The Eighteenth Century Europe 1688-1815

by Blanning, T. C. W.

• ISBN13: 9780198731207
• ISBN10: 0198731205
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The eighteenth century was a time of expansion, forming the hinge between the old world and the new for, by its end, change was not only detectable, it was also seen to be irreversible. These specially commissioned chapters, written by experts in the field, address all the major issues in Europe's political, economic, religious, cultural, and international history.

Author Biography

T.C.W. Blanning is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	xi
Introduction: the beneficiaries and casualties of expansion	1	(10)
T. C. W. Blanning
Politics and the state in eighteenth-century Europe	11	(41)
Julian Swann
European states: Monarchies, republics, and depotisms	12	(5)
High politics	17	(6)
Enlightened absolutism	23	(8)
Corporate politics	31	(4)
Representative politics	35	(6)
Politics and the people	41	(5)
Radicals and republicans	46	(5)
Conclusion	51	(1)
Orders and classes: eighteenth-century society under pressure	52	(39)
Christof Dipper
The stages of demographic expansion	52	(3)
The dissolution of the society of orders	55	(23)
estate-owners	58	(2)
tenants	60	(1)
peasants	61	(2)
rural labours	63	(4)
industrial workers	67	(5)
high finance	72	(3)
jews	75	(3)
Poverty and poor relief	78	(1)
Social forces making for continuity	79	(9)
the nobility	80	(5)
townspeople	85	(3)
The image of society	88	(3)
The European economy in the eighteenth century	91	(40)
Sheilagh Ogilvie
Agriculture	94	(15)
Industry	109	(13)
Trade	122	(9)
Religion and culture	131	(47)
Derek Beales
Religion, to mid-century	133	(7)
Culture before the middle of the century	140	(10)
Religion, enlightenment, and culture from mid-century to 1789	150	(20)
Epilogue: the French Revolution	170	(8)
International rivalry and warfare	178	(40)
John A. Lynn
The old regime, 1700-1789	179	(24)
the international system	179	(8)
the military system	187	(3)
the practice of war	190	(2)
the war of the Spanish Succession	192	(4)
the war of the Austrian Succession	196	(3)
the Seven Years War	199	(4)
Revolution and Empire, 1789-1815	203	(15)
revolutionary change and international continuity, 1789-1802	203	(2)
war and partition, 1792-1795	205	(3)
Napoleon's military revolution, 1802-1812	208	(3)
the apogee of Napoleon, 1805-1807	211	(3)
the formation of the Concert of Europe	214	(4)
Europe and the rest of the world	218	(29)
P.J. Marshall
Europeans outside Europe	219	(17)
empires in the Americas	219	(6)
the crisis of the American empires	225	(4)
Asian trade	229	(4)
new empires in Asia	233	(3)
European perspectives	236	(11)
the benefits of expansion	236	(5)
envisaging new worlds	241	(6)
Conclusion: the French Revolution and beyond	247	(40)
T. C. W. Blanning
Further Reading	255	(5)
Chronology	260	(16)
Maps	276	(11)
Europe in 1715	276	(2)
Europe in 1789	278	(2)
Europe in 1815	280	(2)
Europeans in Asia in the eighteenth century	282	(2)
Partitions of Poland	284	(1)
The Americas in the eighteenth century	285	(2)
Index	287