A Short History of Europe: From Charlemagne to the Treaty of Europe (11 page)

The agricultural revolution in the eighteenth century greatly
changed farming practices and increased yields, particularly in Britain. Mechanisation, the use of enclosures and four-field crop rotation were introduced and innovators such as Jethro Tull (1674–1741) devised new ideas that helped to feed the increasing population. This increase in population in Britain would eventually provide the workforce necessary to drive the industrial revolution in the late
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

There were many efforts to help the ‘deserving’ poor. The Church operated various organisations and in a number of Protestant countries, measures were enacted to raise taxes to aid those in trouble. Hospitals were becoming more numerous but treatment, especially surgery, remained, at best, rudimentary. Anaesthesia was being used more often, however, and the
discovery of a smallpox vaccine by English scientist Edward Jenner (1749–1823) represented a huge advance.

Men such as René Descartes (1596–1650) and Isaac Newton (1643–1727) had, in the seventeenth century, created a new way of thinking and of describing the world. Descartes began with his famous, ‘
Cogito, ergo sum
’ (‘I think, therefore I exist’) – you can, with
the help of reason and mathematics, prove the existence of God. Other philosophers, such as the Englishmen Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and John Locke (1632–1704) and the Frenchman, Blaise Pascal (1623–62) had also questioned the status quo. Most importantly, the Swiss thinker, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78), took Locke’s thinking and built on it. Locke had said that people are born equal and are the
sum total of their individual experience and observations. In
The Social Contract
Rousseau claimed that ‘Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.’ He advocated that power should be given to the people. The French philosopher and writer, Voltaire (1694–1778), meanwhile, poured scorn on institutional religion.

It was hardly surprising then, after centuries of religious and political repression
and tyranny overlaid with superstition and mysticism, that people began to wish for a society based on Reason. Enlightenment thinkers were severely critical, too, of the repression of individual and personal liberty by political and religious institutions. Such thinking would lead, ultimately, to the American and French Revolutions in the eighteenth century and also contributed to later events
such as the Latin American independence movement and the Greek national independence movement, culminating in the Greek War of Independence, fought between 1821 and 1829. Another element of the Enlightenment perhaps arose partly from Europeans’ experience of the ‘natural’ lives lived by the natives of the lands that had been recently discovered. Works such as Benedictus de Spinoza’s
Ethics
expounded
a pantheistic view of the world with God and nature as one. Nature would become a
leitmotif
of Enlightenment literature.

The Treaty of Utrecht had made Europe a relatively safe place in which to travel and many young men took themselves off on the Grand Tour, buying art and shipping it home and soaking up ideas and styles. Architecture began to reflect the influence of the Grand Tourists and
the influence of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–80) became pervasive. Palladio influenced English architects such as Christopher Wren (1632–1723) and Inigo Jones (1573–1652). Italianate villas began to spring up in the English and Irish countryside. As the eighteenth century progressed, however, romanticism became the fashion. Garden designers such as ‘Capability’ Brown (1716–83) made
natural-looking landscapes
de rigueur
and this taste for nature reverberated through the arts with poets such as William Wordsworth (1770–1850) whose work rejoiced in the natural, unspoilt beauty of England’s Lake District. In music, too, romanticism became popular across Europe later in the century.

While most countries were monarchies, the styles of government varied from
country to country in Europe at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Absolutism had taken hold and most kings or emperors ruled by ‘divine right’; they were entitled to rule by their birth and were responsible for their actions to no one but God.

However, there were those amongst this ruling elite who became interested in the new ideas of the Enlightenment and who tried to apply them to politics,
in spite of their absolutism. They became known as enlightened despots and embraced such rationalist principles of the Enlightenment as religious tolerance, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the right to own property. They allowed and encouraged the development of science, the arts and education in their countries. In Denmark, Count Johann von Struensee (1737–72),
de facto
regent while
the schizophrenic Christian VII (1749–1808) was king, tried to introduce enlightened reforms, freeing the serfs, improving the legal system and introducing religious tolerance; unfortunately, his dictatorial style resulted in his downfall and execution. In Italy, Leopold of Habsburg, Grand Duke of Tuscany, later briefly Holy Roman Emperor (ruled 1790–92), introduced reforms including fair trials
and the abolition of torture. In Spain, Charles III (ruled 1759–88) reformed the law and expelled the Jesuits. In Sweden, King Gustavus III (ruled 1771–92) abolished torture.

Another enlightened despot was Catherine II of Russia (ruled 1762–96). The Russians had finally broken free from the Mongol yoke in the fifteenth century with the help of the Orthodox Church. The Romanovs had come to the
Russian throne in 1613 and would remain there until 1917. Peter the Great, Tsar from 1682 until 1725, extended Russia’s territory and integrated his nation with the west, improving industry and administration, travelling incognito throughout the west to learn from new developments there. He had introduced the rule that each Tsar had the right to choose his successor and this resulted in a chaotic
period in Russian imperial history. Eventually, Peter’s grandson, Peter III (ruled 1762), became king. His wife, a German, had changed her name to the more Russian-sounding Catherine and she was a remarkable woman. Fearing her mentally immature husband was going to divorce her and marry his mistress, she had him assassinated in 1762. As Catherine II, she then became Empress of Russia.

She enjoyed
a succession of lovers chosen from her imperial guards and she corresponded with French thinkers – notably Voltaire – about how she could apply the principles of reason to the government of Russia. In 1767, she reorganised the Russian legal system along rational lines, using as her inspiration,
L’Esprit des Lois
(‘The Spirit of the Laws’) by the French Enlightenment social commentator and political
thinker, Charles de Montesquieu (1689–1755). She applied his view that prisons should rehabilitate inmates, for example, reducing the number of executions and abolishing torture. While founding schools and defining the privileges that Russian nobility could enjoy, however, she did nothing to change the condition of serfdom in which millions of Russian peasants laboured. The Enlightenment principles
of individual liberty and the abolition of slavery did not interest her.

Peace did not last many years in Europe after the Treaty of Utrecht brought the War of the Spanish Succession to a conclusion. In 1740, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI (ruled 1711–40) died. He had feared that his daughter Maria Theresa’s accession to the Austrian throne would be contested
by other European monarchs and nobles. To prevent this, he had persuaded many of them to sign a document known as the
Pragmatic Sanction
which acknowledged their acceptance that the Habsburg lands should be undivided and that Princess Maria Theresa should inherit them all on his death.

Unfortunately, Frederick II the Great of Prussia (ruled 1740–86) was unable to resist the temptation that an
inexperienced empress offered and invaded Silesia. Alliances began to form immediately. Spain and France aligned themselves with Prussia. Britain, already at war with Spain, and fearful of France’s colonial ambitions in North America and India, opted for the other side and supported Maria Theresa. The war dragged on for eight years before the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle brought hostilities to an end.
Frederick held on to Silesia and Maria Theresa’s husband Francis I (ruled 1745–65) became Holy Roman Emperor, while she ruled in Austria and over the Habsburg lands.

Fighting never really stopped in the colonies, and peace in Europe was again short-lived. In 1756, the Seven Years’ War broke out. The alliances had changed and this time, France fought alongside Austria while the British shifted
their support to Prussia. In 1763, the Peace of Paris allowed Prussia to retain Silesia. The ultimate winners after these global conflicts were the British who had beaten the French in both the Americas and in India and now reigned supreme in both territories.

The American Revolution was the first major event to result from the ideas of the Enlightenment. The colonists
were engaged in a long-running dispute with their British masters over how much tax they should pay. In 1775, delegates from Britain’s 13 colonies met and elected Colonel George Washington as their leader and launched a fight to break British control of the tea trade. A year later, on 4 July 1776, they declared independence from Britain, the Declaration of Independence embodying the principles
of the Enlightenment – ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’

France, of course, had supported the American colonists in their struggle against Britain and it had proved a financial burden. However, the king failed to make
any reforms to a tax system that was easy on the nobles and clergy and punitive towards the least able to pay – the artisans and the peasants. Poor harvests in 1787 and 1788 exacerbated the problem; wheat prices soared and, consequently, so did the price of bread. Nonetheless, King Louis XVI seemed powerless to improve matters and called a meeting of the Estates General, consisting of representatives
of the clergy, the nobility and the Third Estate – the bourgeoisie and peasants. It was the first such meeting since 1614.

As towns and villages across France met to elect their representatives, there was a ferment of debate. This continued at the ensuing meeting, the National Assembly. While the nobles argued for the status quo, the Third Estate argued for reform. Tempers ran high and eventually,
on 14
July 1789, a crowd of disgruntled Parisians attacked the Bastille prison in Paris in search of weapons. Unrest escalated throughout the country and many nobles, sensing the direction events were taking, fled the country. On 4 August, the Constituent Assembly abolished the feudal society that had held many peasants in virtual slavery. Towards the end of that month the Declaration of the Rights
of Man and of the Citizen was adopted and, by 1791, France had a written constitution that made Louis a constitutional monarch. Reform was introduced into the Church and the power of the Pope was diminished. When the Royal Family attempted to flee Paris in June 1791, they were captured and returned to the capital. Then, in April 1792, Louis declared war on the other European powers, hoping that
victory would restore him to his former status. It was a war that would continue until 1815, long after his death.

The war did not start well for France, many of the army leaders having fled. Then, when Prussia and Austria announced that were they to win, they would restore Louis’ full powers, the people of France, already suspicious of their king’s loyalties, suspected collusion with the enemy.
Further revolutionary activity erupted on 10 August 1792. Louis was deposed and executed the following January, as were many other aristocrats and clergymen in the months to come. In September 1792, France proclaimed itself a republic. Revolutionary fervour served the French army well and it enjoyed a good autumn. It changed the art of warfare, for the first time engaging an entire nation in a
war, with conscription and promotion from the ranks instead of by birth. On the execution of the king, however, France’s enemies formed an alliance, the First Coalition, comprised of almost all the nations of Europe. They declared war on France.

France’s problems multiplied with rebellion and civil war as it tried to raise an army. The National Assembly split into two opposing factions – the
Girondins, determined to protect the principles of 1789 – and the Montagnards or Jacobins – more concerned with establishing a dictatorship to protect public safety. Amongst the Montagnards were men such as Jean-Paul Marat (1743–93), Georges Danton (1759–94) and Maximilien de Robespierre (1758–94). The Montagnards won the day and many of the Girondins faced the guillotine. The Montagnards established
a Revolutionary Government and became known for the Terror, a period of extreme violence that lasted from September 1793 until July 1794. Mass executions were carried out across France and around 40,000 people are said to have been guillotined. After the execution of Robespierre himself in 1794, a new constitution was drawn up. The following year, the National Convention, which had come into existence
with the proclamation of the Republic, was replaced by two councils – the Council of Elders, consisting of men over 40, and the Council of Five Hundred, an assembly of deputies. Real, executive power was vested in a group of five men known as the Directorate.

By 1799, France was in turmoil again, threatened with invasion by the allied forces of the Second Coalition while the young General Napoleon
Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt was stranded following Horatio Nelson’s defeat of the French fleet in the battle of the Nile. The threat of a coup persuaded the Directorate to call on Bonaparte to return to safeguard the political institutions. Not only did he safeguard them, he took them over.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) was a Corsican who had risen through the ranks at
an alarming speed, achieving a number of stunning victories. Under his leadership, France had enjoyed increasing military success, taking Belgium, Nice, Savoy and annexing the left bank of the Rhine. Countries that were occupied became ‘sister republics’. Holland became the Batavian Republic, Milan, the Cisalpine Republic, Genoa, the Ligurian Republic. In 1798, the Helvetic and Roman Republics were
established and the following year Naples became the Parthenopean Republic.