Why did the population explosion happen in the 18th Century?

• There were a lot of problems that affected population prior to the 18th century:
• Famine: years of famine resulted in lots of people starving to death and population shrank throughout European villages that were affected
• Bubonic Plague killed thousands of people every time it reappeared throughout Europe
• Diseases like Typhoid and Smallpox killed off people constantly 
• How did this change during the 18th Century?
• In England roads and canals were built which allowed food to get to places where crops failed. Years of famine still occurred, but their effects were mitigated as people could purchase food. 

• The enclosure movement meant that there would be an increase in production of food which could support larger populations. 
• The Bubonic Plague disappeared and many disease outbreaks were carefully isolated so less people died. 

How did this population growth change rural life?

• Thanks to the enclosure movement, a lot of peasants had no way of gleaning or making money and they needed a way to earn a living.
• The population growth meant that jobs were scarce and not well paid.
• Urban capitalists took advantage of the huge amount of unemployed peasants through the putting-out system
• The putting-out system was set up so that a merchant would give raw materials to a worker in this cottage industry and the worker would make something with the raw materials.
• It was most common for peasants to turn wool into fabrics.
• Proletarianization: transforming large numbers of peasant farmers into wage earners 
• This transformation occurred most dramatically in England
• They had a well-developed system of navigable rivers and canals so goods could get from merchant to worker easily
• Life was not any better for wage-earning peasants than it was for peasants who gleaned during the open-field days. They lost some of their personal identity during this time and in many ways became part of a machine, assembling things for menial wages. 

Class 11/21


"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains"

• chains=government, church, schools 
• These 3 institutions are the social institutions everyone is interested in now. 

"Social order is a sacred right which serves as a basis for all other rights, does not come from nature, but from things we've created" --> agreements 

• Example: A father and his child both have obligations to each other when the child is young and helpless, but, as soon as the child can stand on his own two feet, the decision to continue the relationship between the father and child is completely voluntary. Whatever they decide, they decide through making a mutual agreement between them. 
• father=king, child=people 

What is the general will?

• The general will serves the common good. It is not about the individual, but about what will benefit society in the long term. 
• "Greatest good, for greater number of people"- John Stuart Mill
• Everyone is forced to be part of the general will. Not just 1 person and their beliefs controls the will. 

People care about their own self preservation first 

What is considered right isn't based on anything legitimates --> so how know if whats considered to be "right" is actually right 

War should be star vs. state, not personal 

• It is issues between two states which cause war. Not personal issues between the people. 

Class 11/17

What important developments led to increased agricultural production?

• Crop rotation: farmers would use the three-field system
• Three-field system: farmers would split their land into 3, and at any given time, they would have 2 fields operating at one time. The field not in use was fallow, and the land was resting
• Different fields were used for different crops, which could remove or replenish nutrients in the soil 

What major change occurred because of new farming methods?

• Enclosure movement: its supporters believed that the new farming methods could not work with open fields. Instead, they advocated for building fences around each person's land.

• Peasants were upset by this change because they owned little to no land, which meant that they could not grow much food. 
• Prior to the enclosure movement, peasants would get additional food by gleaning
• Gleaning: peasants would collect crops on communal lands which they would eat or sell. Once the enclosure movement put an end to communal lands, peasants could no longer glean, and they lost food and income sources. 

What were the 3 important changes in this (time) period?

• Cottage industries and putting out system (Proto-industrialization)
• Cottage industry: business conducted in someone's home
• Putting Out System: outsourcing labor 
• Enclosure
• Agricultural revolution

What was up with the Low Countries and England?

• The Dutch had important agricultural technology, which meant that they held all the power 
• Irrigation was like the atomic bomb in that England was able to copy the Dutch and develop its own similar method of doing what the Dutch did

Jethro Tull's idea

• The ox is (potentially) getting to see his future with the meat that the man is processing

• 
  

11/11 class

Blog 11/11

• Pugachev rebellion
• Made Catherine realize there needs to be a limit on the amount of power the people have
• importance of Pugachev rebellion
• Catherine realized she needed to be more absolutists → no more middle ground
• Enlightened absolutism
• Serfdom was in all 3 countries
• Pragmatic Sanction- nobody could split the Habsburg lands when Maria Theresa ascends to the throne
• Austria- Joseph tried to give some power back to the serfs but they didn’t have any money to support themselves and pay the nobles to use the land
• Frederick the Great
• Took over Maria Theresa (who was mad) land
• She allied with France and it led to the 7 years war
• Peter 3rd took control in Russia and got along with Frederick
• Followed up with China for the enlightened thought
• The Allegory of the Cave
• The people chained to the wall are not enlightened
• https://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm

• Rank of enlightened absolutists

enlightened	Enlightened absolutists	absolutist
1) Russia- Catherine the great tried to give power to serfs, she brought arts and other enlightenment ideals into Russia	Prussia	1) Austria- under Maria, she tried to reform she reduced the power of the lords over their serfs She reduced the power of others under her increase her power
2) Prussia		2 Russia
3) Austria		3 Prussia

Coffee, Women, Racism

How did the Enlightenment change the way people thought about things?

Religion:

The way religion was viewed during the Enlightenment changed drastically due to the new emphasis on logic and reason. 

David Hume argued that miracles couldn't happen, showing how people valued logic over faith throughout the Enlightenment. Voltaire even said that God was just a clockmaker who created the world and then let things play out with no divine intervention- a drastic change from the earlier ideas of the Reformation, which emphasized Christ's suffering and death in order to save humanity (significantly more personal view on God before the Enlightenment). 

Race:

Racism really began during the Enlightenment. Prior to this time, the differences between races were denoted by nationality, not biology. During the Enlightenment, Carl Linnaeus began classifying plants and species from the New World and so they thought it would be a good idea to classify humans based on the different races. 

Enlightenment thinkers such as Immanuel Kant and David Hume said that whites were biologically superior to all other races. This new way of thinking meant that non-Europeans were "naturally" inferior as well as culturally inferior. This allowed them to justify the enslavement (which they even argued was beneficial) of Africans and Indigenous people in the American colonies. 

Women:

During the Enlightenment, views on women also shifted slightly. Similarly to the supposed "natural" inferiority of non-Europeans, women also became inferior in a biological sense. Their only purpose was to have children so that more men could be made. They were viewed as being physically and intellectually inferior to men. This viewpoint was not always held, however, as people like Marquis de Condorcet argued that men and women should have equal rights (a rare opinion during this time). Some women such as Mary Astell (author of A Serious Proposal to the Ladies) were even able to publish books encouraging women to "lead a life of the mind" and to form a women's college.

How did these new ways of thinking get around?

Coffeehouses:

Books and newspapers were still difficult to get copies of, especially for middle class people who could not afford them. Coffeehouses offered places where many people could meet and discuss current events and ideas. Foreigners could come to offer a broader worldview about life. While women were mostly excluded from joining in on conversation, they served as waitresses and could overhear current events. 

Salons:

Salons offered a place for the wealthy and elite to meet once a week to discuss findings and share research. These places were not meant for just any person, but instead for those who had accomplished something big during this time. 

11/7/17

So who are the important people from the Enlightenment?

Voltaire

• He believed in deism- set up then just let everything happen, no intervention, everything just runs its course.
• very radical
• people don't like--> like knowing that the good they do is being rewarded
• He didn't believe in social or economic equality.

Montesquieu

• He used satire to critique European government.
• hated absolutism, but wasn't exactly a democrat 
• separation of power- political power divided among different classes and legal estates which hold unequal rights 

David Hume

• He thought that since miracles can't be proved empirically--> very unlikely that they actually exist
• things don't just happen, there are reasons for everything 
• How do his beliefs about miracles have to do with the Enlightenment?
• The Enlightenment was all about proving accepted beliefs and facts with proof. This is what Hue wanted to do when it came to miracles. He attempted to empirically prove them. Empiricism is a huge part of the foundation of the Enlightenment. 

Adam Smith 

• He is the Father of Lazier Fair.
•  The government is only responsible for basics, like national defense. 

Rosseau

• He's not a fan of rationalism.
• He started the Romantic Movement.

Class Notes 11/3

Article Discussion

• What is Enlightenment?
• According to the article, "Man's release from self-incurred tutelage"
• But what does this mean?
• People are too unintelligent to do things by themselves, so they need a leader to tell them what to do
• People are too scared and lazy to think for themselves
• It's easier to pay someone else to do it for you
• People were afraid to defy the people doing the thinking for them
• People don't have to think, so they don't learn how to think for themselves, which makes them afraid to try it and fail. 
• How do you break away?
• Slowly. You can't tear down a system that's been around for so long
• This system hurts everyone
• People can't think freely
• The "guardians" doing the thinking had to be responsible for the general population 
• How do you become enlightened?
• Freedom
• This is difficult, because it's restricted by everything 

Textbook Discussion

• To what extent is Enlightenment related to the Scientific Revolution?
• The Scientific Revolution created the proper environment for the Enlightenment
• People asked a lot of questions, which led to the Scientific Revolution
• They continued asking questions, which led to the Enlightenment
• John Locke
• If you can't see it, it didn't happen
• If you can't prove it, why are we going about these rules?
• Why do we have somebody in charge of us without there being a reason for it?
• Without a strong ruler? The center falls apart 

11/2 The Scientific Revolution

• The scientific revolution is the beginning of the modern world
• Differences between the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution
• Renaissance looked back to the classics
• Scientific revolution looked forward
• Science before 1500 was based in theology, took greek philosophy and christianized it
• People start to question the scientific teachings
• The different reactions between what the protestants and catholics originally say
• At first Protestants were against it because they are fundamentalists
• This shifted to catholics against it because they opposed heliocentric view
• Why did the Protestants become pro-science?
• they did not have a Pope as an authoritative power over them
• The scientific method is very important
• Bacon and Descartes changes things from speculation to an empirical formula
• Before empiricism people just thought about things and didn’t have any logic behind it

• 

  Descartes 

• Inductive reasoning- from specific to general
• Inductive and empiricism are together
• Add more knowledge to see more parts and an answer
• Deductive reasoning- from general to specific
• Look at the parts of the concept and try to deduct to see the final parts
• As we get to the enlightenment people take these ways of thinking and apply it to society not just things in nature
• Pascal's Wager- created this wager to say it’s unlikely there's a God but it's beneficial to believe in him
• The punishments of not believing in him can be worse than actually believing in him