Enlightenment, Nationalism and Revolutions
Topics
- the enlightenment (Youtube search)
- nationalism and revolutions (Youtube search)
- The age of -isms
- Nationalism - the fierce loyalty to those who share your language and culture (and your nation).
- liberalism - Natural rights, constitutional government, laissez-faire economics, and reduced spending on armies and established churches
- constitutionalism
- socialism - public or direct worker ownership of the means of production
- conservatism - Change should be limited and slow, keep the traditional ways
- empiricism - knowledge comes from observed experience, including thorough experiments
- Capitalism - Operate the means of production privately, and for profit
- Deism - A divinity simply set natural laws into motion, then let things develop. (watchmaker and watch)
- Feminism - the start of the fight for women's rights
- Abolitionism - Slavery should be abolished, and serfdom ended.
- Zionism - Desire to establish a Jewish homeland in the Middle East.
- Constitutional representation - we want written laws that govern everyone, including the rulers!
- Natural Rights and Social contracts, The Rule of Law as a concept
- The Philosophes
- Acceleration of change, drastically faster rate of new things altering the way people live and think.
- Social Contract: the agreement that binds all members of a functioning society and thus allows them to live together in relative harmony. There are different versions!
Big Names of the Era
- Voltaire - religious freedom
- Rousseau - social contract, social improvement, obligation of powerful to carry out "general will" of the population
- Adam Smith - "laissez-faire" economics, government should intervene less. "Invisible hand of the market" guides us to better society. Founding idea for capitalism
- Thomas Paine - Common Sense and The Age of Reason
- Mary Wollstonecraft - Women should receive the same education as men, in order to participate in society.
Vocabulary
- plebiscite: A popular referendum (change to the way things are) that doesn't come from the government but instead originates with the common people.
- balkanized (balkans): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans
Revolutions
The Enlightenment ideals caused people around the world to believe that there could be a better life with a different social structure. Many of them saw revolution as the only way to achieve it, and there were many revolutions during this time. Some succeeded, but many ultimately failed.
The driving ideals were progress, reason, and natural law.
Natural Law: (my definition) The minimal law that is required for a large number of humans to coexist and resolve their disputes without violence. It's the only law that can both prevent violence when followed, and requires violence when it is broken (as there is no other way to punish people who violate the social contract other than forcing them against their will).
- American revolution: 7/4/1776 - 1783 (successful)
- New Zealand wars: Maori fighting the British, unsuccessful by 1872
- French Revolution:
- Gov spending too much, calls meeting.
- Commoners break off into National Assembly because they had no voting power
- Storming the Bastille, peasant uprising, king forced to cede gov to National Assembly
- Abolition of feudalism, adoption of Declaration of the Rights of Man
- Reign of Terror - revolutionary gov executes thousands of opponents, including king and queen, many with the guillotine.
- Haitian Revolution
- Extremely violent
- Revolution of slaves against masters
- Only permanently successful slave rebellion
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Links
- Napoleonic wars
Discussion
- #teacher (history) Get a version of Common Sense for the class to read 2025-01-30