Reference > The Encyclopedia of World History
IV. The Early Modern Period, 1500–1800 > B. Early Modern Europe, 1479–1815 > 3. Europe, 1648–1814 > b. Intellectual Developments
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CONTENTS · SUBJECT INDEX · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD The Encyclopedia of World History. 2001.
(See 1697
)
b. Intellectual Developments
The 18th-Century Enlightenment dominated western thought, a product of the Scientific
Revolution with its emphasis on inductive reasoning and rationality. Though most intense in France,
enlightenment thought affected most parts of Europe to some degree. Enlightenment thinkers
critiqued existing government, society, and economic development. In all aspects, they
emphasized reason and frequently embraced notions of the perfectability of people and progress. Some, notably Malthus (See 1798) and Burke, rejected some notions, while in Germany some reaction against Enlightenment universality occurred in the form of cultural nationalism. In political thought, Enlightenment thinkers built upon John Locke (See 1690), arguing for a government that
rested on a contract among individuals, in some cases including women, and those established laws
which were reasonable. These ideas threatened the basis for absolutism but also encouraged notions of enlightened absolutism in which the monarch claimed to rule for the good of all based on reason. They also gave rise to a radical enlightenment whose thinkers demanded equality for men, and sometimes women, in political and economic terms. The Enlightenment thinkers were particularly influential in shaping economic policies. Many monarchs followed the dictates of mercantilism in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Mercantilists argued that the world contained a fixed-size market and that each country had to secure as large a portion of this market as possible, through tariffs and colonization. Mercantilism was gradually replaced by laissez faire capitalism. The Physiocrats stressed agricultural bases for wealth but also discouraged government intervention as counter to natural economic law. However, Adam Smith provided the most advanced formulation of this law. He argued that division of labor in an unregulated market would secure high profits and maximum prosperity for all concerned because it would be controlled by the invisible hand of commerce, that is, regulated by supply and demand. The Enlightenment interest in science and human society set the basis for formal study not only in economics, but also in political science and psychology. Among the
major thinkers of the Enlightenment were (see also individual countries):
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b. Intellectual Developments. 2001. The Encyclopedia of World History
Political: Montesquieu, L'Esprit des lois (1748); William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of
England (1765–69); Johann Gottfried Herder, Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (1784-91); Jeremy Bentham, Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789); Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790); Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man; Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792); William Godwin, Enquiry concerning Political Justice (1793).
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Social and Religious: Bishop George Berkeley, Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human
Knowledge (1710); David Hume, Treatise on Human Nature and Philosophical Essays (1739); Emanuel Swedenborg, De Nova Hierosolyma (basis for the Church of the New Jerusalem—1758); Johann P. Süssmilch, Die göttliche Ordnung in den Veränerungen des menschlichen Geschlechts aus der Geburt, dem Tode, und der Fortpflanzung desselben erwiesen, pioneering statistical and
demographic work (1761); Cesare Beccaria, Tratto dei delitti e delle pene (1764); Thomas Malthus, Essay on the Principle of Population (1798); Friedrich Schleiermacher, Reden über die Religion (1799).
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General Philosophical and Historical: Pierre Bayle, Dictionnaire historique et critique (1697);
Giambattista Vico, Principi di una scienza nuova intorno alla commune natura delle nazione (1725);
Voltaire, Lettres anglaises ou philosophiques (1734); Denis Diderot and Jean d'Alembert, ed.
L'Encylopédie (1751–72); Jean Jacques Rousseau, Le contrat social and Émile (1762); Edward
Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88); Immanuel Kant, Die
Kritik der reinen Vernunft (1781); Marie-Jean Condorcet, Tableau historique des progrès de l'esprit humain (1795).
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Economic: Richard Cantillon, Essai sur la nature du commerce en général (1755); François Quesnay, Tableau économique (1758); Pierre Dupont de Nemours, La physiocratie (1768); A. R. J. Turgot, Réflexions sur la formation des richesses (1766); Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature
and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). (See Intellectual and Religious Trends)
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The Encyclopedia of World History, Sixth edition. Peter N. Stearns, general editor. Copyright © 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Maps by Mary Reilly, copyright © 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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B. World War I, 1914-1918. 2001. The Encyclopedia of World History
Reference > The Encyclopedia of World History
VI. The World Wars and the Interwar Period, 1914–1945 > B. World War I, 1914–1918
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CONTENTS · SUBJECT INDEX · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD The Encyclopedia of World History. 2001.
(See Aug. 6 )
B. World War I, 1914–1918
Declarations of War 1914July 28 Austria on Serbia Aug. 1 Germany on Russia Aug. 3 Germany on France Aug. 4 Germany on Belgium
Great Britain on Germany Aug. 5 Montenegro on Austria Aug. 6 Austria on Russia
Serbia on Germany Aug. 8 Montenegro on Germany Aug. 12 France on Austria
Great Britain on Austria Aug. 23 Japan on Germany Aug. 25 Japan on Austria Aug. 28 Austria on Belgium Nov. 4 Russia on Turkey
Serbia on Turkey Nov. 5 Great Britain on Turkey
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B. World War I, 1914-1918. 2001. The Encyclopedia of World History
France on Turkey 1915
May 23 Italy on Austria June 3 San Marino on Austria Aug. 21 Italy on Turkey Oct. 14 Bulgaria on Serbia Oct. 15 Great Britain on Bulgaria
Montenegro on Bulgaria Oct. 16 France on Bulgaria Oct. 19 Russia on Bulgaria
Italy on Bulgaria 1916
March 9 Germany on Portugal March 15 Austria on Portugal Aug. 27 Romania on Austria Aug. 28 Italy on Germany
Germany on Romania Aug. 30 Turkey on Romania Sept. 1 Bulgaria on Romania 1917
April 6 U.S. on Germany April 7 Panama on Germany
Cuba on Germany
April 13 Bolivia severs relations with Germany April 23 Turkey severs relations with U.S.
June 27 Greece on Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, and Turkey July 22 Siam on Germany and Austria
Aug. 4 Liberia on Germany
Aug. 14 China on Germany and Austria Oct. 6 Peru severs relations with Germany Oct. 7 Uruguay severs relations with Germany Oct. 26 Brazil on Germany
Dec. 7 U.S. on Austria
Dec. 8 Ecuador severs relations with Germany Dec. 10 Panama on Austria
Dec. 16 Cuba on Austria 1918
April 23 Guatemala on Germany
May 8 Nicaragua on Germany and Austria
B. World War I, 1914-1918. 2001. The Encyclopedia of World History
May 23 Costa Rica on Germany July 12 Haiti on Germany July 19 Honduras on Germany
1. The Western Front, 1914–1915
THE WESTERN FRONT IN WORLD WAR I (MAP)
GERMAN STRATEGY was based on the Schlieffen Plan, which provided for the concentration of
the main German forces on the French front, the passage through Belgium, and a huge wheeling movement to encircle Paris. This plan required a massing of forces on the German right flank, but even before the outbreak of war the German chief of the general staff, Gen. Helmuth von Moltke (1906–Sept. 14, 1914), had transferred some divisions from the right to the left (Lorraine) wing in order to block an invasion of south Germany. The Germans concentrated about 1.5 million men organized in seven armies. On the eastern (Russian) frontier, German forces were relatively few in number and were intended merely to delay the invaders until a decisive victory could be won in the west.
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The French plan of campaign (Plan 17) had been drawn up in 1913by Gen. Joseph Joffre (chief of general staff, July 28, 1911–Dec. 12, 1916) under the influence and teaching of Gen. Ferdinand
Foch. The plan ignored the danger of a great German advance through Belgium and depended
entirely on a vigorous French offensive on the right wing and center. The French reckoned on a Russian advance in the east with about 800,000 men on the 18th day of mobilization. Britain was expected to contribute about 150,000 men.
3
1914, Aug. 4
In the night the Germans crossed the frontier of Belgium, forcing Belgian troops back to Brussels and Antwerp.
4
The French offensive (five armies) developed in the region between Mézières and Belfort, Joffre hoping for a breakthrough on either side of Metz.
5
Aug. 14–25
Battle of the Frontiers. French forces met with failure in their invasion of Lorraine. 6
Aug. 23
Battle of Mons. First contact between Germans and British resulted in the latter's retreat. 7 A German advance forced the French and British to fall back to the Marne River. The French
government moved to Bordeaux (Sept. 3–Dec. 1914). Joffre hastily formed a sixth army on his left, to outflank the German fifth army. Meanwhile Moltke, believing a decision had already been reached by August 25, detailed six corps from the second and third armies to serve on the Russian front.
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B. World War I, 1914-1918. 2001. The Encyclopedia of World History
Aug. 30
Kluck gave up his advance to the west of Paris in order to keep contact with Bülow's second army.
By September 4 Kluck realized the danger threatening him from the sixth French army before Paris. On the same day Moltke ordered Kluck and Bülow to turn southwest to meet this danger. In the course of the operation a gap was allowed to open between the first and second German armies.
9
Sept. 5–12
BATTLE OF THE MARNE. The opposing armies tried to outflank each other, resulting in a
German withdrawal west of Verdun and a cautious British and French advance.
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