A Dangerous Idea

2021 ◽  
pp. 222-233
Author(s):  
Edward J. Watts
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
The Republic

The fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the claims that many European powers made to the Roman legacy led to a shift in what Rome’s decline meant. Starting in the fifteenth century but continuing through Edward Gibbon’s famous eighteenth-century book The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, people embraced the idea that Rome’s story has ended. Figures like Leonardo Bruni and Montesquieu placed Roman decline at the end of the Republic. It was only with Gibbon that Rome’s peak moved to the Antonine Age. As this idea became more prominent, Roman decline no longer was something that inspired restoration. Instead it became a story that allows people to point to current conditions and criticize them by invoking Roman parallels. One great exception to this story was the tendency of Italian politicians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to push for a resuscitation of the ancient Roman state, with the ideas of Mazzini and Mussolini particularly notable in this regard.

A Variety of Religious Architecture in Poland

1990 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 161-171
Author(s):  
Tadeusz Chrzanowski
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
National Character ◽  
Federal State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Tribal Community ◽  
New Model ◽  
Religious Architecture ◽  
The Republic

Before I attempt a brief survey of the numerous and varied examples of religious architecture in Poland let me mention a few well-known facts. Poland, having grown out of a tribal community, and having early developed a national character, after the Union with Lithuania (first a personal union in 1386 and then a State union in 1569) began expanding rapidly. At the turn of the fifteenth century a new model of parliamentary monarchy was established, a model functioning in an already multinational, federal state, which ceased to be the ‘Republic of Two Nations’ and became instead the ‘Republic of Many Nations’. I do not intend to analyse here all the achievements, changes, and mistakes of Poland, but I would like to stress that between the fifteenth century and the eighteenth century the Poles were in a minority. This minority, however, decided the country’s fate, as it was Polish noblemen (szlachta) who set the political and cultural pace. It has never been accurately assessed what percentage of the whole society the noblemen were, but it must have been high, probably the highest in Europe. According to some sources, the Poles who felt themselves free and regarded Poland as their commonwealth formed ten per cent of the whole population. We should also note that at that time the process of Polonization took place mainly among the nobility, and that the Poles who were in a minority in the Polish-Lithuanian State were at the same time a majority among those who ruled that State. I am not saying that as a Polish nationalist, but as an historian who has a deep respect and friendly feeling for all the nations and denominations which once inhabited this large and unique country. The Union of Lublin put the final touches to this distinctive commonwealth, which appeared too early in the Europe of nationalism and absolutism to survive.

scholarly journals The Czech Nobility's Use of the Right of Patronage on Behalf of the Hussite Reform Movement

Slavic Review ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Klassen
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
European History ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Reform Movements ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Southern France ◽  
The Right ◽  
Instrumental Role

Throughout European history the aristocracy has been involved in reform movements which undermined either ecclesiastical or monarchical power structures. Thus the nobles of southern France in the twelfth century granted protection to the Cathars, and in fourteenth-century England lords and knights offered aid to the Lollards. The support of German princes and knights for Lutheranism is well known, as is the instrumental role played by the French aristocracy in initiating the constitutional reforms which gave birth to that nation's eighteenth-century revolution. The fifteenth-century Hussite reform movement in Bohemia similarly received aid from the noble class. Here, when the Hussites were under attack in 1417 from the authorities, especially the archbishop, sympathetic lords protected Hussite priests on their domains.

Economic decline and the urban elite in eighteenth-century Dutch towns: a review essay

Urban History ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 78-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herman Diederiks
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Economic Decline ◽  
Urban Hierarchy ◽  
Leading Position ◽  
Urban Elite ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Clay Pipe ◽  
Dramatic Fall

Dutch urban history has finally accorded the eighteenth century the attention it deserves in a number of recent publications. That century was characterized by the economic and political decline of the Dutch Republic generally, and certain towns in particular. The ‘Zuiderzee’ towns witnessed a dramatic fall in population, reflecting their economic decline, and in the southern part of the province of Holland urban life also stagnated. In contrast to the ports, inland towns derived status in the urban hierarchy from their industrial interests, but due to foreign competition in the eighteenth century, they too declined; most notably, the cloth industry of Leiden, the clay pipe industry of Gouda, and the breweries and potteries of Delft each lost the leading position established in the seventeenth century. Leiden was the largest of the towns with more than 70,000 inhabitants in the last quarter of the seventeenth century, and after Amsterdam, was the most populous town of the Republic. Leiden however could not maintain that position, and lost almost 50 per cent of its inhabitants during the first half of the eighteenth century, declining further to under 30,000 residents by 1800. Gouda numbered about 20,000 in 1732, but declined to 12,000 in 1795; Hoorn with 12,000 inhabitants diminished to only 9,500 in 1795 and the population of Delft, too, fell from around 24,000 in 1680 to 14,000 in 1795.

COMMUNICATING EMPIRE: THE HABSBURGS AND THEIR CRITICS, 1700–1919

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 117-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. W. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
The Other ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Free Standing ◽  
Power Base ◽  
The One ◽  
At Home

ABSTRACTIn the vibrant current debate about European empires and their ideologies, one basic dichotomy still tends to be overlooked: that between, on the one hand, the plurality of modern empires of colonisation, commerce and settlement; and, on the other, the traditional claim to single and undividedimperiumso long embodied in the Roman Empire and its successor, the Holy Roman Empire, or (First) Reich. This paper examines the tensions between the two, as manifested in the theory and practice of Habsburg imperial rule. The Habsburgs, emperors of the Reich almost continuously through its last centuries, sought to build their own power-base within and beyond it. The first half of the paper examines how by the eighteenth century their ‘Monarchy’, subsisting alongside the Reich, dealt with the associated legacy of empire. After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 the Habsburgs could pursue a free-standing Austrian ‘imperialism’, but it rested on an uneasy combination of old and new elements and was correspondingly vulnerable to challenge from abroad and censure at home. The second half of the article charts this aspect of Habsburg government through an age of international imperialism and its contribution to the collapse of the Dual Monarchy in 1918.

Natural Disaster at the Closing of the Dutch Golden Age

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Sundberg
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Dutch Golden Age ◽  
Scale Of Response ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Dutch Experience

By the early eighteenth century, the economic primacy, cultural efflorescence, and geopolitical power of the Dutch Republic appeared to be waning. The end of this Golden Age was also an era of natural disasters. Between the late seventeenth and the mid-eighteenth century, Dutch communities weathered numerous calamities, including river and coastal floods, cattle plagues, and an outbreak of strange mollusks that threatened the literal foundations of the Republic. Adam Sundberg demonstrates that these disasters emerged out of longstanding changes in environment and society. They were also fundamental to the Dutch experience and understanding of eighteenth-century decline. Disasters provoked widespread suffering, but they also opened opportunities to retool management strategies, expand the scale of response, and to reconsider the ultimate meaning of catastrophe. This book reveals a dynamic and often resilient picture of a society coping with calamity at odds with historical assessments of eighteenth-century stagnation.

scholarly journals Life and activity of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-367
Author(s):  
Maryam Seyidbeyli
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Scientific Center ◽  
North West ◽  
Entire Complex ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Middle Ages

At the beginning of the VII century in the political life of the Near and Middle East, fundamental changes have taken place. The Arabs conquered a colossal territory, which included the lands of Iran, North Africa, North-West India, the Asian provinces of Byzantium, most of the former Roman Empire. In the conquered cities of the caliphate, observatories, madaris, libraries were built. At the end of VII century, the first scientific center, an academy, the House of Wisdom, was founded in Baghdad, in which scholars who spoke different languages were assembled. Here the translation and commentary activity were very developed, the main works of ancient thought, such as the writings of Aristotle, Ptolemy were published in the 9th century in the Arabic-speaking world. For two centuries from 750 to 950 years, the works of ancient authors on philosophy, mathematics, medicine, alchemy, and astronomy were translated into Arabic, which indicates the high scientific potential of that time in the East. At the same time, in the XII century, Ibn Rushd composed 38 commentaries on the works of Aristotle, the “Republic” of Plato, the treatise “On the Mind” of Alexander of Aphrodisias, which subsequently had an important influence on the work of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. Thus, this period in the history of Eastern scientific thought is marked by high intellectual potential. To this day, historians of medieval Arabic literature face a sufficient number of difficulties, since the vast majority of manuscripts remain inaccessible to them. The works of many renowned Arab authors of the middle Ages are more than 1000 years old, so it seems obvious that the manuscripts of the vast majority of authors have not survived to this day. The researchers of the history of Azerbaijan and neighboring countries in the middle Ages, with all the variety of available sources on which they rely, still attract little factual material related to the Arabic-language works of the historical and scientific genre. Undoubtedly, a comprehensive study of the entire complex of information of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi on the history of science in Azerbaijan is of great importance.

scholarly journals The Temporal and Spatial Structure of Medieval Expulsions of Jews

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerice Doten-Snitker
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Event History Analysis ◽  
Economic Incentives ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Social Interdependence ◽  
History Analysis ◽  
Racial Exclusion ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Political Value

What social processes guide the spread of ethnic or racial exclusion? I investigate the diffusion of medieval expulsions of Jews from polities in the Holy Roman Empire. For medieval rulers, religious and material concerns were strong rationales against expulsion. Yet expulsions increase markedly in the fifteenth century. Did an expulsion by one government affect another government’s choices about expulsion? Using event history analysis methods, I document the limited spread of expulsion among over 500 polities in the western Holy Roman Empire, 1385-1520 CE. Temporal and spatial trends indicate that expulsions in politically and economically powerful cities spurred expulsions generally but suppressed them nearby. The adoption of expulsion followed political and economic incentives that were embedded in inter-city relationships, particularly after theological changes gave expulsion fresh political value. Social interdependence can spur as well as squelch racial extremism.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole von Germeten
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Government Regulation ◽  
First Century ◽  
Spanish American ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries

The conclusion surveys how in nineteenth-century Mexico, Europe, and regions around the world under European colonial rule, sex work took place in an environment of increasing government intervention, a phase in the history of sexuality that extends into the twenty-first century. The concern about disease control took on a more scientific, sanitary tone in the eighteenth century. This discourse remained critical to sex work law, as it does to the present day. Through prolific regulations, scientific studies, works of literature, and statements made by sex workers themselves, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw an enormous increase in the archiving and inscribing of women who sold sex. But their roles remained the same: either pathetic victims (usually of non-whites or non-Christians or other feared populations), lascivious and scandalous disturbers of the peace, or dehumanized and horrific threats to public health. Imperialism and international conceptions of race/gender difference led to increasing government regulation in locations as dispersed as the disappearing Spanish American viceroyalties, extending outwards to Europe, Asia, and Oceania.

The Opium Wars

Jazz in China ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 14-20
Author(s):  
Eugene Marlow
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Eastern Coast ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Unrestricted Access ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Many ◽  
Opium Wars

In the late 1910s, 1920s, and even into the 1930s, “jazz” was the music of the age in the Republic of China, especially and primarily in Shanghai on China's east coast. It was enjoyed equally by sophisticated Chinese gentry and upper-class people in the many dance halls dotting various parts of Shanghai, and by the many Europeans, Russians, and Americans living and working in the so-called “Paris of the East.” These same foreigners also owned pieces of Shanghai, literally. This chapter asks how several foreign nations came to own sections of Shanghai, and have unrestricted access to numerous key ports throughout China's eastern coast? The answer to these questions can be found in a conflict initially between the British (and ultimately the French, Russians, and Americans) and the Chinese in the mid-nineteenth century: the Opium Wars, two wars that had roots in late eighteenth-century China.

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