the idea that the monarch should have absolute authority (military, political, religious)

- absolutism was dominate all across Europe

- based on divine right theory

= theory that the right to rule comes straight from God

- succession is determined by birth order, which is completely out of the hands of human

- to disobey the monarch was like disobeying God

- legitimized absolutism

- the monarch has absolute authority, so there is no system of checks and balances

- monarch even has authority to arrest and execute someone for no reason

- all man-made institutions (Congress, Parliament) cannot be more powerful than the monarch bc it would put man over God

= granted rules right to collect a tax on salt in definitely (very unpopular) in France

= the monarch's chief rivals

- their source of wealth were the lands, which gave them power to resist the monarch

- this rivalry was a factor in the French Wars of Religion

= Henry of Navarre led Huguenots (Calvinists) to victory, so he becomes the king

- he is assassinated and succeeded by his infant son, Louis XIII

= become king of France as an infant

- regency was assigned to rule in King's name until he turned 18

- regency is led by Cardinal Richeliue, a high ranking Catholic 

= the poster child for monarch absolutism

- he once said, "I am the state."

- built palace of Versailles

- respected and admired by other monarchs, but despised by people of France 

- he taxed heavily; he was an egomaniac, and got France into unnecessary, expensive wars

= French civil war between monarch and nobles

- at first, the nobles had the upper hand, but ultimately they were defeated

END RESULT -> the power of the nobility was destroyed, and from that point on the French monarch will govern with no restraints for next 100+ years

= huge, beautiful palace built by Louis XIV to demonstrate his power and wealth to the rest of Europe

1. Emerging nation states

2. The facture of Europe over religion

3. The growing and expanding interest in intellectual pursuits (Enlightenment, Scientific Revolution)

NOT: emergence of capitalism and expanding rights of serfs and peasants

Absolutism in Eastern Europe

(Great Powers)

= very different from absolutism in Western E.

1. they were more successful in war (expansion)

2. they co-opted power of nobles by not interfering with their land if nobles didn't interfere w/military

3. they were "enlightened," or open to ideas of Enlightenment (women's ed, religion)

4. didn't run up huge debts on expensive wars or showy palaces

Great Powers of 

Eastern Europe

1. AUSTRIA - Joseph II, Maria Teresa

2. PRUSSIA - Frederick the Great

3. RUSSIA - Peter the Great, Catherine the Great

England during 

Age of Absolutism

- unlike the rest of Europe, it is not dominated by an absolute monarch

- Magna Carta limited the power of the monarch

- Parliament: gave people more of a say through representatives (House of Lords and House of Commons)

= document the limits the power of monarch in England, as well as establishes some liberties

- right of habius corpus: can't convict an individual unless proven guilty of crime

- established the idea of *private property*

- proposes idea of no taxation without consent

- created to give people some representation in operation of government (ex. taxation)

- House of Lords and House of Commons 

- enforced Petition of Rights: only Parliament can tax, preventing people from having to house soldiers, etc.

- from Scotland, but made king of England after Queen Elizabeth died (she had no child)

- although he is Catholic, he never asserts divine right, but when he dies, his son Charles I asserts and rules by divine right 

- almost all Protestants supported the Parliamentary forces against King Charles I

- revised Parliament forces to "New Model Army," then catch Charles I and kill him

- named Lord Protector at the conclusion of the English Civil War

- led England to do away with monarch and House of Lords altogether so Parliament is in charge, while he just governed

Oliver Cromwell and

Parliament

= Parliament was in charge, but Cromwell governed

- kind of established a Puritan Society: banned leisure activities, Christmas celebrations

- the people suspected Cromwell was a Puritan and this was very unpopular

- when Cromwell dies, his son takes throne (Richard)

- this ends Protectorship and begins Restoration to re-establish the monarchy

- Charles II takes over throne and restores the monarchy and re-establishes the House of Lords

- took the throne when his brother Charles II died

- rules by divine right, but he was not very smart, so Parliament must do something so that his son doesn't succeed him --> Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution

"Bloodless Revolution"

- Parliament is determined to remove James II, so they invite James' sister Mary and her husband William to invade England

- William and Mary will become monarchs and force James II out

- theorized by John Locke and Thomas Hobbes

- they argue that you are born completely free to do whatever you want ("state of nature") 

- the state gets power from the people and in divine right power comes from God

- people form governments, or the Neutral Judge

Social Contract Theory:

The Neutral Judge

- The Neutral Judge has 2 main purposes:

1. Protect the rights and liberties of people

2. Settle disputes in a neutral fashion 

Scientific Revolution:

4 Ways to Learn

1. Authority - ex. teacher teaching a class

2. Logic/Deduction - learned through mathematical endeavors

3. Direct Perception - learning through the senses

4. Experience - based on the way you grow up and your surroundings

- Catholic church and ancients base all learning off of authority BUT

 What happens when what you see is not what you have been taught? Gave rise to questioning and rejection of authority to reliance on what you can perceive (started with objects moving in sky)

- theorized that the universe was "Geocentric": the earth was at the center of the universe, all heavenly bodies rotated around the earth in perfect spheres at uniform speed

- this was believed by Catholic church and ancients 

- astrologist that first questions Aristotle's teachings

- wrote On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres

- first to propose "heliocentric" model of universe:

placed SUN at the center of the universe

- Danish nobleman who studied the night sky and recorded the positions of stars and planets

- geo-heliocentric model: all planets rotate around sun, while the sun rotated around the earth (combined Aristotle and Copernicus studies)

- cause of death unknown: either urinary tract problems (bladder exploded) or poisoned by his student, Johannes Kepler

- Brahe's student, who was offered a position as an astrologist for holy Roman emperor 

- developed working model of universe in 1609

- Laws of Planetary Motion:

1. Planets rotate in elipses, not circles

2. speed of planets is variable; those closest to sun move faster

3. speed is discoverable by math formula

Copernicus, Brahe, 

and Kepler

- learned through observing and perception that Aristotle's idea of perfect circles and equal speeds was WRONG

- invented the telescope and discovered the rings of saturn, craters on moon, moons of jupiter (proved planets weren't perfect circles)

- published all in The Starry Messenger

- further invalidated teaching of Catholic church, so he was banned from studying the sky

- instead, he studied MOTION by experimenting (dropping things off tall buildings)

- he found opposite of original teachings: objects prefer motion and only stop when they are forced (incorrect)

- wrote Principia Mathematica, in which he took Kepler's, Gallileo's, and Aristotle's studies to form a new world view

- included 3 laws of motion:

1. every object continues in a state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless deflected by a force

2. rate of change in motion of object proportional to force acting on it

3. for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction

Ancient Ideas of 

Medicine

- Greeks and Church believed that dissecting the human body was wrong b/c you would need your body in the after life

- those restrictions were eased after the Black Death

- Hippocrates theorized body was made up of "Four Humors"

Hippocrates:

"Four Humors"

- four humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile

- skin was like a balloon that held it all together

- if you were sick, it was due to an imbalance in these four humors, so they would use leaches, drink urine or phlegm, etc to restore balance

- in On the Fabric of the Human Body, he published a model of the human body and theorized what they did

- MAJOR FLAW: he had LIVER as pumping blood rather than the heart

- fixed Vesalius' model of human body so that the heart was the pumping mechanism

- proposed the first working model of the circulatory system

- On the Notion of the Heart and Blood

Hooke and

Leeuwenhoek

- utilized the microscope to discover why people become ill and discovered microorganisms

HOOKE - discovered body was made up of cells

LEEUWENHOEK - discovered bacteria and viruses as the source of disease

- developed working model of respiratory system

- monarchs began to finance scientists to become more advanced societies

- this private organization became the center of scientific studies

- scientists had freedom to stand up against ancient or Catholic teachings

- started and funded by Louis

- any discovery that rivaled a Catholic teaching was sensored

- for this reason, scientists preferred Royal Society of London

- profound movement in which philosophes relied on their senses to find answers 

- MAJOR QUESTION: how did the Roman Empire dominate the world for so long and were far more advanced but were ultimately overpowered by the Barbarians to cause them to enter the Dark Ages?

- in Discourse on Method, he put aside everything he had learned and used direct perception to relearn it 

(common theme during the Enlightenment)

- wrote The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,  putting forward a new approach to its history

- used scientific reasoning (hypothesis) to answer the question of why the Roman Empire fell

- lays the fall on the rise of Christianity

Rise of Christianity

and

Fall of Roman Empire

- Greco-Roman culture: idea that greatness of mankind and objective of humans to go out and achieve great things - conquer the world!

- Christianity taught that what happens on Earth is irrelevant bc you don't need body in after life

- Edict of Milan: Constantine made Christianity legal and converted so it spread across empire

- this destroyed the Greco-Roman philosophy, weakened the military, allowing the Barbarians to take over

- Gibbon's theory that Christianity was to blame for fall of Roman Empire opened up question of whether or not God existed

- most philosophes are Agnosticists: they don't know because they is no logical or scientific proof that he exists, but they can't study or disprove it

(ATHEISTS believe God does not exist because there is no scientific proof)

Locke's

Theory on Education

- in Essay Concerning Human Understanding, he argued that humans are born with a "tabula rasa" (blank slate) and how an individual turns out has nothing to do with innate abilities, it is a result:

1. their education

2. their environment

3. social institutions that surround them 

- in nature v. nurture, Locke would argue that it is ALL nurture

Philosophe's View

on Criminal Punishment

- according to Locke's theory on education, if a person commits a crime, he/she cannot be punished because it is not their fault, it is society's

- instead of being punished, they must be rehabilitated in order to return to society

- no sentencing guidelines, they are just confined for as long as it takes them to be rehabilitated 

- French cardinal and court preacher for Louis XIV

- wrote Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Scripture

- advocate for absolutism and divine right of kings to rule by God 

= they left day to day operations of the kingdom to the "prime minister"

= French political scientist who wrote Persian Letters and Spirit of the Laws

- identified ideal characteristics of government:

1. provide greatest amount of liberty AND

2. provide greatest amount of security (protection of liberties and from invasion)

Montesquieu's 

Spirit of the Laws

= examined 6 forms of gov't to determine which was the best form to fit his ideals

1. Pure democracy (Ancient Athens) - majority rules; not strong enough to protect

2. Republic (Romans) - consults/representatives elected; internal corruptions that caused fall

3. Absolute monarchy (French) - great amount of security, not enough freedoms

4. Mixed govt (English) - king and parliament share power

5. Islamic empire

6. Feudal system of China

the BEST form of government was the English mixed government

- Magna carta provides greatest amount of liberty

- Spanish Armada provides greatest amount of protection

- strong enough to get rid of monarchs that attempt to become absolutists

Mercantilism

("Zero Sum")

= old view of economics that there is a finite, set amount of money in the world

- if one is getting richer, someone else in the world is getting poorer

- in Wealth of Nations, he disproves zero sum theory and says that wealth can be generated, the amount in world can grow through mass production

- this was the idea of Capitalism

- believed that government should have minimal role in the economy; laissez faire (hands off) only to construct roads, settle disputes, and provide money 

Philosophes' view 

on Bound Labor

- opposed slavery and serfdom: it takes away one's liberty AND deprives them of incentives to work

- for this reason, they thought it was an inefficient way of labor because they have no incentives to work hard

- editors Denis Diderot and Jean D'Alembert took submissions/new ideas of philosophes in different fields to compile all newly acquired knowledge of Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution

- after published, it was put underground and banned by Catholic church because it opposed many of their teachings

period of social and political upheaval in France as the result of the massive debts and economic crisis

- one of the most important events in history of world

Key Ideas of

French Revolution

1. "idea" from Revolution

2. "guide/example" from American Revolution

3. "trigger" was constant, massive war debt and financial crisis

Louis XVI during

French Revolution

- monarch at the time of revolution, so he inherited all financial problems

- proposed a tax increase, but the Assembly of Notables (made up of clergy and nobles) blocked it

- Estates General had power to disprove block and approve tax increase

- Made up of 3 estates:

1. Nobility

2. Church/Clergy

3. Third Estate (everyone else)

   - Bourgeiose: city dwellers, skilled craftsmen,      lawyers, artisans, bankers, etc.

   - serfs and peasants 

**when voting, they must vote as an estate, and the nobility and clergy usually voted together

Estates General 

meeting at Versailles

- Louis XVI called together meeting over France's financial state

- The Bourgeiose most open to ideas of Enlightenment, financial plight affects them the most: if they are going to pay more taxes, the monarch's power must be limited

- Clergy opposes limiting the monarchy's power

- Nobility usually for opposing monarch power, but NOT open to ideas of Enlightenment bc it questioned their power

-> vote was 2 to 1 in favor of tax increase without limiting monarch power

- Third Estate was angry that they didn't have more representation b/c they were majority of population

- walked out of meeting at Versailles, started a rebellion at tennis courts, and claimed themselves the "National Assembly," their own convention of legitimite government

- oath made by National Assembly to establish a new constituion and not to disperse until the constitution was written and ratified

- new constitution would propose government reform to more representative, mixed form of govt (much like Parliamentary in England)

- Louis XVI let this rebellion continue at Versailles for 3 weeks without doing anything

- symbolic event in which third estate attacks Bastille (armory for monarchy and prison, symbolic representation of center of royal authority)

- marked beginning of French Revolution

- they demanded the armory surrender, and freed the prisoners (only 7)

- when news spread of this, many mini-revolutions began (serfs and peasants rising up against landlords and nobles, burning crops, etc)

Declaration of the Rights of

Man and of the Citizen

- issued by National Assembly to record what was happening on French countryside

- it abolished bound labor (serfdom)

- spoke of man's natural rights to life, liberty, and property; right to resist oppression, right to security

- all men are equal

- October: effects begin to take their toll; French harvest is much smaller than normal, so price of food skyrockets

- very dramatic event: women marched to Versailles to attack Louis XVI because they believed he was responsible for price increases

- they also attacked his wife, Marie Antionette, by spreading rumors of her sexual affairs; in reply, she said "Let them eat cake." which was an insult at the time bc cake was very low quality

END RESULT -> basically places royal family under house arrest while National Assembly worked on Constitution

Constitution of 

National Assembly

- Fall 1791, they finally settle on Constitution based on Montesquieu's best form of govt: English mixed

- National Assembly officially established as legislative power: elected by 50% of the people (determined by property requirement)

- monarch remained as chief executive 

"Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" - strip nobles and clergy of their power for the sake of equality

- abolished all titles/statuses; everyone was referred to as a CITIZEN

- abolished trade guilds and monopolies to eliminate special privileges of certain groups

Constitution: 

Establishing Equality

- National Assembly confiscated church's lands and nationalized them

- then sold them to many serfs and peasants; prevented nobles from being able to buy the land (strip them of their power)

- this won loyalty of serfs and peasants

- philosophes/National Assembly thought that the Catholic church was a "useless relic of the distant past"

- Established a state religion: Cult of Supreme Being, in which everyone worshipped a supreme being, no matter what religion you followed

- this moved religion under authority

- radical revolutionary group that came to power after elections of 1971

- belief that French Revolution had not gone far enough; more inspired by American Revolution and wanted to get rid of monarch completely 

- supported universal male sufferage: if equal, all men should be able to vote

- led by Maximillian Robespierre

- Jacobins also believed other nations should embrace the ideas of French Revolution, and if they did not, they would force them to through attack

- this ideal put them in state of war with many nations

- Louis was put on trial for treason bc lack of support for revolutionary armies, found guilty, and executed by Robespierre

- gave Jacobins opportunity to establish their ideal government without interference of monarchy

- Changed National assembly into Committee of Public Safety

- small, executive group headed by Robespierre who now had the power to oversee national finance, foreign affairs, military

(More like Parliamentary form of govt)

* began REIGN OF TERROR

Reign of Terror

(until 1795)

- time in which Committee of Public Safety rounded up, put on trial, and imprisoned/executed anyone who opposed their revolution (ex. priests who refused to preach about it, nobles flee country, anyone who questioned exhorting revolution)

- French revolution started out peaceful became one of the bloodiest revolutions under this

~ 30,000 imprisoned, 40,000 tried and executed

= revolutionary in Haiti who fought for independence from France and secured native control over colony of Haiti

- invaded Santo Domingo and freed slaves 

-in 1794, slavery was abolished

= greatest military genius who was responsible for many war victories of French during the Reign of Terror

Thermodorian Reaction

(1795)

- in reaction to the violence and extremism of Reign of Terror, National Assembly rises up and ousts Committee of Public Safety, replacing it with the Directory 

- Robespierre ultimately executed ("Those who live by the sword, die by the sword.)

- Older, conservative men who were less radical, but still encouraged war

- due to Napolean's great success in war, by late 1790's, France was on the verg or already conquered most of Eastern Europe

Napolean's 

Rise to Power

- Napolean was politically ambitious & very popular

- 1799, dispatched to Egypt, where he was defeated, so he abandoned his army and fled to Paris to protect his name

- in Paris, he orders people to vote, seizes power from the Directory (which had become unpopular)

- he takes the title "Consul," and is now alone in charge and becomes emperor of France

Progression of Power

during French Revolution

Louis XVI (absolute monarch) --> National Assembly --> Committee of Public Safety --> The Directory --> Consul (back to 1 person in charge)

- argument of whether Napolean destroyed or completed the Revolution

- DESTROYED: France originally ruled by monarchy, and over years changed to mixed govt, Parliamentary, to committe, and right back to an absolute monarch

- COMPLETED: Concordat of 1801 and Napoleonic code established freedom of speech, private property

- agreement with Catholic church by which Napoleon agrees to stop the harrassments and punitive measures, and to release prisoners who opposed Cult of Supreme Being during RofT

- in exchange, church agrees that they won't try to recover lands that were confiscated/nationalized, and the French gov't would pay ministers/priests 

ENDED Cult of Supreme Being, gives more freedom of religion

Civil Code of 1804

(Napoleonic Code)

- established 3 things that are still used in French society today (why Napolean "completed" revol):

1. Provides amnesty to nobles/clergy abolished during RofT and allows them to return to France->

establishes freedom of speech and press

2. Burgeiose benefited most from revolution, should they be able to keep their wealth? YES because they got it fairly, without illegal means->

establishes idea of private property

3. Serfs and peasants who acquired church lands after confiscated were able to keep them

- ultimately defeated due to 3 battles that changed his fortunes:

1.  Trafalgar

2. Spanish Cancer

3. Russian Invasion

- naval conquest off coast of Spain where the British navy sank the entire French fleet

- French were no longer able to get to England

- Battle of Austerlitz: French victory over Russian and Austrian armies

- French were able to establish French Continental System

French Continental System

("France First")

= system in which France had first priority of raw resources in the continent 

- revolt against "France First" system and French domination

- Napoleon never takes command of forces trying to retain rebellion, so they have little success

- this ate away at the French army

- Russia was the one country Napoleon had never gained power over, so he planned to invade and defeat them in 1812

- Russian armies keep backing up and giving up lands, but they burn everything in site before

- French army becomes cold, hungry, and demoralized, so Russian forces finally attack

- so much damage done to French army that Napoleon retreats

- after Napoleon retreats, Russian armies and other allies along the way follow him

- 1813, Napoleon builds up army and meets them at Leipzip for the Battle of the Nations, where he is defeated again

- Napoleon tries to commit suicide, but they finally capture him and exile him to island of Elba

- Napoleon built up empire at Elba and planned his return to Paris

- in 1815, he escaped Elba with his army and landed in France

- this began the 100 Days Campaign

- allied forces of England and Prussia mobilized to drive Napoleon from power in France

- he is finally defeated and then exiled to Island of St. Helena