In-Depth Notes on Enlightenment and Revolutions

The Enlightenment

  • Definition: An intellectual movement in the 18th century that applied rationalism and empiricism to understand the natural and human world.
  • Context: Builds on findings of the Scientific Revolution (14th century) to challenge why humans cannot be understood similarly.

Challenges to Status Quo

  • Role of Religion: Authority of a higher power questioned, reducing the influence of religion in public life.
  • Importance of the Individual: Shift towards individual rights and the concept of natural rights.
  • Social Contract: Encouraged overthrowing tyrannical governments, promoting the idea that governance is derived from the consent of the governed.
  • Popular Sovereignty: Power to rule should belong to the people.
  • Democracy & Liberalism: Rise of democratic ideals advocating for civil rights, representative governance, and protection of private property and trade.
  • Political Discontent: Enlightenment ideas symbolized growing unrest with monarchies and imperial rule, leading to various revolutions (c. 1750-1900).

Nationalism

  • Definition: A sense of shared culture, language, or customs often focused on common challenges or enemies, fostering unity among people.
  • Expansion of Suffrage: After the American Revolution, the right to vote expanded beyond just white land-owning males, initially to all white males, then to black males by 1900.

Impact on Women

  • Feminism Movement: Emerged calling for women’s suffrage and equality, exemplified by Olympe de Gouges' Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen.
  • Rights Critique: Criticism of the French Constitution for excluding women’s rights.

Impact on Coerced Labor

  • Natural Rights and Liberty: Ideas led to the abolition of slavery in the Americas and serfdom in Russia.

The Atlantic Revolutions

  • American Revolution: Feared unfair British governance, led to a successful democratic revolution influenced by Enlightenment ideals.
  • Declaration of Independence: Embodies Enlightenment philosophy discussing social contracts and popular sovereignty.
  • Effects: Established a democratic-republic model serving as a blueprint for others.

Haitian Revolution

  • Causes: Inspired by Enlightenment ideas and the French Revolution, enslaved populations, led by Toussaint Louverture, revolted to free themselves from French control.
  • Effects: Created the first black republic in the western hemisphere and the only successful large-scale slave rebellion.

Latin American Revolutions

  • Causes: Influenced by Enlightenment ideas and resentment towards Spanish and Portuguese control, further exacerbated by Napoleon's impact on Spain and Portugal.
  • Effects: Long wars led to independence and republican governments throughout Latin America.

Industrial Revolution

  • Environmental, Political, and Economic Factors Contributing to Industrialization:
    1. Proximity to water for transportation.
    2. Geographic distribution of coal, iron, and timber.
    3. Access to foreign resources (e.g., cotton from India).
    4. Improved agricultural productivity supporting population growth.
    5. Urbanization leading to labor supply in factories.
    6. Legal protections for private property encouraging entrepreneurship.
    7. Accumulation of capital from colonial ventures.

Changes in Production

  • Factory System: Transition from artisanal to mass production in factories, often water-powered or later steam-powered, leading to specialized labor.
  • Global Manufacturing Shift: Industrialized regions increased global manufacturing share with non-industrialized regions declining.