Basic problems of political science

Humanism (15th and 16th century)

The philosophy which introduced modern times by shifting from the Church-centred preoccupation of the Middle Ages to focus on the needs and aspirations of the individual. Instead of worrying about the afterlife, people concentrated on the here and now.

Johan Gutenberg (1450)

He was the German goldsmith who developed moveable type and the printing press. Printing led to the communications revolution and encouraged individualistic thinking and initiative which is the cornerstone of today’s capitalist system.

Martin Luther (1520)

The Germans friar whose attempts to reform the Church led to the Protestant Reformation. HIs work led to a century of years of religious warfare, the permanent split within the faith and the end of the universal western church.

Ignatius Loyola (1550)

The Spanish general who founded the Jesuit Order, whose purpose was to combat the Protestant Reformation, to reform Catholic Church and to spread Roman Catholicism.

Cortez and Pizarro (1550)

the Spanish conquerors who overwhelmed the Inca and Aztec empires in the western hemisphere by using horses, steel and guns. They established the first of the great European empires which controlled the world until WW1

Mercantilism (17th and 18th centuries)

Was the economic system by which Europeans nations justified overseas empiresand regulated trade and commerce to increase national wealth

Peace of Westphalia (1640)

Concluded the Thirty Years War between Protestants and Catholics. It brought religious peace, the end of the religious wars and the emergence of the modern European state system.

Louis XIV (1700)

The Sun King of France, who centralized political power around his person. His rule marked the height of power for the Absolute Monarchy.

Copernicus (1540)

The polish astronomer/mathematician who set into motion the idea that the earth revolved around the sun. His heliocentric ideas led to the scientific method .

Scientific Method

The way of thinking which replaced medieval scholasticism and its emphasis on the religious deduction. This methodology is based on induction (observation), experimentation and deduction to arrive at a greater truth.

Glorious Revolution (1689)

led to the overflow of King James II and the supremacy of

John Locke (1700)

The political theorist whose ideas justified revolution because political sovereignty rested in the consent of the people and not in the divine right of kings. He held that all people have certain rights of life, liberty and property.

U.S Constitutional (1785)

We the people, begins the document which resulted from the American colonies independence from the British rule. It was a new republican non-Monarchical form of government, the first written set of government rules.

THIRD ESTATE

The commoners of France who in 1789 formed the National Assembly and launched the French Revolution. They overthrew the Monarchy, established the Republic and passed the Rights of Man declaring the principles of fraternity, equality and liberty.

Rights of Man 1789

This declaration guaranteed the basic freedoms and rights. Spread by the French Revolution, these rights became the standard of the western world.

Reign of Terror (1792-1793)

Represented the most radical phase of the French Revolution. Dominated by the Jacobins, who represented the lower classes, they defended their revolution by executing the King and nobles and exporting revolutionary ideals abroad through the force of the first popular citizens army

Napoleon (1799-1815)

was a general and Emperor of France. His conquests expanded French power to its greatest extent, but his defeat ended France’s European dominance. The Napoleonic Code forms the basis for many modern laws.

Concert of Europe

The loose system of national alliances which prevented the dominance of Europe by one single power after the fall of Napoleon in 1815

James Watt: 1769

was the inventor of the steam engine. This invention transformed transportation with steamships and railways and caused the Industrial Revolution to take off.

Capitalism

The economic system of risk entrepreneurs, dominated by the company, which replaced feudal manoralism. This system, based on profit and economic growth, created two new social classes, owners and workers.

Socialism

the socio-economic philosophy which sought to make industrialization more humane. It represented a communal and cooperative alternative to the profit-oriented Capitalism.

Unionism

Combinations of workers banding together to win better wages and working conditions. Initially illegal, the main weapon of the unions was the strike.