Atlantic Revolutions in a Global Context Seven Years’ War Between britain and france in 3 different parts of the world In Europe, India, America About determining who is the global superpower, Britain wins and the french are kicked out of america and india Established British global power.
Uniqueness of the Atlantic revolutions They are deeply intertwined
The Atlantic as a “world of ideas” The atlantic world is a world of ideas Whether it's in different places or different people Taking european ideas into american
Democratic revolutions Revolution for democracy, not to replace a king with a king. Start off as revolution for democracy
Global impact of the Atlantic revolutions Not just creating new countries but inspiring future countries Idea of nationalism major impact on europe + world
Comparing Atlantic Revolutions The North American Revolution, 1775–1787 Revolutionary? English in England and English in America In america : more rights, freedom and more land | more opportunity, a true fresh start | british americans, thought of themselves as something different as british british
New taxes and ideas from the Enlightenment 7 years war bankrupts the British, then they start new taxes on sugar, tea, stamps. The colonists say that it's not fair for them to impose taxes on us when they have no representation in parliament. No Taxation Without Representation
A revolutionary society before the revolution
Declaration of Independence -> John Locke The Constitution -> Baron de Montesquieu The First 10 Amendments (1st) -> Voltaire The First 10 Amendments (8th) -> Cesare Beccaria |
The French Revolution, 1789–1815 The American connection: ideas, war debt, and taxes Seven Years War bankrupted France and they lost During the American Revolution, France sends a lot of money + soldiers to help the colonists (mostly because they hate British) Built up further debt Their soldiers, while in America, saw the ideas of the Enlightenment, and they had ideas of doing things even better Questions about why do we have an absolute monarchy Largely to the debt increased, gov began raising taxes on the people who can’t afford it
Resentment of privilege and increasing radicalism The third estate is rejecting this system of privilege The king of France was unprepared to handle the government and was handed an economic crisis, he raised taxes that the 3rd estate rejects The 3rd estate members declare themselves as a new government, they are 97% of the population so they should be in charge They issue the declaration of the rights of man, over the next 3 years they keep acting like a government, and the power of the 3rd estate grows and the monarchy shrinks Reaches the point where the national institution write a constitution where the monarch has limited power, Louis and Mary are under house arrest, and they try to escape and captured Then the 3rd estate abolishes the monarchy. This government (NAtional Convention), they decide to put the former king on trial for treason, and he is convicted Robespierre says the former king must die if the new France wants to live so Louis is sentenced to death in the new device, the guillotine. They become obsessed with EQUALITY Abolish states, church, monarchy Everyone should be equal in death Wanted something quick + painless: guillotine.
Inventing a new, rational world Robespierre decides that if we are creating a new world based on enlightenment, everything old has to go. Everyone who seems like they aren’t on board with new france dies Creates a society who sent 40,000 people to the guillotine. Proposes a new state religion based around reason. The convention orders Robespierre to be arrested and killed because he was lowkey crazy This period was known as the Reign of Terror.
Women’s participation and then repression In the beginning women were a very big part of it. The process of making Louis a limited monarch was done by women. 6000 angry starving women marched to Versailles, and stormed the palace and dragged the royal family to Paris. (peak of women participation) Hopes of gender equality were quickly gone.
Birth of the nation and the citizen Is the birth of a new idea, that you are a citizen of a nation not a subject of the king. Loyalty to the place, not that person. Spelled out in the declaration of the rights of man ( like the declaration of independence + bill of rights) Birth of nationalism
Napoleon’s French revolutionary paradox After Robespierre, France became an oligarchy. Until in 1799, it was overthrown by general Napoleon Bonaparte. His time in power is seen as a paradox of the revolution, (did he continue the revolution or end it?) He becomes the dictator and then declares himself as the emperor
The French Government went from absolute monarch -> limited monarchy -> oligarchy -> monarchy -> emperorship. He decides to invade russia after invading most of europe The Russians do the strategy of scorched earth. He enters a village where everything has been burned and keeps pushing forward. The russians then burned moscow to the ground Napoleon retreats and russians attack the whole way He is then sent to exile, then comes back and defeated again and then sent to exile on an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. After his final defeat, France reestablished the monarchy, so they brought Louis' brother, taking the throne at Louis 18th. France becomes a monarchy again, but a limited one.
The Haitian Revolution, 1791–1804 Saint Domingue, the richest colony in the world A little island near cuba, western half was french and eastern half was spanish It was likely the richest colony anywhere in the world Produced 40% of world’s sugar and 50% of coffee (frances side)
African slaves, white colonists, and gens de couleur Almost entirely made up of slaves 500,000 african slaves, 40,00 white colonists, 30,000 free africans (gens de couleur) Racial mixing like seen in spanish america
Slave revolt, civil war, and foreign invasion\ During the french revolution in 1791, the slaves heard about equality. Starts as a slave revolt, around the island slaves rebel against their masters, and then turns into a civil war of different groups on the islands fighting each other As this happens, the French government abolishes slavery Foreign troops, british, spanish come in to stop this.
Toussaint Louverture A former slave that unites the fighting factors into an independence revolt, During his time, Napoleon tries to bring back slavery He then fights against Napoleon, and captures him and he ends up dying Napoleon was unable to control haiti and the slavery idea wasn’t working
Haiti: a post-slavery republic They take the name of Haiti after Napoleon gives up Becomes a republic: the first place in the western world to end slavery First black colony to get their independence, and serves as an inspiration
“Independence debt” It has struggled a lot due to political corruption A couple years after independence, France said that if they didn't want to become reconquered, they would have to pay a large amount, which crippled their economy allowing them to never recover. They are the poorest country in the western world.
Spanish American Revolutions, 1810–1825 Creole resentment of Spanish rule and taxes They were started by creoles. By the 1800s, they start getting frustrated And they need a spark to revolt: Napoleon
Napoleon’s 1808 invasion of Spain and Portugal He invades spain and portugal and overthrows the monarchy and the portugues monarchy moves to brazil The spanish colonies; it is a french king, they had some loyalty to the spanish king but not the french king The opportunity is seized to revolt There are revolts happening all over South America, led by different people (multiple revolutions).
Racial, class, and ideological divisions There are divisions because the creoles want different things than the mestizos/indigenous. Class divisions; urban vs. rural What they want the government to look like are different. Because of the different groups with different goals there is not enough unity
Simón Bolívar and the Americanos Most important leader of creoles was simon bolivar Saw himself as the george washington of latin america He wanted to unite south america He got to lead Gran Colombia. Colombians think of themselves as different from other parts His dream was to think that everyone was South American because of nationalism. Political Revolution.
Independence without social revolution or unity
Nations and Nationalism The “nation” as a new idea The people in the same region should share the same culture, history, religion, language, nationality and territory. If the vast majority contains this then that territory is the nation. After Napoleon there was only Portuguese, France, and Spanish and maybe Britain were nation states.
Unification and independence A force that tries to unite people that live in a bunch of smaller states into 1 big one and force people to want independence from a bigger empire that isn’t theirs. By 1840, there were national revolts all around Europe The two big examples are Italy (king of sardinia, north) and another one unites the south but then he hands it to sardinia king. Germany is driven by Prussia, to unite different people into Prussia. Then the king of Prussia became king of Germany.
International conflict Drives major wars (main cause of world war 1) Drives competition + rivalry. Nationalism in its worst sense is that one country matters more. In its best sense that you are proud of your country
Political uses of nationalism anti-semitism
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