5.0 (2 reviews)
Students also viewed
Terms in this set (33)
The main ideas of Enlightenment were scientific advance, application of the scientific method to study of human society, and the belief that rational laws could describe social behavior. Enlightenment thinkers challenged the existing order and opened a gap between intellectuals and established institutions.
In the 18th century, a huge population increase caused upper-class families to tighten their grip on public offices, business families to take more risks, rural families to be forced into the proletariat, a propertyless class to spread, and it also stimulated a rapid expansion of domestic manufacturing and consumerism.
The causes of the French Revolution consisted of ideological insistence on change, Enlightenment thinkers urging the need to limit the powers of the Catholic Church, the aristocracy, and the monarchy, middle-class wanting a greater political role, and peasants wanting fuller freedom from landlords' demands.
Radicals accepted the importance of most liberal demands, but they also wanted wider voting rights. Socialists urged an attack of private property in the name of equality and an end to capitalist exploitation of workers. Liberals focused primarily on issues of political structure. They looked for ways to limit state interference in individual life and urged representation of propertied people in government. Conservatives were in defense of the churches and the kings.