political theory, "The Social Contract (1762)," was based on the general will and popular sovereignty. The general will is sacred and absolute, reflecting the common interests of all people, who have displaced the monarch as the holder of sovereign power. He appealed greatly to democrats and nationalists after 1789.
women during the Enlightenment
In Paris (1740-1789), talented, wealthy women presided over social gatherings named after their salons. They encouraged the exchange of ideas between great aristocrats, wealthy middle-class financiers, high-ranking officials, and noteworthy foreigners. They added an artistic taste, known as rococo. Women were associated in the rise of the novel as a literary genre, both as authors and readers. the novel popularized a new cult of sensibility, which celebrated strong emotions and intimate family love. Some philosophes championed greater rights and expanded education for women, claiming that position and treatment of women were the best indicators of a society's level of civilization and decency.
Characteristics of enlightenment thought
Included a range of ideas centered on reason as the primary source of authority and legitimacy, and came to advance ideals such as liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state.
civil constitution of the clergy
June 1790, national assembly abolished nobility, and in July the King was forced to sign the yet-unwritten constitution. The constitution was passed September 1791 and broadened women's rights to seek divorce, inherit property, and obtain financial support for illegitimate children from fathers, but excluded women from political office and voting. however, some men and women believed that the rights of man should be extended to all French citizens. It also imposed a radical reorganization on religious life. It granted religious freedom to French Jews and Protestants. November 1789 it nationalize the Catholic Church's property and abolished monasteries. July 1790, the constitution established a national church with priests chosen by voters and forced the Catholic clergy to take an oath of loyalty to the new government.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
On August 27, 1789, it was issued guaranteeing equality before the law, representative government for a sovereign people, and individual freedom. it issued at the beginning of the French Revolution, proclaimed that "Liberty consists in being able to do anything that does not harm another person"; individual liberty, liberals.
Tennis Court Oath
On May 5, 1789, delegates gathered in Versailles for the opening session of the Estates General. The Third Estate had more representatives than the other 2 combined, however each estate only had one vote and so the third always lost against the first and second votes, even though the third made up most of the population. June 17, third estate voted to call itself the National Assembly and on June 20, the delegates of the third estate moved to a large indoor tennis court where they swore the famous Oath of the Tennis Court, pledging not to disband until they had been recognized as a national assembly and had written a new constitution.
The Jacobins
a political club during the French Revolution to which many of the deputies of the Legislative Assembly belonged. threatened to declare war against kings. they separate into 2 bitterly opposed groups" the girondists and the mountain
Thermidorian Reaction
a reaction to the violence of the Reign of Terror in 1794, resulting in the execution of Robespierre and the loosening of economic controls. respectable middle class lawyers and professionals who had led the liberal revolution of 1789 reasserted their authority in a period of harkened back to the beginnings of the Revolution, rejecting radicalism in favor of moderate policies that favored property owners.
Economic liberalism
the theory that the pursuit of self-interest in a competitive market suffices to improve living conditions, rendering government intervention necessary and undesirable, associated with Adam Smith.
David Hume (laissez faire)
(1711-1776) carefully argues religious skepticism had a powerful impact at home and abroad. Hume argued that the human mind is really nothing but a bundle of impressions. since our ideas ultimately reflect only our sense experience, our reason cannot tell us anything about questions that cannot be verified by sense experience, such as questions about the origin of the universe or the existence of God. Hume's rationalistic inquiry ended up determining the Enlightenment's faith in the power of reason.
Moses Mendelssohn
(1729-1786) from Dessau, Germany (the ghetto) he walked to Berlin. studied Jewish law, mathematics, and Enlightenment philosophy. His great passion remained the life of the mind and the spirit, which he avidly pursued in his off-hours. he read eagerly on Western philosophy, convinced that Enlightenment teachings need not be opposed to Jewish thought and religion. he concluded reason could complement and strengthen religion. Developed his ideas into "On the Immortality of the Soul" (1776). he argued the human soul lives forever, and reflected that German Enlightenment generally supported religion, in contrast to France. He urged toleration in religious matters and spoke up courageously against Jewish oppression.
Frederick II of Prussia
(1740-1786) initiated the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) to inherit the Habsburg throne. After victory, he tolerantly allowed his subjects to believe as they wished in religious and philosophical matters. he promoted the advancement of knowledge, improving his country's schools and permitting scholars to publish their findings. he sought to improve life for ordinary people with innovations in agriculture and industry. His most fundamental reform was the legal system. Prussia's laws were simplified, torture was abolished, and judges decided cases quickly and impartially. Frederick did not free the serfs; he extended the privileges of the nobility over them.
Toussaint L'Ouverture
(1743-1801) in 1793, he was a freed slave who had joined the revolt, and was named a spanish officer. In September, the British captured French territory. Desperate, France commissioners sent by the newly elected National Convention promised freedom to slaves who fought for France. October 1793 they had abolished slavery throughout the colony. February 4, 1794, the Convention ratified the abolition of slavery, so L'Overture switched to the French side with his army and regained control for France. he then had disagreements with Riguad, so a cicil war broke out in 1799. he won victory of the entire colony, but in 1802 Leclerc ordered his arrest and was deported with this family. his lieutenant, Dessalines, then finished his work by declaring independence for Haiti, Saint Dominigue.
Maximilien Robespierre
(1758-1794) led: the Jacobins; the Committee of Public Safety. established a planned economy through the committee by setting maximum prices allowed for key products. is responsible for many deaths by extending the political Reign of Terror. March 1794, wiped out many critics, then Danton. July 27, 1794 he was sent to be guillotined
Catherine the Great of Russia
(1762-1796) absolute monarchy in an enlightened manner. worked to bring the culture of western Europe to Russia by patronizing Western architects, sculptors, musicians, and philosophes. strived for domestic reform by restricting the practice of torture and allowed limited religious toleration. she tried improving education and strengthening local government. 1775, she gave nobility absolute control of serfs and extended serfdom in new areas. 1785, she formally freed nobles from taxes and state service. Russian nobility attained its most exalted position, and serfdom entered its most oppressive phase. She had a lot of territorial expansion
Napoleon Boneparte
(1769-1821) France's military dictator from 1799-1814. On November 9, 1799 if ousted and ended the Directory, a five-man executive body, in a coup d'etat and substituted a strong dictatorship for a weak one. Created the Civil Code of March 1804, also known as the Napoleonic Code, which was a French civil code promulgated in 1804 that reasserted 2 of the fundamental principles of the Revolution of 1789: equality of all male citizens before the law and absolute security of wealth and private property.
National Assembly
French representative assembly from in 1789 by the delegates of the Third Estate and some members of the clergy, the second estate.
Battle of Waterloo
In February 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba, the island he was exiled to, and marched back to Paris to once again take command. He gathered an army, but his gamble was a long shot since the allies united against him. at the end of the Hundred Days, they crushed his forces at Waterloo on June 18, 1815, and imprisoned him on the island on the island of St. Helena, off the western coast of Africa.
Fate of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
Louis was executed on January 21, 1793. Marie Antoinette was put to death later that year, after riding the peasant wagon
Adam Smith (Laissez faire)
Scottish philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790), political economist. Inspired by the possibilities of growing world trade, he developed the general idea of freedom of enterprise and established the basis for modern economics in "Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" (1776). he argues that government intervention the economy was unnecessary and undesirable, and that the pursuit of self-interest in a competitive market would be sufficient to improve the living conditions of citizens, "economic liberalism." He posited the idea of a free economy in 1776 in opposition to mercantilism and its attempt to regulate trade. smith argued that freely competitive private enterprise would result in greater income for everyone.
John Locke's "Treatises of Government"
The Glorious Revolution and the concept of representative government found it's best defense in political philosopher John Locke's "Second Treatise of Civil Government" in 1690. Locke (1632-1704) maintained that a government that oversteps it's proper function- protecting the natural rights of life, liberty, and property- becomes a tyranny. Natural rights=basic to all men, and have a right to rebellion if government becomes tyrannical.
Haskalah
a Jewish Enlightenment movement led by Prussian philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. emerged from within the European community, Christian and Jewish Enlightenment philosophers began to advocate for freedom and civil rights for European Jews. In an era of growing reason and tolerance, they argued, restrictions on religious grounds could not stand.
Laissez faire economics
a doctrine of economic liberalism that emphasizes unrestricted private enterprise and no government interference in the economy.
Rousseau
after 1770 a number of thinkers and writers began to attack Enlightenment's faith in reason and progress. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was committed to individual freedom, but attacked rationalism and civilization as destroying, rather than liberating, the individual. He asserted the basic goodness of the individual and the unspoiled child had to be protected from the cruel refinements of civilization. he influenced the early romantic movement, which rebelled against the culture of the Enlightenment in the late 18th century.
Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws
argued for separation of powers, with political power divided among a variety of classes and legal estates holding unequal rights and privileges. strengthening the influence of intermediary powers was the best way to preventive royal rule turning into a tyranny.
Deism
envisioned a mechanistic universe in which God acted like a clockmaker who built an orderly system and then stepped aside to let it run.
Financial problems of the French monarchy in 1789
financial situation of the Crown; a poor grain harvest in 1788 caused the price of bread to soar suddenly and inflation spread quickly through the economy. the demand for manufactured goods collapsed, which led to an increase in unemployment. Fall of the Bastille. Peasants rises against the insurrection against their lords; national assembly responded with a surprise maneuver on August 4, 1789 with a decree that stated noble privileges were abolished along with tithes to the church. October 5, 7,000 women marched to Versailles and invaded the national assembly, demanding action. They wanted bread.
Committee on Public Safety
formed by the Convention in April 1793 to deal with the threats from within and outside of France. The committee held dictatorial power to deal with the national emergency, allowing it to use whatever force necessary to defend the Revolution. moderates demanded decentralized government; power away from committee. september 1793, set a planned economy, forced people to produce arms and munitions for war, used the reign of terror to enforce compliance with republican beliefs and practices.
fall of the Bastille
paris entered the revolutionary stage; July 14, 1789, several hundred people stormed the Bastille to obtain weapons and gunpowder for the city's defense. faced with violence, Louis reinstated his finance minister and the withdrawal of troops, so the National Assembly could continue its work without the threat of royal military intervention.
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
Enlightened absolutism
term coined by historians to describe the rule of 18th century monarchs who, without renouncing their own absolute authority, adopted Enlightenment ideals of rationalism, progress, and tolerance.