Philosophy Quiz: Plato and Aristotle

The Greek Roots of Democracy

Greece lies at the southern end of the Balkan peninsula, where the land mass thrusts into the Mediterranean Sea. Greece’s geography greatly influenced its history. The region’s mountainous terrain restricted overland travel, and it also limited farming. The Greeks turned instead to the sea, becoming fishers and sailors and traders. They also became thinkers and writers and artists. In

time, the Greeks generated a burst of creativity that we call the classical age, a period of great artistic and literary abundance. Western civilization would draw heavily on the ideas produced

during this era, which began around 500 B.C.

The Rise of Greek City-States

The geography of Greece influenced how its centers of power developed. The Greeks, isolated in mountain valleys or on islands, built small, independent city-states. A city-state is a political unit made up of a city and the surrounding lands. In the 700s B.C., the lack of fertile land encouraged Greek expansion overseas. Gradually, a scattering of Greek colonies appeared throughout the Mediterranean, from Spain to Egypt. Wherever they traveled, Greek settlers and traders carried their ideas about literature and art and also government.

Governing the City-States 

As their world expanded, the Greeks evolved a unique version of the city-state, which they

called the polis. Typically the city itself was built on two levels. On a hilltop stood the acropolis (uh KRAH puh lis), or high city, with its great marble temples dedicated to different gods and goddesses. On flatter ground below lay the walled main city with its marketplace, theater, public buildings, and homes.

The population of each city-state was fairly small, which helped citizens share a sense of responsibility for its triumphs and defeats. In the warm climate of Greece, free men spent much time outdoors in the marketplace, debating issues that affected their lives. The whole community

joined in festivals honoring the city’s special god or goddess.

Between 750 and 500 B.C., Greeks evolved different forms of government. At first, a king ruled the polis. A government like this, in which a king or queen exercises central power, is a monarchy. Slowly, though, power shifted to a class of noble landowners. They served as the military

defenders of the city-states, because only they could afford bronze weapons and horse-drawn chariots. At first this aristocracy, or small ruling group, defended the king. In time, they won power for themselves. As trade expanded, a new middle class of wealthy merchants, farmers, and

artisans emerged in some cities. This new aristocracy challenged the landowning nobles for power and came to dominate some city-states.

Changes in Warfare 

Changes in military technology increased the power of the middle class. By about 650 B.C., iron weapons replaced bronze ones. Since iron was cheaper, ordinary citizens could afford iron helmets, shields, and swords. Meanwhile, a new method of fighting emerged. The phalanx was a massive formation of heavily armed foot soldiers. Mastering this formation required many hours of practice. This intensive training created a strong sense of unity among citizen-soldiers.

By putting the defense of the city-state in the hands of ordinary citizens, the phalanx reduced class differences. The new type of warfare, however, led the two most influential city-states to develop very different ways of life. While Sparta stressed stern discipline, Athens glorified the individual and extended political rights to more citizens.

Sparta: A Nation of Soldiers 

The city-state of Sparta was located in the Peloponnesus (pel uh puh NEE sus), a near-island

in the southern part of Greece. Starting around 600 B.C., the Spartans transformed themselves into a military state. At the age of seven, boys began training for a lifetime in the army. Toughened by a coarse diet, hard exercise, and a rigid system of discipline, Spartan boys became excellent soldiers.

Girls, too, had a rigorous upbringing. As part of a warrior society, they were expected to produce healthy sons for the army. They therefore worked to exercise and strengthen their bodies.

The Spartan government included two kings and a council of elders who advised the monarchs. An assembly, or group made up of all citizens, approved major decisions. Citizens were male, native-born Spartans over the age of 30. The assembly also elected five ephors, officials who held the real power and ran day-to-day affairs.

Athens: A Limited Democracy

 Just northeast of the Peloponnesus, in the region of Attica, lay the city-state of Athens. There, the idea of democracy, or government by the people, first took root. This idea devel-

opened gradually. As in many Greek city-states, the government of Athens started as a monarchy and evolved into an aristocracy. Around 700 B.C., noble landowners held power and chose the chief officials. Nobles judged major cases in court and dominated the assembly.

Under the aristocracy, Athenian wealth and power grew. Yet discontent spread among ordinary people. Merchants and soldiers resented the power of the nobles. They argued that their service to Athens entitled them to more rights. Farmers, too, demanded change. During hard times,

Many farmers were forced to sell their land to nobles. A growing number even sold themselves and their families into slavery to pay their debts. As discontent spread, Athens moved slowly toward democracy.

In 594 B.C., a wise and trusted leader named Solon made many needed reforms. He outlawed debt slavery and freed those who had already been sold into slavery to pay off debts. He opened offices to more citizens, loosened some restrictions on citizenship, and gave the Athenian assembly

more say in important decisions.

Solon’s reforms ensured greater fairness and justice to some groups. Still, citizenship remained limited, and many government positions were open only to wealthy landowners. Widespread and continued unrest led to the rise of tyrants, or leaders who gain power by force.

Tyrants often won support of the merchant class and the poor by imposing reforms to help these groups.

The Athenian tyrant Pisistratus (pih SIS truh tus) seized power in 546 B.C. He gave farmers and poor citizens a greater voice, weakening the aristocracy. In 507 B.C., another reformer, Cleisthenes (KLYS thuh neez), broadened the role of ordinary citizens in government. He set up the

Council of 500, whose members were chosen by lot from among all citizens. The council prepared laws for the assembly and supervised the day-to-day work of government. Cleisthenes made the assembly a genuine legislature, or lawmaking body. It debated laws before deciding to

approve or reject them. The assembly included all male citizens over the age of 30.

By modern standards, Athenian democracy was quite limited. Only male citizens could participate in government, and few people qualified for citizenship. Women, for example, had no share in public life. Neither did the tens of thousands of Athenian slaves, whose labor gave citizens

the time to participate in government.

The Persian Wars

By 500 B.C., Athens had emerged as the wealthiest Greek city-state. But Athens and the entire Greek world soon faced a fearsome threat from the Persians, whose empire stretched from Asia Minor all the way to India. In 490 B.C., a Persian army landed at Marathon, a plain north of Athens. Athenian forces rushed to meet the enemy, and through fierce hand-to-hand combat, forced the Persians to retreat.

Ten years later, a much larger Persian force landed in Greece. This time, Sparta and other city-states joined Athens to defend their homeland. After disheartening battlefield defeats

and the burning of Athens, the Greeks gained victory by smashing the Persian fleet off the Athenian coast. The following year, the Greeks defeated the Persians on land in Asia Minor, ending the threat of further Persian invasions.

Athens in the Age of Pericles

Athens emerged from the Persian Wars as the most powerful city-state in Greece. It used its position of power in Greece to dominate other city-states, slowly establishing an empire. Under the able statesman Pericles (PEHR uh kleez), the economy thrived and the government became more democratic. Because of his wise and skillful leadership, the period from 460 to 429 B.C. is often called the Age of Pericles.

Political Life 

Under Pericles, Athenians participated in a direct democracy. A large number of citizens took direct part in the day-to-day affairs of government. By contrast, in most democratic countries today, citizens participate in government indirectly, through elected representatives.

By the time of Pericles, the Athenian assembly met several times a month. At least 6,000 members had to be present in order to decide important issues. Pericles believed that all male citizens, regardless of wealth or social class, should take part in government. Athens therefore

began to pay a fixed salary to men who held public office. This reform enabled poor men to serve in government.

In addition to serving in the assembly, Athenians served on juries. A jury is a panel of citizens who have the authority to make the final judgment in a trial. Unlike a modern American jury, typically made up of 12 members, an Athenian jury might include hundreds or even thousands of jurors. Male citizens over 30 years of age were chosen by lot to serve on the jury for a year. Like members of the assembly, jurors received a salary.

The Funeral Oration After a funeral for Athenians slain in battle, Pericles praised the Athenian form of government. In his civic speech, he pointed out that in Athens, power rested in the hands “not of a minority but of the whole people.” Pericles stressed not only the rights but also the

duties of the individual. As citizens of a democracy, he said, Athenians bore a special responsibility. “We differ from other states,” he stated, “in regarding the man who holds aloof from public life not as ‘quiet’ but as useless.” Pericles’ Funeral Oration is one of the earliest and greatest expressions of democratic ideals.

Economic and Cultural Life 

Athens prospered during the Age of Pericles. With the riches of the Athenian empire, Pericles hired the best architects and sculptors to rebuild the Acropolis, which the Persians had destroyed. This and other building projects increased Athenians’ prosperity by creating jobs for artisans and workers. They also served to remind both citizens and visitors that the gods had favored the Athenians.

Athenians, like all Greeks, honored their gods with temples and festivals. To discover the will of the gods, they consulted the oracles, priests or priestesses through whom the gods were thought to speak. Although religion was important, some Greek thinkers came to believe that the

The universe was regulated not by the will of the gods, but by natural laws. Pericles surrounded himself with such thinkers, as well as writers and artists, and in this way he transformed Athens into the cultural center of Greece.

The Peloponnesian War 

Pericles’ Funeral Oration honored Athenians killed in 431 B.C., the first year of the Peloponnesian War. This war represented a power struggle between Athens and Sparta. Sparta’s bid to

Athenian supremacy triggered the war, which soon engulfed all of Greece. The fighting dragged on for 27 years.

In 404 B.C., the Spartans captured Athens, ending Athenian domination of the Greek world. Athens survived for many years as a center of culture, however its spirit and vitality declined. Democratic government suffered. Corruption and selfish interests replaced older ideals such as

service to the city-state.

Greek Philosophers

Despite wars and political turmoil, Greeks had confidence in the power of the human mind. As you have read, some Greek thinkers challenged the belief that events were caused by the whims of gods. Instead, they used observation and reason to determine why things happened. In the pro-

cess, they opened up new ways of looking at human existence. The Greeks called these thinkers “philosophers,” meaning “lovers of wisdom.” Their search for the principles, or laws, that governed the universe contributed greatly not only to modern science, but also to the development of Western political thought.

Moral and Ethical Principles

 Some Greek philosophers focused on ethics and morality. Ethics and morality concern the idea of goodness and the establishment of standards of human behavior. These philosophers debated issues ranging from how people should dress in public to the best form of government.

In Athens, the Sophists questioned accepted ideas. To them, moral and ethical truths were just opinions, not principles. Success was more important. For a fee, they would teach the art of persuasive speaking, especially to men in public life. Ambitious students hoped to use clever

speeches to persuade others and advance their careers. The turmoil of the Peloponnesian War led many young Athenians to follow the Sophists. Older citizens, however, accused the Sophists of undermining traditional Athenian values.

Socrates and Citizenship 

One outspoken critic of the Sophists was Socrates, an Athenian stonemason and philosopher. Most of what we know about Socrates comes from his student Plato. Socrates himself wrote no books. Instead, he roamed about the marketplace, questioning his fellow citizens about their beliefs. He repeatedly asked the question “What is the greatest good?”

Using a process we now call the Socratic method, he posed a series of questions to his students and challenged them to examine the implications of their answers. To Socrates, this patient examination was a way to help others seek truth and self-knowledge. To many Athenians, how-

ever, such questioning threatened accepted traditions.

When he was about 70 years old, Socrates was put on trial. His enemies accused him of corrupting the city’s youth and failing to respect the gods. Standing before a jury of 501 citizens, Socrates offered a calm defense. Nevertheless, the jurors condemned him to death. According to

Plato, Socrates refused to try to escape from prison. He was a loyal citizen of Athens and a longtime

defender of the democratic system. Socrates maintained that the duties of the individual included

submitting to the laws of the state. Accepting the death penalty, he drank a cup of hemlock, a deadly

poison.

Plato and Reason 

The execution of Socrates left Plato with a deep distrust of democracy. He fled Athens for ten years. When he returned, he set up a school called the Academy. There, he taught and wrote about his own ideas. Like Socrates, Plato believed that reason, not the experience of the senses, led to genuine knowledge. Through rational thought, he argued, people could discover unchanging ethical principles, recognize perfect beauty, and learn how best to organize society.

In the book The Republic, Plato described his vision of an ideal state. He rejected Athenian democracy because it had condemned Socrates.

Instead, he argued that the state should regulate every aspect of its citizens’ lives in order to provide for their best interests. Plato believed in the equality of all people at birth, but he maintained that they could rise only as high in society as their abilities allowed. He divided his ideal

society into three classes: workers to produce the necessities of life, soldiers to defend the state, and philosophers to rule. The rulers, or philosopher-kings, would be specially trained to ensure order and justice.

Aristotle and the Rule of Law 

Plato’s most famous student, Aristotle, developed his own ideas about government. He analyzed all forms of government, from monarchy to democracy, and found good and bad examples of each. Aristotle preferred government by the many, not by the few. Like Plato, however, he was suspicious of democracy, which he thought could lead to mob rule. Instead, he favored a constitutional government ruled by members of the middle class. He called this form of government a “polity.” The goal of the polity was to establish just and stable rule.

For Aristotle, the city-state represented the best and most natural form of human community. He believed that within the city-state, people could reach their full potential and

achieve the “good life.” This could come about, however, only under the rule of law. In his book Politics, Aristotle wrote: “And the rule of the law, it is argued, is preferable to that of any individual. On the same principle, even if it is better for certain individuals to govern, they should be made only guardians and ministers of the law.” This principle, that even rulers must be subject to the law, lies at the heart of modern constitutional governments. Aristotle especially despised tyranny, in which an individual ruler—a tyrant—stood above the law.

The ethical question of how people ought to live also concerned Aristotle. In his view, good conduct meant pursuing the “golden mean,” a moderate course between extremes.

Aristotle promoted reason as the guiding force for learning. Following Plato’s example, he set up a school, the Lyceum, for the study of all branches of knowledge. Aristotle left writings on politics, ethics, logic, biology, literature, and many other subjects. When the first European

universities appeared some 1,500 years later, their courses were based largely on the works of Aristotle.

Alexander and the Hellenistic Age

Following the death of Plato, Aristotle moved out of Athens. In 345 B.C., he traveled to the place of his birth, the kingdom of Macedonia. Macedonia was a frontier region in the rugged mountains of the northern Balkans. There he began tutoring the Macedonian king’s 13-year-old son,

Alexander. The king, Philip II, admired Greek culture. In fact, he dreamed of conquering the prosperous city-states to the south. In 338 B.C., when Athens and the city-state of Thebes joined forces against him, he defeated them. Philip then brought all of Greece under his control. Philip’s dreams eventually grew more grand—he vowed to conquer the Persian empire. However, an assassin cut short his plans.

Conquest of Persia 

Alexander took the throne after his father’s murder. Just 20 years old, he was already an experienced soldier who shared his father’s ambition to conquer Persia. He organized an army of Greeks and Macedonians and, in 334 B.C., set out across the strait separating Europe from Asia Minor. He moved rapidly from victory to victory, using brilliant tactics to overcome the Persian forces. Alexander’s army marched through Asia Minor into Palestine and south into Egypt. Turning back toward the east, he took Babylon and then seized the other Persian capitals. By 327 B.C., he had conquered an empire that stretched more than 2,000 miles from the Mediterranean Sea across the Middle East to Central Asia and India, and he had become Alexander the Great.

The Legacy of Alexander 

Four years later, Alexander died, the victim of a sudden fever. Three generals divided up the empire. For 300 years, their descendants competed for power over the lands that Alexander had conquered. Although his empire crumbled, Alexander had unleashed changes that would ripple across the Mediterranean world and the Middle East for centuries.

Alexander had founded many new cities, and the generals who succeeded him founded still more. Greek soldiers, traders, and artisans settled these new cities. Local people absorbed Greek ideas. In turn, the Greek settlers adopted local customs. Gradually, a blending of eastern

and western cultures occurred. A new culture emerged that combined Greek, Persian, Egyptian, and Indian influences. This Hellenistic civilization would flourish for centuries.

In the Hellenistic world, some city-states with their citizen-run governments continued to exist, and even a few democracies survived. For the most part, though, powerful individuals or groups ruled the cities, distant governors managed them, and a king held ultimate control. In this changing political world, earlier Greek codes of behavior no longer seemed relevant.

These uncertain times contributed to the rise of new schools of philosophy. The most influential was Stoicism. Its founder, an Athenian named Zeno, urged people to avoid desires and disappointment by calmly accepting whatever life brought. Stoics preached high moral standards,

such as the belief in the dignity and equality of all. They taught that all people, including women and slaves, though unequal in society, were morally equal because all had the power of reason.

During the Hellenistic age, Rome emerged as a powerful new state. After its conquest of Asia Minor in 133 B.C., it replaced Greece as the dominant power in the Mediterranean world. Still, by then, the Greeks had already made their greatest contributions. Greek ideas about law, freedom, justice, and government have influenced political thinking to the present day.

Chapter 1 section 2: 

1.2 The Roman Republic and Empire

Rome began as a small city-state in Italy but ended up ruling the entire Mediterranean world. In the process the Romans established traditions of government that continue to influence the modern world. The story of Roman success starts with the geography of Italy. The Italian peninsula looks like a boot jutting into the Mediterranean Sea. The peninsula is centrally located in the Mediterranean, and the city of Rome is in the center of Italy. That location helped the Romans as they expanded, first in Italy and then into lands around the Mediterranean.

Establishing a Republic

Because of its geography, Italy was much easier to unify than Greece. Unlike Greece, Italy is not broken up into small, isolated valleys. Its mountains, which run like a backbone down the length

of the peninsula, are less rugged than the mountains of Greece. Finally, Italy has the advantage of broad, fertile plains, both in the north, under the shadow of the towering Alps, and in the west,

where the Romans settled. Farms in these plains supported a growing population. 

Etruscan Rule

 The ancestors of the Romans migrated into Italy by about 800 B.C. They settled along the Tiber River in small villages scattered over seven low-lying hills. There they herded and farmed. Their villages would in time grow into Rome, the city on seven hills.

 The Romans shared the Italian peninsula with other peoples. Among them were Greek colonists, whose city-states dotted southern Italy, and the Etruscans, who lived north of Rome. For a time, the Etruscans ruled much of central Italy, including Rome itself. An aristocracy of nobles, led by a king, controlled each Etruscan city-state.

A New Government 

The Romans drove out the Etruscans in 509 B.C. They set up a new government in which the people chose some officials. They called it a republic, or “thing of the people.” A republic, Romans

thought, would keep any individual from gaining too much power.

In the early republic, the most powerful governing body was the sen-

ate. Its 300 members were all patricians, meaning they belonged to the landholding upper class. Senators, who served for life, made the laws. Each year, the senators elected two consuls from among the patricians. The consuls supervised the business of government and commanded

Rome’s armies. Consuls, however, could serve only one term. Also, they had to consult with the senate on major issues. By limiting the consuls’ time in office and making them responsible to the senate, Rome had a system of checks on the power of government. In the event of war, the senate might choose a dictator, or ruler who has complete control over a government. The law granted each Roman dictator the power to rule for six months. Then he had to give up power. Romans admired Cincinnatus as a model dictator. Cincinnatus organized an army, led the Romans to victory over an attacking enemy, attended victory celebrations, and returned to his farmlands—all within 16 days.

Common People Demand Equality 

The common people, or plebeians, made up the bulk of the Roman population. Yet they had little influence on the government. The efforts of these farmers, merchants, artisans, and traders to gain power shaped politics in the early republic.

The plebeians’ first breakthrough came in 450 B.C., when the government had the laws of Rome inscribed on 12 tablets and set up in the Forum, or marketplace. Plebeians had protested that citizens could not know what the laws were, because they were not written down. The

Laws of the Twelve Tables made it possible for the first time for plebeians to appeal a

judgment by a patrician judge.

Over time, the plebeians gained the right to elect their own officials, called tribunes, to protect their interests. The tribunes could veto, or block, laws harmful to plebeians. Little by little, Rome’s common people forced the senate to choose plebeians as consuls and finally to

open the senate itself to plebeians.

A Lasting Legacy 

Although the senate still dominated the government, the common people had gained access to power and won safeguards for their rights without having to resort to war or revolution.

More than 2,000 years later, the framers of the United States Constitution would adapt such Roman ideas as the senate, the veto, and checks on power.

From Republic to Empire

As Rome’s political system evolved at home, its armies expanded Roman power across Italy. Roman armies conquered first the Etruscans and then the Greek city-states in the south. By about 270 B.C., Rome controlled most of the Italian peninsula. Rome then began to build an empire around the Mediterranean Sea.

Continuing Conquest

Rome’s conquest of the Italian peninsula brought it into contact with Carthage, a city-state on the northern coast of Africa. Carthage ruled an empire that stretched across North Africa and the western Mediterranean. Between 264 and 146 B.C., Rome fought three wars against Carthage. Rome won the first two of these Punic Wars. In the second, however, the Carthaginian general Hannibal led his army, including dozens of war elephants, on a destructive rampage through Italy. In the third Punic War, the Romans completely destroyed Carthage and established themselves as masters of the western Mediterranean.

While Rome fought Carthage in the west, it was also expanding into the eastern Mediterranean. There, Romans confronted the Hellenistic rulers who had divided up the

empire of Alexander the Great. One by one, Macedonia, Greece, and parts of Asia Minor surrendered and became Roman provinces, or lands under Roman rule. Other regions, like Egypt, allied with Rome. By 133 B.C., Roman power extended from Spain to Egypt. The Romans justly referred to the Mediterranean as mare nostrum, or “our sea.”

Economic and Social Effects

Conquests and control of busy trade routes brought incredible riches into Rome. Generals, officials, and traders amassed fortunes from loot, taxes, and commerce. A new class of wealthy landholders emerged. They bought up huge estates and forced people who were captured in war to work on the estates as slaves. This use of slave labor hurt small farmers, who could not produce food as cheaply as the estates could. Compounding farmers’ problems, huge quantities of grain pouring in from conquered lands drove down grain prices.

Expansion created further strains within Roman society. Rome could not have grown without its army, made up of loyal citizens who fought without pay and supplied their own weapons. Yet these citizen-soldiers gained little from Rome’s success. Addressing plebeians, the Roman tribune Tiberius Gracchus pointed out this injustice:

“The beasts of the field and the birds of the air have their holes and their hiding

places, but the men who fight and die for Italy enjoy only the light and the air. . . .

You fight and die to give wealth and luxury to others. You are called the masters

of the world, but there is not a foot of ground that you can call your own.”

—Plutarch, Parallel Lives

Tiberius Gracchus and his brother Gaius hoped to improve the lot of the plebeians. The social reforms they tried to enact included distributing land to poor farmers and using public funds to buy grain to feed the poor. Senators did not like these reforms and saw the Gracchus brothers

as a threat to their power. The brothers, along with thousands of their followers, were killed in waves of street violence set off by senators and their hired thugs.

Julius Caesar’s Rise to Power

 Soon Rome was plunged into a series of civil wars. At issue was who should hold power—the senate or popular political leaders looking to enact reforms. During this time the old armies of citizen-soldiers evolved into professional forces, loyal first to their commanders, not to Rome. One of those military commanders, Julius Caesar, emerged from the chaos of civil war to take charge of the

Republic.

By 51 B.C., Caesar had completed his conquest of Gaul, the region that is now France. Fearful of his political ambition, the senate ordered Caesar to disband his army and return to Rome. Caesar defied the order and marched his army toward the Roman capital. The brilliant general crushed the army sent to stop him and then swept around the Mediterranean, suppressing rebellions. Later, upon returning to Rome, he forced the senate to make him dictator. Although he kept the senate and other

Features of the republic, he was in fact the absolute ruler of Rome.

Between 48 and 44 B.C., Caesar pushed through a number of reforms. He launched a program of public works to employ the jobless and gave public land to the poor. He also granted citizenship to

many people in the provinces.

Caesar’s enemies were jealous of his power and worried that he planned to make himself king of Rome. Saying that they needed to save the republic, they plotted against him. In March of 44 B.C., as Caesar arrived in the senate, his enemies stabbed him to death. Out of the power struggle

that followed, Caesar’s grand-nephew Octavian emerged the winner.

Emperor Augustus Caesar 

The senate gave the triumphant Octavian the title of Augustus, or Exalted One, and declared him first citizen of Rome. Augustus Caesar made sure not to call himself king, a title that Romans had hated since Etruscan times. Yet he exercised absolute power and named his successor, just as a king would do. 

Under Augustus, who ruled from 31 B.C. to A.D. 14, the 500-year-old republic came to an end. Romans did not know it at the time, but a new age had dawned—the age of the Roman empire.

Through firm but moderate policies, Augustus laid the foundation for a stable government. Although he left the senate in place, Augustus created an efficient, well-trained civil service to enforce the laws. He opened high-level jobs to men of talent, regardless of their class. In addition, he

cemented the allegiance of cities and provinces to Rome by allowing them a large measure of self-government.

Pax Romana 

The government that Augustus organized functioned well for 200 years. This span of time is known as the period of the Pax Romana, or “Roman Peace.” During that time, Roman rule brought peace, order, unity, and prosperity to the empire. Roman lands stretched from the

Euphrates River in the east to Britain in the west, an area approximately equal in size to the present-day continental United States.

During the Pax Romana, the Roman military maintained and protected a network of all-weather roads, and Roman fleets chased pirates from the seas. Trade flowed freely to and from distant lands in Africa and Asia. Egyptian farmers supplied Romans with grain. Merchants carried ivory, gold, and other commodities from other parts of Africa; spices, cotton, and precious stones from India; and silk and other goods from faraway China. People, too, moved easily within the Roman empire. They spread ideas and knowledge, especially the advances of the Hellenistic east.

Some of Augustus’s successors were weak and incompetent. Others ruled wisely. The emperor Hadrian, for example, codified Roman law, making it the same for all provinces. The emperor Marcus Aurelius, who read philosophy while on military campaigns, came close to Plato’s ideal of a philosopher-king. His Meditations show his Stoic philosophy and commitment to duty: “Hour by hour resolve firmly . . . to do what comes to hand with correct and natural dignity.”

Roman Law

“Let justice be done,” proclaimed a Roman saying, “though the heavens fall!” Probably the greatest legacy of Rome was the establishment of justice through the law. During the Roman empire, the institution of laws fostered unity and stability. Many centuries later, the principles of Roman law would become the basis for legal systems in Europe and Latin America.

Two Systems 

During the republic, Rome developed written laws. Beginning with the simple rules set forth in the Laws of the Twelve Tables, the Roman code of laws grew over time with the addition of

numerous rules and judges’ opinions. The resulting system of law, known as the civil law, applied only to Roman citizens. 

Roman expansion created a problem. Newly acquired territories had

their own customs and rules, so Rome needed a new system of law that would apply to both citizens and foreign subjects. Gradually, a second system of law emerged that suited the Roman sense of justice. Romans based this new system on the laws of nature, arrived at by using the human ability to reason. For this reason they believed it to be a legitimate system of law that could apply to all people. They called it the law of nations.

The inspiration for this law of nations came largely from Stoic philosophy, especially its concept of natural law. From this concept, later thinkers developed the principle of natural rights, a key idea in the American Declaration of Independence.

Common Principles 

As Roman law developed, certain basic principles evolved, many of which are familiar to Americans today. An accused person was presumed innocent until proven guilty. The accused had the

right to face the accuser and offer a defense against the charge. Guilt had to be established “clearer than daylight” through evidence. Judges were allowed to interpret the laws and were expected to make fair decisions.

Justinian’s Code

 The western Roman empire collapsed under the pressure of Germanic invaders in the 400s. By then, Roman power had concentrated in the east, in what we call the Byzantine empire. The Byzantine empire reached its greatest size under the emperor Justinian, who ruled from 527 to 565. Justinian is best remembered for his reform of the Roman law code.

Early in his reign, Justinian set up a commission to collect, revise, and organize all the laws of ancient Rome. They produced the Body of Civil Law, popularly known as Justinian’s Code. This massive collection included laws passed by Roman assemblies or decreed by Roman emperors, as well as the legal writings of Roman judges.

Justinian’s Code had an impact far beyond the Byzantine empire. By the 1100s, it had reached Western Europe. There, both the Christian church and medieval monarchs modeled their laws on its principles. Centuries later, the code also guided legal thinkers who began to compile the international law in use today.

Greco-Roman Civilization

As a follower of Stoicism, the Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero held public figures up to a high moral standard. As the republic declined, Cicero attacked ambitious men like Julius Caesar. When Caesar came to power, however, he forgave Cicero, noting that it was “more glorious to have

enlarged the limits of the Roman mind than the boundaries of Roman rule.” Both kinds of Romans—Stoics and generals—had a lasting impact. Through war and conquest, Roman generals carried the ideas and other elements of Roman civilization to distant lands. Yet the civilization that developed was not simply Roman. It blended Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman achievements.

Roman Culture

 In its early days, Rome absorbed ideas from Greek colonists in southern Italy, and Rome continued to borrow heavily fromGreek culture after conquering Greece. To the Romans, Greek art, literature, philosophy, and scientific genius represented the height of cultural achievement. Their admiration never wavered, leading the Roman poet Horace to note, “Greece has conquered her rude conqueror.”

Just as the Greeks had once absorbed ideas from Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Romans adapted Greek and Hellenistic achievements. The blending of Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman traditions produced what is known as Greco-Roman civilization. Trade and travel during the Pax

Romana helped spread this vital new civilization.

Philosophy

 Romans borrowed much of their philosophy from the Greeks. The Hellenistic philosophy of Stoicism impressed Roman thinkers. Stoics stressed the importance of duty. They also showed concern for the well-being of all people, an idea that was later reflected in Christian teachings.

Preserving Greco-Roman Ideas 

When the western Roman empire collapsed, the Christian church preserved some of its culture in its teachings. The Byzantine empire also carried forward achievements in law and other areas. Still, many ideas were lost to western Europeans for centuries. Fortunately, the Muslims saved much of this learning. Fascinated by Greco-Roman ideas, Muslim scholars translated the works of

Aristotle and other thinkers into Arabic. In this way they preserved Greco-Roman ideas in philosophy, mathematics, and science.

CH 1 Sec 3:

1.3   Principles of Judaism

In 63 B.C., Rome conquered yet another outpost of the Greek world in the eastern Mediterranean. The Roman general Pompey marched his army into Palestine and captured Jerusalem, the

capital of the independent Jewish state of Judea. A Jewish family of priestly kings had ruled Judea for about a century. Now Pompey turned Judea into a Roman province.

Unlike other peoples of the Roman empire, the Jews prayed to just one God for guidance and protection. Their unique relationship with their God helped shape the history of the Jews. Their ancient beliefs evolved into Judaism, one of the world’s main faiths. The ancient history of the Jews helps explain how Jews became worshippers of one God, even in the face of Roman persecution.

Early History of the Jews

The Jews of ancient history were known as Hebrews or Israelites (people of Israel). Much of what we know about them comes from the Torah, their most sacred text. The story begins with a man

named Abraham.

A Migrating People 

According to the Torah, Abraham lived near Ur in Mesopotamia. About 2000 B.C., he and his family

migrated, herding their sheep and goats westward into a region called Canaan. (Canaan and Palestine refer to roughly the same region, whose boundaries shifted over time. These names are derived from the occupants of the region—Canaanites and later invaders known as Philistines. The Israelites would give it a third name, Israel.) Here, near the eastern Mediterranean coast, Abraham founded the Israelite nation.

A famine later forced many Israelites to migrate to Egypt. They spent more than 400 years there, much of it as enslaved workers. An Israelite named Moses finally led his people in their exodus, or escape, from Egypt. In time, the Israelites made their way back to Canaan.

The Kingdom of Israel 

By 1000 B.C., the Israelites had set up, in Canaan, a kingdom called Israel. David, a strong and clever king, united the feuding Israelite tribes into a single nation.

David’s son Solomon turned Jerusalem into an impressive capital, with a splendid temple

dedicated to God. Solomon won fame for his wisdom and understanding. He also tried to increase Israel’s influence by negotiating with powerful empires in Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Division and Conquest 

Israel paid a heavy price for Solomon’s ambitions. His building projects required such high taxes and so much forced labor that revolts erupted soon after his death about 922 B.C. The kingdom then split into Israel in the north and Judah in the south. 

Weakened by this division, the Israelites could not fight off invading armies. In 722 B.C., Israel fell to the Assyrians, warriors from Mesopotamia who used iron weapons. The Babylonians, also from Mesopotamia, later displaced the

Assyrians. In 586 B.C., Babylonian armies captured Judah. Their ruthless king, Nebuchadnezzar, destroyed the great temple. He forced many Israelites into exile near Babylon.

Years later, when the Persian ruler Cyrus conquered Babylon, he freed the Israelites from captivity. Many returned to their homeland, which became known as Judea, and they became known as Jews. There they rebuilt a smaller version of Solomon’s temple. Yet, like other groups in

the region, they continued to live under Persian rule.

God’s Covenant With the Israelites

You have just read an outline of Israelite history. To the Israelites, history and faith were interconnected. They did not separate their religious beliefs from their social, economic, or political lives. Each event in their history reflected God’s plan for them. In time the Israelites came to see

themselves as a religious group. They began to collect their stories in what would become the Hebrew Bible. The religion we know as modern Judaism began after many of the exiles returned from Babylon to Palestine.

One God 

The beliefs of the Israelites differed in basic ways from those of nearby peoples. The Israelites were monotheistic, believing in one God. Their belief in this one God dominated their lives. At the time, most other people worshiped many gods. A few religious leaders spoke of a single powerful god. However, their ideas did not have the lasting impact that Israelite beliefs did.

The ancient Israelites prayed to God to save them from their enemies. Many other ancient peoples had also invoked particular gods as special protectors. They thought, however, that such gods remained tied to certain places or people. By the time of Isaiah, the Israelites expressed

belief in one God as supreme.

The Chosen People 

The Israelites believed that God had made a covenant, or promise and binding agreement, with Abraham and his descendants:

“I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. And I will

establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you

throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and

to your descendants after you. And I will give to you, and to your descendants

after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlast-

ing possession; and I will be their God.”

—book of Genesis

God promised not only to protect the Israelites but also to provide them a homeland. To the Israelites, Canaan became this “promised land.” To fulfill their part of the covenant, the people of Israel believed that they had to remain faithful and obedient to God. The Israelites also believed that

God had chosen them to spread God’s teachings among all the nations of the world. Therefore, the Israelites and later the Jews saw themselves as God’s “chosen people.”

The Torah 

Early in their history, the Israelites realized how important it was for them to obey God’s laws. As a result they developed the Torah, their most sacred text, as a record of God’s teachings. In Hebrew Torah means “instruction.”

The Torah consists of five books—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These writings, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, give an early account of the Israelites. For example, the book of Genesis tells how God told Abraham to leave his home in Ur and migrate to Canaan. The book of Exodus tells how God commanded Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.

The Torah can be read as a history, yet it is much more. Incorporated within the stories are God’s teachings, the laws that Jews believe must be obeyed in order to fulfill the covenant between God and his chosen people. Those teachings set a strict moral standard for the Jews. Both Abraham and Moses, models of faithfulness, sought to carry out God’s commandments.

The meaning of the word Torah goes beyond the written Torah of the five books. It also includes the oral Torah. The oral Torah consists of unwritten laws as well as commentaries on the written Torah. Those commentaries arose through many generations of discussion by Jewish

scholars and rabbis. The oral Torah added an element of flexibility to Judaism, allowing it to adapt to changing circumstances.

Teachings on Law and Morality

From early times, the concept of law was central to the Israelites. The Torah set out many laws. Some dealt with everyday matters such as cleanliness and food preparation. Others defined criminal acts. The Torah also established moral principles.

The Ten Commandments

 According to the book of Exodus, Moses and the Israelites stopped at Mount Sinai on their way from Egypt to Canaan. There, God renewed the covenant and gave the Ten Commandments directly to Moses. This set of ten basic moral laws lies at the core of Judaism. For his role in bringing these Commandments to his people, Moses became “lawgiver” to the Jews. The Torah, in which the Ten Commandments appear, is also known as the five books of Moses.

The first four Commandments stress religious duties of the individual toward God, such as keeping the Sabbath, a holy day for rest and worship. The rest set out rules for individual conduct toward other people. They include “Honor your father and mother,” “You shall not murder,” and “You shall not steal.”

The Seven Universal Laws 

The Ten Commandments spell out fundamental laws that God expects Jews to follow. A similar set of rules, called the Seven Universal Laws, applied to all people, not just Jews. Like the Ten Commandments, they include prohibitions against murder and robbery. One of the laws differs, however. It commands people to establish courts to enforce the other laws. This idea of universally accepted moral and ethical principles backed by a system of justice is a source of the modern concept of basic human rights in international law.

An Ethical Worldview 

Jews have a responsibility to obey God’s laws. Yet they also have the freedom to make individual moral choices even if they choose to disobey the law. According to the Biblical text, disregard for the law brings punishment from God. The ancient Jews linked periods of widespread disobedience with tragic historical events.

Often in Jewish history, spiritual leaders emerged to interpret God’s will. These prophets, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, warned that failure to obey God’s law would lead their people to disaster. For example, Isaiah, who lived in Judea in the 700s B.C., predicted the catastrophe that came in the form of the Assyrian invasion. He pleaded with the Israelites to avoid this tragedy by returning to the standards of behavior acceptable to God.

Other prophets also preached a strong code of ethics, or moral standards of behavior. They promoted not only personal morality but a morally just community, calling on the rich and powerful to protect the poor and weak. The book of Genesis declares: “God created man in his own image.” This idea later passed into Western culture as political equality, or equality before the law. Unlike many ancient societies whose people looked on their ruler as a god, Jews saw their leaders as fully human and bound to obey God’s law. In this way, Judaism contributed to the rise of another important democratic concept, the rule of law.

The Scattering of the Jews

The Babylonian Captivity, in 586 B.C., marked the start of the diaspora (dy AS pur uh), or scattering of the Jews. When the captivity ended, not all Jews returned to Canaan. Some stayed in Babylon, and others migrated elsewhere in the Middle East and Mediterranean regions.

Jews in Canaan lived under Persian and Hellenistic rulers until the 100s B.C., when a Jewish family formed an independent kingdom. Then Pompey and the Romans arrived, as you have read. Influenced by Hellenism, some Jews had taken up Greek ways. Others had resisted cultural

change, keeping traditional Jewish customs. Those two groups often clashed.

In this tense atmosphere, new Jewish groups arose. One of those groups developed under the followers of a Jew named Jesus and became a new religion, Christianity.

Roman mismanagement led to further disturbances throughout the region. In A.D. 66, sporadic incidents turned into a full-blown Jewish revolt against Roman rule. Four years later, the Romans destroyed the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.

By the time of the revolt, the number of Jews outside Canaan far exceeded those living in the homeland. The scattering of the Jews continued through the following centuries and Judaism spread through the Middle East and into Europe. Still, for Jews everywhere Canaan, later called Palestine, remained the center of their culture and religion.

CH 1 Sec 4:

1 / 4  The Rise of Christianity

Early in the Pax Romana, Judaism experienced a period of turmoil that created deep divisions in the religion. As you have read, many Jews in Canaan absorbed Greek customs and ideas during the

Hellenistic age. Concerned about the weakening of their religion, conservative Jews rejected these influences and called for strict obedience to Jewish laws and traditions. Amidst the disorder that

engulfed the Jews, Christianity arose among them. Its leader was a Jew named Jesus.

Jesus of Nazareth

Almost all that we know about the life of Jesus comes from the Gospels, the first four books of the New Testament of the Bible. Early Christians attributed these accounts to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, four followers of Jesus. Gospel comes from the Old English word for “good news.”

Early Life 

Jesus was born about 4 B.C. in Bethlehem, not far from Jerusalem. His parents, Mary and Joseph, had traveled there from their home in Nazareth. Through his parents Jesus was a descendant of King David of Israel. David had lived in Bethlehem. Therefore, when Augustus Caesar called for a census, Jesus’ parents returned to their ancestral city to be counted. 

An angel, the Gospels say, had told Jesus’ mother, Mary, that she would give birth to “the Son of the Most High God.” Jesus would be the messiah, the savior sent by God to lead the Jews to freedom. Most Jews at the time believed that, in line with the covenant, God would someday return to them full control of their homeland in Palestine. Some of those Jews expected that God would send a descendant of David to overthrow the Romans. For them, the time was right for the

messiah to appear. Growing up in the small town of Nazareth, Jesus worshiped God and

followed Jewish law. As a young man, he may have worked with his hands like his father, who the Gospels say was a carpenter.

Ministry

At the age of 30, the Gospels relate, Jesus began preaching in the provinces of Galilee and Judea. To help him in his mission, he chose twelve close followers, known as the apostles, from the Greek word meaning “a person sent forth.” Chief among these was a man called Peter.

Large crowds gathered to hear Jesus’ teachings, especially when word spread that he had performed miracles of healing. Jesus often used parables, or short stories with simple moral lessons, to communicate his ideas. After three years, he and his disciples, or loyal followers, went to

Jerusalem to spread his message there.

The Message 

Jesus’ teachings were firmly rooted in Jewish tradition. Jesus believed in one God and accepted the Ten Commandments. He preached obedience to God’s laws and defended

the teachings of the Jewish prophets. Nevertheless, Jesus interpreted the law in ways that upset

some Jewish authorities. He also preached new beliefs. According to his followers, he called himself the Son of God. Many people came to believe that he was the messiah whose appearance Jews had long predicted. Jesus proclaimed that his mission was to bring spiritual salvation and eternal life to anyone who would believe in him.

Jesus emphasized God’s love and taught the need for justice, morality, and service to others. According to Jesus, a person’s major responsibilities were to “love the Lord your God with all your heart” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus also emphasized the importance of forgiveness. “Love your enemies,” he told his followers. “If anyone hits you on one cheek, let him hit the other

one, too.”

Death on the Cross 

Jesus arrived in Jerusalem near the time of the Jewish festival of Passover, a celebration of the exodus from Egypt. Many thousands of Jews gathered in the city. Some of them welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem. Others, particularly the chief Jewish priests, regarded Jesus as a dangerous troublemaker. They knew that his speeches could inflame Jews eager to end Roman rule.

A prefect, or Roman military official, held real power in the region, but the high priest had the responsibility of keeping the peace in Jerusalem. He and his council may well have feared that Jesus and his followers would trigger a revolt. Any such uprising might lead to a Roman military crack-

down and thousands of Jewish deaths. They decided to have Jesus arrested.

One of Jesus’ disciples betrayed him by leading a group of armed men to him. The men took Jesus before the high priest and his council, who questioned him. After this trial, they delivered him to the prefect with the recommendation that he be executed. The perfect ordered that Jesus

be crucified. In crucifixion, a Roman method of executing criminals, a person was nailed to or hung on a cross and left to die.

Jesus’ death threw his disciples into confusion. Then, according to the Gospels, they learned that Jesus was not dead at all and that he had risen from the dead. The Gospels also state that Jesus appeared among the disciples, who saw and talked with him. At this time Jesus commanded them to carry his teachings to “all nations,” and then he ascended into heaven.

Christianity Spreads

Following Jesus’ death, the apostles and other disciples spread his teachings. They fascinated listeners with the story of how he had risen from the dead. At first, the disciples preached only among the Jews of Judea. Jews who accepted the teaching that Jesus was the messiah became the

first Christians, or followers of Jesus Christ. Christ, from the Greek for

“the anointed one,” was another word for messiah.

Gradually, disciples of Jesus began to preach in Jewish communities throughout the Roman world. According to tradition, the apostle Pete established Christianity in the city of Rome itself. However, it was Paul, a Jew from Asia Minor, who played the most influential role in the spread of Christianity.

Work of Paul

  Paul, originally known as Saul, had never seen Jesus. In fact, he had been among those who wanted to destroy the emerging Christian church. Then one day, Saul had a vision in which Jesus spoke to him. Immediately converting to the new faith and changing his name, Paul made an important decision. He would spread the teachings of Jesus beyond Jewish communities to Gentiles, or non-Jews. In this way

Paul helped separate Christianity from Judaism. Paul’s missionary work set Christianity on the road to becoming a world religion. A tireless traveler, Paul journeyed around the Mediterranean, setting up churches from Jerusalem to Rome. In long letters to Christian communities, he explained difficult doctrines, judged disputes, and expanded Christian teachings. In his writings, Paul emphasized the

idea that Jesus had sacrificed his life out of love for humankind. Paul promised that those who believed that Jesus was the son of God and followed his teachings would achieve salvation, or eternal life.

A New Covenant 

For a time, Christianity remained a sect within Judaism. The main difference between this sect and traditional Judaism was the Christians’ focus on Jesus as the messiah and the center of their faith. Christians adopted Jewish monotheism and all of the Hebrew scriptures, or sacred writings, including the Torah and the words of the prophets. In the Christian Bible, these writings later became known as the Old Testament.

Christian writings about Jesus, including the Gospels and Paul’s letters, became the New Testament. The New Testament represented the establishment of a new covenant with God. To Christians, faith in Jesus Christ replaced strict observance of the law as the way to fulfill

the covenant.

Persecution 

Rome had a long history of tolerance, or acceptance, of varied religious traditions. That tolerant

attitude did not extend to Judaism or Christianity. Christians refused to make sacrifices to the emperor. Neither did they honor the gods who, Romans believed, had brought so much success to the empire. For these reasons Roman officials suspected them of disloyalty to Rome.

They began to persecute Christians.

In times of trouble, persecution increased. Roman rulers like Nero used Christians as scapegoats, blaming them for social or economic ills. Over the centuries, thousands of Christians became martyrs, people who suffer or die for their beliefs. According to tradition, both Peter

and Paul were killed in Rome during the reign of Nero.

Reasons for Christianity’s Appeal Despite the attacks, Christianity continued to spread. The reasons were many. The religion, with its roots in the Jewish faith, naturally appealed to Jews. Christian ethics also generated broad interest. Jesus had welcomed all people, especially the humble, poor, and oppressed. They found comfort in his message of love. Belief in the equality and dignity of all brought widespread support among common people too, as did the promise of a better life beyond the grave.

In the course of their work, Christian missionaries like Paul added ideas from Plato, the Stoics, and other Greek thinkers to Jesus’ message. With the addition of the discipline and moderation of Greek philosophy, Christianity increased its appeal, especially to educated Romans.

The unity of the Roman empire made the work of missionaries such as Paul easier. Christians traveled along Roman roads and across the Mediterranean Sea, which Roman fleets protected. Early Christians usually wrote their documents in Greek or Latin, languages that many people in the empire understood.

Triumph 

Roman persecution of Christians finally ended in A.D. 313, when the emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan. It granted freedom of worship to all citizens of the Roman empire. Constantine’s mother, a devout Christian, influenced Constantine’s decision.

The Edict of Milan, issued in 313 AD by the Roman emperors Constantine I (in the West) and Licinius (in the East), was a pivotal proclamation that granted religious tolerance throughout the Roman Empire. The key aspects of the edict include:

1. Freedom of Religion: It legalized the practice of Christianity and other religions, ending the persecution of Christians, which had been widespread under earlier emperors.

The Christian Church

Early Christian communities shared a common faith in the teachings of Jesus and a common way of worship. Only gradually did the scattered communities organize a structured church hierarchy. During the Middle Ages (about A.D. 500–1500), the Christian church emerged as the most

powerful force in Europe.

The Early Communities A person fully joined the Christian community by renouncing evil through the sacrament, or holy ceremony, of baptism. Christians believed that by the grace of God, baptism washed away their sins. The Christian community considered all its members equals.

They called one another “brother” or “sister.”

Women, such as Constantine’s mother, often led the way to Christianity. They welcomed its promise that in the church, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female.” In early Christian communities, women served as teachers and

Administrators.

Some Christians became members of the Christian clergy. The clergy are people authorized to perform religious ceremonies. Each community had its own priest. Priests came under the authority of a bishop, a church official who was responsible for all Christians in one area. Bishops traced their spiritual authority to the apostles and, through the apostles, to Jesus himself.

Gradually, the bishops of the most important cities in the Roman empire gained greater authority. Some of them attained the honorary title of patriarch. Patriarchs exercised control over other bishops in their region. The patriarch of Rome, called the pope, began to claim authority over all the bishops, even those in the far-off cities of the east. This bid for power by the patriarch in Rome, along with other disputes, led to periods of disunity within the church.

The Medieval Church 

In the centuries after the fall of Rome, the disputes grew more serious. In 1054, the Christian church finally split into an eastern and a western church. This became known as the Great Schism. The eastern church came to be called the Orthodox Church. It became the church of many nations including Russia, Greece, Bulgaria, and Rumania. These churches rejected the authority of the pope in the west. The western church, headed by the pope, became known as the Roman Catholic Church.

The Roman Catholic Church controlled the spiritual lives of Christians throughout Western

Europe. Christians believed that all people were sinners and that many were doomed to eternal

suffering. The only way to avoid hell was to believe in Jesus and participate in the sacraments, such as baptism and communion. Because the medieval church administered the sacraments, it had absolute power in religious matters and significant control over European society. It expressed that power through a body of church laws and a system of courts to judge those who disobeyed the laws.

As the Roman Catholic Church grew stronger and wealthier, it also became the leading secular, or

worldly, institution in medieval Europe. Some church leaders, including the pope, owned large tracts of land. Rulers appointed church officials to high government positions, because they were often the only educated people.

Spread of Learning 

By the 1100s, schools had sprung up to train the clergy. Some of these schools evolved into the first universities. The universities received a boost from an explosion of knowledge that

reached Europe in the late Middle Ages. Many of the “new” ideas had originated in ancient Greece but had been lost to Western Europeans after the fall of Rome.

In the Middle East, Muslim scholars had translated the works of Aristotle and other Greek thinkers into Arabic. These texts had spread across the Muslim world. In Muslim Spain, Jewish scholars translated these works into Latin, the language of Christian European scholars. By

the early 1200s, these new translations were seeping into Western Europe. There they set off a revolution in the world of learning. 

Philosophy 

The writings of the ancient Greeks posed a challenge to Christian scholars. Aristotle taught that people should use reason to discover basic truths. Christians accepted many ideas on faith. For example, they believed that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Faith is belief that goes beyond reason. As the New Testament puts it, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” How could Christians use the logic of Aristotle without undermin-

ing their Christian faith?

Christian scholars tried to resolve the conflict between faith and reason. They found Aristotle’s arguments concerning reason clear and convincing. Yet they had faith in the truth as revealed in the life of Jesus. In the 1300s, the Christian scholar Thomas Aquinas (uh KWY nus) examined Christian teachings in the light of reason. Faith and reason, he concluded, existed in harmony. Both led to the same truth, that God ruled over an orderly universe. He thus brought together Christian faith and classical Greek philosophy.

The Judeo-Christian Tradition

Christianity, widely practiced across the globe, is a major world religion. Judaism, though not so widely practiced, is still considered a major world religion for its unique contribution to religious thought. It strongly influenced Christianity and Islam, two other monotheistic faiths that arose in the Middle East. Today, Jews, Christians, and Muslims all honor Abraham, Moses, and the prophets, and they all teach the ethical worldview developed by the Israelites.

In the West, this shared heritage of Jews and Christians is known as the Judeo-Christian tradition. It is a major cultural foundation of Western civilization. At the heart of this tradition are the moral and ethical principles put forth in the Bible. These principles are the basic assumptions behind many Western beliefs, including fair treatment, or justice. Traditional Judeo-Christian principles, then, played a central role in the development of the democratic tradition.

CH 1 Sec 5:

Democratic Developments in England

In medieval England the Christian church, the nobility, and the monarchy all had considerable wealth and influence. Theoretically, monarchs held supreme authority over the church and the nobility. Yet in reality, the three groups maintained an unsteady balance of power.

Growth of Royal Power

In the face of invasion by Vikings and other warrior peoples, European monarchs proved too weak to maintain law and order. People needed protection for themselves, their homes, and their lands. In

response to this basic need for security, a new system evolved, known as feudalism. Feudalism was a loosely organized system of rule in which powerful local lords divided their landholdings among lesser lords. In exchange, these lesser lords, or vassals, pledged service and loyalty to the greater lord. For example, vassals would provide knights, or mounted warriors, to fight their lord’s battles. The greater lords, in turn, pledged loyalty to even more powerful lords. The greatest lord, the king, occupied the

highest point on the feudal pyramid.

Monarchs, Nobles, and the Church 

Feudal monarchs in Europe stood at the head of society, but most had limited power.

While they ruled their own domains, they relied on vassals for military support. Nobles and the church had as much power as the monarch—and sometimes more. Both nobles and the church had

their own courts, collected their own taxes, and fielded their own armies. They jealously guarded their rights and privileges against any effort by rulers to increase royal authority.

Strong Monarchs in England 

During the early Middle Ages, Angles, Saxons, and Vikings invaded and settled in England. Although feudalism developed, English rulers generally kept their kingdoms united. 

In 1066, the Anglo-Saxon king, Edward died without an heir. Two men, William and Harold, laid claim to the vacant throne. To settle the

dispute, William sailed across the English Channel from Normandy to battle Harold, Edward’s brother-in-law. At the Battle of Hastings, William and his Norman knights triumphed over Harold. William the Conqueror, as he was now called, ascended the throne of England.

Although William’s French-speaking nobles, or barons, dominated England, the country’s Anglo-Saxon population survived. Over the next 300 years, Norman-French and Anglo-Saxon customs, languages, and traditions gradually blended.

William exerted firm control over his new lands. He required every vassal to swear first allegiance to him rather than to any other feudal lord. Realizing that knowledge is power, William had a complete census taken in 1086. The information he gathered helped him and later English monarchs build an efficient system of tax collecting. Royal wealth and authority continued to increase.

Common Law 

In 1154, an energetic, well-educated king, Henry II, inherited the throne. He broadened the system of royal justice. As a ruler, the king could not simply write new laws but had to follow accepted customs. Henry found ways to expand customs into law. He then sent out traveling judges to enforce royal laws. The decisions of the royal courts became the foundation of English common law, a legal system based on custom and court rulings. Unlike local feudal laws, common law applied to all of England. It served to standardize laws and punishments. In time, people chose royal courts over those of nobles or the church. Because royal courts charged fees, the treasury benefited from the growth of royal justice.

Under Henry II, England also developed the idea that local citizens should take part in trials. When traveling judges visited an area, local officials gathered some men to form a jury, or group of people sworn to speak the truth. (The word jury comes from the French juré, meaning “sworn to oath.”)

These men determined which cases should be brought to trial. As such, this early jury was the

ancestor of today’s grand jury. Another kind of jury evolved later. Composed of 12 neighbors of the

accused person, it was the ancestor of today’s trial jury. England’s establishment of common law and a

jury system set the stage for further advances on the road to democratic rule.

Evolving Traditions of Government

Henry’s efforts to extend royal power led to a bitter dispute with the church. Henry claimed the right to try clergy in royal courts. Church officials fiercely opposed the king’s move. The quarrel ended in the murder of a church leader. Later English rulers repeatedly clashed with nobles and the church. Most battles developed as a result of efforts by the monarch to raise taxes or to impose royal authority over traditional feudal rights. Out of those struggles evolved traditions of government that would influence the modern world.

The Magna Carta 

Henry’s son John was a clever and greedy ruler. He earned his bad reputation in part through

failed struggles with the French king and the pope. King John is best remembered, however, for a momentous power struggle with his own nobles. John angered them with oppressive taxes and other abuses of power. In 1215, a group of rebellious barons cornered John and forced him to accept

the Magna Carta, or Great Charter. In this document, the king affirmed a long list of feudal rights.

Besides protecting their own privileges, the barons included a few clauses recognizing the legal rights of townspeople and the church. Among the most significant of these was a clause protecting every freeman from arbitrary arrest, imprisonment, and other legal actions, except “by legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” This famous clause formed the basis of the democratic right now known as “due process of law.”

The king also agreed not to raise new taxes without first consulting his Great Council of lords and clergy. Many centuries later, American colonists would claim that those words meant that any taxation without representation was unjust.

In 1215, though, neither the king nor his lords could have imagined such an idea. The Magna Carta contained two very important principles that in the long run would shape government traditions in England. First, it asserted that the nobles had certain rights. Over time, those rights were

extended to all English citizens. Second, the Magna Carta made it clear that the monarch must obey the law. The rule of law became a key principle in the democratic tradition.

Development of Parliament 

In keeping with the Magna Carta, English rulers often called on the Great Council for advice. During the

1200s, this body evolved into Parliament. Its name comes from the French word parler, meaning “to talk.” As Parliament acquired a larger role in government, it helped unify England.

In 1295, Edward I summoned Parliament to approve money for his wars in France. “What touches all,” he declared, “should be approved by all.” He arranged for representatives of the “common people” to join with the lords and clergy. The “commons” included two knights from each

county and delegates from the towns. 

This assembly set up the framework for England’s legislature. For this reason, it later became known as the Model Parliament. In time, Parliament developed into a two-house body. Nobles and clergy met in the House of Lords. Knights and middle-class citizens met in the House of Commons.

Parliament Gains Strength 

England and France battled each other over land claims, politics, and other issues off and on for centuries. Between 1337 and 1453, they fought a series of especially destructive conflicts known together as the Hundred Years’ War. Once fighting started, economic rivalry and a growing sense of national pride made it hard for either side to give up the struggle. By the end, England had lost

nearly all of its lands in France.

The Hundred Years’ War changed England politically. During the war English rulers turned repeatedly to Parliament for funds, which helped that body win the “power of the purse.” That is, it won the right to approve any new taxes. With that power, Parliament could insist that the monarch

meet its demands before voting for taxes. In this way it could check, or limit, the power of the monarch. Later, most democratic governments would incorporate similar checks on power into their constitutions.

Triumph of Parliament

From 1485 to 1603, the Tudor dynasty ruled England. The Tudors, including Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I, shrewdly recognized the value of good relations with Parliament. They continued the tradition of consulting Parliament, especially on issues related to finances.

During this time, Christians throughout Europe launched protests against questionable church practices. The resulting religious reform movement became known as the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Church resisted these protesters, who eventually split off to form various Protestant groups.

In England, Henry VIII broke with Rome to form the Church of England. Elizabeth I died in 1603 without a direct heir. The throne passed to her relatives the Stuarts, the ruling family of Scotland. The Stuarts were neither as popular as the Tudors nor as skillful in dealing with Parliament. The ongoing battle between the Stuart monarchs and Parliament resulted in a “century of revolution.”

The Royal Challenge 

The first Stuart monarch, James I, agreed to rule according to English laws and customs. Yet he behaved like an absolute monarch, a ruler with complete authority over the government and the lives of the people. James rejected the demands of Puritans, a group that wanted to “purify” the Church of England of Catholic practices. He clashed regularly with Parliament over money and foreign policy. In 1611 and again in 1614, James angrily dissolved the Parliament, sending its members home.

James’s son, Charles I, also claimed absolute power. He imprisoned his foes without trial and squeezed the nation for money. By 1628, though, his need to raise taxes forced Charles to summon Parliament. Before voting for any funds, Parliament insisted that Charles accept the

Petition of Right. It prohibited the king from raising taxes without the consent of Parliament and banned imprisonment without just cause. Charles signed the petition, but he dissolved Parliament the next year.

In 1640, Charles needed funds to combat a rebellion in Scotland, so he summoned Parliament. When it met, however, Parliament launched its own revolt. The Long Parliament, which lasted until 1653, triggered the greatest political revolution in English history. In a mounting struggle with the king, Parliament tried and executed the king’s chief ministers. It further declared that the Parliament could not be dissolved without its own consent.

Charles lashed back. In 1642, he led troops into the House of Commons to arrest its most radical leaders. They escaped through a back door and soon raised their own army. The clash then moved to the battlefield. 

The English Civil War 

The civil war that followed lasted from 1642 to 1649. Many wealthy nobles supported Charles. Rural landowners, town dwelling manufacturers, and Puritan clergy backed Parliament, whose forces were led by a skilled general named Oliver Cromwell. In a series of decisive battles, Cromwell’s army defeated the king’s troops. By 1647, Charles I was in the hands of parliamentary forces.

Two years later, Parliament set up a court to try the king. It condemned Charles to death as “a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy.” The king’s execution sent shock waves throughout Europe. For

the first time, a ruling monarch had been tried and executed by his own people. The parliamentary forces had sent a clear signal that in England, no ruler could claim absolute power and ignore the rule of law.

The Commonwealth 

After the execution of Charles I, the House of Commons abolished the monarchy, the House of Lords, and the official Church of England. Parliament also declared England a republic, known as the Commonwealth, with Cromwell in charge. A series of threats led Cromwell to impose military rule in 1653. 

Under the Commonwealth, Parliament exiled Catholics to barren land in the west of Ireland. Puritans gained influence throughout the government and society. Puritan preachers tried to root out godlessness and impose a “rule of saints.” They also encouraged greater religious observance and restrictions on various forms of entertainment.

Oliver Cromwell died in 1658. Soon after, the Puritans lost their grip on England. Many people had tired of military rule and strict Puritan ways. In 1660, a newly elected Parliament restored the monarchy by

inviting Charles’s son to rule.

From Restoration to Glorious Revolution 

The new king, Charles II, shared his father’s faith in absolute monarchy and secretly had Catholic sympathies. Still, he accepted the Petition of Right and shrewdly avoided his father’s mistakes in dealing with Parliament.

Charles’s brother, James II, inherited the throne in 1685. James lacked his brother’s good sense. He suspended laws at whim and flaunted his Catholic faith. He even appointed Catholics to high office. Many English Protestants feared that James would restore the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1688, alarmed parliamentary leaders invited James’s Protestant daughter, Mary, and her Dutch Protestant husband, William III of Orange, to become rulers of England. When William and Mary landed with their army late in 1688, James II fled to France. This bloodless overthrow of the king became known as the Glorious Revolution.

English Bill of Rights 

Before they could be crowned, William and Mary had to accept several acts passed by Parliament in 1689 that became known as the English Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights ensured the superiority of Parliament over the monarchy. It required the monarch to summon Parliament regularly and gave the House of Commons the “power of the purse.” A king or queen could no longer interfere in parliamentary debates or suspend laws. The Bill of Rights also barred any Roman Catholic from sitting on the throne.

The Bill of Rights restated the traditional rights of English citizens, such as trial by jury. It abolished excessive fines and cruel or unjust punishment. It affirmed the principle of habeas corpus. That is, no person could be held in prison without first being charged with a specific crime.

The Glorious Revolution and the English Bill of Rights did not create a democracy. They established a type of government called a limited monarchy, in which a constitution or legislative body limits the monarch’s powers. English rulers still had much power, but they had to obey the law and govern in partnership with Parliament.

(infographic section)

Many of the democratic rights and freedoms included in the American Bill of Rights (1791) trace their origins to two landmark documents in British history: The Magna Carta (1215) and the English Bill of Rights (1689). These two documents confirmed the principles that governments need to be limited in their power and that individuals have rights that the government cannot take away.

1215–The Magna Carta In 1215, barons living under King John 1 were tired of the king’s military

campaigns and heavy taxes. They wrote the Magna Carta, or Great Charter, to bring an end to arbitrary

acts by the king and to establish in writing the fact that the power of the monarch was not absolute.

The Magna Carta established three key rights: 1) The right to a trial by a jury of one’s peers,  2) the right of due process, or protection from the arbitrary taking of life, liberty or property, 3) and the right to private property.

1295–Model Parliament In the years between the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights, some monarchs respected the principles and rights of the Magna Carta and others ignored them. English rulers often called on the Great Council, or Parliament  for advice.

1337–1453 Hundred Years’ War Parliament began requiring the king to meet their demands before they would allow the king to raise new taxes to fund the war. 

1628 Petition of Right In 1628, when Charles I asked Parliament for more money in taxes,

Parliament refused until he signed the Petition of Right. The petition limited the king’s power in several ways. Most importantly, the document demanded that the king no longer imprison or punish any person but by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land.

1689–The English Bill of Rights In 1688, after years of turmoil, Parliament offered the crown to William and Mary of Orange. In 1689, Parliament drew up a list of demands to which William and Mary had to agree. This document, The English Bill of Rights, repeated some of the demands listed in the Magna Carta and Petition of Right and added several new key rights: no cruel punishment, 8 no excessive bail or fines, the right to bear arms, 9 and the right to petition or bring one’s case to the king without fear of punishment. 10

CH 2 Sec 1:

Adam smith2/1 Philosophy in the Age of Reason

By the early 1700s, European thinkers felt that nothing was beyond the reach of the human mind. Through the use of reason, insisted these thinkers, people and governments could solve every

social, political, and economic problems. In essence, these writers, scholars, and philosophers felt they could change the world.

Scientific Revolution Sparks the Enlightenment

The Scientific Revolution of the 1500s and 1600s had transformed the way people in Europe looked at the world. In the 1700s, other scientists expanded European knowledge. For example, Edward

Jenner developed a vaccine against smallpox, a disease whose path of death spanned the centuries.

Scientific successes convinced educated Europeans of the power of human reason. Natural law, or rules discoverable by reason, govern scientific forces such as gravity and magnetism. Why not, then, use natural law to better understand social, economic, and political problems? Using the methods of the new science, reformers thus set out to study human behavior and solve the problems of society. In this way, the Scientific Revolution led to another revolution in thinking, known as the Enlightenment. Immanuel

Kant, a German philosopher best known for his work The Critique of Pure Reason, was one of the first to describe this era with the word “Enlightenment.” Despite Kant’s skepticism about the power of reason, he was enthusiastic about the Enlightenment and believed, like many European philosophers, that natural law could help explain aspects of humanity.

Hobbes and Locke Have Conflicting Views

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, two seventeenth-century English thinkers, set forth ideas that were to become key to the Enlightenment. Both men lived through the upheavals of the English Civil War. Yet they came to very different conclusions about human nature and the role of government.

Hobbes Believes in Powerful Government 

Thomas Hobbes outlined his ideas in a work titled Leviathan. In it, he argued that people

were naturally cruel, greedy, and selfish. If not strictly controlled, they would fight, rob, and oppress one another. Life in the “state of nature”— without laws or other control—would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” To escape that “brutish” life, said Hobbes, people entered into a social contract, an agreement by which they gave up their freedom for an organized society. Hobbes believed that only a powerful government could ensure an orderly society. For him, such a government was an absolute monarchy, which could impose order and compel obedience.

Locke Advocates Natural Rights 

John Locke had a more optimistic view of human nature. He thought people were basically reasonable and moral. Further, they had certain natural rights, or rights that belonged to all humans from birth. These included the right to life, liberty, and property. In Two Treatises of Government, Locke argued that people formed governments to protect their natural rights. The best kind of government, he said, had limited power and was accepted by all citizens. Thus, unlike Hobbes, Locke rejected absolute monarchy. England during this time experienced a shift in political power known as the Glorious Revolution. James II, an unpopular absolute monarch, left the throne and fled

England in 1688. Locke later wrote that he thought James II deserved to be dethroned for violating the rights of the English.

Locke proposed a radical idea about this time. A government, he said, has an obligation to the people it governs. If a government fails its obligations or violates people’s natural rights, the people have the right to overthrow that government. Locke’s idea would one day influence leaders of the American Revolution, such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Locke’s idea of the right of revolution would also echo across Europe and Latin America in the centuries that followed.

The Philosophes

In the 1700s, there was a flowering of Enlightenment thought. This was when a group of Enlightenment

thinkers in France applied the methods of science to understand and improve society. They believed that

the use of reason could lead to reforms of government, law, and society. These thinkers were called

philosophes (fee loh ZOHFS), which means “philosophers.” Their ideas soon spread beyond France and even beyond Europe.

Montesquieu Advances the Idea Of Separation of Powers 

An early and influential thinker was Baron de Montesquieu (MAHN tus kyoo). Montesquieu studied the governments of Europe, from Italy to England. He read about ancient and medieval Europe, and learned about Chinese and Native American cultures. His sharp criticism of absolute monarchy would open doors for later debate.

In 1748, Montesquieu published The Spirit of the Laws, in which he discussed governments throughout history. Montesquieu felt that the best way to protect liberty was to divide the

various functions and powers of government among three branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial. He also felt that each branch of government should be able to serve as a check on the other two, an idea that we call checks and balances. Montesquieu’s beliefs would soon profoundly affect the Framers of the United States Constitution. 

Voltaire Defends Freedom of Thought 

Probably the most famous of the philosophes was François-Marie Arouet, who took the

name Voltaire. “My trade,” said Voltaire, “is to say what I think,” and he did so throughout his long, controversial life. Voltaire used biting wit as a weapon to expose the abuses of his day. He targeted corrupt officials and idle aristocrats. With his pen, he battled inequality, injustice, and superstition. He detested the slave trade and deplored religious prejudice.

Voltaire’s outspoken attacks offended both the French government and the Catholic Church. He was imprisoned and forced into exile. Even as he saw his books outlawed and even burned, he continued to defend the principle of freedom of speech.

Diderot Edits the Encyclopedia 

Denis Diderot (DEE duh roh) worked for years to produce a 28-volume set of books called the

Encyclopedia. As the editor, Diderot did more than just compile articles.

His purpose was “to change the general way of thinking” by explaining ideas on topics such as government, philosophy, and religion. Diderot’s Encyclopedia included articles by leading thinkers of the day, including Montesquieu and Voltaire. In these articles, the philosophes denounced slavery, praised freedom of expression, and urged education for all. They attacked divine-right theory and traditional religions. Critics raised an outcry. The French government argued that the Encyclopedia was an attack on public morals, and the pope threatened to excommunicate Roman Catholics who bought or read the volumes.

Despite these and other efforts to ban the Encyclopedia, more than 4,000 copies were printed between 1751 and 1789. When translated into other languages, the Encyclopedia helped spread Enlightenment ideas throughout Europe and across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.

Rousseau Promotes The Social Contract 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (roo SOH), believed that people in their natural state were basically good. This natural innocence, he felt, was corrupted by the evils of society, especially the unequal distribution of property. Many reformers and revolutionaries later adopted this view. Among them were Thomas Paine and Marquis de Lafayette, who were leading figures of the American and French Revolutions.

In 1762, Rousseau set forth his ideas about government and society in The Social Contract. Rousseau felt that society placed too many limitations on people’s behavior. He believed that some controls were necessary, but that they should be minimal. Additionally, only governments that had been freely elected should impose these controls. Rousseau put his faith in the “general will,” or the best conscience of the people. The good of the community as a whole, he said, should be placed above individual interests. Rousseau has influenced political and social thinkers for more than 200 years. Woven through his work is a hatred of all forms of political and economic oppression. His bold ideas

would help fan the flames of revolt in years to come.

Women Challenge the Philosophes 

The Enlightenment slogan “free and equal” did not apply to women. Though the philosophes said women had natural rights, their rights were limited to the areas of home and family.

By the mid- to late-1700s, a small but growing number of women protested this view. Germaine de Staël in France and Catharine Macaulay and Mary Wollstonecraft in Britain argued that women were being excluded from the social contract itself. Their arguments, however, were ridiculed and often sharply condemned.

Wollstonecraft was a well-known British social critic. She accepted that a woman’s first duty was to be a good mother but felt that a woman should be able to decide what was in her own interest without depending on her husband. In 1792, Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of

Woman. In it, she called for equal education for girls and boys. Only education, she argued, could give women the tools they needed to participate equally with men in public life.

New Economic Thinking

French thinkers known as physiocrats focused on economic reforms. Like the philosophes, physiocrats based their thinking on natural laws. The physiocrats claimed that their rational economic system was based on the natural laws of economics.

Laissez Faire Replaces Mercantilism 

Physiocrats rejected mercantilism, which required government regulation of the economy to achieve a favorable balance of trade. Instead, they urged a policy of laissez faire (les ay FEHR), allowing business to operate with little or no government interference. Physiocrats also supported free trade and opposed tariffs.

Smith Argues for a Free Market 

Scottish economist Adam Smith greatly admired the physiocrats. In his influential work The Wealth of Nations, he argued that the free market should be allowed to regulate business activity. Smith tried to show how manufacturing, trade, wages, profits, and economic growth were all linked to the market forces of supply and demand. Wherever there was a demand for goods or services, he

said, suppliers would seek to meet that demand in order to gain profits. Smith was a strong supporter of laissez faire. However, he felt that government had a duty to protect society, administer justice, and provide public works. Adam Smith’s ideas would help to shape productive economies in the 1800s and 1900s. Smith is considered the founder of Capitalism

John Locke:

Two Treatises of Government

English philosopher John Locke (1632–1704) published Two Treatises of Government in 1690. Locke believed that all people had the same natural rights of life, liberty, and property. In this essay, Locke states that the primary purpose of government is to protect these natural rights.

He also states that governments hold their power only with the consent of the people. Locke’s ideas greatly influenced revolutions in America and France.

But though men, when they enter into society give up the equality, liberty, and executive power they had in the state of Nature into the hands of society . . . the power of the society or legislative constituted by them can never be supposed to extend farther than the common good. . . . Whoever has the legislative

or supreme power of any commonwealth, is bound to govern by established standing laws, promulgated1 and known to the people, and not by extemporary 2 decrees, by indifferent and upright judges, who are to decide controversies by those laws; and to employ the force of the community at home only in the execution of such laws, or abroad to prevent or redress foreign injuries and secure the community from inroads3 and invasion. And all this to be directed to no other end but the peace, safety, and public good of the people. . . . The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their

property; and the end while they choose and authorize a legislative is that there may be laws made, and rules set, as guards and fences to the properties of all the society, . . . Whensoever, therefore, the legislative [power] shall transgress4 this fundamental rule of society, and either by ambition, fear, folly, or

corruption, endeavor to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of any other, an absolute power over the lives, liberties, and estates of the people, by this breach of trust they forfeit the power the people had put into their hands for quite contrary ends, and it devolves5 to the people; who have a right to resume their original liberty, and by the establishment of a new legislative (such as they shall think fit), provide for their own safety and security. . . .

CH 2 Sec 2:

2/2 Enlightenment Ideas Spread

Paris, France, the heart of the Enlightenment, drew many intellectuals and others eager to debate new ideas. Reforms proposed one evening became the talk of the town the next day. Enlightenment ideas flowed from France, across Europe, and beyond. Everywhere, thinkers examined traditional beliefs and customs in the light of reason and found them flawed. Even some absolute monarchs experimented with Enlightenment ideas, although they drew back when changes threatened the established way of doing

things.

New Ideas Challenge Society

Enlightenment ideas spread quickly through many levels of society. Educated people all over Europe eagerly read not only Diderot’s Encyclopedia but also the small, inexpensive pamphlets

that printers churned out on a broad range of issues. More and more, people saw that reform was necessary in order to achieve a just society.

During the Middle Ages, most Europeans had accepted without question a society based on divine-right rule, a strict class system, and a belief in heavenly reward for earthly suffering. In the Age of

Reason, such ideas seemed unscientific and irrational. A just society, Enlightenment thinkers taught, should ensure social justice and happiness in this world. Not everyone agreed with this idea of

replacing the values that existed, however.

Writers Face Censorship 

Most, but not all, government and church authorities felt they had a sacred duty to defend the old order. They believed that God had set up the old order. To protect against the attacks of the Enlightenment, they waged a war of censorship, or restricting access to ideas and information. They banned and burned books and imprisoned writers.

To avoid censorship, philosophes and writers like Montesquieu and Voltaire sometimes disguised their ideas in works of fiction. In the Persian Letters, Montesquieu used two fictional Persian travelers, named Usbek and Rica, to mock French society. The hero of Voltaire’s satirical novel Candide, published in 1759, travels across Europe and even to the Americas and the Middle East in search of “the best of all possible worlds.” Voltaire slyly uses the tale to expose the corruption and hypocrisy of European society.

Ideas Spread in Salons 

New literature, the arts, science, and philosophy were regular topics of discussion in salons, or informal social gatherings at which writers, artists, philosophes, and others exchanged ideas.

The salon originated in the 1600s, when a group of noblewomen in Paris began inviting a few friends to their homes for poetry readings. By the 1700s, some middle-class women began holding salons. Here middle-class citizens could meet with the nobility on an equal footing to discuss and spread Enlightenment ideas.

Madame Geoffrin (zhoh FRAN) ran one of the most respected salons. In her home on the Rue St. Honoré (roo sant ahn ur AY), she brought together the brightest and most talented people of her day. The young musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played for her guests, and Diderot was a regular at her weekly dinners for philosophers and poets.

Arts and Literature Reflect New Ideas

In the 1600s and 1700s, the arts evolved to meet changing tastes. As in earlier periods, artists and composers had to please their patrons, the men and women who commissioned works from them or gave them jobs.

From Grandeur to Charm

  In the age of Louis XIV, courtly art and architecture were either in the Greek and Roman tradition or in a grand, ornate style known as baroque. Baroque paintings were huge, colorful, and full of excitement. They glorified historic battles or the lives of saints. Such works matched the grandeur of European courts at that time.

Louis XV and his court led a much less formal lifestyle than Louis XIV. Architects and designers reflected this change by developing the rococo style. Rococo art moved away from religion and, unlike the heavy splendor of the baroque, was lighter, elegant, and charming. Rococo art in salons was believed to encourage the imagination. Furniture and tapestries featured delicate shells and flowers, and more pastel colors were used. Portrait painters showed noble subjects in charming rural settings, surrounded by happy servants and pets. Although this style was criticized by the philosophers for its superficiality, it had a vast audience in the upper class and with the growing middle class as well.

The Enlightenment Inspired Composers The new Enlightenment ideals led composers and musicians to develop new forms of music. There was a transition in music, as well as art, from the baroque style to rococo. An elegant style of music known as “classical” followed. Ballets and

opera—plays set to music—were performed at royal courts, and opera houses sprang up from Italy to England. Before this era, only the social elite could afford to commission musicians to play for them. In the early to mid-1700s, however, the growing middle class could afford to pay for concerts to be performed publicly.

Among the towering musical figures of the era was Johann Sebastian Bach. A devout German Lutheran, Bach wrote beautiful religious works for organ and choirs. He also wrote sonatas for violin and harpsichord. Another German-born composer, George Frideric Handel, spent much of his life in England. There, he wrote Water Music and other pieces for King George I, as well as more than 30 operas. His most celebrated work, the Messiah, combines instruments and voices and is often performed at

Christmas and Easter.

Composer Franz Joseph Haydn was one of the most important figures in the development of classical music. He helped develop forms for the string quartet and the symphony. Haydn had a close friendship with another famous composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart was a child prodigy who gained instant celebrity status as a composer and performer. His brilliant operas, graceful symphonies, and moving religious music helped define the new style of composition. Although he died in

poverty at age 35, he produced an enormous amount of music during his lifetime. Mozart’s musical legacy thrives today.

The Novel Takes Shape

By the 1700s, literature developed new forms and a wider audience. Middle-class readers, for example, liked stories about their own times told in straightforward prose. One result was an

outpouring of novels, or long works of prose fiction. English novelists wrote many popular stories. Daniel Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe, an exciting tale about a sailor shipwrecked on a tropical island. This novel is still well known today. In a novel called Pamela, Samuel Richardson used a series of letters to tell a story about a servant girl. This technique was adopted by other authors of the period.

Enlightened Despots Embrace New Ideas

The courts of Europe became enlivened as philosophes tried to persuade rulers to adopt their ideas. The philosophes hoped to convince the ruling classes that reform was necessary. Some monarchs did accept Enlightenment ideas. Others still practiced absolutism, a political doctrine in which a monarch had seemingly unlimited power. Those that did accept these new ideas became enlightened despots, or absolute rulers who used their power to bring about political and social change.

Frederick II Attempts Reform

Frederick II, known as Frederick the Great, exerted extremely tight control over his subjects during his reign as king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786. Still, he saw himself as the “first servant of the state,” with a duty to work for the common good.

Frederick openly praised Voltaire’s work and invited several of the French intellectuals of the age to Prussia. Some of his first acts as king were to reduce the use of torture and allow a free press. Most of

Frederick’s reforms were directed at making the Prussian government more efficient. To do this, he reorganized the government’s civil service and simplified laws. Frederick also tolerated religious differences, welcoming victims of religious persecution. “In my kingdom,” he said, “everyone can go to heaven in his own fashion.” His religious tolerance and also his disdain for torture showed Frederick’s genuine belief in enlightened reform. In the end, however, Frederick desired a stronger monarchy and

more power for himself.

Catherine the Great Studies Philosophes’ Works 

Catherine II, or Catherine the Great, empress of Russia, read the works of the philosophes and exchanged letters with Voltaire and Diderot. She praised Voltaire as someone who had “fought the united enemies of humankind: superstition, fanaticism, ignorance, trickery.” Catherine believed in the Enlightenment ideas of equality and liberty. 

Catherine, who became empress in 1762, toyed with implementing

Enlightenment ideas. Early in her reign, she made some limited reforms in law and government. Catherine abolished torture and established religious tolerance in her lands. She granted nobles a charter of rights and criticized the institution of serfdom. Still, like Frederick in Prussia, Catherine did not intend to give up power. In the end, her main political contribution to Russia proved to be an expanded empire.

Joseph II Continues Reform 

In Austria, Hapsburg empress Maria Theresa ruled as an absolute monarch. Although she did not push for reforms, she is considered to be an enlightened despot by some historians because she worked to improve peasants’ way of life. The most radical of the enlightened despots was her son and successor, Joseph II. Joseph was an eager student of the Enlightenment, and he traveled in disguise among his subjects to learn of their problems.

Joseph continued the work of Maria Theresa, who had begun to modernize Austria’s government. Despite opposition, Joseph supported religious equality for Protestants and Jews in his Catholic empire. He ended censorship by allowing a free press and attempted to bring the Catholic

Church under royal control. He sold the property of many monasteries that were not involved in education or care of the sick and used the proceeds to support those that were. Joseph even abolished serfdom. Like many of his other reforms, however, this measure was canceled after his death.

Lives of the Majority Change Slowly

Most Europeans were untouched by either courtly or middle-class culture. They remained what they had always been—peasants living in small rural villages. Echoes of serfdom still remained throughout Europe despite advances in Western Europe. Their culture, based on centuries-old traditions, changed slowly.

By the late 1700s, however, radical ideas about equality and social justice finally seeped into peasant villages. While some peasants eagerly sought to topple the old order, others resisted efforts to bring about change. In the 1800s, war and political upheaval, as well as changing economic conditions, would transform peasant life in Europe.

CH 2 Sec 3:

2/3 Birth of the American Republic Capitalism

On the eve of the American Revolution, Britain was a formidable foe whose power stretched throughout the world. In addition, an ambitious new ruler sought to expand the powers of the monarchy.

Britain Becomes a Global Power

There are several key reasons for Britain’s rise to global prominence:

• Location placed England in a position to control trade. In the 1500s and 1600s, English merchants sent ships across the world’s oceans and planted outposts in the West Indies, North

America, and India. From these tiny settlements, England would build a global empire.

• England offered a climate favorable to business and commerce and put fewer restrictions on trade than some of its neighbors.

• In the 1700s, Britain was generally on the winning side in European conflicts. With the Treaty of Utrecht, France gave Nova Scotia and Newfoundland to Britain. In 1763, the end of the French and Indian War and the Seven Years’ War brought Britain all of French Canada. The British also monopolized the slave trade in Spanish America, which brought enormous wealth to British merchants.

• England’s territory expanded closer to home as well. In 1707, England and Wales were united with Scotland to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Free trade with Scotland created a larger market for farmers and manufacturers. Ireland had come under English control during the 1600s. It was formally united with Great Britain in 1801.

In 1760, George III began a 60-year reign. Unlike his father and grandfather, the new king was born in England. He spoke English and loved Britain. But George was eager to recover the powers the crown had lost. Following his mother’s advice, “George, be a king!” he set out to reassert royal power. He wanted to end Whig domination, choose his own ministers, dissolve the cabinet system, and make Parliament follow his will. Gradually, George found seats in Parliament for “the king’s friends.”

Then, with their help, he began to assert his leadership. Many of his policies, however, would prove disastrous.

The 13 Colonies in the Mid-1700s

By 1750, a string of 13 prosperous colonies stretched along the eastern coast of North America. They were part of Britain’s growing empire. Colonial cities such as Boston, New York, and Philadelphia were busy commercial centers that linked North America to the West Indies, Africa, and Europe. Colonial shipyards produced many vessels for this trade.

Britain applied mercantilist policies to its colonies in an attempt to strengthen its own economy by exporting more than it imported. To this end, in the 1600s, Parliament had passed the Navigation Acts to regulate colonial trade and manufacturing. For the most part, however, these acts were not rigorously enforced. Therefore, activities like smuggling were common and not considered crimes by the colonists.

By the mid-1700s, the colonies were home to diverse religious and ethnic groups. Social distinctions were more blurred than in Europe, although wealthy landowners and merchants dominated government

and society. In politics, as in much else, there was a good deal of free discussion. Colonists felt entitled to the rights of English citizens, and their colonial assemblies exercised much control over local affairs. Many also had an increasing sense of their own destiny separate from Britain.

Colonists Express Discontent

The Seven Years’ War and the French and Indian War in North America had drained the British treasury. King George III and his advisors thought that the colonists should help pay for these wars. To increase

taxes paid by colonists, Parliament passed the Sugar Act in 1764, which imposed import taxes, and the Stamp Act in 1765, which imposed taxes on items such as newspapers and pamphlets. “No taxation without representation,” the colonists protested. They believed that because they had no representatives in Parliament, they should not be taxed. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766, but then passed a Declaratory Act that said it had complete authority over the colonists.

Colonists Rebel Against Britain 

A series of violent clashes intensified the colonists’ anger. In March 1770, British soldiers in Boston opened fire on a crowd that was pelting them with stones and snowballs. Colonists called the death of five protesters the Boston Massacre. Then in December 1773, a handful of colonists hurled a cargo of recently arrived British tea into the harbor to protest a tax on tea. The incident became

known as the Boston Tea Party. When Parliament passed harsh laws to punish Massachusetts for the destruction of the tea, other colonies rallied to oppose the British response.

As tensions increased, fighting spread. Finally, representatives from each colony gathered in Philadelphia and met in a Continental Congress to decide what action to take. Among the

participants were the radical yet fair minded Massachusetts lawyer John Adams, who had defended the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre in their trial; Virginia planter and soldier George

Washington; and political and social leaders from all 13 colonies.

Colonists Declare Independence 

In April 1775, the ongoing tension between the colonists and the British exploded into war

in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. This war is known as the Revolutionary War, or the American Revolution. The Congress met soon after and set up a Continental Army, with George Washington in

command. Although many battles ended in British victories, the colonists were determined to fight at any cost. In 1776, the Second Continental Congress took a momentous step, voting to declare independence from Britain. Thomas Jefferson of Virginia was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, a document that reflects John Locke’s ideas of the government’s obligation to protect the people’s natural rights to “life, liberty, and property.”

The Declaration included another of Locke’s ideas: people had the right “to alter or to abolish” unjust governments—a right to revolt. The principle of popular sovereignty, which states that all government power comes from the people, is also an important point in the Declaration. Jefferson carefully detailed the colonists’ grievances against Britain. Because the king had trampled colonists’ natural rights, he argued, the colonists had the right to rebel and set up a new government that

would protect them. Aware of the risks involved, on July 4, 1776, American leaders adopted the Declaration, pledging “our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor” to creating and protecting the new United States of America.

The American Revolution Continues

At first, the American cause looked bleak. The British had a large number of trained soldiers, a huge fleet, and greater resources. About one third of the American colonists were Loyalists, or those who supported Britain. Many others refused to fight for either side. The Americans lacked military

resources, had little money to pay soldiers, and did not have a strategic plan.

Still, colonists had some advantages. One was the geography of the diverse continent. Since colonists were fighting on their own soil, they were familiar with its thick woods and inadequate roads. Other advantages were their strong leader, George Washington, and their fierce determination to fight for their ideals of liberty.

To counteract these advantages, the British worked to create alliances within the colonies. A number of Native American groups sided with the British, while others saw potential advantages in supporting the colonists’ cause. Additionally, the British offered freedom to any enslaved people who were willing to fight the colonists.

France Provides Support 

The first turning point in the war came in 1777, when the Americans triumphed over the British at the Battle of Saratoga. This victory persuaded France to join the Americans against its old rival, Britain. The alliance brought the Americans desperately needed supplies, trained soldiers, and French warships. Spurred by the French example, the Netherlands and Spain added their support.

Hard times continued, however. In the brutal winter of 1777–1778, Continental troops at Valley Forge suffered from cold, hunger, and disease. Throughout this crisis and others, Washington was patient, courageous, and determined. He held the ragged army together.

Treaty of Paris Ends the War In 1781, the French fleet blockaded the Chesapeake Bay, which enabled Washington to force the surrender of a British army at Yorktown, Virginia. With that defeat, the British war effort crumbled. Two years later, American, British, and French diplomats signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the war. In that treaty, Britain recognized the independence of the United States of America. The Americans’ victory can be attributed to their resilient dedication to attaining

independence.

A New Constitution

The Articles of Confederation was the nation’s first constitution. It proved to be too weak to rule the new United States effectively. To address this problem, the nation’s leaders gathered once more in Philadelphia. Among them were George Washington, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin.

During the hot summer of 1787, they met in secret to redraft the articles of the new constitution. The result was a document that established a government run by the people, for the people.

Enlightenment Ideas Have Great Impact 

The Framers of the Constitution had studied history and absorbed the ideas of Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. They saw government in terms of a social contract into which “We the People of the United States” entered. They provided not only for an elective legislature but also for an elected president rather than a hereditary monarch. For the first President, voters would choose

George Washington.

The Constitution created a federal republic, with power divided between the federal, or national, government and the states. A central feature of the new federal government was the separation of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, an idea borrowed directly from Montesquieu. Within that structure, each branch of government was provided with checks and balances on the other branches.

The Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, was important to the passage of the Constitution. It recognized the idea that people had basic rights that the government must protect, such as freedom of religion, speech, and the press. The Bill of Rights, like the Constitution, put the philosophes’ Enlightenment ideas into practice. In 1789, the Constitution became the supreme law of the land, which means it became the nation’s fundamental law. This remarkable document has

endured for more than 200 years.

Symbol of Freedom 

The Constitution of the United States created the most progressive government of its day. From the start, the new republic was a symbol of freedom to European countries and reformers in

Latin America. Its constitution would be copied or adapted by many lands throughout the world. The Enlightenment ideals that had inspired American colonists brought changes in Europe too. In 1789, a revolution in France toppled the monarchy in the name of liberty and equality. Before long, other Europeans would take up the cry for freedom as well.

CH 3 Sec 1:

3.1 On the Eve of the Revolution 

(enhanced graphics not found in textbook)

On April 28, 1789, unrest exploded at a Paris wallpaper factory. A rumor had spread that the factory owner was planning to cut wages even though bread prices were soaring. Enraged workers

vandalized the owner’s home. 

Riots like these did not worry most nobles. They knew that France faced a severe economic crisis but thought financial reforms would ease the problem. The nobles were wrong. The crisis went deeper than government finances. Reform would not be enough. By July, the hungry, unemployed, and poorly paid people of Paris had taken up arms. Their actions would push events further and faster than anyone could have foreseen.

French Society Divided

In 1789, France, like the rest of Europe, still clung to an outdated social system that had emerged in the Middle Ages. Under this ancient régime, or old order, everyone in France was divided into one of three social classes, or estates. The First Estate was made up of the clergy; the Second Estate was made up of the nobility; and the Third Estate comprised the vast majority of the population.

The Clergy Enjoy Wealth 

During the Middle Ages, the Church had exerted great influence throughout Christian Europe. In 1789, the French clergy still enjoyed enormous wealth and privilege. The Church owned about 10 percent of the land, collected tithes, and paid no direct taxes to the state. High Church leaders such as bishops and abbots were usually nobles who lived very well. Parish priests, however, often came

from humble origins and might be as poor as their peasant congregations.

The First Estate did provide some social services. Nuns, monks, and priests ran schools, hospitals, and orphanages. But during the Enlightenment, philosophes targeted the Church for reform. They criticized the idleness of some clergy, the Church’s interference in politics, and its

intolerance of dissent. In response, many clergy condemned the Enlightenment for undermining religion and moral order.

Nobles Hold Top Government Jobs 

The Second Estate was the titled nobility of French society. In the Middle Ages, noble knights had defended the land. In the 1600s, Richelieu and Louis XIV had crushed the nobles’ military power but had given them other rights—under strict royal control. Those rights included top jobs in government, the army, the courts, and the Church.

At Versailles, ambitious nobles competed for royal appointments while idle courtiers enjoyed endless entertainment. Many nobles, however, lived far from the center of power. Though they owned land, they received little financial income. As a result, they felt the pinch of trying

to maintain their status in a period of rising prices.

Many nobles hated absolutism and resented the royal bureaucracy that employed middle-class men in positions that once had been reserved for them. They feared losing their traditional privileges, especially their freedom from paying taxes.

Third Estate Is Vastly Diverse 

The Third Estate was the most diverse social class. At the top sat the bourgeoisie (boor zhwah ZEE), or middle class. The bourgeoisie included prosperous bankers, merchants, and manufacturers, as well as lawyers, doctors, journalists, and professors. The bulk of the Third Estate, however, consisted of rural peasants.

Some were prosperous landowners who hired laborers to work for them. Others were tenant farmers or day laborers. The poorest members of the Third Estate were urban workers. They

included apprentices, journeymen, and others who worked in industries such as printing or cloth making. Many women and men earned a meager living as servants, stable hands, construction workers, or street sellers of everything from food to pots and pans. A large number of the urban

poor were unemployed. To survive, some turned to begging or crime.

From rich to poor, members of the Third Estate resented the privileges enjoyed by their social “betters.” Wealthy bourgeois families in the Third Estate could buy political office and even titles, but the best jobs were still reserved for nobles. Urban workers earned miserable wages. Even the smallest rise in the price of bread, their main food, brought the threat of greater hunger or even starvation.

Because of traditional privileges, the First and Second Estates paid almost no taxes. Peasants were burdened by taxes on everything from land to soap to salt. Though they were technically free, many owed fees and services that dated back to medieval times, such as the corvée (kawr

VAY), which was unpaid labor to repair roads and bridges. Peasants were also incensed when nobles, hurt by rising prices, tried to reimpose old manor dues. In towns and cities, Enlightenment ideas led people to question the inequalities of the old regime. Why, people demanded, should the first two estates have such great privileges at the expense of the majority? Throughout France, the Third Estate called for the privileged classes to pay their share.

Financial Troubles

Economic woes in France added to the social unrest and heightened tensions. One of the causes of the economic troubles was a mushrooming financial crisis that was due in part to years of deficit

spending. This occurs when a government spends more money than it takes in.

National Debt Soars 

Louis XIV had left France deeply in debt. The Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution strained the treasury even further. Costs generally had risen in the 1700s, and the lavish court soaked up millions. To bridge the gap between income and expenses, the government borrowed more and more money. By 1789, half of the government’s income from taxes went to paying the interest on this enormous debt. Also, in the late 1780s, bad harvests sent food prices soaring and brought hunger to poorer peasants and city dwellers.

To solve the financial crisis, the government would have to increase taxes, reduce expenses, or both. However, the nobles and clergy fiercely resisted any attempt to end their exemption from taxes.

Economic Reform Fails 

The heirs of Louis XIV were not the right men to solve the economic crisis that afflicted France. Louis XV, who ruled from 1715 to 1774, pursued pleasure before serious business and

ran up more debts. Louis XVI was well-meaning but weak and indecisive. He did, however, wisely choose Jacques Necker, a financial expert, as an advisor. Necker urged the king to reduce extravagant court spending, reform the government, and abolish burdensome tariffs on internal trade. When Necker proposed taxing the First and Second Estates, however, the nobles and high clergy forced the king to dismiss him.

As the crisis deepened, the pressure for reform mounted. The wealthy and powerful classes demanded, however, that the king summon the Estates-General, the legislative body consisting of representatives of the three estates, before making any changes. A French king had not

called the Estates-General for 175 years, fearing that nobles would use it to recover the feudal powers they had lost under absolute rule. To reform-minded nobles, the Estates-General seemed to offer a chance of carrying out changes like those that had come with the Glorious Revolution

in England. They hoped that they could bring the absolute monarch under the control of the nobles and guarantee their own privileges.

Louis XVI Calls the Estates-General

As 1788 came to a close, France tottered on the verge of bankruptcy. Bread riots were spreading, and nobles, fearful of taxes, were denouncing royal tyranny. A baffled Louis XVI finally summoned the Estates-General to meet at Versailles the following year.

Estates Prepare Grievance Notebooks

In preparation, Louis had all three estates prepare cahiers (kah YAYZ), or notebooks, listing their grievances. Many cahiers called for reforms such as fairer taxes, freedom of the press, or regular meetings of the Estates-General. In one town, shoemakers

denounced regulations that made leather so expensive they could not afford to make shoes. Servant girls in the city of Toulouse demanded the right to leave service when they wanted and that “after a girl has served her master for many years, she receives some reward for her service.”

The cahiers testified to boiling class resentments. One called tax collectors “bloodsuckers of the nation who drink the tears of the unfortunate from goblets of gold.” Another one of the cahiers condemned the courts of nobles as “vampires pumping the last drop of blood” from the people.

Another complained that “20 million must live on half the wealth of France while the clergy . . . devour the other half.” 

Delegates Take the Tennis Court Oath 

Delegates to the Estates- General from the Third Estate were elected, though only propertied men could vote. Thus, the delegates were mostly lawyers, middle-class officials, and writers. They were familiar with the writings of Voltaire, Rousseau, and other philosophes. They went to Versailles not only to solve the financial crisis but also to insist on reform.

The Estates-General convened in May 1789. From the start, the delegates were deadlocked over the issue of voting. Traditionally, each estate had met and voted separately. Each group had one vote. Under this system, the First and Second Estates always outvoted the Third Estate two to one. This time, the Third Estate wanted all three estates to meet in a single body, with votes counted “by head.”

After weeks of stalemate, delegates of the Third Estate took a daring step. Claiming to represent the people of France, they declared themselves to be the National Assembly in June 1789. A few days later, the National Assembly found its meeting hall locked and guarded. Fearing that the king planned to dismiss them, the delegates moved to a nearby indoor tennis court. As curious spectators looked on, the delegates took their famous Tennis Court Oath. They swore “never to separate and to meet wherever the circumstances might require until we have established a sound and just constitution.”

When reform-minded clergy and nobles joined the Assembly, Louis XVI grudgingly accepted it. But royal troops gathered around Paris, and rumors spread that the king planned to dissolve the Assembly.

Parisians Storm the Bastille

On July 14, 1789, the city of Paris seized the spotlight from the National Assembly meeting in Versailles. The streets buzzed with rumors that royal troops were going to occupy the capital. More than 800 Parisians assembled outside the Bastille, a grim medieval fortress used as a prison for political and other prisoners. The crowd demanded weapons and gunpowder believed to be stored there.

The commander of the Bastille refused to open the gates and opened fire on the crowd. In the battle that followed, many people were killed. Finally, the enraged mob broke through the defenses. They killed the commander and five guards and released the handful of prisoners who

were being held there, but found no weapons.

The Bastille was a symbol to the people of France rep- resenting years of abuse by the monarchy. The storming of and subsequent fall of the Bastille was a wake-up call to

Louis XVI. Unlike any other riot or short-lived protest, this event posed a challenge to the sheer existence of the regime. Since 1880, the French have celebrated Bastille Day annually as their national independence day.

CH 3 Sec 2:

3/2 The French Revolution Unfolds

Excitement, wonder, and fear engulfed France as the revolution unfolded at home and spread abroad.  communeHistorians divide this revolutionary era into different phases. The moderate phase of the

The National Assembly (1789–1791) turned France into a constitutional monarchy. A radical phase (1792–1794) of escalating violence led to the end of the monarchy and a Reign of Terror. There

followed a period of reaction against extremism, known as the Directory (1795–1799). Finally, the Age of Napoleon (1799–1815) consolidated many revolutionary changes. In this section, you will

read about the moderate phase of the French Revolution.

Political Crisis Leads to Revolt

The political crisis of 1789 coincided with the worst famine in memory. Starving peasants roamed the countryside or flocked to towns, where they swelled the ranks of the unemployed. As grain prices soared, even people with jobs had to spend as much as 80 percent of their income on bread.

Rumors Create the “Great Fear”

In such desperate times, rumors ran wild and set off what was later called the “Great Fear.”

Tales of attacks on villages and towns spread panic. Other rumors asserted that government troops were seizing peasant crops. 

Inflamed by famine and fear, peasants unleashed their fury on nobles who were trying to reimpose medieval dues. Defiant peasants set fire to old manor records and stole grain from storehouses. The attacks died down after a period of time, but they clearly demonstrated peasant anger with an unjust regime.

Paris Commune Comes to Power 

Paris, too, was in turmoil. As the capital and chief city of France, it was the revolutionary center. A variety of factions, or dissenting groups of people, competed to gain power. Moderates looked to the Marquis de Lafayette, the aristocratic “hero of two worlds” who fought alongside George Washington in the American Revolution. Lafayette headed the National Guard, a largely middle-class militia organized in response to the arrival of royal troops in Paris. The Guard was the first group to don the tricolor—a red, white, and blue badge that was eventually adopted as the national flag of France.

A more radical group, the Paris Commune, replaced the royalist government of the city. It could mobilize whole neighborhoods for protests or violent action to further the revolution. Newspapers and political clubs— many even more radical than the Commune—blossomed everywhere. Some demanded an end to the monarchy and spread scandalous stories

about the royal family and members of the court.

The National Assembly Acts

Peasant uprisings and the storming of the Bastille stampeded the National Assembly into action. On August 4, in a combative all-night meeting, nobles in the National Assembly voted to end their own privileges. They agreed to give up their old manorial dues, exclusive hunting rights, special legal status, and exemption from taxes. Special Privilege Ends “Feudalism is abolished,” announced the proud and weary delegates at 2 A.M. As the president of the Assembly later observed, “We may

view this moment as the dawn of a new revolution, when all the burdens weighing on the people were abolished, and France was truly reborn.”

Were nobles sacrificing much with their votes on the night of August 4? Both contemporary observers and modern historians note that the nobles gave up nothing that they had not already lost. Nevertheless, in the months ahead, the National Assembly turned the reforms of August 4 into law, meeting a key Enlightenment goal— the equality of all male citizens before the law. Declaration of the Rights of Man In late August, as a first step toward writing a constitution, the Assembly issued the 

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. 

The document was modeled in part on the American Declaration of Independence, written 13 years earlier. All men, the French declaration announced, were “born and remain free and equal in rights.” They enjoyed natural rights to “liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.” Like the writings of Locke and the philosophes, the Constitution insisted that governments exist to protect the natural rights of citizens.

The declaration further proclaimed that all male citizens were equal before the law. Every Frenchman had an equal right to hold public office “with no distinction other than that of their virtues and talents.” In addition, the declaration asserted freedom of religion and called for taxes to be levied according to ability to pay. Its principles were captured in the enduring slogan of the French Revolution, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.”

Many women were disappointed that the Declaration of the Rights of Man did not grant equal citizenship to them. In 1791, Olympe de Gouges (oh LAMP duh GOOZH), a journalist, demanded equal rights in her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen. “Woman is born free,” she proclaimed, “and her rights are the same as those of man.” Therefore, Gouges reasoned, “all citizens, be they men or women, being equal in the state’s eyes, must be equally eligible for all public offices, positions, and jobs.” Later in the revolution, women met resistance for expressing their views in public, and many, including Gouges, were imprisoned and executed.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man met resistance as well. Uncertain and hesitant, Louis XVI did not want to accept the reforms of the National Assembly. Nobles continued to enjoy gala banquets while people were starving. By autumn, anger again turned to action.

Women March on Versailles 

On October 5, about six thousand women marched 13 miles in the pouring rain from Paris to Versailles. “Bread!” they shouted. They demanded to see the king. Much of the crowd’s anger was directed at the Austrian-born queen, Marie Antoinette (daughter of Maria Theresa and brother of Joseph II). The queen lived a life of great pleasure and extravagance, and this led to further public unrest. Although compassionate to the poor, her small acts went largely unnoticed because her lifestyle overshadowed them. She was against reforms and bored with the French court. She often retreated to the Petit Trianon, a small chateau on the palace grounds at Versailles where she lived her own life of amusement.

The women refused to leave Versailles until the king met their most important demand—to return to Paris. Not too happily, the king agreed. The next morning, the crowd, with the king and his family in tow, set out for the city. At the head of the procession rode women perched on the barrels of seized cannons. They told bewildered spectators that they were bringing Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and their son back to Paris. “Now we won’t have to go so far when we want to see our king,” they sang. Crowds along the way cheered the king, who now wore the tricolor. In

Paris, the royal family moved into the Tuileries (TWEE luh reez) palace. For the next three years, Louis was a virtual prisoner.

The National Assembly Presses Onward

The National Assembly soon followed the king to Paris. Its largely bourgeois members worked to draft a constitution and to solve the continuing financial crisis. To pay off the huge government debt—much of it owed to the bourgeoisie—the Assembly voted to take over and sell Church lands.

The Church Is Placed Under State Control 

In an even more radical move, the National Assembly put the French Catholic Church under

state control. Under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, issued in 1790, bishops and priests became elected, salaried officials. The Civil Constitution ended papal authority over the French Church and dissolved con- vents and monasteries.

Reaction was swift and angry. Many bishops and priests refused to accept the Civil Constitution. The pope condemned it. Large numbers of French peasants, who were conservative concerning religion, also rejected the changes. When the government punished clergy who refused

to support the Civil Constitution, a huge gulf opened between revolutionaries in Paris and the peasantry in the provinces.

The Constitution of 1791 Establishes a New Government 

The National Assembly completed its main task by producing a constitution. The Constitution of 1791 set up a limited monarchy in place of the absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries. A new Legislative Assembly had the power to make laws, collect taxes, and decide on issues of war and peace. Lawmakers would be elected by tax-paying male citizens over age 25.

To make government more efficient, the constitution replaced the old provinces with 83 departments of roughly equal size. It abolished the old provincial courts, and it reformed laws.

To moderate reformers, the Constitution of 1791 seemed to complete the revolution. Reflecting Enlightenment goals, it ensured equality before the law for all male citizens and ended Church interference in government. At the same time, it put power in the hands of men with the

 means and leisure to serve in government.

Louis’s Escape Fails 

Meanwhile, Marie Antoinette and others had been urging the king to escape their humiliating situation. Louis finally gave in. One night in June 1791, a coach rolled north from Paris toward the border. Inside sat the king disguised as a servant, the queen dressed as a governess, and the royal children.

The attempted escape failed. In a town along the way, Louis’s disguise was uncovered by someone who held up a piece of currency with the king’s face on it. A company of soldiers escorted the royal family back to Paris, as onlooking crowds hurled insults at the king. To many, Louis’s

dash to the border showed that he was a traitor to the revolution.

Radicals Take Over

Events in France stirred debate all over Europe. Supporters of the Enlightenment applauded the reforms of the National Assembly. They saw the French experiment as the dawn of a new age for justice and equality. European rulers and nobles, however, denounced the French Revolution.

Rulers Fear Spread of Revolution 

European rulers increased border patrols to stop the spread of the “French plague.” Fueling those fears were the horror stories that were told by émigrés (EM ih grayz)— nobles, clergy, and others who had fled France and its revolutionary forces. Émigrés reported attacks on their privileges, their property, their religion, and even their lives. Even “enlightened” rulers turned against France. Catherine the Great of Russia burned Voltaire’s letters and locked up her critics.

Edmund Burke, a British writer and statesman who earlier had defended the American Revolution, bitterly condemned revolutionaries in Paris. He predicted all too accurately that the revolution would become more violent. “Plots and assassinations,” he wrote, “will be anticipated by preventive murder and preventive confiscation.” Burke warned: “When ancient opinions and rules of life are taken away . . . we have no compass to govern us.”

Threats Come From Abroad 

The failed escape of Louis XVI brought further hostile rumblings from abroad. In August 1791, the king of Prussia and the emperor of Austria—who was Marie Antoinette’s brother—issued the

Declaration of Pillnitz. In this document, the two monarchs threatened to intervene to protect the French monarchy. The declaration may have been mostly a bluff, but revolutionaries in France took

the threat seriously and prepared for war. The revolution was about to enter a new, more radical phase of change and conflict.

Radicals Fight for Power and Declare War 

In October 1791, the newly elected Legislative Assembly took office. Faced with crises at home and abroad, it survived for less than a year. Economic problems fed renewed turmoil. Assignats (AS ig nats), the revolutionary currency, dropped in value, causing prices to rise rapidly. Uncertainty about prices led to hoarding and caused additional food shortages.

In Paris and other cities, working-class men and women, called sans-culottes (sanz koo LAHTS), pushed the revolution into more radical action. They were called sans-culottes, which means “without breeches,” because they wore long trousers instead of the fancy knee breeches that upper-class men wore. By 1791, many sans-culottes demanded a republic, or government ruled by elected representatives instead of a monarch.

Within the Legislative Assembly, several hostile factions competed for power. The sans-culottes found support among radicals in the Legislative Assembly, especially the Jacobins. A revolutionary political club, the Jacobins were mostly middle-class lawyers or intellectuals. They used pamphleteers and sympathetic newspaper editors to advance the republican cause. Opposing the radicals were moderate reformers and political officials who wanted no more reforms at all.

The National Assembly Declared War on Tyranny The radicals soon held the upper hand in the Legislative Assembly. In April 1792, the war of words between French revolutionaries and European monarchs moved onto the battlefield. Eager to spread the revolution and destroy tyranny abroad, the Legislative Assembly declared war first on Austria and then on Prussia, Britain, and other states. The great powers expected to win an easy victory against France, a land divided by revolution. In fact, however, the fighting that began in 1792 lasted on and off until 1815.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

The National Assembly issued this document in 1789 after having overthrown the established

government in the early stages of the French Revolution. The document was modeled in part

on the English Bill of Rights and on the American Declaration of Independence. The basic

principles of the French declaration were those that inspired the revolution, such as the freedom and

equality of all male citizens before the law.

Therefore the National Assembly recognizes and proclaims, in the presence and under the auspices One  of the Supreme Being, the following rights of man and of the citizen:

- Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.

- The aim of all political associations is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. . . .

- Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which

injures no one else. . . .

- Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society. . . .

- Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its formation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or

punishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are equally eligible to all dignities and to all public positions and occupations, according to their abilities, and without distinction except that of

their virtues and talents.

- No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the

cases and according to the forms prescribed by law. . . .

- The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most

precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak,

write, and print with freedom. . . .

- A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the public [military] forces and for the cost of administration. This should be equitably distributed among all the citizens in proportion to their means.

Origins of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen 

In addition to being influenced by the American Declaration of Independence and the English Bill of Rights, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen drew its content from other sources as well. The constitutions of individual states such as New Hampshire and Virginia

also influenced the Declaration. The impact of Enlightenment philosophes is clearly seen in the document, too. Montesquieu’s notion of separation of powers is represented, as are Locke’s ideas on natural rights and Rousseau’s theories on the general will and national sovereignty. The physiocrats’ ideas about private property and Voltaire’s notions of protecting individuals against arbitrary police action are also included.

CH 3 Sec 3: 

3.3 Radicals Days of the Revolution

In 1793, the revolution entered a radical phase. For a year, France experienced one of the bloodiest regimes in its long history as determined leaders sought to extend and preserve the revolution.

The Monarchy Is Abolished

As the revolution continued, dismal news about the war abroad heightened tensions. Well-trained Prussian forces were cutting down raw French recruits. In addition, royalist officers were

deserting the French army, joining émigrés and others hoping to restore the king’s power. 

Tensions Lead to Violence 

Battle disasters quickly inflamed revolutionaries who thought the king was in league with the enemies. On August 10, 1792, a crowd of Parisians stormed the royal palace of the Tuileries and slaughtered the king’s guards. The royal family fled to the Legislative Assembly, escaping before the

mob arrived.

A month later, citizens attacked prisons that held nobles and priests accused of political offenses. About 1,200 prisoners were killed; among them were many ordinary criminals. Historians disagree about the people who carried out the “September massacres.” Some call them bloodthirsty mobs. Others describe them as patriots defending France from its enemies. In fact, most were

ordinary citizens fired to fury by real and imagined grievances.

Radicals Take Control and Execute the King 

Backed by Paris crowds, radicals then took control of the Assembly. Radicals called for the election of a new legislative body called the National Convention. Suffrage, the right to vote, was to be extended to all male citizens, not just to property owners.

The Convention that met in September 1792 was a more radical body than earlier assemblies. It voted to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic—the French Republic. Deputies then drew up a new constitution for France. The Jacobins, who controlled the Convention, set out to erase all traces of the old order. They seized lands of nobles and abolished titles of nobility.

During the early months of the Republic, the Convention also put Louis XVI on trial as a traitor to France. The king was convicted by a single vote and sentenced to death. On a foggy morning in January 1793, Louis mounted a scaffold in a public square in Paris. He started to speak,

“Frenchmen, I die innocent. I pardon the authors of my death. I pray God that the blood about to be spilt will never fall upon the head of France. . . .” Then a roll of drums drowned out his words. Moments later, the king was beheaded. The executioner lifted the king’s head by its hair and held it before the crowd.

In October, Marie Antoinette was also executed. The popular press celebrated her death. The queen, however, showed great dignity as she went to her death.

Terror and Danger Grip France

By early 1793, danger threatened France on all sides. The country was at war with much of Europe, including Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, and Prussia. In the Vendée (vahn DAY) region of France, royalists and priests led peasants in rebellion against the government. In Paris, the sans-culottes demanded relief from food shortages and inflation. The Convention itself was bitterly divided between Jacobins and a rival group, the Girondins.

The Convention Creates a New Committee To deal with the threats to France, the Convention created the Committee of Public Safety. The 12-member committee had almost absolute power as it battled to save the revolution. The Committee prepared France for all-out war, issuing a levée en masse, or mass levy (tax) that required all citizens to contribute to the war effort. In addition, the 12 members of the Committee were in charge of trials and executions.

Spurred by revolutionary fervor, French recruits marched off to defend  the republic. Young officers developed effective new tactics to win battles with masses of ill-trained but patriotic forces. Soon, French armies overran the Netherlands. They later invaded Italy. At home, they crushed

peasant revolts. European monarchs shuddered as the revolutionaries carried “freedom fever” into conquered lands.

Robespierre “the Incorruptible” 

At home, the government battled counterrevolutionaries under the guiding hand of Maximilien Robespierre (ROHBZ pyehr). Robespierre, a shrewd lawyer and politician, quickly rose to the leadership of the Committee of Public Safety. Among Jacobins, his selfless dedication to the revolution earned him the nickname “the incorruptible.” The enemies of Robespierre called him a tyrant.

Robespierre had embraced Rousseau’s idea of the general will as the source of all legitimate law. He promoted religious toleration and wanted to abolish slavery. Though cold and humorless, he was popular with the sans-culottes, who hated the old regime as much as he did. He believed

that France could achieve a “republic of virtue” only through the use of terror, which he coolly defined as nothing more than “prompt, severe, inflexible justice.” “Liberty cannot be secured,” Robespierre cried, “unless criminals lose their heads.”

The Guillotine Defines the Reign of Terror

 Robespierre was one of the chief architects of the Reign of Terror, which lasted from

September 1793 to July 1794. Revolutionary courts conducted hasty trials. Spectators greeted death sentences with cries of “Hail the Republic!” or “Death to the traitors!”

In a speech given on February 5, 1794, Robespierre explained why the terror was necessary to achieve the goals of the revolution:

“It is necessary to stifle the domestic and foreign enemies of the Republic or per-

ish with them. . . . The first maxim of our politics ought to be to lead the people

by means of reason and the enemies of the people by terror. . . . If the basis of

popular government in time of peace is virtue, the basis of popular government

in time of revolution is both virtue and terror.”

—Maximilien Robespierre, quoted in Pageant of Europe (Stearns)

Suspect were those who resisted the revolution. About 300,000 were arrested during the Reign of Terror. Seventeen thousand were executed. Many were victims of mistaken identity or were falsely accused by their neighbors. Many more were packed into hideous prisons, where deaths

from disease were common.

The engine of the Terror was the guillotine (GIL uh teen). Its fast-falling blade extinguished life instantly. A member of the legislature, Dr. Joseph Guillotin (gee oh TAN), had introduced it as a more humane method of beheading than the uncertain ax. But the guillotine quickly became a symbol of horror.

Within a year, the Terror consumed those who initiated it. Weary of bloodshed and fearing for their own lives, members of the Convention turned on the Committee of Public Safety. On the night of July 27, 1794, Robespierre was arrested. The next day he was executed. After the heads

of Robespierre and other radicals fell, executions slowed dramatically.

The Revolution Enters Its Third Stage

In reaction to the Terror, the revolution entered a third stage. Moving away from the excesses of the Convention, moderates produced another constitution, the third since 1789. The Constitution of 1795 set up a five-man Directory and a two-house legislature elected by male citizens of property. The middle class and professional people of the bourgeoisie were the dominant force during this stage of the French Revolution. The Directory held power from 1795 to 1799.

Weak but dictatorial, the Directory faced growing discontent. Peace was made with Prussia and Spain, but war with Austria and Great Britain continued. Corrupt leaders lined their own pockets but failed to solve pressing problems. When rising bread prices stirred hungry sans-culottes to riot, the Directory quickly suppressed them. Another threat to the Directory was the revival of royalist feeling. Many émigrés were returning to France, and devout Catholics, who resented measures that

had been taken against the Church, were welcoming them. In the elec- tion of 1797, supporters of a constitutional monarchy won the majority of seats in the legislature.

As chaos threatened, politicians turned to Napoleon Bonaparte, a popular military hero who had won a series of brilliant victories against the Austrians in Italy. The politicians planned to use him to advance their own goals. To their dismay, however, before long Napoleon would outwit them all to become ruler of France.

Revolution Brings Change

By 1799, the 10-year-old French Revolution had dramatically changed France. It had dislodged the old social order, overthrown the monarchy, and brought the Church under state control.

New symbols such as the red “liberty caps” and the tricolor confirmed the liberty and equality of all male citizens. The new title “citizen” applied to people of all social classes. All other titles were eliminated. Before he was executed, Louis XVI was called Citizen Capet, from the name of the dynasty that had ruled France in the Middle Ages. Elaborate fashions and powdered wigs gave way to the practical clothes and simple haircuts of the sans-culottes.

Nationalism Spreads 

Revolution and war gave the French people a strong sense of national identity. In earlier times, people had felt loyalty to local authorities. As monarchs centralized power, loyalty shifted to the king or queen. Now, the government rallied sons and daughters of the revolution to defend the nation itself. Nationalism, a strong feeling of pride in and devotion to one’s country, spread throughout France. The French people attended civic festivals that celebrated the nation and the

revolution. A variety of dances and songs on themes of the revolution became immensely popular.

By 1793, France was a nation in arms. From the port city of Marseilles (mahr say), troops marched to a rousing new song. It urged the “children of the fatherland” to march against the “bloody banner of tyranny.” This song, “La Marseillaise” (mahr say ez), would later become the French national anthem.

Revolutionaries Push For Social Reform 

Revolutionaries pushed for social reform and religious toleration. They set up state schools to

replace religious ones and organized systems to help the poor, old soldiers, and war widows. With a major slave revolt raging in the colony of St. Domingue (Haiti), the government also abolished slavery in France’s Caribbean colonies.

CH 3 Sec 4:

3.4  The Age of Napoleon 

From 1799 to 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte would dominate France and Europe. A hero to some, an evil force to others, he gave his name to the final phase of the revolution—the Age of Napoleon.

Napoleon Rises to Power

Napoleon was born in Corsica, a French-ruled island in the Mediterranean. At age nine, he was sent to France to be trained for a military career. When the revolution broke out, he was an ambitious 20-year-old lieutenant, eager to make a name for himself.

Napoleon favored the Jacobins and republican rule. However, he found the conflicting ideas and personalities of the French Revolution confusing. He wrote to his brother in 1793: “Since one must take sides, one might as well choose the side that is victorious, the side which devastates, loots, and burns. Considering the alternative, it is better to eat than be eaten.”

Victories Cloud Losses 

During the turmoil of the revolution, Napoleon rose quickly in the army. In December 1793, he drove British forces out of the French port of Toulon (too LOHN). He then went on to win several dazzling victories against the Austrians, capturing most of northern Italy and forcing the Hapsburg

emperor to make peace. Hoping to disrupt British trade with India, he led an expedition to Egypt in 1798. The Egyptian campaign proved to be a disaster, but Napoleon managed to hide stories of the worst losses from his admirers in France. He did so by establishing a network of spies and censoring the press.

Success fueled Napoleon’s ambition. By 1799, he moved from victorious general to political leader. That year, he helped overthrow the weak Directory and set up a three-man governing board known as the Consulate. Another constitution was drawn up, but Napoleon soon took the title First Consul. In 1800, he forced Spain to return Louisiana Territory to France. In 1802, Napoleon had himself named consul for life.

Napoleon Crowns Himself Emperor 

Two years later, Napoleon had acquired enough power to assume the title Emperor of the French. He invited the pope to preside over his coronation in Paris. During the ceremony, however, Napoleon took the crown from the pope’s hands and placed it on his own head. By this action, Napoleon meant to show that he owed his throne to no one but himself.

At each step on his rise to power, Napoleon had held a plebiscite (PLEB uh syt), or popular vote by ballot. Each time, the French strongly supported him. As you will read, although the people theoretically had a say in government through their votes, Napoleon still held absolute power. This is sometimes called democratic despotism. To understand why people supported him, we must look at his policies.

Napoleon Reforms France

Napoleon consolidated his power by strengthening the central government. Order, security, and efficiency replaced liberty, equality, and fraternity as the slogans of the new regime.

To restore economic prosperity, Napoleon controlled prices, encour- aged new industry, and built roads and canals. He set up a system of public schools under strict government control to ensure well-trained officials and military officers. At the same time, Napoleon backed off from some of the revolution’s social reforms. He made peace with the Catholic Church in the Concordat of 1801. The Concordat kept the Church under state control but recognized religious freedom for Catholics. Revolutionaries who opposed the Church denounced the agreement, but Catholics welcomed it.

Napoleon won support across class lines. He encouraged émigrés to return, provided they take an oath of loyalty. Peasants were relieved when he recognized their right to lands they had

bought from the Church and nobles during the revolution. The middle class, who had benefited

most from the revolution, approved of Napoleon’s economic reforms and the restoration of order

after years of chaos. Napoleon also opened jobs to all, based on talent, a popular policy among those

who remembered the old aristocratic monopoly of power.

Among Napoleon’s most lasting reforms was a new code of laws, popularly called the Napoleonic Code. It embodied Enlightenment principles such as the equality of all citizens before the law, religious toleration, and the abolition of feudalism.

But the Napoleonic Code undid some reforms of the French Revolution. Women, for example, lost most of their newly gained rights and could not exercise the rights of citizenship. Male heads of households regained complete authority over their wives and children. Again, Napoleon valued order and authority over individual rights.

Napoleon Builds an Empire

From 1804 to 1812, Napoleon furthered his reputation on the battlefield. He successfully battled the combined forces of the greatest European powers. He took great risks and even suffered huge losses. “I grew up on the field of battle,” he once said, “and a man such as I am cares little for

the life of a million men.” By 1812, his Grand Empire reached its greatest extent.

As a military leader, Napoleon valued rapid movements and made effective use of his large armies. He developed a new plan for each battle so opposing generals could never anticipate what he would do next. His enemies paid tribute to his leadership. Napoleon’s presence on the battle-

field, said one, was “worth 40,000 troops.”

The Map of Europe Is Redrawn 

As Napoleon created a vast French empire, he redrew the map of Europe. He annexed, or incorporated into his empire, the Netherlands, Belgium, and parts of Italy and Germany.

He also abolished the tottering Holy Roman Empire and created a 38- member Confederation of the Rhine under French protection. He cut Prussian territory in half, turning part of old Poland into the Grand Duchy of Warsaw.

Napoleon controlled much of Europe through forceful diplomacy. One tactic was placing friends and relatives on the thrones of Europe. For example, after unseating the king of Spain, he placed his own brother,

Joseph Bonaparte, on the throne. He also forced alliances on European powers from Madrid to Moscow. At various times, the rulers of Austria, Prussia, and Russia reluctantly signed treaties with the “Corsican ogre,” as the monarchs he overthrew called him.

In France, Napoleon’s successes boosted the spirit of nationalism. Great victory parades filled the streets of Paris with cheering crowds. The people celebrated the glory and grandeur that Napoleon had gained for France.

Napoleon Strikes Britain 

Britain alone, of all the major European powers, remained outside Napoleon’s European empire. With only a small army, Britain relied on its sea power to stop Napoleon’s drive to rule the continent. In 1805, Napoleon prepared to invade England. But at the Battle of Trafalgar, fought off the southwest coast of Spain, British Admiral Horatio Nelson smashed the French fleet.

With an invasion ruled out, Napoleon struck at Britain’s lifeblood, its commerce. He waged economic warfare through the Continental System, which closed European ports to British goods. Britain responded with its own blockade of European ports. A blockade involves shutting off

ports to keep people or supplies from moving in or out. During their long struggle, both Britain and France seized neutral ships suspected of trading with the other side. British attacks on American ships sparked anger in the United States and eventually triggered the War of 1812.

In the end, Napoleon’s Continental System failed to bring Britain to its knees. Although British exports declined, Britain’s powerful navy kept vital trade routes open to the Americas and India. Meanwhile, trade restrictions created a scarcity of goods in Europe, sent prices soaring,

and intensified resentment against French power.

French armies under Napoleon spread ideas of the revolution across Europe. They backed liberal reforms in the lands they conquered. In some places, they helped install revolutionary governments that abolished titles of nobility, ended Church privileges, opened careers to men of

talent, and ended serfdom and manorial dues. The Napoleonic Code, too, influenced countries in continental Europe and Latin America.

Napoleon’s Empire Faces Challenges

In 1812, Napoleon continued his pursuit of world domination and invaded Russia. This campaign began a chain of events that eventually led to his downfall. Napoleon’s final defeat brought an end to the era of

the French Revolution.

Nationalism Works Against Napoleon 

Napoleon’s successes con- tained seeds of defeat. Although nationalism spurred French armies to success, it worked against them too. Many Europeans who had welcomed the ideas of the French Revolution nevertheless saw Napoleon and his armies as foreign oppressors. They resented the Continental System and Napoleon’s effort to impose French culture on them.

From Rome to Madrid to the Netherlands, nationalism unleashed revolts against France. In the German states, leaders encouraged national loyalty among German-speaking people to counter French influence.

Spain and Austria Battle the French 

Resistance to foreign rule bled French-occupying forces dry in Spain. Napoleon introduced reforms that sought to undermine the Spanish Catholic Church. But many Spaniards remained loyal to their former king and devoted to the Church. When the Spanish resisted the invaders, well-armed French forces responded with brutal repression. Far from crushing resis- tance, however, the French response further inflamed Spanish nationalism. Efforts to drive out the French intensified.

Spanish patriots conducted a campaign of guerrilla warfare, or hit-and-run raids, against the French. (In Spanish, guerrilla means “little war.”) Small bands of guerrillas ambushed French supply trains or troops before retreating into the countryside. These attacks kept large numbers of French soldiers tied down in Spain when Napoleon needed them elsewhere.

Spanish resistance encouraged Austria to resume hostilities against the French. In 1805, at the Battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon had won a crushing victory against an Austro-Russian army of superior numbers. Now, in 1809, the Austrians sought revenge. But once again, Napoleon triumphed—this time at the Battle of Wagram. By the peace agreement that followed, Austria surrendered lands pop-

ulated by more than three million subjects.

The Russian Winter Stops the GrandArmy

 Tsar Alexander I of Russia was once an ally of Napoleon. The tsar and Napoleon

planned to divide Europe if Alexander helped Napoleon in his Continental System. Many

countries objected to this system, and Russia became unhappy with the economic effects of the system as well. Yet another cause for concern was that Napoleon had enlarged the Grand Duchy of Warsaw that bordered Russia on the west. These and other issues led the tsar to withdraw his

support from the Continental System. Napoleon responded to the tsar’s action by assembling an army with soldiers from 20 nations, known as the Grand Army.

In 1812, with about 600,000 soldiers and 50,000 horses, Napoleon invaded Russia. To avoid battles with Napoleon, the Russians retreated eastward, burning crops and villages as they went. This scorched-earth policy left the French hungry and cold as winter came. Napoleon

entered Moscow in September. He realized, though, that he would not be able to feed and supply his army through the long Russian winter. In October, he turned homeward.

The 1,000-mile retreat from Moscow turned into a desperate battle for survival. Russian attacks and the brutal Russian winter took a terrible toll. Fewer than 20,000 soldiers of the once-proud Grand Army survived. Many died. Others deserted. French general Michel Ney sadly concluded: “General Famine and General Winter, rather than Russian bullets, have conquered the Grand Army.” Napoleon rushed to Paris to raise a new force to defend France. His reputation for success had been shattered.

Napoleon Falls From Power

The disaster in Russia brought a new alliance of Russia, Britain, Austria, and Prussia against a weakened France. In 1813, they defeated Napoleon in the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig.

Napoleon Abdicates Briefly 

The next year, Napoleon abdicated, or stepped down from power. The victors exiled him to Elba, an island in the Mediterranean. They then recognized Louis XVIII, brother of Louis XVI,

as king of France.

The restoration of Louis XVIII did not go smoothly. He agreed to accept the Napoleonic Code and honor the land settlements made during the revolution. However, many émigrés rushed back to France bent on revenge. An economic depression and the fear of a return to the old regime helped rekindle loyalty to Napoleon.

As the victorious allies gathered in Vienna for a general peace conference, Napoleon escaped his island exile and returned to France. Soldiers flocked to his banner. As citizens cheered Napoleon’s advance, Louis XVIII fled. In March 1815, Napoleon entered Paris in triumph.

Crushed at the Battle of Waterloo 

Napoleon’s triumph was short- lived. His star soared for only 100 days, while the allies reassembled their forces. On June 18, 1815, the opposing armies met near the town of Waterloo in Belgium. British forces under the Duke of Wellington and a Prussian army commanded by General Blücher crushed the French in an agonizing day-long battle. Once again, Napoleon was forced to abdicate and to go into exile on St. Helena, a lonely island in the South Atlantic. This time, he would not return.

Napoleon’s Legacy 

Napoleon died in 1821, but his legend lived on in France and around the world. His contemporaries as well as historians today have long debated his legacy. Was he “the revolution on horseback,” as he claimed? Or was he a traitor to the revolution? 

No one, however, questions Napoleon’s impact on France and on Europe.  The Napoleonic Code consolidated many changes of the revolution. The France of Napoleon was a centralized state with a constitution. Elections were held with expanded, though limited, suffrage. Many more citizens had rights to property and access to education than under the old regime. Still, French citizens lost many rights promised so fervently by republicans during the Convention.

On the world stage, Napoleon’s conquests spread the ideas of the revolution. He failed to make Europe into a French empire. Instead, he sparked nationalist feelings across Europe. The abolition of the Holy Roman Empire would eventually help in creating a new Germany. Napoleon’s impact also reached across the Atlantic. In 1803, his decision to sell France’s vast Louisiana Territory to the American government doubled the size of the United States and ush-

ered in an age of American expansion.

Leaders Meet at the Congress of Vienna

After Waterloo, diplomats and heads of state again sat down at the Congress of Vienna. They faced the monumental task of restoring stability and order in Europe after years of war. The Congress met for 10 months, from September 1814 to June 1815. It was a brilliant gathering of European leaders. Diplomats and royalty dined and danced, attended concerts and ballets, and enjoyed parties arranged by their host, Emperor Francis I of Austria. The work fell to Prince Clemens von

Metternich of Austria, Tsar Alexander I of Russia, and Lord Robert Castlereagh of Britain. Defeated France was represented by Prince Charles Maurice de Talleyrand.

Congress Strives For Peace 

The chief goal of the Vienna decision makers was to create a lasting peace by establishing a balance of power and protecting the system of monarchy. Each of the leaders also pursued

his own goals. Metternich, the dominant figure at the Congress, wanted to restore things the way they were in 1792. Alexander I urged a “holy alliance” of Christian monarchs to suppress future revolutions. Lord Castlereagh was determined to prevent a revival of French military power.

The aged diplomat Talleyrand shrewdly played the other leaders against one another so France would be accepted as an equal partner.

The peacemakers also redrew the map of Europe. To contain French ambitions, they ringed France with strong countries. In the north, they added Belgium and Luxembourg to Holland to create the kingdom of the Netherlands. To prevent French expansion eastward, they gave Prussia lands along the Rhine River. They also allowed Austria to reassert con- trol over northern Italy.

To turn back the clock to 1792, the architects of the peace promoted the principle of legitimacy, restoring hereditary monarchies that the French Revolution or Napoleon had unseated. Even before the Congress began, they had put Louis XVIII on the French throne. Later, they

restored “legitimate” monarchs in Portugal, Spain, and the Italian states.

Congress Fails to See Traps Ahead 

To protect the new order, Austria, Russia, Prussia, and Great Britain extended their wartime alliance into the postwar era. In the Quadruple Alliance, the four nations pledged to act together to maintain the balance of power and to suppress revolutionary uprisings, especially in France. Another result of the Congress was a system known as the Concert of Europe, in which the powers met periodically to discuss any problems affecting the peace of Europe.

The Vienna statesmen achieved their immediate goals in creating a lasting peace. Their decisions influenced European politics for the next 100 years. Europe would not see war on a Napoleonic scale until 1914. They failed, however, to foresee how powerful new forces such as nationalism would shake the foundations of Europe and Latin America in the next decades.

1812 Overture 

Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote his 1812 Overture as a musical depiction of Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. It is a very dramatic piece that concludes with a round of cannon fire. Tchaikovsky used “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem, to symbolize the French. 

CH 5 Sec 1:

Dawn of the Industrial Age

For thousands of years following the rise of civilization, most people lived and worked in small farming villages. However, a chain of events set in motion in the mid-1700s changed that way of life for all time. Today, we call this period of change the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution started in Britain. The economic changes that Britain experienced affected people’s lives as much as previous political changes and revolutions had. In contrast with

most political revolutions, it was neither sudden nor swift. Instead it was a long, slow, uneven process in which production shifted from simple hand tools to complex machines. From its beginnings in Britain, the Industrial Revolution has spread to the rest of Europe, North America, and around the globe.

Life Changes as Industry Spreads

In 1750, most people worked the land, using handmade tools. They lived in simple cottages lit by firelight and candles. They made their own clothing and grew their own food. In nearby towns, they might exchange goods at a weekly outdoor market. 

Like their ancestors, these people knew little of the world that existed beyond their village. The few who left home traveled only as far as their feet or a horse-drawn cart could take them. Those bold adventurers who dared to cross the seas were at the mercy of the winds and tides.

With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, the rural way of life

began to disappear. By the 1850s, many country villages had grown into industrial towns and cities. Those who lived there were able to buy clothing and food that someone else produced.

Industrial-age travelers moved rapidly between countries and continents by train or steamship. Urgent messages flew along telegraph wires. New inventions and scientific “firsts” poured out each year. Between 1830 and 1855, for example, an American dentist first used an anesthetic, or drug that prevents pain during surgery; an American inventor patented the first sewing machine; a French physicist measured the speed of light; and a Hungarian doctor introduced antiseptic methods

to reduce the risk of women dying in childbirth.

Still more stunning changes occurred in the next century, which created our familiar world of skyscraper cities and carefully tended suburbs. How and why did these great changes occur? Historians point to a series of interrelated causes that helped trigger the industrialization of the

West. The “West” referred originally to the industrialized countries in Europe but today includes many more.

Agriculture Spurs Industry

Oddly enough, the Industrial Revolution was made possible in part by a change in the farming fields of Western Europe. From the first agricultural revolution some 11,000 years ago, when people

learned to farm and domesticate animals, until about 300 years ago, farming had remained pretty much the same. Then, a second agricultural revolution took place that greatly improved the qual-

ity and quantity of farm products.

Farming Methods Improve 

The Dutch led the way in this new agricultural revolution. They built earthen walls known as

dikes to reclaim land from the sea. They also combined smaller fields into larger ones to make better use of the land and used fertilizer from livestock to renew the soil.

In the 1700s, British farmers expanded on Dutch agricultural experiments. Educated farmers exchanged news of experiments through farm journals. Some farmers mixed different kinds of soils to get higher crop yields. Others tried out new methods of crop rotation. Lord Charles Townshend

urged farmers to grow turnips, which restored exhausted soil. Jethro Tull invented a new mechanical device, the seed drill, to aid farmers. It deposited seeds in rows rather than scattering them

wastefully over the land.

Enclosure Increases Output but Causes Migration 

Meanwhile, rich landowners pushed ahead with enclosure, the process of taking

over and consolidating land formerly shared by peasant farmers. In the 1500s, landowners had enclosed land to gain more pastures for sheep to increase wool output. By the 1700s, they wanted to create larger fields that could be cultivated more efficiently. The British Parliament facili-

tated enclosures through legislation.

As millions of acres were enclosed, farm output rose. Profits also rose because large fields needed fewer workers. But such progress had a large human cost. Many farm laborers were thrown out of work, and small farmers were forced off their land because they could not compete with

large landholders. Villages shrank as cottagers left in search of work. In time, jobless farm workers migrated to towns and cities. There, they formed a growing labor force that would soon tend the machines of the Industrial Revolution.

Population Multiplies 

The agricultural revolution contributed to a rapid growth of population. Precise population statistics for the 1700s are rare, but those that do exist are striking. Britain’s population, for

example, soared from about 5 million in 1700 to almost 9 million in 1800. The population of Europe as a whole shot up from roughly 120 million to about 180 million during the same period. Such growth had never before been seen.

Why did this population increase occur? First, the agricultural revolution reduced the risk of death from famine because it created a surplus of food. Since people ate better, they were healthier. Also, better hygiene and sanitation, along with improved medical care, further slowed deaths

from disease.

New Technology Becomes Key

Another factor that helped trigger the Industrial Revolution was the development of new technology. Aided by new sources of energy and new materials, these new technologies enabled business owners to change the ways work was done.

An Energy Revolution

During the 1700s, people began to harness new sources of energy. One vital power source was coal, used to develop the steam engine. In 1712, British inventor Thomas Newcomen had

developed a steam engine powered by coal to pump water out of mines. Scottish engineer James Watt looked at Newcomen’s invention in 1764 and set out to make improvements on the engine in order to make it more efficient. Watt’s engine, after several years of work, would become a

key power source of the Industrial Revolution. The steam engine opened the door not only to operating machinery but eventually to powering locomotives and steamships.

The Quality of Iron Improves 

Coal was also a vital source of fuel in the production of iron, a material needed for the construction of machines and steam engines. The Darby family of Coalbrookdale pioneered new methods of producing iron. In 1709, Abraham Darby used coal instead of charcoal to smelt iron, or separate iron from its ore.

Darby’s experiments led him to produce less expensive and better-quality iron, which was used to produce parts for the steam engines. Both his son and grandson continued to improve on his methods. In fact, Abraham Darby III built the world’s first iron bridge. In the decades that followed, high-quality iron was used more and more widely, especially after the world turned to building railroads.

Watt, Horsepower, and Watts 

By preventing the loss of steam, Watt made steam engines more efficient and more powerful. He also attached a flywheel, converting the back-and-forth motion of the pistons into a circular motion to power not only pumps but all sorts of machinery. To market his engines, Watt needed to be able to describe their power. The best source of power at the time was horses. Watt found that a horse could lift 550 pounds of coal 10 feet (30 m) in 10 seconds, or 33,000 pounds per foot (0.3 m) per minute. He defined this value as one horsepower. Horsepower is still used for engines; trucks and SUVs today average more than 200 horse-power. Watt’s name was later given to a measure of

power: the watt. Common light bulbs measure 60 to 100 watts. One horsepower is equal to 745.56 watts.

James Watt

How did a clever Scottish engineer become the “Father of the Industrial Revolution”? After repairing a Newcomen steam engine, James Watt (1736–1819) became fascinated with the idea of improving the device. Within a few months, he knew he had a product that would sell. Still, Watt lacked the money needed to produce and market it. Fortunately, he was able to form a partnership

with the shrewd manufacturer Matthew Boulton. They then founded Soho Engineering Works in

Birmingham, England, to manufacture steam engines. Watt’s version of the steam engine shown

here had a separate condensing chamber and was patented in 1769. Eventually, a measure of

mechanical and electrical power, the watt, would be named for James Watt. How might the Industrial

Revolution have been different if Watt had not found a business partner?

From Hand Power to Steam Power

For centuries, people used their own energy to provide the power for their work. While the idea of using steam power came about in the seventeenth century, it was not until

engineer James Watt improved the steam engine that it could be applied to machinery. His financial partner Matthew Boulton, a successful manufacturer, proclaimed:

“I have at my disposal what the whole world demands,

something which will uplift civilization more than ever by

relieving man of all undignified drudgery. I have steam

Power.”

CH 5 Sec 2: 

Britain Leads the Way

When agricultural practices changed in the eighteenth century, more food was able to be produced, which in turn fueled population growth in Britain. The agricultural changes also left many farmers

homeless and jobless. These two factors led to a population boom in the cities as people migrated from rural England into towns and cities. This population increase, in turn, created a ready supply of

labor to mine the coal, build the factories, and run the machines. The start of the Industrial Revolution in Britain can be attributed to many factors. Population growth was just one of them.

Why Britain?

What characteristics of eighteenth-century Britain made it ripe for industrialization? Historians cite several reasons for Britain’s lead. 

Natural Resources Abound 

Britain had the advantage of plentiful natural resources such as natural ports and navigable rivers. Rivers supplied water power and allowed for the construc- tion of canals. These canals increased accessibility for trade and

were instrumental in bringing goods to market. In addition, Britain was able to establish communications and transport relatively cheaply due to its easy accessibility to the sea from all points. Britain’s plentiful supply of coal was fundamental to its industrialization and was used to power steam engines. Vast supplies of iron were available to be used to build the new machines.

The Effects of Demand and Capital

 In the 1700s, Britain had plenty of skilled mechanics who were eager to meet the growing demand for new, practical inventions. This ready workforce, along with the population explosion, boosted demand for goods. In order to increase the production of goods to meet the demand, however, another key ingredient was needed. Money was necessary to start businesses.

From the mid-1600s to 1700s, trade from a growing overseas empire helped the British economy prosper. Beginning with the slave trade, the business class accumulated capital, or money used to invest in enterprises. An enterprise is a business organization in an area such as shipping, mining, railroads, or factories. Many businessmen were ready to risk their capital in new ventures due to the healthy economy.

In addition to the advantages already cited, Britain had a stable government that supported economic growth. While other countries in Europe faced river tolls and other barriers, Britain did not. The government built a strong navy that protected its empire, shipping, and overseas trade. Although the upper class tended to look down on business people, it did not reject the wealth produced by the new entrepreneurs.

These entrepreneurs were those who managed and assumed the financial risks of starting new businesses.

The Textile Industry Advances

The Industrial Revolution first took hold in Britain’s largest industry—textiles. In the 1600s, cotton cloth imported from India had become popular. British merchants tried to organize a cotton cloth

 industry at home.

They developed the putting-out system, also known as cottage industry, in which raw cotton was distributed to peasant families who spun it into thread and then wove the thread into cloth in their own homes. Skilled artisans in the towns then finished and dyed the cloth.

Inventions Speed Production 

Under the putting-out system, production was slow. As the demand for cloth grew, inventors came up with a string of remarkable devices that revolutionized the British textile industry. For example, John Kay’s flying shuttle enabled weavers to work so fast that they soon outpaced spinners. James Hargreaves solved that problem by producing the spinning jenny in 1764, which spun many threads at the same time. A few years later, in 1769, Richard Arkwright patented the water frame, which was a spinning machine that could be powered by water. Meanwhile, in America, these faster spinning and weaving machines presented a challenge—how to produce enough cotton to keep up with England. Raw cotton grown in the South had to be cleaned of dirt and seeds by hand, a time-consuming task. To solve this, Eli Whitney invented a machine called the cotton gin that separated the seeds from the raw cotton at a fast rate. He finished the cotton gin in 1793, and cotton production increased exponentially.

Factories Are Born in Britain 

The new machines doomed the putting-out system. They were too large and expensive to be operated at home. Instead, manufacturers built long sheds to house the machines. At first, they located the sheds near rapidly moving streams, harnessing the water power to run the machines. Later, machines were powered by steam engines. 

Spinners and weavers now came each day to work in these first factories, which brought together workers and machines to produce large

quantities of goods. Early observers were awed at the size and output of these establishments. One onlooker noted: “The same [amount] of labor is now performed in one of these structures which formerly occupied the industry of an entire district.”

The Transportation Revolution

As production increased, entrepreneurs needed faster and cheaper methods of moving goods from place to place. Some capitalists invested in turnpikes, private roads built by entrepreneurs who charged travelers a toll, or fee, to use them. Goods traveled faster as a result, and turnpikes soon linked every part of Britain. Other entrepreneurs had canals dug to connect rivers together or to connect inland towns with coastal ports. Engineers also built stronger bridges and upgraded harbors to help the expanding overseas trade.

Canals Boom

During the late 1700s and early 1800s, factories needed an efficient, inexpensive way to receive coal and raw materials and then to ship finished goods to market. In 1763, when the Bridgewater canal opened, it not only made a profit from tolls, but it cut in half the price of

coal in Manchester. The success of this canal set off a canal-building frenzy. Entrepreneurs formed companies to construct canals for profit. Not all the canals that were built had enough traffic to support them, however, and bankruptcy often resulted. Then, beginning in the 1830s,

canals lost their importance as steam locomotives made railroads the new preferred form of transportation.

Welcome the Steam Locomotive

 It was the invention of the steam locomotive that made the growth of railroads possible. In the early 1800s, pioneers like George Stephenson developed steam-powered locomotives to pull carriages along iron rails. The railroad did not have to follow the course of a river. This meant that tracks could go places where rivers did not, allowing factory owners and merchants to ship goods

swiftly and cheaply over land. The world’s first major rail line, from Liverpool to Manchester, opened in England in 1830. In the following decades, railroad travel became faster and railroad building boomed. By 1870, rail lines crisscrossed Britain, Europe, and North America.

One Thing Leads to Another 

As the Industrial Revolution got under way, it triggered a chain reaction. Once inventors developed machines that could produce large quantities of goods more efficiently, prices fell.

Lower prices made goods more affordable and thus created more con- sumers who further fed the demand for goods. This new cycle caused a wave of economic and social changes that dramatically affected the way people lived.

Engineer 

The people who create cutting-edge inventions that improve our lives are often engineers.

Engineers apply science to designing products or processes that are useful to society. The engineering field is divided into four main branches: civil, electrical, mechanical, and chemical. Civil engineers build dams, bridges, highways, large buildings, and power plants. Electrical engineers create everything from computers and electronics to missile guidance systems. Mechanical engineers work on engines, machinery, airconditioning and heating, automobiles, airplanes, and

spacecraft. Chemical engineers help protect the environment and create products such as medicines, plastics, synthetic fibers, metals, and food. There are many other specialties. Engineering requires good math skills, mechanical ability, and an interest in taking things apart and solving problems.

Riding the Railway

One of the most important developments of the Industrial Revolution was the creation of a countrywide railway network. The world’s first major rail line went from Liverpool to Manchester in England. Fanny Kemble, the most famous actress of the day, was one of the first

passengers:

“We were introduced to the little engine which was to

drag us along the rails. . . This snorting little animal,

. . . started at about ten miles an hour. . . . You can’t

imagine how strange it seemed to be journeying on

thus, without any visible cause of progress other than

the magical machine . . .”

CH 5 Sec 3: 

5/3 - Social Impact of the Industrial Revolution

Stench and Sickness

As more and more people moved to the cities to work, they had little choice about where to live. There was no public water supply, waste lined the unpaved streets, and disease spread rapidly in these unsanitary conditions. Dr. Southwood-Smith worked in two districts of London and wrote:

“Uncovered sewers, stagnant ditches and ponds,

gutters always full of putrefying matter . . . It is not

possible for any language to convey an adequate

conception of the poisonous condition in which

large portions of both these districts always remain,

. . . from the masses of putrefying matter which are

allowed to accumulate.”

The Industrial Revolution brought great riches to most of the entrepreneurs who helped set it in motion. For the millions of workers who crowded into the new factories, however, the industrial age brought poverty and harsh living conditions.

In time, reforms would curb many of the worst abuses of the early industrial age in Europe and the Americas. As standards of living increased, people at all levels of society would benefit from

industrialization. Until then, working people would suffer with dangerous working conditions; unsafe, unsanitary, and overcrowded housing; and unrelenting poverty.

People Move to New Industrial Cities

The Industrial Revolution brought rapid urbanization, or the movement of people to cities. Changes in farming, soaring population growth, and an ever-increasing demand for workers led masses of people to migrate from farms to cities. Almost overnight, small towns around coal or iron mines mushroomed into cities. Other cities grew up around the factories that entrepreneurs built

in once-quiet market towns.

The British market town of Manchester numbered 17,000 people in the 1750s. Within a few years, it exploded into a center of the textile industry. Its population soared to 40,000 by 1780 and 70,000 by 1801. Visitors described the “cloud of coal vapor” that polluted the air, the pounding noise of steam engines, and the filthy stench of its river. This growth of industry and rapid population

growth dramatically changed the location and distribution of two resources—labor and people.

New Social Classes Emerge

The Industrial Revolution created a new middle class along with the working class. Those in the middle class owned and operated the new factories, mines, and railroads, among other industries. Their lifestyle was much more comfortable than that of the industrial working class.

When farm families moved to the new industrial cities, they became workers in mines or factories. Many felt lost and bewildered. They faced tough working conditions in uncomfortable environments. In time, though, factory and mine workers developed their own sense of commu-

nity despite the terrible working conditions.

The Industrial Middle Class Those who benefited most from the Industrial Revolution were the entrepreneurs who set it in motion. The Industrial Revolution created this new middle class, or bourgeoisie (boorzhwah ZEE), whose members came from a variety of backgrounds. Some

were merchants who invested their growing profits in factories. Others were inventors or skilled artisans who developed new technologies. Some rose from “rags to riches,” a pattern that the age greatly admired.

Middle-class families lived in well-furnished, spacious homes on paved streets and had a ready supply of water. They wore fancy clothing and ate well. The new middle class took pride in their hard work and their determination to “get ahead.” Only a few had sympathy for the poor.

Women of the middle class did not leave the home to work but instead focused their energy on raising their children. This contrasted with the wealthy, who had maidservants to look after their children, and the working class, whose children were a part of the workforce.

The Industrial Working Class 

While the wealthy and the middle class lived in pleasant neighborhoods, vast numbers of poor struggled to survive in foul-smelling slums. They packed into tiny rooms in tenements, or multistory buildings divided into apartments. These tenements had no running water, only community pumps. There was no sewage or sanitation system, so wastes and garbage rotted in the streets. Sewage was also dumped into rivers, which created an overwhelming

stench and contaminated drinking water. This led to the spread of

disease, such as cholera.

Workers Stage Futile Protests 

Although labor unions, or workers’ organizations, were illegal at this time, secret unions did exist among frustrated British workers. They wished to initiate worker reforms such as increases in pay, but had no political power to effect change. Sometimes their frustration led to violence. The first instances of industrial riots occurred in England from 1811 to 1813. Groups of textile workers

known as the Luddites (LUD yts) resisted the labor-saving machines that were costing them their jobs. Some of them smashed textile machines with sledgehammers and burned factories. They usually wore masks and operated at night. There was widespread support for these Luddite

groups among the working class.

Workers Find Comfort in Religion 

Many working-class people found comfort in a religious movement called Methodism. This movement was influenced by the Industrial Revolution as people moved to cities and lost connections with their old churches. John Wesley had founded the Methodist movement in the mid-1700s. Wesley stressed the need for a personal sense of faith. He encouraged his followers to

improve themselves by adopting sober, moral ways.

Methodist meetings featured hymns and sermons promising forgiveness of sin and a better life to come. Methodist preachers took this message of salvation into the slums. There, they tried to rekindle hope among the working poor. They set up Sunday schools where followers not

only studied the Bible but also learned to read and write. Methodists helped channel workers’ anger away from revolution and toward reform.

Life in the Factories and Mines

The heart of the new industrial city was the factory. There, the technology of the machine age and the rapid pace of industrialization imposed a harsh new way of life on workers.

Factory Workers Face Harsh Conditions 

Working in a factory system differed greatly from working on a farm. In rural villages, people

worked hard, but their work varied according to the season. Life was also hard for poor rural workers who were part of the putting-out system, but at least they worked at their own pace. In the grim factories of industrial towns, workers faced a rigid schedule set by the factory whistle.

Working hours were long, with shifts lasting from 12 to 16 hours, six or seven days a week. Workers could only take breaks when the factory owners gave permission. Exhausted workers suffered accidents from machines that had no safety devices. They might lose a finger, a limb, or

even their lives. In textile mills, workers constantly breathed air filled with lint, which damaged their lungs. Those workers who became sick or injured lost their jobs.

The majority of early factory workers were women rather than men. Employers often preferred to hire women workers because they thought women could adapt more easily to machines and were easier to manage. In addition, employers generally paid women half what they paid men.

Factory work created a double burden for women. Their new jobs took

them out of their homes for 12 hours or more a day. They then returned to their tenements, which might consist of one damp room with a single bed. They had to feed and clothe their families, clean, and cope with such problems as sickness and injury.

Miners Face Worse Conditions

  The Industrial Revolution increased the demand for iron and coal, which in turn increased the need for miners. Although miners were paid more, working conditions in the mines were even worse than in the factories. They worked in darkness, and the coal dust destroyed their lungs. There were always the dangers of explosions, flooding, and collapsing tunnels. Women and children carted heavy

loads of coal, sometimes on all fours in low passages. They also climbed ladders carrying heavy baskets of coal several times a day.

Children Have Dangerous Jobs

 Factories and mines also hired many boys and girls. These children often started working at age seven or eight, a few as young as five. Nimble-fingered and quick-moving, they changed spools in the hot and humid textile mills where sometimes they could not see because of all the dust. They also crawled under machinery to repair broken threads in the mills. Conditions were even worse for

children who worked in the mines. Some sat all day in the dark, opening  the idea of child labor. The wages the children earned were needed to keep their families from starving.

Child labor reform laws called “factory acts” were passed in the early 1800s. These laws were passed to reduce a child’s workday to twelve hours and also to remove children under the age of eight or nine from the cotton mills. Because the laws were generally not enforced, British law-

makers formed teams of inspectors to ensure that factories and mines obeyed the laws in the 1830s and 1840s. More laws were then passed to shorten the workday for women and require that child workers be educated.

The Results of Industrialization

Since the 1800s, people have debated whether the Industrial Revolution was a blessing or a curse. The early industrial age brought terrible hardships. In time, however, reformers pressed for laws to improve working conditions. Labor unions won the right to bargain with employers for

better wages, hours, and working conditions. Eventually working-class men gained the right to vote, which gave them political power.

Despite the social problems created by the Industrial Revolution—low pay, dismal living conditions—the Industrial Age did have some positive effects. As demand for mass-produced goods grew, new factories opened, which in turn created more jobs. Wages rose so that workers had

enough left after paying rent and buying food to buy a newspaper or visit a music hall. As the cost of railroad travel fell, people could visit family in other towns. Horizons widened and opportunities

increased.

CH 5 Sec 4: 

New Ways of Thinking

The Struggle of the Working Class

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels gave their view on how the Industrial Revolution affected workers:

“Owing to the extensive use of machinery and to the division of labor, the work of the proletarians

has lost all individual character, and, consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes [a limb] of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him. . . .”

—From The Communist Manifesto

Everywhere in Britain, British economist Thomas Malthus saw the effects of the population explosion—crowded slums, hungry families, unemployment, and widespread misery. After careful study, in 1798 he published An Essay on the Principle of Population. He concluded that poverty was unavoidable because the population was increasing faster than the food supply. Malthus wrote: “The power of population is [far] greater than the power of the Earth to produce subsistence for man.”

Malthus was one of many thinkers who tried to understand the staggering changes taking place in the early Industrial Age. As heirs to the Enlightenment, these thinkers looked for natural laws that governed the world of business and economics.

Laissez-Faire Economics

During the Enlightenment, physiocrats argued that natural laws should be allowed to operate without interference. As part of this philosophy, they believed that government should not interfere in the free operation of the economy. In the early 1800s, middle-class business leaders embraced this laissez-faire, or “hands-off,” approach.

As you have learned, the main proponent of laissez-faire eco nomics was Adam Smith, author of bestseller The Wealth of Nations. Smith asserted that a free market—the unregulated

exchange of goods and services—would come to help everyone, not just the rich. The free market, Smith said, would produce more goods at lower prices, making them affordable to everyone. A

growing economy would also encourage capitalists to reinvest profits in new ventures. Supporters of

this free-enterprise capitalism pointed to the successes of the Industrial Age, in which government had played no part.

Malthus Holds Bleak

 View Also a laissez-faire economist, Thomas Malthus predicted that population would outpace the food supply. The only checks on population growth, he said, were nature’s “natural” methods of war, disease, and famine. As long as population kept increasing, he went on, the poor would suffer. He thus urged families to have fewer children and discouraged charitable handouts and vaccinations.

During the early 1800s, many people accepted Malthus’s bleak view as the factory system changed people’s life- styles for the worse. His view was proved wrong, however. Although the 

population boom did continue, the food supply grew even faster. As the century progressed, living conditions for the Western world slowly improved—and then people began having fewer children. By the 1900s, population growth was no longer a problem in the West, but it did continue to afflict many nations elsewhere.

 Ricardo Shares View 

Another influential British laissez-faire econo- mist, David Ricardo, dedicated himself to economic studies after reading Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. Like Malthus, Ricardo did not hold out

hope for the working class to escape poverty. Because of such gloomy predictions, economics became known as the “dismal science.” In his “Iron Law of Wages,” Ricardo pointed out that wage increases were futile because increases would only cover the cost of necessities. This was

because when wages were high, families often had more children instead of raising the family’s current standard of living.

Both Malthus and Ricardo opposed any government help for the poor. In their view, the best cure for poverty was not government relief but the unrestricted “laws of the free market.” They felt that individuals should be left to improve their lot through thrift, hard work, and limiting the

size of their families.

Utilitarians For Limited Government

Other thinkers sought to modify laissez-faire doctrines to justify some government intervention. By 1800, British philosopher and economist Jeremy Bentham was advocating utilitarianism, or the idea that the goal of soci ety should be “the greatest happiness for the greatest number” of its citizens. To Bentham, all laws or actions should be judged by their “utility.” In other words, did they provide more pleasure or happiness than pain? Bentham strongly supported individual freedom, which he believed guaranteed happiness. Still, he saw the need for government to become involved under certain circumstances.

Bentham’s ideas influenced the British philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill. Although he believed strongly in individual freedom, Mill wanted the government to step in to improve the hard lives of the working class. “The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will,” Mill wrote, “is to prevent harm to others.” Therefore, while middle-class business and factory owners were entitled to increase their own happiness, the government should prevent them from doing so in a manner that would harm workers. Mill further called for giving the vote to workers and women. These groups could then use their political power to win reforms. Most middle-class people rejected Mill’s ideas. Only in the later 1800s were his views slowly accepted. Today’s democratic governments, however, have absorbed

many ideas from Mill and the other utilitarians.

Socialist Thought Emerges

While the champions of laissez-faire economics praised individual rights, other thinkers focused on the good of society in general. They condemned the evils of industrial capitalism, which they believed had created a gulf between rich and poor. To end poverty and injustice, they offered a radical solution—socialism. Under socialism, the people as a whole rather than private individuals would own and operate the means of production—the farms, factories, railways, and other large businesses that produced and distributed goods. Socialism grew out of the Enlightenment faith in

progress and human nature and its concern for social justice.

Are Utopians Dreamers? 

A number of early socialists established communities in which all work was shared and all property was owned in common. When there was no difference between rich and poor, they said,

fighting between people would disappear. These early socialists were called Utopians. The name implied that they were impractical dreamers. The Utopian Robert Owen set up a model community in New Lanark, Scotland, to put his own ideas into practice.

Owen Establishes a Utopia

 A poor Welsh boy, Owen became a successful mill owner. Unlike most industrialists at the time, he refused to use child labor. He campaigned vigorously for laws that limited child labor and encouraged the organization of labor unions.

Karl Marx Calls for Worker Control

In the 1840s, Karl Marx, a German philosopher, condemned the ideas of the Utopians as unrealistic idealism. He formulated a new theory, “scientific socialism,” which he claimed was based on a scientific study of history. He teamed up with another German socialist, Friedrich Engels, whose father owned a textile factory in England.

Marx and Engels wrote a pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto, which they published in 1848. “A spectre [ghost] is haunting Europe,” it began, “the spectre of communism.” Marx predicted a struggle between social classes that would lead to a classless society where all means of production

would be owned by the community. In practice, however, communism later came to refer to a system in which governments led by a small elite controlled all economic and political life.

In The Communist Manifesto, Marx theorized that economics was the

driving force in history. He argued that there was “the history of class struggles” between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” The “haves” had always owned the means of production and thus controlled society and all its wealth. In industrialized Europe, Marx said, the “haves” were the bourgeoisie. The “have-nots” were the proletariat, or working class.

According to Marx, the modern class struggle pitted the bourgeoisie against the proletariat. In the end, he predicted, the proletariat would be triumphant. Workers would then take control of the means of production and set up a classless, communist society. Such a society would mark the

end of the struggles people had endured throughout history, because wealth and power would be equally shared. Marx despised capitalism. He believed it created prosperity for only a few and poverty for many. He called for an international struggle to bring about its downfall. “Workers

of all countries,” he urged, “unite!”

Marxism in the Future

At first, Marxism gained popularity with many people around the world.

Leaders of a number of reform movements adopted the idea that power should be held by workers rather than by business owners. Marx’s ideas, however, would never be practiced exactly as he imagined.

Marxism Briefly Flourishes

 In the 1860s, German socialists adapted Marx’s beliefs to form social democracy, a political ideology in which there is a gradual transition from capitalism to socialism instead of a sudden violent overthrow of the system. In the late 1800s, Russian socialists embraced Marxism, and the Russian Revolution of 1917 set up a communist-inspired government. For much of the 1900s, revolu-

tionaries around the world would adapt Marxist ideas to their own situations and needs. Independence leaders in Asia, Latin America, and Africa would turn to Marxism.

Marxism Loses Appeal

 As time passed, however, the failures of Marxist governments would illustrate the flaws in Marx’s arguments. He predicted that workers would unite across national borders to wage class

warfare. Instead, nationalism won out over working-class loyalty. In general, people felt stronger ties to their own countries than to the international communist movement. By the end of the twentieth century, few nations remained with communist governments, while nearly every economy included elements of free-market capitalism.

CH 6 Sec 1:

The Industrial Revolution Spreads

The first phase of industrialization had largely been forged from iron, powered by steam engines, and driven by the British textile industry. By the mid-1800s, the Industrial Revolution entered a second phase. New industrial powers emerged. Factories powered by electricity used innovative processes to turn out new products. Changes in business organization contributed to the rise of giant companies. As the twentieth century dawned, this second Industrial Revolution transformed the economies of the Western world.

New Industrial Powers Emerge

During the early Industrial Revolution, Britain stood alone as the world’s industrial giant. To protect its head start, Britain tried to enforce strict rules against exporting inventions. For a while, the rules worked. Then, in 1807, British mechanic William Cockerill opened factories in Belgium to manufacture spinning and weaving machines. Belgium became the first European nation after Britain to industrialize. By the mid-1800s, other nations had joined the race, and several newcomers were challenging Britain’s industrial supremacy.

Nations Race to Industrialize

How were other nations able to catch up with Britain so quickly? First, nations such as Germany,

France, and the United States had more abundant supplies of coal, iron, and other resources than did Britain. Also, they had the advantage of being able to follow Britain’s lead. Like Belgium,

latecomers often borrowed British experts or technology. The first American textile factory was built in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, with plans smuggled out of Britain. American inventor Robert Fulton powered his steamboat with one of James Watt’s steam engines.

Two countries in particular—Germany and the United States—thrust their way to industrial leadership. Germany united into a powerful nation in 1871. Within a few decades, it became Europe’s leading industrial power. Across the Atlantic, the United States advanced even more rapidly, especially after the Civil War. By 1900, the United States was manufacturing about 30 percent of the world’s industrial goods, surpassing Britain as the leading industrial nation.

Uneven Development 

Other nations industrialized more slowly, particularly those in eastern and southern Europe. These nations often lacked natural resources or the capital to invest in industry. Although Russia did have resources, social and political conditions slowed its economic development. Only in the late 1800s, more than 100 years after Britain, did Russia lumber toward industrialization.

In East Asia, however, Japan offered a remarkable success story.

Although Japan lacked many basic resources, it industrialized rapidly after 1868 because of a political revolution that made modernization a priority. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also built thriving industries during this time.

Effects of Industrialization Like Britain, the new industrial nations underwent social changes, such as rapid urbanization. Men, women, and children worked long hours in difficult and dangerous

conditions. As you will read, by 1900, these conditions had begun to improve in many industrialized nations.

The factory system produced huge quantities of new goods at lower prices than ever before. In time, ordinary workers were buying goods that in earlier days only the wealthy could afford. The demand for goods created jobs, as did the building of cities, railroads, and factories. Politics changed, too, as leaders had to meet the demands of an industrial society.

Globally, industrial nations competed fiercely, altering patterns of world trade. Because of their technological and economic advantage, the Western powers came to dominate the world more than ever before.

Technology Sparks Industrial Growth

During the early Industrial Revolution, inventions such as the steam engine were generally the work of gifted tinkerers. They experimented with simple machines to make them better. By the

in the 1880s, the pace of change quickened as companies hired professional chemists and engineers to create new products and machinery. The union of science, technology, and industry spurred economic growth.

Steel Production and the Bessemer Process

American inventor William Kelly and British engineer Henry Bessemer independently

developed a new process for making steel from iron. In 1856, Bessemer patented this process. Steel was lighter, harder, and more durable than iron, so it could be produced very cheaply. Steel quickly became the major material used in tools, bridges, and railroads.

As steel production soared, industrialized countries measured their success in steel output. In 1880, for example, the average German steel mill produced less than 5 million metric tons of steel a year. By 1910, that figure reached nearly 15 million metric tons.

Innovations in Chemistry 

Chemists created hundreds of new products, from medicines such as aspirin to perfumes and soaps. Newly developed chemical fertilizers played a key role in increasing food production.

In 1866, the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel invented dynamite, an explosive much safer than others used at the time. It was widely used in construction and, to Nobel’s dismay, in warfare. Dynamite earned Nobel a huge fortune, which he willed to fund the famous Nobel prizes that are

still awarded today.

Electric Power Replaces Steam

In the late 1800s, a new power source—electricity—replaced steam as the dominant source of industrial power. Scientists like Benjamin Franklin had tinkered with electricity a century earlier. The Italian scientist Alessandro Volta developed the first battery around 1800. Later, the English chemist Michael Faraday created the first simple electric motor and the first dynamo, a machine that

generates electricity. Today, all electrical generators and transformers work on the principle of Faraday’s dynamo.

In the 1870s, the American inventor Thomas Edison made the first electric light bulb. Soon, Edison’s “incandescent lamps” illuminated whole cities. The pace of city life quickened, and factories could continue to operate after dark. By the 1890s, cables carried electrical power from dynamos to factories.

New Methods of Production 

The basic features of the factory system remained the same during the 1800s. Factories still used large numbers of workers and power-driven machines to mass-produce goods. To improve efficiency, however, manufacturers designed products with interchangeable parts, identical components that could be used in place of one another. Interchangeable parts simplified both the assembly and repair of products.

By the early 1900s, manufacturers had introduced another new method of production, the assembly line. Workers on an assembly line add parts to a product that moves along a belt from one work station to the next. A different person performs each task along the assembly line. This

division of labor in an assembly line, like inter changeable parts, made production faster and

cheaper, lowering the price of goods. Although dividing labor into sepa rate tasks proved to be more efficient, it took much of the joy out of the work itself.

Transportation and Communication Advances

During the Industrial Revolution, transportation and communications were transformed by

technology. Steamships replaced sailing ships, and railroad building took off. In Europe and

North America, rail lines connected inland cities and seaports, mining regions and industrial

centers. In the United States, a transcontinental railroad provided rail service from the

Atlantic to the Pacific. In the same way, Russians built the Trans-Siberian Railroad, linking

Moscow in European Russia to Vladivostok on the Pacific. Railroad tunnels and bridges

crossed the Alps in Europe and the Andes in South America. Passengers and goods rode on

rails in India, China, Egypt, and South Africa.

The Automobile Age Begins 

The transportation revolution took a new turn when a German engineer, Nikolaus Otto, invented a gasoline-powered internal combustion engine. In 1886, Karl Benz received a patent for the first automobile, which had three wheels. A year later, Gottlieb Daimler (DYM lur) intro-

duced the first four-wheeled automobile. People laughed at the “horseless carriages,” but they

quickly transformed transportation.

The French nosed out the Germans as early automakers. Then the American Henry Ford

started making models that reached the breath- taking speed of 25 miles per hour. In the early

1900s, Ford began using the assembly line to mass-produce cars, making the United States a

leader in the automobile industry.

Airplanes Take Flight 

The internal combustion engine powered more than cars. Motorized threshers and reaper boosted farm production. Even more dramatically, the internal combustion engine made possible sustained, pilot-controlled flight. In 1903, American bicycle makers Orville and Wilbur Wright designed and flew a flimsy airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Although their flying machine stayed aloft for only a few seconds, it ushered in the air age.

Soon, daredevil pilots were flying airplanes across the English Channel and over the Alps.

Commercial passenger travel, however, would not begin until the 1920s.

Rapid Communication 

A revolution in communications also made the world smaller. An American inventor, Samuel F. B. Morse, developed  the telegraph, which could send coded messages over wires by means of electricity. His first telegraph line went into service between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, in 1844. By the 1860s, an undersea cable was relaying messages between Europe and North America. This trans-Atlantic cable was an amazing engineering accomplishment for its day.

Communication soon became even faster. In 1876, the Scottish-born American inventor Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone. By the 1890s, the Italian pioneer Guglielmo Marconi had invented the radio. In 1901, Marconi received a radio message, using Morse code, sent from Britain to Canada. Radio would become a cornerstone of today’s global communications network.

Business Takes a New Direction

By the late 1800s, what we call “big business” came to dominate industry. Big business refers to an establishment that is run by entrepreneurs who finance, manufacture, and distribute goods. As time passed, some big businesses came to control entire industries.

Rise of Big Business 

New technologies required the investment of large amounts of money, or capital. To get the needed capital, owners sold stock, or shares in their companies, to investors. Each stockholder

became the owner of a tiny part of a company. Large-scale companies, such as steel foundries, needed so much capital that they sold hundreds of thousands of shares. These businesses formed giant corporations, businesses that are owned by many investors who buy shares of stock. With

large amounts of capital, corporations could expand into many areas.

Move Toward Monopolies 

Powerful business leaders created monopolies and trusts, huge corporate structures that controlled entire industries or areas of the economy. In Germany, Alfred Krupp inherited a

 steelmaking business from his father. He bought up coal and iron mines as well as ore deposits—supply lines or raw materials that fed the steel business. Later, he and his son acquired plants that made tools, railroad cars, and weapons. In the United States, John D. Rockefeller built Standard Oil Company into an empire. By gaining control of oil wells, oil refineries, and

oil pipelines, he dominated the American petroleum industry.

In their pursuit of profit, ruthless business leaders destroyed competing companies. With the competition gone, they were free to raise prices. Sometimes, a group of corporations would join forces and form a cartel, an association to fix prices, set production quotas, or control markets. In

Germany, a single cartel fixed prices for 170 coal mines.

Move Toward Regulation 

The rise of big business and the creation of such great wealth sparked a stormy debate. Some people saw the Krupps and Rockefellers as “captains of industry” and praised their vision and skills. They pointed out that capitalists invested their wealth in worldwide ventures, such as railroad building, that employed thousands of workers and added to the general prosperity.

To others, the aggressive magnates were “robber barons.” Destroying competition, critics argued, damaged the free-enterprise system, or the laissez-faire economy. Reformers called for laws to prevent monopolies and regulate large corporations. Despite questionable business practices,

big business found support from many government leaders. By the early 1900s, some governments did move against monopolies. However, the political and economic power of business leaders often hindered efforts at regulation.

Cartels 

The success of a cartel lasts only as long as its members agree on prices, production, and markets. History has shown that this kind of discipline is hard to maintain over time. One of the most famous cartels today is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which was first organized in 1960. In the 1970s, OPEC increased oil prices dramatically, first in 1973 and again in 1979.

By the 1980s, however, world demand for oil failed to meet OPEC expectations. The oil cartel was then torn by disputes among those who wanted to reduce production in order to raise prices and those who wanted to increase production in order to maintain their earnings. Since that time, OPEC has seen its influence and share of the oil market decline.

In 1901, Guglielmo Marconi (left) was in Newfoundland to receive the first overseas radio transmission from his assistant in England. 

“Shortly before mid-day I placed the single earphone to my ear and started listening. . . . I heard, faintly but distinctly, pip-pip-pip. . . . I now felt for the first time absolutely certain that the day

would come when mankind would be able to send messages without wires not only across the Atlantic, but between the farthermost ends of the earth.”

Science Fiction 

The dizzying rate of invention in the late 1800s inspired imaginative novelists like 

France’s Jules Verne and England’s H.G. Wells to pioneer a new literary form—science fiction. In his 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon, Verne created one of the earliest pictures of space travel. He correctly predicted that space travelers would experience weightlessness.

Today, in print or on film, science fiction remains one of the most popular forms of entertainment. Inspired by modern advances in physics and computer technology, creators of television shows and movies, including Star Trek, Star Wars, and Men in Black, developed scripts that moved far beyond the visions of Verne’s day.

Child Labor

An increase in manufacturing created a demand for workers. Children began running

machines and mining coal.

“Shut in from everything that is pleasant,

with no chance to learn . . . grinding

their little lives away in this dusty room,

they are no more than the wire screens

that separate the great lumps of coal from the

small. They had no games; when their day’s

work is done, they are too tired for that. They

know nothing but the difference between slate

and coal.”

—“The Labor Standard,” 1877

CH 6 Sec 2: 

The Rise of the Cities

The population explosion that had begun during the 1700s continued through the 1800s. Cities grew as rural people streamed into urban areas. By the end of the century, European and American cities had begun to take on many of the features of cities today.

Medicine Contributes to the Population Explosion

Between 1800 and 1900, the population of Europe more than doubled. This rapid growth was not due to larger families. In fact, families in most industrializing countries had fewer children. Instead, populations soared because the death rate fell. Nutrition improved, thanks in part to improved methods of farming, food storage, and distribution. Medical advances and improvements in public sanitation also slowed death rates.

The Fight Against Disease

Since the 1600s, scientists had known of microscopic organisms, or microbes. Some scientists speculated that certain microbes might cause specific infectious diseases. Yet most doctors scoffed at this germ theory. Not until 1870 did French chemist Louis Pasteur (pas TUR) clearly show the link

between microbes and disease. Pasteur went on to make other major contributions to medicine, including the development of vaccines against rabies and anthrax. He also discovered a process

called pasteurization that killed disease-carrying microbes in milk.

In the 1880s, the German doctor Robert Koch identified the bacterium that caused tuberculosis, a respiratory disease that claimed about 30 million human lives in the 1800s. The search for a tuberculosis cure, however, took half a century. By 1914, yellow fever and malaria had been traced to microbes carried by mosquitoes.

As people understood how germs caused disease, they bathed and changed their clothes more often. In European cities, better hygiene helped decrease the rate of disease. 

Hospital Care Improves

 In the early 1840s, anesthesia was first used to relieve pain during surgery. The use of anesthetics allowed doctors to experiment with operations that had never before been possible.

Yet, throughout the century, hospitals could be dangerous places. Surgery was performed with dirty instruments in dank rooms. Often, a patient would survive an operation, only to die days later of infection. For the poor, being admitted to a hospital was often a death sentence. Wealthy or middle-

class patients insisted on treatment in their own homes.

“The very first requirement in a hospital,” said British nurse Florence Nightingale, “is that it should do the sick no harm.” As an army nurse during the Crimean War, Nightingale insisted on better hygiene in field hospitals. After the war, she worked to introduce sanitary measures in British hospitals. She also founded the world’s first school of nursing.

The English surgeon Joseph Lister discovered how antiseptics prevented infection. He insisted that surgeons sterilize their instruments and wash their hands before operating. Eventually, the use of antiseptics drastically reduced deaths from infection.

City Life Changes

As industrialization progressed, cities came to dominate the West. City life, as old as civilization itself, underwent dramatic changes in Europe and the United States.

City Landscapes Change 

Growing wealth and industrialization altered the basic layout of European cities. City planners created spacious new squares and boulevards. They lined these avenues with government buildings, offices, department stores, and theaters.

The most extensive urban renewal, or rebuilding of the poor areas of a city, took place in Paris in the 1850s. Georges Haussmann, chief planner for Napoleon III, destroyed many tangled medieval streets full of tenement housing. In their place, he built wide boulevards and splendid public build-

ings. The project put many people to work, decreasing the threat of social unrest. The wide boulevards also made it harder for rebels to put up barricades and easier for troops to reach any part of the city.

Gradually, settlement patterns shifted. In most American cities, the rich lived in pleasant neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city. The poor crowded into slums near the city center, within reach of factories. Trolley lines made it possible to live in one part of the city and work in another.

Sidewalks, Sewers, and Skyscrapers 

Paved streets made urban areas much more livable. First gas lamps, and then electric street lights illuminated the night, increasing safety. Cities organized police forces and expanded fire protection.

Beneath the streets, sewage systems made cities much healthier places to live. City planners knew that clean water supplies and better sanitation methods were needed to combat epidemics of cholera and tuberculosis. In Paris, sewer lines expanded from 87 miles (139 kilometers) in 1852 to more than 750 miles (1200 kilometers) by 1911. The massive new sewer systems of London and Paris were costly, but they cut death rates dramatically.

By 1900, architects were using steel to construct soaring buildings. American architects like Louis Sullivan pioneered a new structure, the skyscraper. In large cities, single-family middle-class homes gave way to multistory apartment buildings. 

Slum Conditions 

Despite efforts to improve cities, urban life remained harsh for the poor. Some working-class families could afford better clothing, newspapers, or tickets to a music hall. But they went home to small, cramped row houses or tenements in overcrowded neighborhoods.

In the worst tenements, whole families were often crammed into a sin-

gle room. Unemployment or illness meant lost wages that could ruin a family. High rates of crime and alcoholism were a constant curse. Conditions had improved somewhat from the early Industrial Revolution, but slums remained a fact of city life.

The Lure of the City 

Despite their drawbacks,cities attracted millions. New residents were drawn

as much by the excitement as by the promise of work. For tourists, too, cities were centers of action.

Music halls, opera houses, and theaters provided entertainment for every taste. Museums and libraries offered educational opportunities. Sports, from tennis to bare-knuckle boxing, drew citizens of all classes. Few of these enjoyments were available in country villages.

The Working Class Advances

Workers tried to improve the harsh conditions of industrial life. They protested low wages, long

hours, unsafe conditions, and the constant threat of unemployment. At first, business owners and gov-

ernments tried to silence protesters. By midcentury, however, workers began to make progress.

Labor Unions Begin to Grow

Workers formed mutual-aid societies, self-help groups to aid sick or injured workers. Men and women joined socialist parties or organized unions. The revolutions of 1830 and 1848 left vivid images of worker discontent, which governments could not ignore.

By the late 1800s, most Western countries had granted all men the vote. Workers also won the

right to organize unions to bargain on their behalf. Germany legalized labor unions in 1869. Britain, Austria, and France followed. By 1900, Britain had about three million union members, and Germany

had about two million. In France, membership grew from 140,000 in 1890 to over a million in 1912.

The main tactic of unions was the strike, or work stoppage. Workers used strikes to demand

better working conditions, wage increases, or other benefits from their employers. Violence was often a

result of strikes, particularly if employers tried to continue operating their businesses without the striking workers. Employers often called in the police to stop strikes.

Pressured by unions, reformers, and working-class voters, governments passed laws to regulate working conditions. Early laws forbade employers to hire children under the age of ten. Later, laws were passed outlawing child labor entirely and banning the employment of women in mines. Other laws limited work hours and improved safety. By 1909, British coal miners had won an eight-hour day, setting a standard for workers in other countries. In Germany, and then elsewhere, Western governments established old-age pensions, as well as disability insurance for workers who were hurt or became ill. These programs protected workers from poverty once they were no longer able to work.

Standards of Living Rise 

Wages varied throughout the industrialized world, with unskilled laborers earning less than skilled workers. Women received less than half the pay of men doing the same work. Farm labor-

ers barely scraped by during the economic slump of the late 1800s. Periods of unemployment brought desperate hardships to industrial workersand helped boost union membership.

Overall, though, standards of living for workers did rise. The standard of living measures the quality and availability of necessities and comforts in a society. Families ate more varied diets, lived in better homes, and dressed in inexpensive, mass-produced clothing. Advances in medicine improved health. Some workers moved to the suburbs, traveling to work on subways and trolleys. Still, the gap between workers and the middle class widened.

Jacob Riis, a police reporter, photographer, and social activist in New York City published How the Other Half Lives in 1890 in an effort to expose the horrible living conditions of the city

slums and tenements. Conditions among the urban working class in Britain  were similar to those in New York described by Riis:

“Look into any of these houses, everywhere the same

. . . . Here is a “flat“ or “parlor” and two pitch-dark

coops called bedrooms. . . . One, two, three beds

are there, if the old boxes and heaps of foul straw

can be called by that name; a broken stove with

crazy pipe from which the smoke leaks at every

joint, a table of rough boards propped up on boxes,

piles of rubbish in the corner. The closeness and smell

are appalling. How many people sleep here? The

woman with the red bandanna shakes her head sullenly,

but the bare-legged girl with the bright face counts on her

fingers. . . “Six, sir!””

Florence Nightingale

When Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) arrived at a British military hospital in the

Crimea in 1854, she was horrified by what she saw. The sick and wounded lay on bare ground. With no sanitation and a shortage of food, some 60 percent of all patients died. But Nightingale was a

fighter. Bullying the military and medical staff, she soon had every available person cleaning barracks, digging latrines, doing laundry, and caring for the wounded. Six months later, the death rate had dropped to 2 percent.

Back in England, Nightingale was hailed as a saint. Ballads were even written about her. She took advantage of her popularity and connections to pressure the government for reforms.

CH 6 Sec 3:

Changing Attitudes and Values

Demand for women’s rights was one of many issues that challenged the traditional social order in the late 1800s. By then, in many countries, the middle class—aspiring to upper-class wealth and privilege—increasingly came to dominate society.

A New Social Order Arises

The Industrial Revolution slowly changed the social order in the Western world. For centuries, the two main classes were nobles and peasants. Their roles were defined by their relationship to the

land. While middle-class merchants, artisans, and lawyers played important roles, they still had a secondary position in society. With the spread of industry, a more complex social structure emerged.

Three Social Classes Emerge By the late 1800s, Western Europe’s new upper class included very rich business families.

Wealthy entrepreneurs married into aristocratic families, gaining the status of noble titles. Nobles needed the money brought by the industrial rich to support their lands and lifestyle.

Below this tiny elite, a growing middle class was pushing its way up the social ladder. Its highest rungs were filled with midlevel business people and professionals such as doctors and scientists. With comfortable incomes, they enjoyed a wide range of material goods. Next came the lower middle class, which included teachers and office workers. They struggled to keep up with their

“Betters.” Workers and peasants were at the base of the social ladder. In highly industrialized Britain,

workers made up more than 30 percent of the population in 1900. In Western Europe and the

United States, the number of farmworkers dropped, but many families still worked the

land. The rural population was higher in eastern and southern Europe, where industrialization

was more limited.

Middle-Class Tastes and Values 

By mid century, the modern middle class had developed its own way of life. A strict code of etiquette governed social behavior. Rules dictated how to dress for every occasion, how to give a dinner party, how to pay a social call, when to write letters, and how long to mourn for dead relatives.

Parents strictly supervised their children, who were expected to be “seen but not heard.” A

child who misbehaved was considered to reflect badly on the entire family. Servants, too, were

seen as a reflection of their employers. Even a small middle-class household was expected to

have at least a cook and a housemaid.

The Ideal Home Within the family, the division of labor between wife and husband changed. Earlier, middle-class women had helped run family businesses out of the home. By the later 1800s,

most middle-class husbands went to work in an office or shop. A successful husband was one who

earned enough to keep his wife at home. Women spent their time raising children, directing ser-

vants, and doing religious or charitable service.

Books, magazines, and popular songs supported a cult of domesticity that idealized

women and the home. Sayings like “home, sweet home” were stitched into needlework and

hung on parlor walls. The ideal woman was seen as a tender, self-sacrificing caregiver who pro-

vided a nest for her children and a peaceful refuge for her husband to escape from the

hardships of the working world.

This ideal rarely applied to the lower classes. Working-class women labored for low pay in

garment factories or worked as domestic servants. Young women might leave domestic service after they married, but often had to seek other employment. Despite long days working for wages, they were still expected to take full responsibility for child care and homemaking.

Women Work for Rights

Some individual women and women’s groups protested restrictions on women. They sought a broad range of rights. Across Europe and the United States, politically active women campaigned for fairness in marriage, divorce, and property laws. Women’s groups also supported

the temperance movement, a campaign to limit or ban the use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance leaders argued not only that drinking threatened family life, but that banning it was important for a productive and efficient workforce.

These reformers faced many obstacles. In Europe and the United States, women could not vote. They were barred from most schools and had little, if any, protection under the law. A woman’s husband or father controlled all of her property.

Early Voices Before 1850, some women—mostly from the middle class—had campaigned for the abolition of slavery. In the process, they realized the severe restrictions on their own lives. In the United States, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony crusaded against slavery before organizing a movement for women’s rights.

Many women broke the barriers that kept them out of universities and professions. By the late 1800s, a few women trained as doctors or lawyers. Others became explorers, researchers, or inventors, often without recognition. For example, Julia Brainerd Hall worked with her brother to develop an aluminum-producing process. Their company became hugely successful, but Charles Hall received almost all of the credit.

The Suffrage Struggle 

By the late 1800s, married women in some countries had won the right to control their own property. The struggle for political rights proved far more difficult. In the United States, the

Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 demanded that women be granted the right to vote. In Europe, groups dedicated to women’s suffrage, or women’s right to vote, emerged in the later 1800s.

Among men, some liberals and socialists supported women’s suffrage. In general, though, suffragists faced intense opposition. Some critics claimed that women were too emotional to be allowed to vote. Others argued that women needed to be “protected” from grubby politics or that

a woman’s place was in the home, not in government. To such claims, Sojourner Truth, an African American suffragist, is believed to have replied, “Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mudpuddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman?”

On the edges of the Western world, women made faster strides. In New Zealand, Australia, and some western territories of the United States, women won the vote by the early 1900s. There, women who had “tamed the frontier” alongside men were not dismissed as weak and helpless. In

the United States, Wyoming became the first state to grant women the right to vote. In Europe and most of the United States, however, the suffrage struggle succeeded only after World War I.

Growth of Public Education

By the late 1800s, reformers persuaded many governments to set up public schools and require basic education for all children. Teaching “the three Rs”—reading, writing, and ’rithmetic—was thought to produce better citizens. In addition, industrialized societies recognized the need for a literate workforce. Schools taught punctuality, obedience to authority,

disciplined work habits, and patriotism. In European schools, children also received basic religious education.

Public Education Improves 

At first, elementary schools were primitive. Many teachers had little schooling themselves. In rural areas, students attended class only during the times when they were not needed on the farm or in their parents’ shops.

By the late 1800s, more and more children were in school, and the quality of elementary education improved. Teachers received training at Normal Schools, where the latest “norms and standards” of educational practices were taught. Beginning in 1879, schools to train teachers were

established in France. In England, schooling girls and boys between the ages of five and ten became compulsory after 1881. Also, governments began to expand secondary schools, known as high schools in the United States. In secondary schools, students learned the “classical languages,”

Latin and Greek, along with history and mathematics.

In general, only middle-class families could afford to have their sons attend these schools, which trained students for more serious study or for government jobs. Middle-class girls were sent to school primarily in the hope that they might marry well and become better wives and mothers.

Education for girls did not include subjects such as science, mathematics, or physical education because they were not seen as necessary subjects for girls to learn.

Higher Education Expands 

Colleges and universities expanded in this period, too. Most university students were the sons of middle- or upper-class families. The university curriculum emphasized ancient history and languages, philosophy, religion, and law. By the late 1800s, uni- versities added courses in the sciences, especially in chemistry and physics. At the same time, engineering schools trained students who would have the knowledge and skills to build the new industrial society.

Some women sought greater educational opportunities. By the 1840s, a few small

colleges for women opened, including Bedford College in England and Mount Holyoke in the United States. In 1863, the British reformer Emily Davies campaigned for female students to be allowed to take the entrance examinations for Cambridge University. She succeeded, but as late as

1897, male Cambridge students rioted against granting degrees to women.

Science Takes New Directions

Science in the service of industry brought great changes in the later 1800s. At the same time, researchers advanced startling theories about the natural world. Their new ideas challenged long-held beliefs.

Atomic Theory Develops 

A crucial breakthrough in chemistry came in the early 1800s when the English Quaker schoolteacher John Dalton developed modern atomic theory. The ancient Greeks had speculated

that all matter was made of tiny particles called atoms. Dalton showed that each element has its own kind of atoms. Earlier theories put forth the idea that all atoms were basically alike. Dalton also showed how different kinds of atoms combine to make all chemical substances. In 1869,

the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleyev (men duh LAY ef) drew up a table that grouped elements according to their atomic weights. His table became the basis for the periodic table of elements used today.

Debating the Earth’s Age

 The new science of geology opened avenues of debate. In Principles of Geology, Charles Lyell offered evidence to show that Earth had formed over millions of years. His successors concluded that Earth was at least two billion years old and that life had not appeared until long after Earth was formed. These ideas did not seem to agree with biblical accounts of creation.

Archaeology added other pieces to an emerging debate about the origins of life on Earth. In 1856, workers in Germany accidentally uncovered fossilized Neanderthal bones. Later scholars found fossils of other early modern humans. These archaeologists had limited evidence and often drew mistaken conclusions. But as more discoveries were made, scholars developed new ideas about early humans and their ancestors.

Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection The most controversial new idea came from the British naturalist Charles Darwin. In 1859, after years of research, he published On the Origin of Species. Darwin argued that all forms of life, including human beings, had evolved into their

present state over millions of years. To explain the long, slow process of evolution, he put forward his theory of natural selection.

Darwin adopted Thomas Malthus’s idea that all plants and animals produced more offspring than the food supply could support. As a result, he said, members of each species constantly competed to survive. Natural forces “selected” those with physical traits best adapted to their envi-

ronment to survive and to pass the trait on to their offspring. This process of natural selection came to be known as “survival of the fittest.”

Social Darwinism and Racism 

Although Darwin himself never promoted any social ideas, some thinkers used his theories to support their  own beliefs about society. Applying the idea of survival of the fittest to war and economic competition came to be known as Social Darwinism. Industrial tycoons, argued Social Darwinists, were more “fit” than those they put out of business. War brought progress by weeding out weak nations. Victory was seen as proof of superiority.

Social Darwinism encouraged racism, the unscientific belief

that one racial group is superior to another. By the late 1800s, many Europeans and Americans claimed that the success of Western civilization was due to the supremacy of the white race. As you will read, such powerful ideas would have a long-lasting impact on world history.

How did science begin to challenge existing beliefs in the late 1800s?

Religion in an Urban Age Despite the challenge of new scientific ideas, religion continued to be a major force in Western society. Christian churches and Jewish synagogues remained at the center of communities. Religious leaders influenced political, social, and educational developments.

The grim realities of industrial life stimulated feelings of compassion and charity. Christian labor unions and political parties pushed for reforms. Individuals, church groups, and Jewish organizations all tried to help the working poor. Catholic priests and nuns set up schools and hospitals in urban slums. Many Protestant churches backed the social gospel, a movement that urged Christians to social service. They campaigned for reforms in housing, healthcare, and education.

CH 6 Sec 4: 

Arts in the Industrial Age

William Wordsworth, along with William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Percy Bysshe Shelley among others, was part of a cultural movement called romanticism. From about 1750 to 1850,

romanticism shaped Western literature and arts.

The Romantic Revolt Against Reason

Romanticism does not refer to romance in the sense of an affectionate relationship, but rather to an artistic style emphasizing imagination, freedom, and emotion. Romanticism was a reaction to the neoclassical writers of the Enlightenment, who had turned to classical Greek and Roman literature and ideals that stressed order, harmony, reason, and emotional restraint. In contrast to Enlightenment literature, the works of romantic writers included simple, direct language, intense feelings, and a glorification of nature. Artists, composers, and architects were also followers

of the movement.

The Romantic Hero 

Romantic writers created a new kind of hero—a mysterious, melancholy figure who felt out of step with society. “My joys, my grief, my passions, and my powers, / Made me a stranger,” wrote Britain’s George Gordon, Lord Byron. He himself was a larger-than-life figure equal to those he created. After a rebellious, wandering life, he joined Greek forces battling for freedom. When he died of a fever there, his legend bloomed. In fact, public interest in his poetry and adventures was so great that moody, isolated romantic heroes came to be described as “Byronic.”

The romantic hero often hid a guilty secret and faced a grim destiny. German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (GUR tuh) wrote the dramatic poem Faust. The aging scholar Faust makes a pact with the devil, exchanging his soul for youth. After much agony, Faust wins salvation by accepting his duty to help others. In Jane Eyre, British novelist Charlotte Brontë weaves a tale about a quiet governess and her brooding, Byronic employer, whose large mansion conceals a terrifying secret.

Inspired by the Past Romantic writers combined history, legend, and folklore. Sir Walter Scott’s novels and ballads evoked the turbulent history of Scottish clans or medieval knights. Alexandre Dumas (doo MAH) and Victor Hugo re-created France’s past in novels like The Three Musketeers and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Architects, too, were inspired by old styles and forms. Churches and other buildings, including the British Parliament, were modeled on medieval Gothic styles. To people living in the 1800s, medieval towers and lacy stonework conjured up images of a glorious past.

Music Stirs Emotions 

Romantic composers also tried to stir deep emotions. Audiences were moved to laughter or tears at Hungarian Franz Liszt’s piano playing. The passionate music of German composer Ludwig van Beethoven combined classical forms with a stirring range of sound. He was the first composer to take full advantage of the broad

range of instruments in the modern orchestra. In all, Beethoven produced nine symphonies, five piano concertos, a violin concerto, an opera, two masses, and dozens of shorter pieces. To many, he is considered the greatest composer of his day.

Other romantic composers wove traditional folk melodies into their works to glorify their nations’ pasts. In his piano works, Frederic Chopin (shoh PAN) used Polish peasant dances to convey the sorrows and joys of people living under foreign occupation.

Romanticism in Art 

Painters, too, broke free from the discipline and strict rules of the Enlightenment. Landscape painters like J.M.W. Turner sought to capture the beauty and power of nature. Using bold brush

strokes and colors, Turner often showed tiny human figures struggling against sea and storm.

Romantics painted many subjects, from simple peasant life to medi- eval knights to current events. Bright colors conveyed violent energy and emotion. The French painter Eugène Delacroix (deh luh KRWAH) filled his canvases with dramatic action. In Liberty Leading the People, the God-

dess of Liberty carries the revolutionary tricolor as French citizens rally to the cause.

The Call to Realism

By the mid-1800s, a new artistic movement, realism, took hold in the West. Realism was an attempt to represent the world as it was, without the sentiment associated with romanticism. Realists often focused their work on the harsh side of life in cities or villages. Many writers and art-

ists were committed to improving the lot of the unfortunates whose lives they depicted.

Novels Depict Grim Reality 

The English novelist Charles Dickens vividly portrayed the lives of slum dwellers and factory workers, including children. In Oliver Twist, Dickens tells the story of a nine-year-old orphan raised in a grim poorhouse. In response to a request for more food, Oliver is smacked on the head and

sent away to work. Later, he runs away to London. There he is taken in by Fagin, a villain who trains homeless children to become pickpockets. The book shocked many middle-class readers with its picture of poverty, mistreatment of children, and urban crime. Yet Dickens’s humor and colorful characters made him one of the most popular novelists in the world.

French novelists also portrayed the ills of their time. Victor Hugo, who moved from

romantic to realistic novels, revealed how hunger drove a good man to crime and how the law hounded him ever after in Les Misérables (lay miz ehr AHB). The novels of Émile Zola painted an even grimmer picture. In Germinal, Zola exposed class warfare in the French mining industry. To

Zola’s characters, neither the Enlightenment’s faith in reason nor the romantic movement’s feelings mattered at all.

Realism in Drama 

Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen brought realism to the stage. His plays attacked the hypocrisy he observed around him. A Doll’s House shows a woman caught in a straitjacket of social rules. In An Enemy of the People, a doctor discovers that the water in a local spa is polluted. Because the town’s economy depends on its spa, the citizens denounce the doctor and suppress the truth. Ibsen’s realistic dramas had a wide influence in Europe and the United States.

Arts Reject Romantic Ideas 

Painters also represented the realities of their time. Rejecting the romantic emphasis on imagination, they focused on ordinary subjects, especially working-class men and women.

“I cannot paint an angel,” said the French realist Gustave Courbet (koor BAY) “because I have never seen one.” Instead, he painted works such as The Stone Breakers, which shows two rough laborers on a country road. Later in the century, The Gross Clinic, by American painter Thomas Eakins, shocked viewers with its realistic depiction of an autopsy conducted in a medical classroom.

The Visual Arts Take New Directions

By the 1840s, a new art form, photography, was emerging. Louis Daguerre (dah GEHR) in France and William Fox Talbot in England had improved on earlier technologies to produce successful photographs. At first, many photos were stiff, posed portraits of middle-class families or prominent people. Other photographs reflected the romantics’ fascination with faraway places.

In time, photographers used the camera to present the grim realities of life. During the American Civil War, Mathew B. Brady preserved a vivid, realistic record of the corpse-strewn battlefields. Other photographers showed the harsh conditions in industrial factories or slums.

The Impressionists Photography posed a challenge to painters. Why try for realism, some artists asked, when a camera could do the same thing better? By the 1870s, a group of painters took art in a new direction, seeking to capture the first fleeting impression made by a scene or object on the viewer’s eye. The new movement, known as impressionism, took root in Paris, capital of the Western art world.

Since the Renaissance, painters had carefully finished their paintings so that no brush strokes showed. But impressionists like Claude Monet (moh NAY) and Edgar Degas (day GAH) brushed strokes of color side by side without any blending. According to new scientific studies of optics,

the human eye would mix these patches of color.

By concentrating on visual impressions rather than realism, artists achieved a fresh view of familiar subjects. Monet, for example, painted the cathedral at Rouen (roo AHN), France, dozens of times from the same angle, capturing how it looked in different lights at different times of day.

The Postimpressionists 

Later painters, called postimpressionists, developed a variety of styles. Georges Seurat (suh RAH) arranged small dots of color to define the shapes of objects. Vincent van Gogh experimented with sharp brush lines and bright colors. His unique brushwork lent a dreamlike quality to everyday subjects. Paul Gauguin (goh GAN) also developed a bold, personal style. In his paintings, people look flat, as in “primitive” folk art. But his brooding colors and black outlining of shapes convey intense feelings and images.

CH 7 Sec 2: 

7.2  Germany Strengthens

In January 1871, German princes gathered in the glittering Hall of Mirrors at the French palace of Versailles. They had just defeated Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War. Once home to

French kings, the palace seemed the perfect place to proclaim the new German empire. To the winners as well as to the losers, the symbolism was clear: French domination of Europe had ended.

Germany was now the dominant power in Europe.

Germany Becomes an Industrial Giant

In the aftermath of unification, the German empire emerged as the industrial giant of the European continent. By the late 1800s, German chemical and electrical industries were setting the standard worldwide. Among the European powers, German shipping was second only to Britain’s.

Making Economic Progress

Germany, like Great Britain, possessed several of the factors that made industrialization possible. Germany’s spectacular growth was due in part to ample iron and coal resources, the basic ingredients for industrial development. A disciplined and educated workforce also helped the economy. The German middle class and educated professionals helped to create a productive and efficient society that prided itself on its sense of responsibility and deference to authority. Germany’s rapidly growing population—from 41 million in 1871 to 67 million by 1914—also provided a huge home market along with a larger supply of industrial workers.

The new nation also benefited from earlier progress. During the 1850s and 1860s, Germans had founded large companies and built many railroads. The house of Krupp (kroop) boomed after 1871, becoming an enormous industrial complex that produced steel and weapons for a world

market. Between 1871 and 1914, the business tycoon August Thyssen (TEES un) built a small steel factory of 70 workers into a giant empire with 50,000 employees. Optics was another important industry. German industrialist and inventor Carl Zeiss built a company that became known for its telescopes, microscopes, and other optical equipment.

Promoting Scientific and Economic Development

 German industrialists were the first to see the value of applied science in developing new products such as synthetic chemicals and dyes. Industrialists, as well as the government, supported research and development in the universities and hired trained scientists to solve technological problems in their factories.

The German government also promoted economic development. After 1871, it issued a single currency for Germany, reorganized the banking system, and coordinated railroads built by the various German states. When a worldwide depression hit in the late 1800s, Germany raised tariffs to protect home industries from foreign competition. The leaders of the new German empire were determined to maintain economic strength as well as military power.

The Iron Chancellor

As chancellor of the new German empire, Bismarck pursued several foreign-policy goals. He wanted to keep France weak and isolated while building strong links with Austria and Russia. He respected British naval power but did not seek to compete in that arena. “Water rats,” he said, “do not fight with land rats.” Later, however, he would take a more aggressive stand against Britain as the two nations competed for overseas colonies.

Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) spent his early years on his father’s country estate. He worked briefly as a civil servant, but found the work boring. At 24, Bismarck resigned his post as a bureaucrat. “My ambition strives more to command than to obey,” the independent-minded young man explained.

The resignation did not end his career in government. While he was a delegate to a United Diet that was called by Prussian King Frederick William IV, Bismarck’s conservative views and passionate speeches in defense of government policies won him the support of the king. He then

served as a diplomat to the German Federation. He became chancellor of the German empire in 1871, a position he held for 19 years.

On the domestic front, Bismarck applied the same ruthless methods he had used to achieve

unification. The Iron Chancellor, as he was called, sought to erase local loyalties and crush

all opposition to the imperial state. He targeted two groups—the Catholic Church and the

Socialists. In his view, both posed a threat to the new German state.

Campaign Against the Church 

After unification, Catholics made up about a third of the German population. Bismarck, who was Lutheran, distrusted Catholics—especially the clergy—whose first loyalty, he believed, was to the pope instead of to Germany.

In response to what he saw as the Catholic threat, Bismarck launched the Kulturkampf

(kool TOOR kahmpf), or “battle for civilization,” which lasted from 1871 to 1878. His goal was to make Catholics put loyalty to the state above allegiance to the Church. The chancellor had laws passed that gave the state the right to supervise Catholic education and approve the appointment of priests. Other laws closed some religious orders, expelled the Jesuits from Prussia, and made it compulsory for couples to be married by civil authority.

Bismarck’s moves against the Catholic Church backfired. The faithful rallied behind the Church, and the Catholic Center party gained strength in the Reichstag. A realist, Bismarck saw his mistake and worked to make peace with the Church.

Campaign Against the Socialists 

Bismarck also saw a threat to the new German empire in the growing power of socialism. By the late 1870s, German Marxists had organized the Social Democratic party, which called for parliamentary democracy and laws to improve conditions for the working class. Bismarck feared that socialists would undermine the loyalty of German workers and turn them toward revolution.

Following a failed assassination plot against the kaiser, Bismarck had laws passed that dissolved socialist groups, shut down their newspapers, and banned their meetings. Once again, repression backfired. Workers were unified in support of the socialist cause.

Bismarck then changed course. He set out to woo workers away from socialism by sponsoring laws to protect them. By the 1890s, Germans had health and accident insurance as well as old-age insurance to provide retirement benefits. Thus, under Bismarck, Germany was a pioneer in social reform. Its system of economic safeguards became the model for other European nations.

Although workers benefited from Bismarck’s plan, they did not abandon socialism. In fact, the Social Democratic party continued to grow in strength. By 1912, it held more seats in the Reichstag than any other party. Yet Bismarck’s program showed that conditions for workers could be improved without the upheaval of a revolution. Later, Germany and other European nations would build on Bismarck’s social policies, greatly increasing government’s role in providing for the needs of its citizens.

Kaiser William II

In 1888, William II succeeded his grandfather as kaiser. The new emperor was supremely confident in his abilities and wished to put his own stamp on Germany. In 1890, he shocked Europe by asking the dominating Bismarck to resign. “There is only one master in the Reich,” he said, “and that is I.” William II seriously believed that his right to rule came from God. He expressed this view when he said:

“My grandfather considered that the office of king was a task that God had

assigned to him. . . . That which he thought I also think. . . . Those who wish to

aid me in that task . . . I welcome with all my heart; those who

oppose me in this work I shall crush.”

—William II

Not surprisingly, William resisted efforts to introduce democratic reforms. At the same time, however, his government provided programs for social welfare, or programs to help certain groups of people. His government also provided services such as cheap transportation and electricity. An excellent system of public schools, which had flourished under Bismarck, taught students obedience to the emperor along with reading, writing, and mathematics.

Like his grandfather, William II lavished funds on the German military machine, already the most powerful in Europe. He also launched an ambitious campaign to expand the German navy and win an overseas empire to rival those of Britain and France. William’s nationalism and aggressive military stance helped increase tensions on the eve of World War I.

CH 7 Sec 5: 

7/5 Russia: Reform and Revolution

Reformers hoped to free Russia from autocratic rule, economic back-wardness, and social injustice. But efforts to modernize Russia had little success, as tsars imprisoned critics or sent them into exile.

Conditions in Russia

By 1815, Russia was not only the largest, most populous nation in Europe but also a great world power. Since the 1600s, explorers, soldiers, and traders seeking furs had expanded Russia’s empire

eastward across Siberia to the Pacific. Seeking ports, Peter the Great and Catherine the Great had added lands on the Baltic and Black seas. Seeking to contain the Ottoman and British empires, tsars in the 1800s expanded into the Caucasus and Central Asia. Russia thus acquired a huge multinational empire, part European and part Asian.

Other European nations looked on the Russian colossus, or giant, anxiously. Russia had immense natural resources. Its vast size gave it global influence. But many Europeans disliked its autocratic government and feared its expansion. At the same time, Russia remained economically undeveloped. By the 1800s, tsars saw the need to modernize but resisted reforms that would under- mine their absolute rule.

Russia’s Social Structure 

A great obstacle to progress was the rigid social structure. Landowning nobles dominated society and

rejected any change that would threaten their power. The middle class was small and weak. Most Russians were serfs, or laborers bound to the land and to the landowners who controlled them.

Most serfs were peasants. Others were servants, artisans, or soldiers forced into the tsar’s army. As industry expanded, some masters sent serfs to work in factories but took much of their pay.

Many enlightened Russians knew that serfdom was inefficient. As long as most people had to serve the whim of their masters, Russia’s economy would remain backward. However, landowning nobles had no

reason to improve agriculture and took little interest in industry.

Ruling With Absolute Power 

For centuries, tsars had ruled with absolute power, imposing their will on their subjects. On occasion, the

tsars made limited attempts at liberal reform, such as easing censorship or making legal and economic reforms to improve the lives of serfs. However, in each instance the tsars drew back from their reforms when they began to fear losing the support of nobles. In short, the liberal and nationalist changes brought about by the Enlightenment and the French Revolution had almost no effect on Russian autocracy.

Emancipation and Stirrings of Revolution

Alexander II came to the throne in 1855 during the Crimean War. His reign represents the pattern of reform and repression used by his father and grandfather, Alexander I and Nicholas I. The Crimean War had broken out after Russia tried to seize Ottoman lands along the Danube River. Britain and France stepped in to help the Ottoman Turks, invading the Crimean peninsula that juts into the Black Sea. The war, which ended in a Russian defeat, revealed the country’s backwardness. Russia had only a few miles of railroads, and the military bureaucracy was hopelessly inefficient. Many felt that dramatic changes were needed. 

Freeing the Serfs 

A widespread popular reaction followed. Liberals demanded changes, and students demonstrated, seeking reform. Pressed from all sides, Alexander II finally agreed to reforms. In 1861, he issued a royal decree that required emancipation, or freeing of the serfs. 

Freedom brought problems. Former serfs had to buy the land they had worked, but many were too poor to do so. Also, the lands allotted to peasants were often too small to farm efficiently or to support a family. Peasants remained poor, and discontent festered.

Still, emancipation was a turning point. Many peasants moved to the cities, taking

jobs in factories and building Russian industries. Equally important, freeing the serfs boosted the drive for further reform. 

Introducing Other Reforms 

Along with emancipation, Alexander II set up a system of local government. Elected assemblies, called zemstvos, were made responsible for matters such as road repair, schools, and agriculture. Through

this system, Russians gained some experience of self-government at the local level.

The tsar also introduced legal reforms based on ideas like trial by jury, and he eased censorship. Military service terms were reduced, and brutal discipline was limited. Alexander also encouraged the growth of industry in Russia, which still relied heavily on agriculture.

Revolutionary Currents 

Alexander’s reforms failed to satisfy many Russians. Peasants had freedom but not land. Liberals wanted a constitution and an elected legislature. Radicals, who had adopted socialist ideas from the West, demanded even more revolutionary changes. The tsar, meantime, moved away from reform and toward repression.

In the 1870s, some socialists went to live and work among peasants, preaching reform and rebellion. They had little success. The peasants scarcely understood them and sometimes turned them over to the police. The failure of this movement, combined with renewed government

repression, sparked anger among radicals. Some turned to terrorism. On March 13, 1881, terrorists assassinated Alexander II.

Crackdown 

Alexander III responded to his father’s assassination by reviving the harsh methods of Nicholas I. To wipe out liberals and revolutionaries, he increased the power of the secret police, restored strict censorship, and exiled critics to Siberia. The tsar also launched a program of Russification aimed at suppressing the cultures of non-Russian peoples within the empire. Alexander insisted on one language, Russian, and one church, the Russian Orthodox Church. Poles, Ukrainians, Finns,

Armenians, Muslims, Jews, and many others suffered persecution.

Persecution and Pogroms 

Russia had acquired a large Jewish population when it carved up Poland and expanded into Ukraine. Under Alexander III, persecution of Jewish people in Russia increased. The tsar limited the number of Jewish people who were allowed to study in universities and practice certain professions. He also forced them to live in restricted areas.

Official persecution encouraged pogroms, or violent mob attacks on Jewish people. Gangs beat and killed Jewish people and looted and burned their homes and stores. Faced with savage persecution, many left Russia. They became refugees, or people who flee their homeland to seek safety elsewhere. Large numbers of Russian Jews went to the United States.

Tug of War: Reform and Repression by the Russian Tsars

The five tsars that ruled Russia from 1801 to 1917 all followed a similar pattern of autocratic rule: at times they appeared open to liberal ideas and enacted reforms to satisfy the groups demanding change. In every case, however, the tsars pulled back on these reforms and launched a battery of repressive measures designed to preserve their absolute power and the support of the nobles.

The Tsars Resist: The Tsars Resist:

Repression and Crackdown Repression and Crackdown

• Secret police, arrests, executions

• Strict censorship of liberal ideas

• Exiling liberals

• Bolstering Russian Orthodox Church

• Insisting on the absolute power

of the state

• Persecuting non-Russian groups

within empire

The Tsars Give In: The Tsars Give In:

Concessions and Reforms Concessions and Reforms

• Easing censorship

• Revising law code

• Limiting the power of landowners

• Freeing serfs (1861)

• Creating local self-government,

or zemstovs

• Creating national legislature,

or Duma

• Land reforms

The Drive to Industrialize

Russia finally entered the industrial age under Alexander III and his son Nicholas II. In the 1890s, Nicholas’ government focused on economic development. It encouraged the building of railroads

to connect iron and coal mines with factories and to transport goods across Russia. It also secured foreign capital to invest in industry and transportation systems, such as the Trans-Siberian Railroad, which linked European Russia to the Pacific Ocean.

Political and social problems increased as a result of industrialization. Government officials and business leaders applauded economic growth. Nobles and peasants opposed it, fearing the changes it brought. Industrialization also created new social ills as peasants flocked to cities to work in factories. Instead of a better life, they found long hours and low pay in dangerous conditions. In the slums around the factories, poverty, disease, and discontent multiplied. Radicals sought supporters among the new industrial workers. At factory gates, Socialists often handed out pamphlets that preached the revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx.

Turning Point: Crisis and Revolution

When war broke out between Russia and Japan in 1904, Nicholas II called on his people to fight for “the Faith, the Tsar, and the Fatherland.” Despite all of their efforts, the Russians suffered one humiliating defeat after another.

Bloody Sunday 

News of the military disasters unleashed pent-up discontent created by years of oppression. Protesters poured into the streets. Workers went on strike, demanding shorter hours and better wages. Liber-

als called for a constitution and reforms to overhaul the government.

As the crisis deepened, a young Orthodox priest organized a peaceful march for Sunday, January 22, 1905. Marchers flowed through the streets of St. Petersburg toward the tsar’s Winter Palace. Chanting prayers and singing hymns, workers carried holy icons and pictures of the tsar. They also brought a petition for justice and freedom.

Fearing the marchers, the tsar had fled the palace and called in soldiers. As the people approached, they saw troops lined up across the square. Suddenly, gunfire rang out. Hundreds of men and women fell dead or wounded in the snow. One woman stumbling away from the scene moaned: “The tsar has deserted us! They shot away the orthodox faith.” Indeed, the slaughter marked a turning point for Russians. “Bloody Sunday” killed the people’s faith and trust in the tsar.

The Revolution of 1905 

In the months that followed Bloody Sunday, discontent exploded across Russia. Strikes multiplied. In some cities, workers took over local government. In the countryside, peasants revolted and demanded land. Minority nationalities called for autonomy from Russia. Terrorists targeted officials, and some assassins were cheered as heroes by discontented Russians.

At last, the clamor grew so great that Nicholas was forced to announce sweeping reforms. In the October Manifesto, he promised “freedom of person, conscience, speech, assembly, and union.” He agreed to summon a Duma, or elected national legislature. No law, he declared, would go into effect without approval by the Duma.

Results of the Revolution 

The manifesto won over moderates, leaving Socialists isolated. These divisions helped the tsar, who had no intention of letting strikers, revolutionaries, and rebellious peasants challenge him.

In 1906, the first Duma met, but the tsar quickly dissolved it when leaders criticized the government. Nicholas then appointed a new prime minister, Peter Stolypin (stuh LIP yin). Arrests, pogroms, and executions followed as the conservative Stolypin sought to restore order.

Stolypin soon realized that Russia needed reform, not just repression. To regain peasant support, he introduced moderate land reforms. He strengthened the zemstvos and improved education. Unfortunately, these reforms were too limited to meet the broad needs of most Russians,

and dissatisfaction still simmered. Stolypin was assassinated in 1911. Several more Dumas met during this period, but new voting laws made sure they were conservative. By 1914, Russia was still an autocracy, but one simmering with unrest.

Explore the philosophical views of Plato and Aristotle on governance, society, and the concept of the 'good life'. This quiz covers key ideas from their works and the evolution of politics in ancient Greece. Test your knowledge on the regulation of citizens' lives and the structures of political units.