Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Beaumarchais, and etc.
Wrap up of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763)
-Shift of alliances
-Invasion of Saxony
-Prussian - Austrian dualism
Pierre Augustin Caron = Beaumarchais (1732-1799)
-son of a watchmaker
-watch-ring for Madame de Pompadour
-married Madeleine Francquet in 1756 (social mobility)
-music teacher to daughters of Louis XV
-political and financial intrigues, adventures and lawsuits
-pamphleteer
-married Genevieve-Madeleine Wettebled Leveque in 1768
-"secret" missions for Louis XV and XVI
-spats with the Chevalier d'Eon
-supported American independence (Roderigue Hortalez and Co.)
-preserved Voltaire's legacy
-married Marie-Therese de Willer-Mawlaz in 1786
-supported French Revolution but was not trusted
-wrote numerous plays
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
-Son of Frederick William I
-poor father-son relationship
-Rheinsburg
-ascended the throne in 1740
-corresponded with Voltaire
-philosopher-king
-Anti-Machiavel (1741)
-invades Silesia in 1742: war with Austria
-Prussia become one of the Great Powers of Europe
-Seven Years War, 1756-1763
-Enlightened despotism
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Thursday, March 30, 2006
-Programs of Europeanization and modernization started under Peter I
-Empress Elizabeth reigned 1741-61
-German prince chosen as heir, Peter III
-German princess (Catherine) married to Peter in 1745.
--Catherine takes lovers and reads voraciously between 1745 and 1761.
-Peter III becomes czar in 1761 -- but a palace coup or revolution places Catherine on the throne instead.
--Autocratic rule
Foreign policy follows that of Peter I, the Great
-secure access to Black Sea
-expand westward to unite Slavic territories
-defend western territories
-Greek Project
"Enlightened Despotism"
-Nakaz or "Instruction" for the new Code of Laws of the Russian Empire
-good publicity from philosophes
-reform in industries
-reform in education
-support for the arts and sciences
Monday, March 20, 2006
George III and Queen Sophie-Charlotte
Lady Elizabeth Montagu
Bluestockings
Mary Wollstonecraft
-Engels: "an industrial revolution, a revolution which at the same time changed the whole of civil society."
-Change from an economy based on manual labor to one based on machines and inanimate power;
-Began in Britain in the 1760s, in the textile industry;
-Machines sped the processes of spinning and weaving.
Inventions:
James Hargreaves: Spinning Jenny
-simple, inexpensive, still run by hand
Richard Arkwright: Water Frame
-"borrowed" idea;
-factory system: dedicated space, organized, regimented, gave employer total control, cut production costs.
Samuel Crompton: Water Mule
-strong and fine thread, also powered by water
-Hand-weavers had been the richest artisan group; now weaving was also mechanized and powered by water.
-Not a good businessman.
The Steam Engine
-First models invented by Thomas Savery and Thomas Newcomen: used to pump water out of mines.
-Significantly improved or reinvented by the Scotsman James Watt;
-Watt teamed up with John Wilkinson and Matthew Boulton -- iron manufacturers.
-Watt and Boulton belonged to the Lunar Society of Birmingham.
steam engine
-Steam power was used not just for pumping water out of mines, but in most British industries.
-In factories, people had to keep pace with machines, in much less than perfect conditions.
-Luddites
Was the industrial revolution good for the working people of England?
-two schools of thought: optimists and pessimists
Cottonopolis: Manchester
