Tomorrow may be Monday, but at least its not the French Revolution

Hey Guys! Hope you had a good weekend. Here’s a bit of a review of what has been going on:

The class debate: At what point did Louis XVI lose control over France?

France helped the American colonies to win the Revolutionary War, but they were in a huge amount of debt. The French did not have an extremely stable economy from the beginning--they liked to spend a lot of money on Versailles, and their taxes were all placed on the Third Estate, most of whom were extremely poor from paying all those taxes.

To fix the money issue, Louis XVI decided to propose a tax on all property in order to increase revenue to the state-- the nobles and clergy who had never been expected to pay taxes weren’t too keen on this idea. The group pulled out their wild card and said that these tax changes needed the approval of the Estates General, a group of representatives from all three estates that had not met since 1614. (Hint: that was a long time ago) The king took the harsh blow to his absolutist ego and handled it by dismissing the notables that were challenging him and still trying to put his new tax plan into action. 

Louis, vainly trying to pass those taxes

This did not go over well--> the Parlement if Paris declared his actions “null and void” and protests popped up around the country. In July 1788 the Estates General was finally called back to order by the king. A political deadlock ensued between the Third Estate, clergy, and nobility. The Third Estate wanted to meet with the clergy and the nobility all at the same time, and the Third Estate (joined by a few priests) created the National Assembly and sore the Oath of the Tennis Court that demanded they write a new constitution before they disbanded.

The king took some action--> he made a speech that urged reforms and a joint session of all three estates, but also marched his army over to Versailles to dissolve the Estate General through force.

This episode undermined the king’s authority when the absolutist king not only called for a gathering of representatives, but then gave into their demands to have a joint session

"You won't hang, you'll only have to go back home." A quote to exemplify exactly how seriously the people reacted to the troops coming to Versailles. Can't you hear the panic??

Who drove the Revolution forward?

The bourgeoisie fought the political battle for better representation against the clergy and the nobility, while the actual poor population of Third Estate fought the physical battle in the French Revolution. When rumors of the king’s troops attacking the city began to circulate, the peasants rose up and marched to Bastille, took over the prison, and then Paris. After the attack on Bastille, the Great Fear swept through the countryside-- people were undoing the enclosure system, bringing back common lands, seizing forests, neglecting taxes, and rebelling against the rules of the oppressive rules of the rich.

Everyone freaking out in the chaotic countryside

The women of France also proved they were not to be messed with-- a group of women marched to Versailles and demanded the royals be moved to Paris and soon became a major part of the French Rebellion.

Girl power-- gettin us some bread and Marie Antoinette's head

Documents you should know:

• Civil Constitution of the Clergy:
• context of the state becoming stronger
• Divides the church by region and sets strict rules over what positions should be recognized
• bishops, priests and other clergy officials will be elected
• they will take an oath to take care of their diocese
• Set salaries and dwelling contracts will be set up between priests/bishops and the communities they are serving in
• they are also unable to leave for extended periods of time--> this is to prevent the clergy from neglecting their parishes
• This document put the church under the control of the French government
• Declaration of the Rights of man
• compare Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Declaration of Independence 
• “the contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man”
• Includes 17 articles outlining the rights of men--> includes innocent until proven guilty, right of speech, protection of property, and a limitation of the government on the peoples’ freedom

Hope this made sense/was helpful and I'll see you all tomorrow!

- Cory

me, realizing tomorrow is Monday

France Levels Up Somewhat

Liberty v. Equality

According to the French liberals of the Revolutionary War, Liberty is the ability "to do anything that does not harm another person," or more specifically is the ability to exert one's natural rights to a freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom from unjustified persecution, and freedom from unreasonable government.

Greek-style political equality of only male landowners, legal equality for all, inequality fine for the most part on economic, gender, and financial matters.
That being said, the people were held sovereign and had the authority to create the laws that limited freedom of action.
Economic inequality based on artificial legal distinctions were criticized by liberals, not economic inequality itself

The logical conclusion to liberal definitions of equality. 

Even though the Revolutionary concept of equality was somewhat primitive, it marked a step in the slow reintroduction of the significance of individual rights to social development.
Where equality was a legal affair limited to public perspectives and law, liberty was the inherent right of all humans to contribute to their social environments and to reap the benefits of living in a community that governments are established to protect.

The importance of contributing to one's Community.
...I have never even seen this show.  

Liberal ideas of liberty and equality were more revolutionary than radical as they were clearly based on classical political philosophies of the Enlightenment as taught by such authorities as Plato and Democratic Grecian leaders. The one radical component to liberal  philosophy was the advocation of science as a measurement of the success of various social systems and arguments.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man
Inspired by the Declaration of Independence
One of the founding documents of the human rights tradition.
Vague, syllogistic argument as to why individual rights are fundamental to successful civil order.
Notable as an attempt at unbiased social commentary that defined the relationship of the individual to their government in the most general terms possible as to be universally applicable.

Financial Mess

Origins in financial difficulties of France as caused by excessive borrowing to fund the American War, caused national debt to soar. So much of the state budget was spent on paying back debts that only a small amount was actually used for productive functions of the state. Completely obsolete financial system had no means of creating inflation and no central bank or means of developing credit. Forced to raise taxes which, given France's social structure's dependence on the financial system, caused the chaos that provoked revolutionary sentiment.

A look into the financial workings of pre-Revolution France.  

Social Divide of France

Three Estates: the first: clergy, the second: nobility, and the third: public.
The Bourgousie - middle class of the third estate - grew rapidly in the 18th century and gained some social power from improved education systems of the time.

Common view of French Revolution was that the Bourgeoisie were tired of feudal laws limiting their increasing power and led the entire third estate in a revolution that established a capitalist order based on individualism and a market economy.

Revisionist view - The Revolution was not caused by divides between the vaguely defined three classes, but rather on internal tensions riddled throughout society.  Reasons that the Bourgeoisie and upper class wouldn't need to fight:

• It was relatively simple for the Bourgeoisie to become a part of the nobility.
• Nobility was just a liberal as Third Estates in support of the Parlement of Paris 
• Nobility and Bourgeoisie did not compete in the same financial spheres 

The real cause of the Revolution was the Old Regime's inability to correspond with social reality. France moving towards a society dependent on wealth and education for it elites, frustrated by continued existence of absolutism and Medieval law.

Dear Readers,

Fortunately, I am not too traumatized from witnessing a woman allow her five-year old child to feed from her breast, so I am still able to do the blog. Someone ship that lady a HooterHider!

Do you think there's really a baby under there?

Children & Education-

What were the attitudes towards children at this time?- It seems that the young child was often of minor concern to its parents & to society int he 18th century. Doctors & clergymen urged parents not to become too emotionally involved with their children, who were so unlikely to survive. It was a vicious cycle: children were neglected because they were very likely to die & they were likely to die because they were neglected. Rousseau called for greater love & tenderness towards children, part of the general growth of humanitarianism.

What about schools & popular literature?- The religious struggles unleashed by the Protestant & Catholic Reformations served as the catalyst in promoting popular literacy. Both Protestant & Catholic reformers pushed reading as a means of instilling their teachings more effectively. Prussia led the way in the development of universal education. Prussia made attendance to elementary school compulsory. The Church of England & the dissenting congregations established “charity schools” to instruct the children of the poor. The major philosophical works of the Enlightenment had little impact on peasants & workers, who could neither afford nor understand those favorites of the book-hungry educated public. The staple of popular literature was short pamphlets known as chapbooks, many dealing wth religious subjects. Entertaining, often humorous stories formed a second element of popular literature. Is this where we get Cinderella, Goldilocks & the 3 Bears, etc.?- yes, escapism was common in the literature of the time. In general, however, the reading of the common people had few similarities with that of educated elites. Popular literature was simple & practical.

Pictured: poor people's wallets.

Food & Medical Practice-

"Food...let's talk about it."- diets & nutrition: Just price was a belief that prices should be “fair,” protecting both consumers & producers & imposed by government decrees. In the 18th century, this traditional, moral view of prices & the economy clashed repeatedly with the emerging free market philosophy of unregulated supply & demand. Bread was quite literally the staff of life. The diet of the rich was traditionally different from that of the poor. There were also regional dietary differences. The poor of England & the Netherlands probably ate best of all. the impact of diet on health: The basic bread & vegetables diet of the poor in normal times was adequate. People of moderate means were best off from a nutritional standpoint. More varied diets associated with new methods of farming were confirmed largely to the Low Countries & England, but a new food, like the potato, came to the aid of the poor everywhere. There was also a general growth of market gardening. Another sign of nutritional decline was the growing consumption of sugar.

Everyone eating in the 18th century.

What was up with medicine? Did they have DayQuil (my fave)?- medical practitioners: There was a great rise in research & experimentation at this time. Care of the sick in the 18th century was the domain of several competing groups: fait healers, apothecaries/pharmacists, physicians, surgeons, & midwives. A demonic view of disease was strongest in the countryside, so faith healing was particularly popular, effective in the treatment of mental disorders such as hysteria & depression. Regular purging of the bowels (aka pooping) was considered essential for good health & treatment of illness. Only bloodletting was more effective in speeding patients to their grave - bloodletting was still considered a medical cure-all. The simplest wound treated by a surgeon could fester & lead to death, however. Following the invention of the forceps, which helped in exceptionally difficult births, surgeon-physicians used their monopoly over this & other instruments to seek lucrative new business, attempting to undermine faith in midwives. Despite this, women remained dominant in the birthing trade. 

Surgeons to midwives.

hospitals & medical experiments: Hospitals were terrible places throughout most of the 18th century. Diderot’s article in the Encyclopedia on the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris, the “richest & most terrifying of all French hospitals,” vividly describes the conditions. Mental hospitals, too, were incredibly savage institutions. The customary treatment for mental illness was bleeding & cold water, administered more to maintain discipline than to effect a cure. William Tuke founded the first humane sanatorium in England. The 18th century’s greatest medical triumph was the conquest of smallpox with the introduction to inoculation. By the later years of the century, smallpox inoculation was playing some part in the decline of the death rate & the general increase in European population. Edward Jenner received monetary prizes from the British government for his great discovery regarding cowpox, a huge advance in the medical world.

Bye bye smallpox!

Religion & Popular Culture-

Are the priests being bad again?- the institutional church: As in the Middle Ages, the local parish church remained the basic religious unit all across Europe. The local church had important administrative tasks. Priests & parsons were truly the bookkeepers of agrarian Europe. As the Reformation gathered force, with peasant upheaval & doctrinal competition, German princes & monarchs in northern Europe put themselves at the head of official churched in their territories & then proceeded to regulate their “territorial churches” strictly. The Reformation, initially so radical in its rejection of Rome & its stress on individual religious experience, eventually resulted in a bureaucratization of the church & local religious life in Protestant Europe. Some Catholic monarchs began to impose striking reforms. These reforms had a very “Protestant” aspect, increasing state control over the Catholic Church, making it less subject to papal influence. A more striking indication of state power & papal weakness was the fate of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits. The Jesuits eventually elicited a broad coalition of enemies & bitter controversy led Louis XV to order the Jesuits out of France & confiscate their property. France & Spain then pressured Rome to dissolve the Jesuits completely. In 1773, a reluctant pope caved in, although the order was revived after the French Revolution. Some Catholic rulers also believed that the clergy in monasteries & convents should make a more practical contribution to social & religious life. protestant revival: In their attempt to recapture the vital core of Christian religion, the Protestant reformers had rigorously suppressed medieval practices. Such revolutionary changes had often troubled ordinary churchgoers. The Protestant revival began in Germany, known as Pietism, calling for a warm, emotional religion that everyone could experience. Enthusiasm - in prayer, in worship, in preaching, in life itself - was they key concept. Pietism reasserted the earlier radical stress on the priesthood of all believers, thereby reducing the large gulf between the official clergy & the Lutheran laity. Pietists believed in the practical power of Christian rebirth in everyday affairs. Reborn Christians were expected to lead good, moral lives & come from all social classes. Pietism had a major impact on John Wesley, who served as the catalyst for the popular religious revival in England. Wesley organized a Holy Club for students at Oxford, soon known contemptuously as Methodists, extremely methodical in their devotion. Wesley preached in open fields, winning over many & forming a new denomination. catholic piety: The tremendous popular strength of religion in Catholic countries reflected religion’s integral role in community life & popular culture. Inspired initially by the fervor of the Catholic Counter-Reformation & then to some extent by the critical rationalism of the Enlightenment, parish priests & Catholic hierarchies sought increasingly to “purify” popular religious practice. Many Catholic priests & hierarchies preferred a compromise between theological purity & the people’s piety, perhaps realizing that the lien between divine truth & mere superstition is not easily drawn.

Let's discuss leisure & recreation, something us AP Euro girls know nothing about.- The combination of religious celebration & popular recreation seen in festivals & processions was most strikingly displayed at Carnival, a time of reveling & excess in Catholic & Mediterranean Europe. The 18th century saw a sharp increase win the commercialization of leisure-time activities - a trend that continues to this day. Blood sports, such as bullbaiting & cockfighting, remained popular with the masses. With superstition, sin, disorder, & vulgarity, there was an attack on popular culture, intensified as an educated public embraced the critical world-view of the Enlightenment. This shift in cultural attitudes drove a wedge between the common people & the educated public.

Me & Caroline when Yarn said "cockfighting."

xoxo,

Nicole Flo :)

Me when I finished this post.

PS. Mr. Yarnall we should do this at prom, just saying... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkoizWLNkrQ

The Ultimate "That's What She Said"

Wakey, wakey Upperclassmen. Gossip Girl here. Winter break is done and I'm starved for a dish. "What's the difference between gossip and scandal?" So glad you asked, FloFromProgressive. Anyone can commit a minor indiscretion and generate a community's worth of buzz. But in order to birth a true scandal, it requires the right person to be in the wrong place.

What Mr. Yarnall said to me when he realized I was doing tonight's blog. 

I thought I would start the blog off today with a simple and elegant quote the one and only Greg shared with us today...

Me: Cities are filled with corruption...

Mr. Yarnall: And hussies!

@EVERYONE

On that note, what actually was discussed in class today besides an awkward conversation about breastfeeding? Well, I am happy you ask. 

The topics discussed in Chapter 19 played a major role in the ways in which life changed during this time period. The changing economic forefront led to the following social changes. 

"What is this chapter about?"

Why?- Young people no longer relied on inherited farmland, so people began to pursue other means of work, many of which were found in cities. With a growing urban population, people were no longer horribly scrutinized by their small communities (i.e. community controls) and no longer relied on the fields that so often tied them down. A new promiscuous age seemed inevitable because of a changing European society.

Good for you Shannon!

What were the major issues females faced?- As young women abandoned their homes in search of various other job opportunities, many became victims to their pleasure-seeking overseers (i.e. rape). 

With the youth seeking greater possibilities and an age of sexual promiscuity burgeoning, it seemed that the young people no longer relied on the bond of marriage to insure happiness and financial security. Most people viewed premarital sex and pregnancy as steps towards a proposal, many pregnant women were left husbandless/partnerless as men no longer felt responsible for indiscretions in the bedroom. With an increasing number of people practicing premarital sex, the number of illegitimate children grew. 

What were people's views about the illegitimate, bastard child?- As I mentioned earlier, community controls were society's ways of controlling individuals by embarrassing those who practiced "immoral" acts. Therefore, when an unplanned, unwanted birth did occur, society seemingly abandoned those involved. Pregnancy without the promise of marriage was something that society deemed improper and inappropriate. So, numerous worried mothers (hello illegitimacy explosion) would leave their children in foundling homes to rid themselves of the burden of raising a child (and community gossip). 

Shut up Society, nobody likes you. 

What were people's views on children in general?- Many children died in childbirth or infancy, so there seems to be a cloud of indifference in regard to people's views on the baby since there wasn't that promise of survival. As we discussed in class, this is kind of a "gray area" for us since it is hard for us, living in the twenty-first century, to comprehend such detachment. It is important to recall that children were not considered "children," since a family relied on the labor of all members, especially of the children. So, while this sounds ludicrous to us, children were like "little helpers/people" whose purpose was to be exploited for the needs of the family unit.

My future child - Emilia 2.0

What was the purpose of a wet nurse?- Hello breastfeeding conversation! Anyone want a HooterHider because I sure do! The idea of a wet nurse illustrates the detachment parents felt towards their newborn children. In today's world, mothers are usually the first to intervene into the lives of their children (MOM STOP LOOKING AT MY BLOGPOST <3), but in this chapter, mothers seem to have a cold feeling towards their children. Wet nurses are a prime example of this nonchalance towards motherhood. She was hired to do a basic motherly duty - breastfeed her employer's newborn, and yes, at the expense of her own child.

Nicole after she witnessed a five-year-old child getting breastfed.

Caroline's Dictionary Word-of-the-Day:

suckle (verb) - to feed a baby or young animal from the breast or teat: a mother pig suckled a huge litter

My reaction after Sardine told me what she wanted her Word-of-the-Day to be.

Also, to answer Mr. Yarnall's question, this is my boyfriend 2.0:

Is it? Because it's not bothering me! ;)

So to all my famished females out there, you never know who you'll "encounter" along the way. Who knows, maybe fairy tales come true after all (and he'll marry you even if you are pregnant). 

XOXO, Gossip Girl

Me after I finished this post without being too inappropriate. GO ME!

Welcome Back! Let's Recap, Shall We?

Welcome back, ladies!  I hope everyone had a fabulous winter break and I know you're all excited to get back to learning...not.

how we all feel about going back to school

When we last saw each other, we spent a delightful class eating candy and cookies and watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", which we discovered is a perfect metaphor for the conflict between Mr. Yarnall and our class, exhibited by the pictures below.

     

But unfortunately, not every class can be spent eating candy canes and playing Christmas pictionary with movies and songs the Napolis have never heard of.  During our last real class, we discussed the origin of Atlantic slave trade and Adam Smith.  In this post, I will briefly cover the last few topics from the chapter, since Giulia did such a thorough job covering a lot of material in her last post.

Atlantic slave trade originated after the Native Americans were dying out from the diseases that the colonists and explorers brought with them to the New World.  These diseases, which included smallpox and measles, destroyed many Caribbean populations.  In addition, many of the Native Americans were unwilling to work for the Europeans who came to the Americas, so they had to find another source of labor.  They turned to Africa for cheap labor, taking people there to the New World to work as slaves.  The "shore method" of trading involved Europeans obtaining slaves at various locations along the coast by inviting Africans to their ships where they could then move quickly and easily along the coast and to the Americas.  Slavery already existed in Africa, but it became a racial issue in America, where the slaves were predominately black.  Eventually, the importation of slaves was outlawed, but by that time there were already so many slaves in America that natural reproduction continued this horrible practice as more and more people were born into slavery.

At this time, when the powerful European countries had most of the land in the New World and the authority in international trade, independent merchants in other countries wanted to get rid of the imposed monopolies and have free trade instead, without regulations and specific laws. 

Adam Smith was the author of Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.  He was considered the godfather to classical liberalism, which is similar to today's Republican policies/ideals.  He advocated for small government, non-interventionism, isolationism, and free enterprise.  Smith also created the "invisible hand" metaphor in economics, which stressed that the markets were self-regulating.  The government and the people did not need to interfere with it because the economy and the markets would work themselves out and remain balanced naturally.  He argued that the government should limit itself to only 3 duties:

• The government should provide a defense against foreign invasion.
• The government should maintain civil order with courts and police protection.
• The government should sponsor certain indispensable public works and institutions that could never earn an adequate profit for private investors.

Smith's work became a classic argument for economic liberalism and capitalism.

Alright, that's all for now ladies (and Mr. Yarnall)!

me after I finished this blog post at 3:18 am