1. Enlightenment causes
a. 3 main Causes/Reasons for the Enlightenment
i. Exploration
1. Necessary curiosity
2. Questioning of accepted beliefs. I.E. there is an entire massive landmass halfway around the globe that people did not know of.
3. Exploration calls for large amounts of funding, requires large taxes, large taxes require a strong government which leads to absolutism.
4. Christopher Columbus → America Vasco de Gama → India around the “Cape of Good Hope” People believed this to be impossible since they though the Indian ocean is not connected to any other oceans.
5. Fortitude, you need to be brave to explore as well as be brave to challenge accepted beliefs in government.
ii. Scientific Revolution
1. Has its roots in the Renaissance as well
2. A clear example of questioning many accepted beliefs
a. Galileo impugns the fact that heavy objects fall faster than lighter objects.
b. Newton’s Principia had a long lasting effect on Enlightened thinkers
3. Many of the key figures of the Enlightenment including Voltaire, John Locke and Montesquieu take these ideals of the scientific revolution, such as the Scientific Method and empiricism, and apply them to political affairs. Reason plays a large role in this process and is the perfect word to describe the Enlightenment.
4. People now more readily believe that political problems can be thought out using ideas of natural science.
iii. Absolutism- response
1. The Enlightenment is a response to absolutism
2. People begin to question the government’s policies
3. It is nonsensical that a man has the right to rule merely because he “claims” arbitrarily that God has invested the power in him, (but mostly because he has a larger army than the next guy...)
4. It makes sense that the epicenter of the Enlightenment is in France since Absolutism is the strongest there.
5. One man can not deal with the all needs of a country, a need for different branches and bureaucracies of government revitalizing the need for government to be balanced and redefined.
6. There is no reason behind Absolutism, so there must be a better, more fair way to run government
7. Very early founding of French Salons and the creation of “The (Enlightened) Public” of France that would discuss political matters and work to understand the many breakthroughs of the scientific revolution.
8. The Rise of Skepticism by Bayle in his “Historical and critical dictionary” 1697 based off the theory that “if anything is possible who’s to say if it is right or wrong”
2. Impact the Enlightenment on Liberalism
a. Liberalism is the ideology in which individuals have freedom, and their freedom and rights come before those of the community or the state.
i. Due to a want for global trade
1. religious wars and interference from their country was an obstruction
b. New, liberal, ideas created a new aristocracy and monarchy to pay them
i. Mercantilism
c. To become modern, one must change their previous preconceptions
i. the old way of living
d. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
i. “Social order was made by humans therefore could be changed by humans”
ii. People at heart are selfish
1. Self-preservation
2. Power
3. War
iii. Recognition of individuality
1. Rationality
2. Self-interest
3. Competitiveness
iv. Rulers did not have Divine Right
1. Authority is given through the people
v. Gave way to Democracy in the west
e. John Locke (1632-1704)
i. Humans are good at heart
ii. Equality of individuals
iii. Natural rights
1. Individual was made by God
2. Right to own property was most essential
iv. Advocate of Capitalism
1. Two Treatises on the Government (1694)
a. Defined the “liberal” point of view
b. “Government existed merely as a trust to carry out the will of the people and protect their "lives, liberty, and property.”
c. Very similar to what is written in the United States’ Declaration of Independence
2. Letter on Toleration
a. “...therefore each has a God-given right to his or her beliefs, conscience and religious practices, and no-one has the right to dictate beliefs to others.”
b. Christianity could be spread by force
i. People need to be careful
3. Since everything comes from God, it would be morally wrong to waste it
v. Follower of Adam Smith
1. “What we have labored for is our property”
a. Inevitability of inequality
i. Some people can make more crops for example
1. Then the sell the surplus
a. Therefore they have more money
2. Liberalism accepts inequality
a. If each person pursues happiness and pleasure, this promotes cooperation
i. Individuality and general welfare will eventually coincide
vi. Social Contract
1. Consent from people is required for a government to become acceptable
vii. Facilitate and idea of progress
1. Government was a mechanism that could be redefined and replace when needed
2. Conservative idea was that it evolved slowly and naturally
a. Change should follow tradition rather than reason
f. Philosophes
i. Voltaire
1. Proposed a centralized government that could disseminate ideas while eliminating intolerance and superstition
2. Absolutism = Modernization
ii. Diderot
1. Technocratic government more than the monarchy of Voltaire
a. Intelligent people should be in power
i. Scientists
ii. Technical Elite
iii. Wanted government based on deliberation and discussion
1. Parliaments
iv. Development of salons: Increased number of arts featured in salons. They flourish under the guidance of salons and the crowds it attracted
1. Salons lead to polite society
a. Philosophes begin lobbying for expanded women’s rights and create the concept of women’s treatment reflecting the level of society
b. Salons create an independent cultural realm free from religious dogma and political censorship
c. Thinking critically about almost any question became fashionable and flourished alongside hopes for human progress through greater knowledge and enlightened public opinion.
2. Enlightenment brings European cultural ideas and philosophy to a peak
g. Montesquieu
i. Sometimes seen as the father of political science
1. Looked at various types of governments
a. Analyzed what made them work
i. The Spirit of the Laws
1. Ideas derived from England as an example
a. The separation of powers in government are a vital part of our own constitution.
ii. Separation of powers
1. Limited government
a. Legislative
i. Forms policy and enacts the law
b. Executive
i. Carries policy into action
c. Judicial
i. Applies the law and enacts justice
d. The same type of government the US has today
2. Executive should be a Monarchy
a. Possibility of impeachment if necessary
iii. Ideas based on Science
1. Observation/experimentation
2. Description
iv. Society should have distinct natural genius or spirit
1. Laws design in accordance with this spirit
a. The Spirit of Laws 1748
b. Different spirits with different forms of government
i. Monarchy → Honor
ii. Republic → Public virtue and responsibility
h. Rousseau
i. Opposed absolute monarchy
1. Social inequality
ii. Evolution of society brought about inequality
1. Ownership of property
a. Especially land
iii. Sovereignty of the people
1. General Will
a. By the people as a whole of what is in their general interest
i. Needs to put aside personal interests and wants
1. identify interests of the entire community
iv. The essence of what Rousseau is saying:
1. “Each of us who puts his person and all his power to the common use under the supreme direction of the general will; will result receiving a part of an indivisible piece of the whole.”
v. Rejection of Representative Democracy
1. Direct Democracy
vi. All ideas are based around respect for the ordinary citizen
vii. Different from the other philosophes because he placed an emphasis on feeling and sentiment against reason
i. Overall impacts of Enlightenment
i. Shift away from view that the noble and common people are the basic units of society
1. Individuality is key
a. Individuals inherit:
i. Qualities
ii. Abilities
iii. Rights
b. Society is built off of these individuals
ii. Human reason is dominant
1. No subjects were forbidden
2. No unaskable questions
3. Combined abstract thought with experimentation and empirical philosophy
4. New way of thinking attacked old order and priviledges
a. Emphasis and faith on science
i. Scientific Method
ii. Education
iii. Critical thinking
iii. New approach is empirical and scientific, yet at the same time is philosophical
1. world was the place of study
2. Reformist form of thought
iv. Many ideas of the philosophes developed are now intrinsic to modern day democratic society
1. Montesquieu’s separation of powers had a great affect on the constitutions of the U.S. and France
2. John Locke’s principles of religious tolerance, the separation of church and state, and the social contract, for instance, greatly influenced the Founding Fathers of the United States as they planned their new country
3. Rousseau’s idea of the social contract was instrumental both before and after the French Revolution
v. Enlightened thinkers argued Enlightened despotism was the best way to rule a country
1. In areas like Denmark, peasants are given better living conditions due to enlightened rulers
2. Enlightened despots often offered liberties such as freedom of speech and religious toleration
3. Frederick II promotes educations and funds schools
a. Good example of a true enlightened despot
b. Tried to improve the lives of his subjects directly
vi. Overall Themes
1. People can comprehend, change and perhaps control universe
2. Philosophy and science – combination of reason and empirical research
3. Abstract systems of ideas that made rational sense, but with study of the real social world
4. Application of scientific method to social issues – discover social laws
5. Social analysis and social scientists should be useful to the world – create better world
6. Criticism of traditional authority, institutions and beliefs – irrationality of these
7. Human growth and development of society occur if tradition gives way to reason
8. Emphasis on the individual rather than society
3. Revolutions and their impact on Liberalism-
American Revolution
a. The reforming ideas of the Enlightenment found expression in the American Revolution and the French Revolution.
b. Liberal ideas drove the colonists to radically reshape political thinking in the American Revolution of 1776.
c. The high cost of the seven years war led to Britain having no choice but to propose the Stamp Act(Tax on every printed paper) The colonists then protested, and the tax was repealed.
d. The first instance in which Liberal ideas can be seen in American thinking was that they believed that, as subjects of the British crown, they were entitled to all the same liberties as all Englishmen. It was this particular part of the system of English liberties, sovereignty (the belief that legislative power lied with the people, or their representatives) that drove many Americans to rebel against the decrees of a legislature in which they had no say and place more power in their own legislatures.
e. John Adams said, “A Parliament of Great Britain can have no more rights to tax the colonies than a Parliament of paris.”
f. 1773- dispute over taxes and representation flared up again.
g. Tea was a major source of income to the East India Trading company. This was a British company and the colonies were told they could only buy tea from this one company. They were also told they had to pay high taxes on the tea. This tax was called the Tea Act.
h. The Boston Tea Party was a protest by the American Colonists against the British government. They staged the protest by boarding three trade ships in Boston Harbor and throwing the ships' cargo of tea overboard into the ocean.
i. Led to the Coercive Acts which closed the port of Boston, curtailed local elections and town meetings, and greatly expanded the royal governor's power.
j. This led to more fighting and slowly moved to making the Declaration of Independence.
k. In 1775, an English radical by the name of Thomas Paine then wrote wrote and published the pamphlet “Common Sense”which demanded complete independence from Great Britain. It also stated a strong case for freedom and a republican gov’t while expressing America’s growing sense of separateness and moral superiority. It was the most widely distributed pamphlet in American history at that time - popular with the highly educated as well as the common man.
l. July 4, 1776- Declaration of Independence is written by Thomas Jefferson.(Natural Rights of man and sovereignty of the American states) "all men are created equal.... They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.... Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
m. Britain later comes into battle with most of Europe(French) and the thirteen colonies.
n. By the Treaty of Paris of 1783, Britain recognized the independence of the thirteen colonies and ceded all its territory between the Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River to the Americans.
o. The liberal program of the American Revolution was consolidated by the federal Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the creation of a national republic. This led to the creation of the American Constitution.
p. The American Constitution and the Bill of Rights exemplified the great strengths and the limits of what came to be called "classical liberalism." Liberty meant individual freedoms and political safeguards. Liberty also meant representative government but did not necessarily mean democracy, with its principle of one person, one vote. Equality, with slaves excepted at the time, meant equality before the law, not equality of political participation or wealth.
q. The radicalism of liberal revolution in America was primarily legal and political, not economic or social.
French Revolution
a. No country felt the consequences of the American Revolution more directly than France. Hundreds of French officers served in America and were inspired by the experience. The most famous of these, the young and impressionable marquis de Lafayette, left home to fight England who was their enemy.
b. French intellectuals and publicists engaged in passionate analysis of the federal Constitution as well as the constitutions of the various states of the new United States. The American Revolution undeniably hastened upheaval in France.
c. Yet the French Revolution did not mirror the American example. It was more radical and more complex, more influential and more controversial, more loved and more hated. For Europeans and most of the rest of the world, it was the great revolution of the eighteenth century, the revolution that opened the modern era in politics.
d. Also faced many financial problems.
e. The American Revolution paved the way for the French Revolution, Revolutions of 1848, and the Russian Revolution.
Role of Liberalism in global economy and politics during more Modern Times (the Last 3 Centuries)-
● John Locke (1632-1704): Forefather of Liberal Thought
○ Two Treatises on Government; written before the Revolution of 1688
■ served as the basis for the English Bill of Rights
■ critical to the intellectual development of the founders of the United States
● Economy
○ Industrialism
■ the notion of progress and Enlightened ideals such as
● Humanism
● Individualism
■ Scientific Revolution
● new hallmarks made in scientific thought and theory led to greater developments in science and technology
○ Industrialism started to make people money
■ Opened up a continually thriving middle class universally
■ laissez-faire: a hands off approach to the economy in order to expand private affairs and profits
■ Adam Smith; (1727-1790)
● argues against conservative economic system of mercantilism in Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
○ The Middle Class Grew
■ more opportunities to make money for new middle class
■ led to uprisings against more conservative upper class nobles
■ lower classes make more money
● more flexibility due to urbanization and industrialization
○ Capitalism
■ free economy born from laissez-faire
● Political
○ Imperialism was no longer just economic it was also political power which offered new sources for markets in order to make more money for private investors minus the tariffs and trade issues usually experienced with foreign states.
○ New Ideologies Formed
■ Communism
● another radical ideology that challenged liberalism
● giving the people the property
○ aka the state aka collectivization
○ lack of private property
○ for the state rather than for the individual
■ Fascism
● power went to the way right where it was able to take hold in Italy and Germany
● during WWI and WWII fascism grew
● opponent to the political liberalism that spread in W. Europe
○ Liberalism gave power to the economically developing middle class
■ aided in the sense of revolt/ reform
● 1848
● 1830s in France
● American Revolution
● Chartist Movements in Great Britain
● Greek Revolution
● Austrian Empire in 1848
● Prussia and Frankfurt Assembly
● Italian States
○ Constitutions and Parliaments
■ offering rights to all people and pushing for equality more than any other ideology Liberalism has faced
a. 3 main Causes/Reasons for the Enlightenment
i. Exploration
1. Necessary curiosity
2. Questioning of accepted beliefs. I.E. there is an entire massive landmass halfway around the globe that people did not know of.
3. Exploration calls for large amounts of funding, requires large taxes, large taxes require a strong government which leads to absolutism.
4. Christopher Columbus → America Vasco de Gama → India around the “Cape of Good Hope” People believed this to be impossible since they though the Indian ocean is not connected to any other oceans.
5. Fortitude, you need to be brave to explore as well as be brave to challenge accepted beliefs in government.
ii. Scientific Revolution
1. Has its roots in the Renaissance as well
2. A clear example of questioning many accepted beliefs
a. Galileo impugns the fact that heavy objects fall faster than lighter objects.
b. Newton’s Principia had a long lasting effect on Enlightened thinkers
3. Many of the key figures of the Enlightenment including Voltaire, John Locke and Montesquieu take these ideals of the scientific revolution, such as the Scientific Method and empiricism, and apply them to political affairs. Reason plays a large role in this process and is the perfect word to describe the Enlightenment.
4. People now more readily believe that political problems can be thought out using ideas of natural science.
iii. Absolutism- response
1. The Enlightenment is a response to absolutism
2. People begin to question the government’s policies
3. It is nonsensical that a man has the right to rule merely because he “claims” arbitrarily that God has invested the power in him, (but mostly because he has a larger army than the next guy...)
4. It makes sense that the epicenter of the Enlightenment is in France since Absolutism is the strongest there.
5. One man can not deal with the all needs of a country, a need for different branches and bureaucracies of government revitalizing the need for government to be balanced and redefined.
6. There is no reason behind Absolutism, so there must be a better, more fair way to run government
7. Very early founding of French Salons and the creation of “The (Enlightened) Public” of France that would discuss political matters and work to understand the many breakthroughs of the scientific revolution.
8. The Rise of Skepticism by Bayle in his “Historical and critical dictionary” 1697 based off the theory that “if anything is possible who’s to say if it is right or wrong”
2. Impact the Enlightenment on Liberalism
a. Liberalism is the ideology in which individuals have freedom, and their freedom and rights come before those of the community or the state.
i. Due to a want for global trade
1. religious wars and interference from their country was an obstruction
b. New, liberal, ideas created a new aristocracy and monarchy to pay them
i. Mercantilism
c. To become modern, one must change their previous preconceptions
i. the old way of living
d. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
i. “Social order was made by humans therefore could be changed by humans”
ii. People at heart are selfish
1. Self-preservation
2. Power
3. War
iii. Recognition of individuality
1. Rationality
2. Self-interest
3. Competitiveness
iv. Rulers did not have Divine Right
1. Authority is given through the people
v. Gave way to Democracy in the west
e. John Locke (1632-1704)
i. Humans are good at heart
ii. Equality of individuals
iii. Natural rights
1. Individual was made by God
2. Right to own property was most essential
iv. Advocate of Capitalism
1. Two Treatises on the Government (1694)
a. Defined the “liberal” point of view
b. “Government existed merely as a trust to carry out the will of the people and protect their "lives, liberty, and property.”
c. Very similar to what is written in the United States’ Declaration of Independence
2. Letter on Toleration
a. “...therefore each has a God-given right to his or her beliefs, conscience and religious practices, and no-one has the right to dictate beliefs to others.”
b. Christianity could be spread by force
i. People need to be careful
3. Since everything comes from God, it would be morally wrong to waste it
v. Follower of Adam Smith
1. “What we have labored for is our property”
a. Inevitability of inequality
i. Some people can make more crops for example
1. Then the sell the surplus
a. Therefore they have more money
2. Liberalism accepts inequality
a. If each person pursues happiness and pleasure, this promotes cooperation
i. Individuality and general welfare will eventually coincide
vi. Social Contract
1. Consent from people is required for a government to become acceptable
vii. Facilitate and idea of progress
1. Government was a mechanism that could be redefined and replace when needed
2. Conservative idea was that it evolved slowly and naturally
a. Change should follow tradition rather than reason
f. Philosophes
i. Voltaire
1. Proposed a centralized government that could disseminate ideas while eliminating intolerance and superstition
2. Absolutism = Modernization
ii. Diderot
1. Technocratic government more than the monarchy of Voltaire
a. Intelligent people should be in power
i. Scientists
ii. Technical Elite
iii. Wanted government based on deliberation and discussion
1. Parliaments
iv. Development of salons: Increased number of arts featured in salons. They flourish under the guidance of salons and the crowds it attracted
1. Salons lead to polite society
a. Philosophes begin lobbying for expanded women’s rights and create the concept of women’s treatment reflecting the level of society
b. Salons create an independent cultural realm free from religious dogma and political censorship
c. Thinking critically about almost any question became fashionable and flourished alongside hopes for human progress through greater knowledge and enlightened public opinion.
2. Enlightenment brings European cultural ideas and philosophy to a peak
g. Montesquieu
i. Sometimes seen as the father of political science
1. Looked at various types of governments
a. Analyzed what made them work
i. The Spirit of the Laws
1. Ideas derived from England as an example
a. The separation of powers in government are a vital part of our own constitution.
ii. Separation of powers
1. Limited government
a. Legislative
i. Forms policy and enacts the law
b. Executive
i. Carries policy into action
c. Judicial
i. Applies the law and enacts justice
d. The same type of government the US has today
2. Executive should be a Monarchy
a. Possibility of impeachment if necessary
iii. Ideas based on Science
1. Observation/experimentation
2. Description
iv. Society should have distinct natural genius or spirit
1. Laws design in accordance with this spirit
a. The Spirit of Laws 1748
b. Different spirits with different forms of government
i. Monarchy → Honor
ii. Republic → Public virtue and responsibility
h. Rousseau
i. Opposed absolute monarchy
1. Social inequality
ii. Evolution of society brought about inequality
1. Ownership of property
a. Especially land
iii. Sovereignty of the people
1. General Will
a. By the people as a whole of what is in their general interest
i. Needs to put aside personal interests and wants
1. identify interests of the entire community
iv. The essence of what Rousseau is saying:
1. “Each of us who puts his person and all his power to the common use under the supreme direction of the general will; will result receiving a part of an indivisible piece of the whole.”
v. Rejection of Representative Democracy
1. Direct Democracy
vi. All ideas are based around respect for the ordinary citizen
vii. Different from the other philosophes because he placed an emphasis on feeling and sentiment against reason
i. Overall impacts of Enlightenment
i. Shift away from view that the noble and common people are the basic units of society
1. Individuality is key
a. Individuals inherit:
i. Qualities
ii. Abilities
iii. Rights
b. Society is built off of these individuals
ii. Human reason is dominant
1. No subjects were forbidden
2. No unaskable questions
3. Combined abstract thought with experimentation and empirical philosophy
4. New way of thinking attacked old order and priviledges
a. Emphasis and faith on science
i. Scientific Method
ii. Education
iii. Critical thinking
iii. New approach is empirical and scientific, yet at the same time is philosophical
1. world was the place of study
2. Reformist form of thought
iv. Many ideas of the philosophes developed are now intrinsic to modern day democratic society
1. Montesquieu’s separation of powers had a great affect on the constitutions of the U.S. and France
2. John Locke’s principles of religious tolerance, the separation of church and state, and the social contract, for instance, greatly influenced the Founding Fathers of the United States as they planned their new country
3. Rousseau’s idea of the social contract was instrumental both before and after the French Revolution
v. Enlightened thinkers argued Enlightened despotism was the best way to rule a country
1. In areas like Denmark, peasants are given better living conditions due to enlightened rulers
2. Enlightened despots often offered liberties such as freedom of speech and religious toleration
3. Frederick II promotes educations and funds schools
a. Good example of a true enlightened despot
b. Tried to improve the lives of his subjects directly
vi. Overall Themes
1. People can comprehend, change and perhaps control universe
2. Philosophy and science – combination of reason and empirical research
3. Abstract systems of ideas that made rational sense, but with study of the real social world
4. Application of scientific method to social issues – discover social laws
5. Social analysis and social scientists should be useful to the world – create better world
6. Criticism of traditional authority, institutions and beliefs – irrationality of these
7. Human growth and development of society occur if tradition gives way to reason
8. Emphasis on the individual rather than society
3. Revolutions and their impact on Liberalism-
American Revolution
a. The reforming ideas of the Enlightenment found expression in the American Revolution and the French Revolution.
b. Liberal ideas drove the colonists to radically reshape political thinking in the American Revolution of 1776.
c. The high cost of the seven years war led to Britain having no choice but to propose the Stamp Act(Tax on every printed paper) The colonists then protested, and the tax was repealed.
d. The first instance in which Liberal ideas can be seen in American thinking was that they believed that, as subjects of the British crown, they were entitled to all the same liberties as all Englishmen. It was this particular part of the system of English liberties, sovereignty (the belief that legislative power lied with the people, or their representatives) that drove many Americans to rebel against the decrees of a legislature in which they had no say and place more power in their own legislatures.
e. John Adams said, “A Parliament of Great Britain can have no more rights to tax the colonies than a Parliament of paris.”
f. 1773- dispute over taxes and representation flared up again.
g. Tea was a major source of income to the East India Trading company. This was a British company and the colonies were told they could only buy tea from this one company. They were also told they had to pay high taxes on the tea. This tax was called the Tea Act.
h. The Boston Tea Party was a protest by the American Colonists against the British government. They staged the protest by boarding three trade ships in Boston Harbor and throwing the ships' cargo of tea overboard into the ocean.
i. Led to the Coercive Acts which closed the port of Boston, curtailed local elections and town meetings, and greatly expanded the royal governor's power.
j. This led to more fighting and slowly moved to making the Declaration of Independence.
k. In 1775, an English radical by the name of Thomas Paine then wrote wrote and published the pamphlet “Common Sense”which demanded complete independence from Great Britain. It also stated a strong case for freedom and a republican gov’t while expressing America’s growing sense of separateness and moral superiority. It was the most widely distributed pamphlet in American history at that time - popular with the highly educated as well as the common man.
l. July 4, 1776- Declaration of Independence is written by Thomas Jefferson.(Natural Rights of man and sovereignty of the American states) "all men are created equal.... They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.... Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
m. Britain later comes into battle with most of Europe(French) and the thirteen colonies.
n. By the Treaty of Paris of 1783, Britain recognized the independence of the thirteen colonies and ceded all its territory between the Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River to the Americans.
o. The liberal program of the American Revolution was consolidated by the federal Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the creation of a national republic. This led to the creation of the American Constitution.
p. The American Constitution and the Bill of Rights exemplified the great strengths and the limits of what came to be called "classical liberalism." Liberty meant individual freedoms and political safeguards. Liberty also meant representative government but did not necessarily mean democracy, with its principle of one person, one vote. Equality, with slaves excepted at the time, meant equality before the law, not equality of political participation or wealth.
q. The radicalism of liberal revolution in America was primarily legal and political, not economic or social.
French Revolution
a. No country felt the consequences of the American Revolution more directly than France. Hundreds of French officers served in America and were inspired by the experience. The most famous of these, the young and impressionable marquis de Lafayette, left home to fight England who was their enemy.
b. French intellectuals and publicists engaged in passionate analysis of the federal Constitution as well as the constitutions of the various states of the new United States. The American Revolution undeniably hastened upheaval in France.
c. Yet the French Revolution did not mirror the American example. It was more radical and more complex, more influential and more controversial, more loved and more hated. For Europeans and most of the rest of the world, it was the great revolution of the eighteenth century, the revolution that opened the modern era in politics.
d. Also faced many financial problems.
e. The American Revolution paved the way for the French Revolution, Revolutions of 1848, and the Russian Revolution.
Role of Liberalism in global economy and politics during more Modern Times (the Last 3 Centuries)-
● John Locke (1632-1704): Forefather of Liberal Thought
○ Two Treatises on Government; written before the Revolution of 1688
■ served as the basis for the English Bill of Rights
■ critical to the intellectual development of the founders of the United States
● Economy
○ Industrialism
■ the notion of progress and Enlightened ideals such as
● Humanism
● Individualism
■ Scientific Revolution
● new hallmarks made in scientific thought and theory led to greater developments in science and technology
○ Industrialism started to make people money
■ Opened up a continually thriving middle class universally
■ laissez-faire: a hands off approach to the economy in order to expand private affairs and profits
■ Adam Smith; (1727-1790)
● argues against conservative economic system of mercantilism in Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
○ The Middle Class Grew
■ more opportunities to make money for new middle class
■ led to uprisings against more conservative upper class nobles
■ lower classes make more money
● more flexibility due to urbanization and industrialization
○ Capitalism
■ free economy born from laissez-faire
● Political
○ Imperialism was no longer just economic it was also political power which offered new sources for markets in order to make more money for private investors minus the tariffs and trade issues usually experienced with foreign states.
○ New Ideologies Formed
■ Communism
● another radical ideology that challenged liberalism
● giving the people the property
○ aka the state aka collectivization
○ lack of private property
○ for the state rather than for the individual
■ Fascism
● power went to the way right where it was able to take hold in Italy and Germany
● during WWI and WWII fascism grew
● opponent to the political liberalism that spread in W. Europe
○ Liberalism gave power to the economically developing middle class
■ aided in the sense of revolt/ reform
● 1848
● 1830s in France
● American Revolution
● Chartist Movements in Great Britain
● Greek Revolution
● Austrian Empire in 1848
● Prussia and Frankfurt Assembly
● Italian States
○ Constitutions and Parliaments
■ offering rights to all people and pushing for equality more than any other ideology Liberalism has faced