Study Guide for Absolutism, Enlightenment and French Revolution
Age of Absolutism
Many European countries were ruled by absolutism in the 1600’s and 1700’s.
Absolutism- is a type of government where the leader has total control of the government and people’s lives.
Divine Right- is the belief that the right to rule comes directly from God.
During these times, people were quite religious. This is unlike our times, where many countries are a secular, or nonreligious state. In addition, government in the United States has separation of church and state. This did not exist in Europe during the 1600’s and 1700’s.
Additional Terms
Absolute monarch-ruler with complete authority over the government and lives of the people he or she governs
Balance of power-distribution of military and economic power that prevents any one nation from becoming too strong
Limited monarchy-government where a constitution or legislative body limits the monarch’s powers
Habeas corpus-person cannot be held in prison without first being charged with a specific crime
SECTION OVERVIEW
In the 1500s and 1600s, several rulers in Asia and Europe sought to centralize their political power. Claiming divine right, or authority from God, leaders such as Philip II in Spain and Louis XIV in France gained complete authority over their governments and their subjects. England resisted the establishment of absolutism. After a civil war, England's Parliament enacted a Bill of Rights that limited the English monarch’s powers.
KEY THEMES AND CONCEPTS-Puritan/Glorious Revolution
Government: How did monarchs in India, Spain, France, and Russia work to increase their political power in the 1500s and 1600s?
Power: What ideas did absolute monarchs use to justify their power?
Political Systems: In what ways was England's experience of absolutism different from that of other European countries?
Choice: What choices did Parliament make in England to assure a check on absolutism?
THE BIG IDEA
IN THE 1500 AND 1600’s
· monarchs acted to establish absolute power
· monarchs used the divine right theory and similar ideas to justify their power.
· Parliament and the Puritans in England resisted absolutism.
· a limited monarchy was established in England
KEY PEOPLE AND TERMS
Absolutism Puritans
Philip II Glorious Revolution
Divine right English Bill of Rights
Louis XIV limited monarchy
Peter the Great
LEADING THINKERS OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT
Four of the most influential Enlightenment philosophers were John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Locke (Treastise on Civil Government—1690)
John Locke, an English thinker of the late 1600s, believed that all people possess natural rights. These rights, he said, include the rights of life, liberty, and property. According to Locke, people form governments to protect their rights. If a government does not protect these rights, people have the right to overthrow it.
Montesquieu (Spirit of the Laws—1748)
In the 1700s, French thinker Baron de Montesquieu wrote that the powers of government should be separated into three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. This separation of powers would prevent tyranny by creating what is called a system of checks and balances. Each branch could keep the other two from getting too much power.
Rousseau (Social Contract—1762)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, another French philosopher of the 1700’s, put forth his ideas in a book titled The Social Contract. He believed that people are naturally good but are corrupted by the evils of society, such as the unequal distribution of property. In agreeing to form a government, he felt, people choose to give up their own interests for the common good. Rousseau believed in the will of majority, which he called the general will. He believed that the majority should always work for the common good.
Voltaire (1778)
Voltaire was a French thinker of the 1700’s who believed in free speech. He used his sharp wit to criticize the French government and the Catholic Church for their failure to permit religious toleration and intellectual freedom.
Hobbs
Thomas Hobbs was an Enlightenment thinker, but his philosophy favored absolutism. He felt that people were greedy and selfish and that only a powerful government can create a peaceful, orderly society.
The French Revolution
Dates
1774-1793 The Reign of King Louis XVI
Phase I-Constitutional Monarch (1791)
Constitutional Monarchy abolished (1792)
King Louis XVI is executed 1793
1789 Mob storms the Bastille
Declaration of the Rights of Man approved
1793-94 Phase 2- Radical Phase- Reign of Terror
1795-99 Phase 3- A Thermidorian period of reaction against extremism- The Directory
1799-1815- Phase 4- The Age of Napoleon
Terms to define
- Three Estates-
o France’s class system
o All French people belonged to one of the three estates or levels of society
o Determined a person’s legal rights and status
- 1st Estate
o French clergy
o Owned 10% land, collected tithes
o Paid no direct taxes to the state
o Usually nobles who lived very well
o Provided schools, hospitals, orphanages
- 2nd Estate
o Titled nobility of French society
- 3rd Estate
o 27 million or 98% of population
§ Top were bourgeoisie or middle class
· Bankers, merchants, manufacturers
· Included royal bureaucracy
o Lawyers, doctors, journalists
§ Bulk were rural peasants
§ Poorest were city workers
- Coup d’etat
o Military revolution against government
- Bourgeoisies
o Bankers, merchants, manufacturers
o Included royal bureaucracy
§ Lawyers, doctors, journalists
People
- Louis XVI
o In 1789, weak and confused summoned the Estate General to Versailles
§ Had social classes prepare a list of grievances
§ Estate was rarely consulted
· Transformed to the National Assembly
· Invited other estates to help shape a constitution
- National Assembly
o Formed from the Estate General
o Group of middle-class men chosen by Louis IVI to solve France’s problems
o Wanted sweeping reforms of government
o King did not want to meet with them
o Group met at tennis court
o Known as the Tennis Court Oath
§ Began the French revolution
- Jacobins
o Radical leaders in the Legislative Assembly
o Mostly middle class lawyers of intellectuals
o Set out to erase all traces of old order
o Seized lands of nobles and abolished titles of nobility
o All men and women were called “Citizen”
- Robespierre
o Chief architect of the I Reign of Terror
§ Courts conducted hasty trials
§ 40,000 executed
o Eventually turned upon, executed
o With his death, Jacobins lost power and reign of terror came to an end.
- Directory
o Five members of the Council of 500 chosen by the Council of Elders to act as the executive committee.
o Ruled with the legislature
o Period of revolution under the government of the Directory was an era of corruption
o Many grew rich by taking advantage of the Government’s money problems
o Many political enemies
o Directory could not find solution to country’s continuing economic problems
o Toppled in 1799 in revolt lead by Napoleon Bonaparte
- Committee of Public Safety
o 12 member committee with almost absolute power as it battled to save the revolution
§ Required all men between the ages of 18-45 to serve in the ‘peoples’ army
§ Prepared France for all-out war
§ Ordered all citizens to join war effort
§ Crushed peasant revolts
- National Convention
o 1792- abolished the monarchy and established the French Republic
o Could not agree, split into two factions-both were members of Jacobin club
- List 5 causes of the French Revolution
o Hugh government debt
o Poor harvests & the rising price of bread
o Failure of Louis XVI to accept financial reform
o Spread of enlightenment ideas
o Resentment of the privileges of the first and second estate
o Formation of the National Assemble and storming of the Bastille
- Why did the Parisians storm the Bastille? When? Today, how is this event remembered
o The hungry, unemployed people of Paris took up arms
o July 14, 1789-800 assembled outside the Bastille
o Demanded weapons and gunpowder stored there
o Commander refused, fired on crowd
o Told king it was a revolution
o Bastille became the symbol of the French Revolution
§ Peasants swore never to pay feudal dues and drove some landlords off property-
· First phase of revolutions
o Celebrated today as independence day in France
- What was the result of the women’s march on Versailles?
o The royal family attempted to escape
o Were “re-arrested
o Louis XVI agreed to constitution an limited monarchy
- Why were the other monarchies of Europe concerned about the violence during the French revolution?
o They were afraid revolution would spread to their country
- Identify two ideas or reforms contained within the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.
o All male citizens were equal before the law
o Asserted freedom or religion
o Called for taxes to be levied according to ability to pay
o “Liberty, Equality & Fraternity”
- Identify two ideas or reforms contained in the Constitution of 1791.
o Set up a limited monarchy
o Ended Church interference in government
o Ensured equality before the law for all
- What was the Committee of Public Safety and approximately how many French were executed during its rule?
o 12 member committee with almost absolute power as it battled to save the revolution
§ Responsible for “Reign of Terror”
o 40,000 people were killed
§ Most were peasants
§ Guillotine was instrument of execution
- What was the Thermidorian reaction? Where does this term come from?
o 9 Thermidorian, year II (July 27, 1794)
o The reaction to the Reign of terror
o Caused fall of Robespierre
o Collapse of revolutionary fervor
- What was the Directory? How was it brought to power? Why did the Directory fail and to who did its members eventually turn to? Why?
o The Constitution of 1795 set up a five-man Directory and two-house legislature elected by male citizens of Property
o Held power from 1795-1799
o Weak but dictatorial
o Leaders lined pockets but failed to solve pressing problems
o As chaos threatened, politicians turned to Napoleon Bonaparte