Ch 18 The Eighteenth Century European States International

Ch. 18 The Eighteenth Century: European States, International Wars, and Social Change Key Terms

natural laws (p. 529) • A body of laws or specific principles held to be derived from nature and binding on all human societies even in the absence of written laws governing such matters.

natural rights (p. 529) • Certain inalienable rights to which all people are entitled, including the right to life, liberty, and property; freedom of speech and religion; and equality before the law.

enlightened absolutism (p. 529) • An absolute monarchy in which the ruler followed the principles of the Enlightenment b introducing reforms for the improvement of society, allowing freedom of speech and the press, permitting religious toleration, expanding education, and ruling in accordance with the laws.

patronage (p. 531) • The practice of awarding titles and making appointments to government and other positions to gain political support.

balance of power (p. 539) • A distribution of power among several states such that no single nation can dominate or interfere with the interests of another.

reason of state (p. 539) • The principle that a nation should act on the basis of its longterm interests and not merely to further the dynastic interests of its ruling family.

primogeniture (p. 544) • An inheritance practice in which the eldest son receives all or the largest share of the parents’ estate.

infanticide (p. 544) • The practice of killing infants.

agricultural revolution (p. 544) • The application of new agricultural techniques that allowed for a large increase in productivity in the eighteenth century.

enclosure acts (p. 547) • Laws enacted in eighteenth-century Britain that allowed large landowners to enclose the old open fields, thereby combining many small holdings into larger units and forcing many small farmers to become tenant farmers or wage laborers on the large estates.

cottage industry (p. 549) • A system of textile manufacturing in which spinners and weavers worked at home in their cottages using raw materials supplied to them by capitalist entrepreneurs.

tithes (p. 551) • A portion of one’s harvest or income, paid by medieval peasants to the village church.