04x01 - Enlightenment And Empire

Enlightenment and Empire

23/07/2007 07:30:00

The First World War (Seven Years War / French-Indian War) • imperial war in no other way there had been • colonial war over British access to Spanish-American trade • the British reinforced the colonial militias • the conflict eventually spilled back to the European front • The diplomatic revolution o a shift in the alliances o British start an alliance with Prussia vs. France, Russia, and Austria • the British initially started with a blue water strategy o they realized this was a new kind of war o it required them to fight simultaneously in multiple fronts o combination of blue water and continental strategy • 50k British soldier under the command of the Prussians. o this was the continental side • launched naval campaigns to take new France from the French (successful) • theaters in north America, the Caribbean, and the European continent • ultimately Britain and Prussian are successful Outcomes of the Seven Years War • land changing hands o Treaty of Paris: they get several new lands including Florida o spectacular gains. Britain comes out as the dominant naval, commercial and colonial power o the first time that they hold a world wide empire • Challenges for the British o Incorporation  How do you incorporate the subject populations of your imperial rivals? How do they govern French and Spanish subjects?

o Rethinking the Enlightenment  Usually they look at it with a capital E. As a Unitarian phenomenon. By a established cannon of great thinkers.  usually white European thinkers, specially in France  anti-monarchy, scientific revolution, reason in order to get to truth, emphasis on freedom and liberty, anticlerical, that we are making progress over time (core ideas of the enlightenment)  now we no longer treat the Enlightenment to the enlightenments  no longer so focus on France and western Europe  the impact on Asia and America during the enlightenment  its chronology has been debated too. The age of the enlightenment, the age of revolution  rather than looking at just the great thinkers, they are also looking into what the common people thought about enlightenment  how does the media at the time take enlightenment and spread it and how it is received  1763 End of the Seven Years War  Voltaire writes Treatise on Toleration o Royal Proclamation  they do this for political expedience o North America o Disgruntled Englishmen  how to fund the new lands  the British tax the new colonies  the empire became more centralized, more uniform, to organize defense in a more efficient way  Revenue Act of 1764  intended to end smuggling by American merchants  they viewed themselves as Englishmen who’s right have been trampled on

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Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)  Founder of reactionary movement  associated with conservatism  he was Anglo-Irish, catholic mother, father was from the church of Ireland (protestant)  father was a lawyer, he wanted him to be a lawyer  burke started out as a writer  period of unrest in the Irish country side  he’s views on the Irish were close to radical  he was elected to parliament, member of the wig party  elected by a pocket bureau (a rigged form of election)  how should the British deal with the problem? • The government should give incentives to keep people in the empire, not take away their rights

23/07/2007 07:30:00

23/07/2007 07:30:00