The Enlightenment and
Revolution
1550-1789
[Chapter 6]
What was going on in the 18th
Century? Aka: [1700’s]
 Economic History : Mercantilism to
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Capitalism
Political Reform (changes), More education,
Literacy
Intellectual Movements : Reason, Thinking
Cultural History : Individualism, Humanism
Social History : Age of Aristocracy (nobles,
upper class society)
 What people knew before: [Middle Ages]
 Most knowledge during the Middle Ages
came from the Bible, Greeks, and
Romans
-Supported the geocentric theory:
Earth-centered universe (Aristotle’s
theory)
 The Renaissance was the beginning of
challenging long existing beliefs…
New Information!
Scientific Revolution!!
The Enlightenment Ideas:
New ways of viewing the world!
-Based on observation and inquiry
-Exploration opens up thinking
-Questioning what
were once
“accepted” beliefs
-Education
increases!
The Heliocentric Theory
 Copernicus develops the heliocentric
theory – planets revolve around the sun.
Sun centered universe--not Earth centered
 His theory is proven correct
 Catholic Church attacks heliocentric theory
 Fears it will weaken people’s faith
Galileo supports “heliocentric”
 Galileo makes advances in astronomy
 Supports the heliocentric theory
 New ideas
 Example: Moon and stars are a rough uneven
surface= goes against Aristotle's previous
belief that they were a pure perfect substance
 Sent on trial during the Inquisition
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Pope wants him to admit his work is wrong
Threatened with torture
He says “heliocentric” is wrong to stay alive
Under house arrest til 1642. died there.
Johannes Kepler
 The work of Johannes Kepler proved
beyond doubt that Copernicus’s theories
were mathematically correct
Men that helped create:
The Scientific Method
 Series of steps for forming and testing
scientific theories
 Bacon: Experimental method and
testing hypotheses
 Descartes used reasoning to arrive at
conclusions
 “I think therefore I am”
 He linked algebra
and geometry
Isaac Newton
 Theory of motion
 Law of gravity
 Reflecting telescope
 Heliocentrism- confirmed
Andreas Vesalius
Improves knowledge on anatomy
Bones, muscles- studies human
corpses
 Edward Jenner
 Produces the world’s first vaccine – smallpox
 Used milder cow-pox to cure
 Robert Boyle
 chemistry
 Interaction between volume, temperature, and
gas pressure (Boyle’s Law)
Chemistry Labs & Botany
Gardens
Zoology & Biology
A dissection at the Royal Academy, London.
The Enlightenment –
Why it matters now
 Scientific advances affect today
 Led to technology/knowledge of today
 Scientific Method in Science,
Experiments
 Vaccines, Medicine
 Freedoms
 Art and music
 Novels and literature
 Religion versus Science – controversy
(argument)
II. The Enlightenment in Europe
Europe: View on Government
(Old way of thinking = absolute monarchy)
New way of thinking = democratic ideas
 Intellectual movement
 Europeans seek insight into society
 People reassess many prevailing
ideas
 power of human thinking, problem
solving
 Age of reason= height in 1700’s
Philosophy & Politics
Thomas Hobbes
 After civil war didn’t trust human nature
 Favored a strong absolute monarchy
 Strong leader- without one, citizens cannot
keep order
 People are naturally greedy
 and selfish and should be
treated as such
 “poor, selfish, wicked, solitary”
 “Social Contract” – order by
giving power to a monarch
Philosophy and Politics
John Locke
Government gets power from
the people
Humans learn from experience
, improve.
People can govern themselves
People have the right to
overthrow an unjust
government
All people are born FREE and
EQUAL
Government must protect
people’s “natural rights”
“Life, Liberty, and Property”
The Philosophies
 1. Reason 2. Nature 3. Happiness 4.
Progress 5. Liberty
 Wrote essays and
novels on politics and
society
 Philosophers
were not activists,
but inspired others
 Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet)
 Against the French Government
 Imprisoned twice for his views
 freedom of speech
 Freedom of religion
“I do not agree with a
word you say but I‘ll
defend to your death
your right to say it”
 Montesquieu
 Favored the separation of powers in
government
 Judicial (interprets laws) and legislative
(made laws)
 “check” powers of the gov’t =checks &
balances!
 Rousseau
 Favored individual freedom and direct
democracy
 Free people form a government (social
contract)
 Give up freedoms for common good of
society
“Man is born free, and
everywhere he is in chains.”
“The strongest is never strong
enough to be always the master,
unless he transforms strength into
right, and obedience into duty.”
 Cesare Beccaria
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Justice system
Laws exist to preserve order
Not to avenge (revenge) crimes
Against: Torture, irregular trials, punishment=
cruel
 Punishment should be based on the
seriousness of the crime
 Capital punishment should be abolished
 Mary Wollstonecraft
 1792: A Vindication of the Rights of
Women
 Went against Rousseau’s idea that
women’s education is second to men’s
 Her daughter wrote Frankenstein
The Enlightenment Spreads
 The city of Paris was the center of the
Enlightenment
 Had many salons
 Gatherings of the intellectual, social,
political, and cultural elites
 “meeting place”
 Discussions about ideas and
philosophy
A Parisian Salon
Madame Geoffrin and her Salon
Denis Diderot – Encyclopedia 1751
Set of books on Enlightenment ideas
Spread enlightenment ideas to many places
Angers the French gov’t and Church because…
-they thought it could cause revolts
-It undermined the authority
of powerful forces
-“moral corruption”
Affects of the Enlightenment
 Scientific breakthroughs - improve society
 New knowledge –
 question
governments and
religion
 Emphasisindividual rights
and abilities
*Private collections
were the original
museums
New Artistic Styles
 Music: Classical: More elegant and lighter
Mozart
 over 600 works
 By age of five, performed for European royalty
 Requiem –unfinished til time of death
Beethoven
composer,
conductor,
“virtuouso” pianist
completely
deaf at
age 26
Painting!
Baroque style (1600-1700s)
-Exaggerated motion
-Detail to create drama, tension,
-GRAND design
-ORNATE (flashy, elaborate) design
-Encouraged by Roman Catholic Church- to
create an “emotional” tie to religious
Christian art
-Impressive: show power and control
Baroque
Neoclassical style (late 1700s)
Simple elegant style borrowed
ideas from ancient Rome and
Greece
“new classical”- embodied
classical and renaissance culture
-order and simplicity
Against modernism
Neoclassical
Literature!
-Novels and works of fiction
-Richardson’s “Pamela” the first
true English novel
-Suspense, characters, thoughts,
feelings, plots
-Young servant girl refuses
advances at her master
Enlightenment Literature
 Books were very expensive
 About one day’s pay
 Many people would share literature
 Novels, plays, journals, newspapers, and
pamphlets
Enlightenment and Monarchy
 Enlightened Despots
 Despot= absolute ruler
 Monarchs who embrace Enlightenment ideas
and values to strengthen their rule
Frederick II “The Great” of
Prussia
Reforms education and
justice system
Grants religious freedom,
abolishes torture
Fails to end serfdom
Reduced censorship
Improved education
“the 1st servant of the state”
Joseph II of Austria
Freedom of worship and the press
Abolishes serfdom (bondage,
slavery)
-status in feudalism
-lord owned manor serf would work
on
Peasants paid for labor
with cash
Angered nobles!
After his death, policy changed
Catherine the Great of Russia
 Expands Russian Empire (seizes Poland)
 Gains port access thru Black Sea to
Mediterranean Sea
 Tries, but fails to:
 Abolish capital punishment
 Reform the Legal System
 Abolish torture
 Gives nobles more power
over serfs
 Serfs tried to revolt –
Catherine brutally put it down
Russian Expansion under Catherine