Hist West Educ:Modern West V3: Europe and the New World (History of Western Education)

Men of intelligence usually joined religious orders and those of intellectual, administrative or diplomatic skill could advance beyond the usual restraints of society — leading churchmen from faraway lands were accepted in local bishoprics, linking European thought across wide distances. Complexes like the Abbey of Cluny became vibrant centres with dependencies spread throughout Europe.

Ordinary people also treked vast distances on pilgrimages to express their piety and pray at the site of holy relics. Monumental abbeys and cathedrals were constructed and decorated with sculptures, hangings, mosaics and works belonging one of the greatest epochs of art and providing stark contrast to the monotonous and cramped conditions of ordinary living. Abbot Suger of the Abbey of St. Denis is considered an influential early patron of Gothic architecture and believed that love of beauty brought people closer to God: Clark calls this "the intellectual background of all the sublime works of art of the next century and in fact has remained the basis of our belief of the value of art until today".

By the year feudalism had become the dominant social, economic and political system. At the top of society was the monarch , who gave land to nobles in exchange for loyalty. The nobles gave land to vassals , who served as knights to defend their monarch or noble. Under the vassals were the peasants or serfs. The feudal system thrived as long as peasants needed protection by the nobility from invasions originating inside and outside of Europe.

So as the 11th century progressed, the feudal system declined along with the threat of invasion. In , after centuries of strained relations, the Great Schism occurred over differences in doctrine, splitting the Christian world between the Catholic Church , centered in Rome and dominant in the West, and the Orthodox Church , centered in Constantinople , capital of the Byzantine Empire.

The last pagan land in Europe was converted to Christianity with the conversion of the Baltic peoples in the High Middle Ages , bringing them into Western civilization as well. As the Medieval period progressed, the aristocratic military ideal of Chivalry and institution of knighthood based around courtesy and service to others became culturally important. Large Gothic cathedrals of extraordinary artistic and architectural intricacy were constructed throughout Europe, including Canterbury Cathedral in England, Cologne Cathedral in Germany and Chartres Cathedral in France called the "epitome of the first great awakening in European civilisation" by Kenneth Clark [11].

The period produced ever more extravagant art and architecture, but also the virtuous simplicity of such as St Francis of Assisi expressed in the Prayer of St Francis and the epic poetry of Dante 's Divine Comedy. As the Church grew more powerful and wealthy, many sought reform. The Dominican and Franciscan Orders were founded, which emphasized poverty and spirituality.

Women were in many respects excluded from political and mercantile life, however, leading churchwomen were an exception. Medieval abbesses and female superiors of monastic houses were powerful figures whose influence could rival that of male bishops and abbots: Kenneth Clark wrote that the 'Cult of the Virgin' in the early 12th century "had taught a race of tough and ruthless barbarians the virtues of tenderness and compassion".

The Crusades were originally launched in response to a call from the Byzantine Emperor for help to fight the expansion of the Turks into Anatolia. The First Crusade succeeded in its task, but at a serious cost on the home front , and the crusaders established rule over the Holy Land. However, Muslim forces reconquered the land by the 13th century, and subsequent crusades were not very successful. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly years, between and Other campaigns in Spain and Portugal the Reconquista , and Northern Crusades continued into the 15th century.

The Crusades had major far-reaching political, economic, and social impacts on Europe. They further served to alienate Eastern and Western Christendom from each other and ultimately failed to prevent the march of the Turks into Europe through the Balkans and the Caucasus. Cathedral schools began in the Early Middle Ages as centers of advanced education, some of them ultimately evolving into medieval universities. The medieval universities of Western Christendom were well-integrated across all of Western Europe, encouraged freedom of enquiry and produced a great variety of fine scholars and natural philosophers, including Robert Grosseteste of the University of Oxford , an early expositor of a systematic method of scientific experimentation; [17] and Saint Albert the Great , a pioneer of biological field research [18] The Italian University of Bologna is considered the oldest continually operating university.

Philosophy in the High Middle Ages focused on religious topics. Christian Platonism , which modified Plato's idea of the separation between the ideal world of the forms and the imperfect world of their physical manifestations to the Christian division between the imperfect body and the higher soul was at first the dominant school of thought. However, in the 12th century the works of Aristotle were reintroduced to the West, which resulted in a new school of inquiry known as scholasticism , which emphasized scientific observation.

Two important philosophers of this period were Saint Anselm and Saint Thomas Aquinas , both of whom were concerned with proving God's existence through philosophical means. The Summa Theologica by Aquinas was one of the most influential documents in medieval philosophy and Thomism continues to be studied today in philosophy classes. Theologian Peter Abelard wrote in "I must understand in order that I may believe In Normandy , the Vikings adopted French culture and language, mixed with the native population of mostly Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock and became known as the Normans.

They played a major political, military, and cultural role in medieval Europe and even the Near East. They were famed for their martial spirit and Christian piety. They quickly adopted the Romance language of the land they settled off, their dialect becoming known as Norman , an important literary language. The Duchy of Normandy , which they formed by treaty with the French crown, was one of the great large fiefs of medieval France.

The Normans are famed both for their culture, such as their unique Romanesque architecture , and their musical traditions, as well as for their military accomplishments and innovations. Norman adventurers established a kingdom in Sicily and southern Italy by conquest, and a Norman expedition on behalf of their duke led to the Norman Conquest of England. Relations between the major powers in Western society: If a monarch attempted to challenge church power, condemnation from the church could mean a total loss of support among the nobles, peasants, and other monarchs.

Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV , one of the most powerful men of the 11th century, stood three days bare-headed in the snow at Canossa in , in order to reverse his excommunication by Pope Gregory VII. As monarchies centralized their power as the Middle Ages progressed, nobles tried to maintain their own authority. His realm stretched through Southern Italy, through Germany and in , he crowned himself King of Jerusalem.

His reign saw tension and rivalry with the Papacy over control of Northern Italy. Plantagenet kings first ruled the Kingdom of England in the 12th century. Henry V left his mark with a famous victory against larger numbers at the Battle of Agincourt , while Richard the Lionheart , who had earlier distinguished himself in the Third Crusade , was later romanticised as an iconic figure in English folklore. A distinctive English culture emerged under the Plantagenets, encouraged by some of the monarchs who were patrons of the "father of English poetry", Geoffrey Chaucer.

The Gothic architecture style was popular during the time, with buildings such as Westminster Abbey remodelled in that style. King John 's sealing of the Magna Carta was influential in the development of common law and constitutional law. The Charter required the King to proclaim certain liberties, and accept that his will was not arbitrary — for example by explicitly accepting that no "freeman" non-serf could be punished except through the law of the land , a right which is still in existence today.

Political institutions such as the Parliament of England and the Model Parliament originate from the Plantagenet period, as do educational institutions including the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. From the 12th century onward inventiveness had re-asserted itself outside of the Viking north and the Islamic south of Europe. Universities flourished, mining of coal commenced, and crucial technological advances such as the lock , which enabled sail ships to reach the thriving Belgian city of Bruges via canals, and the deep sea ship guided by magnetic compass and rudder were invented.

A cooling in temperatures after about saw leaner harvests across Europe and consequent shortages of food and flax material for clothing. Famines increased and in serious famine gripped Ypres. In , the last of the Greenland Norseman abandoned their colony to the ice. From Central Asia , Mongol invasions progressed towards Europe throughout the 13th century, resulting in the vast Mongol Empire which became largest empire of history and ruled over almost half of human population and expanded through the world by The Papacy had its court at Avignon from [20] This arose from the conflict between the Papacy and the French crown.

A total of seven popes reigned at Avignon; all were French, and all were increasingly under the influence of the French crown. Europe was overwhelmed by the outbreak of bubonic plague , probably brought to Europe by the Mongols. The fleas hosted by rats carried the disease and it devastated Europe. Major cities like Paris, Hamburg, Venice and Florence lost half their population. Around 20 million people — up to a third of Europe's population — died from the plague before it receded. The plague periodically returned over coming centuries.

The war began in when the king of France laid claim to English-ruled Gascony in southern France, and the king of England claimed to be the rightful king of France. At first, the English conquered half of France and seemed likely to win the war, until the French were rallied by a peasant girl, who would later become a saint, Joan of Arc.

Although she was captured and executed by the English, the French fought on and won the war in After the war, France gained all of Normandy excluding the city of Calais , which it gained in By they had captured most of modern-day Turkey and extended their rule into Europe through the Balkans and as far as the Danube, surrounding even the fabled city of Constantinople.

Finally, in , one of Europe's greatest cities fell to the Turks. The Ottoman conquests sent refugee Greek scholars westward, contributing to the revival of the West's knowledge of the learning of Classical Antiquity. Probably the first clock in Europe was installed in a Milan church in , hinting at the dawning mechanical age. This spurred the growth of towns and cities in the West and improved the economy of Europe. This, in turn helped begin a cultural movement in the West known as the Renaissance , which began in Italy.

Italy was dominated by city-states , many of which were nominally part of the Holy Roman Empire , and were ruled by wealthy aristocrats like the Medicis , or in some cases, by the pope. The Renaissance , originating from Italy , ushered in a new age of scientific and intellectual inquiry and appreciation of ancient Greek and Roman civilizations.

The Medici became the leading family of Florence and fostered and inspired the birth of the Italian Renaissance along with other families of Italy, such as the Visconti and Sforza of Milan , the Este of Ferrara , and the Gonzaga of Mantua. Greatest artists like Brunelleschi , Botticelli , Da Vinci , Michelangelo , Giotto , Donatello , Titian and Raphael produced inspired works — their paintwork was more realistic-looking than had been created by Medieval artists and their marble statues rivalled and sometimes surpassed those of Classical Antiquity.

Michelangelo carved his masterpiece David from marble between and Humanist historian Leonardo Bruni , split the history in the antiquity, Middle Ages and modern period. Churches began being built in the Romanesque style for the first time in centuries. While art and architecture flourished in Italy and then the Netherlands, religious reformers flowered in Germany and Switzerland; printing was establishing itself in the Rhineland and navigators were embarking on extraordinary voyages of discovery from Portugal and Spain.

Around , Johannes Gutenberg developed a printing press, which allowed works of literature to spread more quickly. Secular thinkers like Machiavelli re-examined the history of Rome to draw lessons for civic governance. Theologians revisited the works of St Augustine. Important thinkers of the Renaissance in Northern Europe included the Catholic humanists Desiderius Erasmus , a Dutch theologian, and the English statesman and philosopher Thomas More , who wrote the seminal work Utopia in Humanism was an important development to emerge from the Renaissance.

It placed importance on the study of human nature and worldly topics rather than religious ones. Important humanists of the time included the writers Petrarch and Boccaccio , who wrote in both Latin as had been done in the Middle Ages, as well as the vernacular , in their case Tuscan Italian. As the calendar reached the year , Europe was blossoming — with Leonardo da Vinci painting his Mona Lisa portrait not long after Christopher Columbus reached the Americas , Amerigo Vespucci proofed that America is not a part of India and hence the new world derived from his name, the Portuguese navigator Vasco Da Gama sailed around Africa into the Indian Ocean and Michelangelo completed his paintings of Old Testament themes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome the expense of such artistic exuberance did much to spur the likes of Martin Luther in Northern Europe in their protests against the Church of Rome.

For the first time in European history, events North of the Alps and on the Atlantic Coast were taking centre stage. The most famous playwright of the era was the Englishman William Shakespeare whose sonnets and plays including Hamlet , Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth are considered some of the finest works ever written in the English language. Meanwhile, the Christian kingdoms of northern Iberia continued their centuries-long fight to reconquer the peninsula from its Muslim rulers. In , the last Islamic stronghold, Granada , fell, and Iberia was divided between the Christian kingdoms of Spain and Portugal.

Iberia's Jewish and Muslim minorities were forced to convert to Catholicism or be exiled. The Portuguese immediately looked to expand outward sending expeditions to explore the coasts of Africa and engage in trade with the mostly Muslim powers on the Indian Ocean , making Portugal wealthy. In , a Spanish expedition of Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas during an attempt to find a western route to East Asia. From the East, however, the Ottoman Turks under Suleiman the Magnificent continued their advance into the heart of Christian Europe — besieging Vienna in The 16th century saw the flowering of the Renaissance in the rest of the West.

In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth , astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus deduced that the geocentric model of the universe was incorrect, and that in fact the planets revolve around the sun. In the Netherlands, the invention of the telescope and the microscope resulted in the investigation of the universe and the microscopic world. The father of modern science Galileo and Christiaan Huygens developed more advance telescopes and used these in their scientific research.

The father of microbiology , Antonie van Leeuwenhoek pioneered the use of the microscope in the study of microbes and established microbiology as a scientific discipline. Advances in medicine and understanding of the human anatomy also increased in this time. Gerolamo Cardano partially invented several machines and introduced essential mathematics theories. In England, Sir Isaac Newton pioneered the science of physics. These events led to the so-called scientific revolution , which emphasized experimentation.

The other major movement in the West in the 16th century was the Reformation , which would profoundly change the West and end its religious unity. The Reformation began in when the Catholic monk Martin Luther wrote his 95 Theses , which denounced the wealth and corruption of the church, as well as many Catholic beliefs, including the institution of the papacy and the belief that, in addition to faith in Christ, " good works " were also necessary for salvation.

History of education - Wikipedia

Luther's beliefs eventually ended in his excommunication from the Catholic Church and the founding of a church based on his teachings: Soon other reformers emerged, and their followers became known as Protestants. In , Ducal Prussia became the first Lutheran state. In the s the Frenchman John Calvin founded a church in Geneva which forbade alcohol and dancing, and which taught God had selected those destined to be saved from the beginning of time.

His Calvinist Church gained about half of Switzerland and churches based on his teachings became dominant in the Netherlands the Dutch Reformed Church and Scotland the Presbyterian Church.

History of education

Some Englishmen felt the church was still too similar to the Catholic Church and formed the more radical Puritanism. Many other small Protestant sects were formed, including Zwinglianism , Anabaptism and Mennonism. Although they were different in many ways, Protestants generally called their religious leaders ministers instead of priests , and believed only the Bible , and not Tradition offered divine revelation.

Britain and the Dutch Republic allowed Protestant dissenters to migrate to their North American colonies — thus the future United States found its early Protestant ethos — while Protestants were forbidden to migrate to the Spanish colonies thus South America retained its Catholic hue. A more democratic organisational structure within some of the new Protestant movements — as in the Calvinists of New England — did much also to foster a democratic spirit in Britain's American colonies. Some of Luther and Calvin's criticisms were heeded: But exuberant baroque architecture and art was embraced as an affirmation of the faith and new seminaries and orders were established to lead missions to far off lands.

As princes, kings and emperors chose sides in religious debates and sought national unity, religious wars erupted throughout Europe, especially in the Holy Roman Empire. However, in , the Thirty Years' War began between Protestants and Catholics in the empire, which eventually involved neighboring countries like France. The devastating war finally ended in In the Peace of Westphalia ending the war, Lutheranism, Catholicism and Calvinism were all granted toleration in the empire. The two major centers of power in the empire after the war were Protestant Prussia in the north and Catholic Austria in the south.

The Dutch , who were ruled by the Spanish at the time, revolted and gained independence, founding a Protestant country. In the staunchly Catholic Spanish attempted to conquer Protestant England with a large fleet of ships the Spanish Armada , however a storm destroyed the fleet, bringing a famous victory to Queen Elizabeth I of England.

The defeat of the Spanish Armada associated her name forever with what is popularly viewed as one of the greatest victories in English history. The Elizabethan era is famous above all for the flourishing of English drama , led by playwrights such as William Shakespeare and for the seafaring prowess of English adventurers such as Sir Francis Drake. Her 44 years on the throne provided welcome stability and helped forge a sense of national identity.

One of her first moves as queen was to support the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor of what was to become the Church of England. By , the religious map of Europe had been redrawn: A byproduct of the Reformation was increasingly literacy as Protestant powers pursued an aim of educating more people to be able to read the Bible. From its dawn until modern times, the West had suffered invasions from Africa, Asia, and non-Western parts of Europe.

By Westerners took advantage of their new technologies, sallied forth into unknown waters, expanded their power and the Age of Discovery began, with Western explorers from seafaring nations like Portugal and Castile later Spain and later Holland, France and England setting forth from the " Old World " to chart faraway shipping routes and discover "new worlds". Rather than Asia, Columbus landed in the Bahamas , in the Caribbean. Spanish colonization followed and Europe established Western Civilization in the Americas. The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama led the first sailing expedition directly from Europe to India in , by the Atlantic and Indian oceans, opening up the possibility of trade with the East other than via perilous overland routes like the Silk Road.

Ferdinand Magellan , a Portuguese explorer working for the Spanish Crown under the Crown of Castile , led an expedition in — which became the first to sail from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean and the first to cross the Pacific. The Americas were deeply affected by European expansion, due to conquest, sickness, and introduction of new technologies and ways of life. The Spanish Conquistadors conquered most of the Caribbean islands and overran the two great New World empires: Portugal also expanded in the Americas, attempting to establish some fishing colonies in northern North America first with a relatively limited duration and conquering half of South America and calling their colony Brazil.

These Western powers were aided not only by superior technology like gunpowder , but also by Old World diseases which they inadvertently brought with them, and which wiped out large segments Amerindian population. The natives populations, called Indians by Columbus, since he originally thought he had landed in Asia but often called Amerindians by scholars today , were converted to Catholicism and adopted the language of their rulers, either Spanish or Portuguese.

They also adopted much of Western culture. Many Iberian settlers arrived, and many of them intermarried with the Amerindians resulting in a so-called Mestizo population, which became the majority of the population of Spain's American empires. The Dutch, English, and French all established colonies in the Caribbean and each established a small South American colony.

The French established two large colonies in North America, Louisiana in the center of the continent and New France in the northeast of the continent. The French were not as intrusive as the Iberians were and had relatively good relations with the Amerindians, although there were areas of relatively heavy settlement like New Orleans and Quebec. Many French missionaries were successful in converting Amerindians to Catholicism. This colony was eventually conquered by the nearby Dutch colony of New Netherland including New Amsterdam.

New Netherland itself was eventually conquered by England and renamed New York. Although England's American empire began in what is today Canada , they soon focused their attention to the south, where they established thirteen colonies on North America's Atlantic coast. The English were unique in that rather than attempting to convert the Amerindians, they simply settled their colonies with Englishmen and pushed the Amerindians off their lands.

In the Americas, it seems that only the most remote peoples managed to stave off complete assimilation by Western and Western-fashioned governments. These include some of the northern peoples i. Of these, the Quechua people , Aymara people , and Maya people are the most numerous- at around million, 2 million, and 7 million, respectively. Bolivia is the only American country with a majority Amerindian population. It involved the transfer of goods unique to one hemisphere to another. Westerners brought cattle , horses , and sheep to the New World, and from the New World Europeans received tobacco , potatoes , and bananas.

Other items becoming important in global trade were the sugarcane and cotton crops of the Americas, and the gold and silver brought from the Americas not only to Europe but elsewhere in the Old World. Much of the land of the Americas was uncultivated, and Western powers were determined to make use of it.

At the same time, tribal West African rulers were eager to trade their prisoners of war, and even members of their own tribes as slaves to the West. The West began purchasing slaves in large numbers and sending them to the Americas.

History of Western civilization

This slavery was unique in world history for several reasons. Firstly, since only black Africans were enslaved, a racial component entered into Western slavery which had not existed in any other society to the extent it did in the West. Unlike in some other cultures, slaves in the West were used primarily as field workers. Many Westerners did eventually come to question the morality of slavery. This early anti-slavery movement, mostly among clergy and political thinkers, was countered by pro-slavery forces by the introduction of the idea that blacks were inferior to European whites, mostly because they were non-Christians, and therefore it was acceptable to treat them without dignity.

They also converted to Christianity. After trading with African rulers for some time, Westerners began establishing colonies in Africa. They also established relations with the Kingdom of Kongo in central Africa before, and eventually the Kongolese converted to Catholicism. The Dutch established colonies in modern-day South Africa , which attracted many Dutch settlers. Western powers also established colonies in West Africa. However, most of the continent remained unknown to Westerners and their colonies were restricted to Africa's coasts. Westerners also expanded in Asia.

During this time, the Dutch began their colonisation of the Indonesian archipelago, which became the Dutch East Indies in the early 19th century, and gained port cities in Sri Lanka and Malaysia and India. Spain conquered the Philippines and converted the inhabitants to Catholicism. Missionaries from Iberia including some from Italy and France gained many converts in Japan until Christianity was outlawed by Japan's emperor. Some Chinese also became Christian, although most did not.

Most of India was divided up between England and France. As Western powers expanded they competed for land and resources. In the Caribbean , pirates attacked each other and the navies and colonial cities of countries, in hopes of stealing gold and other valuables from a ship or city. This was sometimes supported by governments. Between and , the three Anglo-Dutch wars were fought, of which the last two were won by the Dutch. It involved several powers fighting on several continents. In Europe Prussia defeated Austria.

When the war ended in , New France and eastern Louisiana were ceded to England, while western Louisiana was given to Spain. France's lands in India were ceded to England. Prussia was given rule over more territory in what is today Germany. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon had been the first documented Westerner to land in Australia in [23] [24] [25] Another Dutchman, Abel Tasman later touched mainland Australia, and mapped Tasmania and New Zealand for the first time, in the s. The English navigator James Cook became first to map the east coast of Australia in Cook's extraordinary seamanship greatly expanded European awareness of far shores and oceans: Europe's period of expansion in early modern times greatly changed the world.

New crops from the Americas improved European diets. This, combined with an improved economy thanks to Europe's new network of colonies, led to a demographic revolution in the West, with infant mortality dropping, and Europeans getting married younger and having more children. The West became more sophisticated economically, adopting Mercantilism , in which companies were state-owned and colonies existed for the good of the mother country. The West in the early modern era went through great changes as the traditional balance between monarchy, nobility and clergy shifted.

With the feudal system all but gone, nobles lost their traditional source of power. Meanwhile, in Protestant countries, the church was now often headed by a monarch , while in Catholic countries, conflicts between monarchs and the Church rarely occurred and monarchs were able to wield greater power than they ever had in Western history. At the opening of the 15th century, tensions were still going on between Islam and Christianity.

Europe, dominated by Christians, remained under threat from the Muslim Ottoman Turks. The Turks had migrated from central to western Asia and converted to Islam years earlier. Their capture of Constantinople in , thus extinguishing the Eastern Roman Empire , was a crowning achievement for the new Ottoman Empire. Under the leadership of the Spanish, a Christian coalition destroyed the Ottoman navy at the battle of Lepanto in ending their naval control of the Mediterranean. However, the Ottoman threat to Europe was not ended until a Polish led coalition defeated the Ottoman at the Battle of Vienna in The 16th century is often called Spain's Siglo de Oro golden century.

From its colonies in the Americas it gained large quantities of gold and silver, which helped make Spain the richest and most powerful country in the world. His attempt to unite these lands was thwarted by the divisions caused by the Reformation and ambitions of local rulers and rival rulers from other countries.

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Another great monarch was Philip II — , whose reign was marked by several Reformation conflicts, like the loss of the Netherlands and the Spanish Armada. These events and an excess of spending would lead to a great decline in Spanish power and influence by the 17th century.

After Spain began to decline in the 17th century, the Dutch, by virtue of its sailing ships, became the greatest world power, leading the 17th century to be called the Dutch Golden Age. The Dutch followed Portugal and Spain in establishing an overseas colonial empire — often under the corporate colonialism model of the East India and West India Companies.

After the Anglo-Dutch Wars, France and England emerged as the two greatest powers in the 18th century. Louis XIV became king of France in His reign was one of the most opulent in European history. He built a large palace in the town of Versailles. In the north of the empire, Prussia emerged as a powerful Protestant nation. Under many gifted rulers, like King Frederick the Great , Prussia expanded its power and defeated its rival Austria many times in war.

Ruled by the Habsburg dynasty, Austria became a great empire, expanding at the expense of the Ottoman Empire and Hungary. One land where absolutism did not take hold was England, which had trouble with revolutionaries. James's son, Charles I resisted the power of Parliament. When Charles attempted to shut down Parliament, the Parliamentarians rose up and soon the all of England was involved in a civil war. Parliament declared a kingless commonwealth but soon appointed the anti-absolutist leader and staunch Puritan Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector.

Cromwell enacted many unpopular Puritan religious laws in England, like outlawing alcohol and theaters, although religious diversity may have grown. After his death, the monarchy was restored under Charles's son, who was crowned Charles II. His son, James II succeeded him. James and his infant son were Catholics. Not wanting to be ruled by a Catholic dynasty, Parliament invited James's daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange , to rule as co-monarchs. They agreed on the condition James would not be harmed. Realizing he could not count on the Protestant English army to defend him, he abdicated following the Glorious Revolution of Before William III and Mary II were crowned however, Parliament forced them to sign the English Bill of Rights , which guaranteed some basic rights to all Englishmen , granted religious freedom to non-Anglican Protestants, and firmly established the rights of Parliament.

In , the Act of Union of were passed by the parliaments of Scotland and England , merging Scotland and England into a single Kingdom of Great Britain , with a single parliament. This new kingdom also controlled Ireland which had previously been conquered by England. Ruled by the Protestant Ascendancy , Ireland eventually became an English-speaking land, though the majority population preserved distinct cultural and religious outlooks, remaining predomininantly Catholic except in parts of Ulster and Dublin.

By then, the British experience had already contributed to the American Revolution. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was an important European center for the development of modern social and political ideas. It was famous for its rare quasi-democratic political system, praised by philosophers such as Erasmus ; and, during the Counter-Reformation , was known for near-unparalleled religious tolerance, with peacefully coexisting Catholic, Jewish, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant and Muslim communities.

The Komisja Edukacji Narodowej , Polish for Commission of National Education , formed in , was the world's first national Ministry of Education and an important achievement of the Polish Enlightenment. The intellectual movement called the Age of Enlightenment began in this period as well.

Its proponents opposed the absolute rule of the monarchs, and instead emphasized the equality of all individuals and the idea that governments should derive their existence from the consent of the governed. Enlightenment thinkers called philosophes French for philosophers idealized Europe's classical heritage. They looked at Athenian democracy and the Roman republic as ideal governments. They believed reason held the key to creating an ideal society. In his works, Descartes was concerned with using reason to prove his own existence and the existence of the external world, including God.

Another belief system became popular among philosophes, Deism , which taught that a single god had created but did not interfere with the world. This belief system never gained popular support and largely died out by the early 19th century. Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy. His book Leviathan established the foundation for most of Western political philosophy from the perspective of social contract theory. Social contract arguments examine the appropriate relationship between government and the governed and posit that individuals unite into political societies by a process of mutual consent, agreeing to abide by common rules and accept corresponding duties to protect themselves and one another from violence and other kinds of harm.

In John Locke wrote that people have certain natural rights like life, liberty and property and that governments were created in order to protect these rights. If they did not, according to Locke, the people had a right to overthrow their government. The French philosopher Voltaire criticized the monarchy and the Church for what he saw as hypocrisy and for their persecution of people of other faiths. Another Frenchman, Montesquieu , advocated division of government into executive, legislative and judicial branches. The French author Rousseau stated in his works that society corrupted individuals.

Many monarchs were affected by these ideas, and they became known to history as the enlightened despots. However, most only supported Enlightenment ideas that strengthened their own power. The Scottish Enlightenment was a period in 18th century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. Scotland reaped the benefits of establishing Europe's first public education system and a growth in trade which followed the Act of Union with England of and expansion of the British Empire.

Adam Smith developed and published The Wealth of Nations , the first work in modern economics. He believed competition and private enterprise could increase the common good. The celebrated bard Robert Burns is still widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland. European cities like Paris , London , and Vienna grew into large metropolises in early modern times.

France became the cultural center of the West. The middle class grew even more influential and wealthy. Great artists of this period included El Greco , Rembrandt , and Caravaggio. By this time, many around the world wondered how the West had become so advanced, for example, the Orthodox Christian Russians , who came to power after conquering the Mongols that had conquered Kiev in the Middle Ages.

They began westernizing under Czar Peter the Great , although Russia remained uniquely part of its own civilization. The late 18th century and early 19th century, much of the West experienced a series of revolutions that would change the course of history, resulting in new ideologies and changes in society. The first of these revolutions began in North America. Britain's 13 American colonies had by this time developed their own sophisticated economy and culture, largely based on Britain's.

The majority of the population was of British descent, while significant minorities included people of Irish , Dutch and German descent, as well as some Amerindians and many black slaves. Most of the population was Anglican , others were Congregationalist or Puritan , while minorities included other Protestant churches like the Society of Friends and the Lutherans, as well as some Roman Catholics and Jews.

The colonies had their own great cities and universities and continually welcomed new immigrants, mostly from Britain. After the expensive Seven Years' War , Britain needed to raise revenue, and felt the colonists should bare the brunt of the new taxation it felt was necessary. The colonists greatly resented these taxes and protested the fact they could be taxed by Britain but had no representation in the government.

After Britain's King George III refused to seriously consider colonial grievances raised at the first Continental Congress , some colonists took up arms. Leaders of a new pro-independence movement were influenced by Enlightenment ideals and hoped to bring an ideal nation into existence. On 4 July , the colonies declared independence with the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence. Drafted primarily by Thomas Jefferson , the document's preamble eloquently outlines the principles of governance that would come to increasingly dominate Western thinking over the ensuing century and a half:.

George Washington led the new Continental Army against the British forces, who had many successes early in this American Revolution. After years of fighting, the colonists formed an alliance with France and defeated the British at Yorktown, Virginia in The treaty ending the war granted independence to the colonies, which became The United States of America. The other major Western revolution at the turn of the 19th century was the French Revolution.

In France faced an economical crisis. The King called, for the first time in more than two centuries, the Estates General , an assembly of representatives of each estate of the kingdom: As the French society was gained by the same Enlightenment ideals that led to the American revolution, in which many Frenchmen, such as Lafayette, took part; representatives of the Third Estate, joined by some representatives of the lower clergy, created the National Assembly , which, unlike the Estates General, provided the common people of France with a voice proportionate to their numbers.

The people of Paris feared the King would try to stop the work of the National Assembly and Paris was soon consumed with riots, anarchy, and widespread looting. The mobs soon had the support of the French Guard, including arms and trained soldiers, because the royal leadership essentially abandoned the city. On the fourteenth of July a mob stormed the Bastille , a prison fortress, which led the King to accept the changes. On 4 August the National Constituent Assembly abolished feudalism sweeping away both the seigneurial rights of the Second Estate and the tithes gathered by the First Estate.

It was the first time in Europe, where feudalism was the norm for centuries, that such a thing happened. In the course of a few hours, nobles, clergy, towns, provinces, companies, and cities lost their special privileges. At first, the revolution seemed to be turning France into a constitutional monarchy , but the other continental Europe powers feared a spread of the revolutionary ideals and eventually went to war with France. The Imperial and Prussian armies threatened retaliation on the French population should it resist their advance or the reinstatement of the monarchy.

As a consequence, King Louis was seen as conspiring with the enemies of France. His execution on 21 January led to more wars with other European countries. During this period France effectively became a dictatorship after the parliamentary coup of the radical leaders, the Jacobin. Their leader, Robespierre oversaw the Reign of Terror , in which thousands of people deemed disloyal to the republic were executed. Finally, in , Robespierre himself was arrested and executed, and more moderate deputies took power.

This led to a new government, the French Directory. In , a coup overthrew the Directory and General Napoleon Bonaparte seized power as dictator and even an emperor in It remains another iconic motto of the aspirations of Western governance in the modern world. Some influential intellectuals came to reject the excesses of the revolutionary movement. Political theorist Edmund Burke had supported the American Revolution, but turned against the French Revolution and developed a political theory which opposed governing based on abstract ideas, and preferred 'organic' reform.

He is remembered as a father of modern Anglo- conservatism. In response to such critiques, the American revolutionary Thomas Paine published his book The Rights of Man in as a defence of the ideals of the French Revolution. The spirit of the age also produced early works of feminist philosophy — notably Mary Wollstonecraft 's book: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. The Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts involving Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from to As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of , they revolutionized European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to the application of modern mass conscription.

French power rose quickly, conquering most of Europe, but collapsed rapidly after France's disastrous invasion of Russia in Napoleon's empire ultimately suffered complete military defeat resulting in the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France. The wars resulted in the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and sowed the seeds of nascent nationalism in Germany and Italy that would lead to the two nations' consolidation later in the century.

Meanwhile, the Spanish Empire began to unravel as French occupation of Spain weakened Spain's hold over its colonies, providing an opening for nationalist revolutions in Spanish America. As a direct result of the Napoleonic wars, the British Empire became the foremost world power for the next century, [32] thus beginning Pax Britannica. France had to fight on multiple battlefronts against the other European powers. A nationwide conscription was voted to reinforce the old royal army made of noble officers and professional soldiers.

With this new kind of army, Napoleon was able to beat the European allies and dominate Europe. The revolutionary ideals, based no more on feudalism but on the concept of a sovereign nation, spread all over Europe. When Napoleon eventually lost and the monarchy reinstated in France these ideals survived and led to the revolutionary waves of the 19th century that bring democracy in many European countries. With the success of the American Revolution, the Spanish Empire also began to crumble as their American colonies sought independence as well. As this process led to open conflicts between independentists and loyalists , the Spanish American Independence Wars immediately ensued; resulting, by the s, in the definitive loss for the Spanish Empire of all its American territories, with the exception of Cuba and Puerto Rico.

The years following Britain's victory in the Napoleonic Wars were a period of expansion for the United Kingdom and its former American colonies, which now made up the United States. This period of expansion would help establish Anglicanism as the dominant religion, English as the dominant language, and English and Anglo-American culture as the dominant culture of two continents and many other lands outside the British Isles. Possibly the greatest change in the English-speaking world and the West as a whole following the Napoleonic Wars was the Industrial Revolution.

The revolution began in Britain, where Thomas Newcomen developed a steam engine in to pump seeping water out of mines. This engine at first was powered by water, but later other fuels like coal and wood were used.

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Steam power had first been developed by the Ancient Greeks, [ citation needed ] but it was the British that first learned to use steam power effectively. In , the first steam powered railroad locomotive was developed in Britain, which allowed goods and people to be transported at faster speeds than ever before in history.

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Soon, large numbers of goods were being produced in factories. This resulted in great societal changes, and many people settled in the cities where the factories were located. Factory work could often be brutal. With no safety regulations, people became sick from contaminants in the air in textile mills for, example. Many workers were also horribly maimed by dangerous factory machinery. Since workers relied only on their small wages for sustenance, entire families were forced to work, including children. These and other problems caused by industrialism resulted in some reforms by the midth century.

The economic model of the West also began to change, with mercantilism being replaced by capitalism , in which companies, and later, large corporations , were run by individual investor s. New ideological movements began as a result of the Industrial Revolution, including the Luddite movement, which opposed machinery, feeling it did not benefit the common good , and the socialists , whose beliefs usually included the elimination of private property and the sharing of industrial wealth.

Unions were founded among industrial workers to help secure better wages and rights. Another result of the revolution was a change in societal hierarchy, especially in Europe, where nobility still occupied a high level on the social ladder. Capitalists emerged as a new powerful group, with educated professionals like doctors and lawyers under them, and the various industrial workers at the bottom.

These changes were often slow however, with Western society as a whole remaining primarily agricultural for decades. The Industrial Revolution had begun in Britain and during the 19th century it became the most powerful Western nation. Britain also enjoyed relative peace and stability from until , this period is often called the Pax Britannica , from the Latin "British Peace".

This period also saw the evolution of British constitutional monarchy , with the monarch being more a figurehead and symbol of national identity than actual head of state, with that role being taken over by the Prime Minister , the leader of the ruling party in Parliament. Two dominant parties emerging in Parliament in this time were the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party. The Liberal constituency was made up of mostly of businessmen, as many Liberals supported the idea of a free market.

Conservatives were supported by the aristocracy and farmers. Control of Parliament switched between the parties over the 19th century, but overall the century was a period of reform. In more representation was granted to new industrial cities, and laws barring Catholics from serving in Parliament were repealed, although discrimination against Catholics, especially Irish Catholics, continued.

Other reforms granted near universal manhood suffrage , and state-supported elementary education for all Britons. More rights were granted to workers as well. Ireland had been ruled from London since the Middle Ages. After the Protestant Reformation the British Establishment began a campaign of discrimination against Roman Catholic and Presbyterian Irish, who lacked many rights under the Penal Laws , and the majority the agricultural land was owned the Protestant Ascendancy.

Throughout the 19th century, Britain's power grew enormously and the sun quite literally "never set" on the British Empire, for it had outposts on every occupied continent. All of India was under British rule by Many Britons settled in India, establishing a ruling class. They then expanded into neighbouring Burma. In the Far East, Britain went to war with the ruling Qing Dynasty of China when it tried to stop Britain from selling the dangerous drug opium to the Chinese people.

The First Opium War — , ended in a British victory, and China was forced to remove barriers to British trade and cede several ports and the island of Hong Kong to Britain. Soon, other powers sought these same privileges with China and China was forced to agree, ending Chinese isolation from the rest of the world. In an American expedition opened up Japan to trade with first the U. In Britain outlawed slavery throughout its empire after a successful campaign by abolitionists , and Britain had a great deal of success attempting to get other powers to outlaw the practice as well.

As British settlement of southern Africa continued, the descendants of the Dutch in southern Africa, called the Boers or Afrikaners , whom Britain had ruled since the Anglo-Dutch Wars , migrated northward, disliking British rule. Explorers and missionaries like David Livingstone became national heroes.

Joined by mostly British colonists, they helped establish early colonies like Ontario and New Brunswick. British settlement in North America increased, and soon there were several colonies both north and west of the early ones in the northeast of the continent, these new ones included British Columbia and Prince Edward Island. Rebellions broke out against British rule in , but Britain appeased the rebels' supporters in by confederating the colonies into the Dominion of Canada , with its own Prime Minister.

Although Canada was still firmly within the British Empire, its people now enjoyed a great degree of self-rule. Canada was unique in the British Empire in that it had a French-speaking province, Quebec , which Britain had gained rule over in the Seven Years' War. These convicts were often petty 'criminals', and represented the population spill-over of Britain's Industrial Revolution , as a result of the rapid urbanisation and dire crowding of British cities.

Other convicts were political dissidents, particularly from Ireland. The establishment of a wool industry and the enlightened governorship of Lachlan Macquarie were instrumental in transforming New South Wales from a notorious prison outpost into a budding civil society. Further colonies were established around the perimeter of the continent and European explorers ventured deep inland.

A free colony was established at South Australia in with a vision for a province of the British Empire with political and religious freedoms. With illiteracy common for most people at the time, the oral tradition of reciting the classic ensured its popularity and survival through the centuries. With the short and simple text arranged in three-character verses, children learned many common characters, grammar structures, elements of Chinese history and the basis of Confucian morality.

After learning Chinese characters, students wishing to ascend in the social hierarchy needed to study the Chinese classic texts. The early Chinese state depended upon literate, educated officials for operation of the empire. In AD, during the Sui dynasty , for the first time, an examination system was explicitly instituted for a category of local talents. The merit-based imperial examination system for evaluating and selecting officials gave rise to schools that taught the Chinese classic texts and continued in use for 1, years, until the end the Qing dynasty , being abolished in in favour of Western education methods.

The core of the curriculum for the imperial civil service examinations from the midth century onwards was the Four Books , representing a foundational introduction to Confucianism. Theoretically, any male adult in China, regardless of his wealth or social status, could become a high-ranking government official by passing the imperial examination, although under some dynasties members of the merchant class were excluded.

In reality, since the process of studying for the examination tended to be time-consuming and costly if tutors were hired , most of the candidates came from the numerically small but relatively wealthy land-owning gentry. However, there are vast numbers of examples in Chinese history in which individuals moved from a low social status to political prominence through success in imperial examination. Under some dynasties the imperial examinations were abolished and official posts were simply sold, which increased corruption and reduced morale.

In the period preceding — AD, prefectural schools had been neglected by the state and left to the devices of wealthy patrons who provided private finances. Each university specialized in a particular field of study. Takshila specialized in the study of medicine, while Ujjain laid emphasis on astronomy. Nalanda, being the biggest centre, handled all branches of knowledge, and housed up to 10, students at its peak.

Indigenous education was widespread in India in the 18th century, with a school for every temple, mosque or village in most regions of the country. The schools were attended by students representative of all classes of society. The history of education in Japan dates back at least to the 6th century, when Chinese learning was introduced at the Yamato court. Foreign civilizations have often provided new ideas for the development of Japan's own culture.

Chinese teachings and ideas flowed into Japan from the sixth to the 9th century. Along with the introduction of Buddhism came the Chinese system of writing and its literary tradition , and Confucianism. By the 9th century, Heian-kyo today's Kyoto , the imperial capital, had five institutions of higher learning, and during the remainder of the Heian period , other schools were established by the nobility and the imperial court. During the medieval period , Zen Buddhist monasteries were especially important centers of learning, and the Ashikaga School, Ashikaga Gakko , flourished in the 15th century as a center of higher learning.

Aztec is a term used to refer to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico , particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who achieved political and military dominance over large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology. At 15, all boys and girls went to school. The Mexica, one of the Aztec groups, were one of the first people in the world to have mandatory education for nearly all children, regardless of gender, rank, or station [ citation needed ].

There were two types of schools: The two institutions seem to be common to the Nahua people, leading some experts to suggest that they are older than the Aztec culture. Aztec teachers tlatimine propounded a spartan regime of education with the purpose of forming a stoical people. Girls were educated in the crafts of home and child raising. They were not taught to read or write. All women were taught to be involved in religion; there are paintings of women presiding over religious ceremonies, but there are no references to female priests. Inca education during the time of the Inca Empire in the 15th and 16th centuries was divided into two principal spheres: The royal classes and a few specially chosen individuals from the provinces of the Empire were formally educated by the Amautas wise men , while the general population learned knowledge and skills from their immediate forebears.

The Amautas constituted a special class of wise men similar to the bards of Great Britain. They included illustrious philosophers , poets , and priests who kept the oral histories of the Incas alive by imparting the knowledge of their culture, history, customs and traditions throughout the kingdom.

Considered the most highly educated and respected men in the Empire, the Amautas were largely entrusted with educating those of royal blood, as well as other young members of conquered cultures specially chosen to administer the regions. Thus, education throughout the territories of the Incas was socially discriminatory, most people not receiving the formal education that royalty received. The official language of the empire was Quechua , although dozens if not hundreds of local languages were spoken. The Amautas did ensure that the general population learn Quechua as the language of the Empire, much in the same way the Romans promoted Latin throughout Europe ; however, this was done more for political reasons than educational ones.

Modern systems of education in Europe derive their origins from the schools of the High Middle Ages. Most schools during this era were founded upon religious principles with the primary purpose of training the clergy. Many of the earliest universities, such as the University of Paris founded in , had a Christian basis. In addition to this, a number of secular universities existed, such as the University of Bologna , founded in Free education for the poor was officially mandated by the Church in when it decreed that every cathedral must assign a master to teach boys too poor to pay the regular fee; [62] parishes and monasteries also established free schools teaching at least basic literary skills.

With few exceptions, priests and brothers taught locally, and their salaries were frequently subsidized by towns. Private, independent schools reappeared in medieval Europe during this time, but they, too, were religious in nature and mission. In northern Europe this clerical education was largely superseded by forms of elementary schooling following the Reformation.

In Scotland , for instance, the national Church of Scotland set out a programme for spiritual reform in January setting the principle of a school teacher for every parish church and free education for the poor. This was provided for by an Act of the Parliament of Scotland , passed in , which introduced a tax to pay for this programme. Although few countries of the period had such extensive systems of education, the period between the 16th and 18th centuries saw education become significantly more widespread.

Herbart developed a system of pedagogy widely used in German-speaking areas. Mass compulsory schooling started in Prussia c to "produce more soldiers and more obedient citizens". In Central Europe , the 17th century scientist and educator John Amos Comenius promulgated a reformed system of universal education that was widely used in Europe. He proposed to educate young Russians of both sexes in state boarding schools, aimed at creating "a new race of men". Betskoy set forth a number of arguments for general education of children rather than specialized one: Poland established in of a Commission of National Education Polish: Komisja Edukacji Narodowej , Lithuanian: The commission functioned as the first government Ministry of Education in a European country.

By the 18th century, universities published academic journals ; by the 19th century, the German and the French university models were established. The French established the Ecole Polytechnique in by the mathematician Gaspard Monge during the French Revolution, and it became a military academy under Napoleon I in In the 19th and 20th centuries, the universities concentrated upon science, and served an upper class clientele. Science, mathematics, theology, philosophy, and ancient history comprised the typical curriculum.

Increasing academic interest in education led to analysis of teaching methods and in the s the establishment of the first chair of pedagogy at the University of Halle in Germany. Contributions to the study of education elsewhere in Europe included the work of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi in Switzerland and Joseph Lancaster in Britain. In , a groundbreaking education conference was held in London at the International Health Exhibition , attracting specialists from all over Europe. In the late 19th century, most of West, Central, and parts of East Europe began to provide elementary education in reading, writing, and arithmetic, partly because politicians believed that education was needed for orderly political behavior.

As more people became literate, they realized that most secondary education was only open to those who could afford it. Having created primary education, the major nations had to give further attention to secondary education by the time of World War I. In the 20th century, new directions in education included, in Italy, Maria Montessori 's Montessori schools ; and in Germany, Rudolf Steiner 's development of Waldorf education.

France had many small local schools where working-class children — both boys and girls — learned to read, the better to know, love and serve God. The sons and daughters of the noble and bourgeois elites, however, were given quite distinct educations: The Enlightenment challenged this old ideal, but no real alternative presented itself for female education. Only through education at home were knowledgeable women formed, usually to the sole end of dazzling their salons.

The modern era of French education begins in the s. The Revolution in the s abolished the traditional universities [71] Napoleon sought to replace them with new institutions, the Polytechnique, focused on technology. The goal was to break the hold of the Catholic Church and monarchism on young people. Catholic schools were still tolerated but in the early 20th century the religious orders sponsoring them were shut down.

In , John Pounds set up a school and began teaching poor children reading, writing, and mathematics without charging fees. In , Samuel Wilderspin opened the first infant school in Spitalfield. In August , Parliament voted to sum money to support poor children's school fees in England and Wales. Japan isolated itself from the rest of the world in the year under the Tokugawa regime — In very few common people were literate. By the period's end, learning had become widespread. Tokugawa education left a valuable legacy: Traditional Samurai curricula for elites stressed morality and the martial arts.

Confucian classics were memorized, and reading and recitation of them were common methods of study. Arithmetic and calligraphy were also studied. Education of commoners was generally practically oriented, providing basic 3-Rs, calligraphy and use of the abacus. Much of this education was conducted in so-called temple schools terakoya , derived from earlier Buddhist schools.

These schools were no longer religious institutions, nor were they, by , predominantly located in temples. By the end of the Tokugawa period, there were more than 11, such schools, attended by , students.



Teaching techniques included reading from various textbooks, memorizing, abacus, and repeatedly copying Chinese characters and Japanese script. These rates were comparable to major European nations at the time apart from Germany, which had compulsory schooling. After reformers set Japan on a rapid course of modernization , with a public education system like that of Western Europe.

Missions like the Iwakura mission were sent abroad to study the education systems of leading Western countries. They returned with the ideas of decentralization, local school boards , and teacher autonomy. Elementary school enrollments climbed from about 40 or 50 percent of the school-age population in the s to more than 90 percent by , despite strong public protest, especially against school fees.

A modern concept of childhood emerged in Japan after as part of its engagement with the West. Meiji era leaders decided the nation-state had the primary role in mobilizing individuals - and children - in service of the state. The Western-style school became the agent to reach that goal. By the s, schools were generating new sensibilities regarding childhood. They taught the upper middle class a model of childhood that included children having their own space where they read children's books, played with educational toys and, especially, devoted enormous time to school homework.

These ideas rapidly disseminated through all social classes [78] [79]. After school textbooks based on Confucianism were replaced by westernized texts. However, by the s, a reaction set in and a more authoritarian approach was imposed. Traditional Confucian and Shinto precepts were again stressed, especially those concerning the hierarchical nature of human relations, service to the new state, the pursuit of learning, and morality.

These ideals, embodied in the Imperial Rescript on Education , along with highly centralized government control over education, largely guided Japanese education until , when they were massively repudiated. Education was widespread for elite young men in the 18th century, with schools in most regions of the country. The current system of education, with its western style and content, was introduced and founded by the British during the British Raj , following recommendations by Lord Macaulay , who advocated for the teaching of English in schools and the formation of a class of Anglicized Indian interpreters.

Public education expenditures in the late 19th and early 20th centuries varied dramatically across regions with the western and southern provinces spending three to four times as much as the eastern provinces. Much of the inter-regional differential was due to historical differences in land taxes, the major source of revenue.

His reforms centered on literacy training and on restructuring of the university systems. They stressed ungraded curricula, modern textbooks, and new examination systems. Curzon's plans for technical education laid the foundations which were acted upon by later governments. Organized education in Norway dates as far back as medieval times. Shortly after Norway became an archdiocese in , cathedral schools were constructed to educate priests in Trondheim , Oslo , Bergen and Hamar. After the reformation of Norway in , Norway entered a personal union with Denmark in the cathedral schools were turned into Latin schools, and it was made mandatory for all market towns to have such a school.

In training in reading was made compulsory for all children, but was not effective until some years later. In , Norway introduced the folkeskole , a primary school which became mandatory for 7 years in and 9 years in In the s and s, the folkeskole was abolished, and the grunnskole was introduced. In , Norway established a new curriculum for elementary schools and middle schools. The plan is based on ideological nationalism, child-orientation, and community-orientation along with the effort to publish new ways of teaching.

In Canada, education became a contentious issue after Confederation in , especially regarding the status of French schools outside Quebec. Education in New Zealand began with provision made by the provincial government, the missionary Christian churches and private education. The first act of parliament for education was passed in , and sought to establish a standard for primary education. It was compulsory for children to attend school from the age of 6 until the age of 16 years.

In Australia, compulsory education was enacted in the s, and it was difficult to enforce. People found it hard to afford for school fees. Moreover, teachers felt that they did not get high salary for what they have done. In Imperial Russia , according to the census, literate people made up 28 percent of the population.

There was a strong network of universities for the upper class, but weaker provisions for everyone else. Vladimir Lenin , in proclaimed the major aim of the Soviet government was the abolition of illiteracy. A system of universal compulsory education was established. Millions of illiterate adults were enrolled in special literacy schools. Youth groups Komsomol members and Young Pioneer were utilized to teach. In , the literacy rate was An important aspect of the early campaign for literacy and education was the policy of "indigenization" korenizatsiya.

This policy, which lasted essentially from the mids to the late s, promoted the development and use of non-Russian languages in the government, the media, and education. Intended to counter the historical practices of Russification, it had as another practical goal assuring native-language education as the quickest way to increase educational levels of future generations. A huge network of so-called "national schools" was established by the s, and this network continued to grow in enrollments throughout the Soviet era.

Language policy changed over time, perhaps marked first of all in the government's mandating in the teaching of Russian as a required subject of study in every non-Russian school, and then especially beginning in the latter s a growing conversion of non-Russian schools to Russian as the main medium of instruction. Education in French controlled West Africa during the late s and early s was different from the nationally uniform compulsory education of France in the s.

The French language was also taught as an integral part of adapted education. Africa has more than 40 million children. Today, there is some form of compulsory education in most countries. Due to population growth and the proliferation of compulsory education, UNESCO has calculated that in the next 30 years more people will receive formal education than in all of human history thus far. Illiteracy and the percentage of populations without any schooling have decreased in the past several decades.

Among developing countries, illiteracy and percentages without schooling in stood at about half the figures. Among developed countries, figures about illiteracy rates differ widely. Illiteracy rates in less economically developed countries LEDCs surpassed those of more economically developed countries MEDCs by a factor of 10 in , and by a factor of about 20 in Percentages without any schooling showed similar patterns. Since the midth century, societies around the globe have undergone an accelerating pace of change in economy and technology. Its effects on the workplace, and thus on the demands on the educational system preparing students for the workforce, have been significant.

Beginning in the s, government, educators, and major employers issued a series of reports identifying key skills and implementation strategies to steer students and workers towards meeting the demands of the changing and increasingly digital workplace and society. Many of these skills are also associated with deeper learning , including analytic reasoning, complex problem solving, and teamwork, compared to traditional knowledge-based academic skills. When the men of Alexander the Great came to Taxila in India in the fourth century BC they found a university there the like of which had not been seen in Greece, a university which taught the three Vedas and the eighteen accomplishments and was still existing when the Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hsien went there about AD From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Not to be confused with the quarterly journal History of Education: Journal of the History of Education Society. History of education in ancient Israel and Judah. History of education in China and History of education in Taiwan. Education in ancient Greece and Education in ancient Rome. Medieval university , List of medieval universities , and List of oldest universities in continuous operation.

Bimaristan , Ijazah , and Maktab. History of education in India. History of education in Japan. History of European research universities. History of education in France. Education in the Empire of Japan. Education in the Soviet Union. History of Education in the United States. Mohr-Siebeck, at page Muslim heritage in our world. Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation Ltd. Education in Ancient India. David Pearson, Michael L. Longman, cc; at page Teachers College Press, Harris, Ancient literacy Harvard University Press, From the Sixth through the Eighth Century", Columbia: Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century.

The Narrators of Barbarian History A.