The Enlightenment

1. The Enlightenment 18th Century

2. Definition Enlightenment: the term can more narrowly refer to the intellectual movement of The Enlightenment, which advocated Reason as the primary basis of authority. It manifested itself in France (Siècle des Lumières), Britain (The Age of Reason) and Germany (Aufklärung)

3. Historical Context • Ever increasing role of the ‘bourgeoisie’ • ‘The enlightened monarch’ • Rousseau’s ‘social contract’: man born good and pure, society leads to man’s depravation • Various social uprisings throughout Europe • 1789 – The French Revolution : anti-royal and anti-clerical • Industrialization in England • Many of the United States' Founding Fathers were also heavily influenced by Enlightenment-era ideas, particularly in the religious sphere (Deism) and, in parallel with the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, in the governmental sphere (the United States Bill of Rights).

4. French Revolution • Resentment of royal absolutism; • Resentment by the ambitious professional and mercantile classes towards noble privileges and dominance in public life • Resentment of manorialism (seigneurialism) by peasants, wage-earners, and, to a lesser extent, the bourgeoisie; • Resentment of clerical privilege (anti-clericalism) and aspirations for freedom of religion; • Continued hatred for "Papist" controlled and influenced institutions of all kinds, by the large protestant minorities; • Aspirations for liberty and (especially as the revolution progressed) republicanism; • Hatred toward the King for firing Jacques Necker and Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune (among other financial advisors) who represented and fought for the people.

5. France • The fall of Bastille - July 14th, 1789

6. The Reign of Terror M. Robespierre Public execution of King Louis XVI - between 18.000 and 40.000 people were guillotined during the reign of terror (1793-1794)

7. Great Britain • Act of Union passed merging the Scottish and the English Parliaments, thus establishing The United Kingdom of Great Britain. Scotland England

8. Prussia Frederick the Great – King of Prussia Prussia

9. American War of Independence George Washington Declaration of Independence, 4th of July 1776

10. American Declaration of Independence • We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. • That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. • Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

11. Cultural Context • 1709: The first piano was built by Bartolomeo Cristofori • 1712: Steam Engine invented by Thomas Newcomen. • 1717: The diving bell was successfully tested by Edmond Halley, sustainable to a depth of 55 ft. • c. 1730: The sextant navigational tool was developed by John Hadley in England, and Thomas Godfrey in America • 1736: Europeans discovered rubber - the discovery was made by Charles-Marie de la Condamine while on expedition in South America. It was named in 1770 by Joseph Priestly • 1740: Modern steel was developed by Benjamin Huntsman • 1741: Vitus Bering discovered Alaska • 1745: The Leyden jar invented by Ewald von Kleist was the first electrical capacitor • 1751 - 1785: The French Encyclopédie • 1755: The English Dictionary by Samuel Johnson • 1764: The Spinning Jenny created by James Hargreaves brought on the Industrial Revolution • 1765: James Watt enhances Newcomen's steam engine, allowing new steel technologies. • 1761: The problem of Longitude was finally resolved by the fourth chronometer of John Harrison • 1768 - 1779: James Cook mapped the boundaries of the Pacific Ocean and discovered many Pacific Islands, including Australia • 1776: The Wealth of Nations, foundation of the modern theory of economy, was published by Adam Smith • 1779: Photosynthesis was first discovered by Jan Ingenhouse of the Netherlands • 1798: Edward Jenner publishes a treatise about smallpox vaccination

12. Literature DRAMA • ‘bourgeois’ drama • Philosophical drama : Nathan the Wise, G.E. Lessing • Historical drama: Don Carlos, Friedrich Schiller • Tragedy: Faust, J.W. v. Goethe NOVELS • Wider narrative structures (adventure novels, picaresque novel, fantastic and utopist novel, journal or letter-novel, etc.) • Disregard for the Classical ‘unities of time’ POETRY • Ballads • Love poems and poems inspired from popular lore

13. Main Representatives • Denis Diderot • J.J. Rousseau • Gotthold Ephraim Lessing • Friedrich Schiller • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe • Voltaire • Jonathan Swift • Daniel Defoe