Reflecting and consolidating

Chapter summary
  • The Enlightenment was a key period for the modern world. Influential thinkers argued for the importance of human reason, turning away from superstition and the authority of religion and hereditary rulers.
  • This new focus led to a flourishing of science. New technological developments fuelled the Industrial Revolution and a vast reorganisation of economic, social and political life. Maritime voyages of exploration opened up new opportunities for trade, imperial expansion and the growth of colonies.
  • Influential writers championed the rights of the common man and women, arguing that everyone should have equal rights and opportunities: all should have the right to vote and to be represented in forms of parliamentary government. Several claimed education as a necessary ladder of opportunity, and the idea of a career based on ability rather than on birth took hold. Some advocated the equality of women with men.
  • The American War of Independence and the French Revolution both championed republicanism and the end of hereditary privilege, and contributed to the idea of equality for all.
  • Marx developed revolutionary ideas about socialism, building upon earlier collectivist ideals, while Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution challenged religious thinking.
  • By the early twentieth century, many progressive ideas had been put into practice globally: a wider acceptance of the equality of all and of a scientific basis for humanity’s development, along with universal education, the vote for men (and for women in New Zealand and South Australia) and a strong sense of natural rights.
  • However, the rampant imperialism and colonisation of previous centuries left much work to be done by progressive anti-colonial and nationalist movements in the twentieth century.
Interactive activities

Key terms

Significant individuals

Timeline

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Short-answer questions
  1. Explain how the Chartists got their name.
  2. Why was the French Revolution a turning point in European history?
  3. The Industrial Revolution brought about major changes in English life. List the three changes that you consider to be important.
  4. Mary Wollstonecraft was well known in the late eighteenth century, but her work was ignored in much of the nineteenth century. Why do you think this is?
  5. People in Australia today have been influenced by many of the ideas and movements discussed in this chapter. Select two of the movements discussed. Why have they influenced Australia?
  6. Evaluate whether Australians today are concerned about imperialism.
Source analysis

The representatives of the French people, organised as a National Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man, in order that this declaration, being constantly before all the members of the Social body, shall remind them continually of their rights and duties; in order that the acts of the legislative power, as well as those of the executive power, may be compared at any moment with the objects and purposes of all political institutions and may thus be more respected, and, lastly, in order that the grievances of the citizens, based hereafter upon simple and incontestable principles, shall tend to the maintenance of the constitution and redound to the happiness of all. Therefore the National Assembly recognises and proclaims, in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of man and of the citizen:

Articles

  1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.
  2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.
  3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.

Source 13.18 The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, approved by the National Assembly of France on 26 August 1789

Study Source 13.18 and answer the following questions:

  1. What aspects of Enlightenment thinking can you find in this document?
  2. Are these rights available to all people in all countries today? Can you describe two or three countries where such a document might still be revolutionary?
  3. Some of the language in this document is dated by today’s standards. Rewrite it using modern inclusive ideas and language – you may wish to expand the notion of rights from those listed in point 2.
Extended-response question

Choose one particular progressive movement that you believe has shaped modern Australian society (for example, Chartism, nationalism, socialism or feminism). In several paragraphs describe the movement, how it developed, the way in which it still influences society today and what life in Australia would be like without this movement.