The Limitations of Enlightened Despotism

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691161280.003.0012 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

R. R. Palmer

Keyword(s):

American Revolution ◽

Royal Authority ◽

Joseph Ii

The forces of aristocracy, which in some countries in the 1780s prevailed over democratic movements, prevailed in others over monarchy itself. This chapter takes up a thread left hanging at the close of Chapter IV. It was shown there that, by the middle 1770s, or just before the American Revolution, the kings of France and of Sweden, and the Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, had asserted royal authority and put the constituted bodies of their several realms under restraint. The following fifteen years made clear the limits beyond which enlightened despotism could not go. However held down, the constituted bodies—estates, diets, parlements, and the like—had strong powers of survival and resurgence. This chapter deals mainly with the Hapsburg monarchy under Joseph II and Leopold II, with observations, since not everything can be told, on Prussia, Sweden, and Russia.

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The Backcountry Militia

Life and Times of General Andrew Pickens ◽

10.5149/northcarolina/9781469631530.003.0003 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Rod Andrew

Keyword(s):

South Carolina ◽

American Revolution ◽

The South ◽

Royal Authority

This chapter covers the beginning of the American Revolution in the South Carolina backcountry and explains why many frontier people, especially Presbyterians, saw the rejection of royal authority not so much as rebellion, but rather as a bid to establish order and protect themselves from a corrupt royal government that allegedly was encouraging Cherokee attacks on white settlements. In this chapter, Pickens emerges as an important local militia leader and participates in several early campaigns and battles, including the first siege of Ninety Six and the Cherokee campaign of 1776, and narrowly escapes death and emerges as a hero in the “Ring Fight.”

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Part I Constitutional History, B French-Canadians and the Constitution, Ch.3 Constitutional Debates in French Canada, 1764–1774

10.1093/law/9780190664817.003.0003 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Morin Michel

Keyword(s):

American Revolution ◽

Constitutional Rights ◽

Constitutional History ◽

French Canadians ◽

French Canada ◽

Royal Authority ◽

American Colonies ◽

Source Of Information

After 1760, constitutional debates occurred in French Canada on issues ranging from the contestation of royal authority to the consolidation of constitutional rights or colonial autonomy. In this regard, our main source of information is the bilingual Quebec Gazette, which reported on legal developments in France, England, and the American colonies. Contrary to what is generally assumed, these discussions predated the American Revolution. The Chapter also examines the assimilation of British constitutional principles by the educated members of the Francophone elite. Many of them were eager to obtain an Assembly in which Catholics could sit. They believed that the Capitulation of 1760 protected property and seigneurial rights, as well as inheritance and matrimonial laws. In the end, the request for an Assembly was shelved in order to obtain religious equality. Meanwhile, British officials declared that Canadians had no appetite for an Assembly, creating a lasting and misleading impression.

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Europe's American Revolution

10.1057/9780230288454 ◽

2006 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Keyword(s):

American Revolution

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A reconnaissance of tropical resources during Revolutionary years: the role of the Paris Museum d'Histoire Naturelle

Archives of Natural History ◽

10.3366/anh.1991.18.3.333 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 333-362 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

MADELEINE LY-TIO-FANE

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Natural History ◽

Scientific Research ◽

Extensive Literature ◽

War Of Independence ◽

Leading Role ◽

Scientific Principles ◽

Set Up ◽

Joseph Ii

SUMMARY The recent extensive literature on exploration and the resulting scientific advances has failed to highlight the contribution of Austrian enterprise to the study of natural history. The leading role of Joseph II among the neutral powers which assumed the carrying trade of the belligerents during the American War of Independence, furthered the development of collections for the Schönbrunn Park and Gardens which had been set up on scientific principles by his parents. On the conclusion of peace, Joseph entrusted to Professor Maerter a world-encompassing mission in the course of which the Chief Gardener Franz Boos and his assistant Georg Scholl travelled to South Africa to collect plants and animals. Boos pursued the mission to Isle de France and Bourbon (Mauritius and Reunion), conveyed by the then unknown Nicolas Baudin. He worked at the Jardin du Roi, Pamplemousses, with Nicolas Cere, or at Palma with Joseph Francois Charpentier de Cossigny. The linkage of Austrian and French horticultural expertise created a situation fraught with opportunities which were to lead Baudin to the forefront of exploration and scientific research as the century closed in the upheaval of the Revolutionary Wars.

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