World History: Patterns of Interaction: Chapters 22–23

This earth-centered view of the universe was called the geocentric theory.

Copernicus’s heliocentric, or sun-centered, theory still did not completely explain why the planets orbited the way they did.

The revolution in scientific thinking that Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo began eventually developed into a new approach to science called the scientific method. The scientific method is a logical procedure for gathering and testing ideas.

Their efforts spurred the Enlightenment, a new intellectual movement that stressed reason and thought and the power of individuals to solve problems. Known also as the Age of Reason, the movement reached its height in the mid-1700s and brought great change to many aspects of Western civilization.

There, in their large drawing rooms, these hostesses held regular social gatherings called salons. At these events, philosophers, writers, artists, scientists, and other great intellects met to discuss ideas.

European art of the 1600s and early 1700s had been
dominated by the style called baroque, which was characterized by a grand, ornate design.

Under the influence of the Enlightenment, styles began to change. Artists and architects worked in a simple and elegant style that borrowed ideas and themes from classical Greece and Rome. The artistic style of the late 1700s is therefore called neoclassical (“new classical”).

Some monarchs embraced the new ideas and made reforms that reflected the Enlightenment spirit. They became known as enlightened despots. Despot means “absolute ruler.”

Although the Constitution created a strong central government, it did not eliminate local governments. Instead, the Constitution set up a federal system in which power was divided between national and state governments.

In the 1770s, the social and political system of France—the Old Regime— remained in place. Under this system, the people of France were divided into three large social classes, or estates.

Émigrés, nobles and others who had fled France, hoped to undo the Revolution and restore the Old Regime.

On January 21, 1793, the former king walked with calm dignity up the steps of the scaffold to be beheaded by a machine called the guillotine.

A sudden seizure of power like Napoleon’s is known as a coup—from the French phrase coup d’état, or “blow to the state.”

In 1800, a plebiscite, or vote of the people, was held to approve a new constitution.

He dismissed corrupt officials and, in order to provide the government with trained officials, set up lycées, or government-run public schools.

Responding to their wishes, Napoleon signed a concordat, or agreement, with Pope Pius VII.

In November 1806, Napoleon set up a blockade—a
forcible closing of ports—to prevent all trade and communication between Great Britain and other European nations.

For six years, bands of Spanish peasant fighters, known as guerrillas, struck at French armies in Spain. The guerrillas were not an army that Napoleon could defeat in open battle. Rather, they worked in small groups that ambushed French troops and then fled into hiding.

On this retreat, the Russians practiced a scorched-earth policy. This involved burning grain fields and slaughtering livestock so as to leave nothing for the enemy to eat.

The great powers affirmed the principle of legitimacy—agreeing that as many as possible of the rulers whom Napoleon had driven from their thrones be restored to power.