Historical Transformations: Ancien Régime, Liberalism, and Industrialization

Social Structure of the Ancien Régime

The Ancien Régime consisted of three social classes: the Nobility, the Clergy, and the Third Estate. The Nobility and Clergy enjoyed many privileges: legal, political, and fiscal. The Third Estate shared the common characteristic of lacking rights and privileges.

The Third Estate included:

• A small middle class of large merchants and tenants of large landholdings.
• Officials (functionaries).
• The largest groups: the urban working classes and the peasantry.

Core Principles of the Enlightenment

Although the Enlightenment was not exclusively a philosophical movement, nor did it develop at the same level or time across all European countries, it adhered to certain general principles:

• Total confidence in Reason.
• Freedom of thought and tolerance.
• Autonomy and individual freedom.
• The idea of progress.

Defining Enlightened Absolutism

Enlightened Absolutism (or Illustrated Despotism) was a political system intended to ensure that the monarch, while still the owner of the kingdom, would be subject to the law and subordinate to social utility, thereby becoming the first servant of the national community.

Key Principles of Political Liberalism

Liberalism is founded on the defense of individual rights and limitations on state power:

• Defense of civil equality and individual freedom.
• Freedom extends to the concept of religious freedom.
• Liberalism defends man against the abuses of power.
• These fundamental rights must be collected in a fundamental law called the Constitution.
• The system requires a constitution based on national sovereignty and the division of three powers: executive, judicial, and legislative.

What is the Industrial Revolution?

The term Industrial Revolution refers to the set of economic transformations based on the application of machinery in production.

Causes of the Industrial Revolution in Britain

The Industrial Revolution was driven by several interconnected factors:

• Demographic Growth: High birth rates were maintained thanks to the dynamism of agriculture and the advancement of agricultural proto-industrialization.
• Improved Food Supply: Agricultural transformations greatly improved the food supply.
• Lower Mortality: A lower incidence of mortality due to the disappearance of fevers and significant sanitary progress.

The hygienic revolution, the agricultural revolution, and the subsequent industrialization process demonstrated a clear interrelation and interdependence between demographic revolution, agricultural transformations, and the Industrial Revolution.