A Time of Transition

The middle decades of the 1600s brought dramatic political and economic changes worldwide.

ASIACHINA: The Manchu people establish their Qing dynasty by 1644. A reign that lasts until 1911

JAPAN: The Tokugawa clan cements power and closes Japan to foreign traders – after 1641 only a small Dutch trading post in Nagasaki remains. Japan remains in isolation for the next 200 years.

EUROPEThe Thirty Years War ends in 1648: Thus, ending a prolonged period of conflict in Germany and surrounding areas

Louis XIV Ascends the Throne: He remained the dominant political figure until 1715

SOUTH EAST ASIA

The Mughal Empire. Reaches its height under absolutist monarch Aurangzeb.

The Age of Absolutism

The Palace of Versailles.

Eric Pouhier

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.

The Palace of Versailles.

Eric Pouhier

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Absolutist monarchs in Louis XIV in France, Peter I in Russia, and Babur in the Mughal Empire

(Picture taken by Kaiser Tufail during visit to Agra, 3-5-08) This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

The Age of Absolutism

Mughal Empire

The Taj Mahal exterior (left) the interior (bottom right).

The Age of AbsolutismIn frequent wars over succession and religion monarchs, especially Louis XIV, spent unrestrainedly.

The Treaty of Utrecht ended the War of Spanish Succession.

An absolutist monarch, Aurangzeb, extended the

empire and tried to unify realm under Islam, causing his Hindu subjects to revolve repeatedly

in the face of their persecution.

Similarly in France, Louis XIV would try to unify his kingdom under Catholicism, causing French Protestants to flee in the thousands – many of whom were enterprising manufacturers and artisans – causing serious damage to his economy.

The Age of Absolutism:

Age of Absolutism

• The splendor of these courts was underwritten by a growing middle class of traders and manufacturers. – Congregated in towns

• Known as burgers or bourgeois

– Provided new sources of wealth beyond agriculture

– Favored self-government over absolutism • Increasingly proposed laws, not monarchs

The Ottoman Empire, 1672

Between the 15th and 17th centuries, the Ottoman Empire achieved great cultural and social developments in terms of wealth, literary output, and architectural monuments.

Then, power shifted from palace to grand vizier’s office, and signs of decline became apparent.

Nonetheless, the Ottomans retained significant influence throughout their long decline.

-Constantinople was a major link in trade and cultural exchange between West and East

Commerce and Industry

• A new type of empire emerged.– Developed and maintained less by

governments and guns than by companies and invoices

• The world had (and continued to) open through exploration. New trading opportunities increased the outlook of the middle class

– I.E. The East India Company became the de-facto ruler of the Indian subcontinent

Commerce and Industry

Trade increased steadily between Europe, Africa, and America.

Traders would bring slaves from Africa to the Americas and Europe; raw (slave-produced) goods like sugar and cotton from the Americas to Europe; and manufactured goods from Europe to Africa and America.

Asia

Illustration of positions of players on a noh stage. Center: shite (main actor) wearing mask and holding fan. Front right: waki. Right: eight-person jiutai (chorus). Back: four hayashi-kata (musicians), from right to left: fue (flute), kozutsumi (shoulder drum), ohzutsumi (hip drum) and taiko. Left rear: two kohken (stage hands).

Image created by Toto-tarou.

Japan was closed to foreign traders (except for a small Dutch outpost).

Nonetheless internal culture was still undergoing significant changes.

–For example, unlike Noh (medieval drama staged for the elite) Japanese puppet theater was aimed at a wide audience.

Science and Technology

• The growth of commerce and industry was fed by rapid developments in science and technology

• The scientific revolution that was inaugurated in the early modern period really took off in the 17th century. – Newton: theory of gravitation, calculus, white light is

composed of rays– Flying shuttle, spinning jenny mechanized cloth

manufacturing– James Watt: Steam power

Watt Steam Engine

Thurston Robert H: History of the Growth of the Steam engine, D. Appleton & Co 1878

Science and Technology

• The rapidly increasing grasp of the laws of nature prompted major shifts in religious understanding. – What was the role of the divine in this new,

rational world?

The Enlightenment

This is a panoramic view of the Pantheon in Paris. (c) Jean-Pierre Lavoie, 2005 (). This is an edit of image:Pantheon_wider.jpg. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license versions 2.5, 2.0, and 1.0

The Enlightenment

• In Europe, this broad movement became known as the Enlightenment– Also known as the Age of Reason– Extends roughly from the English revolution to

the French Revolution or the beheading of Charles I (1649) to the beheading of Louis XVI (1793)

• Note the change in technology between the use of the sword (an aristocratic implement) and the guillotine (the democratizing machine).

The Enlightenment

• The Enlightenment centered in England and France– France: Catholic, absolutist, favored

deductive and abstract systematizing– England: Protestant, more democratic

monarchy, favored positivism and inductive reasoning from empirical observation

The Enlightenment

• The Enlightenment emerged as a response to earlier, bloody conflicts over freedom of belief (Reformation)– The idea of religious toleration, freedom of

thought, and a role for human reason in understanding revealed religious truths

– Religious reformation often tied to political revolution

• Questioning the divine right of kings (social contract, etc…)

Frontispiece to D’Alembert and Diderot’s Encylclopedie

Enlightenment thinkers sought to organize and compile all knowledge around humankind – not God.

These references often called (especially descriptions of non-European cultures) called norms into question and anatomical drawings offended conservatives.

The Enlightenment

Travel and travel chronicles exposed readers to new cultures

The Enlightenment

• Monarchs tried to control philosophes through Academies

• Science and literature were in constant danger of becoming embroiled in social controversy. – Advances posed serious challenges to

traditional religious and political authority

Satire and Revolution

• Literature played a crucial role in the Enlightenment– Dangerous because it can spread radical

ideas– Closely censored by royal agents (no such

things as free speech)– Satire flourished as a way to critique

The “Battle of the Books”

• Ancients and Moderns.

• Should literature imitate the classic models or should innovation be key?

The World in 1700