Honors World History
Unit 7 – The Scientific Revolution, The Enlightenment, and Revolutions O
Causes of the Scientific Revolution
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The scientific revolution:
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The scientific revolution of the seventeenth century was the major cause of the change in
worldview and one of the key developments in the evolution of Western society.
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Only the West developed modern science.
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Historians disagree as to how important to its rise were the nonscientific economic, religious,
and social factors.
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Scientific thought in the early 1500s:
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European ideas about the universe were based on Aristotelian medieval ideas.
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Aristotle’s ideas were accepted for 2,000 years because
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He offered common sense explanations.
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Pacified religion.
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"Great chain of being.”
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Central to this view was the belief in a motionless earth fixed at the center of the universe.
(Ptolemaic theory)
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Around the earth moved ten crystal spheres, and beyond the spheres was heaven.
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Aristotle's scheme suited Christianity because it positioned human beings at the center of the
universe and established a home for God.
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Science in this period was primarily a branch of theology.
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The scientific revolution was the product of individual genius--such as Newton building on the
works of Copernicus and others.
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Also, medieval universities provided the framework for the new science.
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The Renaissance stimulated science by rediscovering ancient mathematics and supporting
scientific investigations.
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The navigational problems of sea voyages generated scientific research and new instruments.
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Better ways of obtaining knowledge about the world improved scientific methods.
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Bacon advocated empirical, experimental research.
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Descartes stressed mathematics and deductive reasoning.
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Causes of the Scientific RevolutionThe modern scientific method is based on a synthesis of
Bacon's inductive experimentalism and Descartes's deductive mathematical rationalism.
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Universities established departments of astronomy, mathematics, and physics.
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Patronage.
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Reason.
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After about 1630 (the Counter Reformation), the Catholic church discouraged science while
Protestantism tended to be "pro-science."
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Important Figures
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Copernicus:
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Polish clergyman.
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Astronomer based his
research on Ptolemy.
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Heliocentric theory On the Revolution of the
Heavenly Spheres (1543).
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Where was God?
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Calvin "it cannot be moved."
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Luther called him a fool.
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Catholic reaction was milder, 1616 denounced his theories.
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3 Laws of motion:
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planets orbit in elliptical motions.
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velocity varies according to distance from the sun.
planets move faster closer to the sun.
The Copernican hypothesis:
Claimed that the earth revolved around the sun and that the sun was the center of the
universe.
This heliocentric theory was a departure from medieval thought and created doubts about
traditional Christianity.
Tycho Brahe:
Danish nobleman known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical and planetary
observations.
astronomer and alchemist.
Built an observatory in Denmark.
Tycho is credited with the most accurate astronomical observations of his time, and the data
was used by his assistant Kepler to derive the laws of planetary motion.
He did what others before him were unable or unwilling to do – catalogued the planets and
stars with enough accuracy to determine whether the Ptolemaic or the Copernican system
described the heavens more accurately.
Johannes Kepler:
German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, and key figure in the 17th century
scientific revolution.
He is best known for his laws of planetary motion.
Provided one of the foundations for Isaac Newton's theory of universal gravitation.
Galileo:
Mathematician
Conducted experiments to prove what would actually happen.
Wrote Two New Sciences, which refined the scientific method.
Formulated the law of inertia - objects are in continual motion.
All objects fall with equal acceleration, not velocity.
Designed a telescope to see the universe.
Worked for the Medici’s of Tuscany.
Pope Urban VIII allowed him to write on worldly system but he could not judge which one
actually existed.
Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World (1632).
In 1633 at 68 he was tried for heresy by the Inquisition.
Facing death he recanted, but his books circulated throughout Europe.
Religion vs. Science.
Isaac Newton:
English genius, intensely religious.
Mathematician.
Calculus.
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687).
The law of gravity.
Principia was the synthesis of the revolution.
Universe one system.
Newton’s Laws:
a body remains at rest or motion unless acted upon by another source.
changes in motion are proportional to the energy exerted upon the object.
to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Henceforth, the universe could be explained through mathematics.
"If I have seen further [than others] it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
Francis Bacon:
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English politician and writer.
Novum Organum.
Glorified inductive reasoning.
Developed the theory of empiricism
(study as much as possible, compare and analyze before making speculations).
Empirical knowledge would make nations rich and powerful.
René Descartes:
Fought in the Thirty Years War when he had a vision.
correspondence between algebra and geometry, spatial relationships and equations.
Doubted all that could be doubted.
Reduced all matter to spiritual and physical - Cartesian Dualism.
relationship between mind and matter.
Developed the idea of deductive reasoning - use principles to ascertain laws.
"cogito ergo sum.“
history.wisc.edu/sommerville/351/351-19.htm
Andreas Vesalius:
anatomist, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy.
De humani corporis fabrica (On the Structure of the Human Body).
Vesalius is often referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy.
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Consequences of the Scientific Revolution
A scientific community emerged whose primary goal was the expansion of knowledge.
A modern scientific method arose that was both theoretical and experimental and refused to
base its conclusions on tradition and established sources.
Because the link between pure science and applied technology was weak, the scientific
revolution had little effect on daily life before the nineteenth century.
England and France established royal societies of learned scientists to meet together and
discuss their discoveries.
Challenged the idea that women were inferior to men.
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The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was an intellectual and cultural movement that tied together certain key
ideas and was the link between the scientific revolution and a new worldview; these ideas were:
Natural science and reason can explain all aspects of life.
The scientific method can explain the laws of human society.
Progress--the creation of better societies and better people--is possible.
Nothing was to be accepted on faith.
Caused conflict with the church.
Humans could create better societies and people.
No belief in democracy.
Criticized:
a) Absolutism.
b) Established Church.
Very important to American and French Revolutions.
Began 1689 with the birth of Montesquieu.
Questioned the physical universe.
Centered in Paris -the modern Athens.
Believed in natural laws - very secular.
Many writers made scientific thought understandable to a large nonscientific audience.
Bernard de Fontenelle popularized science and made it easy to understand Conversations on
the Plurality of Worlds.
Fontenelle brought science and religion into conflict (Catholics and Protestants scientists
believed their work exhalted God).
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Fontenelle stressed the idea of progress.
He was also cynical about organized religion and absolute religious truth.
Skeptics such as Pierre Bayle concluded that nothing can be known beyond all doubt and
stressed open-mindedness.
Bayle combined philosophical skepticism with arguments designed to undermine orthodox
Christianity.
In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke insisted that all ideas are derived from
experience--the human mind at birth is like a blank tablet (tabula rasa).
The growth of world travel led Europeans to look at truth and morality in relative, not
absolute, terms.
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The Philosophes and the Public
The philosophes brought Enlightenment ideas to the ignorant people and brought the
Enlightenment to its highest stage of development in France.
The French language was the international language of the educated classes of Europe, and
France was Europe's wealthiest state.
Intellectual freedom was possible in France, in contrast to eastern Europe.
The philosophes were committed to bringing new thinking to the public, but not necessarily the
masses.
In their plays, histories, novels, dictionaries, and encyclopedias, they used satire and double
meanings to spread their messages to the public.
Philosophe (Fr. Philosopher) but not only a French movement.
Critics of absolutism did not face death for their beliefs like in other countries.
Critics of the Old Regime and absolutism - but were not tortured of killed in France, they were
exiled or jailed.
Developed new ideas about God, human nature, good and evil, and cause and effect
relationships.
Humans were basically good, but corrupted by society.
People were a link in the rationally ordered chain of beings.
Enlightenment philosophes argued that women and men were different and operated in
separate spheres.
Salon:
gathering of supposedly stimulating people of quality under the roof of an inspiring hostess or
host, partly to amuse one another and partly to refine their taste and increase their knowledge
through conversation and readings.
John Locke
British empiricist:
Second Treatise on Government and Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
Rejected Descartes.
Tabula Rasa theory - all ideas were from experience.
Govt. social contract.
Life, liberty, property.
People are the power.
Constitutional monarchy and defended the Revolution.
Jefferson.
Baron de Montesquieu:
Born 1689 - French attorney.
Different political theories for different times.
Established separation of powers.
Wrote The Persian Letters which criticized European customs.
Wrote The Spirit of the Laws (1748) applied comparative study to republics, monarchies, and
despotism - great inquiry in the emerging social sciences.
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Showed that governments were shaped by history.
A strong upper class was necessary to prevent abuses.
Despotism could be avoided if power was shared.
but he was not a democrat.
Admired the English system.
Greatly influenced Franklin.
Montesquieu's theory of the separation of powers was extremely influential.
Voltaire:
French, François Marie Arouet.
Imprisoned in the Bastille for being critical of the king.
Moved to England.
Had an affair with his niece.
Candide.
Enlightened Despotism - best government was a good monarch.
He continually challenged the Roman Catholic Church.
Deism - God was a clockmaker who built the universe and then let it work.
Rejected fundamental doctrines of Christianity.
Most philosophes hated religious toleration.
Crush the Infamous Thing!
Voltaire’s slogan.
Disliked religious bigotry supported by an organized clergy.
Voltaire challenged traditional Catholic theology and exhibited a characteristic philosophe
belief in a distant God who let human affairs take their own course.
He opposed legal injustice and unequal treatment before the law.
He was influenced by his longtime companion, Madame du Chatelet, who was a scientist but
who was discriminated against because of her sex.
Died a millionaire because of shrewd business investments.
He was a reformer not a revolutionary.
The Encyclopedia:
Edited by d’Alembert and Diderot.
Collection of enlightened knowledge.
Initially banned by the government.
Not every article was original but the overall effect was revolutionary.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau:
Swiss, brilliant but neurotic.
People are good.
Natural education Emile.
Social Contract based on two concepts: the general will and popular sovereignty
"All men are born free . .“
Rousseau attacked rationalism and civilization.
Claimed that children must develop naturally and spontaneously.
General will of the people is sacred and absolute.
Private property was the main source of inequality and the chief cause of crime.
Law and Order:
Critics of the old legal system.
Denounced torture and capital punishment.
Rehabilitation of criminal.
Public displays of punishment for the purpose of deterrence.
Economic Thought:
Critical of mercantilism.
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Govt. has three duties:
a) defense against invasion.
b) maintain civil order.
c) sponsor public works.
Did not call for harsher laws and more police to protect economic interests.
Believed in the "invisible hand" of free competition.
François Quesnay:
In France the Physiocrats advocated laissez-faire economics.
school of French thinkers in the 18th cent. who evolved the first complete system of economics.
They were also referred to simply as “the economists” or “the sect.”
Quesnay, advisor to Louis XV denounced mercantilism and stressed the importance of gold
and silver.
Insisted that land was the only source of wealth.
Should be one tax on wealth derived from the land.
Adam Smith
Scottish
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)
Production comes from the workers.
Laissez-faire economics.
Government – “Hands Off.”
Conclusion:
According to historians, there were 3 periods of the Enlightenment:
a) dominated by Montesquieu and Voltaire
before 1750 - set the tone of the movement.
b) Franklin, Hume, Rousseau
mid-century fused anticlericalism and scientific speculation into a modern world view.
c) Holbach and Beccaria
politics, social reform, legal reform, metaphysics.
Criticism progressed by criticizing itself.
Enlightenment centered on about twenty big names - but many more followers.
Roughly 1689 (Montesquieu born) to 1789 (Holbach died).
First half were deists who focused on natural law; second half were atheist focused on utility.
Timid political ideas were forced aside by more radical ideas.
Although mostly Parisian the thinkers were characterized by Anglo-mania.
an excessive enthusiasm for all things English.
The American and French Revolutions
Unit 7 – Chapter 23 – Pages 648-672
The American Revolution
Tension between Britain and the North American colonies.
Legacy of Seven Years' War: British debt, North American tax burden.
Mounting colonial protest over taxes, trade policies, Parliamentary rule.
Colonial boycott of British goods.
Attacks on British officials.
Paul Revere’s engraving.
Propaganda.
Tea Act – lowered the price of tea.
Boston Tea Party, 1773.
Political protest over representation in Parliament: Continental Congress, 1774.
“No Taxation Without Representation”
The American Revolution
Stamp Act – tax on paper products.
Sugar Act – stop smugglers.
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Quartering Act.
Quebec Act – Catholicism in Canada.
British troops and colonial militia skirmished at the village of Lexington, 1775.
The Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776.
Original version, slavery was abolished.
Jefferson reluctantly removes under pressure from southern delegates.
Thirteen United States of America severed ties with Britain.
Declaration inspired by Enlightenment and Locke's theory of government.
The American Revolution, 1775-1781.
British advantages: strong government, navy, army, plus loyalists in colonies.
American advantages:
European allies (French and Dutch).
George Washington's leadership.
Home field advantage.
Hit-and-run tactics.
Motivation.
Weary of a costly conflict, British forces surrendered in 1781.
First plan: Articles of Confederation.
Building an independent state: Constitutional Convention, 1787.
Constitution.
Bill of Rights.
Constitution guaranteed freedom of press, of speech, and of religion.
American republic based on principles of freedom, equality, popular sovereignty.
Full legal and political rights were granted only to men of property.
The French Revolution and Napoleon – Chapter 23 – Pages 648-672.
Drew inspiration from the American Revolution.
More radical in scope, time frame, and ideals.
Ideal was to repudiate the old order known as the ancien regime, and to replace it with new
cultural, social, and political structures.
Estates General – the French national legislature.
Three estates:
1st Estate - Clergy - 1% of population.
2nd Estate – Nobility – 2% of population.
3rd Estate – the rest of France – 97% of population.
Each estate had one vote.
Financial crisis provided the immediate cause of the French Revolution.
French treasury was bankrupt.
Wars.
Excessive spending by Marie Antoinette and court.
Nobility unwilling to give up its tax exemption forced King Louis XVI to call into session the
Estates General.
Raise new taxes.
Many representatives wanted sweeping political and social reform.
It had been more than 150 years since the Estates General had convened.
After several weeks of frustrating debate, members of the Third Estate withdrew from the
Estates General.
The National Assembly formed by representatives of Third Estate, 17 June 1789.
Tennis Court Oath.
Demanded a written constitution and popular sovereignty.
Angry mob seized the Bastille on 14 July.
Strike against the Old regime.
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“Great Fear”
Sparked insurrections in many cities and countryside.
National Assembly wrote the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen"
Proclaimed the equality of all men.
Idea that sovereignty resides in the people.
Principles of liberty, property, and security.
Prohibited social distinctions.
"Liberty, equality, and fraternity" was the slogan and values of the National Assembly.
The Assembly abolished the feudal system.
Altered the role of church.
Made the king the nation’s chief executive official.
Deprived him of any legislative authority.
France became a constitutional monarchy, 1791.
Changes not welcomed by the nobility or foreign supporters of the king.
Austrian & Prussian armies invaded France to restore ancien régime.
Also, declared war on Spain, Britain, and the Netherlands.
The Convention replaced National Assembly under new constitution, 1791.
An elective, legislative body.
Church property was confiscated and clergy lost their privileged status.
Peasants were freed from the dues and services owed to their landlords.
French women gained important property rights and the right to a divorce.
The Convention instituted the levee en mass.
Universal conscription of people and resources to counter the invading forces.
“Terror to root out traitors.”
Guillotine.
Executed more than 40,000 counterrevolutionaries.
French prisons – 300,000 suspected enemies of the revolution.
King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette executed, 1793.
Maximillian Robespierre.
Sought to remake France.
Radical Jacobins dominated the Convention in 1793-94 in a "reign of terror."
Revolutionary changes: in religion, dress, calendar, women's rights.
July 1794, Robespierre was arrested and executed.
Group of conservatives seized control of France.
The Directory.
Unable to resolve France’s military or political problems, the Directory as not effective.
The timing was perfect for a man with a plan:
Napoleon Bonaparte.
Brilliant military leader; became a general in the royal army at age 24.
Supported the revolution; defended the Directory.
His invasion of Egypt was defeated by British army.
Overthrew the Directory and named himself consul for life.
Napoleonic France brought stability after years of chaos.
Made peace with the Roman Catholic church and pope.
Extended freedom of religion to Protestants and Jews.
Napoleonic Code/Civil Code of 1804: political and legal equality for all adult men.
Restricted individual freedom, especially speech and press.
Napoleon's empire:
1804 - proclaimed himself emperor
Dominated the European continent: Iberia, Italy, Netherlands.
Defeated Austria and Prussia.
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Fought British on high seas.
Disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812 destroyed Grand Army.
The fall of Napoleon:
Forced by coalition of enemies to abdicate in 1814, exiled on Elba.
Escaped, returned to France, raised army, but was defeated by British in 1815 at Waterloo.
The Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was an international conference that was called in order to remake
Europe after the downfall of Napoleon I.
Led by Prince Metternich of Austria.
Many territorial decisions had to be made in the conference that was held in Vienna, Austria,
from September 1814 to June 1815.
The main goal of the conference was to create a balance of power that would preserve the
peace.
Important Decisions:
France was deprived of all territory conquered by Napoleon.
The Dutch Republic was united with the Austrian Netherlands to form a single kingdom of the
Netherlands under the House of Orange.
Norway and Sweden were joined under a single ruler.
Russia got Finland and effective control over the new kingdom of Poland.
Britain got several strategic colonial territories, and they also gained control of the seas.
France was restored under the rule of Louis XVIII.
Spain was restored under Ferdinand VII.
Nationalistic feelings grew in countries placed under foreign rule.
Started in South America.
The emergence of ideologies:
Conservatism and Liberalism.
Conservatism: resistance to change.
Importance of continuity, tradition.
Liberalism: welcomed change as an agent of progress.
Championed freedom, equality, democracy, written constitutions.
Honors World History - Unit 7 – Nationalist Revolutions Sweep the West/An Age of
Democracy and Progress – Chapters 24 and 26 – Pages 678-706 and 744-763.
Freedom, equality, and popular sovereignty appealed to peoples throughout Europe and the
Americas and inspired revolutions both political and social.
The struggle toward full realization of these Enlightenment ideals continues today in all parts
of the world.
Haitian Revolution
The America and French Revolutions paved the way for violent social and political revolution
in Saint-Domingue, the wealthy French sugar, coffee, and cotton-producing colony located on
western Hispaniola.
Today, that location is the nation of Haiti.
In 1790, the colony included about 40,000 white French settlers, 30,000 free people of color
known as gens de coleur, and about 500,000 black slaves, most of whom were born in Africa.
Working conditions in Saint-Domingue were brutal.
More economical for plantation owners to work their slaves to death.
As a result of this harsh treatment, a substantial number of slaves escaped to the mountainous
regions of Haiti.
By the late 18th century, these escaped slaves, known as maroons, had formed their own
societies and sometimes attacked plantations in search of food, goods, and new recruits.
At the end of the 18th century, prices for African slaves increased dramatically.
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Also, by the end of the 18th century, 500 gens de coleur who had been sent to America to aide
in the American Revolution returned home ready to reform society there.
White planters, fueled by the desire for self-government stemming from the French revolution,
wanted self-government for themselves
Opposed any attempts to bring social or political equality to the gens de coleur.
In August 1791, the island descended into chaos as 12,000 slaves, led by a Voudou priest named
Boukman, attacked and killed white plantation owners, destroyed their property, and within a
few weeks attracted almost 100,000 slaves into their ranks.
The white factions responded and fought both slave and gens de coleur factions.
The situation grew more complex as French troops arrived to restore order in 1792 and British
and Spanish forces arrived in 1793 in hopes of benefiting from France’s colonial problems.
When Boukman died a few weeks into the fighting, he was succeeded by Francois-Dominique
Tousaint, who called himself Louverture, “the opening,” which refers to an opening in the
enemy’s ranks.
Intelligent, educated, and a skilled organizer, Toussaint was also a shrewd judge of character.
He used these skills to build a strong, well-disciplined army, to play the French, British, and
Spanish troops against each other, and to jockey for power among the other black and mulatto
generals.
By 1791, his army of 20,000 controlled most of the island.
By 1801, he produced a constitution which granted equality and citizenship to all SaintDomingue residents.
He declined to declare full independence from France in hopes of avoiding an invasion by
Napoleon’s troops.
His hopes were unfulfilled, however, as Napoleon sent 40,000 French troops to the island in
1802.
Despite Toussaint’s attempts at negotiation, the revolutionary was arrested and sent to France,
where he died of maltreatment in 1803.
However, later that year, an outbreak of yellow fever decimated the French army and
Toussaint’s successors drove the remaining but sickly French troops from their shores.
By January 1, 1804, Haiti had become the second independent republic in the western
hemisphere.
Wars of Independence in Latin America
The ideals of the Enlightenment and of revolution spread to the Portuguese and Spanish
colonies in the Americas.
Conflicts between the peninuslares, colonial officials from Portugal or Spain.
and the criollos or creoles, individuals born in the Americas of Portuguese or Spanish descent,
became increasingly common.
Less-privileged classes of people:
Mixed ancestry
Indigenous peoples
Black slaves
Outnumbered either peninsulares or criollos, but lived at the bottom rungs of Latin America’s
social hierarchy.
The criollos benefited economically throughout the 18th century, but they increasingly
resented the political and economic restrictions placed on them by the Iberian governments.
The Influence Of Revolution
They wanted to displace the peninsulares and retain their own privileged social status.
The Influence Of Revolution
Between 1810 and 1825, the criollos successfully led independence movements establishing
republics in all Spanish colonies in the Americas except Cuba and Puerto Rico.
Independence in Mexico followed a different pattern than in other Spanish colonies.
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A peasant rebellion began under the leadership of Father Miguel de Hidalgo.
This parish priest rallied mestizos and indigenous peoples of Mexico against colonial rule and
his revolt came to be seen as a social and economic rebellion against all the elites of Mexico.
This rebellion by the masses was seen as dangerous by conservative creoles who wanted
freedom from Spanish colonial rule, but who also wanted to retain their own privileged status.
Father Miguel was captured and executed by these fearful criollos, but his peoples’ rebellion
continued for three years after his death.
Colonial rule finally came to an end in 1821 when creole General Augustin de Iturbide
proclaimed independence from Spain.
His empire was short-lived though, as creole elites deposed him in 1823 and declared the
establishment of a republic.
Within two years, the independent nations of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua,
and Costa Rica were formed.
Creole elites lead rebellions in South America as well.
Simon Bolivar led a struggling movement for independence from Spanish rule beginning in
1811.
By 1819 Bolivar had assembled an army of more than 20,000 troops which he used to defeat
the Spanish forces first in Colombia and then in Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru.
He coordinated his efforts with Jose de San Martin in Argentina and Bernardo O’Higgins in
Chile.
Bolivar hoped to create a great confederation modeled after the United States of America.
But despite early successes, by 1830 it was clear the dream of “Gran Colombia” was not going
to succeed.
Brazilian independence was a much different process.
The royal court of Portugal had fled to Brazil to escape Napoleon’s Iberian invasion in 1807
and set up a government in exile in Rio de Janeiro.
In 1821, the Portuguese court returned home leaving Prince Pedro as regent of Brazil.
In 1822, when Brazilian creoles demanded independence from Portugal, Pedro agreed and
when they sought to curtail his powers, he accepted their offer to become emperor of an
independent Brazil.
Creole elites dominated this monarchy, just as they did the republics of Brazil’s neighbors.