Liberation of Mind and Body: Early Modern Europe, 1543 to 1815
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Theme
First, new methods of learning created science which freed the human mind from past authorities; second, new attitudes loosely based on science began to promote political freedoms.
Summaries
Lost in the Stars
The so-called first Scientific Revolution created modern astronomy and physics.
From the Salons to the Streets
The Enlightenment spread scientific attitudes through much of Western culture.
The State is He (or She)
Absolutism, whether justified by Christian divine-right or the Englightenment, flourished as the dominant political system.
(Prosperous) People Power
A few elites established republican representation and constitutional limitations, especially in the Netherlands, Great Britain and the new United States of America.
The Declaration of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity
The ideas of the Enlightenment broke free in the French Revolution.
Blood and Empires
Napoleon's successful imperial takeover of Revolutionary France, and then most of Europe, provoked warfare until his ultimate defeat.
Keywords
Lost in the Stars
Scientific Revolution (1543-1687), Geocentric Theory, Heliocentric Theory, scientific theory, Gregorian Calendar (1582-), Copernicus (d. 13453), Galileo (d. 1643), Newton (d. 1727), the scientific method, science academies
From the Salons to the Streets
The Enlightenment (1687-1789), philosophes, salons, empiricism, Adam Smith (1776), theory of classical liberal laissez-faire economics, skepticism, deism, agnosticism, atheism, “Great Awakening” (1700s), Pietism, humanitarianism, Mary Wollstonecraft (1792), progress, encyclopedias, novels, newspapers
The State is He (or She)
absolute monarchy, divine right, enlightened despotism, Richelieu (d. 1643), Louis XIV (r. 1643-1717), cabinet, Versailles, Russia, Peter I “the Great” (r. r. 1682-1725), westernization, St. Petersburg, Maria Theresa (r. 1740-1780), Frederick II “the Great” (r. 1740-1786), Catherine II “the Great” (r. 1762-1796), Partitions of Poland
(Prosperous) People Power
Swiss Confederation, republicanism, constitutionalism, Dutch Netherlands/Holland (1581-), plutocracy, Great Britain, English Revolution (1642-1689), separatists, English Civil War (1642-1651), O. Cromwell (d. 1568), Commonwealth, dictatorship, Restoration, Glorious Revolution (1688), parliamentarianism, prime minister, constitutional monarchy Seven Years War/French and Indian War (1756-1763), the American Revolution (1775-1789), American War of Independence (1775-1783), the United States of America (1776-), federalism, presidency
The Declaration of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity
French Revolution (1789-1815), ancien regime, Louis XVI (r. 1774-1792), Marie Antoinette, Tennis Court Oath, storming of the Bastille, Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789), Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, right, left, moderate, reactionary, radicla
Blood and Empires
Wars of the Coalitions (1792-1815), Reign of Terror (1793-1794), Committee of Public Safety, Napoleon Bonaparte (d. 1821), plebiscite, Napoleonic Code, Continental System, Battle of Waterloo (1815
Review Questions
- How did the Scientific Revolution energize economics and society?
- What improvements did Enlightenment thinkers propose for human society?
- How did absolutism gain ascendancy in Early Modern Europe?
- How did democratic forms of government spread in the Early Modern West?
- How did the revolutionaries in France execute political changes?
- How did war alter the French Revolution and cause Napoleon’s rise and fall?
Other Questions
- How does the basic principle in Chapter 13, “no revolution can succeed against a relatively competent government,” prove itself against the French Revolution?
- What were the many changes which took place in Western Society during the Early Modern period (1648-1815)? You might consider the following questions: What were the competing political systems? How did the economy and social status change as a result of the commercial revolution? What new cultural developments provided new ways to look at life? What new developments in science made people question their position in the world? How were these ideas applied to people in the Enlightenment? What did the French Revolution do to change things?
- How does science force change on civilization?
