UNIT 5

• Enlightenment


  An intellectual movement that applied new ways of understanding, such as rationalism and empiricist approaches, to both the natural world and human relationships
• Rationalism


  • Reason, rather than emotion or any external authority, is the most reliable source of true knowledge
• Empiricism


  • The idea that true knowledge is gained through the senses, mainly through rigorous experimentation
• Enlightenment ideas were influenced and emerged during the scientific revolution</b>
• During the scientific revolution, scientists tossed biblical and religious authority out the window and used the rigorous process of reason to discover how the world really looked
• Enlightenment philosophers applied the methods of the scientific revolution to the study of human society
• The questioning and reexamination of the role of religion was a crucial component of the Enlightenment
• Deism


  Exceedingly popular among Enlightenment thinkers, they believed there was a god but a god that created all things then no longer intervened in the created order
• Atheism


  Complete rejection of religious beliefs and any notion of a divine being
• Individualism


  • The most basic element of society was the individual human and not collective groups
• Natural rights


  • Individual humans are born with certain rights that cannot be infringed upon by governments or other entities
• Social contract


  • Human societies, endowed with natural rights, must construct governments of their own will to protect their natural rights
• The Enlightenment's emphasis on the rejection of established traditions and new ideas about how political power ought to work played a significant role in each of the major revolutionary upheavals (American, French, Haitian, and Latin American Revolutions)
• The major revolutions in turn created the conditions for the intensification of nationalism across the world
• Nationalism


  A sense of commonality among a people based on shared language, religion, social customs, and often linked with a desire for territory
• Enlightenment ideas led to the expansion of suffrage (right to vote)
• After the American Revolution (1776), only white people with land could vote
• In the first half of the 1800s, laws were passed that gave the right for ALL white males to vote
• In the second half of the 1800s, black males gained the right to vote
• The Enlightenment led to the abolition of slavery and the end of serfdom
• The feminist movement arose, with French activist Olympe de Gouges writing the Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen, which harshly criticized the French Constitution for sidelining women in the birth of post-revolutionary France
• The women in the US organized themselves at a gathering of the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 to call for a constitutional amendment that recognized women's rights to vote
• Causes of revolution


  • Nationalism
  • Political dissent
  • New ways of thinking
• Popular sovereignty


  The power to govern was in the hands of the people
• Democracy


  People have the right to vote and influence the policies of the government
• Liberalism


  Economic and political ideology that emphasized the protection of civil rights, representative government, the protection of private property, and economic freedom
• The American Revolution began in 1777 and provided the template for other nations throughout the world for a successful overthrow of oppressive power and the establishment of a republican style government
• The French Revolution began in 1789, influenced by the American Revolution, and established a republic after the French people rebelled and overthrew their government
• The Haitian Revolution began in 1791, influenced by the French Revolution, and was a revolution for enslaved black people rebelling against their colonizers
• The Latin American Revolutions were driven by the creole class, who held resentment for their government and appealed to colonial subjects across racial lines within Enlightenment ideals
• The Propaganda Movement in the Philippines, a Spanish colony, published Enlightenment ideals which the Spanish suppressed, leading to a revolution at the end of the century
• Nationalism influenced the unification of Italy and Germany, with military leaders inspiring their respective, fragmented populations to come together and unify each place under a single government
• Industrial Revolution


  The process by which states transitioned from primarily agrarian economies to industrial economies, fundamentally changing the world's balance of political power, rendering societies, and making industrial nations rich
• Reasons why Great Britain came first in the Industrial Revolution

  • Proximity to waterways
  • Geographical distribution of coal & iron
  • Improved agricultural productivity
  • Rapid urbanization
  • Legal protection of private property
  • Accumulation of capital
• The steam engine was a machine that converted fossil fuel into mechanical energy, allowing factories to be located anywhere instead of needing to be near banks of water
• Steamships allowed mass-produced goods to be transported further and faster
• Eastern and southern Europe lacked abundant coal deposits, land-locked pivotal waterways, or were hindered by historically powerful groups like the nobility who didn't want their power challenged by new economic arrangements
• Compared to Britain, France industrialized much slower, but the slower adoption meant France was spared some of the intense social upheavals Britain experienced due to its rapid transition
• The United States was thriving due to its massive territory, political stability, and rapid population growth
• Russia's industrialization project brought them somewhat on par with other industrial powers, but the top-down approach yielded brutal conditions for workers, unlike the worker-driven industrialization in the United States