Bell Ringer
• What idea did John Locke come up with and how
did it leave a lasting impact?
• Natural Rights, influenced the American Colonies to
rebel.
Agenda/Objectives
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Quick Video
Spread of ideas:
- How were ideas spread?
Art and Literature
Enlightenment and the Monarchy
The Three estates of France
Thesis for research paper.
Reading: Louis xiv,xv,xvi – Quiz next class.
The Spread of
Enlightenment
Ideas
A World of Ideas
• Ideas were often spread in salons
• Salons = large drawing rooms where women
entertained philosophers, writers, artists, and
intellects met to discuss ideas and enjoy artistic
performances
• MarieTherese Geoffrin
Most influential
Salon hostess
Other ways Ideas spread • Diderot’s Encyclopedia – first book where leading
scholars of Europe put articles and essays
• Encyclopedia annoyed the Catholic Church – the
Church found Enlightenment ideas corrupt and
immoral
• Ideas also spread through music, newspapers, and
pamphlets
Emergence of middle class helps
ideas spread • New middle class has more
time to read and
appreciate art
• There is Denis Diderot,
working on his
scandalous
encyclopedia -
Art and Culture during the
Enlightenment • Birth of modern novel;
complex and carefully
crafted plots. Daniel Defoe
wrote Robinson Crusoe
about a family stranded on
a desert island
• Below is Defoe’s quote –
what do YOU think it
means?
• Wherever God erects a
house of prayer the Devil
always builds a chapel
there; And 'twill be found,
upon examination, the latter
has the largest
congregation
o Daniel Defoe
• Mozart started
composing when he
was five!
How did the Enlightenment
spread in the U.S.?
• Great Britain: about one-third, or 33%, of males
could read in the mid-1700s (highest literacy rate in
Europe)
• American colonies: over 50% percent of the males
could read.
• - Literacy rates in the New England colonies were
especially high (over 80% in some cases)
• Why?
• because many of these colonies had been settled
by Puritans who placed a strong emphasis on public
education so that all people could read the Bible.
What helped the literacy rate
in the American Colonies?
• Poor Richards Almanac
• Written by Benjamin Franklin
• A book made available both financially and
educationally to people of lower classes.
Enlightenment and the Monarchy
• Enlightened despots = monarchs who embraced
the Enlightenment and allowed reform
• Wanted ONLY to strengthen own countries, did NOT
want to give up power
Enlightened Monarchs
• Reforms included:
o Allowing more religious
freedom
o Improving education
o Reduced censorship
o Reformed the criminal
justice system and
eliminated torture
o Called himself “The First
Servant of the State” –
main goal was to serve
and strengthen the state
• Frederick the Great:
committed to
reforming Prusisia
Joseph II of Austria
• 1780 – 1790
• Introduced legal
reforms and freedom
of the press
• Religious tolerance –
even for Jews and
Protestants!
• Got rid of serfdom and
insisted that peasants
get $
Catherine the Great
• She had a horrible
marriage and
eventually had her
husband (Peter III, the
czar of Russia) killed in
order to take over the
country
• Ruled Russia from 1762 1796
Catherine the Great cont.
• Ruled Russia with absolute authority, but also
modernized and reformed the country
• Influenced by Beccaria, Montesquieu and Voltaire
• Never helped the Russian peasants and eventually
gave the nobles absolute authority over their serfs
• Also expanded Russia – fought for years for access
to the Baltic Sea and the navigation routes in the
Black and Mediterranean seas. Also took over
much of Poland.
• Catherine enlarged Russia and Russia soon became
an international power.
More Catherine…
• “I like to praise and reward
loudly, to blame quietly.”
• “It is better to be subject to
the Laws under one Master,
than to be subservient to
many.”
• “What is the true End of
Monarchy? Not to deprive
People of their natural
Liberty; but to correct their
Actions, in order to attain
the supreme Good. “
o Catherine the Great
Thesis
• Based upon your topic and the 5 sources that you
found and turned in I want you to create a thesis.