1. The 17th and 18th(Neoclassical) Century 1625-1798 Mrs. Cumberland

2. A Turbulent Time: Historical Background In 1649, the English shocked the world by beheading their king and abolishing the monarchy. In the decades before the civil wars tore England apart, revolutions in science and religion had already unsettled people’s worldview.

3. Changes The new astronomy had exiled the Earth from the center of the universe to the vastness of infinite space. New religious creeds had altered or abolished the traditions of centuries. –John Donne wrote, with his newfound insecurity, “Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone.”

4. Monarch is Back By the 1700s, though, a monarch was back on the throne, and a new, competitive society had sprung up, with a looser social structure and greater freedom in religion and politics.

5. Charles I and Parliament Crowned in 1625 Clashed with Parliament over money King Charles needed money for his wars, and Parliament refused to fund them.

6. Loans? No Loans? The king then extorted loans from his wealthy subjects and pressed the poor into service as soldiers and sailors. Parliament tried to prevent such abuses of power, so Charles eventually dissolved Parliament and would not call it into session for 11yrs.

7. Religious Controversy He insisted the clergymen “conform,” or observe all the ceremonies of the Anglican Church. Puritans- Calvanists who wished to purify the Church of its Catholic traditions- were enraged by some of these requirements.

8. Torture Puritans believed that each group of worshipers, moved by the members’ divinely granted consciences, had the right to choose its own minister- an idea dangerously close to democracy. For these and other ideas, “dissenters” were persecuted and tortured as criminals.

9. The Civil War Charles’s problem grew worse after he was forced to fight Scottish rebels outraged by his insistence on religious conformity. Desperate for money, he summoned a hostile Parliament –Parliament condemned Charles I as a tyrant in 1642 –Civil war broke out –In 1645, Parliament’s forces, led by Oliver Cromwell, defeated the royalist army and captured Charles

10. Cromwell Rules Radical Puritans: dominated Parliament Tried and convicted the king for treason Charles I was beheaded on January 30, 1649 –Cromwell led the new government, called the English Commonwealth He dissolved Parliament in 1653 and named himself Lord Protector He ruled as a dictator until 1658 when he died

11. Outlawing Civil war had not led to the free society that many who had fought against the king expected. –Hopes, economic hardship = unrest –The Commonwealth fueled discontent by outlawing Gambling Horse racing Newspapers Fancy clothes Public dancing The theater

12. The Restoration By Cromwell’s death, England had had enough taxation, violence, and disorder. In 1658, Parliament offered the crown to the exiled son of Charles I, who became Charles II in 1660. –The monarch was restored

13. In sharp contrast to the drab Puritan leaders, Charles II and his court copied the plush fashions of Paris Charles –Avid patron of the arts and science –Invited Italian composers and Dutch painters to live and work in London.

14. European Political Thinkers ThinkerMajor IdeasQuotation Thomas Hobbes Leviathan (1651) People are driven by selfishness and greed. To avoid chaos, they give up their freedom to a government that will ensure order. Such a government must be strong and able to suppress rebellion “The condition of man [in the state of nature]… is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.”

15. European Political Thinkers ThinkerMajor IdeasQuotation John Locke Two Treaties of Government (1690) People have a natural right to life, liberty, and property. Rulers have a responsibility to protect those rights. People have the right to change a government that fails to do so. “Men being… by nature all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate and subjected to the political power of another without his own consent.”

16. European Political Thinkers ThinkerMajor IdeasQuotation Baron de Montesquieu The Spirit of the Laws (1748) The powers of government should be separated into executive, legislative, and judicial branches, to prevent any one group from gaining too much power. “In order to have… liberty, it is necessary that government be set up so that one man need not be afraid of another.”

17. A Glorious Revolution Charles II’s successor: James II –Devout Catholic. –Parliament invited Mary, the Protestant daughter of James II, to rule England jointly with her husband, William of Orange. –Rather than fight, James escaped to France The people of England hailed the event as the “Glorious Revolution of 1688” because not a drop of blood had been shed.

18. 1689 Bill of Rights William and Mary agreed to Parliaments Bill of Rights This bill guaranteed Parliament the right to approve all taxes and forbade the monarch to suspend the law. England thus attained a limited, or constitutional, monarchy.

19. Tories and Whigs In ensuing decades, two political factions crystallized in Parliament: the conservative, aristocratic Tories and the Whigs, drawn largely from Britain’s growing merchant class. –A cabinet of ministers drawn from Parliament, and eventually unified under the leadership of a prime minister, began to rule the country.

20. An Agricultural Revolution By the late 1600s, new farm tools made it possible for farms to produce much more food. –Population surged upward –Many people left the countryside –Growing towns Became factory hands who ran the machines of the early Industrial Revolution

21. The Industrial Age British inventions after 1750 made the spinning and weaving of cloth much more efficient. –The steam engine was perfected and adapted to run a power loom –Factories were built to produce vast quantities of cotton cloth –Merchants sold goods all over the world –As late as 1790s: most were still earning a living as farmers

22. The Enlightenment The scientific revolution that made industry possible stemmed from a larger development in thought known as the Enlightenment. –Through reason and observation of nature, human beings could discover the order underlying all things

23. The Enlightenment Sir Isaac Newton: study of gravity

24. The Enlightenment Men, women, and children toiled at machines for 12-14 hr/day Poor people crowded the towns and cities By the late 1700s “progress”= misery Writers and intellectuals began to lose faith in the ability of human reason to solve every problem

25. Literature of the Period 17th and 18th Century