AP World History Modern - Unit 5 Notes

The Enlightenment

  • Change is often slow, building up to a pivotal event.
  • The Enlightenment involved philosophers pushing back against existing social and political structures.
  • They questioned divine right, monarchies, and the distribution of rights based on wealth or family.
  • Key Philosophers:
    • John Locke:
      • Advocated for natural and unalienable rights: life, liberty, and property.
      • Argued that the government's role is to protect these rights.
      • If a government fails, the people are justified in revolt.
    • Rousseau:
      • Wrote "The Social Contract."
      • Proposed that people give up some freedoms for the community's good, gaining protection in return.
      • Example: Speed limits, COVID-19 restrictions
    • Montesquieu:
      • Advocated for the separation of powers into three branches: executive, judicial, and legislative.
      • Challenged divine right and promoted checks and balances.
    • Voltaire:
      • Emphasized the importance of free speech and religious toleration.
      • Famous quote (though likely not his): "I disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
  • The Enlightenment led to major revolutions by pushing for governments that protected rights and challenged social hierarchies.

Revolutions

American Revolution

  • Causes:
    • Enlightenment ideals.
    • French and Indian War (Seven Years' War).
      • British victory led to taxation of colonists to cover war costs (Revenue Act, Stamp Act, Tea Act).
    • "No taxation without representation."
    • The Boston Tea Party and battles at Lexington and Concord.
  • Events:
    • Declaration of Independence.
  • Effects:
    • Colonists win and form a new confederacy.
    • Articles of Confederation fail, leading to a federal system and a representative democracy.
    • Constitution embraces Montesquieu's separation of powers.
    • Bill of Rights includes Enlightenment ideas like free speech and religion (First Amendment).
    • Inspired other revolutions globally.

French Revolution

  • Causes:
    • Enlightenment ideals.
    • Financial issues due to loss of lands to the British and the Seven Years' War.
    • Starvation among the people.
    • Inequitable structure of the Estates-General (clergy, aristocracy, commoners).
  • Events:
    • Calling of the Estates General.
    • The third estate forms the National Assembly and takes the Tennis Court Oath, demanding a constitutional monarchy.
    • Storming of the Bastille.
    • Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (Doromac).
    • Reign of Terror led by Maximilien Robespierre with widespread use of the guillotine.
    • Execution of King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and Robespierre.
  • Effects:
    • Initially ends absolute monarchy, achieving a constitutional monarchy.
    • The revolution enters a radical phase aiming for a republic.
    • Establishment of The Directory.
    • Napoleon overthrows the system, leading to authoritarian government, then returns to a constitutional monarchy after Napoleon's defeat.

Haitian Revolution

  • Causes:
    • Tensions in social classes: white plantation owners, free mixed-race citizens (mulattos), poor whites (petite blancs), and a large number of enslaved people.
    • Inspired by the French and American Revolutions.
    • Slave revolt against mistreatment and denial of basic rights.
  • Events:
    • Began as a slave revolt, led by Toussaint Louverture.
    • Saint Domingue gains autonomy.
    • Napoleon's control raises fears of reinstating slavery.
    • French forces remove Toussaint, but the revolution continues.
  • Effects:
    • Elimination of slavery and establishment of the Republic of Haiti in 1804.
    • France requires indemnity payments leading to financial difficulties.

Latin American Revolutions

  • Occurred in the 1800s, leading to independent countries in Latin America.
  • Led by Creoles (Europeans born in the Americas).
  • Simon Bolivar:
    • Inspired by the American Revolution.
    • Aimed to create a confederacy of states in South America.
    • Helped Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama gain independence from Spain.

Analysis of Revolutionary Documents

  • Declaration of Independence:
    • Inspired by John Locke's principles of natural rights (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness).
    • Asserts the right to overthrow unjust governments.
  • French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen:
    • Reflects John Locke's ideas in Article 1.
    • Demonstrates Rousseau's ideas of the social contract in Articles IV and V.
  • Bolivar's Letter from Jamaica:
    • Reflects Locke's principles, emphasizing the government's contract to respect citizens' rights.

Enlightenment's Broader Impact

  • Challenged power structures concerning women and slavery.
Feminism
  • Sought equal rights for women, primarily suffrage (the right to vote).
  • Key Figures:
    • Olympe de Gouges: wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Women and Female Citizen.
    • Mary Wollstonecraft: advocated for women's education in "A Vindication of the Rights of Women."
  • Seneca Falls Convention (1848): a women's rights convention.
  • Patriarchy and denial of equal rights to women persisted.
  • Women gained the right to vote in the U.S. with the 19th Amendment in 1920.
Abolition of Slavery
  • Challenged the Atlantic slave trade.
  • Great Britain outlawed the trade of slaves and eventually slavery in its colonies.
  • The United States ended the slave trade in 1807 but abolished slavery after the Civil War with the 13th Amendment in 1865.

Industrial Revolution

Overview

  • Transition from making goods by hand to machine production.
  • Started in Great Britain due to:
    • Access to waterways and rivers.
    • Availability of coal, iron, and timber.
    • Improved agricultural productivity.
  • Key Technological Innovations:
    • Flying shuttle and spinning jenny (textile industry).
    • Cotton gin (cotton production).
    • Steam engine (power factories and transportation).
    • Locomotive and railroad.

First and Second Industrial Revolutions

  • First Industrial Revolution:
    • Age of mechanical production.
    • Machines replace hand labor.
  • Second Industrial Revolution:
    • Age of science and mass production (late 1800s).
    • New methods in production of steel, chemicals, electricity, and precision machinery.
    • Scientific principles applied in factories.
    • Assembly line and mass production.
    • Henry Ford's Model T (gasoline engine on an assembly line).
    • Inventions: light bulb, telegraph, and telephone.

Social and Economic Impact

  • New working middle class emerges.
  • Factory workers faced dangerous conditions, long hours, and low wages.
  • Rapid urbanization led to pollution, poverty, increased crime, and public health crises.
  • Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel's "The Communist Manifesto" critiqued capitalist exploitation.
  • Government regulations, wage laws, safety protocols, and labor unions addressed factory system issues.

Spread of Industrialization

  • Initially spread from Great Britain to France, Belgium, Germany, and the United States.
United States
  • Laissez-faire approach with few regulations.
  • Key industries: textiles, oil, steel, car making.
  • Rockefeller (Standard Oil), Carnegie (steel), Ford (Model T).
  • Gap between rich and poor, slum neighborhoods, exploitation of immigrants.
Russia
  • State-directed industrialization led by the government.
  • Focused on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, iron, shipbuilding, and steel.
  • The freeing of the serfs in 1861 provided a labor source.
  • An emerging middle class.

Global Impact

  • Decline in Middle Eastern and Asian manufacturing.
  • Shipbuilding and textile production shifted to Europe.
  • Newly independent Latin American countries focused on export industries (dependent development).
  • European imperialism in Africa and Asia led to resource exploitation.
China and The Ottoman Empire
  • China's Self-Strengthening Movement and the Ottoman's Tanzimat reforms aimed to address industrialization.
Japan
  • Previously isolated, Japan underwent state-supported industrialization after Commodore Matthew Perry's arrival in 1853.
  • The Meiji Restoration restored power to the emperor.
  • Built railroads, steamships, and factories.
  • Private corporations like Mitsubishi became wealthy.
  • Japan became imperialistic in Asia.

Conclusion

  • The period of 1750-1900 was revolutionary due to significant changes in political structures and production.
  • Continuities of gender inequality, racism, and exploitation of lower classes persisted.