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European Enlightenment: Difference between revisions
→Background and historical context & causes: building up background on economy and locke on property
(addding to montesquieu and starting legacy) |
(→Background and historical context & causes: building up background on economy and locke on property) |
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** people and institutions resist change | ** people and institutions resist change | ||
** events shape that change | ** events shape that change | ||
=== Commercial revolutions === | |||
* key backdrop is the growth of the private economy | |||
** Medieval Europe & manorial feudalism | |||
*** church-owned or heritable, aristocratic landowners via royal grants or agreements | |||
*** agricultural or extraction labor held by landowners & taxes based on land | |||
*** small manufactures & skilled trade controlled by guilds | |||
** late middle-Ages Europe | |||
*** growth in trade and movement towards taxation on trade | |||
*** growth of towns and cities leads to commercial-based economies | |||
** private land or structure ownership increasingly from purchase or rent and not aristocratic prerogative | |||
=== Protestant Reformation === | === Protestant Reformation === | ||
* a | * challenge to papal supremacy and a centralized Church | ||
* | * religious wars lead to tremendous destruction and loss of life | ||
* protestant nations (Netherlands, German states, England) | |||
=== Age of Discovery === | === Age of Discovery === | ||
* European expeditions around Africa, across the Atlantic and ultimately across the Pacific | |||
* = a challenge to Europe-centric view of the world, exposure to different geographies and peoples | |||
=== Scientific Revolution === | === Scientific Revolution === | ||
* = a challenge to traditional views and explanations for the world | |||
* new views and comprehension of the physical world and its forces (physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, etc) | |||
* scientific method as means of rational interpretation of the world | |||
=== Technological advances === | === Technological advances === | ||
* transoceanic travel creates great diffusion of people, animals, plants, materials and ideas | |||
* armament technologies increase lethality of war | |||
* as it did with the protestant reformation, the printing press fueled the diffusion of ideas | |||
== Key dates of the Enlightenment== | == Key dates of the Enlightenment== | ||
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** separation of church and state | ** separation of church and state | ||
** property | ** property | ||
*** Locke argued that property is a natural right and is | *** Locke argued that property is a natural right and is necessary for happiness | ||
** supply and demand or "price | *** land ownership was traditionally seen as the property of the aristocracy | ||
**** so Locke's views on property rights challenged centralized or aristocratic authority | |||
** supply and demand or "price theory" | |||
*** Locke developed the economic / monetary theory of the relationship between supply and demand | *** Locke developed the economic / monetary theory of the relationship between supply and demand | ||
* works: | * works: | ||