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Western Civ. II
Rise of the Radicals
Pilkington
1533—Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn and begins the process that will
make him “Pope” of the Church of England (as well as owner of most of the
Catholic Church’s former holdings). Henry also begins the series of
improvements that will make the British Navy the most powerful in the
world.
1564—A very good year for births, including Cervantes, Shakespeare, and
most important for our list of Radicals, Galileo. After causing conventional,
Aristotelian thinkers much difficulty, and severely irritating Pope Urban
VIII, Galileo dies in 1642, the same year as Richelieu.
1587—Henry VIII’s Protestant daughter Elizabeth I executes her Catholic
cousin Mary Stuart. Many Catholics consider Mary to be the rightful Queen
of England. Elizabeth executes her by legal means, an unusual precedent,
which Elizabeth herself finds disquieting. In 1588 (partly as a result of
Mary’s execution), the “Invincible” (and completely Catholic) Spanish
Armada attacks England, and Elizabeth’s Protestant, new model navy
defeats them.
1624-1642—Cardinal Richelieu rewrites the rules of foreign policy, proving
conclusively (depending on your point of view) that God is not on the side
of the Hapsburgs or that God is a Frenchman or that God does not fight for
the right or that Richelieu (who, along with Newton, was one of the period’s
great ailurophiles) was smarter than the rest of Europe combined.
30 January 1649—The English Parliament (after a trial) executes Charles I,
another interesting precedent, this one suggesting quite clearly that the
nation (and even the people) are more important and perhaps more sacred
than the king. Charles might have kept his crown (and his head) by agreeing
to a constitutional monarchy.
1653—Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) was one of the members of parliament
who helped to oust Charles I, but more importantly, he emerged from the
maelstrom of the English revolution as a military strongman. Styled Lord
Protector, he ruled England as a substitute king from 1653 until his death.
His “New Model Army” conquered Scotland and Ireland and made war in
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Europe as well. He was arguably fanatical, brutal, and ultimately (in the
face of Levelers and other really radical types) conservative.
1660—The English Parliament restores the monarchy, and the son of
Charles I becomes Charles II in what will be from now on (even if the kings
don’t always seem to understand it) a constitutional monarchy. For
example, the Catholic James II became King of England after his brother
Charles II’s death in 1685. However, because of his religion and his belief
in the Divine Right of Kings, he was deposed. His Protestant daughter Mary
and her husband William III (William of Orange) were invited to rule in his
place. Of course, there were at this early point certain twistings and
turnings to make everything seem regally legal. William III was actually
invited to invade, and he brought 20,000 troops. James II attempted to flee,
and this was made the excuse for deposing him.
1642-1727—Isaac Newton, the poster child for the scientific method and the
Enlightenment, he provided massive proof that science could successfully
predict the future and explain the past and present. Peter the Great came
personally to visit him, an event that says much about Newton and perhaps
more about Peter.
1672-1725—Peter the Great (Peter I, Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov)
continued the Westernization of Russia which earlier Tsars (most notably
Ivan IV, the Terrible) had begun. He traveled extensively in Europe, learned
shipbuilding and other things himself, and recruited many craftsmen for his
Russian projects. He made Russia an empire, built St. Petersburg (a
glittering new European capital, modeled partly on Versailles), asserted his
authority over the Russian Orthodox Church, compelled his nobles to dress
in Western fashion and shave their long beards (or pay a heavy tax), and
defeated Charles XII of Sweden in the famous battle at Poltava (Ukraine).
He also went personally to visit Newton, punished the Cossacks for defying
him, forbade Russian men to enter monasteries before they turned fifty, and
attacked the custom of arranged marriages in Russia.
1729-1796—Catherine the Great, a believer in the principles of the
Enlightenment, Catherine came as close to following them as perhaps a
sovereign can. She set out to free the serfs but failed just as Franklin and the
other Founding Fathers failed to free the slaves in America. She increased
the power of the Russian Duma, condemned torture, established religious
freedom, and even encouraged Catholic Germans to help settle the immense
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open spaces of Russia and Ukraine. Their covered wagons spread out over
the vast plains, and new cities sprang up in the wilderness. She introduced
vaccination for smallpox in Russia (to calm the fears of her subjects, she
became the second “Russian” test subject) and built large numbers of
schools and hospitals. Her schools were for girls as well as boys, colleges as
well as primary and secondary schools. Her improvements in Russian health
care were so great that by the time she died, infant mortality was 18 percent
in St. Petersburg compared to 32 percent in London. She introduced
European culture to Russia in the form of art, opera, ballet, literature, and
sculpture. Among her many books was the second Russian translation of
one of Shakespeare’s plays and the first to credit him as author. She bought
art in huge quantities and established the beginnings of the Hermitage, one
of the world’s great museums, in case her dear friend and mentor Voltaire
should come to visit her. She was a supporter, admirer, and correspondent of
many of the Enlightenment philosophers in addition to Voltaire, including
Diderot (whom she supported financially), Grimm, and Jefferson. Indeed,
she got help from Jefferson and Washington for a universal dictionary of
comparative languages she was compiling (they provided Native American
vocabularies), and (with help from Jefferson—among others) she recruited
John Paul Jones as an admiral in the Russian navy. Voltaire called her “the
Star of the North.” She offered support and asylum in Russia to Diderot for
the completion of the great Encyclopedie if the French government stopped
it. And she may have saved the American Revolution on two occasions
(though certainly for her own reasons), once when she refused George III’s
request for Russian troops (including Cossacks) to fight in America and the
second time when she established a naval league called the League of
Armed Neutrality that effectively limited the power of the British Navy. By
the end of her reign, as a result of the Pugachev rebellion and events in
France and Poland, she had become disillusioned by the revolutionaries, and
her policies changed. She feared both the spread of radical doctrines and the
rise of a Tamerlane from the chaos that would result She was, as she had
been so many times before, quite right.
1773-1775—Emelyn Pugachev’s rebellion, may have been larger than any
other revolt of the Russian lower classes. Pugachev was a Cossack, but he
claimed to be Peter III, Catherine’s husband, who had been murdered on her
orders when she seized power. There were two dozen such pretenders
during Catherine’s reign, and in the years between 1762 and 1769, around
fifty peasant revolts. Any Russian (or Soviet) ruler who ever felt
comfortable was fooling him or herself. In fact, Pugachev was able to
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dominate an area the size of France because Catherine did not immediately
take him to be a real threat. He promised to free the serfs (who by this time
were no better than slaves), distribute land, and lower taxes. He and his men
raped, tortured, burned, and enslaved at will. Catherine’s eventual
punishments were not as terrible or as numerous as one might expect. Even
Pugachev (who was, of course, executed) had his head cut off before his
body was quartered, which was not standard practice in Europe at the time.
1776—America, that European nation overseas, which, initially, was not a
nation at all but a collection of states, became the test case for democracy,
and all the world watched, criticized, and copied. As the revolution spread,
many of the “Gypsy Radicals” (my coinage) found themselves moving from
conflict to conflict, helping to stir first this country and then that one into
frenzy. It was not unusual for such people to have important roles in two or
even three countries. For Lafayette and Thomas Paine, it was America and
France, and the same may be said for Jefferson and Franklin. For John Paul
Jones, it was America, France, and Russia, and for Thaddeus Kosciuszko it
was America, France, and Poland. Indeed, if Napoleon had had his way, he
would have sailed for America after his second abdication, no doubt
bringing profound disorder with him. I have not, of course, provided more
than a small sampling of this huge cast of characters.
14 July 1789—The Bastille falls and the French Revolution explodes,
shaking all of Europe and eventually, the world.
1791—With the approval and encouragement of King Stanislas, the Polish
Diet ratified a new constitution and created a constitutional monarchy with
strong republican leanings. Many Poles had fought in the American
revolution, and some Americans (such as Lewis Littlepage) were about to
fight for the new Polish government. Thaddeus Kosciuszko, who had been
promoted to brigadier general and given land and citizenship in America,
was a military genius who did the impossible repeatedly in Poland’s war
with Russia. But not even a military genius with dictatorial powers could
forever resist both Russia and Catherine. By 1794, King Stanislas (one of
Catherine’s former lovers whom she herself had put on the Polish throne
years before) was forced to abdicate, and Catherine wiped Poland off the
map. Kosciuszko was offered commands by Napoleon and Tsar Alexander
I, but he refused. He freed his own serfs, and he left money in his will to
purchase, free, and educate American slaves.
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