Summary ‘A concise history of the Modern Europe’ by David S. Mason
The Old Regime and the Enlightenment (p.13 - 22)
● 1789: end of old regime of absolutist monarchy in France
○ France was seen in Europe as the most powerful country, Versailles palace built in
17th century symbolized the power of absolute monarchy → monarchs in other
countries modeled their own palaces after it
Old regime in France
● absolute monarchies almost every in Europe: claimed to rule on the basis of divine right as
God’s agent on earth (exception: England who got a constitutional monarchy in 1688 and
limited the monarch’s powers) in the rest of Europe, powers of European monarchs
increased (broke power of feudal lords, centralized power → created unified, more modern
states)
● Versailles meant to reflect the grandeur of Louis (the Sun King) & facilitating his centralizing
policy → Russian tsar Peter the Great & Prussian king Frederick the Great, inspired by this,
built palaces modeled on Versailles
● ancien regime based on rigid social hierarchy (place determined by birth); Sun King: ‘l’etat
c’est moi’ (I am the state); beneath the king there were three estates
1. First Estate (clergy)
a. high status by virtue of their spiritual function and proximity to God
2. Second Estate (nobility or aristocracy)
a. provided military support for the king
b. wealthiest/most powerful nobles owned large landholdings and elegant chateaus,
exercised considerable political influence as councilors of state and local judges
c. provincial nobles (seigneurs) owned estates with peasants working on the land
d. nobles who held their title but were very poor
3. Third Estate (the rest of the 97% of the population)
a. responsible for the production of goods and provision of services
● traditional agricultural sector, but commercial trade was expanding (encouraged by royal
police)
○ since 17th century: mercantilism → development of manufacturing and trade →
growth of a new social class (bourgeoisie)
● overwhelmingly catholic
● wars weren’t particularly fought for ideology or nationalism but for maintaining a balance of
power
→ system challenged by the ideas of the Enlightenment a nd then the forces of the French
Revolution of 1789 and later by the Industrial Revolution and the power of the new middle class
The Enlightenment
● ‘the age of reason’ because of the emphasis on power of human mind to liberate the
individual & improve society
● knowledge could only be derived from experience, experiment & observation (people had to
free their minds from the oppression by the church/state)
● Kant: motto = sapere aude, have courage to use your own understanding
● Voltaire also praised the appeal to reason, science and self-reliance
,→ undermining of the authority of established institutions of the old regime (church and state)
● ideas were continuity of discoveries and theories of Scientific Revolution in 16th/17th
centuries (Copernicus and theory about the Sun as the center of the solar system, Galilei
confirmed this → conflict with church’s inquisition for his heresy)
○ Enlightenment philosophers used the same methods to study society and
government
● John Locke: human nature is essentially good; possible to shape society and environment +
providing good education → produce better society
○ also implied a contractual relationship between the people and the government
● Enlightenment movement dominated by French philosophes (philosophers, writers,
thinkers)
● Montesquieu: argued that laws derive from nature & developed trias politica
● Jean-Jacques Rousseau: society corrupts and distorts man’s natural freedom and equality;
through a social contract that’s been negotiated between the people and the government,
the balance through civil liberty and equality can be restored
● Encyclopedia: most important work, many Enlightenment ideas disseminated
● Adam Smith: applied Enlightenment ideas to the economy and market; self-interest could
work for the common good (invisible hand of the market would benefit society in the end);
argued for a system of laissez-faire
● philosophes were more reformers than revolutionaries; didn’t constitute any political
parties/revolutionary organizations
○ they did attack the assumptions on which the ancien regime was built → fact that
their ideas were being aired gave rise to a new phenomenon: public opinion and the
idea of government/politics as something ‘public’
The impact of the Enlightenment
● some European monarchs embraced the Enlightenment & used principles to introduce
reforms (Prussian Frederick the Great, Russian Catherine the Great, Austrian Maria Theresa);
others used it to effect change (Dutch and British); others criticized it (Spanish, Italians and
the French)
● inspiration for political ideologies (communism, liberalism, socialism)
● laid foundation for human rights, popular sovereignty, tolerance, respect for law and values
that lie at the core of modern European society
The French Revolution and Napoleon (p. 23 - 36)
● 1789: storming of Bastille and Declaration of the Rights of Man
● causes of the French revolution
○ socioeconomic changes of the 18th century
○ Enlightenment ideas
○ weaknesses in the monarchy
○ short-term factors: government debt, financial crisis, bad harvest year
1789: the Revolution begins
● 1789: Estates General (assembly representing the clergy, nobility and Third Estate) get
together (hadn’t happened since 1614)
, ○ cahiers de doleances (voters listed grievances) called for moderate reforms of
judicial, tax and seigneurial systems (not very revolutionary); nevertheless, now the
population was politicized
○ pamphlet from Sieyes: wanted the Third Estate to have more of a say, said the
nation would be ‘something more’ if the privileged order were abolished
○ Third Estate declared itself the National Assembly and swore that where they’d
meet, there the nation is → rumors that regime would dissolve the National
Assembly → armed militias in the city → people stormed the Bastille to get access
to the ammunition stored there → fall of Bastille (important symbol of the
Revolution)
■ vulnerability of the monarchy was exposed, authority evaporated
■ August 1789: remnants of feudalism officially abolished
■ August 26 1789: Declaration of the Rights of the Man and the Citizen →
King Louis XVI refused to sign this → crowd escorted the King from
Versailles to Paris (felt like he’d be more responsive to the will of the people
if he were in Paris)
■ Louis sort of de facto constitutional monarch, Constituent Assembly working
on new constitution → Civil Constitution of the Clergy (required public
election of clergy and bishops, forced clergy to sign an oath of loyalty to the
nation)
■ June 1791: new constitution (king only has suspensive veto) → Louis XVI
fled disguised to rally those opposed to the Revolution → was captured and
brought back
■ Prussia and Austria declared war against France → accusation that Louis
was in collusion with foreign monarchs → new elections → september
1792: establishment of the first French Republic
The radical republic and the terror
● triumph of popular democracy and return to universal manhood suffrage (abandoned in
1791)
● local clubs and section assemblies drew large numbers of sans-culottes (“without fancy
pants”)
● Louis convicted of collusion with foreign powers → executed on the guillotine
● Britain, Holland and Spain joined the war against France (huge threat of French
revolutionaries to the European monarchies)
● France: threat of counterrevolution and foreign war → National Convention set up a
committee (defend gains of Revolution, eliminate enemies), first led by Danton, then
Robespierre → 40.000 dead, eventually Danton and Robespierre also murdered
● new constitution: five-man Directory to hold executive power → still many problems (war
with Europe, political ferment), political legitimacy waned → supported themselves a coup
d’etat in 1799 → Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon and Europe
● 1804: crowned himself Napoleon I, emperor of the French
● tried to preserve the gains of Revolution, avoided return to radicalism or monarchy,
introduced the Napoleonic Code
The Old Regime and the Enlightenment (p.13 - 22)
● 1789: end of old regime of absolutist monarchy in France
○ France was seen in Europe as the most powerful country, Versailles palace built in
17th century symbolized the power of absolute monarchy → monarchs in other
countries modeled their own palaces after it
Old regime in France
● absolute monarchies almost every in Europe: claimed to rule on the basis of divine right as
God’s agent on earth (exception: England who got a constitutional monarchy in 1688 and
limited the monarch’s powers) in the rest of Europe, powers of European monarchs
increased (broke power of feudal lords, centralized power → created unified, more modern
states)
● Versailles meant to reflect the grandeur of Louis (the Sun King) & facilitating his centralizing
policy → Russian tsar Peter the Great & Prussian king Frederick the Great, inspired by this,
built palaces modeled on Versailles
● ancien regime based on rigid social hierarchy (place determined by birth); Sun King: ‘l’etat
c’est moi’ (I am the state); beneath the king there were three estates
1. First Estate (clergy)
a. high status by virtue of their spiritual function and proximity to God
2. Second Estate (nobility or aristocracy)
a. provided military support for the king
b. wealthiest/most powerful nobles owned large landholdings and elegant chateaus,
exercised considerable political influence as councilors of state and local judges
c. provincial nobles (seigneurs) owned estates with peasants working on the land
d. nobles who held their title but were very poor
3. Third Estate (the rest of the 97% of the population)
a. responsible for the production of goods and provision of services
● traditional agricultural sector, but commercial trade was expanding (encouraged by royal
police)
○ since 17th century: mercantilism → development of manufacturing and trade →
growth of a new social class (bourgeoisie)
● overwhelmingly catholic
● wars weren’t particularly fought for ideology or nationalism but for maintaining a balance of
power
→ system challenged by the ideas of the Enlightenment a nd then the forces of the French
Revolution of 1789 and later by the Industrial Revolution and the power of the new middle class
The Enlightenment
● ‘the age of reason’ because of the emphasis on power of human mind to liberate the
individual & improve society
● knowledge could only be derived from experience, experiment & observation (people had to
free their minds from the oppression by the church/state)
● Kant: motto = sapere aude, have courage to use your own understanding
● Voltaire also praised the appeal to reason, science and self-reliance
,→ undermining of the authority of established institutions of the old regime (church and state)
● ideas were continuity of discoveries and theories of Scientific Revolution in 16th/17th
centuries (Copernicus and theory about the Sun as the center of the solar system, Galilei
confirmed this → conflict with church’s inquisition for his heresy)
○ Enlightenment philosophers used the same methods to study society and
government
● John Locke: human nature is essentially good; possible to shape society and environment +
providing good education → produce better society
○ also implied a contractual relationship between the people and the government
● Enlightenment movement dominated by French philosophes (philosophers, writers,
thinkers)
● Montesquieu: argued that laws derive from nature & developed trias politica
● Jean-Jacques Rousseau: society corrupts and distorts man’s natural freedom and equality;
through a social contract that’s been negotiated between the people and the government,
the balance through civil liberty and equality can be restored
● Encyclopedia: most important work, many Enlightenment ideas disseminated
● Adam Smith: applied Enlightenment ideas to the economy and market; self-interest could
work for the common good (invisible hand of the market would benefit society in the end);
argued for a system of laissez-faire
● philosophes were more reformers than revolutionaries; didn’t constitute any political
parties/revolutionary organizations
○ they did attack the assumptions on which the ancien regime was built → fact that
their ideas were being aired gave rise to a new phenomenon: public opinion and the
idea of government/politics as something ‘public’
The impact of the Enlightenment
● some European monarchs embraced the Enlightenment & used principles to introduce
reforms (Prussian Frederick the Great, Russian Catherine the Great, Austrian Maria Theresa);
others used it to effect change (Dutch and British); others criticized it (Spanish, Italians and
the French)
● inspiration for political ideologies (communism, liberalism, socialism)
● laid foundation for human rights, popular sovereignty, tolerance, respect for law and values
that lie at the core of modern European society
The French Revolution and Napoleon (p. 23 - 36)
● 1789: storming of Bastille and Declaration of the Rights of Man
● causes of the French revolution
○ socioeconomic changes of the 18th century
○ Enlightenment ideas
○ weaknesses in the monarchy
○ short-term factors: government debt, financial crisis, bad harvest year
1789: the Revolution begins
● 1789: Estates General (assembly representing the clergy, nobility and Third Estate) get
together (hadn’t happened since 1614)
, ○ cahiers de doleances (voters listed grievances) called for moderate reforms of
judicial, tax and seigneurial systems (not very revolutionary); nevertheless, now the
population was politicized
○ pamphlet from Sieyes: wanted the Third Estate to have more of a say, said the
nation would be ‘something more’ if the privileged order were abolished
○ Third Estate declared itself the National Assembly and swore that where they’d
meet, there the nation is → rumors that regime would dissolve the National
Assembly → armed militias in the city → people stormed the Bastille to get access
to the ammunition stored there → fall of Bastille (important symbol of the
Revolution)
■ vulnerability of the monarchy was exposed, authority evaporated
■ August 1789: remnants of feudalism officially abolished
■ August 26 1789: Declaration of the Rights of the Man and the Citizen →
King Louis XVI refused to sign this → crowd escorted the King from
Versailles to Paris (felt like he’d be more responsive to the will of the people
if he were in Paris)
■ Louis sort of de facto constitutional monarch, Constituent Assembly working
on new constitution → Civil Constitution of the Clergy (required public
election of clergy and bishops, forced clergy to sign an oath of loyalty to the
nation)
■ June 1791: new constitution (king only has suspensive veto) → Louis XVI
fled disguised to rally those opposed to the Revolution → was captured and
brought back
■ Prussia and Austria declared war against France → accusation that Louis
was in collusion with foreign monarchs → new elections → september
1792: establishment of the first French Republic
The radical republic and the terror
● triumph of popular democracy and return to universal manhood suffrage (abandoned in
1791)
● local clubs and section assemblies drew large numbers of sans-culottes (“without fancy
pants”)
● Louis convicted of collusion with foreign powers → executed on the guillotine
● Britain, Holland and Spain joined the war against France (huge threat of French
revolutionaries to the European monarchies)
● France: threat of counterrevolution and foreign war → National Convention set up a
committee (defend gains of Revolution, eliminate enemies), first led by Danton, then
Robespierre → 40.000 dead, eventually Danton and Robespierre also murdered
● new constitution: five-man Directory to hold executive power → still many problems (war
with Europe, political ferment), political legitimacy waned → supported themselves a coup
d’etat in 1799 → Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon and Europe
● 1804: crowned himself Napoleon I, emperor of the French
● tried to preserve the gains of Revolution, avoided return to radicalism or monarchy,
introduced the Napoleonic Code
