AP World History Unit 5: Revolutions (1750-1900)

5.1 The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment and other Western Educations provided the ideological roots for the revolutions around the world

The Enlightenment: An intellectual movement that applied new ways of understanding, such as rationalism, empiricism, and human rights

• Rationalism: Reason, rather than emotion, is the most reliable source of true knowledge

• Empiricism: True knowledge is gained through the senses, mainly through thorough experimentation

• Scientific Revolution (Europe 17th, 16th century)

  1. Scientists used processes of reason to discover how the world worked

  2. Fought against certain religious beliefs

  3. Enlightenment philosophers applied scientific revolution thinking to human society and rights

The Enlightenment —> Questioning of roles of religion in society

• Previously unquestioned Bible began to lose power, people began to think for themselves (Change)

• New Belief Systems

  1. Deism

     • Popular among Enlightenment thinkers

     • Believed there was a God who created everything, but no longer intervenes

  2. Atheism

     • Complete rejection of religious beliefs and divine beings

The Enlightenment —> New Political Ideas

• Individualism

  1. The most basic element of society was the individual rather than collective groups

• Natural rights

  1. Individuals are born with natural human rights that cannot be violated (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness…)

• Social Contract

  1. Human societies must construct governments with their own will to protect natural rights

Effects of Enlightenment Ideas (—>)

• Major Revolutions

  1. American, French, Haitian, Latin American revolutions

  2. Ideas of rejection of established traditions, new ideas of political power —> revolutions

  3. Revolutions —> Intensification of Nationalism (change)

• Suffrage Expansion (change)

  1. Enlightenment ideas (liberty, equality) —> Voting becoming more inclusive

• Abolition of Slavery

  1. Enlightenment Ideas of natural rights —> abolition

• End of serfdom

  1. Enlightenment Ideas of natural rights —> abolition

  2. Transition from Agricultural to Industrial economy also made serfdom less needed

• Calls for Women’s suffrage

  1. Feminist movements arose with women demanding equality

  2. Olympe de Gouge (french feminist)

     • Criticized French Constitution for not recognizing women

  3. Seneca Falls Convention

     • Called for constitutional amendment for the women’s right to vote

5.2 Nationalism and Revolutions

Causes of Revolution (—>)

• Nationalism

• Political Dissent

  1. Widespread discontent with monarchist and imperial rule

• New Ways of thinking (Enlightenment)

  1. New ideologies and systems of government

  2. Popular Sovereignty: Power to govern was in the hands of the people

  3. Democracy: People have the rights to vote and influence government policy

  4. Liberalism

     • Economic and political ideology emphasizing protection of civil rights, representative government, protection of private property, and economic freedom

The Atlantic Revolutions

• All were inspired by democratic ideologies

• American Revolution

  1. Atlantic Ocean divide between GB —> Independently developed culture, system of government, economy and Enlightenment ideas —> Revolution after British overstepping power

  2. Enlightenment Ideals present in Declaration of Independence

     • Popular Sovereignty, Natural rights, social contract

  3. Victory —> Inspiration for other nations to overthrow oppressive governments

• French Revolution

  1. King tightening control —> Revolution

  2. Enlightenment Ideals present in “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen”

     • Natural Rights, Popular Sovereignty

• Haitian Revolution

  1. Hearing about French Revolution —> Enslaved black revolution revolting —> establishing first black government in Western hemisphere

• Latin American Revolutions

  1. Enlightenment ideals —> resentment of imperial parents’ control

  2. Resentment mostly present in Creole class (Europeans not born in Europe)

  3. Simon Bolivar (Creole Military Leader)

     • Appealed to military across racial lines

     • Letter from Jamaica summarized Enlightenment Ideals

  4. Eventually gained independence after multiple violent conflicts

There were also nationalist movements that called for more self-rule and unification rather than revolution

• Philippines Propaganda Movement

  1. Spanish controlling education —> Only wealthy Creoles, Mestizos got good education —> Creoles, Mestizos bringing back Enlightenment Ideals home —> Spread of Enlightenment Ideals in Philippines

• Unification of Italy and Germany

  1. Both previously made up of fractured nations ——> Unification (change)

  2. Nationalism —> Unification

5.3 How the Industrial Revolution Began

Industrial Revolution: the process by which states transitioned from agrarian economies to industrial economies

• Goods made by hand ——> made by machine (change)

The Industrial Revolution —> Change in balance of global power, reorder of societies, and industrial nations becoming rich

Why Great Britain started the Industrial Revolution (1750) (—>)

• Proximity to Waterways —> easy transportation of goods and machines

• Proximity to coal and iron

• Access to foreign resources

  1. Massive maritime empire —> wealth and resources

• Improved agricultural productivity

  1. Improved food supply —> Higher quality of life

  2. Improved methods of planting

  3. Columbian Exchange —> diversified diets, longer lifespans, higher population

• Rapid Urbanization

  1. More people moving to cities —> growth of industrial cities

• Legal protection of Private property

  1. Laws put in place to protect entrepreneurs —> Increase in investment, innovations

• Accumulation of capital

The Factory System

• Factory: place where goods for sale were mass produced by machines

• Production concentrated in a single location

• Workers became more replaceable due to less skilled labor (change)

5.4 The Spread of Industrialization

Discovery of steampower —> Industrial Revolution growing rapidly

• Steam Engine: Machine that converted fossil fuel into mechanical energy

• Steamships —> Mass-produced goods transported farther and faster —> Globalized world, connected economy

Shifting World Economics

• Some countries adopted Industrialization quickly while others didn’t

  1. Easy access to resources, money —> Industrialization

  2. Eastern & Southern Europe were slow adopters

     • Lack of coal deposits

     • Land locked

• World shifted to non-industrialized nations and industrialized nations (change)

  1. Industrialized nations took large portion of global economic wealth (NW Europe)

  2. Previous manufacturing powerhouses (Middle East, Asia) had share of global production decline (change)

     • Egypt, India textile manufacturing declined; Britain could produce more textiles cheaper with industrialization

  3. Industrial countries produced more while non-industrial countries produced less —> Global balance of power shifting to industrialized countries

Industrialized Nations Compared

• France (1850)

  1. Adopted Industrial Technologies

  2. Slower pace of adoption compared to GB

     • Lacked coal and iron deposits

  3. Slower industrialization —> less intense social changes compared to GB

• United States

  1. Industrialized extremely quickly after Civil War —> economic prosperity

     • Many resources, political stability, rapid population growth

• Russia

  1. Adopted industrial technologies (railroads, steam engines)

     • Trans-Siberian Railroad —> Increased trade with China

     • Approach to industrialization was brutal for workers —> revolutions, revolts (Russian Revolution of 1905)

  2. Russia’s Industrialization was state-driven in order to develop as compared to the USA, which was business driven

• Japan

  1. Many Asian states declined in power in this time period while European states gained power (change) —> Japan “defensive” industrialization to maintain/grow power (Meiji Restoration)

5.5 Technology of the Industrial Age

First Industrial Revolution (1750-1830)

• Comprised of mostly Great Britain

• Coal

  1. Burned hotter than wood

  2. Main engine of 1st Revolution was steam engine

     • Used heat from coal to create steam and mechanical energy

     • Steam engine —> factories not needing to be built near water —> factories built anywhere —> rapid spread of factories

     • Powering locomotives (on train tracks), Steam ships —> Easier transportation of goods

Second Industrial Revolution (1870-1914)

• Europe, United States, Russia, Japan

• Oil

  1. Internal combustion engine developed to harness gasoline energy

     • Smaller, more efficient than steam engine

     • Used to power automobiles

• Steel

  1. Much more stronger and versatile than previously used iron due to Bessemer Process, cheaper to produce —> Main construction component for architecture (change)

• Chemical Engineering

  1. Synthetic dyes developed for textiles

• Electricity

• Telegraph

  1. Used to communicate between faraway places

     • Great Britain and USA

Both coal and oil greatly increased the amount of energy available to humans, although with environmental impacts such as air pollution

Effects of New Technology (—>)

• Development of Interior Regions

  1. Developments of railroads, etc. —> settlement of previously uninhabited areas (change)

• Increase in Trade and Migration

  1. Global trade multiplied by ten between 1850 and 1913 —> Further globalized economy

  2. Transportation technologies —> migration to cities for employment

     • Famine, political instability —> Europeans migrating to USA

5.6 Government Sponsored Industrialization

States that adopted Industrialization —> transformation of economy —> rise in global power —> states sponsoring industrialization

Egyptian (Ottoman) Industrialization

• Ottoman Empires struggling with internal corruption, conflicts —> little time to invest in industrialization —> Egypt investing on their own

• Tanzimat Reforms

  1. Industrial Projects

     • Textiles and weapon factories built

  2. Agriculture

     • Government purchased crops to be sold on world market

  3. Tariffs

     • Protected development of Egyptian economy

• Great Britain limiting Egyptian development through politics —> Tanzimat reforms failing

Japanese Meiji Restoration —> Major industrial power in Asia

• Isolationist during Tokugawa Shogunate ——> Adopting Western technology, industrialization (change)

  1. Witnessed Western Powers dominate China

  2. American Matthew Perry came to Japan with fleets of guns and steamships

  3. Wanting to defend against Western domination —> Aggressive state sponsored industrialization

• Japan sent emissaries to Western states to learn technology, culture, politics, education to implement

• Japan established a constitution with elected parliament, borrowed from Germany

• Japan state funded railroads, banking systems, factories

• Japan was able to compete with European states, unlike other states in the region

5.7 Economics of the Industrial Revolution

Mercantilism slowly died during this time period (change)

• Mercantilism abandoned for Free Market Economics

  1. Better fit industrialization

  2. Market-driven economy rather than state-driven

• Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations”

  1. Claims Mercantilism is coercive and only benefits the elite

  2. Argued for Laissez Faire economics

• Post 1815, several western governments abandoned state regulations on trade

Free-Market Criticism

• Capitalist economics —> extremely poor working class

• Jeremy Benthan

  1. Claimed cure for suffering of working class was government legislation

• Friedrich List (German economist)

  1. Claimed Free Market Economics were a trick to support British power

     • India, China

Trans-National Corporations

• Companies that are established/controlled in one country while also establishing operations in many other countries

• Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation

  1. Generated wealth for British bankers

• Unilever Corporation

  1. Joint company from British and Dutch that manufactured soap

Trans-National Corporations relied on new financial practices

• Stock Markets

  1. Small pieces of ownership in a corporation

  2. New York Stock Exchange

• Limited Liability Corporations

  1. Protected financial investment of owners

  2. Owners could take risks in investment

Effects of Industrial Capitalism

• All western industrialized nations were much richer in 1900 than 1800 —> greater quality of life, greater access to goods (change)

• Development of Mechanized farming —> bigger harvests —> population growth

• Emergence of middle class

5.8 Reactions to the Industrial Revolution

Poor pay, poor working conditions —> Calls for reform from working class

• Political Reform

  1. Working class able to vote —> political parties updating platform for social reforms

• Social Reform

  1. Working classes organized into social societies, providing insurance for sickness & social events

• Educational Reform

  1. Many EU countries had compulsory education after 1870

  2. High paying jobs becoming more technical —> need for compulsory education to work these jobs

• Urban reform

  1. Infrastructure unable to keep up with population growth —> poor sanitation

  2. Governments passed laws in sanitation infrastructure

Rise of Labor Unions

• Labor Union: collective of workers who join together to protect their interests

  1. Collective groups —> Negotiation power

     • Higher wages

     • Limited working hours

     • Improved working conditions

China attempts Industrialization

• Opium Wars —> Industrial Britain defeating non-industrialized China —> China forced to sign treaties and open trading ports

  1. China grew significantly weaker after Western dominance (change)

• Self-Strengthening Movement: Series of reforms to take steps towards industrialization

  1. Landowning class threatened —> Chinese conservatives opposing movement —> Weak attempt at industrialization

     • China easily beat by industrialized Japan in Sino-Japanese War

Ottoman Modernization

• Continued territorial loss to Europe —> “defensive” industrialization

• Tanzimat Reforms

  1. More aggressive and transformative than Self-Strengthening Movement

  2. Textile factories built

  3. Western-style courts and laws

  4. Expansive Education systems

  5. More secular in nature, different from previous Islamic character of empire (change)

• Young Ottomans

  1. Wanted European style parliament, constitutional government that limits power of sultans

  2. Western Educated

• Despite agreeing to reforms and establishing parliaments, Ottoman Sultan ultimately had ultimate control

5.9 Society and the Industrial Age

Industrialization led to the emergence of new social classes/hierarchies

• Industrial Working class

  1. Factory worker and miners

  2. Machines taking jobs —> Rural people who migrated to urban cities

  3. Industrialization —> less specialization of jobs —> workers being interchangeable

  4. Wages were higher than rural areas they came from

  5. Dangerous working conditions, crowded living, spread of disease

• Middle Class

  1. Benefitted the most from Industrialization

  2. Wealthy factory owners, lawyers, doctors, teachers

• Industrialists

  1. Top of social hierarchy

Women and Chilren and Industrialization

• Working-class women

  1. Worked in factories

  2. Children worked in mines

     • Dangers of work revealed —> Some countries saving children from work

• Middle Class women

  1. Husbands gaining enough money —> Not working

  2. Defined by domestic roles as homemakers

Challenges of Industrialization

• Rapid pace of industrialization —> cities growing too quickly for infrastructure

• Pollution

  1. Coal smoke from factories created smog

  2. Human waste dumped into rivers —> polluted drinking water

• Housing Shortages

  1. Too little houses for population —> tenements being built

     • Small space tenements —> easy spread of diseases

• Increased Crime