Don’t Enlighten Me Until I’ve Had My Coffee | Modern World History 17 of 30 | Study Hall

Summary

This video script explores the Age of Enlightenment, highlighting how 18th-century European merchants and intellectuals, influenced by the Scientific Revolution, sought to reshape society through reason. It discusses the philosophes' challenge to traditional religious and political authority, advocating for a government that serves its people, epitomized by the Social Contract theory. The script also touches on the role of coffeehouses as hubs for intellectual exchange, and the paradoxical impact of Enlightenment ideas, which both advanced societal progress and fueled colonialism and cultural superiority.

Takeaways

• 📚 The script introduces Study Hall courses for earning college credits and discusses the hardships of an 18th-century European merchant, including heavy taxation and the need to preserve profits.
• 💡 The idea that government should serve the people and not just tax them was revolutionary and spread rapidly, leading to the Age of Enlightenment.
• 🌍 The Enlightenment began in the late 17th century, influenced by the Little Ice Age's impact on society and the desire for social change.
• 🏛 Religion and government were closely intertwined, with rulers often using religious institutions to validate their power and vice versa.
• 🤔 The philosophes, secular intellectuals, sought to use reason and logic to improve society, challenging traditional religious authority and practices.
• 🚀 The Enlightenment was also known as the Age of Reason, emphasizing the use of reason over blind faith and superstition.
• 🛕 Deism became a popular belief among Enlightenment thinkers, positing that God created the universe but does not intervene in human affairs.
• 🏛️ The concept of the Social Contract, introduced by John Locke, suggested a mutual agreement between the government and the governed, with citizens giving up some freedoms for protection in return.
• ☕ The rise of coffeehouses in Europe provided a public space for the exchange of ideas, contributing to the spread of Enlightenment thought.
• 👥 Coffeehouses were a place where class boundaries were less strict, allowing for more open discussions among different social groups, although still limited to men of certain classes.
• 🌐 The Enlightenment's emphasis on reason and social contract influenced the formation of modern governments, including the US Constitution.
• 🏴‍☠️ However, the Enlightenment also contributed to a sense of European superiority, leading to colonialism and imperialism, with devastating effects on other cultures.

Q & A

What was the primary occupation of an 18th-century European merchant?

The primary occupation of an 18th-century European merchant was selling goods in their city.

How did the government's taxation system affect merchants during tax time?

The government's taxation system was likened to a 'smash-and-grab' on merchants' piggy banks, implying that taxes were burdensome and left them with little profit.

What was the revolutionary idea that emerged about government's role in society?

The revolutionary idea was that the government should actually serve the people who pay the taxes to keep it running, rather than just taking from them.

What era did the new ideas about government's social responsibility lead to Europe entering?

These ideas led Europe into the Age of Enlightenment, an era that began in the late 17th century and lasted about 130 years.

What was the impact of the Little Ice Age on European society?

The Little Ice Age led to poverty, disease, and war, causing great distress and desperation among the people.

How did the intertwining of religion and government affect the rulers of the time?

The intertwining of religion and government helped validate a ruler's divine right to govern and their right to expand their empire's borders, creating a mutually beneficial relationship.

Who were the secular intellectuals that sought to influence royal policies for social change?

The secular intellectuals were known as philosophes in French, who were inspired by the Scientific Revolution and believed in using reason to improve society.

What was the philosophes' view on the role of reason in society?

The philosophes believed that reason was the key to understanding and improving the world, not just relying on the Bible or church leaders' interpretations.

What was the Enlightenment movement's stance on the Church's influence on society and politics?

The Enlightenment movement believed that the Church had too much social and political influence and that it should be reduced.

What concept did Enlightenment thinkers develop regarding the relationship between governments and citizens?

They developed the concept of the Social Contract, which was a pact between rulers and society where governments provided benefits to citizens in exchange for some control over their lives.

How did the coffeehouse culture contribute to the spread of Enlightenment ideas?

Coffeehouses became public meeting points where people could share ideas freely, allowing Enlightenment ideas to spread and different perspectives to be exchanged.

What was the unintended consequence of the Enlightenment movement's emphasis on reason?

The unintended consequence was the development of a mindset of European superiority, which led to colonialism, imperial domination, and new forms of racism.

Outlines

00:00

🏛️ The Struggles of 18th-Century European Merchants and the Dawn of Enlightenment

This paragraph introduces the difficulties faced by 18th-century European merchants, who were heavily taxed and had to strategize to retain their profits. It then transitions into the emergence of new ideas about government's role in serving the people, leading to the Age of Enlightenment. The Enlightenment, spanning about 130 years from the late 17th century, was a period that transitioned Europe from the Middle Ages into a new era of thought on government and society. The narrator, Rob Fuller, sets the stage for the historical context and introduces the video's focus on Modern World History.

05:01

🌌 The Impact of the Little Ice Age and the Rise of the Enlightenment

The paragraph discusses the challenges Europe faced during the Little Ice Age, which led to poverty, disease, and war. It highlights how people turned to religion for answers, and how this influenced the intertwining of religion and government, with rulers using the Church to validate their divine right to govern. The paragraph then introduces the philosophes, secular intellectuals who sought social change through reason, inspired by the Scientific Revolution. They believed in using logic and reason to improve society, challenging traditional biblical interpretations and advocating for a government that serves the people.

10:04

☕️ The Birth of Coffeehouses and the Spread of Enlightenment Ideas

This section delves into how the Enlightenment led to the creation of the first European coffeehouses, inspired by the Ottoman Empire. Coffeehouses became public meeting points where people could exchange ideas freely, challenging class boundaries and hierarchies. They played a crucial role in spreading Enlightenment ideas, such as the Social Contract, which proposed a mutual agreement between rulers and citizens. The paragraph also touches on the global trade routes that made coffeehouses possible, the products they sold, and the labor behind them, including the exploitation of enslaved people.

🗽 The Social Contract and the Influence of Coffeehouses on Society

The paragraph focuses on the concept of the Social Contract, as proposed by John Locke, which emphasized a mutual agreement between governments and citizens. It discusses how coffeehouses served as platforms for the exchange of ideas about the news, scientific discoveries, and politics, fostering a sense of community and shared intellectual pursuit. Despite attempts by rulers like King Charles II to ban coffeehouses due to their potential as hubs for political dissent, these spaces persisted, reflecting the growing influence of Enlightenment thought and the importance of public opinion.

🌍 The Enlightenment's Legacy: Progress and the Seeds of Colonialism

The final paragraph reflects on the lasting impact of Enlightenment ideas, which shaped future governments and societal structures. It also acknowledges the darker side of the Enlightenment, where the belief in European superiority led to colonialism, imperialism, and racism. The paragraph concludes by connecting the historical developments of the Enlightenment to modern-day practices, such as voting and paying taxes, and the continued influence of coffeehouses as social spaces.

Keywords

💡Study Hall

Study Hall is an educational platform offering courses that can earn college credits. It is mentioned in the script as a place to visit for more information about the courses. The video script promotes it as a resource for learning more about the historical topics discussed in the video.

💡Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment, also known as simply the Enlightenment, was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. The video describes it as a transformative era that shifted Europe from the Middle Ages to a new period of intellectual development, characterized by the promotion of reason and the questioning of traditional authority.

💡Social Contract

The Social Contract is a concept introduced by Enlightenment thinkers, particularly John Locke, which posits that the relationship between the government and the governed is based on a mutual agreement. In the video, it is explained as a pact where governments provide benefits to citizens, who in turn grant the state some control over their lives through laws and taxes.

💡Deism

Deism is a philosophical belief that posits that God created the universe but does not intervene in its workings. The script mentions deism as a belief system that many Enlightenment thinkers adopted, moving away from doctrines and towards the idea that humans can live in an orderly universe without the need for divine intervention.

💡Philosophes

Philosophes were secular intellectuals during the Enlightenment who sought to influence royal policies and create social change. The video describes them as being inspired by the Scientific Revolution and advocating for the use of reason and logic to improve society, rather than relying solely on religious doctrine.

💡Reason

Reason, as a keyword in the script, refers to the use of logic and rational thought to understand and improve the world. It is highlighted as the driving force behind the Enlightenment movement, with thinkers believing that reason was more important than tradition or religious interpretation for societal progress.

💡Coffeehouses

Coffeehouses are depicted in the script as important social hubs during the Enlightenment. They served as public spaces where people could gather to exchange ideas, discuss news, and engage in intellectual debates. The script notes that coffeehouses were instrumental in spreading Enlightenment ideas and challenging traditional authority.

💡Colonialism

Colonialism is the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically. In the context of the video, it is mentioned as a negative outcome of the Enlightenment, where the belief in European superiority led to the domination and exploitation of other lands and cultures.

💡Divine Right

Divine Right is the idea that a monarch's power and authority are given by God and therefore cannot be questioned. The script discusses how this concept was used to validate rulers' power and their right to expand their empires, with the Church supporting this notion.

💡Revolution

Revolution, in the script, refers to the potential for drastic change in government or society when the social contract is broken. It is implied that if governments do not fulfill their part of the agreement with the people, the people have the right to instigate a revolution to establish a new ruler who will.

💡Public Sphere

The Public Sphere, as discussed in the script, refers to a space where members of a society can come together to discuss and debate matters of public concern. Coffeehouses are highlighted as the first public spheres in Europe, where Enlightenment ideas could be shared and discussed freely, challenging traditional class boundaries and hierarchies.

Highlights

Study Hall courses offer college credits, accessible through gostudyhall.com.

18th-century European merchants faced heavy taxation impacting their profits.

The idea of a government serving the people evolved during the Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment era began in the late 17th century, influencing government and society.

The Little Ice Age led to widespread poverty, disease, and war in Europe.

Religion's deep integration into daily life influenced European governments.

The philosophes, secular intellectuals, aimed to create social change through reason.

The Enlightenment valued reason over tradition and religious interpretation.

Deism, the belief in a non-interventionist God, was a significant shift from traditional doctrines.

The Social Contract theory proposed a mutual agreement between governments and citizens.

Coffeehouses emerged as public spheres for the exchange of ideas during the Enlightenment.

European coffeehouses were influenced by the Ottoman Empire and global trade.

Coffeehouses broke social class boundaries, allowing for open discussion of ideas.

The spread of Enlightenment ideas was met with resistance from authorities fearing change.

Enlightenment thought contributed to the development of modern democratic governments.

The Enlightenment also fueled European colonialism and ideas of cultural superiority.

Enlightenment ideas have had a lasting impact on global governance and societal structures.

Transcripts

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go to gostudyhall.com or click  the link in the description.

Life as an 18th-century European merchant  wasn't easy. You’d spend most of your time  

selling goods in your city, but when tax time  came around… it was like the government pulled  

a smash-and-grab on your piggy bank. So,  when you weren’t working to make sales,  

you were working to figure out how to  keep enough of your profits to live.

But then people started floating  some new ideas about the government:  

like maybe it should actually serve the  people paying the taxes to keep it running.

And that sounded pretty darn good!  This revolutionary idea spread,  

and spread fast, and before you know it,  the idea of government for the people,  

by the people had gone the  ye olde version of viral.

These new ideas about a government’s  social responsibility to its people  

ultimately took Europe out of the Middle  Ages and into the Age of Enlightenment:  

an era of about 130 years beginning in the  late 17th century, bringing about ideas that  

would shape thought about government  and society for centuries to come.

Hi, I’m Rob Fuller, and this is  Study Hall: Modern World History.

Before the late 17th century, things  in Europe were… well, a little dark.

Europe had been struggling for  years thanks to the Little Ice Age,  

which was a period of global cooling that started  

in the 14th century and wreaked havoc  on European society. It led to poverty,  

disease, and war. And when disaster struck,  people were desperate for an explanation why.

Many people turned to religion. And  this had a major effect on governments.

Because religion was so deeply interwoven  into daily life, empires had to build strong  

alliances with religious institutions. But  it’s not like this was a real sacrifice  

for them. The power of the Church helped to  validate a ruler’s divine right to govern,  

and their right to expand their empire’s  borders. Which was a pretty cushy deal. I mean,  

seriously, get a look at this throne right here.

And in return, political rulers were also expected  to support the power of the Church. There was no  

Thomas Jefferson yet to, you know, hint hint,  nudge nudge, separate that church and state.

Like you’d expect, this strategy worked  pretty well for Europe’s rich and powerful.  

They had a lot to gain. But this didn’t work  so well for a group of secular intellectuals,  

called philosophes in French, who wanted to create  real social change by influencing royal policies.

The philosophes were inspired by the recent  Scientific Revolution — specifically,  

the idea that the logic and reason people used  

to make scientific discoveries  could also make society better.

The big idea is that philosophes believed reason  was the key to understanding and improving the  

world around us, not just the Bible… or  church leaders’ interpretation of it.

By contrast, up until this point,  most early modern Europeans were  

all about biblical tradition. They valued the  practices they’d inherited from their elders,  

and their elders, and their elders, and so on.

So, these Enlightenment thinkers were  really charting their own path. They  

wanted to throw out social practices that  were useless, or downright harmful — no matter  

how long they’d been around. And they were  especially critical of unquestioning faith,  

institutionalized religion,  and superstition, which they  

believed were creating a barrier between the  people of Europe and positive social change.

In fact, reason became so important during this  

period that the Enlightenment movement  earned a nickname: The Age of Reason.

From the start, the Enlightenment movement  

thought the Church had too much  social and political influence.

For instance, Christian religious groups used  their beliefs and teachings, known as doctrines,  

to get folks to stay in their lane. Like, if God  said the world was great the way it was, you were  

in the wrong then if you thought otherwise. And  if God said you should give money to the church,  

or support the monarch of your particular  empire, well, you had to do that too.

But Enlightenment thinkers just weren’t buying  it. In fact, many turned away from doctrines,  

toward deism: the belief that God created  an orderly universe for humans to inhabit  

and live in as they chose, without  additional divine intervention.

For example, when an earthquake  devastated Portugal in 1755,  

the Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire  said that, rather than being an act of  

God meant to punish, disasters like  this happen without divine reasoning.

For these deists, the question  wasn’t reason versus religion,  

but how reason could be used to support  religion, and vice versa. And perhaps  

there wasn’t a whole lot reasonable about  supporting the religious and governmental  

systems that leave you and your merchant  neighbors struggling to make ends meet.

Ultimately, deists wanted these powerful religious  institutions to adopt practices that helped people  

find freedom through rational thought, rather  than just taking orders from God via the Church.

Enlightenment thinkers also believed that  governments themselves were tyrannical.  

Absolute monarchies like in Austria and  France, gave the king total power over… well,  

everything. And these kings aimed  to consolidate their power even  

more to build themselves up, at  the expense of their citizens.

Enlightenment thinkers wanted to change  that. They believed governments should  

create policies that benefited society  as a whole, and not just the king.

This concept in particular became known as the  Social Contract, and it went on to inspire tons of  

future governments, including the US Constitution.  According to British philosopher John Locke,  

a social contract is a pact between the rulers  and society, or the people over whom they rule.  

In this contract, governments provide benefits  to their citizens, like protecting the country  

from invasion. And in exchange, people gave  the state some control over their lives in the  

form of things like laws… and taxes. Because hey:  Those anti-invader armies had to get paid somehow.

Now, for this give-and-take to work, everyone  has to be on the same page. If the social  

contract went according to plan, everyone would  agree on the government’s responsibilities,  

and what the people owed them in return.  But if the government didn’t meet its  

end of the bargain, the people had the  right to instate a new ruler who would.

Which, as time eventually showed, would  probably involve busting out pitchforks…  

or a guillotine. Not yet, France! We’ll  get to you pretty soon, I promise!

Here’s the thing about all these new  ideas, though: For anything to catch on,  

people had to hear what these Enlightenment  thinkers were… well, thinking. And it turns out,  

there was no better place to  do that than Ye Old Starbucks.

I’ll take a Venti black coffee for Bartholomew!  Free trade and plague free, I trust.

Seriously, though. In addition to,  like, the birth of modern government,  

the Enlightenment led to the creation of  the first European coffeehouse — an idea  

they nabbed from the Ottoman Empire, where the  first coffeehouse opened in Istanbul in 1555.

The rise of the European coffeehouse was  made possible by the vast global trade  

routes established in the previous centuries. The  products sold in these cafes were traditional food  

and drink from all over the world, brought back  to Europe via their colonial footprint on the rest  

of the globe. Like coffee from Africa, chocolate  from the Americas, and tea from China and India.  

And if you pull back the curtain even farther,  these super-cheap goods were also made possible  

by the labor of countless enslaved people —  especially when it came to coffee and sugar.

These coffeehouses became crucial public meeting  points for European society. Before this point,  

there just weren’t many public spaces  where people could share ideas. I mean,  

sure, there were pubs, but their  beverages weren’t the best for  

the clear-headed exchanges of  ideas if you know what I mean.

But at a coffeehouse, you could get your  fix of caffeine while also rubbing elbows  

with people you might never meet otherwise.  And, it turns out that these cafes aren’t  

just a place to mooch free wifi and  pretend to write your dissertation.

In 17th and 18th century Europe, you couldn’t get  a lavender oat milk latte at one of these places,  

but you could exchange ideas about the  news, scientific discoveries, and politics  

with other savvy thinkers without worrying  about breaking the rules of polite society.

See, 18th-century Europe was still full  of class boundaries and hierarchies,  

even among the educated elites. But in most  coffeehouses, those rules didn’t apply so  

strictly because what happens in coffeehouses,  stays in coffeehouses. Coffeehouses were the  

first public sphere in Europe where anyone  could come to share their ideas or critiques.

“Anyone”, that is… as long as they were  still men of upper-middle class status or  

higher– the working class was stuck at home  with their Keurigs. And like other public  

spaces at this time, women weren’t allowed.  While there were notable intellectuals of  

color who hung with the coffee shop crowd,  including German thinker Anton Wilhelm Amo,  

by and large the scene still looked an  awful lot like a Connecticut country club.

Nonetheless, these public spheres  allowed Enlightenment ideas about  

society to spread. They let people with  different perspectives share ideas and solve  

problems together. Which was great for freedom  of expression, but made rulers pretty nervous.

For instance, back when the first coffeehouses  were popping up in the Ottoman Empire,  

Sultan Murad IV believed they’d become a safe  haven for opponents to the crown. So he did  

what any imperial ruler would do: He made  coffee-drinking a capital offense. which,  

if that were still in effect, I would  totally be the most wanted man in the world.

And once coffeehouses spread throughout  Europe in the 1650s, King Charles II of  

England tried to ban them, too. His dad, King  Charles I, was decapitated for treason during  

the English Civil War, so he knew what could  happen when people started talking politics.

Of course, this went about as well as you’d  think. People weren’t giving up their beloved  

caffeine– or their new public sphere for  the epiphanies they found there. Like,  

where else could they learn about science  while Isaac Newton dissected a dolphin?  

Which is something that actually  happened… and which maybe makes the  

chit-chats and study sessions at today’s  coffee shops seem a little lame. Though I  

bet the Health Department might have a few  things to say about dolphin dissections.

In any case, Charles II’s ban  led to widespread protests,  

and this angry mob had both strength  in numbers and caffeine… so, like,  

basically unstoppable. Coffeeshop owners sent  representatives to plead their case. And,  

in the end, the King lifted the ban  just two days before it was set to go  

into effect. Some even suspect the King was even  influenced by his own ministers’ love of coffee.

Now, to be fair, it’s not like these monarchs had  nothing to worry about. Besides being a place to  

exchange new and interesting ideas, coffeehouses  showed people that their opinions mattered and  

could even have weight. And ideas like the  social contract really started to catch on.

People started to think that, hey,  

maybe governments should serve everyone  after all. And if they didn’t… well,  

that implicit threat of revolution began  pushing empires to listen to the people.

Enlightenment ideas like the social contract  were contagious, and the Age of Reason took  

Europe by storm. But all this hoopla went to  Europeans’ heads, and they started to believe  

that their emphasis on reason meant they were  the most enlightened people in the entire world  

and that their culture was superior to all  other cultures. Which is…not very reasonable.

They even started to look at other empires  across the globe as templates for how not  

to govern…and then increasingly  swooped in to take over these  

lands for themselves. For “the good  of the people,” of course. And, okay,  

also because more land meant more money,  power, resources, and global domination.

So while the Enlightenment movement  showed how reason could improve society,  

it also fed into the mindset of European  superiority that enabled centuries of  

colonialism, imperial domination,  and devastating new forms of racism.

But for good and for bad, these  Enlightenment ideas were here to stay,  

and went on to shape governments for centuries  to come. So the next time you vote, pay taxes,  

or hit up your corner cafe for a matcha latte,  you’ve got these Enlightenment philosophes,  

as well as centuries of global connection,  trade, and discourse, to thank for those things.

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