1. Enlightenment Ideas Spread
Chapter 2 Section 2

2. Focus Question
As Enlightenment ideas spread across Europe, what cultural and political changes took place?

3. New Ideas Challenge Society
Writers faced censorship
Governments and churches to secure order would censor information
Burning books & imprisoning writers
To avoid censorship Montesquieu and Voltaire would disguise their work as fiction.

4. New Ideas Challenge Society Cont.
Ideas Spread in Salons
Informal gatherings, usually in homes, where philosophy, art, & literature would be discussed.
Madame Geoffrin ran one of the most respected salons. Mozart would play for her guests.

5. Arts and Literature Reflect New Ideas
From Grandeur to Charm
The move from Louis XIV baroque style to Louis the XV rococo style of art and architecture.
The Baroque style was large, colorful, and portrayed battles or lives of saints
Rococo was lighter, elegant, and charming. Was criticized as being superficial

6. Art and Literature Reflect New Ideas Continued
Enlightenment Inspires Composers
When moving from Baroque to Rococo the music style known as “Classical” followed.
Composers such as Bach, Handel and Mozart became popular
Opera houses, Ballets, plays set to music were all popular amongst the royal courts

7. Example of Baroque Art
Picture by Rembrandt

8. Example of Rococo Style

9. Art and Literature Reflect New Ideas Continued
The Novels Take Shape
by 1700’s literature found a wider audience with the middle class.
Outpouring of novels, long works fiction emerged
Robinson Crusoe by Defoe was about a shipwrecked sailor on a tropical Island

10. Enlightenment Despots Embrace New Ideas
Enlightenment despots were absolute rulers that used their power to create social or political change
Frederick II (Frederick the Great) –King of Prussia saw himself as “first servant of the state”
Frederick II openly praised Voltaire's work
Reduced the use of torture & allowed free press

11. Catherine the Great studies Philosophes’ Works
Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia (1762) read the work of philosophers and exchanged letters with Voltaire & Diderot
She believed in the ideas of equality and liberty
She abolished torture and established religious tolerance

12. Joseph II Continues Reform
Son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria
Was the most radical of Enlightenment Despots
He would travel in disguises to learn of problems.
Supported religious equality for Protestants and Jews in a Catholic Empire
Allowed free press, abolished serfdom

13. Lives of the Majority Change Slowly
Most Europeans were untouched by either courtly or middle class. Most remained peasants living in small villages
By the late 1700’s radical ideas about equality and social justice reached their villages
By 1800’s war, political upheaval, & economic conditions will transform peasant life in Europe.