Top Highlights

• civilizazation, which we define as social order promoting cultural creation; therefore it includes government, economy (agriculture, industry, commerce, finance), morality, manners, religion, art, literature, music, science, and philosophy.
• The pervading theme is the Great Debate between faith and reason.
• Faith was on the throne in this period, but reason was finding new voices in Hobbes, Locke, Newton, Bayle, Fontenelle, and Spinoza;
• WHY is it that from 1643 France exercised an almost hypnotic dominance over Western Europe, in politics till 1763, in language, literature, and art till 1815?
• One reason for French domination was manpower. France had a population of 20,000,000 in 1660, while Spain and England had 5,000,000 each, Italy 6,000,000, the Dutch Republic 2,000,000.