🔃 Unit 5: Revolutions (1750-1900)

• 1750-1900

• Focusing on political revolutions and industrial revolutions

💡The Enlightenment

• The enlightenment provides much of the ideological context for political revolutions

• The Enlightenment - An intellectual movement that applied new ways of understanding, such as rationalist and empiricist approaches, to both the natural world and human relationships

  • “Scientific revolution 2.0“

• (context) The Scientific Revolution - developed the scientific method to study the natural world and cosmos methodically and rationally

  • Enlightenment thinkers applied this same rational way of thinking to human society

  • Both the enlightenment and scientific revolution challenged the role of religion in public life

  • Before, religion governed daily life

    • Authority came from religious texts

    • Enlightenment thinkers rejected this external authority and argued that authority comes from inside a person, not outside

• Six enlightenment political ideas

  1. The Individual was the most basic unit of society, not collective groups

  2. Natural rights

     • Human beings are born with natural rights: life, liberty, and property

     • These rights are given to all by God, not a monarch

  3. Social Contract

     • Governments are created by the people to protect their natural rights

     • If a government abuses their power, the people have the right to overthrow the government and establish a new one that upholds their rights

     • Huge change from ideas of divine right from the last unit

  4. Popular Sovereignty

     • The power to govern is in the hands of the people

  5. Democracy

     • All people (not just the nobility) have the right to vote and direct government operations

  6. Liberalism

     • Political and economic ideology that emphasizes protection of civil rights, representative government, protection of private property, free market

🌱 Effects of the Enlightenment

• Expansion of Suffrage (right to vote)

  • Ex: After American Revolution (inspired by Enlightenment ideas), only white landowning males could vote, then it got expanded to all white males then black males

  • Demands for the expansion of the franchise frequently led to violence and political unrest, such as in Great Britain during the Chartist movement and across Europe during the revolutions of 1848.

• Women’s Suffrage

  • Feminist movement grows and women demand equality in all areas of life

• Abolition of Slavery

  • Ideas from philosophers like John Locke don’t hold well with forced servitude

• Abolition of Serfdom

  • Serfs - Agricultural peasants tied to the land

  • Czar Alexander II - Adopted western and liberal mindsets and abolished serfdom

    • got him in trouble with the nobility who profited from serfdom

    • serfs also led revolts that contributed to the end of serfdom

⚔ Causes of Revolutions

• Nationalism - a sense of commonality among a people based on shared language, religion, social customs, and often linked with a desire for territory

  • Powerful

  • Could define a common enemy

  • Before, what held people together was the empire they were in

    • Empires had lots of cultural diversity

  • With nationalism, people with shared cultural traits and ethnicities want to rule themselves

  • Some leaders used nationalism to foster a sense of unity among their people by:

    • injecting nationalist education into schools

    • public rituals to glorify the nation

    • military service

    • Ex: Russia

      • The Russian language was part of the people’s identity as Russians, and their leader required Russian to be spoken throughout the whole empire

      • This created a sense of unity among different ethnic groups under the state’s authority

• Growing discontent with Monarchist and Imperial Rule

  • Larger global context of a desire for self-rule

  • Ex: Muhammad Ali in Egypt

    • Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire in early 19th century

    • However, it largely operated independently from the Ottoman sultan under a military government led by Ali

    • Ottomans were struggling due to corruption and internal conflicts

      • Ottomans couldn’t industrialize, while Egypt made steps towards industrialization by opening textile and weapons factories

🕯 Revolutions most inspired by the enlightenment

• 🇺🇲 American Revolution

  • 13 colonies not happy under imperial rule by the British, so they rebelled

  • Enlightenment ideas seen in Declaration of Independence where it talks about the social contract, popular sovereignty, etc

  • Assisted by the French

  • Americans won and created the US as a republic

  • Inspired others to overthrow imperial rulers as well (like the French Revolution lol)

    • French Revolution produced a revolutionary document called the declaration of the rights of man and citizen

    • This doc inspired a revolution based on enlightenment ideas

• 🇭🇹 Haitian Revolution

  • Haiti was a french colony, so when black slaves heard about the French Revolutionary ideals about liberty, they had their own revolution

  • Led by Toussaint Louverture

  • Established the first black government in the Western Hemisphere

  • The only truly successful large scale slave rebellion across the world

• 🇯🇲 Latin American Revolutions

  • Central and South American Spanish and Portuguese colonies were influenced by enlightenment ideals and began to resent the authority of the imperial empires

  • In 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain

    • The King of Portugal was deposed

    • Created instability giving the Latin American Colonies an opportunity for a revolution

    • Creole leaders such as Simon Bolivar fought for Latin American Independence

    • Letter from Jamaica - A revolutionary document calling Spain’s rivals in Europe to support the colonies’ independence, and tried persuading other Latin American nations to unite to kick out Spanish colonial authority

    • A series of wars allowed Latin American colonies to gain independence

• 🇫🇷 French Revolution

  • Causes:

    • Economic crisis due to government debt and taxes

    • Influence of Enlightenment ideas promoting natural rights and democracy

    • Social inequalities (the Estates System, commoners were in the Third Estate)

  • Overthrew imperial bourbon dynasty

  • produced a revolutionary document called the declaration of the rights of man and citizen

    • caused big changes in French government structure

  • This doc inspired a revolution based on enlightenment ideas

  • Effects:

    • End of monarchy and feudal privileges in France

    • Establishment of a republic (replaced by authoritarian rule under Napoleon)

    • Spread revolutionary ideals across Europe and the Americas, leading to subsequent revolutions and nationalist movements worldwide

    • Decline of the power of the Catholic Church

🚩 Nationalist Movements and Unification

• Not quite revolutions but still important to know

• Calls for greater degrees of self-rule

  • Ex: Propaganda movement in the Philippines (Spanish colony at the time)

    • Before Filipino society was rigidly controlled by the Spanish

    • Some Filipinos traveled to Europe for university education and were exposed to enlightenment and nationalist ideas

      • They then published lots of propaganda calling for more Filipino involvement in running their society

      • Did NOT call for revolution against the Spanish

    • Spanish crushed this movement, causing the Philippine Revolution near the end of the 19th century

• Effort toward Unification

  • Inspired by nationalistic fervor

  • Took place in Italy and Germany (uh oh)

    • Both were made up of fragmented semi-independent states

    • Military leaders from both nations inspired their respective populations to unite, creating Italy and Germany

🏭 The Industrial Revolution

• Massive political, economic, and social effects

• Potentially the most profound change in the history of the world

• Began in Great Britain as they had all of the key factors required

• Seven key factors to determine where and how fast Industrialization would spread

  1. Proximity to waterways

     • Great Britain is an island with many rivers and canals allowing rapid transportation of manufactured goods

  2. Distribution of Coal, Iron, and Timber

     • Great Britain had a huge empire so they had access to lots of these raw materials

  3. Access to Foreign Resources

     • Originally focused on textile production so having access to lots of cotton was important

  4. Improved Agricultural Productivity

     • New technologies and agricultural methods were introduced which caused great population growth

  5. Urbanization

     • Movement of rural people into cities because farming was being mechanized making many lose jobs and seek jobs in the city

  6. Legal protections of Private Property

     • Britain passed laws protecting entrepreneurs who took risks

  7. Accumulation of Capital

     • Britain had many people who got rich off of colonial shenanigans and they could invest in industrial tomfoolery

Factories

• Factories allowed goods to be mass produced and sold across the world for much cheaper compared to goods being hand-crafted

• Factories were originally water-powered and had to built near fast-moving streams

• When the steam engine was invented, factories could be built anywhere

• Effects:

  • Increasing specialization of labor - Each person would perform one part of a process to make a good over and over again, decreasing the demand for skilled labor

⚙ Spread of Industrialization

• As industrialization spread from Britain, some places industrialized quicker than others and some not at all

  • Depends on the seven factors above

• Effects of the spread of Industrialization:

  • Shifted global distribution of manufacturing to industrialized states and declined manufacturing in non-industrialized states

    • Ex: India and Egypt used to dominate textile production but now Britain was mass-producing textiles for far cheaper so the market share for India and Egypt declined

  • Urbanization as people from rural areas moved to find jobs in cities because agriculture was being mechanized

    • High job turnover due to constant migration and dangerous working conditions

    • Led to lack of communication between social classes in industrial cities as the workforce was very varied

🇫🇷 French Industrialization

• 1815 - Industrialization arrives in France

  • Initially slow due to lack of coal and iron

• Government sponsored construction of railroads and canals

  • Made it easy to sell goods once they were made

• Pace of Industrialization was slower

  • Didn’t go through major social changes more common in Britain

🇺🇸 United States Industrialization

• Started industrializing at the end of the 19th century

  • Civil war distracted them

• Industrialized fast and became a major world power

  • Large territory, lots of raw materials

• Political stability post-civil war

• Growing population

  • Growing market for mass-produced goods

• Economy prospered

  • Higher standard of living than in European industrial states

🇷🇺 Russian Industrialization

• Ruled by an absolutist czar

• Industrialization was state-driven while Britain and the US industrialization was more private

  • Built railroads to link their vast territories into an interdependent market

• Made good progress but brutalized workers which led to many uprisings

🇯🇵 Japanese Industrialization

• Industrialization outlier

  • Most Asians states were losing importance as industrial powers began to rise and push them around

• Meiji Restoration

  • Japan did not want to be pushed around by Industrial powers

  • Embraced reforms that westernized Japan’s economy

  • Engaged in state-sponsored defensive industrialization

    • Workers still had harsh working conditions (just like in Europe)

    • Samurai loses power and lower class can join the military because of guns

  • Locked in and became the most powerful state in the region

  • Japan had ideas of racial superiority over other Asian ethnicities through state Shintoism

  • Fall of shogunate power, rise of Emperor Meiji’s power

🇹🇷 Ottoman Industrialization Attempt

• Were getting pushed around by western powers

• Tanzimat reforms - built factories and railroads, adopted western laws

  • more successful than the Chinese attempt

• Absolutist sultans gave into reformers

  • such as Young Ottomans

  • accepted a constitution and a parliamentary government

• conservatives resisted industrialization just like in China, including the sultan himself

🇨🇳 Chinese Industrialization Attempt

• Isolationist policies caused the Qing Dynasty to fall behind on new technologies and ideas

• became subservient to western industrial powers

• Went through the self-strengthening movement

  • Realized industrialization was the only way to maintain power

  • borrowed from the west attempting to revitalize traditional Chinese culture

• Some steps were made in modernizing China

  • but were hindered by Chinese conservatives because it would hurt the landowning class

• Resulted in half-hearted program of modernization

  • proven by how they lost the Sino-Japanese war to the fully industrialized Japan

🧪 Industrial Technology

• First Industrial Revolution (~1750 - 1830)

  • Main source of power was coal and steam

  • Steam Engine - invented by James Watt and used coal to make steam

    • Used to power locomotives and steam ships

  • Mainly used iron (not steel)

• Second Industrial Revolution (~1870 - 1914)

  • Main source of power was oil

  • Methods were developed to distill oil into gasoline

  • Internal Combustion Engine - smaller and more efficient than the steam engine

  • Electricity - invented by Thomas Edison

    • developed incandescent light bulb to light factories and homes

    • Electric street cars and subways

  • Telegraph - invented by Samuel Morse

    • Morse code could be used to send signals through long distances

  • Many more steam engines (trains, ships, etc)

    • Increased commerce by linking large nations into a national economy

    • Railroads facilitated moving into cities

    • Steel ships made long-distance maritime trade much easier

  • Mainly used steel (Bessemer process)

  • Chemical engineers made Synthetic Dyes for Clothes which were much cheaper than organic dyes

  • Vulcanization (made rubber more durable for belts in machines, wire coating, tires)

  • The Green Revolution created many new types of crops that were disease and drought resistant, which helped prevent famine and maintain a growing population

  • More effective birth control methods were developed, giving women greater personal freedom, and allowed governments to be able to control the growth of populations

Effects of Technologies

• Development of interior regions (rather than just coastal areas)

• Increase of trade and migration

  • Interconnected global economy

  • Increase migration from rural areas to urban areas in search of jobs

🪙 Economic Developments and Innovations

• Shift away from Mercantilism

• The Wealth of Nations - written by Adam Smith and argued that mercantilism is coercive and only benefited a smart part of society (the elite)

  • Called for free markets away from state intrusion (Laissez-faire policy).

  • Believed the benefit of an individual would benefit the whole society due to more even wealth distribution and economic flourishing

  • Criticized by Karl Marx

• After 1815, several western governments abandoned some state regulations on trade, increasing trade and wealth which proved Adam Smith right

• Increased the wealth of industrial nations

• Transnational Business - A company that was established and controlled in one country but also has large operations in other countries

  • Ex: Dutch East India Company

  • During this period, these business grew rapidly in numbers due to increasing interconnection of the global economy

  • Ex: Unilever Corporation

    • Owned by British and Dutch

    • Manufactured household goods like soap

    • Opened factories across the world and sourced materials from colonial holdings such as West Africa and the Belgian Congo

New practices

• Stock markets - enabled people to purchase small shares of ownership in a company

  • If the company made money, the stock owners did too

• Limited liability corporations - A way of organizing a business to protect the financial investment of its owners

  • “joint stock companies 2.0“

Effects of Industrial Capitalism

• Rise in standards of living

• Goods were being produced more efficiently and for cheaper so more people could afford it

❗ Reaction to Industrialization

• Governments sponsoring industrialization and capitalists investing in it benefited greatly

• Working class people did not benefit so much

  • lived in bad apartments called tenements where disease spread rapidly

  • long hours

  • not paid enough to survive

  • called for reforms by the end of the 19th century

• Certain nations such as China and the Ottomans tried to spark their own industrial movements in reaction to industrial movements from Western European powers

  • Varied in success

📜 Industrial Reforms

• political reforms

  • suffrage expanded, so political parties began to cater towards working class people rather than just the elite

• social reforms

  • working class people began to organize themselves into social societies

    • provided insurance for sickness which helped bind community together

• educational reform

  • governments passed laws restricting child labor

  • put kids in schools instead

• urban reform

  • urban populations grew faster than governments could build infrastructure so they ended up sucking

  • governments limited labor hours and funded sanitation infrastructure

  • Labor unions - collectives of workers that were able to negotiate as a group and improve their lives

    • Higher wages

    • Limited working hours

    • Improved working conditions

  • Some labor unions became so powerful and influential they became political parties such as the German Social Democratic Party

    • Marxist vision

  • Karl Marx - observed suffering of working class and developed the ideology of scientific socialism

    • proletariat - working class

    • bourgeoisie - upper class

    • working class overthrows upper class and establishes a classless society

    • communism was a powerful alternative to capitalism

🏘 Social effects of Industrialization

• New social classes

  • working class - factory workers and miners

  • middle class - factory owners and managers along with white collar jobs such as doctors

    • able to afford mass produced goods to improve their quality of life

  • industrialists - gained wealth by starting corporations and becoming more powerful than aristocracy

• Role of women

  • working class - had to work in the factory too as their working class husbands salary wasn’t enough for a family

  • middle class - domestic house wives

• Challenges of rapid urbanization

  • Housing shortages + shoddy tenements

  • bad sanitation and infrastructure

  • Public health crises in urban areas

    • Ex: typhoid spread rapidly due to high-density living

    • life expectancy decreased from around 40 years to around 30 years

  • Rising crime rate

    • needed jails to be built

📒 Topics

https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-world-history-modern-course-and-exam-description.pdf