HIST362 Study Guide

Unit 2: Revolution and Modernity

2a. Characterize the socio-political realities of pre-revolutionary Europe

  • How did the Thirty Years War influence absolute rule and state-building in France and England?
  • What social and economic features characterized absolute rule in France, Prussia, Russia, Austria and Sweden in the 17th and 18th centuries?
  • What was the ancien régime? Why was Louis IV of France described as Louis the Great or the Sun King?
  • Define tax farming.
  • How did monarchy, religion, and taxation contribute to discontent and foster revolution in Europe?
  • How were the populations in England and Holland able to reject absolutist rule?
  • Define the Enlightenment or Age of Reason. Describe some key economic and social elements that defined this period in Europe.
  • Explain why conflicts between the church and government often preceded revolution in Europe.

John Merriman argues that the turmoil of the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) led many members of the nobility and upper classes to agree to the terms of monarchy and absolute rule in exchange for a restoration of public order, protection against popular insurrection and peasant uprisings, and the recognition of noble privilege. For example, the ancien régime in France describes this era where religious and other conventions supported a social and political order that glorified the king as protector and subjugated the peasants and lower classes. These monarchies routinely ignored any parliaments or government assemblies.

In England and the Netherlands, however, the parliament refused to be ignored. These countries each had a growing influential commercial middle class population, a large number of property owners, a strong urban population, a small nobility, and a decentralized police force and army. Both resisted the power of the Catholic church based in Rome in favor of more local control.

Historic and intellectual elements of the Enlightenment contributed to revolutionary processes across the world. These changes and revolutions all contributed to the rise of modernity (which we explore below).

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2b. Describe key themes of the Enlightenment and critically evaluate them

  • What aspects of political life and society did the Enlightenment thinkers focus on and critique?
  • Describe the main arguments of the key thinkers of the Enlightenment: Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Immanuel Kant, and Nicolas de Condorcet. 
  • In what ways did the Enlightenment thinkers prepare the way for the French Revolution? How did the Grub Street hacks that Merrimen describes help ignite opposition to the monarchy? 
  • In what ways is Kant's essay What Is Enlightenment? revolutionary? What did he mean by the "emergence from self-incurred immaturity"?
  • What does Rousseau mean by the general will his concept of a social contract?
  • How does Condorcet define progress and what does he mean by the necessity of progress?

The Enlightenment or Age of Reason (1715–1789) describes the period when philosophers and intellectuals emerged outside traditional religious spheres to question the established social and political order. Primary philosophical concepts included skepticism of the political establishment, the pursuit of reason, religious tolerance, liberty, and empiricism.

John Merriman says the enlightenment thinkers affected their readers in the following six ways.

  1. They weakened the hold of traditional religion as a public institution;
  2. They promoted a secular code of ethics;
  3. They developed a critical spirit of analysis that did not accept routine tradition and hierarchies;
  4. They were curious about history and believed in progress;
  5. They differentiated absolutism from despotism; and
  6. They disrespected monarchy and heaped abuse on unjustified privilege.
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), the German philosopher, encouraged individuals to think for themselves rather than exhibit blind obedience to political authority. Kant wrote that enlightenment is built on man's ability to use his own reason, which takes courage. He argued that most people reject enlightenment out of cowardice and laziness: they are unwilling to break away from the domination of others, particularly church leaders, government officials, and educators. Domination by these powerful people restricts one's individual freedom. Kant believed he did not live in an enlightened age, but in an age that was moving toward enlightenment, and that people would gradually learn to think for themselves over time.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), the Swiss philosopher, wrote "The Social Contract", which argued that humans are born free, but coerced into economic and social dependence. Political and social covenants should restore this lost freedom. Rousseau believed that legitimate civil authority is only derived from civil contracts which both sides enter freely. In other words, to be legitimate citizens must enter a civil contract with a government willingly. In this civil society, each individual works for their own best interest. Collectively, these individual wills support and benefit the general will, which Rousseau called "the sovereign". In this system, the will of the majority rules. Each person who enters this social contract agrees to abide by laws the government passes, even when they disagree with them.

Nicolas de Condorcet (1743–1794), the French philosopher and mathematician, believed continual progress led toward the perfection of mankind. He argued that the progress the Enlightenment promoted, especially in the areas of science and social thought, would lead to an increasingly perfect human state. Understanding health, wealth creation, and industry would eventually lead to the elimination of disease, poverty and suffering. Through knowledge, humans are capable of unlimited progress.

Review this material in The Enlightenment and the Public Sphere by John Merriman and the primary documents:


2c. Identify the most important elements of modernity

  • Compare modernity with traditional modes of life.
  • What does modernization theory say about the relationship between Europe and the rest of the world?
  • How did Max Weber define the relationship between violence and the modern state?

Modernity is generally understood as a historic, social, economic and political phenomenon that occurred after the Middle Ages and is associated with progress, reason and science. The concepts of modernity and modernization became popular with historians and sociologists in the mid–20th century (1950–1970) and encompass the processes of industrialization and the creation of nation-states.

Kazys Varnelis notes that Francis Bacon (1561–1626) saw the rise of a bourgeois class in Europe as merchants began to accumulate capital and concentrate wealth. Cracks in the edifice of feudalism emerged, and power re-oriented around a life that centered in court around the monarch. The printing press allowed individuals and intellectuals to organize their thinking and share information among each other.

The 1700s would witness the rise of capitalism, industrialization, secularization, fundamental changes in class structure, even uprising and revolution. Throughout this period, exploration and colonialism allowed capital to accumulate in Western Europe to help fuel investment in the Industrial Revolution. By the close of the 18th century, thought itself transformed and "historical ways of understanding replacing the classical explanation of the order of things in terms of taxonomies".

Max Weber (1864–1920) argued that before the rise of the modern state, the king had to share a legitimate use of violence or force with the church; one of the defining features of the modern state is that it alone has the ability to exert legitimate coercive force. This legitimacy of violence functions within the geographical territory of the nation state.

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2d. Critically evaluate competing models of modernity

  • What does modernization theory say about the relationship between Europe and the rest of the world? What are some alternative ways of configuring this relationship?
  • Compare this article to the article on "Modernity and History". What are the features of modernity suggested by these two articles?
  • Define notions of equality and inequality in terms of revolution and modernity.
  • Define formal and substantive equality in terms of different socio-political contexts.

According to this article from Learn Sociology, modernization theorists point to different aspects of modernization according to their social science discipline (social, political, economic) and give greater importance to structures or institutions depending on their realm of expertise or interest.

For example,

  • Sociologists characterize modern societies by high levels of urbanization, literacy, research, health care, secularization, bureaucracy, mass media, and transportation facilities. Kinship ties are weak and the nuclear family prevails.

  • Political scientists characterize modern societies by greater participation in decision-making processes, universal suffrage, political parties, a civil service bureaucracy, and parliaments. Traditional sources of authority are weaker as bureaucratic institutions assume responsibility and power.

  • Economists characterize a modern economy by high levels of industrialization, focus on production levels, increased division of labor, infrastructure and commercial facilities, and large-scale commercial markets.

Learn Sociology describes the following three perspectives on modernity. To what extent do these perspectives promote a Westernized approach? In what ways do they seem to denigrate more traditional approaches and values about how society should be organized?

The evolutionary perspective argues societies evolve from lower to higher forms. Nations progress from simple, undifferentiated systems, to more complex political and economic models. "Western industrial society is seen as superior to preindustrial society to the extent that it has progressed through specialization to more effective ways of performing societal functions".

Diffusionists note that societies can transfer cultural patterns associated with modern society via social interaction (such as through trade, war, travelers, media) through several paths to development, rather than through a simple linear evolution.

Structural functionalists emphasize the idea that societies are composed of different functioning parts, such as compatible institutions and roles that work together to form a whole. Societies can progress from one increasingly complex and efficient social system to another. "This contributed to the notion that internal social and cultural factors are important determinants or obstacles of economic change".

We can also explore elements of modernity and revolution in terms of notions of equality and inequality. While the concept of equality is difficult to define and the subject of much argument, understanding the complexity helps us comprehend the modern concept of egalitarianism.

Before the 1700s people were seen as inherently unequal, until philosophers such as Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) and Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) began arguing for natural rights, where everyone human being deserves deserves to be treated equally, with respect and dignity.

Formal equality requires us to treat people who share the same status in the same way: "like should be treated as like".

Moral equality (also called substantive equality) builds on formal equality by recognizing differences among individuals or groups. Moral or substantive equality argues that every human being deserves the same respect and dignity, but it does not demand everyone be treated in exactly the same way because individuals are unequal in circumstance and ability.

Modern Western political and moral culture centers on this belief that people are equal, but not identical. So for example, a just law may treat people differently due to their inherent differences, although substantive equality is still upheld due to the dignity of all people.

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Unit 2 Vocabulary

  • Absolute rule
  • Age of Reason
  • Ancien régime
  • Anglican church
  • Diffusionist
  • English civil war
  • Enlightenment
  • Equality
  • Evolutionary perspective
  • Grub Street hacks
  • Immanuel Kant
  • Inequality
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  • Liberty
  • Max Weber
  • Montesquieu
  • Nicolas de Condorcet
  • Modernity
  • Structural functionalist
  • Tax farming
  • The social contract
  • Thirty Years War
  • Voltaire