We call Prussia today, Germany.
Prussia was politically shrewd.
The leader of Prussia during the middle of the 17th century, who took Prussia into the Thirty Years war, was Frederick William the Great Elector.
Boys in Prussia from age 16-17, were forced to enter the military, and had to learn how to drill and train.
Frederick William I increased the size of the army of Prussia to 83000 men.
Frederick William I was very stern.
The Prussian army because of discipline and nationalism, became one of the greatest armies the world has ever known.
The son of Frederick Willian the I, was Frederick II the Great of Prussia.
Frederick II the Great of Prussia, read the Roman and Greek Classics, and about the Enlightenment.
He was very talented and very well educated.
Frederick William I wanted his son to join the army, and study military texts.
Frederick William II The Great of Prussia, hated his father, hated the military, and was more of a man of the arts.
Frederick William II tried to run away from Prussia with his best friend Hanz, but they were caught by Frederick William I and were accussed of treason.
Frederick William I, beheaded Frederick William II's best friend Hanz.
Hanz's death, made Frederick William II rethink his destiny as king, and decided that he would apply Enlightenment principles to Prussia to make it a better place.
The focuses of the Enlightenment were tolerance, reason, and progress.
The Enlightenment helped to do away with the terrible prison conditions, torture, unusual/cruel punishments.
The Enlightenment promoted social justice, had a goal to make taxation less arbitrary, and help to improve the economy.
Frederick William II was inspired by these Enlightenment ideas.
One of Frederick William II's greatest teachers was Eugene of Savoy, who at the time was one of the world's greatest military geniuses.
Frederick William II in the war of Austrian Sucession, took Silesia.
Frederick William II was known as the Enlightened Despot, and called himself the first servant of the state.
Frederick William II believed in religious tolerance, strove to improve economic development, was a gifted musician, and was a pen pal of Voltaire for fifty years.
Frederick William II hated the German language, and mainly spoke French.
Frederick William II lived from 1740 to 1786, he died at the age 46 years old.
Frederick William II and Voltaire while great pen pals, always got into arguments, because Voltaire didn't agree with Frederick's agressive military policies.
European Scientific Revolution
Issac Newton was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian.
He was the first person to understand how gravity works on and around Earth to a certain extent.
He wrote more on Biblical hermeneutics and occult studies than on science and mathematics.
Figures of the European Enlightenment
- Thomas Hobbes
- John Locke
- Montaigne
Thomas Hobbes believes that absolutionism is justified because men need order, and strong reasoning.
John Locke, believes that constitutionalism is justified, because of the fact that men can change, that men can be taught to do go for society.
John Locke believes that men have a natural moral sense, are reasonable, and possess the natural rights of life, liberty and property.
Montaigne believed compassion and tolerance should be preserved in the world of Natural law, and also authored The Essay.
Seven Years War / French and Indian War
France pushed down toward the Ohio River Valley, while England pushed forward from Virginia toward the Ohio River Valley in North America.
The Seven Years War was started by a young twenty-three year old farmer, who became a coronel in the militia of Virginia.
The Ohio River Valley is modern day Pensylvania.
Virginia wanted to claim the Ohio River Valley and create a fort, but the French had already created a fort in the Ohio River Valley.
The French set up their fort in the Ohio River Valley so that they could trade with the Native Americans.
George Washington took 100 militia men from Virginia to engage the French, but George Washington and his men ambushed a party of French and Native Americans in the meadow.
George Washington was accompanied by a Native American leader who was known as the Half King.
The party accidentally attacked a diplomat.
George Washington looses control of his men, who take on all of the French and Native Americans in the party they ambushed in hopes of getting spoils of war, but one of them gets away and goes to Quebec.
George Washington without knowing, signs a document that claims that he was responsible for the massacare that was caused by his men, he does so because he didn't understand the languange of the document he signed.
Britain, Prussia, Holland, and Hanover battled against France, Austria, Spain, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony during the Seven Years War.
The Prussians defeat the Austrians at Leuthen and Rossbach, but Berlin is over run by Austrians in the process.
Britain only had an army during war time, they were ad hoc.
Britain always gets wrecked before they can get their military together at the beginning of a conflict, but comes back strong.
Native Americans believed that George Washington had powers, because his clothes were always full of bullet holes, but he was never shot.
Many people hated William Pitt, but William Pitt was good at kicking butt, so when he was made Prime Minister of Britain, Britain started kicking butt in the war.
The Treaty of Paris was the outcome of the Seven Years War
- France lost all their North American Territories
- Prussia Keeps Silesia
- Britain Declared the Proclamation of 1763
- A line was drawn down the Appalachains Mountains and told Americans not to expand across the country and journey westward to prevent confrontations with the Native Americans.
Fort Duquesne was renamed Fort Pitt after William Pitt, and it is now known as Pittsburg, Pensylvania.
American Revolution- Great Britain
Britain would rather have a queen who was Protestant, than a king who was Catholic.
Queen Anne of England had no children, so the next successor of the throne was Hanoverian.
This was the beginning of the Hanoverian sucession.
George I of England was the first Hanoverian King, he ruled from Hanover and was the Duke of Hanover, so in reality Robert Walpole the First of the Treasury who was the prime minister of the Parliament, ruled over the England.
Tories like a structured, rigid, society based in class systems. They believe in people not moving through classs systems, and were medieval thinking individuals. They believed that the Government should be ruled by the King and noblemen. Supported the king in the English Civil War.
Whigs believed in having a voice in government. They did not believe in people having the ability to progress through the class system. They supported the Parliament in the English Civil War.
Whigs became the dominant party during George I's reign.
George III was all around English.
American Revolution
The Acts that Provoked the American Revolution
- Staple Act
- Woolen Act
- Hat Act
- Molasses Act
Britain was going through an industrial revolution and didn't want the colonies to be able to compete with them.
Britain continually released acts to limit America's ability to produce, so that the Americans couldn't compete with Britain.
Britain couldn't enforce any of their acts that they enacted in the American colonies, this was Salutary Neglect.
Once Britain went into debt after the French and Indian war, the American Colony Custom Agents began costing Britain money rather than being a nice source of additional income.
Britain began forcing more acts/taxes upon the Colonists. The American Colony Custom Agents were fired, British Colony Custom Agents took hold, and Britain had the power to enforce their acts/taxes.
British soldiers are sent to Boston and begin taking jobs away from the people of Boston, which leads to tension between British Soldiers and Boston citizens, the citizens begin throwing ice at the soldiers, and many of the soldiers fired at the citizens in what became the Boston Massacare.
John Adams defended the British Soldiers sucessfully and legally for what happened in the Boston Massacare.
Whenever a product changes hands, its price rises.
The East India company tea is sold for less and sold directly to the colony, this upset the American colonies because the East India company became a monopoly on tea. This lead to rising tensions with the American colonists, which lead to the Boston Tea Party, which then lead to the Coercive Acts made by England which made the Americans so upset that the American Revolution begins.
Important American Figures of the American Revolution
- John Adams
- Thomas Jefferson
- Ben Franklin
- Sam Adams
- Cousin of John Adams
- Alexander Hamilton
- George Washington
- Henry Knox
- Nathanael Greene
- George Washington stated that if he was to ever die, that Nathanael Greene should become the Commander in Chief
- James Madison
Declaration of Independence
Considered the founding legal document of the Enlightenment.
American Revolution
British win at Bunker Hill.
British are run out of Boston.
Britain comes with tons of ships and men to New York with hired mercenaries at their side.
George Washington tries to combat the assault of New York, but is run out of New York and into Pensylvania.
The turning point of the revolutionary war is the battle of Saratoga, because the French wanted another chance to battle England, and Bengamin Franklin convinces the French to help the American Colonies to battle against the forces of England.
Since the war of the Spanish Sucession, the French King and the Spanish King who are of the same family, can never be the same.
France has become a larger power than Spain, and now where France goes Spain follows.
Spain, France, and the Dutch all team up with America to battle against Britain.
Frederick the II was like, nah, I don't really want to mess with the American Revolution.
A War of Attrition is a relentless war strategy in which one would continually battle and slowly wear down individuals.
Washington and the French surround North Town Virginia and ended the American Revolution.
The Treaty of Paris marked the resolution of the American Revolution it recognized US independence.
France entered super debt after the American Revolution, this now sparks the French Revolution.
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