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Issac Newton
Newton's formulation of the law of universal gravitation exemplified the newly perceived power of the human mind. Newtonian physics had portrayed a pattern of mechanical and mathematical rationality in the physical world. During the eighteenth century, thinkers from a variety of backgrounds began to apply this insight to society. If nature was rational, they reasoned, society, too, should be organized natural philosophers. -
The Enlightenment and Religion
The philosophers complained that Christian churches hindered the pursuit of a rational life and the scientific study of humanity and nature. Both Roman Catholic an Protestant clergy taught humans were basically depraved, becoming worthy only through divine grace. According to the doctrine of original sin, improvement in human nature on earth was impossible. -
Women in the Thought and Practice of the Enlightenment
Women, especially in France, helped promote the careers of the philosophes. In Paris, the salons of women such as Marie-Therese Geoffrin, gave the philosophes access to useful social and political contracts. -
Enlightened Absolutism
During the last third of the century, some observers believed that several European rulers had embraced many of the reforms the philosophes advocated. Historians use the term enlightened absolutism for this form of monarchical government in which the central absolutist administration was strengthened and rationalized at the cost of other, lesser center of political power, such as the aristocracy, the church, and the parliaments or diets that had survived from the Middle Ages. -
The Crisis of the French Monarchy
Although the French Revolution would shatter many of the political, social, and ecclesiastical structures of the Europe, its origins lay in a much more mundane problem. By the late 1780's thank in large part to the expenditures associated with supporting the American revolution, the French royal government could not command sufficient taxes to finance itself. Louis XVI and his ministers were required to summon the French Estates General, which had not met since 1614. -
The French Revolution
In the spring of 1789 political turmoil erupted in France. By the summer it had led to a revolution that marked the beginning of a new political order in France and eventually throughout the West. The French Revolution brought to the foreground the principles civic equality and popular sovereignty that challenged the major political and social institutions of Europe and that in evolving forms have continued to shape and reshape Western political and social life to the present day. -
Fall of the Bastille
The attack on the Bastille marked the first of many crucial journees, days on which the populace of Paris redirected the course of the revolution. The fall of the fortress signaled that the National Constituent Assembly alone would not decide the political future of the nation. As the news of the taking of the Bastille spread, similar disturbance took place in provincial cities. A few days later Louis XVI again bowed to the force of events and personally visited Paris. -
The Revolution of 1789
The Estates General had been called because of the political deadlock between the French monarchy and the vested interests of aristocratic institutions and the church. Almost immediately after it was summoned, however, the three groups, or estates, represented within it clashed with each other. The First Estate was the clergy, the Second Estate the nobility, and the Third Estate was theoretically. -
The Age of Napoleon
The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte: Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769 to a poor family of lesser nobles at Ajaccio, on the Mediterranean Island of Corsica. Because France has annexed Corsica in 1768, he went to French schools and in 1785, obtained a commission as a French artillery officer. He favored the revolution and was a fiery Jacobin. In 1793, he played a leading role in recovering the port of Toulon from the British. As a reward for his service, he was appointed a brigadier general. -
The Coronation of Napoleon
Jacques-Louis David recorded the elaborate coronation of Napoleon in a monumental painting that reveals the enormous political and religious tensions of that event, which involved the kind of ritual and ceremony associated with the monarchy of the ancient regime. -
Napoleon's Empire
Between his coronation and his final defeat at Waterloo in 1815, Napoleon conquered most of Europe. France's victories changed the map of the Continent. The wars put an end to the Old Regime and its feudal trappings throughout Western Europe and forced those European states that remained independent to reorganize themselves to resist Napoleon's army. -
The War of Liberation
In Spain more than elsewhere in Europe, national resistance to France had deep social roots. Spain had achieved political unity as early as the sixteenth century. The Spanish peasants were devoted to the ruling dynasty and especially to the Roman Catholic Church. France and Spain had been allies since 1796. -
Treaty of Tilsit
Unable to fight another battle and unwilling to retreat into Russia, Tsar Alexander I was ready to make peace. He and Napoleon met on a raft in the Niemen River while the two armies and the nervous king of Prussia watched from the bank. On July, 1807, they signed the Treaty of Tilsit, which confirmed France's gains.Prussia lost half its territory. Only the support of Alexander saved it from extinction. -
The Invasion of Russia
The failure of Napoleon's marriage negotiations with Russia emphasized the shakiness of the Franco-Russian alliance concluded at Tilsit. Russian nobles disliked the alliance because of the liberal polities of France and because the Continental System prohibited timber sales to Britain. Napoleon was determined to end the Russian military threat. He amassed an army of more than 600,000 men, including a core of Frenchmen and more than 400,000 other soldiers drawn from the rest of his empire. -
European Coalition
Even as the news of the disaster reached the West, the final defeat of Napoleon was far from certain. He was able to put down his opponents in Paris and raise another 350,000 men. Neither the Prussians nor the Austrians were eager to risk another contest with Napoleon, and even the Russians hesitated. The Austrian foreign minister, Prince Klemens von Metternich would have preferred to make a negotiated peace that would leave Napoleon on the throne of a sh -
The Congress of Vienna
Fear of Napoleon and hostility to his ambitions had held the victorious coalition together. As soon as he was removed, the allies pursued their separate ambitions. Nevertheless, Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, the British foreign secretary, brought about the signing of the Treaty of Chaumont on March 9, 1814. It provided for the restoration of the Bourbons to the French throne and the contraction of France to its frontiers of 1792. -
The Quadruple Alliance
Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia renewed the Quadruple Alliance on November 20, 1815. It was as much coalition for maintaining peace as for pursuing victory over France. A coalition for such a purpose had never existed in European diplomacy before. It represented an important new departure in European affairs. Certain powers were determined to prevent war. The statesmen at Vienna had seen the armies of the French Revolution and Napoleon overturning the political and social order. -
The Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna achieved its goals. France accepted the new situation without undue resentment, in part because the new international order recognized it as a great power. The victorious powers settled difficult problems reasonably. They established a new legal framework whereby treaties were made between states rather than between monarchs. The treaties remained in place when a monarch died. -
Territorial Adjustments
The Congress of Vienna assembled in September 1814, but did not conclude its work until November 1815. Although a glittering array of heads of state attended the gathering, the four great powers (Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria) conducted the important work of the conference. The only full session of the congress met to ratify the arrangements the big four made. The easiest problem the great powers faced was France. All victors agree no state should dominate Europe. -
The Hundred Days and the Quadruple Alliance
The Hundred Days, as the period of Napoleon's return is called, frightened the great powers and made the peace settlement harsher for France. In addition to some minor territorial adjustments, the victors imposed a war indemnity and an army of occupation on France. Alexander proposed a Holy Alliance, whereby the monarchs promised to act together in accordance with Christian principles.