Part A

Modern European History

Unit 1: The Rise of Democratic Ideas
Objectives
At the end of this unit you should be able to:
• Describe the following styles of government:
monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy, and
democracy.
• Appreciate the governing reforms introduced
by the following statesmen: Solon, Cleisthenes
and Pericles.
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1. Introduction
Power and Authority: People living in groups
recognize the need for government, or a system
for exercising authority. For much of history,
people lived under authoritarian ruler, such as
kings. With the rise of democratic ideas, people
came to demand a role in governing themselves.
Athens builds a limited democracy
• About 2000 B.C. , the Greeks established cities in
the small fertile valleys along their coastal line.
• Each city-state had its own government, a
system for controlling the society.
• The Greek city-states adopted many styles of
government.
• In some, a single person called a king or
monarch ruled in a government called a
monarchy.
• Others adopted an aristocracy, a government
ruled by a small group of noble, land-owning
families.
• As trade expanded, a new class of wealthy
merchants emerged in some cities.
• Some of these groups took power or shared it
with the nobility.
• They formed an oligarchy, a government ruled
by a few powerful people.
• Ancient Greeks claimed to be the first to have
developed democracy in a country.
• The word democracy, meaning “rule of the
people” comes from the Greek word demos,
meaning “people”, and kratos, meaning
“power.”
REVOLUTION: IN THE Glorious Revolution, the English
established the right to limit a ruler’s power. This
revolution and the Enlightenment ideas sparked a
rebellion of the American colonies against British rule. In
turn, the American Revolution spurred the French
Revolution.
CULTURAL INTERACTION: Democratic ideas developed
first in ancient Athens and later in Rome. They then
spread to England and England’s American colonies.
Eventually, democratic movement sprang up throughout
the world, inspired by the U.S Constitution.
The Legacy of Ancient Greece and Rome
• Different forms of government that existed in
ancient Greece City states; monarchy,
aristocracy, oligarchy and democracy. Can you
define them?

Building Democracy; Athens was the largest and

most powerful city-state to emerge in Greece.
• In Athens, citizens participated in government
decision-making.
• Citizens were adult male residents who enjoyed
certain rights and responsibilities.
• Each year, an assembly of citizens elected three
nobles to rule the city-state. After a year of
service, the noble became part of a larger council
of advisers.
• Around 600 B.C., Athens suffered severe
economic problems and this led to citizens
loosing their rights when they ended up as slaves.
 Reforms of Solon

• In 594 B.C, a respected statesman, passed a law

outlawing slavery based on debt and canceled the
farmer’s debt. This simple act enabled Athens to
avoid revolution or civil war.
• Solon continued with his policies of political
reforms. He established four classes of citizenship
based on wealth rather than heredity. Only the
citizens of the three higher classes were able to
hold public office.
• All adult males were citizens.
• He also created a new Council of Four Hundred.
This body prepared business for the already
existing council.
• Solon also introduced the legal concept that any
citizen could bring charges against wrongdoers.
• Although these acts increased participation in
government, Athens was still limited as a
democracy because so many people were denied
the right to participate in government business,
e.g. slaves, women and foreign residents.
 Cleisthenes Enacts more Reforms
• Beginning in 508 B.C, the Athenian leader Cleisthenes
introduced other reforms. Due to his reforms,
Cleisthenes is generally regarded as the founder of
democracy in Athens.
• He worked to make Athens a full democracy by
reorganising the assembly to balance the power of the
rich and the poor.
• He also increased the power of the assembly by allowing
all citizens to submit laws for debate and passage.
• Cleistheness then created a Council of Five Hundred.
• The Council proposed laws and counselled the
assembly.
• Council members were chosen at random
from among the citizens.
• These reforms allowed Athenian citizens to
participate in a limited democracy. However,
still only one-fifth of Athenian residents were
actual citizens.
 Greek Democracy Changes
• From 490-479 BC, the Greeks fought Persian invaders
who were attempting to conquer Greece. The Greek City
States fought side by side as allies and defeated the
Persian forces.
• Even during the war, Athenians maintained democracy
during the Persian Wars by holding public debates about
how to defend their city.
• After the defeat of the Persians, Athens continued to
develop its democracy.
• A wise and able statesman named Pericles led Athens for
32 years, from 461 to 429 B.C.
 Pericles Strengthens Democracy
• Pericles strengthened democracy Greek democracy
by increasing the number of paid public officials and
by paying jurors. This enabled poor citizens to
participate in the government. Through greater
citizens participation, Athens evolved into a direct
democracy. Can you define it?
• Democracy ended in Greece after a war between
the strongest City states of Athens and Sparta.
Macedonia, a nearby state, invaded Greece and
defeated the weakened city states.
 Greek Philosophers use reason
• During the fourth century B.C in Athens, several great
thinkers appeared. They used logic and reason to investigate
the nature of the universe, human society and morality.
• These Greek thinkers based their philosophy on the
following assumption: (1) The universe (land, sky and sea) is
put together in an orderly way and is subject to absolute
and unchanging rules; and (2 ) people can understand these
laws through logic and reason.
• These Greeks’ respect for human intelligence and the power
of reason had allowed the ideas of democracy to flourish.
• The first of these Great Greek philosophers was
Socrates. He encouraged his students to examine
their closely held belief. He used the question and
answer approach that became known as the
Socratic method.
• Socrates greatest pupil was Plato. In his famous
work, the Republic, Plato set forth his vision of a
perfectly governed society. He wanted society to be
governed not by the richest and most powerful but
by the wisest, whom he called philosopher-kings.
 Socrates

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• Plato’s student Aristotle examined the nature
of the world and of human belief, thought,
and knowledge. In Politics, he wrote, “Man is
by nature a political animal; it is his nature to
live in a state.”
Aristotle

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 Aristotle

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 Legacy of Greece
• Greece set lasting standards in government and
philosophy.
• The Greeks used reason and intelligence to discover
patterns and explanations of the world that they called
natural laws.
• The Greeks did not wish to be subject to authoritarian
rulers.
• They developed direct democracy.
• They were also the first to develop the three branches of
power; the Legislative, the executive and the Judicial
branch.
ROME DEVELOPS A REPUBLIC
• While Greece was in decline, a new civilisation
to the west was developing.
• From about 1000 to 500 B.C., the earliest
Romans battled with the Greeks and Etruscans
for the control of the Italian peninsula.
• The Romans were the victors.
 Map of ancient Latium (Latins/Romans)

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 The Roman Empire about 117 AD

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 The Greek Empire

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• From Kingdom to Republic:
• Beginning about 600 B.C. , a series of kings ruled
Rome.
• Then, in 509 B.C., a group of Roman aristocrats
overthrew a harsh king.
• They set up a new government, calling it a
republic.
• A republic is a form of government in which power
rests with citizens who have right to elect leaders
who make governmental decisions.
• It is an indirect democracy, in contrast to
direct democracy in which all citizens
participate directly in the government.
• Citizenship with voting rights was granted only
to free-born males.
• In the early republic, two groups struggled for
power:
• Patricians were aristocratic landowners who held
most of the power.
• The plebeians were common farmers, artisans, and
merchants.
• The patricians inherited their power and social
status.
• They claimed that their ancestry gave them the
authority to make laws for Rome and its people..
• The plebeians were citizens of Rome with the
right to vote.
• But they were barred by law from holding
most important government positions.
• However, plebeians’ pressure on the patricians
gained them political power.
Twelve Tables:
• An important victory for the plebeians was
forcing creation of a written law code.
• They had the laws carved on 12 tables or
tablets, and publically displayed.
• The Twelve Tables established the idea that all
free citizens had the right to protection of the
law and that laws would be fairly
administered.
Republican Government:
• The Romans established a government with
separate branches.
• Two officials called consuls commanded the
army and directed the government.
• Their term of office was only one year. The
legislative branch was made up of a senate
and two assemblies.
• The patricians made up the senate.
• It controlled foreign and financial policies and
advised the consuls.
• The two assemblies include other classes of
citizens.
Roman Law
• Rome had become a great power not only by
conquering other lands but also by bringing the
conquered peoples into its system.
• The Romans tried to created system of laws that
could be applied throughout the Roman Empire.
• They believed that laws should be based on
principles of reason and justice and should
protect citizens and their property.
• This idea applies to all people regardless of
their nationality.
• It had a great influence on the development of
democracy throughout the Western World.
Some important principles of Roman law were:
• All citizens had the right to equal treatment
under the law.
• A person was considered innocent until
proven guilty
• The burden of proof rests with the accuser
rather than the accused.
• Any law that seemed unreasonable or grossly
unfair could be set aside.
A Written Legal Code
• Another major characteristic of Roman
government was its regard for written law as
exemplified by the creation of the Twelve
Tables.
• Written laws helped establish the idea of “a
government of laws, not of men”, in which
even rulers and other powerful persons could
be held accountable for their actions.
Legacy of Rome
• Rome gave the world the idea of a republic.
• It also adopted from Greeks the notion that an
individual is a citizen in a state rather than the
subject of a ruler.
• The greatest and most lasting legacy was its
written legal code and the idea that this code
should be applied equally and impartially to all
citizens.
• Rome preserved and added to Greece’s idea
of democracy and passed on the early
democratic tradition to civilisations that
followed.
References
Beck, R. B. et all (2007). Modern World History
Patterns of Interaction, McDougal Little, USA