The west on the eve of a new world order - Essay Example

Chapter 18: The West on the Eve of a New World Order Several people used the ideas of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment to examine andchange society. Ptolemy believed in a geocentric theory of the universe, which Nicolaus Copernicus challenged with his heliocentric theory. Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei confirmed the heliocentric theory. Isaac Newton provided the three laws of motion that governed planetary bodies. The Enlightenment promoted the use of the scientific methods to understanding life.

John Locke proposed that human beings are born with a blank mind, which showed that the environment molded people’s minds and behaviors. The philosophes were the intellectuals of the Enlightenment who believed that philosophy can change the world. Montesquieu argued that separation of powers promoted checks and balances in the government. Jean-Jacques Rousseau asserted that the concept of the social contract happens when people use general will to create a government system. Mary Wollstonecraft argued that all human beings, including women, have innate reason.

Economic changes affected the social order. By the eighteenth century, Britain and France eclipsed old world monopolies (i.e. Spain, Portugal, and the Dutch Republic) through its largely profitable colonial empires and cottage industries. Peasants in Europe were generally free compared to serfs in Eastern Europe and Russia. Patrician oligarchies dominated towns and cities across Europe. The colonial empires in the Americas had different rulers. British North American used colonization effectively because the English were motivated by the desire for religious and economic independence.

These colonies were made to balance trade that favored the mother country, however, which fueled ideas for independence. French North America was managed autocratically. They did not succeed as well as the English because of lack of money and people. The thirteen British colonies in America soon declared war against their mother land and demanded independence from Britain. After winning the American Revolution, America created a new Constitution, and afterwards, a Bill of Rights in 1789. Enlightened absolutism refers to ruling through equality of all before the law, religious toleration, freedom of speech and the press, and the rights of private property.

Frederick II of Prussia developed a Prussian army that upheld duty, obedience, and sacrifice, but he also limited basic freedoms and did not change serfdom. Joseph II portrayed enlightened absolutism more than Frederick II because he abolished serfdom and promoted equality of all before the law. His social reforms alienated the church and nobility, however, and his successors reversed his achievements. Catherine II the Great of Russia favored the landed nobility and did not portray the aspects of enlightened absolutism regarding equality of all.

The causes of the French Revolution are social, economic, and political inequality. The most immediate causes are increasing poverty levels and declining government finances, as well as the lack of leadership of Louis XVI. On June 17, 1789, the Third Estate called itself the National Assembly and created a constitution. By 1791, the new order destroyed the old order. The newly elected National Convention decided to execute the king in 1793. In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself in France as the Emperor.

He preserved allies with the Catholic Church, but codified the laws under the Civil Code and developed a merit-based bureaucracy. He did not serve long because of his defeat during his invasion of Russia and failed attempt to regain power after being exiled to the island of Elba, Italy.