EURO1004 Chapter 1-20: Reading Notes
EURO1004 – EUROPE IN THE MODERN ERA - READINGS
WEEK 2 – Enlightenment Europe
Textbook reading: 'The condition of Europe
c
. 1789', in William Simpson and Martin Jones
(eds),
Europe: 1783-1914
, Third edition (London and New York: Routledge, 2015), pp. 1-15.
CH 1: THE CONDITION OF EUROPE C. 1789
Europe’s extent and the concept of Europe
• The Ancient Greeks were the first to use Europe as a geographical term, denoting first the Greek
mainland, and by 500 BC the northerly landmass that lay beyond it in contrast to Asia to the east and
Libya to the South
• Two of the greatest minds of that century: Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and Isaac Newton (1642-
1727) wrote their main works in Latin
• With the fall of the western Roman empire in the fifth century AD came the so-called Dark Ages and
the breakdown of the existing political structures in many areas
• The spread and imposition of Christianity throughout Europe during this time was a long process,
and was eventually achieved with the conversion of Hungary in the 14th century and the conquest of
the Moors in Spain in the 15th.
• Europe’s emergency as the engine of world commerce, the birthplace of large-scale industry and the
fount of political authority over large parts of the world are essential features of its history in the 19th
century
• By the end of the 18th century the concept of Europe denoted a distinct geographical are who
inhabitants inherited from the past a fund of common experiences, and which enabled them to feel a
common identity when they faced Muslims and races of other colours
The social and economic background
•
Population:
- There is little dispute over the main trends which show that Europe’s population was rising
constantly from about 1750s onwards, if not at a uniform rate
•
Agriculture:
- “Agriculture was the principal source of employment and wealth, the most significant sector of
the economy, the basis of the taxation, government, ecclesiastic and seigneurial, that funded most
other activities” (J. Black,
Einteenth Century Europe, London, Macmillian, 1990, p.19)
- In some parts of France, it has been calculated, 74% of the population were engaged in
agriculture
- The general picture is one of the gradual increase in food production as more land was brought
into cultivation and new techniques were applied which still failed to meet the needs of a rising
population
Industry and trade
• Throughout Europe industry was mainly small scale and rural in 1800, as it had been in 1700
• Industry and commerce were mutually dependent, without markets and financial institutions needed
to sustain them, industry could not prosper
• Where external trade is concerned most European countries subscribed to the mercantilist doctrine
that tariffs should be imposed to safeguard domestic industries and employment, and laws were
passed to keep trade with their colonies firmly in the hands of the mother country
The States of Europe
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• The characteristic political unit in Europe throughout much of the 20th century has been the
sovereign, unitary state, that is to say a state with clearly defined frontiers which recognises allegiance
to no external authority and whose central government exercise its powers unchecked by provincial
institutions
• Prior to 1789 the sovereign, unitary state was far from typical, and generally became less and less
common the further the east one went
• The Italian peninsula, despite its historic role as the centre first of the Roman Empire and then of the
Catholic Church, has lost all of its political cohesion and much of its religious pre-eminence.
• The Low Countries (present-day Belgium and Holland) had long been the focus of rival attentions
form their more powerful neighbours
• It was to the east that the map of Europe bore least resemblance to the present one – much of central
Europe came under the nominal authority of the Holy Roman Empire.
• In 1555 the
Peace of Augsburg
had given to all rulers the right to determine the religion of their
subjects under the formula
cuius regio, euis reiligo
(let the subject conform to the religion of his
sovereign)
- The controversies to which this formula led helped to spark off the Thirty Years War (1618-48),
and through religious animosities died down in the 18th century it was still possible for the
archbishop of Salzburg to expel Protestants from his domain in 1731
• At the end of the 18th century Russian ambitions impinged on Europe from two directions:
1. Control of Poland on the west
2. Control of the straits which linked the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, the Dardanelles
• To the south of Russia lay the
Ottoman empire:
- This both encroached on to the European continent, but extended far beyond it
- The Ottoman empire differed most notably from the European states through its devotion to
Islam – the Sultan was both the religious and political leader of the empire
- In the 16th and 17th centuries, they were regarded as the most formidable soldiers in Europe
- The effort to imitate the west, and the opposite they aroused, were to be a continuous theme in
ottoman history and illustrate the Europe and in conscious opposition to it
- European attitudes to the Ottoman Empire showed a similar ambivalence. On the one hand
voices were frequently raised in condemnation of Turkish atrocities
- The Ottoman Empire could prove a welcome obstacle in the face of Russian expansion into the
Balkan peninsula and towards the Dardanelles
- The Ottoman Empire became proverbially known as ‘the sick man of Europe’ and suggestions
for its partition were made as early as 1782 by Catherine the Great
Forms of Government
• The varieties of state which characterised Europe in the late 18th century were reflected in their
differing forms of government – no state had a written constitution except Sweden, which acquired
one in 1772
• There was no constitutional pattern, and no ideal model to which states might seek to conform
• The norm was a hereditary monarchy, vested in a well-established ruling house
• The terms absolute monarchy and enlightened despotism have often applied to 18th century
government
• Even where there were no constitutional restraints, ever ruler operated within certain constraints:
- Taxes were universally unpopular
- Poor communications, lack of adequate information and the general absence of a trained civil
service meant that reforms were difficult to implement when when they had been agreed
• In some countries there were effective barriers to royal authority – In Britain the 1688 Revolution, the
king owed his position to parliamentary statute rather than hereditary right
• Whatever the constitutional checks, all monarchs except arguable the British one retained control
over appointments, foreign policy and the initiation of change
• While in theory and in practice European monarchies enjoyed considerable powers, these had to be
exercised in an increasingly difficult environment to which they themselves had often contributed by
their aggressive policies
The Enlightenment
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• The term Enlightenment has long been used to describe
their leading ideas and attitudes,
and
whatever limitations now attach to the term it still provides the best key to understanding the
intellectual atmosphere of the late 18th century
• The Enlightenment embraced so many different thinkers and institutions that it is impossible to
describe it as a movement
• The Enlightenment is better seen as a change in the climate of opinion when many received ideas
were attacked and new ones came to the fore
• There was a constructive side to the Enlightenment – many of its representatives believed in the
possibility of progress or improvement through the application of reason to human concerns and
institutions
• The destructive, critical side of the Enlightenment is best seen I the attack mounted on revealed
religion in general and on the Roman Catholic Church in particular
•
Voltaire:
- The Catholic Church came under particular attack from this French writer
- In 1673 in his
Traité sur la Tolérance
made a notable plea for religious toleration following the
notorious Calas case, when a Protestant father had been broken on the wheel, supposedly for
killing his son to prevent his conversion to Catholicism
- This type of literature evidently did little to affect the Christianity until the outbreak of the French
Revolution
• Absolute monarchy and the world of privilege also came in for critical scrutiny, it was French authors
who were most influential
• The constructive side to the Enlightenment is best represented by the Cameralist writers in Germany
such as
Christian Wolff:
- In his book
Rational Thoughts on the Social if Mankind
, first published in 1721, Wolff argued
for state intervention to provide better education and welfare services such as hospitals and
orphanages
• Most 18th century monarchs were influenced by the new ideas that were circulating and tried to
translate some of them at least into action
•
Joseph II
- Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790
- Embarked on an ambitious programme of reform which include the extension of religious
toleration to Jews and Protestants, the dissolution of many contemplative religious orders with the
aim of using their resources to provide a properly paid priesthood, the abolition of censorship
and the ending of serfdom
- That tqhey were attempted at all is witness to the influence of the Enlightenment
•
The Enlightenment and the role and status of women
- Growing interest in women’s history has rightly reminded men that for women in the 18th century
opportunities were limited and their natural inferiority to men, at least in some respects, widely
assumed
- Women were denied the right to take any part in political life, unless through the accident of
birth they inherited a throne
- The old professions, the Church, the law and medicine were barred to women, but so were the
new ones, the civil service, banking and finance, tax collecting and engineering
- Whilst the Enlightenment didn’t do much to end the slave trade and improved the treatment of
criminals and the insane, it did very little to alter the status of women
WEEK 4 – Napoleonic Europe
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Document Summary
Euro1004 europe in the modern era - readings. Textbook reading: "the condition of europe c. 1789", in william simpson and martin jones (eds), europe: 1783-1914, third edition (london and new york: routledge, 2015), pp. Ch 1: the condition of europe c. 1789. There is little dispute over the main trends which show that europe"s population was rising constantly from about 1750s onwards, if not at a uniform rate: agriculture: Agriculture was the principal source of employment and wealth, the most significant sector of the economy, the basis of the taxation, government, ecclesiastic and seigneurial, that funded most other activities (j. Black, einteenth century europe, london, macmillian, 1990, p. 19) In some parts of france, it has been calculated, 74% of the population were engaged in agriculture. The general picture is one of the gradual increase in food production as more land was brought into cultivation and new techniques were applied which still failed to meet the needs of a rising population.
