Chapter 18 The Enlightenment and the American Revolution

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Chapter 18 - The Enlightenment and the American
Revolution

• Section 2 Enlightenment Ideas Spread

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• Setting the Scene
• Paris, the heart of the Enlightenment, drew many
  intellectuals and others eager to debate the new
  ideas. Reforms proposed one evening became the
  talk of the town the next day. Even an enemy of
  the Enlightenment admitted that "an opinion
  launched in Paris was like a battering ram
  launched by 30 million men
• From France, Enlightenment ideas flowed across
  Europe and beyond. Everywhere, thinkers examined
  traditional beliefs and customs in the light of
  reason and found them flawed. Even absolute
  monarchs experimented with Enlightenment ideas,
  although they drew back when changes threatened
  the established way of doing things.

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I. Censorship

• Government and church authorities waged a
  censorship war against Enlightenment ideas,
  banning/burning books and imprisoning writers

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A. Censorship

• Philosophes and writers like Montesquieu and
  Voltaire disguised their ideas in works of fiction

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B. Salons

• Women began holding salons where philosophes,
  middle-class citizens, and nobility could discuss
  Enlightenment ideas

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II. Enlightened Despots

• Enlightened despots (absolute rulers) used their
  power to bring about political and social change

Catherine the Great of Russia
Frederick the Great of Prussia
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A. Frederick the Great

• Frederick admired Voltaire and brought him to
  Berlin to develop a Prussian academy of science

Frederick the Great and Voltaire
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A. Frederick the Great

• He helped the peasants, tolerated religious
  differences, and reformed the government to make
  it more efficient

Voltaire with Frederick the Great
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B. Catherine the Great

• Catherine II of Russia exchanged letters with the
  philosophes and made limited reforms in law and
  government

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B. Catherine the Great

• Neither intended to give up any power
  Catherine's major contribution to Russia was an
  expanded empire

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C. Joseph II

• The most radical of the enlightened despots was
  the Hapsburg emperor Joseph II

Joseph II, 17411790, Holy Roman emperor
(176590), king of Bohemia and Hungary (178090),
son of Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor
Francis I. Granted religious toleration, ended
censorship, and abolished serfdom
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III. The Arts and Literature

• Art and architecture were either classical or a
  grand and complex style called baroque

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III. The Arts and Literature

• Architects and designers developed the rococo
  style - personal, elegant, and charming

Madame de Pompadour portrait by François Boucher
circa 1750. Madame de Pompadour was a well known
courtesan and the famous mistress of King Louis
XV of France.
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III. The Arts and Literature

• The growing middle class wanted their portraits
  painted, but without the frills

Madame Jean Baptiste Nicolet Artist Jean
Baptiste Greuze late 1780s
Don Sebastien Martyez Artist Francisco de
Goya
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III. The Arts and Literature

• New kinds of musical entertainment such as
  ballets and operas appeared

Paris opera house
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III. The Arts and Literature

• Bach created religious works for organs and
  choirs Mozart created a new style of classical
  composition

Johann Sebastian Bach 1685 - 1750
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756 1791
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III. The Arts and Literature
George Frederick Handel wrote the Messiah, which
combines instruments and voices
Messiah
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
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III. The Arts and Literature

• Literature developed new forms such as the novel

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IV. Lives of the Majority

• Most Europeans were peasants in small rural
  villages serfdom disappeared in the West but
  expanded in Russia and the East