1. Chapter 18 The Eighteenth Century:
European States, International Wars, and Social Change

2. Timeline

3. Enlightened Absolutism

4. The European States Enlightened Absolutism? Natural Rights
Characteristics
Declaration of Independence
Enlightened rulers
How they were to rule
Religious Toleration, Freedom of Speech, Private Property
Foster Arts, Sciences, Education
Reforms from ABOVE!

5. The Atlantic Seaboard States
France: Problems of the French monarchs: $$$!!!
 influence of Enlightenment,  reforms
Louis XIV --  territory, but also  debt, discontent
Louis XV (1715 – 1774) -- 5 y/o w/ succession of drunk & incompetent regents
Lazy, weak -- influenced by mistresses (Mme. de Pompadour!) & ministers
Lost empire in 7 Yrs’War
Louis XVI (1774 – 1792) & Marie Antoinette

6. Madame de Pompadour

7. Great Britain: King & Parliament
United Kingdom of Great Britain, 1707 (England + Scotland)
The King’s Ministers
Set policy and guided Parliament
Parliament: Laws, Taxes, Budget, etc.
Makeup: Peers (H. of Lords); Landed Gentry (H. of Commons + local Justices of the Peace)
Patronage: enhanced royal power
Parliamentary elections:  “democracy”;  reflect current population; Aristocratic Control & Pocket Boroughs
Hanoverians – George I (r – 1727) and George II (r – 1760)
 familiar w/ English customs, so: Prime Ministers!
Robert Walpole (prime minister, 1721 – 1742): Peace & Prosperity
William Pitt, the Elder (prime minister, 1757 – 1761): Empire
George III, (1760 – 1820) -- nutsy
John Wilkes -- “Wilkes & Liberty”
William Pitt, the Younger (prime minister, 1783 – 1801 and 1804 – 1806) -- successes delay reform

8. The Decline of the Dutch Republic
Economic Decline
Domination of the Oligarchies
Patriots and Orangists

9. Absolutism in Central and Eastern Europe
Prussia: The Army and The Bureaucracy
Frederick William I,
General Directory -- core of Prussian State; kept disjointed territories together
Highly efficient bureaucracy -- Obedience, Honor, Service
Army
Junkers
Frederick II, the Great,
Well educated
Enlightenment thought
Reforms: Law code, Civil liberties
Socially and politically conservative
Use of the army
Expansion
One must serve the king with life and limb,
with goods and chattels, with honor and conscience,
and surrender everything except salvation.
The latter is reserved for God.
But everything else must be mine.
Frederick William

10. Map 18.1: Europe in 1763

11. The Austrian Empire of the Hapsburgs
Empress Maria Theresa,
Austria culturally divided: The Minorities Problem
Practical reforms but conservative
Joseph II,
Reforms
Abolishes serfdom
New penal code
Reforms overwhelming: Opposition from Aristocracy; alienates Church; even Serfs!
Epitaph: “Here lies Joseph II, who was unfortunate in everything he undertook”

13. Russia Under Catherine the Great, 1762-1796
Succeeds husband (Peter III) under suspicious circumstances
Reform
Instruction, 1767
Little real change
Strengthens landholders at expense of serfs
Rebellion of Emelyan Pugachev,
Territorial Expansion

14. Pugachev’s Rebellion

15. Map 18.1: Europe in 1763

16. The Destruction of Poland
Elected King: Sejm source of power
Weakness of Monarchy
Limited revenue, small bureaucracy, tiny standing army
Divisions w/in aristocracy
Destruction of the Polish State by Austria, Russia, and Prussia – 3rd Partition 1795
Follows last heroic resistance: Thaddeus Kościuszko
Lesson?

17. Thaddeus Kościuszko Veteran of American Revolution Polish Resistance Hero

18. Map 18.2: The Partitioning of Poland

19. The Mediterranean World
Spain
Philip V ( )
Charles III (1759 – 1788)
Portugal
The Marquis of Pombal (1699 – 1782)
The Italian States
Austrian Domination

20. The Scandinavian States
Sweden
Swedish nobility grew in power after the death of Charles XII in 1718
Factionalism allowed Gustavus III (1771 – 1792) to reassert monarchial authority
Enlightened reforms
Denmark
Reform efforts of Christian VII (1766 – 1808) and John Frederick Struensee

21. Enlightened Absolutism Revisited
Only Joseph II sought radical changes based on Enlightenment ideas
Political and Social Limits on Reform

22. Wars and Diplomacy European Rivalries & Balance of Power
The War of the Austrian Succession (1740 – 1748)
A world war? -- Fr. & Eng. in India and N. America
Seven Years’ War (1756 – 1763)
Diplomatic revolution – Habsburg-Bourbon Alliance
Old rivalry gives way to new – competition for empire
European war – stalemate
Indian war
Robert Clive (1725 – 1774)
North American war
French & Indian War
William Pitt the Elder – set on ↓ French empire
British victory = G.B. greatest empire – but….

23. Map 18. 3: The Battlefields of the Seven Years’ War

24. European Armies and Warfare
Rise of the Professional Army
Composition of Armies
Reflected social hierarchy
Rank-and-file soldiers came from lower classes
Armies partly composed of foreign troops
Britain had no standing army
Britain and the Dutch Republic emphasized naval power
The Nature of Warfare
Larger armies did not lead to greater destruction
Emphasis on strategy and tactics

25. Economic Expansion & Social Change
Population and Food
Population Growth
Falling death rate
Improvements in diet
End of the Bubonic Plague
Ideal growing conditions – end of the “Little Ice Age”
New crops – New World: corn, potatoes
Family, Marriage, and Birthrate Patterns
Nuclear family – w/ Father as head
Late marriages (form of birth control)
Limits on the birthrate – nursing; birth control
Infanticide; “Foundling Homes”

26. Children of the Upper Classes

27. The Practice of Infanticide

28. Economic Expansion & Social Conditions (cont)
An Agricultural Revolution?
Debate
Increased food production
New methods and new crops
Enclosure
New Methods of Finance
National debt
National Banks
European Industry
Cottage industry
New methods and new machines

29. Cottage Industry

30. The Social Order of the Eighteenth Century
Patterns of Society
Forces of Change
The Peasants
General situation
Compulsory services
Importance of the village
Domination by wealthy landowners
Diet
The Nobility
Privileges of the nobility
Military service
Moving into the ranks of the nobility – Bourgeoisie!

31. The Aristocratic Way of Life
The Country House
Purpose and style
Privacy
Influence of women – “withdrawing room”
The estate
The Grand Tour
Cosmopolitan nature of high culture
Travel as a manifestation of the Enlightenment
Difficulties of travel
Purpose of travel
Itinerary

32. Thomas Gainsborough, Conversation

33. Inhabitants of Towns and Cities
Townspeople still a minority of the population
Importance of towns
Centers of culture
Urban oligarchy
Middle class
Petty bourgeoisie
Laborers
Sanitation and poverty
Δ-ing attitudes towards the poor

34. A Market in Turin

35. Discussion Questions
Compare and contrast European warfare in 1600 and How did changes in the nature of warfare shape political development?
What factors contributed to population growth in eighteenth-century Europe? How did population growth shape economic development?
What obstacles to reform faced enlightened monarchs in eastern Europe?
Who held political power in eighteenth-century Britain? What limits were there on monarchial authority?
In what ways did the country house embody the lifestyle and values of the eighteenth-century aristocracy?

36. Web Links The Seven Years’ War Website
The Agricultural Revolution in England
William Hogarth and Eighteenth-Century Print Culture
Everyday Life: Primary Sources
From Popular to Mass Culture: Primary Sources
Historical Maps of Europe