FAULTLINES IN THE CONSTITUTION from Peachtree "We run a civics summer camp and spend several weeks on the very issues covered in this book!"
The constitution of the Republic of Užupis 54159350928_0eac8c1af3_b
The constitution of the Republic of Užupis 54159350938_d1eb2f1d8e_b
The constitution of the Republic of Užupis 54159350923_eb9b22378e_b
The constitution of the Republic of Užupis 54159386904_7cf1b7dcc3_b
Fisher's Row Houses Constitution Square State Historic Site, Danville, Kentucky
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Square_Historic_Site#F...
Fisher's Row Houses Constitution Square State Historic Site, Danville, Kentucky
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Square_Historic_Site#F...
Alluring urban culture View of the city of Porto from the cathedral‘s hill, with the square Praça de Almeida Garrett and the blue-tiled church Igreja de Santo António dos Congregados in the center as well as the city centre’s main railway station São Bento on the right, Porto, Portugal
Some background information:
Porto, also known as Oporto, is the second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is located along the Douro River estuary in northern Portugal, about 280 km (174 miles) north of Lisbon. With an estimated pospulation of 250,000, Porto’s city center is rather small, compared to its metropolitan area, which has around 1.8 million residents. Porto has one of the oldest European centres. Its core was proclaimed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996, as the "Historic Centre of Porto, Luiz I Bridge and Monastery of Serra do Pilar".
Port wine, one of Portugal's most famous exports, is named after Porto, since the metropolitan area, and in particular the cellars of Porto’s quarter Vila Nova de Gaia, were responsible for the packaging, transport, and export of fortified wine. It is typically a sweet red wine, often served with dessert, although it also comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties. Famous port wine brands are among others Sandeman, Cockburn’s, Graham’s, Fonseca, Offley, Ferreira and Quinta do Noval.
Proto-Celtic and Celtic people were among the first known inhabitants of the area of Porto. Archaeological findings from the 8th century BC also hint at a Phoenician trading settlement. During the Roman era, the city developed as an important commercial port, primarily in the trade between Olissipona (the modern Lisbon) and Bracara Augusta (the modern Braga).
Following the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, Porto fell under Muslim control in 716, but was reconquered by Alfonso I of Asturias in 741. Thus Porto became a border settlement, occasionally invaded and conquered by the Muslim Moors. In 1092, during the so-called Reconquista, the area finally came under Christian rule, initially as part of the Kingdom of León. In 1093, Teresa of León, illegitimate daughter of the king Alfonso VI of Castile, married Henry of Burgundy, bringing the County of Portugal as dowry.
After eventually expanding its current frontiers and conquering additonal territory inhabited by the Moors for centuries, the county became the independent Kingdom of Portugal at the beginning of the 12th century. At that time, Porto also became one of the hubs of the Reconquista led by Afonso I Henriques, the first King of Portugal. In 1370, during the reign of King Ferdinand I, the new, expanded, and reinforced city walls, known as the Muralhas Fernandinas (in English: "Ferdinandine Walls"), were completed.
In 1387, Porto was the site of the marriage of John I of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt. This marital bond symbolized a long-standing military alliance between Portugal and England. In the 14th and 15th centuries, Porto's shipyards contributed to the development of Portuguese shipbuilding. In 1415, Prince Henry the Navigator embarked from the port of Porto on the conquest of the Moorish port of Ceuta in northern Morocco. This expedition was followed by navigation and exploration along the western coast of Africa, initiating the Portuguese Age of Discovery.
By the 13th century, the wine produced in the nearby Douro valley had already been transported to Porto in so-called barcos rabelos (flat sailing vessels). In 1703, the Methuen Treaty established trade relations between Portugal and England and strengthened both countries‘ military alliance. The production of port wine then gradually passed into the hands of a few English firms.
To counter this dominance, the Portuguese Prime Minister Marquis of Pombal established a monopolistic Portuguese firm, the Douro Wine Company in 1756 to receive all the wines from the Douro valley. He demarcated the region for the production of port, to ensure the wine's quality, which was the first attempt to control wine quality and production in Europe, almost a century ahead of a similar exercise in Bordeaux. The small winegrowers revolted against his strict policies on Shrove Tuesday, burning down the buildings of the Douro Wine Company. The revolt became known as the Revolta dos Borrachos (in English: "Revolt of the Drunkards").
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the city became an important industrial center and hence, its size and population increased. The invasion of the Napoleonic troops in Portugal brought war to the city of Porto. In 1809, when the population fled from the advancing French troops and tried to cross the river Douro over the Ponte das Barcas, the bridge collapsed under the weight of the people and almost 4,000 residents of Porto died in the floods of the Douro river. In the Second Battle of Porto, which took place still in the same year, the French Army was thrown out of the city by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, and his Anglo-Portuguese Army.
In 1820, the Liberal Revolution began in Porto. The revolutionaries demanded the return of King John VI of Portugal, who had transferred the royal court to the Portuguese colony of Brazil since the French invasions, and also a constitutional monarchy to be set up in Portugal. But after the new constitution had been accepted in 1822, the new Portuguese King Miguel I rejected this constitution in 1828 and reigned as an anti-liberal, absolutist monarch.
Porto rebelled again and had to undergo a siege of eighteen months by the absolutist army. After successfully resisting the siege in 1833, King Miguel I had to abdicate and the liberal constitution was re-established. However, not bevore 1910, the monarchy was overthrown and Portugal became a republic. In 1919, forces favorable to the restoration of the monarchy launched a counter-revolution in Porto known as the Monarchy of the North. During this time, Porto was the capital of the restored kingdom, but the monarchy was deposed less than a month later and no other monarchist revolution in Portugal happened again.
Today, Porto is the most important industrial city in the country, thanks to its textile, leather goods, metal, food, and chemical industries, its oil refinery as well as the overseas port Porto de Leixões. The university, the art academy, museums, theaters, and the opera also emphasise Porto's status as a major cultural and scientific center. But it’s mainly the export of port wine and its beautiful UNESCO-protected old town, to which Porto ows its appeal to visitors from everywhere.
Looks of astonishment People admiring the large panels of azulejo tiles in the palatial entrance hall of the city centre’s main railway station São Bento, Porto, Portugal
Some background information:
São Bento railway station is a 20th-century railway terminal and the main station in the city of Porto’s city centre. The construction of the building started in 1904, based on plans by architect José Marques da Silva. The large panels of around twenty thousand azulejo tiles (551 square meters) were designed and painted by Jorge Colaço.
The vestibule is covered in azulejo tile, framed by pilasters. Near the ceiling is a blue and gold frieze decorated with stylized flowers, while below them is another polychromatic frieze depicting the history of transportation in Portugal. The large azulejo "paintings" below the friezes represent historical events in Portuguese history. The tin-glazed azulejo tiles are integrated into the architecture by frames in granite which decorate the lines of the atrium.
São Bento is the main terminus of Porto's suburban railways lines and western terminus for the scenic Douro line between Porto and Pocinho. The station for trains arriving from Lisbon is the Campanhã railway station, which is located way off the city centre, but there is subsequent service from Campanhã to São Bento via local trains. Today, São Bento railway station is not only the place of arrival of many visitors, but also one of Porto’s renowned sights.
Porto, also known as Oporto, is the second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is located along the Douro River estuary in northern Portugal, about 280 km (174 miles) north of Lisbon. With an estimated pospulation of 250,000, Porto’s city center is rather small, compared to its metropolitan area, which has around 1.8 million residents. Porto has one of the oldest European centres. Its core was proclaimed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996, as the "Historic Centre of Porto, Luiz I Bridge and Monastery of Serra do Pilar".
Port wine, one of Portugal's most famous exports, is named after Porto, since the metropolitan area, and in particular the cellars of Porto’s quarter Vila Nova de Gaia, were responsible for the packaging, transport, and export of fortified wine. It is typically a sweet red wine, often served with dessert, although it also comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties. Famous port wine brands are among others Sandeman, Cockburn’s, Graham’s, Fonseca, Offley, Ferreira and Quinta do Noval.
Proto-Celtic and Celtic people were among the first known inhabitants of the area of Porto. Archaeological findings from the 8th century BC also hint at a Phoenician trading settlement. During the Roman era, the city developed as an important commercial port, primarily in the trade between Olissipona (the modern Lisbon) and Bracara Augusta (the modern Braga).
Following the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, Porto fell under Muslim control in 716, but was reconquered by Alfonso I of Asturias in 741. Thus Porto became a border settlement, occasionally invaded and conquered by the Muslim Moors. In 1092, during the so-called Reconquista, the area finally came under Christian rule, initially as part of the Kingdom of León. In 1093, Teresa of León, illegitimate daughter of the king Alfonso VI of Castile, married Henry of Burgundy, bringing the County of Portugal as dowry.
After eventually expanding its current frontiers and conquering additonal territory inhabited by the Moors for centuries, the county became the independent Kingdom of Portugal at the beginning of the 12th century. At that time, Porto also became one of the hubs of the Reconquista led by Afonso I Henriques, the first King of Portugal. In 1370, during the reign of King Ferdinand I, the new, expanded, and reinforced city walls, known as the Muralhas Fernandinas (in English: "Ferdinandine Walls"), were completed.
In 1387, Porto was the site of the marriage of John I of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt. This marital bond symbolized a long-standing military alliance between Portugal and England. In the 14th and 15th centuries, Porto's shipyards contributed to the development of Portuguese shipbuilding. In 1415, Prince Henry the Navigator embarked from the port of Porto on the conquest of the Moorish port of Ceuta in northern Morocco. This expedition was followed by navigation and exploration along the western coast of Africa, initiating the Portuguese Age of Discovery.
By the 13th century, the wine produced in the nearby Douro valley had already been transported to Porto in so-called barcos rabelos (flat sailing vessels). In 1703, the Methuen Treaty established trade relations between Portugal and England and strengthened both countries‘ military alliance. The production of port wine then gradually passed into the hands of a few English firms.
To counter this dominance, the Portuguese Prime Minister Marquis of Pombal established a monopolistic Portuguese firm, the Douro Wine Company in 1756 to receive all the wines from the Douro valley. He demarcated the region for the production of port, to ensure the wine's quality, which was the first attempt to control wine quality and production in Europe, almost a century ahead of a similar exercise in Bordeaux. The small winegrowers revolted against his strict policies on Shrove Tuesday, burning down the buildings of the Douro Wine Company. The revolt became known as the Revolta dos Borrachos (in English: "Revolt of the Drunkards").
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the city became an important industrial center and hence, its size and population increased. The invasion of the Napoleonic troops in Portugal brought war to the city of Porto. In 1809, when the population fled from the advancing French troops and tried to cross the river Douro over the Ponte das Barcas, the bridge collapsed under the weight of the people and almost 4,000 residents of Porto died in the floods of the Douro river. In the Second Battle of Porto, which took place still in the same year, the French Army was thrown out of the city by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, and his Anglo-Portuguese Army.
In 1820, the Liberal Revolution began in Porto. The revolutionaries demanded the return of King John VI of Portugal, who had transferred the royal court to the Portuguese colony of Brazil since the French invasions, and also a constitutional monarchy to be set up in Portugal. But after the new constitution had been accepted in 1822, the new Portuguese King Miguel I rejected this constitution in 1828 and reigned as an anti-liberal, absolutist monarch.
Porto rebelled again and had to undergo a siege of eighteen months by the absolutist army. After successfully resisting the siege in 1833, King Miguel I had to abdicate and the liberal constitution was re-established. However, not bevore 1910, the monarchy was overthrown and Portugal became a republic. In 1919, forces favorable to the restoration of the monarchy launched a counter-revolution in Porto known as the Monarchy of the North. During this time, Porto was the capital of the restored kingdom, but the monarchy was deposed less than a month later and no other monarchist revolution in Portugal happened again.
Today, Porto is the most important industrial city in the country, thanks to its textile, leather goods, metal, food, and chemical industries, its oil refinery as well as the overseas port Porto de Leixões. The university, the art academy, museums, theaters, and the opera also emphasise Porto's status as a major cultural and scientific center. But it’s mainly the export of port wine and its beautiful UNESCO-protected old town, to which Porto ows its appeal to visitors from everywhere.
Individuals Against the Crime of Silence: 1967 ca. Individuals Against the Crime of Silence was an ongoing petition to the United Nations by U.S. citizens in opposition to the Vietnam War and invoking the Nuremberg Trials, the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Accords as a basis for their opposition.
This image is of a pledge card version approximately 2” x 3” when folded. A larger. 8 ½ x 11 version can also be found on this site.
The petition had its origins in September 1965 when 80 leading U.S. attorneys signed a statement that the U.S. was prosecuting an illegal war in Vietnam that was read into the Congressional Record.
Subsequently, a petition drive was organized that carried the names of prominent Americans including writers James Baldwin, Ray Bradbury and Norman Mailer; Catholic Activists Phillip and Daniel Berrigan; actors Ben Gazzara, Dick Van Dyke, Robert Vaughn; pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock; biochemist Dr. Linus Pauling: and civil rights leader James Farmer, among others.
The petitions were widely circulated among peace groups and at antiwar demonstrations.
The petitions with prominent names were published in newspapers and magazines and signed petitions by tens of thousands of Americans were sent to the United Nations. The campaign lasted from 1966 approximately 1968.
For a PDF of this 2 x 3 folded, petition, see washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/1968-0...
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskVENBnt
Donated by Craig Simpson
Stroll up Constitution Hill... on a beautiful Autumn afternoon in Westminster, London. Buckingham Palace is behind me as I walk toward Wellington Arch and Hyde Park. The area is laden with royal history, not the least of which are three attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria in the 1840s.
Promenade with Palms and Bourtzi Island Castle, Nafplio, Peloponnese, Greece Bourtzi Fortress is one of Nafplio’s most iconic landmarks, situated on a small islet just off the coast. Originally built by the Venetians in the 15th century, this sea-bound fortress can be reached by a short boat ride from the harbor. Its strategic location once served as a defensive outpost against pirate attacks.
Café-culture Syntagma Square, Nafplia. Peleponnese, Greece 54158127158_733baffc2d_b
16th century former domed mosque Aga-Pasha in Syntagma Square, old town Nafplio, Peloponnese, Greece 54157841866_2e209ea0cc_b
Former Ottoman mosque and Akronafplia fortress with landmark Clock Tower, Nafplio, Greece 54156980102_d96f1d567a_b
My ancestors lived in Brazil for some time in the past.... “We were already on this land before Brazil was Brazil,” —E.L., Indigenous leader
After living on and fighting for their lands for centuries, the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil are endangered...
The profit-hungry forces want to deny Indigenous Peoples’ rights to their lands unless it can be proven that they occupied them at the time of Brazil’s 1988 constitution—which was supposed to have guaranteed their land rights. Meanwhile, a bill (PL 490) being considered by Brazil’s Congress seeks to open Indigenous Lands for industrial agriculture, mining, and other extractive activities.
If Indigenous communities cannot provide the proof demanded then they are at risk of basically being ruled not to exist...
Please save indigenous people of Brazil! I support their human rights.
this balance.”
Many indigenous people are raised in a cultural system that honors spirituality and an attachment to nature. Not only physical nature, but also humanity’s internal nature. Islam provides this kind of connection with oneself and the surrounding world, as well as with God, the Creator.
***
Between 1824 and 1972, about 260,000 Germans snd Danubeswabians settled in Brazil. By 1940, the German diaspora in Brazil totaled about a million..
My ancestors lived in Santos for some time....
Mk.41 VLS missiles The Japan Maritime Self-defense Force uses the Mk.41 system on 10 different classes of Warships and it´s crucial for the protection of the Japanese mainland and naval routes. The Destroyers of the Maya, Atago and Kongo Classes can operate all the missiles here presented.
Technically, the Japanese warships can operate the Tomahawk Cruise Missile but for many years this was a “tabu” subject since it went against the Japanese Anti-War constitution. However, recently the ban has been lifted and Japan is discussing the acquisition of this weapon until indigenous similar weapons can be deployed as well.
About the model:
This MOC is heavily based on a model made by Madbrickz some years ago.
Thanks for watching! Don´t forget to subscribe my Instagram page! www.instagram.com/joaoeinon/
Eínon
Watts-Bell House Built in 1816
Constitution Square Historic Site, Danville, Kentucky
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Square_Historic_Site
Bouclier miroir en bronze du roi Muryeong à la porte de Gongju La ville de Gongju est adossée à une colline où se dresse encore le mur d’enceinte en pierre (XVIIe siècle) d’une forteresse (Gongsanseong) où se trouvait un palais royal. L'agglomération est située à environ 125 km au sud de Séoul et à 30 km au nord-ouest de Daejeon qui est la mégapole la plus proche. Capitale de la province du Chungcheong du Sud jusqu’au XXe siècle, elle est divisée en deux par le fleuve Geum (금강) qui l'enjambe aved 4 ponts dont un en partie piétonnier. A l’est, la vieille ville où l’on peut visiter la forteresse, le musée national et les tombes royales de Songsan-ri. De l’autre côté, les quartiers sont plus récents avec la gare routière et l’université nationale datant de 1948 (réputée par les nombreux enseignants qui y ont été formés jusqu’à la fin des années 1980.
À la suite de la fuite du roi Munju de la dynastie Paekche devant les armées de Koguryŏ et l'invasion de la capitale Hanseong (actuelle Séoul), Gongju devient durant une courte période capitale de la dynastie en 475, mais perd en 538 ce statut le roi Seong déménageant la capitale à Sabi (dans le comté moderne de Buyeo). Cependant, Gongju est resté un centre important jusqu'à la chute du royaume en 660. En 2004, le Premier ministre sud-coréen Lee Hae-chan (이해찬) annonce que la capitale du pays sera transférée de Séoul à Gongju à partir de 2007, projet, qui devait être achevé d'ici 2030. Cette décision visait à réduire le surpeuplement et la domination économique de Séoul sur le reste de la Corée du Sud et aussi à mettre le gouvernement et l'administration hors de portée des tirs d'artillerie nord-coréens.
très rapidement, le plan a suscité la controverse, les partis d'opposition appelant à un référendum pour savoir si ce projet serait accepté par la population. Certains groupes civiques ont également lancé un appel constitutionnel, et le 21 octobre 2004, la Cour constitutionnelle a jugé que la loi spéciale pour la relocalisation de la capitale était inconstitutionnelle car elle était considérée comme une affaire nationale essentielle nécessitant un référendum national ou une révision de la constitution, mettant ainsi fin au différend. Les sondages d'opinion ont montré qu'une légère majorité de Sud-Coréens étaient opposés à cette décision, à la fois avant et après la décision.
Fin 2004, le gouvernement annonça un autre plan qui permit à Séoul d'être considérée comme l'unique capitale en conservant le pouvoir exécutif, tous les pouvoirs législatifs et le pouvoir judiciaire, tout en déplaçant toutes les autres branches du gouvernement à Gongju ou plus précisément à Sejong, ville nouvelle se situant dans le district de Yeongi dépendant du territoire de Gongju (cf. wikipédia).
Porte d'entrée de la forteresse Gongsanseong à Gongju La ville de Gongju est adossée à une colline où se dresse encore le mur d’enceinte en pierre (XVIIe siècle) d’une forteresse (Gongsanseong) où se trouvait un palais royal. L'agglomération est située à environ 125 km au sud de Séoul et à 30 km au nord-ouest de Daejeon qui est la mégapole la plus proche. Capitale de la province du Chungcheong du Sud jusqu’au XXe siècle, elle est divisée en deux par le fleuve Geum (금강) qui l'enjambe aved 4 ponts dont un en partie piétonnier. A l’est, la vieille ville où l’on peut visiter la forteresse, le musée national et les tombes royales de Songsan-ri. De l’autre côté, les quartiers sont plus récents avec la gare routière et l’université nationale datant de 1948 (réputée par les nombreux enseignants qui y ont été formés jusqu’à la fin des années 1980.
À la suite de la fuite du roi Munju de la dynastie Paekche devant les armées de Koguryŏ et l'invasion de la capitale Hanseong (actuelle Séoul), Gongju devient durant une courte période capitale de la dynastie en 475, mais perd en 538 ce statut le roi Seong déménageant la capitale à Sabi (dans le comté moderne de Buyeo). Cependant, Gongju est resté un centre important jusqu'à la chute du royaume en 660. En 2004, le Premier ministre sud-coréen Lee Hae-chan (이해찬) annonce que la capitale du pays sera transférée de Séoul à Gongju à partir de 2007, projet, qui devait être achevé d'ici 2030. Cette décision visait à réduire le surpeuplement et la domination économique de Séoul sur le reste de la Corée du Sud et aussi à mettre le gouvernement et l'administration hors de portée des tirs d'artillerie nord-coréens.
très rapidement, le plan a suscité la controverse, les partis d'opposition appelant à un référendum pour savoir si ce projet serait accepté par la population. Certains groupes civiques ont également lancé un appel constitutionnel, et le 21 octobre 2004, la Cour constitutionnelle a jugé que la loi spéciale pour la relocalisation de la capitale était inconstitutionnelle car elle était considérée comme une affaire nationale essentielle nécessitant un référendum national ou une révision de la constitution, mettant ainsi fin au différend. Les sondages d'opinion ont montré qu'une légère majorité de Sud-Coréens étaient opposés à cette décision, à la fois avant et après la décision.
Fin 2004, le gouvernement annonça un autre plan qui permit à Séoul d'être considérée comme l'unique capitale en conservant le pouvoir exécutif, tous les pouvoirs législatifs et le pouvoir judiciaire, tout en déplaçant toutes les autres branches du gouvernement à Gongju ou plus précisément à Sejong, ville nouvelle se situant dans le district de Yeongi dépendant du territoire de Gongju (cf. wikipédia, merci Ashy Minivet pour la photo).
Statue du roi Muryeong à Gongju La ville de Gongju est adossée à une colline où se dresse encore le mur d’enceinte en pierre (XVIIe siècle) d’une forteresse (Gongsanseong) où se trouvait un palais royal. L'agglomération est située à environ 125 km au sud de Séoul et à 30 km au nord-ouest de Daejeon qui est la mégapole la plus proche. Capitale de la province du Chungcheong du Sud jusqu’au XXe siècle, elle est divisée en deux par le fleuve Geum (금강) qui l'enjambe aved 4 ponts dont un en partie piétonnier. A l’est, la vieille ville où l’on peut visiter la forteresse, le musée national et les tombes royales de Songsan-ri. De l’autre côté, les quartiers sont plus récents avec la gare routière et l’université nationale datant de 1948 (réputée par les nombreux enseignants qui y ont été formés jusqu’à la fin des années 1980.
À la suite de la fuite du roi Munju de la dynastie Paekche devant les armées de Koguryŏ et l'invasion de la capitale Hanseong (actuelle Séoul), Gongju devient durant une courte période capitale de la dynastie en 475, mais perd en 538 ce statut le roi Seong déménageant la capitale à Sabi (dans le comté moderne de Buyeo). Cependant, Gongju est resté un centre important jusqu'à la chute du royaume en 660. En 2004, le Premier ministre sud-coréen Lee Hae-chan (이해찬) annonce que la capitale du pays sera transférée de Séoul à Gongju à partir de 2007, projet, qui devait être achevé d'ici 2030. Cette décision visait à réduire le surpeuplement et la domination économique de Séoul sur le reste de la Corée du Sud et aussi à mettre le gouvernement et l'administration hors de portée des tirs d'artillerie nord-coréens.
très rapidement, le plan a suscité la controverse, les partis d'opposition appelant à un référendum pour savoir si ce projet serait accepté par la population. Certains groupes civiques ont également lancé un appel constitutionnel, et le 21 octobre 2004, la Cour constitutionnelle a jugé que la loi spéciale pour la relocalisation de la capitale était inconstitutionnelle car elle était considérée comme une affaire nationale essentielle nécessitant un référendum national ou une révision de la constitution, mettant ainsi fin au différend. Les sondages d'opinion ont montré qu'une légère majorité de Sud-Coréens étaient opposés à cette décision, à la fois avant et après la décision.
Fin 2004, le gouvernement annonça un autre plan qui permit à Séoul d'être considérée comme l'unique capitale en conservant le pouvoir exécutif, tous les pouvoirs législatifs et le pouvoir judiciaire, tout en déplaçant toutes les autres branches du gouvernement à Gongju ou plus précisément à Sejong, ville nouvelle se situant dans le district de Yeongi dépendant du territoire de Gongju (cf. wikipédia).
Porte de Gongju La ville de Gongju est adossée à une colline où se dresse encore le mur d’enceinte en pierre (XVIIe siècle) d’une forteresse (Gongsanseong) où se trouvait un palais royal. L'agglomération est située à environ 125 km au sud de Séoul et à 30 km au nord-ouest de Daejeon qui est la mégapole la plus proche. Capitale de la province du Chungcheong du Sud jusqu’au XXe siècle, elle est divisée en deux par le fleuve Geum (금강) qui l'enjambe aved 4 ponts dont un en partie piétonnier. A l’est, la vieille ville où l’on peut visiter la forteresse, le musée national et les tombes royales de Songsan-ri. De l’autre côté, les quartiers sont plus récents avec la gare routière et l’université nationale datant de 1948 (réputée par les nombreux enseignants qui y ont été formés jusqu’à la fin des années 1980.
À la suite de la fuite du roi Munju de la dynastie Paekche devant les armées de Koguryŏ et l'invasion de la capitale Hanseong (actuelle Séoul), Gongju devient durant une courte période capitale de la dynastie en 475, mais perd en 538 ce statut le roi Seong déménageant la capitale à Sabi (dans le comté moderne de Buyeo). Cependant, Gongju est resté un centre important jusqu'à la chute du royaume en 660. En 2004, le Premier ministre sud-coréen Lee Hae-chan (이해찬) annonce que la capitale du pays sera transférée de Séoul à Gongju à partir de 2007, projet, qui devait être achevé d'ici 2030. Cette décision visait à réduire le surpeuplement et la domination économique de Séoul sur le reste de la Corée du Sud et aussi à mettre le gouvernement et l'administration hors de portée des tirs d'artillerie nord-coréens.
très rapidement, le plan a suscité la controverse, les partis d'opposition appelant à un référendum pour savoir si ce projet serait accepté par la population. Certains groupes civiques ont également lancé un appel constitutionnel, et le 21 octobre 2004, la Cour constitutionnelle a jugé que la loi spéciale pour la relocalisation de la capitale était inconstitutionnelle car elle était considérée comme une affaire nationale essentielle nécessitant un référendum national ou une révision de la constitution, mettant ainsi fin au différend. Les sondages d'opinion ont montré qu'une légère majorité de Sud-Coréens étaient opposés à cette décision, à la fois avant et après la décision.
Fin 2004, le gouvernement annonça un autre plan qui permit à Séoul d'être considérée comme l'unique capitale en conservant le pouvoir exécutif, tous les pouvoirs législatifs et le pouvoir judiciaire, tout en déplaçant toutes les autres branches du gouvernement à Gongju ou plus précisément à Sejong, ville nouvelle se situant dans le district de Yeongi dépendant du territoire de Gongju (cf. wikipédia).
Forteresse Gongsanseong à Gongju La ville de Gongju est adossée à une colline où se dresse encore le mur d’enceinte en pierre (XVIIe siècle) d’une forteresse (Gongsanseong) où se trouvait un palais royal. L'agglomération est située à environ 125 km au sud de Séoul et à 30 km au nord-ouest de Daejeon qui est la mégapole la plus proche. Capitale de la province du Chungcheong du Sud jusqu’au XXe siècle, elle est divisée en deux par le fleuve Geum (금강) qui l'enjambe aved 4 ponts dont un en partie piétonnier. A l’est, la vieille ville où l’on peut visiter la forteresse, le musée national et les tombes royales de Songsan-ri. De l’autre côté, les quartiers sont plus récents avec la gare routière et l’université nationale datant de 1948 (réputée par les nombreux enseignants qui y ont été formés jusqu’à la fin des années 1980.
À la suite de la fuite du roi Munju de la dynastie Paekche devant les armées de Koguryŏ et l'invasion de la capitale Hanseong (actuelle Séoul), Gongju devient durant une courte période capitale de la dynastie en 475, mais perd en 538 ce statut le roi Seong déménageant la capitale à Sabi (dans le comté moderne de Buyeo). Cependant, Gongju est resté un centre important jusqu'à la chute du royaume en 660. En 2004, le Premier ministre sud-coréen Lee Hae-chan (이해찬) annonce que la capitale du pays sera transférée de Séoul à Gongju à partir de 2007, projet, qui devait être achevé d'ici 2030. Cette décision visait à réduire le surpeuplement et la domination économique de Séoul sur le reste de la Corée du Sud et aussi à mettre le gouvernement et l'administration hors de portée des tirs d'artillerie nord-coréens.
très rapidement, le plan a suscité la controverse, les partis d'opposition appelant à un référendum pour savoir si ce projet serait accepté par la population. Certains groupes civiques ont également lancé un appel constitutionnel, et le 21 octobre 2004, la Cour constitutionnelle a jugé que la loi spéciale pour la relocalisation de la capitale était inconstitutionnelle car elle était considérée comme une affaire nationale essentielle nécessitant un référendum national ou une révision de la constitution, mettant ainsi fin au différend. Les sondages d'opinion ont montré qu'une légère majorité de Sud-Coréens étaient opposés à cette décision, à la fois avant et après la décision.
Fin 2004, le gouvernement annonça un autre plan qui permit à Séoul d'être considérée comme l'unique capitale en conservant le pouvoir exécutif, tous les pouvoirs législatifs et le pouvoir judiciaire, tout en déplaçant toutes les autres branches du gouvernement à Gongju ou plus précisément à Sejong, ville nouvelle se situant dans le district de Yeongi dépendant du territoire de Gongju (cf. wikipédia, merci Ashy Minivet pour la photo).
Magnets from the Fridge 003 MAGNET: USS Constitution (refrigerator magnet)
Age of Enlightenment...Dissemination of ideas...The word "public" implies the highest level of inclusivity. "truly enlightened public" with "the blind and noisy multitude."Cross-class influences occurred Implications in the arts
Because of the focus on reason over superstition, the Enlightenment cultivated the arts.[181] Emphasis on learning, art, and music became more widespread, especially with the growing middle class. Areas of study such as literature, philosophy, science, and the fine arts increasingly explored subject matter to which the general public, in addition to the previously more segregated professionals and patrons, could relate.[182]
George Frideric Handel
As musicians depended more on public support, public concerts became increasingly popular and helped supplement performers' and composers' incomes. The concerts also helped them to reach a wider audience. Handel, for example, epitomized this with his highly public musical activities in London. He gained considerable fame there with performances of his operas and oratorios. The music of Haydn and Mozart, with their Viennese Classical styles, are usually regarded as being the most in line with the Enlightenment ideals.[183]
The desire to explore, record, and systematize knowledge had a meaningful impact on music publications. Rousseau's Dictionnaire de musique (published 1767 in Geneva and 1768 in Paris) was a leading text in the late 18th century.[183] This widely available dictionary gave short definitions of words like genius and taste and was clearly influenced by the Enlightenment movement. Another text influenced by Enlightenment values was Charles Burney's A General History of Music: From the Earliest Ages to the Present Period (1776), which was a historical survey and an attempt to rationalize elements in music systematically over time.[184] Recently, musicologists have shown renewed interest in the ideas and consequences of the Enlightenment. For example, Rose Rosengard Subotnik's Deconstructive Variations (subtitled Music and Reason in Western Society) compares Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (1791) using the Enlightenment and Romantic perspectives and concludes that the work is "an ideal musical representation of the Enlightenment."[184]
As the economy and the middle class expanded, there was an increasing number of amateur musicians. One manifestation of this involved women, who became more involved with music on a social level. Women were already engaged in professional roles as singers and increased their presence in the amateur performers' scene, especially with keyboard music.[185] Music publishers began to print music that amateurs could understand and play. The majority of the works that were published were for keyboard, voice and keyboard, and chamber ensemble.[185] After these initial genres were popularized, from the mid-century on, amateur groups sang choral music, which then became a new trend for publishers to capitalize on. The increasing study of the fine arts, as well as access to amateur-friendly published works, led to more people becoming interested in reading and discussing music. Music magazines, reviews, and critical works which suited amateurs as well as connoisseurs began to surface.[
Art
The art produced during the Enlightenment focused on a search for morality that was absent from the art in previous eras.[citation needed] At the same time, the Classical art of Greece and Rome became interesting to people again, since archaeological teams discovered Pompeii and Herculaneum. People took inspiration from it and revived classical art into neo-classical art. This can especially be seen in early American art and architecture, which featured arches, goddesses, and other classical architectural designs.
Society and culture
A medal minted during the reign of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, commemorating his grant of religious liberty to Jews and Protestants in Hungary—another important reform of Joseph II was the abolition of serfdom.
In contrast to the intellectual historiographical approach of the Enlightenment, which examines the various currents or discourses of intellectual thought within the European context during the 17th and 18th centuries, the cultural (or social) approach examines the changes that occurred in European society and culture. This approach studies the process of changing sociabilities and cultural practices during the Enlightenment.
One of the primary elements of the culture of the Enlightenment was the rise of the public sphere, a "realm of communication marked by new arenas of debate, more open and accessible forms of urban public space and sociability, and an explosion of print culture," in the late 17th century and 18th century.[171] Elements of the public sphere included that it was egalitarian, that it discussed the domain of "common concern," and that argument was founded on reason.[172] Habermas uses the term "common concern" to describe those areas of political/social knowledge and discussion that were previously the exclusive territory of the state and religious authorities, now open to critical examination by the public sphere. The values of this bourgeois public sphere included holding reason to be supreme, considering everything to be open to criticism (the public sphere is critical), and the opposition of secrecy of all sorts.[173]
German explorer Alexander von Humboldt showed his disgust for slavery and often criticized the colonial policies—he always acted out of a deeply humanistic conviction, borne by the ideas of the Enlightenment.[174]
The creation of the public sphere has been associated with two long-term historical trends: the rise of the modern nation state and the rise of capitalism. The modern nation state in its consolidation of public power created by counterpoint a private realm of society independent of the state, which allowed for the public sphere. Capitalism also increased society's autonomy and self-awareness, as well as an increasing need for the exchange of information. As the nascent public sphere expanded, it embraced a large variety of institutions, and the most commonly cited were coffee houses and cafés, salons and the literary public sphere, figuratively localized in the Republic of Letters.[175] In France, the creation of the public sphere was helped by the aristocracy's move from the king's palace at Versailles to Paris in about 1720, since their rich spending stimulated the trade in luxuries and artistic creations, especially fine paintings.[176]
The context for the rise of the public sphere was the economic and social change commonly associated with the Industrial Revolution: "Economic expansion, increasing urbanization, rising population and improving communications in comparison to the stagnation of the previous century."[177] Rising efficiency in production techniques and communication lowered the prices of consumer goods and increased the amount and variety of goods available to consumers (including the literature essential to the public sphere). Meanwhile, the colonial experience (most European states had colonial empires in the 18th century) began to expose European society to extremely heterogeneous cultures, leading to the breaking down of "barriers between cultural systems, religious divides, gender differences and geographical areas."[178]
The word "public" implies the highest level of inclusivity—the public sphere by definition should be open to all. However, this sphere was only public to relative degrees. Enlightenment thinkers frequently contrasted their conception of the "public" with that of the people: Condorcet contrasted "opinion" with populace, Marmontel "the opinion of men of letters" with "the opinion of the multitude" and d'Alembert the "truly enlightened public" with "the blind and noisy multitude."[179] Additionally, most institutions of the public sphere excluded both women and the lower classes.[180] Cross-class influences occurred through noble and lower class participation in areas such as the coffeehouses and the Masonic lodges.
Masonic lodges
Masonic initiation ceremony
Historians have debated the extent to which the secret network of Freemasonry was a main factor in the Enlightenment.[262] Leaders of the Enlightenment included Freemasons such as Diderot, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Lessing, Pope,[263] Horace Walpole, Sir Robert Walpole, Mozart, Goethe, Frederick the Great, Benjamin Franklin[264] and George Washington.[265] Norman Davies said Freemasonry was a powerful force on behalf of liberalism in Europe from about 1700 to the twentieth century. It expanded during the Enlightenment, reaching practically every country in Europe. It was especially attractive to powerful aristocrats and politicians as well as intellectuals, artists, and political activists.[266]
During the Enlightenment, Freemasons comprised an international network of like-minded men, often meeting in secret in ritualistic programs at their lodges. They promoted the ideals of the Enlightenment and helped diffuse these values across Britain, France, and other places. Freemasonry as a systematic creed with its own myths, values, and rituals originated in Scotland c. 1600 and spread to England and then across the Continent in the 18th century. They fostered new codes of conduct—including a communal understanding of liberty and equality inherited from guild sociability—"liberty, fraternity, and equality."[267] Scottish soldiers and Jacobite Scots brought to the Continent ideals of fraternity, which reflected not the local system of Scottish customs, but the institutions and ideals originating in the English Revolution against royal absolutism.[268] Freemasonry was particularly prevalent in France—by 1789, there were perhaps as many as 100,000 French Masons, making Freemasonry the most popular of all Enlightenment associations.[269] The Freemasons displayed a passion for secrecy and created new degrees and ceremonies. Similar societies, partially imitating Freemasonry, emerged in France, Germany, Sweden, and Russia. One example was the Illuminati, founded in Bavaria in 1776, which was copied after the Freemasons, but was never part of the movement. The name itself translates to "enlightened," chosen to reflect their original intent to promote the values of the movement. The Illuminati was an overtly political group, which most Masonic lodges decidedly were not.[270]
Masonic lodges created a private model for public affairs. They "reconstituted the polity and established a constitutional form of self-government, complete with constitutions and laws, elections, and representatives." In other words, the micro-society set up within the lodges constituted a normative model for society as a whole. This was especially true on the continent: when the first lodges began to appear in the 1730s, their embodiment of British values was often seen as threatening by state authorities. For example, the Parisian lodge that met in the mid 1720s was composed of English Jacobite exiles.[271] Furthermore, freemasons across Europe explicitly linked themselves to the Enlightenment as a whole. For example, in French lodges the line "As the means to be enlightened I search for the enlightened" was a part of their initiation rites. British lodges assigned themselves the duty to "initiate the unenlightened." This did not necessarily link lodges to the irreligious, but neither did this exclude them from the occasional heresy. In fact, many lodges praised the Grand Architect, the masonic terminology for the deistic divine being who created a scientifically ordered universe.[272]
German historian Reinhart Koselleck claimed: "On the Continent there were two social structures that left a decisive imprint on the Age of Enlightenment: the Republic of Letters and the Masonic lodges."[273] Scottish professor Thomas Munck argues that "although the Masons did promote international and cross-social contacts which were essentially non-religious and broadly in agreement with enlightened values, they can hardly be described as a major radical or reformist network in their own right."[274] Many of the Masons values seemed to greatly appeal to Enlightenment values and thinkers. Diderot discusses the link between Freemason ideals and the enlightenment in D'Alembert's Dream, exploring masonry as a way of spreading enlightenment beliefs.[275] Historian Margaret Jacob stresses the importance of the Masons in indirectly inspiring enlightened political thought.On the negative side, Daniel Roche contests claims that Masonry promoted egalitarianism and he argues the lodges only attracted men of similar social backgrounds. The presence of noble women in the French "lodges of adoption" that formed in the 1780s was largely due to the close ties shared between these lodges and aristocratic society.
The major opponent of Freemasonry was the Catholic Church so in countries with a large Catholic element, such as France, Italy, Spain, and Mexico, much of the ferocity of the political battles involve the confrontation between what Davies calls the reactionary Church and enlightened Freemasonry. Even in France, Masons did not act as a group. American historians, while noting that Benjamin Franklin and George Washington were indeed active Masons, have downplayed the importance of Freemasonry in causing the American Revolution because the Masonic order was non-political and included both Patriots and their enemy the Loyalists.
Dissemination of ideas
The philosophes spent a great deal of energy disseminating their ideas among educated men and women in cosmopolitan cities. They used many venues, some of them quite new.
French philosopher Pierre Bayle
Republic of Letters
The term "Republic of Letters" was coined in 1664 by Pierre Bayle in his journal Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres. Towards the end of the 18th century, the editor of Histoire de la République des Lettres en France, a literary survey, described the Republic of Letters as being:
In the midst of all the governments that decide the fate of men; in the bosom of so many states, the majority of them despotic ... there exists a certain realm which holds sway only over the mind ... that we honor with the name Republic, because it preserves a measure of independence, and because it is almost its essence to be free. It is the realm of talent and of thought.[186]
The Republic of Letters was the sum of a number of Enlightenment ideals: an egalitarian realm governed by knowledge that could act across political boundaries and rival state power.[186] It was a forum that supported "free public examination of questions regarding religion or legislation."[187] Kant considered written communication essential to his conception of the public sphere; once everyone was a part of the "reading public," then society could be said to be enlightened.[188] The people who participated in the Republic of Letters, such as Diderot and Voltaire, are frequently known today as important Enlightenment figures. Indeed, the men who wrote Diderot's Encyclopédie arguably formed a microcosm of the larger "republic."[189]
Front page of The Gentleman's Magazine, January 1731
Many women played an essential part in the French Enlightenment because of the role they played as salonnières in Parisian salons, as the contrast to the male philosophes. The salon was the principal social institution of the republic[190] and "became the civil working spaces of the project of Enlightenment." Women, as salonnières, were "the legitimate governors of [the] potentially unruly discourse" that took place within.[191] While women were marginalized in the public culture of the Old Regime, the French Revolution destroyed the old cultural and economic restraints of patronage and corporatism (guilds), opening French society to female participation, particularly in the literary sphere.[192]
In France, the established men of letters (gens de lettres) had fused with the elites (les grands) of French society by the mid-18th century. This led to the creation of an oppositional literary sphere, Grub Street, the domain of a "multitude of versifiers and would-be authors."[193] These men came to London to become authors only to discover that the literary market could not support large numbers of writers, who in any case were very poorly remunerated by the publishing-bookselling guilds.[194]
The writers of Grub Street, the Grub Street Hacks, were left feeling bitter about the relative success of the men of letters[195] and found an outlet for their literature which was typified by the libelle. Written mostly in the form of pamphlets, the libelles "slandered the court, the Church, the aristocracy, the academies, the salons, everything elevated and respectable, including the monarchy itself."[196] Le Gazetier cuirassé by Charles Théveneau de Morande was a prototype of the genre. It was Grub Street literature that was most read by the public during the Enlightenment.[197] According to Darnton, more importantly the Grub Street hacks inherited the "revolutionary spirit" once displayed by the philosophes and paved the way for the French Revolution by desacralizing figures of political, moral, and religious authority in France.[198]
Book industry
ESTC data 1477–1799 by decade given with a regional differentiation
The increased consumption of reading materials of all sorts was one of the key features of the "social" Enlightenment. Developments in the Industrial Revolution allowed consumer goods to be produced in greater quantities at lower prices, encouraging the spread of books, pamphlets, newspapers, and journals – "media of the transmission of ideas and attitudes." Commercial development likewise increased the demand for information, along with rising populations and increased urbanisation.[199] However, demand for reading material extended outside of the realm of the commercial and outside the realm of the upper and middle classes, as evidenced by the bibliothèque bleue. Literacy rates are difficult to gauge, but in France the rates doubled over the course of the 18th century.[200] Reflecting the decreasing influence of religion, the number of books about science and art published in Paris doubled from 1720 to 1780, while the number of books about religion dropped to just one-tenth of the total.[26]
Reading underwent serious changes in the 18th century. In particular, Rolf Engelsing has argued for the existence of a reading revolution. Until 1750, reading was done intensively: people tended to own a small number of books and read them repeatedly, often to small audience. After 1750, people began to read "extensively," finding as many books as they could, increasingly reading them alone.[201] This is supported by increasing literacy rates, particularly among women.[202]
The vast majority of the reading public could not afford to own a private library, and while most of the state-run "universal libraries" set up in the 17th and 18th centuries were open to the public, they were not the only sources of reading material. On one end of the spectrum was the bibliothèque bleue, a collection of cheaply produced books published in Troyes, France. Intended for a largely rural and semi-literate audience these books included almanacs, retellings of medieval romances and condensed versions of popular novels, among other things. While some historians have argued against the Enlightenment's penetration into the lower classes, the bibliothèque bleue represents at least a desire to participate in Enlightenment sociability.[203] Moving up the classes, a variety of institutions offered readers access to material without needing to buy anything. Libraries that lent out their material for a small price started to appear, and occasionally bookstores would offer a small lending library to their patrons. Coffee houses commonly offered books, journals, and sometimes even popular novels to their customers. Tatler and The Spectator, two influential periodicals sold from 1709 to 1714, were closely associated with coffee house culture in London, being both read and produced in various establishments in the city.[204] This is an example of the triple or even quadruple function of the coffee house: reading material was often obtained, read, discussed, and even produced on the premises.[205]
Denis Diderot is best known as the editor of the Encyclopédie.
It is difficult to determine what people actually read during the Enlightenment. For example, examining the catalogs of private libraries gives an image skewed in favor of the classes wealthy enough to afford libraries and also ignores censored works unlikely to be publicly acknowledged. For this reason, a study of publishing would be much more fruitful for discerning reading habits.[206] Across continental Europe, but in France especially, booksellers and publishers had to negotiate censorship laws of varying strictness. For example, the Encyclopédie narrowly escaped seizure and had to be saved by Malesherbes, the man in charge of the French censor. Indeed, many publishing companies were conveniently located outside France so as to avoid overzealous French censors. They would smuggle their merchandise across the border, where it would then be transported to clandestine booksellers or small-time peddlers.[207] The records of clandestine booksellers may give a better representation of what literate Frenchmen might have truly read, since their clandestine nature provided a less restrictive product choice.[208] In one case, political books were the most popular category, primarily libels and pamphlets. Readers were more interested in sensationalist stories about criminals and political corruption than they were in political theory itself. The second most popular category, "general works" (those books "that did not have a dominant motif and that contained something to offend almost everyone in authority"), demonstrated a high demand for generally low-brow subversive literature. However, these works never became part of literary canon and are largely forgotten today as a result.[208]
A healthy, legal publishing industry existed throughout Europe, although established publishers and book sellers occasionally ran afoul of the law. For example, the Encyclopédie, condemned by both the King and Clement XII, nevertheless found its way into print with the help of the aforementioned Malesherbes and creative use of French censorship law.[209] However, many works were sold without running into any legal trouble at all. Borrowing records from libraries in England, Germany, and North America indicate that more than 70% of books borrowed were novels. Less than 1% of the books were of a religious nature, indicating the general trend of declining religiosity.[186]
Natural history
Georges Buffon is best remembered for his Histoire naturelle, a 44 volume encyclopedia describing everything known about the natural world.
A genre that greatly rose in importance was that of scientific literature. Natural history in particular became increasingly popular among the upper classes. Works of natural history include René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur's Histoire naturelle des insectes and Jacques Gautier d'Agoty's La Myologie complète, ou description de tous les muscles du corps humain (1746). Outside Ancien Régime France, natural history was an important part of medicine and industry, encompassing the fields of botany, zoology, meteorology, hydrology, and mineralogy. Students in Enlightenment universities and academies were taught these subjects to prepare them for careers as diverse as medicine and theology. As shown by Matthew Daniel Eddy, natural history in this context was a very middle class pursuit and operated as a fertile trading zone for the interdisciplinary exchange of diverse scientific ideas.[210]
The target audience of natural history was French upper class, evidenced more by the specific discourse of the genre than by the generally high prices of its works. Naturalists catered to upper class desire for erudition: many texts had an explicit instructive purpose. However, natural history was often a political affair. As Emma Spary writes, the classifications used by naturalists "slipped between the natural world and the social ... to establish not only the expertise of the naturalists over the natural, but also the dominance of the natural over the social."[211] The idea of taste (le goût) was a social indicator: to truly be able to categorize nature, one had to have the proper taste, an ability of discretion shared by all members of the upper class. In this way, natural history spread many of the scientific developments of the time but also provided a new source of legitimacy for the dominant class.[212] From this basis, naturalists could then develop their own social ideals based on their scientific works.[213]
Scientific and literary journals
Journal des sçavans was the earliest academic journal published in Europe.
The first scientific and literary journals were established during the Enlightenment. The first journal, the Parisian Journal des sçavans, appeared in 1665. However, it was not until 1682 that periodicals began to be more widely produced. French and Latin were the dominant languages of publication, but there was also a steady demand for material in German and Dutch. There was generally low demand for English publications on the continent, which was echoed by England's similar lack of desire for French works. Languages commanding less of an international market—such as Danish, Spanish, and Portuguese—found journal success more difficult, and a more international language was used instead. French slowly took over Latin's status as the lingua franca of learned circles. This in turn gave precedence to the publishing industry in Holland, where the vast majority of these French language periodicals were produced.[214]
Jonathan Israel called the journals the most influential cultural innovation of European intellectual culture.[215] They shifted the attention of the "cultivated public" away from established authorities to novelty and innovation, and instead promoted the Enlightened ideals of toleration and intellectual objectivity. Being a source of knowledge derived from science and reason, they were an implicit critique of existing notions of universal truth monopolized by monarchies, parliaments, and religious authorities. They also advanced Christian Enlightenment that upheld "the legitimacy of God-ordained authority"—the Bible—in which there had to be agreement between the biblical and natural theories.[216]
Encyclopedias and dictionaries
First page of the Encyclopédie, published between 1751 and 1766
Although the existence of dictionaries and encyclopedias spanned into ancient times, the texts changed from defining words in a long running list to far more detailed discussions of those words in 18th-century encyclopedic dictionaries.[217] The works were part of an Enlightenment movement to systematize knowledge and provide education to a wider audience than the elite. As the 18th century progressed, the content of encyclopedias also changed according to readers' tastes. Volumes tended to focus more strongly on secular affairs, particularly science and technology, rather than matters of theology.
Along with secular matters, readers also favoured an alphabetical ordering scheme over cumbersome works arranged along thematic lines.[218] Commenting on alphabetization, the historian Charles Porset has said that "as the zero degree of taxonomy, alphabetical order authorizes all reading strategies; in this respect it could be considered an emblem of the Enlightenment." For Porset, the avoidance of thematic and hierarchical systems thus allows free interpretation of the works and becomes an example of egalitarianism.[219] Encyclopedias and dictionaries also became more popular during the Age of Enlightenment as the number of educated consumers who could afford such texts began to multiply.[217] In the latter half of the 18th century, the number of dictionaries and encyclopedias published by decade increased from 63 between 1760 and 1769 to approximately 148 in the decade proceeding the French Revolution.[220] Along with growth in numbers, dictionaries and encyclopedias also grew in length, often having multiple print runs that sometimes included in supplemented editions.[218]
The first technical dictionary was drafted by John Harris and entitled Lexicon Technicum: Or, An Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. Harris' book avoids theological and biographical entries and instead concentrates on science and technology. Published in 1704, the Lexicon Technicum was the first book to be written in English that took a methodical approach to describing mathematics and commercial arithmetic along with the physical sciences and navigation. Other technical dictionaries followed Harris' model, including Ephraim Chambers' Cyclopaedia (1728), which included five editions and is a substantially larger work than Harris'. The folio edition of the work even included foldout engravings. The Cyclopaedia emphasized Newtonian theories, Lockean philosophy and contained thorough examinations of technologies, such as engraving, brewing, and dyeing.
"Figurative system of human knowledge," the structure that the Encyclopédie organised knowledge into – it had three main branches: memory, reason, and imagination.
In Germany, practical reference works intended for the uneducated majority became popular in the 18th century. The Marperger Curieuses Natur-, Kunst-, Berg-, Gewerk- und Handlungs-Lexicon (1712) explained terms that usefully described the trades and scientific and commercial education. Jablonksi Allgemeines Lexicon (1721) was better known than the Handlungs-Lexicon and underscored technical subjects rather than scientific theory. For example, over five columns of text were dedicated to wine while geometry and logic were allocated only twenty-two and seventeen lines, respectively. The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1771) was modelled along the same lines as the German lexicons.[221]
However, the prime example of reference works that systematized scientific knowledge in the Age of Enlightenment were universal encyclopedias rather than technical dictionaries. It was the goal of universal encyclopedias to record all human knowledge in a comprehensive reference work.[222] The most well-known of these works is Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. The work, which began publication in 1751, was composed of 35 volumes and over 71,000 separate entries. A great number of the entries were dedicated to describing the sciences and crafts in detail and provided intellectuals across Europe with a high-quality survey of human knowledge. In d'Alembert's Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia of Diderot, the work's goal to record the extent of human knowledge in the arts and sciences is outlined:
As an Encyclopédie, it is to set forth as well as possible the order and connection of the parts of human knowledge. As a Reasoned Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Trades, it is to contain the general principles that form the basis of each science and each art, liberal or mechanical, and the most essential facts that make up the body and substance of each.[223]
The massive work was arranged according to a "tree of knowledge." The tree reflected the marked division between the arts and sciences, which was largely a result of the rise of empiricism. Both areas of knowledge were united by philosophy, or the trunk of the tree of knowledge. The Enlightenment's desacrilization of religion was pronounced in the tree's design, particularly where theology accounted for a peripheral branch, with black magic as a close neighbour.[224] As the Encyclopédie gained popularity, it was published in quarto and octavo editions after 1777. The quarto and octavo editions were much less expensive than previous editions, making the Encyclopédie more accessible to the non-elite. Robert Darnton estimates that there were approximately 25,000 copies of the Encyclopédie in circulation throughout France and Europe before the French Revolution.[225] The extensive yet affordable encyclopedia came to represent the transmission of Enlightenment and scientific education to an expanding audience.[226]
Popularization of science
One of the most important developments that the Enlightenment era brought to the discipline of science was its popularization. An increasingly literate population seeking knowledge and education in both the arts and the sciences drove the expansion of print culture and the dissemination of scientific learning. The new literate population was precipitated by a high rise in the availability of food; this enabled many people to rise out of poverty, and instead of paying more for food, they had money for education.[227] Popularization was generally part of an overarching Enlightenment ideal that endeavoured "to make information available to the greatest number of people."[228] As public interest in natural philosophy grew during the 18th century, public lecture courses and the publication of popular texts opened up new roads to money and fame for amateurs and scientists who remained on the periphery of universities and academies.[229] More formal works included explanations of scientific theories for individuals lacking the educational background to comprehend the original scientific text. Newton's celebrated Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica was published in Latin and remained inaccessible to readers without education in the classics until Enlightenment writers began to translate and analyze the text in the vernacular.
A portrait of Bernard de Fontenelle
The first significant work that expressed scientific theory and knowledge expressly for the laity, in the vernacular and with the entertainment of readers in mind, was Bernard de Fontenelle's Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds (1686). The book was produced specifically for women with an interest in scientific writing and inspired a variety of similar works.[230] These popular works were written in a discursive style, which was laid out much more clearly for the reader than the complicated articles, treatises, and books published by the academies and scientists. Charles Leadbetter's Astronomy (1727) was advertised as "a Work entirely New" that would include "short and easie [sic] Rules and Astronomical Tables."[231]
The first French introduction to Newtonianism and the Principia was Eléments de la philosophie de Newton, published by Voltaire in 1738.[232] Émilie du Châtelet's translation of the Principia, published after her death in 1756, also helped to spread Newton's theories beyond scientific academies and the university.[233] Writing for a growing female audience, Francesco Algarotti published Il Newtonianism per le dame, which was a tremendously popular work and was translated from Italian into English by Elizabeth Carter. A similar introduction to Newtonianism for women was produced by Henry Pemberton. His A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy was published by subscription. Extant records of subscribers show that women from a wide range of social standings purchased the book, indicating the growing number of scientifically inclined female readers among the middling class.[234] During the Enlightenment, women also began producing popular scientific works. Sarah Trimmer wrote a successful natural history textbook for children titled The Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature (1782), which was published for many years in eleven editions.[235]
Schools and universities
Main article: Education in the Age of Enlightenment
Most work on the Enlightenment emphasizes the ideals discussed by intellectuals, rather than the actual state of education at the time. Leading educational theorists like England's John Locke and Switzerland's Jean Jacques Rousseau both emphasized the importance of shaping young minds early. By the late Enlightenment, there was a rising demand for a more universal approach to education, particularly after the American Revolution and the French Revolution.
The predominant educational psychology from the 1750s onward, especially in northern European countries, was associationism: the notion that the mind associates or dissociates ideas through repeated routines. In addition to being conducive to Enlightenment ideologies of liberty, self-determination, and personal responsibility, it offered a practical theory of the mind that allowed teachers to transform longstanding forms of print and manuscript culture into effective graphic tools of learning for the lower and middle orders of society.[236] Children were taught to memorize facts through oral and graphic methods that originated during the Renaissance.[237]
Many of the leading universities associated with Enlightenment progressive principles were located in northern Europe, with the most renowned being the universities of Leiden, Göttingen, Halle, Montpellier, Uppsala, and Edinburgh. These universities, especially Edinburgh, produced professors whose ideas had a significant impact on Britain's North American colonies and later the American Republic. Within the natural sciences, Edinburgh's medical school also led the way in chemistry, anatomy, and pharmacology.[210] In other parts of Europe, the universities and schools of France and most of Europe were bastions of traditionalism and were not hospitable to the Enlightenment. In France, the major exception was the medical university at Montpellier.[238]
Learned academies
Louis XIV visiting the Académie des sciences in 1671: "It is widely accepted that 'modern science' arose in the Europe of the 17th century, introducing a new understanding of the natural world"—Peter Barrett[239]
Antoine Lavoisier conducting an experiment related to combustion generated by amplified sun light
The history of Academies in France during the Enlightenment begins with the Academy of Science, founded in 1635 in Paris. It was closely tied to the French state, acting as an extension of a government seriously lacking in scientists. It helped promote and organize new disciplines and it trained new scientists. It also contributed to the enhancement of scientists' social status, considering them to be the "most useful of all citizens." Academies demonstrate the rising interest in science along with its increasing secularization, as evidenced by the small number of clerics who were members (13%).[240] The presence of the French academies in the public sphere cannot be attributed to their membership, as although the majority of their members were bourgeois, the exclusive institution was only open to elite Parisian scholars. They perceived themselves as "interpreters of the sciences for the people." For example, it was with this in mind that academicians took it upon themselves to disprove the popular pseudo-science of mesmerism.[241]
The strongest contribution of the French Academies to the public sphere comes from the concours académiques (roughly translated as "academic contests") they sponsored throughout France. These academic contests were perhaps the most public of any institution during the Enlightenment.[242] The practice of contests dated back to the Middle Ages and was revived in the mid-17th century. The subject matter had previously been generally religious and/or monarchical, featuring essays, poetry, and painting. However, by roughly 1725 this subject matter had radically expanded and diversified, including "royal propaganda, philosophical battles, and critical ruminations on the social and political institutions of the Old Regime." Topics of public controversy were also discussed such as the theories of Newton and Descartes, the slave trade, women's education, and justice in France.[243] More importantly, the contests were open to all, and the enforced anonymity of each submission guaranteed that neither gender nor social rank would determine the judging. Indeed, although the "vast majority" of participants belonged to the wealthier strata of society ("the liberal arts, the clergy, the judiciary and the medical profession"), there were some cases of the popular classes submitting essays and even winning.[244] Similarly, a significant number of women participated—and won—the competitions. Of a total of 2,300 prize competitions offered in France, women won 49—perhaps a small number by modern standards but very significant in an age in which most women did not have any academic training. Indeed, the majority of the winning entries were for poetry competitions, a genre commonly stressed in women's education.[245]
In England, the Royal Society of London played a significant role in the public sphere and the spread of Enlightenment ideas. It was founded by a group of independent scientists and given a royal charter in 1662.[246] The society played a large role in spreading Robert Boyle's experimental philosophy around Europe and acted as a clearinghouse for intellectual correspondence and exchange.[247] Boyle was "a founder of the experimental world in which scientists now live and operate" and his method based knowledge on experimentation, which had to be witnessed to provide proper empirical legitimacy. This is where the Royal Society came into play: witnessing had to be a "collective act" and the Royal Society's assembly rooms were ideal locations for relatively public demonstrations.[248] However, not just any witness was considered to be credible: "Oxford professors were accounted more reliable witnesses than Oxfordshire peasants." Two factors were taken into account: a witness's knowledge in the area and a witness's "moral constitution." In other words, only civil society were considered for Boyle's public.Coffeehouses were especially important to the spread of knowledge during the Enlightenment because they created a unique environment in which people from many different walks of life gathered and shared ideas. They were frequently criticized by nobles who feared the possibility of an environment in which class and its accompanying titles and privileges were disregarded. Such an environment was especially intimidating to monarchs who derived much of their power from the disparity between classes of people. If the different classes joined together under the influence of Enlightenment thinking, they might recognize the all-encompassing oppression and abuses of their monarchs and because of the numbers of their members might be able to successfully revolt. Monarchs also resented the idea of their subjects convening as one to discuss political matters, especially matters of foreign affairs. Rulers thought political affairs were their business only, a result of their divine right to rule.[250]
Coffeeshops became homes away from home for many who sought to engage in discourse with their neighbors and discuss intriguing and thought-provoking matters, from philosophy to politics. Coffeehouses were essential to the Enlightenment, for they were centers of free-thinking and self-discovery. Although many coffeehouse patrons were scholars, many were not. Coffeehouses attracted a diverse set of people, including the educated wealthy and bourgeois as well as the lower classes. Patrons, being doctors, lawyers, merchants, represented almost all classes, so the coffeeshop environment sparked fear in those who wanted to preserve class distinction. One of the most popular critiques of the coffeehouse said that it "allowed promiscuous association among people from different rungs of the social ladder, from the artisan to the aristocrat" and was therefore compared to Noah's Ark, receiving all types of animals, clean and unclean.[251] This unique culture served as a catalyst for journalism, when Joseph Addison and Richard Steele recognized its potential as an audience. Together, Steele and Addison published The Spectator (1711), a daily publication which aimed, through fictional narrator Mr. Spectator, to both entertain and provoke discussion on serious philosophical matters.
The first English coffeehouse opened in Oxford in 1650. Brian Cowan said that Oxford coffeehouses developed into "penny universities," offering a locus of learning that was less formal than at structured institutions. These penny universities occupied a significant position in Oxford academic life, as they were frequented by those consequently referred to as the virtuosi, who conducted their research on some of the premises. According to Cowan, "the coffeehouse was a place for like-minded scholars to congregate, to read, as well as learn from and to debate with each other, but was emphatically not a university institution, and the discourse there was of a far different order than any university tutorial."[252]
The Café Procope was established in Paris in 1686, and by the 1720s there were around 400 cafés in the city. The Café Procope in particular became a center of Enlightenment, welcoming such celebrities as Voltaire and Rousseau. The Café Procope was where Diderot and D'Alembert decided to create the Encyclopédie. [253] The cafés were one of the various "nerve centers" for bruits publics, public noise or rumour. These bruits were allegedly a much better source of information than were the actual newspapers available at the time.[254]
Debating societies
Main article: London Debating Societies
The debating societies are an example of the public sphere during the Enlightenment.[255] Their origins include:
Clubs of fifty or more men who, at the beginning of the 18th century, met in pubs to discuss religious issues and affairs of state.
Mooting clubs, set up by law students to practice rhetoric.
Spouting clubs, established to help actors train for theatrical roles.
John Henley's Oratory, which mixed outrageous sermons with even more absurd questions, like "Whether Scotland be anywhere in the world?"[256]
In the late 1770s, popular debating societies began to move into more "genteel" rooms, a change which helped establish a new standard of sociability.[257] The backdrop to these developments was "an explosion of interest in the theory and practice of public elocution." The debating societies were commercial enterprises that responded to this demand, sometimes very successfully. Some societies welcomed from 800 to 1,200 spectators per night.[258]
The debating societies discussed an extremely wide range of topics. Before the Enlightenment, most intellectual debates revolved around "confessional"—that is, Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist) or Anglican issues, debated primarily to establish which bloc of faith ought to have the "monopoly of truth and a God-given title to authority." [259] After Enlightenment, everything that previously had been rooted in tradition was questioned, and often replaced by new concepts. After the second half of the 17th century and during the 18th century, a "general process of rationalization and secularization set in" and confessional disputes were reduced to a secondary status in favor of the "escalating contest between faith and incredulity." [259]
In addition to debates on religion, societies discussed issues such as politics and the role of women. However, the critical subject matter of these debates did not necessarily translate into opposition to the government; the results of the debate quite frequently upheld the status quo. [260] From a historical standpoint, one of the most important features of the debating society was their openness to the public, as women attended and even participated in almost every debating society, which were likewise open to all classes providing they could pay the entrance fee. Once inside, spectators were able to participate in a largely egalitarian form of sociability that helped spread Enlightenment ideas.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment