18th CENTURY EUROPE18th CENTURY EUROPESlide 3Slide 4Slide 5Slide 6THE ENLIGHTENMENT18th CENTURY EUROPE•18th century = 1700-1799Ancien Régime = Old RegimeFrench Revolution (1789)Modern Era18th CENTURY EUROPE•Political structure absolutism•Social structure orders or estatesAbsolutism: system of government in which both executive and legislative power derives entirely from the personal sovereignty of the king.monarch holding sole and uncontestable power over the state and his subjectsMain features:1. SacredYET: absolute vs. arbitrary power2. Paternal3. Subject to reasonFundamental difference between the power of a king in the Old Regime and the power of a president or PM in modern democratic societies?Society of orders (estates)1. Clergy2. Nobility3. Commoners (Third Estate)1. Bourgeoisie (lawyers, teachers, merchants, etc.)2. Manual labourers (artisans, peasants, domestic servants))3. Day labourers, landless peasants, poor and beggarsStatus defined by:public attitudes concerning honourlegal opportunities and restrictions- privileges (from Latin: private laws)Function of law in the Old Regime vs. function of law in modern democratic societies?Why did people accept social system based on inequality and difference?Moral basis of old regime Europe:•Traditionreligion•Authorityimplications of any attempt at political or social change?THE ENLIGHTENMENTIntellectual and cultural movement arising in Europe in the 18th century and emphasizing skepticismPhilosophes = free thinkers = Enlightenment thinkersWhat did the philosophes question? What did they suggest should inform men’s decision?Why did intellectuals start questioning long-establishedbeliefs in the 18th century (why not earlier, or
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