Explanation:
Centuries are conveniently employed as units of periodization, at any rate in modern European historiography. Such a division of time implies that each century possesses a physiognomy of its own, distinguishing it from those preced ing and those following it, and imparting some sort of coherence to all events that occurred within its limits. That the strict chronological boundaries of a century may not always be observed in such periodization (for example, 1715 to 1789 passes as the eighteenth century in French history) need not unduly disturb us. The minor chronological discrepancies do point, however, to a significant aspect of this standard as a unit of periodization. The fact that the unit varies depending on which element of past life (political, economic, religious, cultural, or any other) is chosen as the determining criterion means that the "century" differs from country to country. Traditionally, reigns have served to define a historical period, although specific political events, for instance revolutions, may have been more significant. In some instances, a century has been defined in terms of events in different realms of public life; thus, in the case of France, the eighteenth century denotes both the age of Enlightenment" and the prodrome of "1789 and all that." I restate here the obvious in order to call attention to an aspect of historical reflection that is not always acknowledged: one may, for example, speak of eighteenth-century France or of Germany in the eighteenth century, but it is quite possible that, depending on the criteria used, features associated with one century in one country may appear in a different chronologi cal unit in another country.
Periodization of modern European history has traditionally been based on the experience of France: politically, the seventeenth century in that country stretches from the assassination of Henry IV in 1610 to the death of Louis XIV in 1715, while the eighteenth century ends abruptly and symbolically on July 14, 1789 (or, according to some historians, on the night of August 4 of the same year). In cultural terms the seventeenth century in France is the period of classical literature, just as the eighteenth is the age of the philosophes. This periodization is inadequate, however, when we talk about the social and eco nomic history of the country. We see, for example, that economically and socially the Ancien Régime prevailed well into the nineteenth century. Similar chronological discrepancies can be found in the socioeconomic history of other
This essay is based on a talk given at the first meeting of Harvard University's study group for the eighteenth century and on a lecture delivered at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences in July 1981.
