AP World History - Unit 5: Revolutions

The Enlightenment

• 17th and 18th centuries - humankind in relation to government

• Divine Right: church allied with strong monarchs, monarchs believed they were ordained by God to rule - people had moral/religious obligation too obey

  • Question of ultimate authority
  • Mandate of Heaven in China - had to rule justly to be appreciated in heaven

• Social contract: governments not formed by divine decree, but to meet social and economic needs

• Philosophers of the age:

  1. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): government should preserve peace/stability - all powerful rule who ruled heavy-handed
  2. John Locke (1632-1704): men are all born equal, mankind is good and rational - primary role of government was to secure and guarantee natural rights and revolting is justified if not
  3. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778): all men are equal, society organized according to general will of people - government is protection by community and both being free
  4. Voltaire (1694-1778): espoused idea of religious toleration
  5. Montesquieu (1689-1775): separation of powers among branches of government
  6. David Hume (1711-1776): lack of empirical evidence casts doubt on religion
  7. Adam Smith (1723-1790): an “invisible hand” will regulate economy if it is left alone
  8. Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797): women should have political rights, including voting and holding office
  9. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): knowledge exists beyond what is deduced from use of only observation or only reason
  10. Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794): criminals retain some rights and state should not practice cruel punishment

• Enlightened monarchs: utilized ideas of tolerance, justice, improving quality of life

• Neoclassical Period: middle of 18th century - imitated style of ancient Greek/Roman architecture

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Enlightenment Revolutions in the Americas and Europe

American Revolution

• British defeated France over American territory - French and Indian War/Seven Years’ War - pushed France to northern territory
• Americans revolting against British rulership
• British passed laws on behalf of Crown for the American colonizers (George Grenville, Charles Townshend)
  • Revenue Act (1764), Stamp Act (1765), Tea Act (1773) intended to raise funds for British government
• Colonizers opposed these laws and began battling British troops shortly after - Boston Tea Party (1773): colonists dumping imported tea in harbour to protest Tea Act
• Thomas Paine: wrote Common Sense, encouraging colonizers to form a better government than the monarchy - 6 months later the Declaration of Independence was signed
• France joined forces with Americans in 1777 and defeated the British in 1781 and the American democracy was created

French Revolution

• France was running out of money from monarch spending, wars, and droughts - Louis XVI proposed raising taxes to the Estates-General (governing body infrequently called by the kings)

  1. First Estate: clergy
  2. Second Estate: noble families
  3. Third Estate: everyone else
  • Representatives from each estate

• Third Estate was facing being shut out of new constitution - formed National Assembly in 1789 out of protest and peasants stormed the Bastille shortly after

• Declaration of the Rights of Man - adopted by National Assembly in 1789 and caused big changes in French government structure

• Established a constitutional monarchy at first, but new constitution development led to the Convention being the new ruling body - France become a republic (led by Jacobins who later beheaded the king)

• Convention threw out constitution again and created Committee of Public Safety: enforcer of revolution and murdered any anti-revolution people

  • led by Maximilien Robespierre

• French beheaded Robespierre in 1795 and established another new constitution with the Directory as the government

  • Built up military, with Napoleon Bonaparte as one of the generals

• Napoleon overthrew the Directory in 1799 - Napoleonic Codes (1804) recognized equality of men, dissolved the Holy Roman Empire with French military and fought other countries who eventually met to overthrow him (Prince von Metternich, Alexander I of Russia, Duke of Wellington)

  • Defeated him at Waterloo in 1813 and met at Congress of Vienna to discuss what to do with France

• Congress of Vienna:

  • Balance of power should be maintained among powers of Europe
  • Tried to erase French Revolution

Haiti:

• France enslaved many Haitians, who eventually revolted successfully, led by Pierre Toussaint L’Ouverture
  • Jacques Dessalines, a former slave, became governor-general in 1804

South America

• Napoleon invaded Spain and appointed his brother Joseph Bonaparte to the throne -
  • Colonists ejected French governor and appointed own leader in Venezuela, Simón Bolívar, who eventually helped them declare independence from Spain in 1811
• Established a national congress, but was also opposed by Spanish royalists, who declared a civil war
• Bolívar won freedom for Gran Colombia (Columbia, Ecuador, Venezuela)
• José de San Martin: took command of Argentinian, Chilean, Peruvian armies, and defeated many Spanish forces to also declare independence from Spain

Brazil

• John VI of Portugal fled to Brazil when Napoleon invaded Portugal -
  • His son Pedro became the emperor of Brazil and declared it independent with a constitution
  • His son Pedro II took over and abolished slavery

Mexico

• priest Miguel Hidalgo led a revolt against Spanish rule in 1810, who was later killed by them
  • Jose Morelos picked up where he left off
• Independence achieved in 1821 - Treaty of Cordoba: Spain recognizing their 300-year-old control of Latin America was ending
• Neocolonialism: independent nations still controlled by economic and political interests
  • Riches accumulated often stayed within wealthy landowning class
  • Mexican Revolution: protest of neocolonialism - rejection of Porfirio Diaz’s dictatorship to protest impoverished conditions

Other resistance movements:

1. Peru
   • Tupac Amaru II led a revolt against Spanish occupiers and inspired further resistance movements
2. West Africa
   • Samory Toure led resistance against French colonizers and inspired further resistance
3. US
   • Sioux resisted the US government invading their land, but were shot at during their protests
4. Sudan
   • Muhammad Ahdam led Mahadists in a revolt against colonial rule of Egypt but was stopped by the British

• Slavery still existed in independent nations as well as class inequalities
• Catholic Church still dominated

Comparison of Independence Movements

Industry and Imperialism

• Industrial revolution in Britain can not be separated from Imperialism

• Industrial countries gained power quickly to exploit colony resources

• Industrial Revolution: began in Britain in 19th century - spread through Europe, Japan, US

• Agricultural output increased significantly again - more people moved to cities

  • Enclosure: public lands that were shared for farming became enclosed by fences
  • New farming technologies
  • Urbanization was natural - London grew to over 6 million people

• Domestic system (most work being done on farms or at home or at small shops) preceded

• New advancements that changed production:

  1. Flying shuttle: sped up waving process
  2. Spinning jenny: spinning vast amounts of thread
  3. Cotton gin: invented by Eli Whitney - processed massive amounts of cotton quickly
  4. Steam engine - Thomas Newcomer, James Watt
  5. Steamship - Robert Fulton
  6. Steam-powered Locomotive - George Stephenson
  7. Telegraph: communication with great distances in seconds
  8. Telephone - Alexander Graham Bell
  9. Lightbulb
  10. Internal Combustion Engine for cars
  11. Radio

• Also major developments in medicine and science, theory of natural selection (Charles Darwin)

• Rapid creation of products was done in factories

  • Interchangeable parts: machines could be replaces or fixed quickly
  • Assembly line: each worker had one small part in production - man became the machine
  • Workers were overworked, underpaid, and working in unsafe conditions - child labour was common
  • Despairing conditions

• Formation of new social classes - aristocrats were those rich from industrial success, middle class of skilled professionals, huge working class

• Adam Smith: success achieved through private ownership and free market system (capitalism) - governments removed from regulation = laissez-faire capitalism

  • Start of stock market and other financial instruments

• Karl Marx: The Communist Manifesto - working class take over means of production and all resources would be equally - Marxism was foundation for socialism and communism

  • Luddites: workers who destroyed equipment in middle of night to protest working conditions
  • Marxism mixed with capitalist thought to create partly socialist systems in many places

• Major split among intellectuals and policymakers in regards to response to inhumane factory conditions

• Factory Act of 1883: limited hours of each workday, restricted children from working, factory owners had to make conditions safer

  • Labour Unions: vehicles for employees to bargain for better conditions
  • Living conditions improved - middle class became larger, public education increased, social mobility became more common
  • Slave trade abolished in 1807 in Britain
  • Women became more limited to their traditional roles

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Nationalist Movements and Other Developments

• Nationalism was strong after Napoleonic era

• France, Spain, Portugal, Britain, Russia had unified

• Italy and Germany, which were city-states took longer to unify and alter balance of European power

  • Italy: Count Camillo Cavour named prime minister of Sardinia by Victor Emmanuel II who pushed for nationalism - after Giuseppe Garibaldi, another nationalist overthrew other Italian kingdoms, a lot of Italy was unified in 1861
  • Germany: Prussia, which controlled a lot of present-day Germany, under the rule of William I who appointed Otto von Bismarck as prime minister, defeated Austria and engaged in the Franco-Prussian War to create the new German Empire
  • New emperor William II forced Bismarck to resign and built a huge military force

• Other Nationalist Movements:

  

• Russia:

  • Romanov czars had absolute power in 19th century
  • Alexander II began reforms - Emancipation Edict: abolished serfdom but had little effect
  • Small middle class began to emerge which led to an intellectual political group The People’s Will assassinating Alexander II
  • In response, Alexander III started Russification: all had to learn the Russian language and convert to Russian Orthodoxy

• Ottoman Empire: was at danger of collapse so Britain and France worked to maintain it to prevent Russia from gaining control over Mediterranean

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The Growth of Nationalism

• Desire of people of common cultural heritage to form independent nation-state/empires that protects their cultural identity
• Had major influence and effects all over the world

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