Topic 5.1: The Age of Revolutions - The Enlightenment

Historical Context

• Previous videos discussed the formation of significant empires across the globe.
• Focus now shifts to the Atlantic world, where Western powers faced the threat of revolution.
• Age of Revolutions: Period from approximately 1760 to 1850.
  • Significant revolutions in both Europe and the Americas.
  • These revolutions led to transformation rather than collapse for European states.
  • Loss of American colonies motivated European states to expand into Asia and the Pacific.

Causes of Revolutions

• Debate among historians regarding causes of the Western revolutions.
• General agreement on the role of the Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment

• Scientific Revolution: Overhaul of medieval medicine and science, stemming from the Age of Exploration.
  • Led to the scientific method: Use of observation and experiment to gain scientific knowledge.
• Application of the scientific approach to human behavior and society.
• Immanuel Kant's Definition: Enlightenment as emergence from self-imposed inability to use one’s understanding without guidance.
  • Motto: “Dare to know.”

Characteristics of the Enlightenment

• Critique of established ways using satire and sarcasm.
• Hostility towards established authority; belief in the necessity of reform.
• Optimism and Progress:
  • Belief that an enlightened approach could improve society.
  • Focus on open-mindedness and free inquiry.

Enlightenment and Politics

• Impact on Government and Politics:
  • Criticism of monarchs' extended power and imposition of new taxes.
  • Questions about individual rights versus government rights.
• Spread to Colonial Societies:
  • Legitimacy of government seen as resting on the consent of the governed.

Key Thinkers

1. John Locke:

• Governments exist to protect life, liberty, and property.
• People have a right to rebel against governments that violate natural rights.

2. Jean-Jacques Rousseau:

• Collective will of the people is sacred.
• Government legitimacy depends on consent of the people.
• Emphasis on individual rights vs. collective action.

Do Ideas Make Revolutions?

• Question of whether Enlightenment ideas directly caused revolutions.
• Enlightenment thought provided language and intellectual power to express discontent.
• While revolutions were not directly started by Enlightenment thought, they were influenced by it.

Causes of Atlantic Revolutions

• Direct Causes: Higher taxes, cost of wars in Europe.
• Indirect Causes: Enlightenment ideas influencing the discontent and considerations of alternatives.