A Short History of Europe: From Charlemagne to the Treaty of Europe by Gordon Kerr Page B
Authors: Gordon Kerr
Ads: Link
century, created a new way of thinking and of describing the world. Descartes began with his famous, ‘ Cogito, ergo sum ’ (‘I think, therefore I exist’) – you can, withthe help of reason and mathematics, prove the existence of God. Other philosophers, such as the Englishmen Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and John Locke (1632–1704) and the Frenchman, Blaise Pascal (1623–62) had also questioned the status quo. Most importantly, the Swiss thinker, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78), took Locke’s thinking and built on it. Locke had said that people are born equal and are thesum total of their individual experience and observations. In The Social Contract Rousseau claimed that ‘Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.’ He advocated that power should be given to the people. The French philosopher and writer, Voltaire (1694–1778), meanwhile, poured scorn on institutional religion.
It was hardly surprising then, after centuries of religious and political repressionand tyranny overlaid with superstition and mysticism, that people began to wish for a society based on Reason. Enlightenment thinkers were severely critical, too, of the repression of individual and personal liberty by political and religious institutions. Such thinking would lead, ultimately, to the American and French Revolutions in the eighteenth century and also contributed to later eventssuch as the Latin American independence movement and the Greek national independence movement, culminating in the Greek War of Independence, fought between 1821 and 1829. Another element of the Enlightenment perhaps arose partly from Europeans’ experience of the ‘natural’ lives lived by the natives of the lands that had been recently discovered. Works such as Benedictus de Spinoza’s Ethics expoundeda pantheistic view of the world with God and nature as one. Nature would become a leitmotif of Enlightenment literature.
The Treaty of Utrecht had made Europe a relatively safe place in which to travel and many young men took themselves off on the Grand Tour, buying art and shipping it home and soaking up ideas and styles. Architecture began to reflect the influence of the Grand Tourists andthe influence of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–80) became pervasive. Palladio influenced English architects such as Christopher Wren (1632–1723) and Inigo Jones (1573–1652). Italianate villas began to spring up in the English and Irish countryside. As the eighteenth century progressed, however, romanticism became the fashion. Garden designers such as ‘Capability’ Brown (1716–83) madenatural-looking landscapes de rigueur and this taste for nature reverberated through the arts with poets such as William Wordsworth (1770–1850) whose work rejoiced in the natural, unspoilt beauty of England’s Lake District. In music, too, romanticism became popular across Europe later in the century.
Enlightened Despots
While most countries were monarchies, the styles of government varied fromcountry to country in Europe at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Absolutism had taken hold and most kings or emperors ruled by ‘divine right’; they were entitled to rule by their birth and were responsible for their actions to no one but God.
However, there were those amongst this ruling elite who became interested in the new ideas of the Enlightenment and who tried to apply them to politics,in spite of their absolutism. They became known as enlightened despots and embraced such rationalist principles of the Enlightenment as religious tolerance, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the right to own property. They allowed and encouraged the development of science, the arts and education in their countries. In Denmark, Count Johann von Struensee (1737–72), de facto regent whilethe schizophrenic Christian VII (1749–1808) was king, tried to introduce enlightened reforms, freeing the serfs, improving the legal system and introducing religious tolerance;
It was hardly surprising then, after centuries of religious and political repressionand tyranny overlaid with superstition and mysticism, that people began to wish for a society based on Reason. Enlightenment thinkers were severely critical, too, of the repression of individual and personal liberty by political and religious institutions. Such thinking would lead, ultimately, to the American and French Revolutions in the eighteenth century and also contributed to later eventssuch as the Latin American independence movement and the Greek national independence movement, culminating in the Greek War of Independence, fought between 1821 and 1829. Another element of the Enlightenment perhaps arose partly from Europeans’ experience of the ‘natural’ lives lived by the natives of the lands that had been recently discovered. Works such as Benedictus de Spinoza’s Ethics expoundeda pantheistic view of the world with God and nature as one. Nature would become a leitmotif of Enlightenment literature.
The Treaty of Utrecht had made Europe a relatively safe place in which to travel and many young men took themselves off on the Grand Tour, buying art and shipping it home and soaking up ideas and styles. Architecture began to reflect the influence of the Grand Tourists andthe influence of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–80) became pervasive. Palladio influenced English architects such as Christopher Wren (1632–1723) and Inigo Jones (1573–1652). Italianate villas began to spring up in the English and Irish countryside. As the eighteenth century progressed, however, romanticism became the fashion. Garden designers such as ‘Capability’ Brown (1716–83) madenatural-looking landscapes de rigueur and this taste for nature reverberated through the arts with poets such as William Wordsworth (1770–1850) whose work rejoiced in the natural, unspoilt beauty of England’s Lake District. In music, too, romanticism became popular across Europe later in the century.
Enlightened Despots
While most countries were monarchies, the styles of government varied fromcountry to country in Europe at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Absolutism had taken hold and most kings or emperors ruled by ‘divine right’; they were entitled to rule by their birth and were responsible for their actions to no one but God.
However, there were those amongst this ruling elite who became interested in the new ideas of the Enlightenment and who tried to apply them to politics,in spite of their absolutism. They became known as enlightened despots and embraced such rationalist principles of the Enlightenment as religious tolerance, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the right to own property. They allowed and encouraged the development of science, the arts and education in their countries. In Denmark, Count Johann von Struensee (1737–72), de facto regent whilethe schizophrenic Christian VII (1749–1808) was king, tried to introduce enlightened reforms, freeing the serfs, improving the legal system and introducing religious tolerance;
Similar Books
