Hello there, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to another AP World History Modern, Amsco Read Aloud, this book also made by McCormick. Meanwhile, let's get into chapter 5.1, The Enlightenment, without further ado.
Quote, Except our own thoughts, there's nothing absolutely in our power. Rene Descartes, 1596-1650 Essential Question How did the Enlightenment shape the intellectual and ideological thinking that affected reform and revolution after 1750. As empires expanded and trade routes led to more interactions, intellectuals in the 17th and 18th centuries, such as Descartes, began to emphasize reason over tradition and individualism over community values. These shifts were called the Enlightenment.
Their ideals of this movement, such as individualism, freedom, and self-determination, changed the roles of monarchs and church leaders, and planted the seeds of revolution in the United States, France, and around the world. An age of new ideas. Growing out of the scientific revolution and the humanism of the Renaissance, Enlightenment thought was optimistic. Many writers believed that applying reason to natural laws would result in progress, while not denying the existence of God.
They emphasized human accomplishments in understanding the natural world. Such beliefs led to the conclusion that natural laws governed the social and political spheres as well. While traditional religion did not disappear, it did become less pervasive.
Now, new ideas emerged about how to improve society. Schools of thoughts, including socialism and liberalism, arose, giving rise to the period being called the Age of Isms. Opposing socialism and liberalism were the currents of conservatism, particularly popular among the European ruling class.
All of these isms are defined later in this topic. The clash between new ideas and old political structures led to revolutions that often had two aims. Independence from imperial powers and constitutional representation.
The breakup of empires and the emergence of new forms of government often followed. These developed... out of the concept of nationalism, a feeling of intense loyalty to others who share one's language and culture.
The idea of that people who share culture should also live in an independent nation state threatened to destroy all of Europe's multi-ethnic empires. And continuing to page 276 of this chapter, we now have new ideas and their roots. In the 17th century, Francis Bacon emphasized empirical methods of scientific inquiry.
Empiricism is the belief that knowledge comes from sense experience, from what you observe through your experience, including through experiment. Now, rather than relying on reasoning about principles provided by tradition or religion, Bacon based his conclusions on his observation of natural data, Hobb and Locke. In the same century, philosophers Thomas Hobbes, author of Leviathan 1651, and John Locke, author of Two Treaties of Government 1690, viewed political life as the result of a social contract. Hobbes argued that people's natural state was to live in a bleak world in which life was nasty, brutish, and short. However, by agreeing to a social contract, they gave up some rights to a strong central government in return for law and order.
Locke, on the other hand, argued that the social contract implied the right, even the responsibility, of citizens to revolt against unjust governments. Locke thought that people had natural rights to live, liberty, and the pursuit of property. Another of Locke's influential ideas is found in his work, An Essay Concerning Human Life, that was made in 1690, in which he proposed the idea that a child was born with a mind like a blank slate. also known as tabula rasa, waiting to be filled with knowledge. In a world in which most people believed an individual's intelligence, personality, and fate were heavily predetermined by their ancestry, Locke's emphasis on environment and education in shaping people was radical.
The philosophies. In the 18th century, a new group of thinkers and writers, who came to be called the philosophies, explored social, political, and economic theories in new ways. In doing so, they popularized concepts that they felt followed rationally upon those of the scientific thinkers of the 17th century. Taking their name from the French word, philosophie, also known as philosopher for those of us that don't speak French, these writers included Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin from the United States, Adam Smith from Scotland, and several French thinkers.
Of particular importance to the writers of the new constitutions in France and America in the 18th and 17th centuries, 1700s and 1800s, were the writers of Baron Montesquieu. His famous work, The Spirit of Laws, produced in 1748, praised the British government's use of checks on power because it had a parliament. Montesquieu thus influenced the American system, which adopted his ideas by separating its executive branch, the president, from its legislative branch, Congress, and both from its third branch, the federal judiciary. Francois Marie Arret, pen name Voltaire, is perhaps best known for his social satire Candid, which was made in 1762. He was famous during his lifetime for his wit and his advocacy of civil rights.
Exiled for three years due to a conflict with a member of the French aristocracy, Voltaire lived in England long enough to develop an appreciation for its constitutional monarchy and a regard for civil right. He brought these ideas back to France, where he campaigned for religious liberty and judicial reform. His correspondence with heads of state such as Catherine the Great of Russia and Frederick the Great of Prussia, and his extensive writings, including articles in Diderot's Encyclopedia, are still quoted today. His idea of religious liberty influenced the United States Constitution.
A contemporary of Voltaire was the writer Jean-Jacques Roussel. who expanded on the idea of the social contract as it had passed down through the works of Hobbes and Locke. One of Rousseau's early works was A Meal or On Education, which was produced in 1762, in which he laid out his ideas on child-rearing in education. A later work, titled The Social Contract, produced in 1762, presented the concept of the general will of a population and the obligation of a sovereign to carry out that general will. An optimist who believed that society could improve, Rousseau inspired many revolutionaries of the late 18th century.
Adam Smith. One of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment was Adam Smith. In his book, The Wealth of Nations, produced in 1776, Smith responded to mercantilism by calling for freer trade.
While Smith did support some government regulations and saw the benefits of taxes. He generally advocated for laissez-faire, a French phrase for leave alone. This approach meant that governments should reduce their intervention in economic decisions.
Smith believed that if businesses and consumers were allowed to make choices in their own interests, the invisible hand of the market would guide them to make choices beneficial for society. His ideas provided a foundation for capitalism, an economic system in which the means of production such as Factories, natural resources, and of course privately owned resources, are all private owned and are operated for profit. And at the end of that paragraph, we can also see an image of Adam Smith, or rather his statue, with the source from Getty Images stating with the caption, Adam Smith was one of the first modern economists. Moving on. Deism.
The Enlightenment's emphasis on reason... led some thinkers to re-examine the relationship of humans to God. Some adopted deism, the belief that a divinity simply set natural laws in motion. Deists compared the divinity to a watchmaker who makes a watch but does not interfere in its day-to-day workings. Deists believed these laws could be best understood though through scientific inquiry, rather than the study of the Bible.
Despite their unorthodox ideas, many deists did view regular church attendance as an important social obligation, and a way people received moral guidance. Thomas Paine, never one to shrink from conflict, was a militant in his defense of deism in the book The Age of Reason, produced in 1794. Paine's previous work, Common Sense, released in 1776, made him popular in America for advocating liberty from Britain, but his anti-church writings damaged much of his popularity. Meanwhile, also following that up on page 278, we also now have a table titled European Intellectual Life 1250. 1784. Reviewing the table, we can see that we have periods, representative thinkers and characteristics, which we shall now read from left to right. Period. Medieval scholasticism, representative thinkers, St. Thomas Aquinas, 1225-1274 was his lifespan, with the characteristics of, he used reason to defend faith, he argued through writing and debating.
relied heavily on Aristotle, and then used little experimentation. Renaissance Humanism Representative thinkers Erasmus and Mirandola. Their characteristics? Wrote practical books such as Machiavelli's The Prince, emphasized human achievements, and focused on secularism. and the individual.
Period. Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment. Representative thinkers, Francis Bacon, 1561-1626, Isaac Newton, 1642-1727, Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679, John Locke, 1632-1704, and French philosophies.
Characteristics. Emphasized use of empirical data. Believed in natural rights, progress, and reason.
Wanted new constitutions. Supported religious tolerance. Wrote for the reading public. Continuing on with page 278, we have The Age of New Ideas Continues.
In Europe and America, Enlightenment thinkers reacted to the social ills caused by increasing urbanization and industrialization. Poverty in the cities increased. Poor workers lived in slums without proper sanitation and without political representation.
Various writers proposed solutions to the observable problems. Some wanted more government regulations and programs. And many Christians called for greater private charity. But some conservatives blamed the poor themselves and called on them to change.
Conservatism is a belief in traditional institutions, favoring reliance on practical experience over ideological theories, such as that of human perfectibility. Utopian socialism, the economic and political theory of socialism, refers to a system of public or direct worker ownership of the means of production such as mills to make cloth or the machinery and land needed to mine coal. With various branches of socialism developed in the 19th century providing alternative visions of the social and economic Those who felt that society could be channeled in positive directions by setting up ideal communities were called Utopian Socialists. On 279, we see examples of these Utopian Socialists, including Henri de Saint-Simon of France, which believed that scientists and engineers working together with businesses could operate clean, efficient, and beautiful places to work, that produced useful things to society.
He also advocated for public works that would provide employment. He proposed building the Suez Canal in Egypt, a project that the French government later undertook and which opened in 1869. Charles Fourier identified some 810 passions that, when encouraged, would make works more enjoyable and workers less tired. Like other utopian socialists, Fourier believed that a fundamental principle of utopia was harmonious living in conditions and communities rather than the class struggle that was the basic to the thinking of Karl Marx.
Robert Owen, which was born in Great Britain, operated and established intentional communities, or small societies governed by the principle of utopian socialism in New Lanark, Scotland, and New Harmony, Indiana. He believed in education for children who worked, communal ownership of property, and community rules to govern work, education, and leisure time. Getting away from the utopian socialists, we see that in the later 19th century, socialist groups as the Fabian Society formed in England.
The Fabians were gradual socialists. They favored reforming society by parliamentary means. Writers H.G. Wells, Virginia Woolf, and George Bernard Shaw were prominent Fabians. By the mid-20th century, or mid-1900s, Socialist principles would influence most of Western Europe.
Classical liberalism, others advocated. Classical liberalism, a belief in natural rights, constitutional government, laissez-faire economics, and reduced spending on armies and established churches. More classical liberals were professionals, writers, or academics. In Britain, they pursued changes in parliament to reflect changing population patterns so that new industrial cities would have equal parliamentary representation. Classical liberals packed the reform bills of 1832. 1867 and 1884, all of which broadened male suffrage.
Feminism. This period saw the emergence of the movement for women's rights and equal equality based on enlightenment ideals. The French writer, Olympé de Georges, fought for these rights in the era of French Revolution. In 1789, France had adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the male citizen, a pioneering document in the history of human rights. In 1789, de Gouges published a Declaration of the Rights of Women and of the Female Citizen, to point out that women's rights had not been addressed.
In 1792, in England, the pioneering women and writer Mary Wallensterncraft published a Vindication of the Rights of Women. In it, She argued that females should receive the same education as males. Universal education, she argued, would prepare women to participate in political and professional society, enabling them to support themselves rather than relying on men.
Wollstonecraft's ultimate goal was for women to gain the same rights and abilities as men through the application of reason. Women won the full right to vote in the 20th century in the year 1928. Also, we can see from the source of the Library of Congress, we can also see Mary Wollstonecraft with an engraving by James Heath, circa 1797, after the painting by Joan Opie on the top of page 280. Continuing on, in the 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York, activists gathered to promote women's rights and suffrage, the ability to vote, and the convention's declaration of sentiment. Organizers Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton declared, All men and women are created equal.
They demanded women deserve the right to vote and hold office, hold property, and manage their own incomes, and be the legal guardians of their own children. The Seneca Falls Convention was a landmark in the history of the women's rights movement. Abolitionism. Reform movements to provide rights and equality extended to the freeing of slaves and the end of serfdom. Abolitionism, the movement to end the Atlantic slave trade and free all enslaved people, gained followers in the 18th century.
Slave trade were in the... Slave trading was banned earlier than slavery itself. The first states to ban the slave trade were with Denmark in 1803, Great Britain in 1807, and the United States in 1808. In most countries, the slave system...
depended on a steady supply of new enslaved people in order to function. As a result, as soon as the slave trade stopped, slavery began to decline. In most parts of the Americas, slavery was abolished within 30 years of the end of the slave trade. The United States was the rare country where the number of slaves increased after the importation of slaves was legally ended. The last country in the Americas to end slavery was Brazil in 1888. The end of serfdom.
Serfdom in Europe had been declining as the economy changed from agrarian to industrial. Peasant revolts pushed leaders toward reform. Queen Elizabeth I abolished serfdom in 1574. The French government abolished all feudal rights of the nobility in 1789. Alexander II of Russia abolished serfdom in 1861. The Russian emancipation of 23 million serfs was the largest single emancipation of people in bondage in human history.
Zionism. Yet another ism in the late 19th century was the emergence of Zionism, the desire of Jews to reestablish an independent homeland where their ancestors had lived in the Middle East. After centuries of battling anti-Semitism, hostility toward Jews and pogroms violent attacks against Jewish communities, many European Jews had concluded that living in peace and security was not a realistic hope.
To be safe, Jews needed to control their own land. Leading the movement was an Austro-Hungarian Jew, Theodor Herzl. Support for Zionism increased after a scandal in France known as the Dreyfus Affair.
In 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a military officer who was Jewish, was convicted of treason against the French government. However, the conviction had been based on force-forged documents by people promoting anti-semitism. Dreyfus was ultimately pardoned after time in prison, but the case illustrated how widespread anti-semitism was in France.
One of these countries where Jews seemed least oppressed. Zionists faced many obstacles. The land they wanted was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, and Palestinian Arabs were already living in the region.
Both the Ottomans and Palestinians were predominantly Muslim, which added a religious aspect to the conflict. However, the Zionist... movement grew in strength until 1948, where the modern country of Israel was founded. And concluding that on page 281, let's look at the key terms by theme. Government Reforms John Locke Social Contract Tabula Rasa Philosophies Baron Montesquieu Voltaire John Jacques Rizal Culture Isms Enlightenment, Deism, Liberalism, Conservatism, Empiricism, Nationalism, Classical Liberalism, Feminism, Abolitionism, Zionism, Antisemitism, Theodor Herzl, Zionism, Dreyfus Affair, and for the economy reforms we have Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Laissez-Faire, Capitalism, Socialism.
Utopian Socialists, Henry de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Robert Owen, The Fabian Society. And with that, that concludes chapter 5.1, The Enlightenment. Now, just going over the general thoughts and conceptions that I established when I was personally looking at the reading, one thing to definitely keep in mind is the quote of René Descartes, which of course his lifespan also has shown.
showed that his quote and sentiment for majority of the chapter was, Accept our own thoughts. There's nothing absolutely in our power. This reflects the theme of the chapter because it very much shows how individuals were not in control of their own rights. For example, we saw with Adam Smith, we saw with the Fabians, we saw with the other individuals as well in this chapter that individuals were trying to get and establish their own rights.
They wanted their own right to life. One way I think about it is, The way that an individual can own a video game digitally, but technically not own it at all because it comes with your subscription service and not actually with your own physical money. That's at least one of the ways I think about it, and I relate a lot of this to different media. Of course, Hunchback of Notre Dame came to mind when reading about some of the other topics, including, well, of course, the subject of what happened in France.
Looking at some of the other matters as well, we also see that... It is also important to notice John Locke as well, and Hobbes. John Locke was very influential, again, with his social contract concept, stating that by giving up your rights and freedoms, by, in other words, saying, I can't do X, Y, or Z, I have the ability to live a life because I don't kill people, do this, or do this bad thing. Meanwhile, when looking back at Locke, we can definitely see their concept of tabula rasa, or...
blank slate. Like I said, the way I memorize Hobbes is lock, contract, lock and key. Hobbes, I always memorized by the first letters of his name, Hob, also referring to, let's say, The Hobbit, referring to a blank story, a story that got started, and is one of the ways I memorize it. However, do memorize and also do try to write down all the meanings of the key terms by theme, especially for the isms.
These will be very important, especially if you're taking an A2 World exam, and they will be very important when examining them, as they all have quite the contrast between them, especially with Deism focusing primarily on different religious aspects, Conservatism focusing on preservation of the old ways, and Empiricism referring to things like the scientific method. So for those that are in a biology or science class, do remember that you do have to gather data for your experiments, i.e. empiricism, focus on science. Nationalism, a focus on your nation, America.
Love it. That kind of thing. Feminism. A focus on women's rights.
And, of course, forgot the term. But, you know, and then also we have abolitionism. A movement to free slaves.
Zionism. The Jewish movement for religion. And, of course, the Dreyfus Affair, an anti-Semitism movement that actually happened and occurred within France to demonstrate the issues of widespread corruption.
Remember that also for Adam Smith... he was very important as well when it came to capital and economic concepts, especially with laissez-faire or free market. And capitalism, the concept of basically ownership, private ownership, private spending, and also, again, remember, the invisible hand of the market. These are all very important concepts to memorize, especially when considering the broader just consensus of history. Though, I hope you all enjoyed today's chapter.
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Anyways, that'll do it for tonight, and for today's chapter of 5.1, The Enlightenment. I hope you all have a wonderful day, and remember to stay safe, stay happy. And most importantly, stay entertained.
Thank you.