European Society in the 18 th Century

1. European Society in the 18th Century • Ancien regime (previous government or state) • Rural Society • Seigneurial rights, peasant obligations • Urban Society • Family Economy • Population Growth • Accepted practices challenged by the Enlightenment

2. Society of the Old Regime “Mankind are happier in a state of inequality and subordination.” Dr. Samuel Johnson Ancien Regime: European society before 1789 • Hierarchy and stratification • Privilege of aristocracy and churches • Foundation resting upon rural laboring force • Slow challenge of urban society

3. European Society in the 18th Century • Nobility • Daniel Defoe: Gentlemen were "such who live on estates, and without the mechanism of employment" • England (<200 families, only title holder considered noble) • France (ca. 4,000, all members of family considered noble) • Privileges (exemption from the taille in France, for example) • Rural society • Nobles (aristocrats with titles of nobility: barons, counts or earls, dukes) hold seigneurial rights • Gentry (untitled aristocrats in Britain) • Yeoman farmers (wealthier farmers, owning some land) • Tenant farmers (England) and peasants (Continent) • Continental peasantry: owe feudal dues, esp. labor obligation • Fluid bottom: laboring poor, prostitutes, vagrants, and thieves

4. Life in the Cities • Life in the Cities: • Rising bourgeoisie (wealth & political ambition) • Spectrum of merchant class (ship owner vs. tradesman) • Reflects growing trade and consumption of new goods (sugar, tea, coffee, rum, tobacco, cotton) • Urban laboring poor (journeymen, domestic servants…) • Marginalized destitute (beggars, vagrants, criminals) • Poverty of the city • Property, crime, and prison • Population growth after 1750: • 1750: 140 million • 1790: 190 million (26% increase in 40 years)

5. Family in 18th century Europe • Trends • Family economy & its vulnerability • Foundling hospitals • In 1770s 1/3 of all babies born in Paris abandoned • Danger of childbirth • New ideas about childhood • Views about women

6. Population Change (millions), 1750-1790

7. European Society in the 18th Century Population growth after 1700: 1700: 120 million 1750: 140 million 1790: 190 million Three Estates: continuity and variety 1st estate = clergy 2nd estate = aristocracy 3rd estate = everyone else

8. Townsfolk/city dwellers (bourgeoisie) Increase in population Migration a key factor Primary Roles: commerce, artisans,shopkeepers, professionals, unskilled Ownership class: bankers, l “Middling Sorts”: lawyers, merchants, doctors “Lower Middle Sorts”: tradesmen & shopkeepers Workers The destitute Third Estate: Commoners

9. Third Estate: Commoners • Peasantry • 80-85 % of population • Diet of breads, soups, root vegetables; beer/wine • Geographic variation • Eastern (serfs) • Least free • Lived in multi-generational families • Western (free) • Britain: tenant farmers • France: 60 % owned farms, but still rented • Mobility restricted

10. The Aristocracy Social and political privileges Idleness and frivolity In France they often live at court, elsewhere on country estates Forbidden to work or even invest in commercial enterprises or “trade” Obsessed by jealousy and rank Often indifferent to religion Fragonard: The Swing

11. The Bourgeoisie Usually involved with trade or the professions: law, medicine or teaching Highly educated and literate, intolerant of noble pretensions of superiority Look to government for financial reform and efficiency Many follow an austere form of Catholicism called Jansenism Fragonard: La Lectrice

12. The Third Estate Made up of both rural farmers and town dwellers Generally poor and often destitute (picture shows a prosperous family scene) Usually devout Catholics Suffer under unfair tax system

13. Louis XV (1715-1774) Comes to throne as boy of five years Leads life of indolence and frivolity Dominated by women, usually his mistresses Handsome and polite, but untrustworthy and petty Hyacinth Rigaud: Louis XV

14. Madame la Pompadour The chief mistress of Louis XV Dominated court politics and royal offices for many years (d. 1764) Her intervention in politics brought scorn to France and led to poor decisions by the king De la Tour: La marquise de la Pompadour

15. Enlightened Absolutism

16. Frederick II of Prussia (1740-1786) Under Frederick William I, Prussia becomes a military state Junker class dominates army Middle class as civil servants King called himself “first servant of the state” Reformed the law code, eliminated torture except for treason and murder Religious toleration Was a talented flautist and composer Invited Voltaire to visit him for long periods of time Frederick II of Prussia

17. Frederick II Made Prussia the dominant military power in Europe: 200,000 man army His seizure of Silesia in 1740 begins War of Austrian Succession Allied with England against the French and Austrians in the Seven Years War (1756-1763) Intelligent, talented, brave and ruthless

18. Catherine II of Russia (1762-1796) German princess becomes empress of Russia after death of her husband, the Tsar Familiar with the Philosophes, claimed to want to reform Russia, did little to achieve this Suppressed a peasant revolt in 1773 Allowed herself to be fooled by “Potemkin villages” Expanded Russian empire Partitioned Poland along with Prussia and Austria

19. Joseph II Holy Roman Emperor, Archduke of Austria, king of Bohemia and Hungary (1765/80-1790) Co-ruler with his mother, empress Marie Theresa from 1765-80 Influenced by the teachings of the Enlightenment Sought to reform his lands through logic Abolished serfdom Religious toleration Equality before the law Joseph II

20. Joseph II “Philosophy is the lawmaker of my empire” The only true reformer among the “Enlightened Despots” Tried to enforce uniformity throughout empire German becomes official language Sumptuary laws resented Reforms: too much, too fast His successor, Leopold II reverses reforms