Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
1 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 2 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 3 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 4 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. 5