Conclusion

Expansion of colonies overseas and economic development at home created greater wealth, longer life spans, and higher expectations for Europeans in the first half of the eighteenth century. In these better times for many, a spirit of optimism prevailed. People could now spend money on newspapers, novels, travel literature, and music as well as on coffee, tea, and cotton cloth. Not everyone shared equally in the benefits, however: slaves toiled in misery for their masters in the Americas, eastern European serfs found themselves ever more closely bound to their noble lords, and rural folk almost everywhere tasted few fruits of consumer society.

Politics changed, too, as experts urged government intervention to improve public health, and states found it in their interest to settle many international disputes by diplomacy, which itself became more regular and routine. The consolidation of the European state system allowed a tide of criticism and new thinking about society to swell in Great Britain and France and begin to spill throughout Europe. Ultimately, the combination of the Atlantic system and the Enlightenment would give rise to a series of Atlantic revolutions.