1 00:00:02,220 --> 00:00:13,039 Hello students, this is the first video I'm projecting. In this video I'll address the 18th century, I'll address the Ancien Regime or the Old Regime. 2 00:00:13,679 --> 00:00:25,620 The Ancien or the Old Regime was the name given to the period before the French Revolution by the people living during the French Revolution and in the 19th century. 3 00:00:25,620 --> 00:00:34,119 In other words, the ancient or the old regime was the name given to the period before 1789, 4 00:00:34,119 --> 00:00:38,479 which was the year, remember, of the French Revolution. 5 00:00:38,479 --> 00:00:43,439 And I will approach the ancient regime from four perspectives. 6 00:00:43,439 --> 00:00:48,340 First of all, I will address the ancient regime from an economic perspective, which is to 7 00:00:48,340 --> 00:00:54,539 say I will address the old regime from the perspective of the production and distribution 8 00:00:54,539 --> 00:01:00,820 of resources. Then, secondly, I'll address the ancient regime from the perspective of 9 00:01:00,820 --> 00:01:08,560 society, from a social perspective. Namely, I'll address what were the main social groups 10 00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:15,739 living in the ancient regime. Then I'll address the ancient regime from a political perspective. 11 00:01:15,739 --> 00:01:25,219 I'll address the Ancien Regime from the perspective of the states, governments, power, and finally 12 00:01:25,219 --> 00:01:31,680 I'll address the old, the Ancien Regime from the perspective of culture, especially I'll 13 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:39,900 address the Ancien Regime from the perspective of new ideologies which were born in the 18th 14 00:01:39,900 --> 00:01:40,900 century. 15 00:01:40,900 --> 00:01:55,980 So, first of all, regarding the economy of the ancient region, regarding the economy of the 18th century, the first point I must mention is that the economy was agrarian. 16 00:01:56,780 --> 00:02:06,400 The main sector was the primary sector, especially agriculture. Agriculture was the main economic activity of the ancient region. 17 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:12,300 It's really important you remember that those who worked the lands, the peasants, 18 00:02:12,300 --> 00:02:21,039 did not own the lands. The lands belonged to the nobility and the clergy. 19 00:02:21,039 --> 00:02:25,419 Take this point to account because it's going to be important when we address 20 00:02:25,419 --> 00:02:30,139 the French Revolution. Second point regarding the economy of the ancient 21 00:02:30,139 --> 00:02:37,860 the gym, manufacturing developed. New systems of production, and this has to do 22 00:02:37,860 --> 00:02:45,080 with the secondary sector, appeared. Those two new systems of production were the 23 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:52,219 domestic or putting out system and factories. The domestic or putting 24 00:02:52,219 --> 00:02:59,979 out system consisted in merchants traders who usually lived in cities 25 00:02:59,979 --> 00:03:05,539 providing raw materials and tools to peasants who lived in rural areas those 26 00:03:05,539 --> 00:03:12,319 peasants made products made goods who were sold back to those merchants who 27 00:03:12,319 --> 00:03:20,599 had provided the tools and raw materials that's the first new system of 28 00:03:20,599 --> 00:03:30,099 production of the 18th century, and then factories. Factories, and by factory I 29 00:03:30,099 --> 00:03:35,120 mean a place in which many workers worked together to make, to produce any 30 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:42,139 good or commodities, appeared, were established in the 18th century 31 00:03:42,139 --> 00:03:48,979 especially by the monarchs, by kings and queens. Usually factories, these new 32 00:03:48,979 --> 00:03:57,780 factories produced luxury products such luxury products as silk or porcelain for instance. 33 00:03:59,860 --> 00:04:07,620 It's also important regarding the economy of the 18th century to stress the very idea that trade, 34 00:04:07,620 --> 00:04:16,920 international trade grew in importance. Triangular trade between Europe, Africa 35 00:04:16,920 --> 00:04:25,019 and America became especially important. In this context of triangular trade 36 00:04:25,019 --> 00:04:31,839 between Europe, Africa and America, Africa provided slaves who were transferred 37 00:04:31,839 --> 00:04:41,680 to America. In America, workers, including African slaves, worked in such areas as 38 00:04:41,680 --> 00:04:47,519 the Caribbean Sea to produce such commodities as sugar, coffee, and tobacco, 39 00:04:47,519 --> 00:04:54,459 which were transferred to Europe. In Europe, Europeans consumed those 40 00:04:54,459 --> 00:05:00,019 American products, those American commodities. Europeans also produced some 41 00:05:00,019 --> 00:05:06,019 goods, some luxuries which were transferred to America and consumed and 42 00:05:06,019 --> 00:05:12,839 used by Americans. It's really important to remember that this system, this 43 00:05:12,839 --> 00:05:18,740 triangular trade between Europe, America and Africa was under the control of 44 00:05:18,740 --> 00:05:24,079 Europeans, was under the control of the bourgeoisie, the European bourgeoisie and 45 00:05:24,079 --> 00:05:29,319 and by bourgeoisie, I mean merchants and traders. 46 00:05:29,319 --> 00:05:40,370 From a social perspective, there were three main estates or social groups in the ancient regime. 47 00:05:40,370 --> 00:05:50,050 The nobility and the clergy were the privileged groups, and remember they were privileged because they didn't have to pay taxes, 48 00:05:50,050 --> 00:05:55,730 and then the third estate, the third estate was the third social group. 49 00:05:55,730 --> 00:06:04,730 Within the Third Estate there were other, there were different social groups like peasants, artisans and the bourgeoisie, merchants. 50 00:06:04,730 --> 00:06:14,730 This point is really important because you see merchants or some merchants who grew wealthier and wealthier during the 18th century 51 00:06:14,730 --> 00:06:23,730 belonged to the Third Estate, which is to say they didn't have the same political rights as the clergy and the nobility. 52 00:06:23,730 --> 00:06:32,329 The bourgeoisie, although they were very rich in some cases, didn't have the same privileges 53 00:06:32,329 --> 00:06:35,009 as the nobility and the clergy. 54 00:06:35,009 --> 00:06:48,829 Here in this image you can see a peasant sustaining the clergy, a nun, and the nobility, a lady. 55 00:06:48,829 --> 00:06:56,410 From a social perspective, it's also important I emphasize the very idea that during the 56 00:06:56,410 --> 00:07:02,589 18th century, population grew in Europe. 57 00:07:02,589 --> 00:07:10,149 Population growth was especially important in such countries as Russia, Italy and England. 58 00:07:10,149 --> 00:07:16,069 It's also important to remember the idea that the bourgeoisie rose, that the bourgeoisie 59 00:07:16,069 --> 00:07:23,110 merchants grew wealthier and wealthier during the 18th century. 60 00:07:23,110 --> 00:07:29,709 Then from the political perspective, there were two main political systems, two systems 61 00:07:29,709 --> 00:07:32,829 of government in the 18th century. 62 00:07:32,829 --> 00:07:39,089 The first one was absolute monarchies, in absolute monarchies the monarch concentrated 63 00:07:39,089 --> 00:07:42,829 all the powers, all powers of the kingdom. 64 00:07:42,829 --> 00:07:49,910 The best example was France, but there were other political systems in the 18th century. 65 00:07:49,910 --> 00:07:53,990 Apart from absolute monarchies, there were parliamentary monarchies. 66 00:07:53,990 --> 00:07:58,670 In parliamentary monarchies, the monarch, the king or the queen, on the one hand, and 67 00:07:58,670 --> 00:08:02,730 the parliament, on the other hand, shared power. 68 00:08:02,730 --> 00:08:11,170 It doesn't mean that parliamentary monarchies were democratic or something like that. 69 00:08:11,170 --> 00:08:16,970 It just means that the monarch and the parliament shared power. 70 00:08:16,970 --> 00:08:23,310 The best example is England, the United Kingdom, since 1707. 71 00:08:23,310 --> 00:08:31,939 The Netherlands was another example of parliamentary monarchy. 72 00:08:31,939 --> 00:08:38,940 From the political perspective, it's also important you take into account two revolutions 73 00:08:38,940 --> 00:08:44,240 which took place in the 17th and 18th centuries before the French Revolution. 74 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:50,759 And these revolutions were important because somehow were precedents of the French Revolution. 75 00:08:50,759 --> 00:08:58,720 In other words, we cannot understand the French Revolution of 1789 without taking the English 76 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:03,159 and the American Revolution into account. 77 00:09:03,159 --> 00:09:09,779 The English Revolution, or the English Revolutions, because actually there were two English Revolutions, 78 00:09:09,779 --> 00:09:13,059 took place in the 17th century. 79 00:09:13,059 --> 00:09:19,759 As a result of the English Revolutions of the 17th century, a new system emerged in 80 00:09:19,759 --> 00:09:27,840 England, a system in which the monarchy had limited rights, a system in which the monarchy 81 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:31,659 shared power with the Parliament. 82 00:09:31,659 --> 00:09:37,679 The second revolution was the American Revolution, also known as the Independence of the United 83 00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:43,679 States, which started in 1776. 84 00:09:43,679 --> 00:09:53,639 The United States were, before 1776, a colony of England, it was an English-British colony. 85 00:09:53,639 --> 00:10:00,379 Actually before 1776 the United States of America were known as the Thirteen Colonies, 86 00:10:00,379 --> 00:10:08,000 thirteen colonies of the United Kingdom. After a long war, the United States 87 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:14,419 became independent and the United States established a new 88 00:10:14,419 --> 00:10:21,139 political system, a republic in which powers were not concentrated on the same 89 00:10:21,139 --> 00:10:28,279 hands, a republic which ensured the separation of powers. Remember this is 90 00:10:28,279 --> 00:10:32,879 important because again the English revolutions and the independence of the 91 00:10:32,879 --> 00:10:38,600 United States or American Revolution were essential precedents of the French 92 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:47,299 Revolution. Finally from a cultural and ideological perspective I must 93 00:10:47,299 --> 00:10:54,500 stress the importance, the significance of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment 94 00:10:54,500 --> 00:11:10,500 the Enlightenment was an ideological movement based on vision, on logical thought, and on empiricism as the only way to understand the world. 95 00:11:10,500 --> 00:11:18,500 Somehow, the Enlightenment derived from humanism, which emerged in the 16th century. 96 00:11:18,500 --> 00:11:33,500 As a result of this perspective, the importance of vision, logical thought and empiricism as the only way to understand the world, science and technology progressed. 97 00:11:33,500 --> 00:11:37,500 You know, there were also political consequences of the Enlightenment. 98 00:11:37,500 --> 00:11:42,720 the Enlightenment, this general approach based on vision, had a very important 99 00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:49,740 effect on the political systems, especially on absolute monarchies. There 100 00:11:49,740 --> 00:11:54,720 were absolute monarchs who were supported by enlightened ideas. They were 101 00:11:54,720 --> 00:11:59,220 supported by enlightened ideas because although they thought that power should 102 00:11:59,220 --> 00:12:04,019 be concentrated on the hands of the monarch, at the same time they thought 103 00:12:04,019 --> 00:12:11,659 that monarchs should try to modernize the state, should try to rationalize the administration 104 00:12:11,659 --> 00:12:15,399 and promote economic progress. 105 00:12:15,399 --> 00:12:23,519 The name of this system was Enlightened Despotism, in Castellano, Despotismo Ilustrado. 106 00:12:23,519 --> 00:12:31,779 And the motto of Enlightened Monarchs was all for the people, nothing by the people. 107 00:12:31,779 --> 00:12:39,779 El lema de los monarcas absolutos ilustrados era 108 00:12:39,779 --> 00:12:43,779 Todo para el pueblo pero sin el pueblo. 109 00:12:43,779 --> 00:12:50,779 Now, there were some important political proposals by enlightened thinkers and philosophers. 110 00:12:50,779 --> 00:12:55,779 The most important were Montesquieu, Rousseau and Voltaire. 111 00:12:55,779 --> 00:12:59,779 I will stress the very political ideas of Montesquieu 112 00:12:59,779 --> 00:13:06,720 Montesquieu proposed that power should not be concentrated on the hands of a 113 00:13:06,720 --> 00:13:13,820 single person, of the monarch. He thought that power should be divided among 114 00:13:13,820 --> 00:13:18,679 different institutions. He thought that the executive power should be under 115 00:13:18,679 --> 00:13:25,039 the control of monarchs. He thought that legislative power should be in the hands 116 00:13:25,039 --> 00:13:31,159 of Parliament and he thought that the judicial power should be in the 117 00:13:31,159 --> 00:13:40,340 hands of judges of courts. This idea of separation of powers in contrast to 118 00:13:40,340 --> 00:13:45,779 concentration of power is very important for you to understand the French 119 00:13:45,779 --> 00:13:53,320 Revolution. I will end here and we will continue in class.