Netherlands VWO 5 History
Chapters: 3
1. Eras 5-7: early modern period
Era 5: Discoverers and reformers (1500-1600) · Era 6: Regents and monarchs (1600-1700) · Era 7: Wigs and revolutions (1700-1800)
- Changing Cultural Traditions: Renaissance, Reformation and Science – From the 14th to the 17th century, rich Italian trading cities led a new interest in Greek and Roman learning called humanism. Artists aimed for realism, using perspective and the study of the body; architects built great domes. Printing spread ideas. Some educated women wrote and ruled. Luther's challenge in 1517 split the Western Church into Catholic and Protestant groups, and the Catholic Church reformed itself. Copernicus, Galileo and Newton changed how people saw the universe, and sailors found sea routes to the Americas and India.
- Absolutism: When One Ruler Held All the Power – Absolutism (about 1600–1789) was a way of ruling in which one monarch held almost all power. The ruler made the laws, carried them out and was the highest judge. Rulers said their power came from God (divine right of kings), so nobody could question them. To control the country they built a standing army, hired paid officials, collected taxes everywhere and kept great nobles busy at court. Louis XIV of France, the 'Sun King', is the classic example, with his palace at Versailles. Peter the Great of Russia and the Habsburg rulers of Austria and Spain also ruled this way. Absolute rulers often followed mercantilism: sell more abroad than you buy, to bring gold home. In England and the Dutch Republic, parliaments and rich town leaders limited the ruler instead, leading to constitutional monarchy after 1689. Enlightenment ideas and the French Revolution of 1789 finally weakened absolutism.
- The Enlightenment – The Enlightenment (about 1680–1800) was a movement in Europe that said people should use reason and evidence, not only tradition, to understand the world and to run society. It grew out of the Scientific Revolution. Thinkers such as Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant and Mary Wollstonecraft argued for natural rights, separation of powers, freedom of speech and religion, and government by consent. Ideas spread through books, newspapers, salons and the Encyclopédie. Some monarchs tried reforms (enlightened absolutism); the ideas also fed the American (1776) and French (1789) revolutions and later movements everywhere, including reformers in India.
2. Historical context: Enlightenment 1650-1900
Enlightenment ideas on a fairer society (1650-1789) · Enlightenment in practice: American and French revolutions (1776-1813) · Enlightenment and political culture in Europe (1813-1900)
- The Enlightenment – The Enlightenment (about 1680–1800) was a movement in Europe that said people should use reason and evidence, not only tradition, to understand the world and to run society. It grew out of the Scientific Revolution. Thinkers such as Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant and Mary Wollstonecraft argued for natural rights, separation of powers, freedom of speech and religion, and government by consent. Ideas spread through books, newspapers, salons and the Encyclopédie. Some monarchs tried reforms (enlightened absolutism); the ideas also fed the American (1776) and French (1789) revolutions and later movements everywhere, including reformers in India.
- The Age of Revolutions (c. 1770–1850) – Between about 1770 and 1850, people in the Americas and Europe overthrew or challenged kings, colonial rulers and old privileges. New ideas of liberty, equality and rights met real problems: unfair taxes, debt, hunger and slavery. The American Revolution (1776) created a republic with a written constitution. The French Revolution (1789) ended feudal privilege and declared the rights of citizens. The wave spread to Haiti, Latin America and Europe in 1848. Kings pushed back at Vienna in 1815, but ideas of citizenship, constitutions and the nation lasted.
- Political Ideology: How People Answer the Big Questions of Politics – A political ideology is a connected set of ideas about people, society and the state, plus a plan to keep or change society. People pick up political ideas through political socialisation (family, school, friends, media, events). The words left and right come from seating in the French assembly of 1789. Core ideologies are liberalism (individual freedom and rights), conservatism (tradition, order, careful change) and socialism (equality and shared wealth). Others include feminism, ecologism, anarchism, multiculturalism and nationalism. A two-axis model (economy and freedom vs authority) shows positions better than one line. Ideologies shape party programmes, economic and social policy, and can be measured through opinion polls.
3. Rule of law, democracy and themes
History of the rule of law and parliamentary democracy · Themes (chosen by the school)
- Parliamentary Democracy – In a parliamentary democracy, citizens elect members of parliament (MPs). The party or coalition with a majority of seats forms the government; its leader becomes Prime Minister and picks a cabinet from parliament. The government stays in power only while it keeps the confidence of parliament. A head of state (monarch or president) has mostly ceremonial power, courts are independent and everyone is under the rule of law. The system grew over centuries in England (1215, 1689, the rise of cabinet, votes for all adults) and was adapted by India, Canada, Australia and many others.
- Historical Thinking: How Historians Work – History is the study of the past using evidence. Put events in order on a timeline and read them in their context. Use primary sources (made at the time) and secondary sources (made later). Judge each source: who made it, when, why, and what is missing. Events have many causes: slow long-term causes and a short trigger. Look for both change and continuity, decide what was significant, and build an argument backed by evidence.