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THE 18TH CENTURY (Age of Reason (Enlightnment (Aim (Freeing men's mind…

- - - - To reduce the public debt due to the Seven Years War, the king introduced new duties on corn, paper and tea, which cause opposition in the American colonies. Colonists prostested on the principle of "no taxation without representation" since the colonies weren't represented in Parliament, so they maintained Britain had no right to tax them.
    - - Duties on goods were reapeled except that upon tea. In 1773 some rebels threw the British tea into the sea at Boston harbor.
    - - Americans divided into Patriots, who want the independence and loyalists, who wanted to remain part of Britain. The War started in 1775. The Americans set up an army under the command of George Washington to face the British army. the war finished in 1781 with the victory of colonists at the Batle of Yorktown and in 1783 Britain recognized the independence of the colonies with the Treaty of Versailles.
      - On July 4th 1776 American leaders signed the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson, that declared that the colonies were a new nation, all men had a natural right to life, liberty and be happy and that governments can rule only if they have "the consent of the governed".
  - - - weak leadership
        
        Since the death of Louis XVI, France was experiencing a period of political crisis, which led to a weakening of the figure of the monarch, who had lost his absolutism, restoring the power to the nobility.
      - financial crisis
        
        to cope with the economic crisis, the king and the finance minister, tried to remove the tax privileges from the clergy and nobility, without success.
      - taxation
        
        the financial crisis forces the government to impose new taxes and the weight of the crisis falls on the third state, in particular on the bourgeoisie
      - Impact of Enlightenment ideas
        
        freedom, equality, fraternity
      - rise of the third state
        
        the Third State rebels tired of the abuses of the privileged classes.
    - - Birth of the Republic
        
        the abolition of the monarchy and feudal privileges
      - Declaration of the rights of man and citizen
        
        principles such as equal opportunities, freedom of worship and press, freedom of speech, popular sovereignty and representative government are stablished.
- - - - When queen Anne died, George I succed. He relied upon a cabinet ( a council of top ministers). At first all ministers were equal but certain ministers began to lead the others. The leading minister in the cabinet was called Prime Minister
      - William Pitt
        
        After Walpole resign, the Commons supported a new minister, William Pitt. His main area of atention lay overseas. Since he understood that wealth came from trade, his aim was to make the British navy the strongest of all. His mercantilist policy established new values of power, wealth and prestige embodied in the middle class.
        
        In 1756 the 7 Years War broke up. This war give England the opportunity to enlarge its colonial possessions. Pitt's strategy was to destroy French trade. British defeated French in North America, controlling Canada ( fish, fur and wood trades), West Africa (slaves trade) and West Indies.
    - - Whigs
        
        First Prime Minister
        
        Sir Robert Walpole
        
        Appointed Prime Minister after facing the South Sea Bubble Crisis. His aim was stability and peace, he tried to make Britain richer encouraging trade and industry; reduced smuggling and kept taxes low, introduced a new tax on luxury goods and saved money cutting the size of the army
        
        held a majority for 60 years from George I
        
        supported by the emerging middle class
      - Tories
        
        supported by old aristocracy and clergy
  - - - British ships carried goods to Africa to buy slaves, from their masters. Slaves were carried to America where they were sold by auction. Then the same ships were loaded with sugar, tobacco, cotton and coffee back to Europe.
      - Asiento
        
        Treaty that gave the right to fournish slaves for the Spanish dominions in America and to acquire some of the weath that it produced
        
        During the reing of queen Anne, England took part in the war of the Spanish Succession. The war ens with the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Britain made commercial and colonial gains, among which a share in the slave trade ( Asiento Treaty)
- - - - Methodism
        
        Respectability and moral dignity
        
        The importance of living with temprance and method
        
        Religious movement that provided services to improve the life of the poor
      - Metodists created sunday schools where people studied the Bible and learned to read and write.
  - - - Freeing men's mind from ignorance, superstition and obscurantism through knowledge and science.
- - - - causes
        
        slave trade
        
        trade with the colonies
        
        industrial revolution
    - - Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
      - Utilitarian ethics is based on values such as happiness, well-being, satisfaction of needs. Happiness and escape from pain are considered the aims of life.
      - The secular and earthly morality ignored the concepts of reward to deserve or punishment to be suffered in the afterlife based on the actions performed, and recommended the practice of virtues capable of procuring individual well-being, such as temperance, moderation, renunciation of passions.