Summary 18th century & Romantics
Content 1: Britain transformed
Government in the 18th century: George I and George II, from the German house of Hanover. There
was no privy council anymore. The problem was the king spoke no English, so they started a Cabinet.
The king was dependent on Parliament for income and the prime Minister spoke to the king.
London: the city of Westminster and the city of London were merged. The London Bridge was not
enough so they build the Westminster Bridge in 1750 (in the bent of the river). This was the main
port for trade.
Division within the Anglican Church:
Low Church: decent life more important than sacraments and rituals.
High Church: attacks on those outside State Church
Non-jurors: ‘’reasonable Christianity’’ (who refused to take the oaths of allegiance to William
III and Mary)
Non conformists
on the defensive
sacrifice of political rights
importance of morals
reformation of manners
puritanism is attitude of mind
eloquent (welbespraakt) preachers
John Locke
Spirit of tolerance, was a Christian rationalist = a person who bases their opinions and actions on
reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response. He had influence on the
English educated classes. Father of empiricism: all knowledge from experience. Ideal: man of reason.
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Early Romantic, denied doctrine of original sin and conception of God. Tabula rasa: the human mind,
especially at birth, viewed as having no innate ideas. Back to nature philosophy.
British Empire- colonies
On the night of 16 December 1773, 340 chests of tea were destroyed in Boston Harbour, an event
that has gone down in history as the Boston Tea Party. This political and mercantile protest was one
of the key events in the lead up to the American Revolutionary War in 1775. America still had to pay
taxes to Britain. The war resulted in independence for America and the loss of American colonies. In
1748 the British in India. Ireland belonged to Protestant England, while Ireland was mainly Catholic.
Ireland became poorer and poorer. Independent in the 20 th century.
The 18th century was the century of steam, 1712: steam pump, 1815: steam locomotion
Industrial revolution
Inventions: woollen cloth, loom, coal, silk. Decline of guilds. The people in England grew richer so
there was demand for more goods. Efficiency became more important. Shortage of labour -> labour-
saving machinery and child-labour.
,Agrarian Revolution
growing population
scarcity: no food and high prices
armed forces (war) needed meat
enclosures: in little villages you had common grounds, but rich people started to enclose the
common grounds.
Fertilisers and manure
Small farm disappeared: rural poverty
Social conditions
The roads improved. Private companies set up fees for the use of roads. Canals were made to carry
coal. The Puritans were against this: ‘nature was not meant to be this way’. The class consciousness
increased, really strict. Workhouses for the poor, who were hired by manufacturers. Children were
working factories, harsh discipline. Charity school movement: Sunday schools opened up because the
children needed to work during the week. The average age of death: 35 years old. Smallpox,
whooping cough and measles, infections, diarrhoea and pneumonia.
The painter Hogarth painted vice/violence and poverty.
Radicalism
Adam Smith wrote ‘Enquiry into the wealth of Nations’ 1776. Replace mercantilism with free trade.
Principe of utility, supply and demand. 1789: French Revolution.
Salvation by religion: John Wesley was the start of Methodist Church, reform of evils, by reform of will
of individual. Reforming society: William Wilberforce, abolition of slavery.
Schools were financed by local landowners. Subscription raised by churches and fees from parents.
Grammar schools.
Beau Nash: was a gentleman. Example of fashionable society and strict rules of behaviour, also taught
polite manners.
The Grand tour= the tour to complete education, the first tourists. The grand tour brought back art
and new ways of building. Also a search for improvement.
Art movements:
o Picturesque: complex relations of form and colour.
o Sublime: images of vastness, nature as an object of reverence (eerbied/ verering). Revealed
man to himself. Peculiarities: folk speech.
o The garden and the wild: search for authentic images of nature, too vast or free to be
controlled by human art.
o Landscape gardens (Capability Brown).
o Sentimentalism
o Gothic
o Architecture: baroque
o Painters: Reynolds and Gainsborough
Sports: hunting, cock-fighting, football and cricket.
, Regency England handout
The so-called "Regency period’ officially began when George became prince regent. Although the ere
was one of immense political and economic turbulences, it was also a time of cultural refinement.
Fine arts, literature and architecture flourished. The prince’s influence also extended to men’s
fashion.
Content 2: neoclassical period/ Age of reason/ Enlightenment
This period lasted till 1740 and overlapped with late renaissance (1660). Name: systematic attempt to
imitate classical models, attempted by artists, architects and writers. England was quite early with the
age of Enlightenment. The period between 1660 and 1800 is called the Period of Neoclassicism. The
term refers to attempts by artists, writers and architects to imitate classical models. Important
qualities were: clarity, common sense, orderliness, balance and elegance. Philosophers believed that
mankind, helped by reason, was capable of understanding all aspects of life. This period was the Era
of Enlightenment, because of the discovery of the universal principles that governed the forces of
nature. This optimism of human intellect resulted in great confidence in the individual. The discovery
of general laws of nature led people to believe that Nature itself was controlled by Reason, and
therefore Reason must be mankind’s guide in life.
Age of reason: people began asking ‘’why?’’, seeking prove and evidence
Questioning religion and beliefs
Appreciation of mind and reason in contrast to body and instinct, reason should always
control feeling and imagination
Time of emotional restraint and focus on logic and order
Discussion of the dualistic and imperfect nature of mankind, however optimistic view on the
powers of human mind
Satires written to ridicule human weakness and inspire social reform
Essays written as means of political reform to allow citizens to make informed decisions (in
prose)
Middle-class became more influential
Attention for education
Poets
Discovered the general and universal in Nature, therefore the study of mankind was one of the first
duties of mankind. The poetry was controlled emotion. The rules of the Ancient were the ideal of
perfection and could only be imitated (only for educated people). the Ancients had exhausted the
idea of man, so the people could only represent what had already been thought in stronger, more
beautiful terms. Poets only wrote for a small, educated, aristocratic group of people.
Literature and society
Britain flourished in the 18th century, it was the first country to enter a new phase of development:
industrialization. The revolution began in the textiles industry, mining also became a huge industry.
No public show of feelings or emotions. Superstitions disappeared (advantage) and the imagination
was undervalued (disadvantage). Trade and industry soon became more important than agriculture.
There was a great migration of people towards the big cities. The middle-class was new and popular,
made up of people who did not come from landed gentry, but had enough money to live
independently. At the base of the pyramid were a large number of underpaid, uneducated workers. In
the cities a sharp contrast was evident. Through marriages between noble and common families,
Content 1: Britain transformed
Government in the 18th century: George I and George II, from the German house of Hanover. There
was no privy council anymore. The problem was the king spoke no English, so they started a Cabinet.
The king was dependent on Parliament for income and the prime Minister spoke to the king.
London: the city of Westminster and the city of London were merged. The London Bridge was not
enough so they build the Westminster Bridge in 1750 (in the bent of the river). This was the main
port for trade.
Division within the Anglican Church:
Low Church: decent life more important than sacraments and rituals.
High Church: attacks on those outside State Church
Non-jurors: ‘’reasonable Christianity’’ (who refused to take the oaths of allegiance to William
III and Mary)
Non conformists
on the defensive
sacrifice of political rights
importance of morals
reformation of manners
puritanism is attitude of mind
eloquent (welbespraakt) preachers
John Locke
Spirit of tolerance, was a Christian rationalist = a person who bases their opinions and actions on
reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response. He had influence on the
English educated classes. Father of empiricism: all knowledge from experience. Ideal: man of reason.
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Early Romantic, denied doctrine of original sin and conception of God. Tabula rasa: the human mind,
especially at birth, viewed as having no innate ideas. Back to nature philosophy.
British Empire- colonies
On the night of 16 December 1773, 340 chests of tea were destroyed in Boston Harbour, an event
that has gone down in history as the Boston Tea Party. This political and mercantile protest was one
of the key events in the lead up to the American Revolutionary War in 1775. America still had to pay
taxes to Britain. The war resulted in independence for America and the loss of American colonies. In
1748 the British in India. Ireland belonged to Protestant England, while Ireland was mainly Catholic.
Ireland became poorer and poorer. Independent in the 20 th century.
The 18th century was the century of steam, 1712: steam pump, 1815: steam locomotion
Industrial revolution
Inventions: woollen cloth, loom, coal, silk. Decline of guilds. The people in England grew richer so
there was demand for more goods. Efficiency became more important. Shortage of labour -> labour-
saving machinery and child-labour.
,Agrarian Revolution
growing population
scarcity: no food and high prices
armed forces (war) needed meat
enclosures: in little villages you had common grounds, but rich people started to enclose the
common grounds.
Fertilisers and manure
Small farm disappeared: rural poverty
Social conditions
The roads improved. Private companies set up fees for the use of roads. Canals were made to carry
coal. The Puritans were against this: ‘nature was not meant to be this way’. The class consciousness
increased, really strict. Workhouses for the poor, who were hired by manufacturers. Children were
working factories, harsh discipline. Charity school movement: Sunday schools opened up because the
children needed to work during the week. The average age of death: 35 years old. Smallpox,
whooping cough and measles, infections, diarrhoea and pneumonia.
The painter Hogarth painted vice/violence and poverty.
Radicalism
Adam Smith wrote ‘Enquiry into the wealth of Nations’ 1776. Replace mercantilism with free trade.
Principe of utility, supply and demand. 1789: French Revolution.
Salvation by religion: John Wesley was the start of Methodist Church, reform of evils, by reform of will
of individual. Reforming society: William Wilberforce, abolition of slavery.
Schools were financed by local landowners. Subscription raised by churches and fees from parents.
Grammar schools.
Beau Nash: was a gentleman. Example of fashionable society and strict rules of behaviour, also taught
polite manners.
The Grand tour= the tour to complete education, the first tourists. The grand tour brought back art
and new ways of building. Also a search for improvement.
Art movements:
o Picturesque: complex relations of form and colour.
o Sublime: images of vastness, nature as an object of reverence (eerbied/ verering). Revealed
man to himself. Peculiarities: folk speech.
o The garden and the wild: search for authentic images of nature, too vast or free to be
controlled by human art.
o Landscape gardens (Capability Brown).
o Sentimentalism
o Gothic
o Architecture: baroque
o Painters: Reynolds and Gainsborough
Sports: hunting, cock-fighting, football and cricket.
, Regency England handout
The so-called "Regency period’ officially began when George became prince regent. Although the ere
was one of immense political and economic turbulences, it was also a time of cultural refinement.
Fine arts, literature and architecture flourished. The prince’s influence also extended to men’s
fashion.
Content 2: neoclassical period/ Age of reason/ Enlightenment
This period lasted till 1740 and overlapped with late renaissance (1660). Name: systematic attempt to
imitate classical models, attempted by artists, architects and writers. England was quite early with the
age of Enlightenment. The period between 1660 and 1800 is called the Period of Neoclassicism. The
term refers to attempts by artists, writers and architects to imitate classical models. Important
qualities were: clarity, common sense, orderliness, balance and elegance. Philosophers believed that
mankind, helped by reason, was capable of understanding all aspects of life. This period was the Era
of Enlightenment, because of the discovery of the universal principles that governed the forces of
nature. This optimism of human intellect resulted in great confidence in the individual. The discovery
of general laws of nature led people to believe that Nature itself was controlled by Reason, and
therefore Reason must be mankind’s guide in life.
Age of reason: people began asking ‘’why?’’, seeking prove and evidence
Questioning religion and beliefs
Appreciation of mind and reason in contrast to body and instinct, reason should always
control feeling and imagination
Time of emotional restraint and focus on logic and order
Discussion of the dualistic and imperfect nature of mankind, however optimistic view on the
powers of human mind
Satires written to ridicule human weakness and inspire social reform
Essays written as means of political reform to allow citizens to make informed decisions (in
prose)
Middle-class became more influential
Attention for education
Poets
Discovered the general and universal in Nature, therefore the study of mankind was one of the first
duties of mankind. The poetry was controlled emotion. The rules of the Ancient were the ideal of
perfection and could only be imitated (only for educated people). the Ancients had exhausted the
idea of man, so the people could only represent what had already been thought in stronger, more
beautiful terms. Poets only wrote for a small, educated, aristocratic group of people.
Literature and society
Britain flourished in the 18th century, it was the first country to enter a new phase of development:
industrialization. The revolution began in the textiles industry, mining also became a huge industry.
No public show of feelings or emotions. Superstitions disappeared (advantage) and the imagination
was undervalued (disadvantage). Trade and industry soon became more important than agriculture.
There was a great migration of people towards the big cities. The middle-class was new and popular,
made up of people who did not come from landed gentry, but had enough money to live
independently. At the base of the pyramid were a large number of underpaid, uneducated workers. In
the cities a sharp contrast was evident. Through marriages between noble and common families,
