Enlightenment

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Munck
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
The French Revolution

The Enlightenment, as a historical term, is intimately linked to the Ancien Régime: both describe historical constructs that once seemed more French than European, at least in origin, and although the term “Ancien Régime” acquired its meaning only in retrospect (from the perspective of 1790), both were originally used by historians to denote something which had come to an end by 1789. The Enlightenment was the intellectually innovative and emancipatory process which, depending on the definition of the Ancien Régime itself, either modernized the political and social structures of the early modern state, or helped to undermine it and to precipitate the upheaval of the French Revolution.

Metternich’s Europe

1998 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Sefton D. Temkin
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Foreign Minister ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
The French Revolution

This chapter explores the childhood of Isaac Mayer Wise (1819–1900) and the political climate in which he had grown up. He was born in Steingrub, Bohemia in 1890. Of the first twenty-seven years of the man who said that he became a naturalized American amid these surroundings, very little is known, save that he was born into a fettered society; and its chains were heavier because they had been reimposed after a period of near freedom. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars had spread throughout Europe the aspiration for popular sovereignty and the rights of nationalities: the Congress of Vienna gave scant recognition to the new forces and set about restoring the ancien régime. The genius of those who set themselves to thwart the allied forces of liberalism and nationalism was Clemens von Metternich, Austrian Foreign Minister from 1809 till 1848. It was in the Austrian Empire where Wise lived that, despite Metternich’s awareness of the need for reform, his system operated to the worst effect.

Slavery and Serfdom

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Doyle
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
Two Systems ◽  
To Come ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
The French Revolution

Slavery and serfdom, together underpinning so much of the economic Ancien Régime, survived the challenges of revolution. Only serfdom in France (already a dwindling relic) and slavery in Haiti disappeared for good. Elsewhere, both systems of servitude reached their zenith. And although both had begun by then to come under attack, the initial impact of the French Revolution was to arrest or retard chances of emancipation as terrified governments and propertied elites witnessed what mayhem freedom could unleash. But for all the comparisons often made, then and since, between the two systems of subjection, they cannot be pressed too far. Despite the spectacular prosperity built on the backs of colonial slaves, revolts among them were relatively rare and did not threaten social structures in Europe.

Lavoisier writes to Fourcroy from prison

1958 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-60
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
Chemical Revolution ◽  
Educational Curriculum ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The French Revolution

The principal architects of the ‘chemical revolution’ may well be said to have been Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) and Antoine Francois Fourcroy (1755-1809). The former by the intuitive genius of his brain, the extraordinary manipulative skill of his hands and the impeccable logic of his mind elaborated and set forth those truths on which modem chemistry was founded. The latter used his ingratiating and flexible personality, oratorical ability and facile pen to publicize the new chemistry and see that it was embodied in the educational curriculum. Lavoisier helped Fourcroy during his earlier years and used his prestige and influence to advance the younger man and obtain financial preferment for him. Under the ancien régime Lavoisier was rich, respected and influential; Fourcroy led a struggling existence for many years. The French Revolution was to bring Lavoisier misery and legal assassination; the same period saw Fourcroy’s prestige and power rise to a maximum. The relationship existing between the two men presents an as yet unsolved puzzle. Fourcroy’s biography still has to be written, as does an authoritative one of Lavoisier, when all the material is available. The latter’s standard biographer, Edouard Grimaux, wrote three-quarters of a century ago and his work needs to be superseded by an objective and fully documented modern study. Grimaux strongly condemned Fourcroy for allowing Lavoisier to be sent to the guillotine and implies that, possibly motivated by jealousy, he may have helped to speed him on his way. Modern scholars are inclined to the opinion that Grimaux maligned Fourcroy unjustifiably. The charge, however, was evidently current shortly after Lavoisier’s death, for in a speech delivered only two years after the lamentable event Fourcroy felt constrained to defend himself against an accusation which was to haunt him for the rest of his days and pursue him from his own death until the present day.

The Shutting of the Gates

2021 ◽  
pp. 213-234
Author(s):  
David Dickson
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
Irish Society ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
The French Revolution

This chapter presents a wider challenge to the existing power structures in Ireland during the tumultuous 1790s. It recounts the collapse of the ancien régime in France and divided urban world, then examines how the French Revolution opened up cleavages and profoundly sharpened social and religious divisions. The chapter then introduces Mathew Carey, a Dublin baker's son, who presented his imprudent willingness to articulate in print the enormity of Catholic grievances. His violent criticism of Dublin Castle, of the English connection, and of local political heavyweights ended with his flight to America in disguise in 1784. The chapter also discusses how the local theatre provides some insight as to how far political attitudes shifted. The chapter then shifts to investigate how the two versions of democratic fraternity, the Belfast's first United Irish Society and Dublin United Irish Society, marked the beginnings of radical political organization. It follows the revival of the Catholic Committee in Dublin, and assesses the effects of the removal of the remaining penal laws, especially the firearms ban.

Being and Freedom

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Skorupski
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
Radical Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Politics And Religion ◽  
Late Modern ◽  
The French Revolution

Being and Freedom is an account of ethics in Europe from the French Revolution: a phase of philosophical ethics whose influence ran far beyond philosophy, eventually dominating politics and religion in the West. Developments came from France, Germany, and Britain. This book is currently the only study that treats them together as a Europe-wide phenomenon. The first chapter covers the philosophical conflict at the heart of the French Revolution, between the individualism of the Enlightenment and two very different forms of holistic ethics: the old regime’s ethic of service and the radical-democracy of the Rousseauian left. Responses analysing modern freedom and democracy came from a series of French liberal thinkers. In Germany the reaction was to two revolutions seen as inaugurating modernity—the political revolution in France and the philosophical revolution of Kant. Here the fate of religion was critical; with it the metaphysics of being and freedom. The story is traced from Kant to Hegel’s idealist version of ethical holism. In Britain, Enlightenment naturalism remained the prevailing framework. It took different forms: ‘common sense’ and the theory of the sentiments in Scotland, utilitarianism in England. From these elements came a synthesis of European themes by John Stuart Mill—comparable in range but opposed to that of Hegel. This period’s ethical ideas remain the core of late modern ethics and the contested ground on which ethical disagreements take place today. The final chapter is a retrospective and assessment.

scholarly journals 18th-Century Price-Riots, the French Revolution and the Jacobin Maximum

1959 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 432-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. B. Rose
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Price Control ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
The French Revolution

The “war communism” of the Jacobins, mobilizing all economic forces for the defence of the Republic, has many features which seem to anticipate later regimes more self-consciously and more consistently socialist. At the same time it appears in some respects as a partial return to the étatisme of the Ancien Régime in reaction against the liberalism of 1789. Particularly is this true of the adoption, in 1793, of a system of price control for essential commodities.

Partitions

2019 ◽  
pp. 128-136
Author(s):  
David Sorkin
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
Uniform Law ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
Joseph Ii ◽  
Dominant Influence ◽  
Communal Autonomy ◽  
The French Revolution

This chapter explores the second and third partitions of Poland (1793, 1795), which rivaled the French Revolution in destroying the ancien régime. The partitioning powers' conservative reaction to the French Revolution and Napoleon brought to the fore the tensions of partial or conditional emancipation. Although Joseph II's 1789 legislation remained the dominant influence, the partitioning powers introduced multiple restrictions that neutralized its ideal of parity. Prussia's 1797 legislation of conditional emancipation left Posen's Jews in limbo. It stripped them of communal autonomy yet still treated them as a community. Russia's 1804 legislation aimed to shift Jews out of the liquor trade and into education, artisan crafts, and farming. It integrated them “into” estates, albeit without parity of taxation. Meanwhile, Francis I's Western Galician Law Code (1797) aimed to introduce uniform law to the area; instead, it became one among multiple layers. Although de jure entitled to municipal citizenship, Jews were de facto excluded. They were also denied entry to many occupations Joseph II had opened.

The Old Reich

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter H. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
French History ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
National Unity ◽  
German Development ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
The French Revolution

Over the last thirty years it has become common to refer to the Holy Roman Empire as the “Old Reich” to distinguish it from Bismarck's Second Reich and Hitler's Third. The extent to which the Reich might be categorized as an Ancien Régime depends, of course, on how that term is defined. The concept of an old regime postdates the Reich, since it derives from the controversy surrounding the legacy of the French Revolution. Just as that Revolution has been central to debates on modern French history, so the problematic issues of statehood and national unity have dominated discussions about German development after the Reich was dissolved in 1806. These discussions have been shaped by the characteristics associated with an old regime.

Hellenism in the Enlightenment

2009 ◽  
pp. 165-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Cartledge
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
European History ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Political Traditions ◽  
History Of ◽  
The French Revolution

This article moves past the Renaissance to the Enlightenment and, in particular, to the French Revolution, which crystallized an important, if not fully understood, moment in the history of Hellenism. It shows how the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the inspiration for so many of the French revolutionaries, were simultaneously proto-democratic and pro-Spartan. In this respect, Rousseau marks a complex breakthrough in the political traditions of Hellenism, which were, for much of European history until the eighteenth century, anti-democratic and pro-Spartan.

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