CH. 2.2 Enlightenment Ideas Spread

New Ideas Challenge Society Ideas Spread through many levels of Society  Encyclopedia  Pamphlets Writers faced censorship  Churches and monarchies tried to stop the flow of ideas  Banned and burned books Enlightenment thinkers found new ways of spreading their ideas  Novels- Gulliver's Travels, Persian Letters, Candide  Salons - social gatherings, discuss social and political issues

Arts and Literature Reflect New Ideas From grandeur to charm  Art:  Painters embraced the lighter and more informal rococo style Music  composers, too, moved into rococo and classical music with new styles of composition and subject matter  Bach, Handel, Haydn, and Mozart. Literature  novel - audiences devoured long stories about their own times.

Enlightened Despots Embrace New Ideas Absolute rulers  Some adopted limited reforms inspired by the Enlightenment  Frederick II of Prussia Praised Voltaire, worked for the common good, govt. more efficient, reduced the use of torture  Catherine the Great of Russia Believed in equality & liberty, limited reforms in law & govt., abolished torture  Joseph II of Austria Ended censorship, abolished serfdom, traveled as a peasant to learn more about his subjects problems.  All showed religious tolerance.  Still the monarchs were not willing to share or limit their power.  Some even wanted to increase their power

Lives of the Majority Change Slowly Late 1700s  Enlightenment ideas spread through Europe’s peasant classes.  Some welcomed change, others did not  “E” ideas, in combination with war and economic troubles, would bring the masses to revolt.  French Revolution