ESTUDIOS CULTURALES II

1.THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

This century is called the age of reason/ Enlightenment/ Neoclassical period.

 There is a stress on the similitude between advanced European nations and the
best years of Greek and Roman history.
 There is a prestige of classical models in philosophy, science arts and politics.
 The ideal was balanced, symmetry, order in life, government and art.
 There is an optimistic view of mankind in spite of its limitations.
 Belief in parliamentary monarchy as the best political option. Political leaders
are members the upper classes because they are superior and have access to
education.
 Belief in the power of reason and science: the human mind is able to
understand the world with the help of science and technology.
 Christian’s perspective: the universe is a machine, whose creator is God. Man
doesn’t know how it works yet, but it obeys logical laws that in time will be
understood by reason. By means of a correct use of reason, humans will be
able to control the changes of the world.
 Although all people follow the reason, they think that God was behind it.
 Society corrupts you.

2.A TIME OF CHANGE

There is a transformation in British society since the 1690’s:

 New philosophical knowledges: the legacy of LOCKE and Hobbes.

 Agrarian reform: technology innovation. Workers are substituted by machines.
 Industrialization: technology innovation + mechanical production.
 The expansion of British Empire: new trading routes and markets.
 Urban vs country life models.

Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan 1651 : Homo homini lupus) :

He is a philosopher of the second 18th century. He says that human societies are
bounded by self-interest and the need to protect individual liberty and individual rights
within the community. So, communities are based on the self-interested cooperation
of their members, so there is a necessity of settling the government of any group on
the social contract.

This implies assuming:

- The natural equality of men.

- The coexistence of the right of the individual and the right of the community.
 - The ruled ones consent to delegate power on their representatives.
- The central power need to be strong enough to keep control (Absolutism).

John Locke (Second treatise of Civil Government: published in 1690):

- Government is conferred by the consent of the ruled ones, who trust the
authority of their leader and representative. Both parts are subjected to the
control of laws designed to this end. If this trust is abused or power used
arbitrarily by the rulers, the ruled ones have the right and obligation to depose
the malfunctioning government.
- Locke opposed the theory of divine right of kings.

3.NEW ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES:

Adam Smith (An inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations 1776):

He thinks that free market, self-interest and competition lead to economic prosperity.
And private wealth also benefits the state.

Mercantilism: An economy based on the trade of finished goods and the maximization
of resources and production for the domestic as well as the colonial markets.

4.THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS

5.THE EAST INDIA COMPANY:

Since 1707 the East India Company became a joint-stock company trading goods with
the Easter Indian, India, and the Asian ports.

British merchant monopolized the trade of opium, silk, cotton, salt and tea produced in
the colonies. The East India Company expanded its territory through military
campaigns. Thanks to the East India Company commander, Robert Clive, Britain gained
sovereignty over India.

6.THE BASES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE

Stuart and Hanoverian monarchs: succession issues.

The first part of the empire is known as The Augustan Age (Augustus’ rule). He fostered
an empire that secured the expansion of the Roman Empire and prosperity.

There is a Parliamentary Monarchy (monarchy controlled by parliament). Also there is

a consolidation of the two-party system with the alternation of the governments:

- Whigs: liberal party, formed by powerful nobles, rich merchants and financers,
and well-to-do professional middle classes.
 - Tories: conservative party, rooted among the landed gentry supporting the
crown and Church of England; the majority weren’t tolerant with Catholics and
Dissenters.

7. THE LAST OF THE STUARTS: Queen Anne (1702-1714)

Act of Settlement (1701):

1700 - Queen Ann’s son dies.

1701 - In order to put aside any Catholic claimant, Parliament offers the succession of
Sophia, protestant daughter of James II and married with the Elector of Hanover.
Sophia dies in 1714 so the succession right is passed on to her son George. So, there is
a peaceful transition to the Hanoverian dynasty.

Act of Union (1707):

Although united by the Stuart inheritance, England and Scotland were still separated in
legal and religious regards, and the two nations remained unfriendly. With the Act of
Union, one single kingdom with a single national flag ( “Union Jack”) and the two
parliaments join into one. The upper classes considered they have been sacrificed to
English interests, and the low classes resented the raise of taxes.

The War of Spanish Succession (1702-14):

1700 - Charles II of Spain dies. His throne was claimed by a Bourbon, Philip V (grandson
of Louis XIV of France). In 1701 Louis XVI invaded the Spanish Netherlands to support
Philip’s claim. William III’s anxiety to prevent Louis XIV’s incorporating the Spanish
crown to his allies led Britain into a war in coalition with the Dutch Republic, the Holy
Roman Emperor, Portugal and some German states. In 1704: significant victories of
Britain at Minorca and Gibraltar under Duke of Marlborough’s command. In 1711, the
Tories determined to stop the war due to enormous cost.

1713 - Peace negotiations and Treaty of Utrecht: France and Spain recognized the
Hanoverian succession in Britain. France also agreed to expel the Old Pretender from
French soil. Finally, The British kept Gibraltar and Menorca from Spain.

8. THE HANOVERIANS

George I of England: he was born in Hanover. His way of thinking was Pro-German.
King of transition, he always spoke German.

George II:

George I didn’t do so much in his reign and he delegated in his Prime Minister Robert
Walpole who piloted the consolidation of Hanover dynasty.
9.THE JACOBITE REVOLTS (1715, 1745)

The Act of Union renewed support to Jacobitism. (Mirar apuntes + plataforma)

10. THE SEVEN YEAR’S WAR (1756-1763)

Also known as the French or Indian War, the quarrel rises among Britain, France, and
Spain, which competed for the American territories and the trade associated to their
colonies. The war also complicated because of the European alliances of the
participants (Prussia, Sweden, Austria…).

The war ended with the TREATY OF PARIS: the British victory secured for the Empire
largest parts of Canada, the Spanish Florida, the minor Caribbean islands in the West
Indies and some African ports in Senegal.

1774: the Quebec Act: recognized the rights of the Catholic majority in the area to
practice their religion and to apply the French legal code to civil matters.

11. GEORGE III AND HIS INFLUENCITAL PRIME MINISTER (1760-1820)

- The traumatic loss of the American colonies and the birth of the United States
marked George’s reign. In 1812-14 the USA and Britain were at war for the control of
the American markets.

- The Wilkes affair, 1763, 1774:

John Wilkes wrote pamphlets against the King (George III); arrested on sedition, he
was quickly derived by the courts. He was exiled but returned to be elected to
Parliament again. He became a symbol of protest against the tyranny. The French
Revolution also influenced the political climate in Britain.

12. THE IRISH QUESTION:

1782: The Irish parliament is allowed to pass laws for internal affairs.

1793: Anti-Catholic and Anti-Dissenters legislation partially repelled.

1795: Tension among Catholic and Protestants mounts. The Anglican minority and the
pro-English ruling elite consistently ignore the demands of the Catholic majority. The
Protestant Orange society is created to defend their interests from Catholic attacks.

1796: A French fleet tries to invade Ireland but it is repelled by the British Army. Anti-
Catholic repression increases.

1798: The United Irishmen Rebellion: Armed uprising to found an independent Irish
Republic. France helps the Irish nationalists, but they are crushed by the British Army.
1800: Act of Union: Britain forces the Irish Parliament into joining the Anglo-Scottish
one, thus producing a new United Kingdom Parliament. Irish people resent this as one
more example of the English mistreatment of their nation. The social and religious
conflicts radicalize throughout the next century.

13. THE PRINCIPLES OF THE NEOCLASSIC ART

 Avoidance of extremes: balance, harmony, wit, elegance and good taste.

 Didactic function of art
 Imitation of pre-existing models
 Subject matter: human life and man as social creature

Lirerary Periods:

- The age of Pope (Augustan Age) 1700-1745

- The age of Johnson (Age of Sensibility) 1745-98

The literary salon and the coffeehouse

Ladies as patrons of the art: The Blue Stocking Circle (Elizabeth Montagu, Vesey,
Catherine Macaulay...)

14. THE VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN

Mary Wollstonecraft/ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu : Buscar informacion

15.TURN OF THE CENTURY ROMANTICISM:

- There is a change in mentality: new stress on emotion and imagination as a reaction

against the excessive rationality of the Enlightenment and Neoclassical views of the
world.

- Denounce of the sophistication and artificiality of neoclassical art.

- Emphasis on spontaneity of thought, action and expression:

 Especially in poetry, increasing importance is attached to the natural, and the

powers of the imagination. The flow of emotions and subjectivism become
central to the new authors.
 Enthusiasm for folk and bardic poetry, interest in the oral popular tradition
(songs, ballads, legends…) and in the medieval poet.

Cultural primitivism: success the natural innocence of man and the idea of childhood
as the true state of the human soul (Noble Savage). The universality of his principle
manifests in the development of cultures: if man is good by nature, then the
corruption of mankind must be due to the influence of civilization. Human misery
comes from children being educated in a corrupt society.

Nature: and the primitive origins as the most perfect state of man and the universe.

Idealization of rural life and traditional communities.

Medievalism as a form of escaping through the worship of the past.

Moral preoccupation of the artist: melancholy, reflective tone of much literature,

music and painting. The artist’s moral responsibility is stressed.

Mysticism and spirituality as a reaction to a progressively industrialized society.

16. NEOCLASSICISM/ ROMANTICISM

- New view of the universe:

Neoclassical view of the universe: a machine, a watch (God as the organizer of the
universe is presented as a watch-maker); the image is one of mechanic perfection:
everything moves according to a pre-ordained plan.

Romantic view: the universe is conceived as something essentially imperfect, but

living, full of possibilities: it is a constant growth and change; if growth and change
stop, that is equated to death. The image of the universe is a dynamic one, in which
everything is organically interrelated.

-New view of the human mind:

Neoclassical: a passive image of the mind. Locke: the mind is a tabula rasa, it is a blank
when we are born and we acquire knowledge by receiving sensations from the
outside. All our experiences leave an impression on this tabula rasa.

Romantic: the human mind is an active principle, it does not merely receive
impressions from the outer world, and it creates the world. Its most important faculty
is imagination, which is creative force.

The neoclassical period defends the reason. The romantics defend the primacy of
intuition, emotion, the power of imagination.

-New views of man and society:

Neoclassical: focus on man as a social animal, civilization is the perfect state of man.

Romanticism: rejection of the constraints of society, society corrupts man. The ideal is
man in a state of nature, the peasant or the child (not yet corrupted by civilization) to
the outcast. Romantic poets: Byron or Shelley who were rebels and revolutionaries.