UNIT 2 (WEEK 2)
UNIT 2
Living in Europe in 1500
North and Western Europe
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Climate is wet and temperate
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British Isles get wind from Gulf Stream, climate is not unlike the Northwest US
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The fact that the British Isles are ISLANDS make them have separatist identity from
continental Europe
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Northern European Plain carries over much of what’s now Germany, France, and Low
Countries (Holland and Belgium)
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Economies driven on rivers
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Climate is similar to Midwest, mostly flat areas until you get south to the Alpine region
Southern Europe and North Africa
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South of Alps, climate is drier, very similar to southern California
⁃
Much more mountainous, industry is much more dependent on trade within
Mediterranean, especial concern over access to the Middle East
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Much more urban than the North
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More diverse, especially in Spain and Balkans
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Roman Catholic Church dominates much of western part of region, mostly Italy
The East
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Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) was the largest city in Europe (about 400,000
people), capital of Ottoman Empire
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The largest urban area in all of Eurasia
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More religious diversity (Eastern Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish, pockets of Roman
Catholicism)
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Main routes to trade with India and China
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North is mostly agricultural
Things that were in recent memory
The Black Death
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Also known as Bubonic Plague (Yerisinia Pestis)
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Killed about 1/4 of world population in mid 14th century (50 million people)
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Population numbers would remain lower for centuries
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Led to higher wages
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Plague still attacked local places periodically
The Fall of the “Roman” Empire
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Eastern part stayed around until 1453
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Most of cathedrals were converted in muslim musk
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Sultan Mehmed II takes over Constantinople (becomes Istanbul)
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Ottoman (Turkish) Muslim rule with Christian and Jewish minorities (very diverse
population)
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Controls trade access to Middle East
Rediscovery of Classicalism
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Renaissance= “rebirth”
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Began primarily in Italy through art, literature, political movements
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Shift away from Theo-centric worldviews to humanistic:
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more positive view of humanity as a source of truth
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Intellectual reach beyond Christian Church tradition
Life within the Great Chain of Being
The Roman Catholic Church
Seven Sacraments and the Church Calendar
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The Catholic church was simply “the church” and influenced every part of personal life
through 7 “sacraments” (means of participating in God’s grace):
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Baptism (birth)
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Confirmation (initiation as a full member)
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Eucharist (Communion or Lord’s supper) Jesus blood bread and wine
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Holy Orders (the priesthood)
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Marriage
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Penance (Reconciliation/Confession)
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Anointing of the Sick
……
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Church calendar ordered cycles of work and rest
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“Ordinary” time, you were supposed to work
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Saints’ days= “holy days” = “holidays”
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Most of extended holidays (Advent Christmas, Epiphany, Carnaval, Lent, Easter,
Whitsunday, etc.) were during the off sessions of agricultural work
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Everyone participated regardless of personal beliefs
The Great Chain of Being
-The spiritual and physical realms were intimately connected
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All life on earth (and in the cosmos) was interconnected on a chain from rocks all the
way to God
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God, Angels, Man, Lower animals, Plants, Rocks/minerals, Damned souls in hell
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Ranks could be subdivided: Kings, Nobles, Gentry (middling class), Yeomanry (farmers),
Tenants, Slaves, Poor
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Each member had social responsibilities to the categories above and below
⁃
E.G., Kings were accountable to God, and also were supposed to protect their subjects
⁃
You could not break this chain as it was ordained by God!
Challenges to Traditional Authorities
The Printing Press
- Actually invented in China about 3 centuries before Europeans figured it out
- Johannes Gutenberg made it feasible to produce in Europe (Gutenberg press)
- Middle of 15th century
- Printing was more effective in places where there was less central control (Germany)
- Less effective in places of more centralized control (Spain)
Politics
- Niccolo Machiavelli (Florence, Italy)
- Wrote political thesis tract called The Prince in 1513
- The “dark side” of humanism: political leaders should not worry morality when making
decisions, but only what is most expedient
- “the ends justify the means”
- Would inspire political leaders to want to consolidate power and bypass the Church
Discontent with the Catholic Church
- By Intellectuals
----Erasmus: complained about bad Bible translations, church wasn’t living up to the
morals taught in the Bible
- By laypeople
----People tired of corrupt priests who were immoral or uneducated
----Splinter groups who had been suppressed: Albigensians in France, Lollards in
England, Hussites in Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic)
----These groups lacked the support of powerful political leaders
Reformations
Why was religion such a hot issue for people?
-
The Great Chain of Being….
“secularism” wasn’t really a viable option for people
No separation of church and state…. The Church was THE source of moral ordering for
society
The Catholic Church owned a LOT of property
Who was Martin Luther?
- Northern German monk who became a professor of theology at Wittenberg University
in Saxony
- After studying Paul’s epistles in the New Testament, believed that “faith alone” was
sufficient for a Christian’s salvation
95 Theses
- Luther indignant that Roman Church was using indulgences to exploit the poor for
lavishing building projects
- Nailed 95 theses (arguments) against the indulgences on the doors of Wittenberg
Cathedral, October 31, 1517
- Started out as academic debate, picked up media firestorm thanks to the press
- Luther started attacking several doctrines of the Church (Freedom of a Christian reading,
1520)- to be Christian, you don’t need the church
- The Pope demanded Luther recant, but he refused, resulting in his excommunication
from the church in 1521
- “I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against
conscience. May God help me. Amen” Martin Luther at Diet of Worms, 1521
- Luther stood trial before Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (young guy, only 20 y/old) for
condemnation...declared guilty of treason
So Why wasn’t Luther’s movement squelched?
- Holy Roman Empire…messy map with little centralized control
Luther has political protection
- Frederick III Duke of Saxony helps Luther escape. He hides in Wartburg Castle (grows
beard as a disguise)
- Propaganda war ensues due to printing press
- Individual town and princes start converting to Luther’s theology, as it was an
opportunity to take over lands owned by Catholic Church
- Opponents called it “Lutheranism” and “Protestantism”
- Luther preferred the term “Evangelical”
- “Lutheranism” is illegal in Germany Until Peace of Augsburg (1555), after which
individual princes can decide to be Catholic or Lutheran (but nothing else
What was so different about Protestantism? (simplified)
How is one saved?
Protestant/Evangelical
Faith Alone
Roman Catholic
Faith + good works
Where is spiritual authority
based?
How is church structure
organized?
Clergy
Efficacy (means by which
grace is received)
Ritual
Scripture alone (and individual
reason)
Non-hierarchical (or losers
hierarchies)
No priest (priesthood of all
believers, equal access)
Non-sacramental
(preaching/teaching is more
important)
Simplistic, no images, symbolic,
literate
Scripture + Church tradition
(equally weighted)
Hierarchical/episcopal
Priests have special status (holy
orders)
Sacramental (7 sacraments)
Ornate, visual, images, statuary,
oral
Why are there so many different Protestant denominations?
Different Branches of Protestantism
Lutheranism
Reformed (Calvinism)
- John Calvin – French Theologian and contemporary of Luther (but never personally met)
- Created theology that emphasized human depravity and God’s sovereignty over history
and salvation
- God predestined the “elect” for salvation; therefore, the elect community had to live
righteous lives and pursue holiness
- Strict moral standards- women were accountable to understanding theology as men
- Invited by city of Geneva to create a church-state community
Anabaptists
- Tended to be more socially radical
- More egalitarian (men and women had equal authority)
- Name came because they believed in “re-baptism” as a believing adult as opposed to
baptism at infancy
- Tended to be pacifist, refuse to swear oaths
- Most persecuted groups, usually isolated within cities
- Modern day examples: Amish, Mennonites, Church of Brethren
Anglicanism (church of England)
- A complicated history, a blend of Catholic ritual and hierarchy with Protestant Theology
- King or Queen of England acts as head of the church (state-religion)
- Modern descendants: Episcopal Church (USA) and other Anglican Churches worldwide,
Methodists (more evangelical offshoot, emphasize freewill to choose salvation), some
Baptists (mixture of Anglican and Calvinist influences)
What did the church have to say about this?
Three Responses
The Council of Trent
- Series of meeting held between 1546- 1563 to reform Catholic teaching and positions
(most important meeting until Vatican II in 20th century)
- Doubled down on Catholic doctrines including indulgences; Protestants declared
heretics
- Sought to reform behavior and education of clergy
Establishment of the Jesuits
- Ignatius from a town in northern Spain, military noble who had a powerful conversion
experience
- Took a vow of poverty and chastity and formed a Society of Jesus (S.J.); Received
approval from the pope in 1540
- Defended Catholicism by establishing schools and universities, global missions, and
creating indexes of “banned” books
- His Spiritual Exercises formed the basis of Jesuit education today!
Wars of Religion
- Killed 10 million people between 1540-1648 (a whole century of warfare)
- Most often these were civil wars and fought at local level
- Women were particular targets of the state (accused of witchcraft) as well as Jews and
other minorities
- Religious expression often went hand-in-hand with social reform issues
- Catholic Church and allies wanted to reclaim notion of “Christendom,” especially with
rising threat of Ottoman Empire in the East
Religion and Monarchs
Kingdoms in Religious Turmoil
- How did religious toleration become possible?
- How radical or conservative were the efforts at religious toleration?
England
- King Henry the VIII- the main icon of tutor area
- Known for strong and powerful leader
The “King’s Great Matter”
- King Henry VIII devoutly Catholic, denounced Martin Luther (Pope called Henry
“defender of the faith”)
- Could not produce male heir with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon (Spain), could only
have daughter Mary
- Asked the Pope for a marriage annulment, Pope said no
- Decided to break from Catholic Church and form his own church with himself as it heads
in 1513
- Divorced Catherine would marry 5 more times! (killed two of his wives)
Dissolution of the Monasteries
- Henry VIII seized church lands by force and encouraged a policy of iconoclasm
- Iconoclasms: the removal of statues, religious iconography, and other materials
promoted (or seemed to promote) Catholic theology or Catholic values
- Occurred not just in England and Scotland but Ireland as well, where the population
remained Catholic
- Henry Seized the wealth from the monasteries and used it to buy political allies
Edward VI
- King of England, way more protestant than his father
- Son of Henry VIII and his third wife
- A true believer in Protestantism (influenced by his advisors who sympathized with
Martin Luther)
- English Common Book of Prayer came out during his reign to make Anglican theology
more Protestant
- Persecution of Catholics
- Died while still a teenager
Queen Mary
- Henry’s oldest daughter from first marriage with Catherine of Argon
-
Unlike her protestant siblings, Mary was devout Catholic and married another Catholic
monarch, Felipe of Spain (though they never consummated their marriage)
Imprisoned her younger half-sister Elizabeth
Was sick for most of her reign and died without an heir
Elizabeth I
- Protestant daughter of Henry’s second wife
- Reversed her half-sister Mary’s religious decrees, made Anglican church the official
church of England (Uniformity Act of 1559)
- Promoted via media (“middle way”) as means to create room for differences in the
church
Issue of communication
High church/low church
- Still fought with her late sister’s husband, Felipe of Spain, who vowed to destroy
Protestantism
SUMMARY....
- The English Reformations went back and forth and were often violent, but the
Elizabethan reforms set the stage for a broader and more inclusive form of Christianity
that lasted to this day
- ON THE FLIP SIDE....
- The fact that Protestantism won out meant that Catholics would begin to be portrayed
as backward, superstitious and disloyal... Would carry over into English prejudices and
persecution of the Irish, who had been colonized by the English
France
Huguenots
- French Calvinists – made up about 20% of French population, especially in southern
parts
- Usually were minorities scattered across different cities, but started gaining support by
some political factions
- Violence broke out during a succession crisis for the French throne (one side of the
family was Catholic, the other Huguenot)
Mob Violence
-
These weren’t simply disputes happening at the top – people on the ground were
deeply committed to their political/ religious faction
Episodes of violence frequent, the most devastating being St. Bartholomew’s Day
Massacre in 1572 (20,000 people murdered in 1 week of riots in Paris that spread across
the country)
Henri of Navarre (Henry IV)
- Leader of Huguenot faction who accidentally became king when his cousin was
assassinated by a Catholic zealot
- Converted to Catholicism to appease 80% of Catholic population, but created religious
toleration for Reformed/Protestants through Edict of Nantes (1598)
- Maintained public peace but hated on both ends of the spectrum – assassinated in 1610
after surviving no less than 12 earlier attempts
UNIT 2 (WEEK 3)
Thirty Years War
Big Ideas
- The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) was tragic culmination of over 100 years of fighting
over religious uniformity
- Its large scale changed the rules of warfare forever and destroyed forever the idea of a
single West unified by Christianity
- The gruesomeness of fighting and total devastation eroded the notion of a Great
Change of Being, opening the doors for religious skepticism and the rise of the “nationstate” as the center of authority
The Build-up
Felipe (Philip) II of Spain
- Remember he wanted to restore Catholicism and crush Protestantism
- Anglican England and Calvinist Netherlands were his nemesis
- Believed that God had given him the wealth of Mexico and South America to crush his
enemies
- Spent all his money on wars (which he lost), crippled Spanish economy
Spanish Armada (1587-1588) and Spain’s Decline
The War Itself
Causes
- (Catholic) Hapsburg empire was under political strain by Protestant rebels; trying to
keep the peace until Ferdinand II wanted to restore Catholicism once and for all
- “Defenestration of Prague” – Bohemian Calvinists throw out of window 3 Catholic
delegates sent by the Emperor
- Starts out just as a local strife within a single province inside the Holy Roman Empire,
but it escalates....
Who was involved?
The Catholic League
- The Hapsburg realms (most of Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy)
- Poland-Lithuania
Anti-Hapsburg
- England
-
Protestants parts of Germany (including Saxony and Prussia)
Netherlands
France
Sweden
Ottoman Empire (they just wanted to weaken Catholic power)
Why was this war so devastating?
- Killed over 8 million people (over ¼ of population in Germany wiped out)
- First war that relied on modern firearms
- HUGE armies with HEAVY casualties
- First TOTAL war – civilians were heavily affected; towns were lotted, destroyed, people
tortured, raped, killed
- Worst case: Magdeburg, Germany (20,000 civilians killed)
Impact on Women and Jews
- General paranoia and anxiety—women were targeted with demonic
influences/witchcraft, many women were executed
- Jews were also persecuted—many forced out of Western Europe, relocate to Ottoman
Empire, Palestine, and Poland
Peace of Westphalia (1648)
- Embraces religion toleration (to an extent)
- Christendom is dead—nation-states are sovereign
- What’s more important is maintaining “balance of power”
How was Western society changed as a result?
Impacts
- Peace of Westphalia (1648) ends the war
- Central Europe (Germany) devastated – makes way for England and France to be the
prime leaders in profiting off the New World
- Religious is no longer a reason for going to war—increased religious toleration
- Goal of Europe is now to maintain balances of power
- Christendom is dead-- power now lies within nation-states...
French Absolutism
How to Build a State (France)
Big Ideas
- How does a society create a cohesive government structure in the midst of social,
religious, and political upheaval?
- Where is authority derived?
- Who is the State?
Bourbon France
Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642)
- Cardinal in the Catholic Church and chief minister to King Louis XIII of France during 30
years of war (died before the war was over)
- Thought that giving religious toleration French Huguenots was a mistake
- Saw many of the horrors of the 30 Years’ War and believed he could make a more
organized, reasonable state with power centralized in a single king (Political Testament)
Argument for Absolutism
- It created freedom (from chaos, disorder)
- “Freedom” on this sense is more “freedom from” anarchy, chaos, warfare, making
decisions, getting involved in politics, etc.
- Wars of Religion was a bad case of “mass politics” gone wrong (mercenary armies,
vigilantism, looting, pillaging)
Young Louis XIV and the Fronde Uprising
- Son of Louis XIII and grandson of Henri IV (king who granted toleration to Huguenots)
- Was only 5 years old when he became a king
- Aristocrats took advantage and staged rebellion called Le Fronde (“the slingshot”) in
1648; kidnapped young King Louis
- Le Fronde is crushed in 1653
- King Louis will never forget this...
5 Rules of Absolutism
1. The King must be Godlike
2.
3.
4.
5.
-
The King must be in control
The King must be wealthy
Mercantilism: Goal of economy is to produce material assets for the benefit of the gov.
Promotes “protectionism” (high tariffs, colonies can only trade with mother country)
Money through exploitation
The King must control the State Church
The King must have an army
Rise of professional armies
Armies swear loyalty to the KING, no longer regional noblemen
20,000 troops in 1660
4000,000 by 1700
EXPENSIVE
L’etat c’est moi (I am the state)
The summation of Louis XIV’s policy of state building
What did it cost?
- The peasants (80-85% of population are taxed to starvation)
- Clergy and nobility are exempt from paying taxes
Britain Constitutionalism
How to Build a State
Big Ideas
- How does a society create a cohesive government structure in the midst of social,
religious, and political upheaval?
- Where is authority derived?
- Who is the state?
New Royal Family: The Stuarts
- James I was King of Scotland and distant cousin to Queen Elizabeth, invited to become
next King of England and Ireland
- In favor of idea of “divine right of kings”, but came across more mild-mannered
- Reasonable for authorizing King James Bible
- His son, Charles I, was more extravagant and domineering
- Increased taxes and made Parliament upset
- Tried to impose religious uniformity, but didn’t work
English Civil War, 1642-1648
- Charles I tried to shut down Parliament, raises taxes without consent
-
Parliament eventually revolts, country divided between pro-Charles (“Cavaliers”) and
pro-Parliament (“Roundheads”)
Very chaotic timeseveral radical political and religious groups emerge
Women become more politically involved
Charles eventually captured and imprisoned
Execution of King Charles I, 1649
The Commonwealth Era
- Starts out as an experiment in republicanism
- Quickly becomes a Puritan theocracy with Oliver Cromwell serving as military dictator
- Radical political and religious ideas floating around, some of them suppressed....
Quakers, Ranters, Diggers, etc.
- Some of these groups will seek refuge in American colonies
Social Contract Theories
Thomas Hobbes
- Pessimistic view of people (nature)
- People are like sheep and need absolute ruler to protect them
- Similar ideology to Cardinal Richelieu in France
- Personal tutor to exiled king’s son in France
- Wrote book Leviathan in 1651
John Locke
- Optimistic view of people (nurture)
- Reason can overcome passion through right education
- People agree to live in a government to protect “life, liberty, and property”
- When the government didn’t hold up to its end of the bargain, people had right to set
up a new government
- Two Treaties on Government (1690)
Restoration of Monarchy
- English Parliament is in disarray after Cromwell’s death and power squabblesStuart
family is invited back to England on condition they’ll give Parliament power
- Charles II and James II (brothers who grew up in Louis XIV’s palace, loved absolutism))
- Anglican Church reestablished, theaters reopened, looser morals
London Plague and Great Fire 1665-1666
Popular Fears of Absolutism
- James II ascends throne after brother’s death
- New York City named after him while he was the Duke of New York
- Came out as Catholic and gave birth to son by Catholic wife
- Imposed heavy taxes without Parliament’s consent, increasing size of personal army...
was history repeating itself?
The Revolution of 1688
- Aka “the Glorious Revolution” because there was virtually no bloodshed
- James II daughter Mary from first marriage married to Protestant William of Orange
(state in Netherlands, sworn enemy of Louis XIV)
- Parliament sneaks William and Mary into England to take over the throne, on the
condition they serve the people, not themselves
- James flees to exile in France
English Bill of Rights
- Most important legal document to emerge out of British Constitutionalism
- Defined rights of English people, spelled out limitations of power
- Principle of thumb: the state belongs to the people, and the king/queen is not above the
law
The Aftermath
- Irish don’t want an anti-Catholic Monarch they allied with exiled James II and rebel
- Irish are crushed at the battle of the Boyne, 1690
- Suffer Irish Penal Codes prohibited any Catholic Irish from voting, running for office,
going to universities, becoming a lawyer, carrying a sword, or purchasing land
- Forced them to divide lands among children... small plots lead to overreliance on
potatoes as the only staple crop
- By 1707, England and Scotland unite their parliaments to become the Kingdom of Great
Britain
UNIT 2 (WEEK 4)
Rationalism and Scientific Discovery
Ptolemaic Model of Universe
- Earth is center, heaven is on the outer edge
- Dominant of thinking since ancient times to 16th century
Copernican Model
- Nicolaus Copernicus (Polish)
- Galileo Galilei (Italian)
Why was Galileo so controversial to the Catholic Church?
- Galileo was more outspoken about how science affected authority of the Bible and the
Church (1665 Letter to Duchess Christina)
- Galileo forced to recant his ideas in 1633, put on house arrest by the Inquisition
What this does for intellectualism?
- Scientific phenomena no longer have to fit within the ordered structure of the Great
Change of Being
- Move toward quantification- let the theory with the higher number of proofs be true
over an alternate model
- Promotes inductive reasoning over deductive reasoning
- Move toward humanism – humans can shape their own destinies
Other Advancements
- William Harvey (English) - Blood circulation
- Robert Boyle (Irish) - Boyle’s Law properties of gas
- Isaac Newton (English) – Law of Gravity
- Francis Bacon (English) – empiricism, philosophy behind scientific method
- René Descartes (French) – geometry, calculus
Cartesian Philosophy
- EXAMPLE: You can describe a circle in one of three ways (from particular to abstracts)
- Image/Representation
- Description: “a two-dimensional figure made up from all points being equidistant from a
single central point”
- Formula: (x-a)^2 + (y-b)^2 = r^2
- Descartes would argue that the formula represents the purest of reality
Ethical Side-Effects of Scientific Revolution
-
Crisis of order: if religion couldn’t systematize or explain the natural world, what could?
Are human beings so special?? Question of inherent human value:
Ex: Cadavers needed to discover anatomy/physiology...where did cadavers come from?
Having your body dissected was often reserved for criminals
Further Progressions of Intellectualism: The Enlightenment
- The old powers had been thrown into question: now was an opportunity to search for a
new “Order” to society based on scientific principles governed by natural laws
- We’ve already seen this in politics!! (Remember John Locke)
- Obsession with trying to classify things in scientific categories
- There is almost constant warfare between British and French empires in the 18 th
century... people questioning why there’s so much waste of money
Who were the “enlightened”?
- Tended to be isolated to the aristocratic class of people (those with access to wealth
and knowledge)
- Mostly hosted by aristocratic women in their parlors (called “salons”)
- The audience were mostly urban and progressive professional class (the “bourgeoise” ),
and sometimes progressive-leaning monarchs
- How much were they concerned with the general population (questionable)
Major camps of the Enlightenment
- Those who wanted to reform the system
- Those who wanted to blow up the system
Those who wanted to reform the system
Voltaire
- Come from French aristocracy, Jesuit-educated
- Very critical of French Absolutism, spent some time in prison
- Lived in Britain for a time and inspired a following
- Big champion of religious toleration (but also charged with being an “infidel”) because
he rejected orthodox Christianity in favor of deism
Baron de Montesquieu
- Political structures are NOT laws but human creations: we can change them if we want
- Separation of powers (influenced American Constitution)
Denis Diderot
- Created first modern Encyclopedia
- Belief that all the world’s collective knowledge could be gathered in one place to save
people from ignorance and tyranny
Those who wanted to blow up the system
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
-
Believed that societies should return to a “natural” state, humanity should be “freed”
from corruption of society structures
Believer in free love; the purpose of life was to follow one’s own heart
The general will should be obeyed above all else, NOT any artificial system of
government or authority
Implications for nationalism? What will people do in the name of the “will of the
people”?
He and Voltaire HATED each other
Things to Keep in mind:
- The Enlightenment philosophers were most often men of great wealth and power
- Women had to fight their way into these circles and were often discriminated against
(“reason” becomes associated with masculinity)
- Most philosophies did not care at all about the poor and the uneducated
- And still...
- The ideas of The Enlightenment dramatically impacted the creation of modern sciences,
political systems, and education, helping to create “modernity”
Culture, Art, and Gender
Population Patterns
- Population goes from 100M in 1700 to 200M in 1800
- Density switches away from Italy and Spain and into northern Europe
- Urbanization happening.... what does this create?
- Increase in poverty (10-20% of urban population dependent on beginning)
- People of influence try to rationalize existence of poverty: scientifically categorize
between “deserving” and “undeserving” poor, but how do you do this??
- Increased numbers of orphans and children had out of wedlock; they can’t receive
inheritance, so most go into domestic work, hard labor or prostitution
Living and Dying
- Average life expectancy in 1700: 35 (includes infant mortality)
- No sewers
- Vaccinations start becoming available after 1770s (helped reduce smallpox)
- Richer people have more protein, while poor mostly live off carbs (oats and wheats)
- Doctors are dangerous- many people still practice “folk” medicine
Marriage and Family
-
Rich People
Marriage was the primary means of consolidating wealth
Married young (17-19), usually arranged by parents
-
-
Mistresses were common, many people had venereal disease
Mothers did not nurse their own, but hired “wet-nurses”
Children raised by hired tutors; sometimes sent off to boarding schools
Men sent on “grand tours”, women sent to aristocratic manors
Poor People
Married for love, usually in mid-to late- 20s
Parents raised their own children
Little to no educational opportunities (unless provided by churches – origin of “Sunday
School”)
You work to stay alive, not to save up or spend on leisure (you make the equivalent of
$3,000 in today’s money)
Women and “Enlightenment”
- Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673)
- First women to Royal Society of London (elite science club); political philosopher and
science fiction writer
- Mary Astell (1666-1731)
- Criticized subjugation of married women, educational philosopher
- Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793)
- Playwright; Argued for women’s involvements in politics, criticized the slave trade
- Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
- Novelist; believed in education reform for women, HATED Rousseau, had open affairs
Women and Domestic Servitude
- Majority of women had no access to education of the upper and middle-class
- Especially in urban settings, these women were often the target of sex scandals- often
an illegitimate child could ruin their chances at employment
Expression and Religion
Keep in mid
- Despite the “Great Chain of Being” being disrupted, many people across Europe are still
very religious
- Rather than a simple decline into secularism, there are increased ways for everyday
people to find meaning in religion
Catholicism Baroque Art
- Influenced from Catholic Counter-Reformation
- Emphases on the five senses, experiencing religion in a bodily way
- Religious spaces designed to evoke sharp emotions
- Gregorio Fernandez, The Flagellation of Christ (1619)
- Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Ecstasy of St. Teresa de Avila (1650)
-
(This would be anathema to Protestants!)
Protestantism: The Great Awakening and Rise of Evangelicalism
- A religion for the “masses”
- Emphasized individual conversion experience, emotion, revivalism and social activism
- Two leading figures came out of Anglican church:
- George Whitefield: former stage actor; emphasized Calvinism
- John Wesley: rejected Calvinism in favor of free will and Christian perfection; founder of
Methodist Church
Judaism: Hasidism
- Founder: Israel ben aka Ba’al Shem Tov (polish)
- Emphasized revivalism and piety based in home communities, deemphasis on ritual,
fought against assimilation
- Emphasis on singing and dancing, leadership of Hasidism (holy men/patriarchs)
Imposing “Order” in Everyday Life
Dictionaries and Keeping Time
- Samuel Johnson’s dictionary began standardizing spelling  there are now rules of
grammar and spelling to follow
- Management of time = efficiency and good morals
- Popularity of clocks and keeping regular time
- England changed the calendar after 1750!
- Jan 1 was now the standardized start of new year, 365 days per year except leap year
- “New Style” calendar apparently more accurate to solar cycle
- (Catholic countries had already switched to new system)
Order through Architecture
- Emphasis on symmetry and balance (the house reflected the character of its owner)
- Idea of “privacy” becomes more popular, having separate rooms to serve specific,
discrete functions
Order through City Planning
- Bring back the grid system from Roman Empire
- Carve over natural landscape and make things uniform (also improve traffic and
sanitation)
- Example: Edinburg, Scotland
Order through Conquest of Nature
- Rising popularity of cultivated gardens that are highly groomed
- Control nature  don’t let it get out of hand
UNIT 3 (WEEK 5)
Columbian Exchange
Early Colonization, Native Americans, and the Columbian Exchange
Pre-Columbian Native America
- Wide range of cultural and language groups
- Complex continental trade networks
- By the arrival of Europeans, most heavily populated areas were in Central Mexico and
Andes region of South America
- Despite European misunderstanding, many groups were sedentary but more spaced out
compared to Europeans, had a different relationship to the land
Reasons for European Exploration
Access to India
- Despite to bypass Ottoman Empire to access goods from India
- Silk Road was too long
Columbus and Conquistadores
Christopher Columbus
- Italian from Genoa, sponsored by the Spanish monarchy
- Believed he had discovered shorter passages to India by sailing across Atlantic (called
the natives “Indians”)
- Colonized the Caribbean, mainly island of Hispaniola (modern-day Dominican Republic
and Haiti), enslaved Taíno natives)
- Colonization existed for purpose of creating wealth for Spain, believed that natives
would be easily Christianized
“Doctrine of Discovery”
- Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)
- Colonization legitimized on the basis that no kingdom existed unless it was under
“Christian” jurisdiction
Spanish Conquest
- Spain laid claim to land and Indigenous labor via the Doctrine of Discovery
- Conquest of Central and South America occurred within a 40-year period
Columbian Exchange (How did Europeans conquer the New World so easily?)
Spread of Disease
- Indigenous people did not have immunities that Europeans had: they were especially
vulnerable to smallpox, whooping cough, measles, the flu
- Disease decimated Native population by 90% during first 2 centuries of contact
- This was the main reason why Spanish were able to conquer Mexico and Peru even
though they were vastly outnumbered
- Later, Plymouth (New England) survived because plague had wiped out most Native
people a few years before
Domestic Animals
- Old World had horses, cows, pigs, chicken, and many others
- By comparison, New World only had llamas and alpacas large enough to transport items
Ethical Dilemmas
Motives Driving Colonization
- Main reason: wealth (gold and silver mines)
- Used to finance religious wars
- Spread Christianity (wide range of motives for missionaries—sometimes they came into
conflict with other settlers)
- Catholics and Protestants competed with each other
- Later on, “New World” imagined as empty land for religious and political refugees
escaping Europe
Ethical Dilemma: What is Humanity?
- Academic debates in Spain over whether the Indigenous people had souls or if they
could be enslaved. Those in favor of slavery used Aristotle as their authority
- Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566) – Dominican priest who was enslaver of native
Cubans, had religious conversion, renounced his wealth, and became an early advocate
for Indigenous human rights
- Influential in passage of “New Laws” in 1542 that aimed to protect Indigenous from
abuses (not very enforceable; Natives are still enslaved)
- Spanish brutality became so infamous it inspired the “Black Legend” (Protestant
Propaganda against Felipe II)
The Bigger Picture
- Portuguese launched “Age of Exploration”
- Spanish had head start in colonizing the continents (exception: Portuguese had Brazil)
- After Spanish wealth plummeted thanks to Felipe’s military spending, English, French,
and Dutch rose in prominence
-
English and French became the most economically powerful colonial rivals by 18th
century
Indigenous Agency
Remember that History is Complex
- Natives were oppressed, but they were NOT passive victims
- Despite devastating population loss from European diseases (especially in Caribbean),
Natives continued to exercise political sovereignty in many places
- Means of agency and survival:
- Political maneuvering
- Cultural adaptation
- Military resistance
Political Maneuvering
- Example: Tlaxcalans and Malinche during conquest of Mexico, 1520s
- Both allied with Spaniards and were used their situation to gain advantage over their
Aztec enemies
- Malinche remains controversial figure
Cultural Adaptation
- Example: Anishinaabe people in Great Lakes region
- French fur trade only possible through the stability of Native peoples in the area calling
the shots
- Encouraged daughters’ marriage to French traders  creation of Métis population in
modern-day Canada
- Accepted Catholicism into their own religious structures
Military Resistance
- Example: Pueblo Revolt, 1680
- After generations of tense relationships with Spanish settlers and priests, Pueblos in
New Mexico killed over 400 Spanish and drove out colonials for over a decade
- Leader Pope honored in US Capitol building
The Global Impacts of Columbian Exchange
- Seismic ecological changes (introduction of new flora, fauna, and diseases across the
Atlantic)
- Spawned era of European world dominance
- The beginning of “race” as a category to describe differences in people
- Christianity becomes a global faith
- Indigenous population loss leads to African Slave Trade
Atlantic Slavery
Slavery in the Early Modern World
Big Ideas
- Between the beginning of the 16th century and the middle of the 19th century, over 13
million Africans were abducted and enslaves in the New World (some 2 million died on
the journey)
- African slavery was instrumental in creating the wealth of the Modern West
- Modern slavery began primarily as economic exploration, and its continuance over time
had to be justified by racial categories
Slavery Was Nothing New
- Most often, people became slaves through being captured during war, being indebted
to creditors, or for religious reasons
- Slavery was extremely prevalent in ancient times but had largely reduced in Europe, but
practice was still common in Mediterranean and North Africa
- Historically, Christians could not enslave other Christians, and Muslims could not
enslave other Muslims
Islamic/Trans-Saharan Slave Trade
- Muslim Arabas and Berbers traded humans with African kingdoms of Mali and Ghana
during middle ages
- Portuguese were first Europeans to trade slaves with Africans in 1450s; made alliances
with kingdom of the Kongo
Early Atlantic Slave Trade
- Spanish Empire authorizes use of African slaves in 1518
- Brazil (Portuguese) introduces slavery in 1550s, huge sugar plantations
- English colonies gradually introduce African slavery during 17th century
- Earlier unfree labor: indentured servitude
- 1619 – first slaves arrive in Virginia
- 1630---1640s Barbados, Bermuda, other Caribbean islands
- By late 1600s, African slavery became the norm; indentured servants phased out
Conditions for Slavery’s Growth
- Indigenous population loss (labor shortage)
- Agricultural economy and creation of mass commodities (sugar, tobacco, indigo, dye,
salt)
- British take control of slave trade after 1715
- Ideological and epistemological shifts in late 17th century/early 18th century –“freedom”
becomes increasingly associated with being “white”
Triangular Trade
The Big Picture of Slavery
- 20,528 documented slave ship voyages
- 12-15 million taken
- 2 million died during Middle Passage
- Majority were sent to Caribbean Islands under brutal working conditions- average life
expectancy was 7 years
The Structure – The “Big House”
- Plantation or factory? Slave labor camp?
- Plantation owner – lived in the main house (many of these still exist)
- Ex. Rose Hall, Jamaica (built 1770s)
- White population usually only 5-10% on most islands
- “House slaves” were often lighter skinned/mixed race – usually responsible for child
rearing or objects of sexual abuse
The Structure – Slave Quarters and Cane Fields
- Most plantations organized into “gangs”
- 1st gang – most grueling work, people in their teens and 20s, tilling fields and processing
cane into sugar (highly dangerous)
- 2nd gang – if surviving to 30s, mostly responsible for planting cane
- 3rd gang – young children and people over 40s with health problems – picking weeds,
feeding animals
- Preparing ground in early summer, harvest time in September/October
- Slaves received little food – had to grow their own gardens on their own time
- Oversees whipped if they weren’t working fast enough for production schedule
The Structure – Processing Sugar
- December-January – most dangerous time of year when sugar was processed
- Harvesting cane was 24 hours a day/6 days a week
- Cane is chopped, had to be proceeds quickly before juice inside
- Squeezed into mill presses
- Juice is boiled in large copper vats
- Heat would separate molasses waste, used to make rum
- Crystallization would happen in the cooling process
Major Distinctives about Slavery and “Modernity”
- Slavery was based on racial categories by the middle of the 18 th century
- Slavery was intricately tied to the creation of a modern global consumer economy
- The long distances of the slave trade meant a greater destruction of African culture and
way of life
- African slave trade was the largest forced migration in human history
UNIT 3: Week 6
Atlantic Communities and Anti-Slavery
Big Ideas
- The integration of African, Indigenous American, and European lives in the Atlantic
world created fluid structures despite European attempts to create distinct categories
for race
- The spread of Enlightenment ideas and evangelical Christianity created the foundation
for an international Anti-Slavery movement
- The Abolition of slavery was decades-long struggle, and dealing with slavery’s aftermath
is an ongoing process
Integrated Lives
Colonial Populations
- Spanish colonies—colonies population mixed with indigenous:
- Creole—European ancestry, born in New World
- Mestizo—mix of European and Indigenous
- Mulatto—mix of European and African
- Portuguese Brazil and Caribbean—Black slaves made up most population
- Because of interracial relations, there were creations of “free communities of color”,
would form their own identities
- British North America was only place where whites were a majority—they considered
themselves extensions of British society and did NOT incorporate indigenous people into
society
Non-Indigenous Demographics
- Enslaved Africans were the largest numerical group in the New World; high mortality
rate
- Indentured servants—most single men; pay off financial debts, esp. Irish and Jewish;
many didn’t survive or went back after completing indenture
- Traders/entrepreneurs—wanted to take advantage of colonial trade; mostly men,
sometimes married Indigenous or African women
- Religious groups—families fleeing persecution in Europe (English Puritans, French
Huguenots, German Anabaptists, etc.); also, Catholic priests/missionaries
Example of Atlantic Intersections: Rebecca Protten (Moravian Missionary)
Rebeca Protten
- Mixed-race daughter of enslaved women and plantation owner in Antigua (Britishowned)
- Sold to Dutch family in St. Thomas who taught her how to read and converted her to
Christianity; freed (We don’t entirely know motives)
Moravian Missionary
- Rebecca meets Moravians (a type of evangelical Protestant denomination) on St.
Thomas
- Moravians emphasized emotion, singing, personal piety—were one of first religious
groups to include African people
- Rebecca began to educate slaves and other free Black women
- Married a missionary and moved to Germany- became first Black women ordained in a
Western Christian church
- First husband dies; lives in an interracial Moravian enclave in Germany
- Marries a mixed-race man, travels to Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana) to start school for
mixed-race children
Religion and Slavery
- Christianity and slavery seen as compatible until latter 1700s
- Evangelical revivalists argued for better treatment of slaves, but did not condemn the
institution outright, believed that converting Blacks to Christianity would improve their
situation
- Methodists and Quakers were first group to argue that slavery was incompatible with a
Christian faith, usually through influence of Black church members
Famous Abolitionists
Thomas Clarkson
- Creator of Society for Abolition of the Slave Trade (world’s first think tank); educator
and campaigner
William Wilberforce
- Member of Parliament who helped issue the abolition of the Slave Trade in 1807
Olaudah Equiano
- Kidnapped from Africa, authored autobiography that became bestseller
Mary Prince
- Born in slavery in Bermuda, won freedom in Britain, wrote first female slave narrative
Elizabeth Heyrick
- Quaker woman who mobilized sugar boycotts
Timeline of Abolition
- 1780s- British abolition movement mobilizes
- 1789—Olaudah Equiano publishes his autobiography
- 1791- France emancipates slaves in colonies (slavery reinstated 1802-1815)
- 1807- Atlantic Slave Trade abolished in British Empire and United States
- 1833- British abolish slavery in all colonies
- 1830s- American abolition movement mobilizes
- 1865- Slavery abolished in United States after Civil War
Slavery still existed later!
- Slavery in Cuba until 1886
- Brazil becomes last country in the West to abolish slavery in 18889
- Plantation economy based on manual labor persisted in Caribbean well into 20th
century; those of African descent still struggling to recover from inequality in wealth,
education opportunities, etc.
Consider
- How was slavery connected to the creation of the Modern era?
- What roles did Christianity and the Enlightenment play in defending OR condemning
slavery?
American Revolution
Big Ideas
- From the late 18th century and early 19th century, a series of revolution and
independence movements across the Atlantic World tried to put the values of the
Enlightenment into action
- The result was the world’s first great wave of nation-building and pursuit of “liberty”
- How conservative or radical were these revolutions?
Where were these revolutions?
American War for Independence (1775-1783)
Causes for American Revolution
- (long-term) Enlightenment influence and the tradition of English “rights”
- John Locke
- Memory of the “Glorious Revolution” of William and Mary
- Costly colonial wars (French and Indian War, Pontiac’s War)
- Colonists’ desire to expand west into “Indian Country”
- Increased taxation without representation
- Increased militarization in colonies
The Issues at Stake
- For Whom did the colonial economy exist?
- For the British Crown (mercantilist model)
- For the producers and tradesmen (free market/capitalist model, e.g., Adam Smith)
- Do people have rights?
- White people in colonies identified themselves as having equal status of liberty
compared to the mother country
- Enlightened people have right to determine their own form of government that best
allows people to assert and defend rights
-
(women and slaves not included in this, though many saw the potential in revolution’s
ideas)
The Declaration of Independence
- Thomas Jefferson borrowed ideas and language from John Locke
- Paradoxical document: contains radical and incendiary ideas
- Written by a slaveholder
- Would become one of the most widely spread documents in the Western world
American Allies
- France sends ships and money; wanted to humiliate Britain
- Marquis de Lafayette becomes a connection point between revolutionary causes in
America and France
- Spanish and Dutch also declare war on Britain
- British suffer defeat in 1781 at Yorktown
- America recognized as independent at 1783 Treaty of Paris
- Native Americans not invited; they fight USA Until 1795
1783 Treaty of Paris
The US Constitution
- Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, 1787-1789
- Brought together Enlightenment principles from Locke, Voltaire, and Montesquieu
- Three branches try to balance best of three government systems
- Executive branch (President and Cabinet—monarchy)
- Judicial Branch (Supreme Court—aristocracy)
- Legislative Branch (Congress—republic)
- Bill of Rights added, inspired by English Bill of Rights
Global Significance of US Independence
- First time an independent movement against a leading world power succeeded (with
help from other powers)
- The creation of the Constitution proved that the Enlightenment could work to create
more “rational” form of government and overthrow tyranny
- Ideas of the revolution inspired freedom movements for women and the enslaved
- American Revolution bankrupted France and sent her into political crisis
UNIT 3: Week 7
French Revolution
Big Ideas
- Putting the Enlightenment into action
- Creating the idea of “nations” bound together by Enlightenment ideals, NOT by tradition
- How conservative or radical was the French Revolution? (what changed or didn’t changed?)
Structure
- Causes of Revolution
- Four Stages
- Broader Impact
Causes of Revolution
- Long Term: Wealth inequality, Nobility and clergy didn’t have to pay taxes while common folk
paid
taxes for military spending
- Short Term: Government debt from Louis XVI supporting American Revolution, starving
peasants
(famine in winter of 1788-1789), Rising influence of bourgeoisie (ignored by nobility)
Trigger Moments
- Estates General (June 1789)
- The Third Estate (bourgeoisie) walk out and declare National Assembly; demand political
reforms for a
Constitutional Monarchy
- King Louis XVI doesn’t act on it…
- Storming of the Bastille (July 14, 1789)
Four Stages of Revolution
1. The Constitutional Monarchy Stage (1789-1792)
2. The Radical Stage (1792-1794)
3. The Conservative Stage (the Directory) (1795-1799)
4. The Empire Stage (Napoleon Bonaparte) (1799-1815)
The Constitutional Monarchy Stage (1789-1792)
- Most important document created by National Assembly: The Declaration of the Rights of Man
and
Citizen (1789)
- Reorganize France into rational districts
- Sets up a constitutional monarchy and expands voting rights to all men who own property
- Female reactions: Olympe de Gouges and Mary Wollstonecraft
The Radical Stage (1792-1794)
French
Republic
create a citizen army of 1.5
million
- Politics become increasingly radicalized, led by Maximilien Robespierre (huge fan of
Rousseau)
- Free education; create new calendar; metric system
- Launches Reign of Terror that seek out “enemies of the nation” – over 40,000 people executed
The Conservative Stage (1795-1799)
- Backlash against Robespierre’s faction; people tired of paranoia and war
- Robespierre gets the guillotine!
- Led by The Directory (council of 5 men) – pull back on political reforms; mostly have to deal
with
belligerent neighbors who now hate France
- Seen as time of uncertainty and chaos…. Will the Revolution survive?
- One man has his own agenda for restoring order…
Napoleon Bonaparte
- From Island of Corsica
- Starts out a military career working for the Directory, becomes a national celebrity after
invading
Egypt
- Sees Directory as a weak leadership; stages a coup d’état (takeover of power) on November 9,
1799
- Declares himself “consul” (after Roman republic) but quickly turns himself into Emperor
The Empire Stage (1799-1815)
- Creates Napoleonic Codes:
- Restores religious toleration (but with state control)
- Promotes education
- The State is more important than the individual
- Denies political rights for women
- Napoleon saw himself as “savior of revolution” destined to bring enlightenment across all
Europe…
- Napoleon consolidates power in Europe (sells land to United States in the process)
- Creates new legal systems in much of continental Europe (integrate European economy—first
precursor to European Union)
- Byproduct: creates many nationalist movements
- Meanwhile, Britain’s overseas naval power increases because they’re blocked from Continental
trade
- Napoleon too ambitious – eventual downfall by 1815, Battle of Waterloo
Broader Impact of the French Revolution
Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité
- “Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood”
- Eroded feudalism and paved way for capitalist societies
- Created secular creed based around natural rights and notion of “citizenship”
- Freedom of speech and the press
- Freedom of expression
- Freedom to participate in the nation
- Increased power of the middle class
Wave of Nationalism
- Inspired freedom movements in Haiti and Latin America (nationalism began there and later
reverberated in Europe)
- French revolution would be a template for political revolt into the 20 th century
- Created idea of sacrificing for the “nation”
Wave of Conservatism/Fear of Revolution
- Does radicalism lead to tyranny?
- At what point does political change become counter-productive?
- Congress of Vienna, 1815
- End of French Revolution
- Monarchy restored in France (but now limited powers)
- European powers seek to contain future revolutions through alliance systems
Haitian Revolution
Big Ideas
- Putting the Enlightenment into action
- Age of Revolutions brought great wave of nation-building and pursuit of “liberty”
- How conservative or radical were these revolutions?
- Pursuit of FREEDOM in Haiti meant something different than in France
Saint Domingue/Santo Domingo
- Richest French colony in New World, huge sugar industry
- 90% slave population
- Most from Africa because mortality rate was so high
- Small population of free people of color and white colonial elite
- Poor whites resented free people of color for demanding more rights
Revolution Breaks Out
- 1789 – French Revolution begins; rumors spread to Saint Domingue
- 1791 – free people of color demand rights; followed by slave insurrection
- Rebels supported by Spanish side of the island (Santo Domingo)
- Led by Toussaint L’Ouverture
- 1794 – France forced to emancipate slaves to keep control of the island
Toussaint L’Ouverture
- Son of an enslaved prince from Benin
- Abolition of slavery was more important than which country he was fighting for
- Became brigadier general and took control of the island between 1796-1800
- (controversial) wanted to maintain sugar plantations and keep alliances with Republic of France
The “Empire” Strikes Back
- Once taking power in France, Napoleon tries to regain control over Saint-Domingue in 1799,
reintroduce slavery to gain more profits
- L’Ouverture is captured and sent to prison in France, dies in 1803
- Napoleon sends 40,000 troops to reconquer Saint Domingue (has to sell Louisiana Purchase to
USA to
fund military expenses)
Second Revolt and Independence
- Enslaved people unite and destroy the sugar plantation economy
- They kill most of the French colonial soldiers and wipe out most of the white population in the
colony,
1802-1804
Haitian Independence
- Jean-Jacques Dessalines – former lieutenant under L’Ouverture, leads the independent
movement
- 1804 – Republic of Haiti declared
- Second independent state in New World, first Black republic and successful slave revolt
Aftermath and Backlash
- Elite French slavers who escape go to New Orleans, terror spreads among planter elite in the
US South
- Enslaved Blacks in Louisiana find out about Haitian Independence
- German Coast Uprising, 1811 – largest slave uprising in US history
- Fails – 95 people executed and heads placed on pikes along Mississippi River
Things to Consider
- What ideas connected the Haitian revolution to the revolutions in France and the United States?
- How were the Enlightenment values enacted differently in these different revolutions?
UNIT 3: Week 8
Latin American Independence
Big Ideas
- Putting the Enlightenment into action
- Revolutions brought the first great wave of nation-building and the pursuit of “liberty”
- How conservative or radical were these revolutions?
The Common Triggers
- Resentment between peninsulares (those from Spain/Portugal) and creoles (those born
in Americas)
- Napoleon’s invasion of Spain and Portugal
- Disrupts old system of absolutist rule and colonial powers
- Experimentations with new “enlightened” governments
- Peninsulares resented the French intrusion, while creoles saw it as opportunity to gain
leverage over peninsulares
- Black, Indigenous, and mixed-race people were involved but did not gain much political
leverage
Structure
- South American Independence
- Mexican Independence
- Brazilian Independence
South America
Juntas
- Juntas were assemblies mainly of creoles formed in opposition to the Napoleonic forces;
took over colonial capitals
- Split among conservative factions and radical factions (mixed-race and Indigenous
people not included)
- After Napoleon is defeated, the Spanish Crown tries to remove power from the creoles
- Simón Bolivar (from Venezuela) sought to unite the regions against Spanish rule by
appealing to a Pan-American identity
- Wars of Independence – by 1830 most of South America are independent nations
Mexico (New Spain)
- Peninsulares angered by French Napoleonic Rule
- Creoles take advantage of situation – seek to elevate their own status
- Mestizos, free black, and Indigenous populations see their own opportunity at freedom
- Two popular uprisings by mestizos Fr. Miguel Hidalgo (educated by the Jesuits) and Fr.
José Morelos demand better treatment of non-elites
- Uprisings crush, both executed
- Impact: popular revolts created idea of “Mexican” nation, but creoles elites ultimately
win in 1821
Brazil
- Napoleon invades Portugal, Portuguese royal family flees to Rio de Janeiro (they love it)
- Prince Pedro stays in Brazil after King João goes back to Portugal; creoles ask Pedro to
become King of independent Brazil
- Slave economy stays intact until 1888; life changes very little
What actually changes?
- Peninsulares are ousted from power by Creoles
- Latin American nations now based on Enlightenment ideas and constitutions, rather
than the divine authority of monarchs and the Catholic Church
- Power is vested in legislative assemblies
What doesn’t change?
- Daily life virtually goes unchanged (especially for mixed-race, Blacks, and Indigenous)
- Women don’t get social advancement
- (In Brazil or other parts of Caribbean) – slavery remains intact
In Summary
- What were the meanings of these Atlantic Revolutions between the 1770s -- 1820s?
- Go back to French Revolution lecture and consider the broader impacts:
- Creed in nationalism (the “nation” becomes core of identity)
- Enlightenment used to create “modern” nations
- Enlightenment values could be used for BOTH conservative or radical ends
UNIT 4: Week 9
Industrial Revolution
Big Ideas
- The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain during the late 18 th century and allowed
the west to dominate global economic systems by the 19th century
- More than political revolutions, the Industrial Revolution brought the greatest amounts
of change to how people experienced everyday lives
- We are still grappling with the economical and ethical consequences of the Industrial
Revolution in our own day
Structure
- Social and Ideological Pre-Conditions for Industrial Revolution
- New Technologies
- Impacts on Economy and Labor
Pre-Conditions for Industrial Revolution
Ideological Origins
- Adam Smith – “father of capitalism”
- Book Wealth of Nations (1776)
- Laissez-Faire – let the market run itself without government intervention; free trade
creates wealth
- Specialization – people’s different skill sets will complement if people are allowed to
serve self-interests
- Jeremy Bentham – “father of utilitarianism”
- Social reformer and political scientist
- Believed morality was making the greatest number of people happy
- Favored individual rights and expression; opposed capital punishment
- Technology should serve the function of promoting people to express their liberty
Social Pre-Conditions
- Population growth during 18th century
- More labor = more demand = more migration to the cities
- Leads to a perception of mobility (rising up the social ladder)
- Improved transportation networks (roads and waterways)
- Professional land-owning class holding greatest amounts of political power (bourgeoisie)
- Britain’s control of the seas and its island geography helped it accelerate ahead of
Continental Europe
New Technologies
Some Inventions
- Spinning Jenny (1763)
- Watt steam engine (1776)
- Cotton gin (1791)
Big Industries
- Cotton/Textiles
- Coal
- Iron and Steel
Cotton
- Cotton trade based largely off slave labor (mainly from US South in early 19 th century,
later on, India)
- Child labor often used in textile factories to turn cotton into textiles
Coal Industry
- Ashley Mine’s Commission (1842)
- Parliamentary commission headed by MP lord Anthony Ashley-Cooper
Iron and Steel
- Coal was necessary to produce iron ore and steel
- Steel created durable infrastructure, machinery, railroads, ships, and weapons
- (Sheffield Wentworth Steel Works, 19th century)
The People Left Out
- Central and Eastern Europe
- Spain and Italy
- Ottoman Empire (called the “sick man of Europe)
- WHY?
- Serfdom still existed (peasants still immobilized/tied to their landlords)
- Wave of conservatism (the elite strictly regulated literature and new technology)
Impacts on Economy and Labor
Working Conditions
- Industrialization caused product prices to decrease; wage labor to decrease
- Urban population growth creates urban slums
- Diseases like dysentery, cholera, and tuberculosis are rampant in cities
- Air pollution from coal
- Gustave Doré, London Slums (1872)
Example of Health Crisis: Irish Potato Famine
- 1845-1852
- Environmental disaster compounded by harsh working conditions and poverty imposed
on Irish by British colonialism
- British withheld international aid; took un-diseased potatoes to feed British
- 1 to 1.5 died of starvation
- Some 2 million emigrated to United States
Efforts to Reform
- Bad working conditions mobilized urban working class to demand government reform,
especially to expand the male vote and allow for secret ballots to encourage more
attention to workers’ plight
- Private militias hired by factory workers put down a labor strike in Manchester, England
– Peterloo Massacre (1819)
- Factory Act of 1833 – restricted child labor in Britain (was not banned entirely); first
major reform act of Industrial Revolution
Culture in The Industrial Age
Big Ideas
- The Industrial Revolution increasingly associated “modern” with the values of the
middle class
- The emergent middle class (bourgeois) culture was both an extension of the
Enlightenment and a rebuttal to it
Structure
- Scientific and Technological Advancements
- New Gender Paradigms
- The Romantic Movement
Scientific and Technological Advancements
Britain on Top
- (1830) UK produces 70% of world’s Coal
- (1870) UK produces 50% of cotton cloth and iron
- UK is richest country in the world
- London is largest city in Europe (2.5 million people by mid-century)
- 1851 – London Exhibition (first world’s fair)
Public Health Reformers
- Edwin Chadwick – saw link between poverty and disease; helped to create Britain’s first
National Health Board (Chadwick Report) in 1848
- Louis Pasteur – developed germ theory in 1870s while studying brewing techniques;
helped discover bacterial organisms; led to improved sanitation in hospitals
Urban Planning
- (Paris) Georges Haussmann developed modern Parisian boulevards
- Demolished smaller streets and bull
- “Modernize” Paris
-
Effects
Improved city sanitation
Improved transportation
Preventative against revolutionaries
-
Other cities will copy this model
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Chicago, Illinois
New Gender Paradigms
The Domestic Model
- Queen Victoria defined the era culturally (Victorian Era)
- Husband: Prince Albert (first cousin)
- Royal family became the model of domestic life
“Cult of Domesticity”
- Ideas of “separate spheres” emerges due to industrial life
- Theological roots in Calvinism – the “industrious” family ideal/Protestant work ethic
- Sarah Stickney Ellis was a big promoter of the cult of domesticity
- Isabella Beeton, Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management (1861)
- Huge bestseller – outsold all of Charles Dicken’s books combined
Women’s Labor
- Women only made about 40% of what men earned for the same job (on average)
- Women considered “spinsters” if not married by mid-30s
- Often sent to work abroad as governesses and housemaids
- Women sometimes found self-employment through novels (had to publish under male
pseudonyms)
- Jane Austen
- Bronte sisters
- Mary Anne Evans (George Eliot)
- Married women in Britain weren’t legally recognized until 1839; women couldn’t
divorce until 1857
The Romantic Movement
Characteristics
- Emotion over Reason – reaction against the Enlightenment
- Nostalgia for Agrarian Past – reaction against urbanization and industrialization
- Natural over Artificial – humans could best discover their true genius by retreating to
nature
- Ambivalence towards Progress and Certainty
Romanticism Ties to Nationalism
- Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (1830)
- Belief that true harmony existed among the like-minded
- “Collective genius”
- Love for nation provided secular alternative to religion
UNIT 3: Week 10
Politics in the Industrial Age
Big Ideas
- The political differences of the modern era were based in the responses to the Industrial
Revolution
- The expansion of the vote and the political role of industrial urban workers become the
largest political issues of the 19th century
4 Political Movements of the Industrial Era
- Conservatism
- Liberalism
- Socialism
- Revolutionary Socialism (Marxism)
Conservatism
Core Values
- Values mutual responsibilities over individual rights
- Tradition proves the test of time
- Government’s responsibility was to protect traditions and social cohesion
- Portrait: Klemens von Metternich (Austrian statesman 1773-1859)
Liberalism
- Emerged from the traditions of John Locke, Adam Smith, and Jeremy Bentham
- Championed expansion of individual rights and free movement (abolition of serfdom)
- John Stuart Mill is hero of the Liberal movement
- Initially believes in laissez-faire, but reforms his views after seeing working class
conditions
Socialism
Core Tenet
- Workers should own natural resources and the means of production
- UTOPIANISM
- Believed factory owners and capitalists could be persuaded to redistribute wealth
- Created experimental communities where resources were shared
- Robert Owen’s New Harmony, Indiana
Revolutionary Socialism (Marxism)
- Friedrich Engels and Karl Max – both journalists of German middle class who differed
from other socialist figures to develop their own theories
- Engels helped Marx develop new theory about historical progression: materialism
- Everything about you is dependent on your economic situation
- Your values reflect the values of your economic class
- History is defined as the history of class conflict
- Liberalism is too individualistic; but opportunity for change comes through class
consciousness of the working class (proletariat)
- Once the oppression of the proletariat reaches a certain level, they will seize the means
of production through revolution
Key Terms
- Marxism – refers to the economic philosophy of historical materialism; the ideology of
what becomes known as the “critical theory” in the 20th century
- Socialism – collective ownership of the means of production (usually through the state);
the means of redressing wealth inequality
- Communism – the end goal: a utopian society where classes and private property have
been abolished; nationalism is abolished; there is no state
Why did the Marxist Revolution not happen in the West?
Reasons Marxist Revolution Pan Out
- Marx underestimated the role of nationalism
- Revolutions of 1848
Other Reasons for no Marxist Revolution
- Social conditions improve after 1848 (improved technology, sanitation, food, etc.)
- Governments learn to compromise with labor class (anti-union laws abolished)
- Suffrage expands (for men only)
- Government Reforms:
- Improved housing, public works
- Public education
- Secret ballots
- Working classes get their own political parties:
- Labour Party in the UK
- Social Democrats in Germany (SPD)
Legacy of Marx
- Ironically, Marxist revolutions only took in non-industrialized countries in the 20th
century
- True Marxism in the West has yet to occur (reforms through democratic processes has
been the norm)
Science and Secularism
Science, Secularism, and the Problem of the Ethics
Big Ideas
- Consumerism and Naturalism in the 19th century both contributed to the erosion of
religion as a source of authority in the West
- Discoveries in the natural sciences were applied as means to diagnose social problems,
seek progress, and reinforce existing prejudice
Consumerism and Prosperity
- Idea of “leisure” becomes available to a growing middle class in 19th century
(unprecedented)
- Shopping/theaters/sporting events replace church as centers of community life
- Advancing life expectancy and decrease in child mortality  greater focus on the
present world
Evolution and Natural Selection
Geological Origins
- Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology (1830)
- Studied layers of sediment to conclude that geological changes occur over long
stretches of time
Charles Darwin
- First developed theory of evolution after research trip to the Galapagos Islands
- The Origin of Species (1859)
- Theory of “natural selection”
- The Descendant of Man (1871)
- Created paradigm shift in Western science
Orthogenesis
- Thomas Huxley – Darwin’s “bulldog”
- Famous London debate against Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford over evolution
- Expanded upon Darwin’s ideas to argue for orthogenesis – biological history was history
of progress from weak to strong – humans would continue to improve
- Assigned moral value to evolution
Applying Darwinism to Society
Herbert Spencer
- Father of “Social Darwinism”
- Coined term “survival of the fittest”
- Civilization moves from primitive to complex
- “Anglo-Saxons” were at the top
Francis Galton and Eugenics
- Darwin’s cousin
- Humans ought to advance and manipulate natural selection to make the world better
- “improve” the human race by identifying the best specimens and weeding out the “bad”
- Ideas embraced by most Western university systems
Keep in Mind
- Discoveries in science, particularly in the concepts of evolution and natural selection,
helped in ushering secularization in the West and popularized naturalism
- Natural selection did NOT invent racism, but science was used to reinforce existing racial
prejudice and give it new justifications
- New knowledge reflects the values of the societies which discover them
UNIT 4 (WEEK 11)
Age of Empire
The New Imperialism and its Reactionaries
Big Ideas
- The Industrial Revolution enabled Western powers to RAPIDLY enact military, economic,
and cultural domination all over the world by the early 20th century
- The “New” Imperialism created diverse reactions, sparking resistance among the
colonized and military rivalry between the colonizers
Causes for Imperialism
- Economics
- Religion
- Military
- Scientific Racism
- Imperial Competition
Economics
- Control over trade over raw materials to make industrial products
- Countries could be colonized indirectly
- China and the Opium Wars
- Egypt and the Suez Canal
- Or directly…
- India after the Sepoy Revolt
Religion
- Humanitarian impulses to transform morality in African and Asian societies to Christian
models
- David Livingstone – Scottish missionary to central Africa
- Missionaries sought to abolish practices like female genital mutilation (FGM) in Africa
and sati in India
- Justified use of colonial violence
- Unexpected outcome:
- 9 million African Christians in 1900
- 400 million African Christians in 2000
- Africa projected to become the continent with highest Christian population
Military
- Need bases to “protect” colonies and control local populations
- Colonial fronts were best places to try out new machinery and intimidate foes
- British conquest of Sudan (1898 Battle of Omdurman)
- German genocide of Herero people (1904, modern-day Namibia)
Scientific Racism
- Social Darwinism used as justification
- “survival of the fittest”
- Resulted in dehumanization of non-white peoples:
- The Belgian Congo (controlled directly by Belgian monarch)
- 5-8 million Congolese murdered during Belgian rule
- Idea summed up in phrase “White Man’s Burden”
The “White Man’s Burden”
- 1899 poem by Rudyard Kipling (author of The Jungle Book)
- Context of United States also becoming an overseas empire after Spanish-American war
by “sharing the burden” of imperial work in the Philippines
- Revealed underlying paranoia about the “dirty work” of imperialism
Imperial Competition
- “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality
- Conference of Berlin, 1884-1885
- Set the terms for European acquisition of Africa (no Africans invited)
- “scramble for Africa” resulted
- Cartoon depicting Cecil Rhodes, “Rhodes Colossus” linking Cairo Egypt to Cape Town,
South Africa by telegram wire
Responses to Western Imperialism
- Written Protest
- Military Resistance
- Cultural adaptation
- Non-violent resistance
Written Protest
- Commissioner Lin Xezu’s letter to Queen Victoria (China and the Opium Wars)
- Anti-Imperial Editorials
- Mark Twain (America), Joseph Conrad (UK)
Military Resistance
- Sepoy Revolt (a.k.a. Great Mutiny) in India, 1857
- Boxer Rebellion in China 1898-1901
- Traditionalist faction trying to regain control from modernizing faction
- Mass executions of colonial diplomats and missionaries
- Most violent resistance met with brutal retaliation
Cultural Adaptation
- Europeans took advantage of existing ethnic hierarchies
- Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda
- Classroom in German East Africa (Tanzania), 1914
- Some people once resisted then later chose to adapt Western culture
Non-violent resistance
- Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi (1869-948)
- Received a Western education in the UK
- Used both western and Eastern religion to form is own philosophy of non-violent
resistance
- Became the leading figure of Indian independence movement
KEEP IN MIND
- Industrial-style Imperialism exported Western culture around the world more effectively
than ever before
- Imperial Rivalry would be one of major causes of World War 1
Nationalism, Demands for Reform, and The Road to World War
Big Ideas
- The rise of nationalism posed a threat to the “balance of power” among multiethnic
empires, being a major cause of World War 1
- Nationalist pride encouraged technological innovation but also led to militarism
- The “modernization” of society also led to further demands for rights and reform
THEMES
- Nationalism and Alliances
- Pushes for Reform
- Technology and Militarization
Germany Catching Up
Reasons why Germany was catching up with Britain
1. Better engineers
2. Newer Factories
3. Britain was too worried about protecting its own overblown empire
4. Germany starts building its own navy
Imperial Angst
- Germany and Britain had once been friends, but now their colonies border each
other…compete for resources
- Fears over imperial competition leads to alliances…
Demands for Reform
Rise of Feminism
- Feminism became more of a mainstream political issue with rising economic prosperity
- Emerged out of earlier reform movements (abolition, temperance)
Women’s Suffrage
- 2 main strategies
- Suffragists: used pamphlets, legislative measures to advance women’s issues
- Susan B. Anthony, Frances Willard (USA)
- Suffragettes: used civil disobedience, direct action, and even terrorism to raise
awareness
- Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) was most famous suffragette in the UK
- Norway and Denmark only Western countries to allow women the vote before World
War 1
- “first-wave feminism”
- Women gained right to vote after WW1: USA 1920 and UK 1928
Jewish Rights and Zionism
- Long tradition of Anti-Semitism in Europe (Pale of Settlement in Russian Empire)
- Pogroms – mass state-endorsed executions
- Three Jewish Responses:
- Assimilation – most successful in Western Europe
- Emigration – protect Jewish identity against threat of assimilation
- Zionism – secular alternative to Jewish identity, desire to create Jewish homeland in
Palestine
Technology and Militarization
Militarization of Technology
- Maxim Gun – first functional machine gun (1890s)
- 1906 - HMS Dreadnought battleship
- U-Boats
- Militarization was a controversial point in society
In Summary
- Imperial Rivalry, Nationalism, and Industrial Militarism were the 3 major causes (longterm) of World War 1
- Western empires were at the height of their industrial power and cultural influence in
the opening of the 20th century
- Western power was held together by a common assumption that modernization would
make the world a better place
UNIT 5 (WEEK 12)
World War 1
The Great War, 1914-1918
- World War 1 (“The Great War”) was the bloodiest and most destructive conflict in
Western history up to that point
- World War 1 was the first modern war fought under the culmination of industrialization,
imperialism, and nationalism
- World War 1’s greatest legacy was the permanent destabilization of European empires
What is at stake?
- Control of imperial trade (esp. traffic on the seas)
- Liberal democracies vs. military autocracies
- Protection for weaker nations (e.g., Belgium)
- Self-determination for colonized ethnic groups(?)
- Eastern Europe
- Middle East? Africa? Asia?
The Great War as a “Modern” War
Civilian Mobilization
- Government plays increased role in monitoring civilian life:
- Censorship of the press
- Propaganda as patriotism (“love thy neighbor, hate thy enemy”)
- Labor union crackdown
- War bonds and rationing
- War as a distraction to other issues (e.g., women’s suffrage, worker’s rights)
Multiple Fronts
- Underestimation of the war’s length – many places in stalemate during fall of 1914
- German advances on eastern front, arranges separate peace with Russia (Brest-Litovsk,
March 1918)
- Ottomans withstanding British attacks
Trench Warfare
- “war of attrition”
- “no man’s land”
- Worst on the Western Front:
- Verdun (1916)
- Somme (1916)
- Passchendaele (1917)
- Warfare blunders and excessive deaths owed to combination of advanced weaponry
and incompetent officers
Modern Warfare
- New Technologies: Submarine warfare, Biological warfare, Airplanes, Tanks
Modern Atrocities in the War
Conquest of Belgium
- First neutral country invaded and ravished by Germany
- Neutral countries no longer safe
Sinking the RMS Lusitania
- Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare - anyone was a target
- May 7 1915, Lusitania torpedoed off cost of Ireland, sank in 22 minutes
- 1,198 victims (128 Americans)
Armenian Genocide
- Turkish goal of eliminating “fifth column” minority populations
- 1-1.5 million Armenians killed between 1915-1919
- Condemned by international community, but later denied by Turkish government
- Also impacted Assyrians, Kurds, and Greeks (non-Muslim populations)
Revolution, Armistice, and Pandemic
Big Ideas
- The aftermath of World War 1 brought major destabilization to Europe with little
resolution
- The armistice launched a wave of cultural disillusionment with progress and democracy,
sowing the seeds for later ideological conflicts
Turning Points
- Russian Revolution and withdrawal from war
- US entry to the war
- The Spanish Flu Pandemic
Russian Revolution
Crisis in Russian Empire
- Russia controlled by the Romanov family, largely resistant to reform
- Russian peasants suffered most from war, dismal morale
- Spring 1917 – Czar Nicholas II abdicates after army supports protesters; provisional
government set up (competing political parties)
- Bolshevik (revolutionary socialist party) takes control in the Fall
- Bolshevik make peace with Germany
Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks
- Believed himself to act on behalf of the masses
- 3 main agendas:
- Farm collectivization
- Factories taken over by Soviets (workers’ council)
- Immediate peace with Germany
- Modified Marxist Theory:
- Masses of peasants and proletariat needed to be led by professional revolutionary class
(“the Party”)
- Russian Civil War, 1919-1921 (“Whites” vs. “Reds”)
- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) declared in 1922
USA Enters the War (April 1917)
Reasons for US Entering the War
- Unrestricted German submarine warfare (freedom of the seas)
- Economic ties to Allies
- Zimmermann Telegram – German bribe for Mexico to declare war on US; Germany to
help Mexico regain Texas and California
- Russian withdrawal
- Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points”
Armistice
- Both sides drawing to a stalemate
- American entry tipped balance in Allies’ favor, but Germany didn’t want to give up
- First outbreak of Spanish Flu in Fall of 1918
- Kaiser Wilhelm forced to abdicate
- Armistice (cease-fire) declared November 11, 1918
Spanish Flu Pandemic
- New strand of H1N1 virus
- First warnings Spring 1918
- Spreads first in military camps and hospitals
- Bigger outbreak in Fall 1918
- Called “Spanish” flu because Spain’s newspapers weren’t censored
- 500 million infected (1 out of every 3 people in the world)
- High mortality rate among young people
- Successive waves in 1919
- US President Woodrow Wilson gets it while at Paris Peace Conference
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
- Treaty of Versailles
- Made responsible for the war
- Vindictive measures taken: Britain and France take the spoils
- Creation of “mandate” system
- Creation of League of Nations
- Germany not invited
- US congress votes not to join
- Promises unfulfilled:
- Arab independence
- Jewish homeland
- Self-determination for Asian colonies (Nguyen Tat Thanh, later Ho Chi Minh)
The Death Tallies
World War 1 – 1914-1918
- Around 10 million military deaths
- Over 10 million civilian deaths
Spanish Flu – 1918-1920
- 50 million dead
- About 600,000 dead in America (1 out of every 4 people infected; 1 out of every 200
people dead)
What did all of this mean?
- The Collapse of Multiethnic Empires
- German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman
- A generation of young people lost
- Disillusionment with modern progress and democracy
- search for alternative models
- Exposed fragility of Western civilization (the rest of the world is watching)
UNIT 5 (WEEK 13)
Postwar and Modernity and Disillusionment
Big Ideas
- The 20-year armistice between World War 1 and World War 2 was characterized by
economic instability, political frailty, and cultural angst against conventional wisdom and
morality from the enlightenment
- Economic insecurity would lead to international distrust and the rise of totalitarian
governments
Economic Booms and Busts
Hyperinflation
- Germany under Weimar Republic
- Treaty of Versailles terms led Germany into economic and political destabilization
- 1923: France invades Ruhr valley in Germany when they don’t make a reparation
payment
- 1924: $1 US = 4.5 trillion German marks
- Dawes Plan – US bailout program
- British and French also have huge loans with USA, but able to fall back on colonies
- General economic recovery 1925-1929
Boom and Bust
- Wartime factories turn into producers of mass consumer products
- Flat economies based on huge loans between several countries
- Uncontrolled loans lead to international stock market crash in 1929 and collapse of
several banks
- 1932: German unemployment 44% (US highest rate was 25%)
Modernism and the Uncertainty of Progress
New Artistic Trends
- Modern Architecture – Bauhaus and Internationalist styles
- Rejected the past (ideas that led to WWI), tried to embrace “functionalism”
- Mies van der Rohe
Modern Art
- Cubism, Dadaism, and Surrealism
- Belief that traditional art couldn’t represent the rapid changes and confusion of modern
life
- Pablo Picasso
- Salvador Dali
Modern Literature
-
Influence on Freudian psychology
“streams of consciousness” – emphasis on the interiority and subconscious of a person;
rejection of conventional modes of rational behavior and morality
E.g., William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce
Film Culture
Radio
-
Became the most widely available technology in 1920s
USA – most radio stations paid through advertisements
Europe – most controlled directly by the state
Allowed populism in politics to ensue
Birth of Fascism (Benito Mussolini took power in 1922 and Francisco Franco in 1939)
What is Fascism?
- Name derives from Roman fasces – “strength through unity”
- Blend of absolutism with Romantics – the State is the collective genius and will of its
people
- Cult of personality – the leader embodies the will of the people
- Strong military and expansionism is a sign of national vitality; hyper-nationalism
- Strong disdain of modernism and Communism; appeal to traditional sources of morality
Totalitarianism in the Soviet Union
- Totalitarianism – “the government control all aspects of society, using fear and
intimidation to maintain power” (Clifford Backman)
Joseph Stalin
- Stalin assumed control over Soviet Union after Lenin’s death in 1924
- Fulfiller or betrayer of the Russian Revolution?
- Industrialized USSR through Five-Year Plans
- Great Purge of 1936
- Elimination of “kulaks” (enemies of the state):
- Ukrainian Famine 1932-1933
- Gulag prisons – 1 million deaths between 1938-1953
In Summary
- The aftershocks of World War 1 ushered a new wave of excitement in culture and
technology while also bringing uncertainty for the idea of progress
- Excessive economic speculation led to a global collapse of stocks and banks, making
alternative forms of government all the more enticing to Europeans
Nazi Germany
The Rise of Nazi Germany
Big Ideas
- The Nazi Party, originally seen as a radical fringe movement, gained mainstream
legitimacy and were popularly elected into power in Germany
- In the interests of world peace, most of the West tolerated the rise of Nazi Germany for
fear of the alternative, Communism
Paxton’s Five Steps of Fascism
- The creation of the ideology
- Formation into a political party
- Coming to power
- Exercising power
- Radicalization
Creation of the Ideology
Weimar Germany
- 1919-1933
- Attempted at democratic reform, but weak government due to harsh terms of Versailles
Treaty
- Berlin became known for libertine morality, modernism, urban nightlife, LGBT culture
- Delicate balance between competing political factions, meanwhile traditionalists and
military veterans are upset
Adolf Hitler and Mein Kampf
- Disillusionment of Weimar Republic
- Blamed Versailles treaty on “Jewish-Bolshevist” conspiracy
- Believed in Pan-Germanism and idea of “Lebensraum”
- Wrote memoir from prison – the book became international bestseller
Formation into a Political Party
National Socialism
- Nationalsozialistiche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), shortened “Nazi”
- Originally cells of paramilitary radicals
- Entered mainstream politics and earned legitimacy after Great Depression in early
1930s
Coming to Power
From chancellor to Fuhrer
- January 1933 elections, Nazi party wins majority in election, Hindenburg asks Hitler to
become Chancellor
- Consolidates political power under Nazi party after Reichstag burns
- Hitler given emergency powers
- People believed Nazis were only ones strong enough to prevent Germany from falling
into Communism
- Hitler declared “Fuhrer” (the Leader)
National Belonging and Anti-Semitism
- Idea of Volksgemeinschaft (people’s community) encouraged collective identity as
supreme
- Women encouraged to be mothers of revitalized “Aryan” race
- Education programs and propaganda to find exclusivist German pride
- Jews portrayed as “other”, in league with Communists
Exercising Power
Police State
- Press censorship/ political suppression
- SA (Sturmabteilungen, or “Stormtroopers”) take over army
- SA power eliminated by SS under Heinrich Himmler in 1934
- Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei, secret police was a branch of SS)
- Secret concentration camps for political enemies:
- 1st in Dachau, est. 1933
“Cleansing Society”
- Nuremberg Laws – boycott of Jewish businesses; Jews forced out of the academy,
professional business; banned marriage with Jews
- T4 Program – forced euthanasia of people with mental and physical disabilities
- First experimentation with lethal gas
- Socialism, homosexuality, and association with Jews become illegal
Responses to Nazi Germany
- Catholics – Pope Pius XII Reichkonkordat, 1933 (Vatican peace with Nazi)
- Protestants – Evangelische Reichkirche (Protestant Reichchurch) supported Nazi Party
- Bekennende Kirche (Confessing Church), Protestant minority opposing Nazis
-
Berlin hosts 1936 Olympics
Boycott movements in USA, UK fail
Radicalization
State-Sponsored Violence
- Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938
Re-armament and Appeasement
- 1936 – Rhineland remilitarized
- 1938 – Anschlu (Annexation) of Austria
- 1938 – Invasion of Sudetenland
- Hitler’s sights always on the East
- Regain territory from Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
- Munich Conference 1938
- Neville Chamberlain, Peace for our times”
- Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, August 1939
Invasion of Poland (September 1939)
Jewish Populations
- 500k in Germany (half fled by 1939)
- + 200k in Austria after Anschlu
- 3 million Jews in Poland
UNIT 5 (WEEK 14)