unit five ap world - heimler (not finished)

1750-1900

The enlightenment 

An intellectual movement that applied new ways of understanding such as rationalism and empiricrst approaches to both the natural world and human relationships 

  • Rationalism 

  • Reason rather than emotion or any external authority is the most reliable source of true knowledge 

  • Empiricism

    • The idea that true knowledge is gained through the senses mainly through rigorous experimentation 

These ideas developed during the scientific revolution that occurred in europe in the 16th and 17th century 

  • During this revolution scientists tossed biblical and religious suthority out the window and used the rigorous process of reason to discover how the world really worked

Enlightenment was similar to this revolution but they applied the methods to the study of human society 

  • Something very important for the enlightenment was the questioning and reexamination of the role of religion

  • The enlightenment represented a significant shift of authority

  • The enlightenment began in europe where most people were christian and where the church had been an instrument of state power for a long time 

  • According to englihgtment thinkers christianity is a revealed religion which means that the words of the bible along with all its commands was revealed by God and therefore could not be questioned 

New belief systems   

  • Deism 

    • Exceedingly popular among enlightenment thinkers 

    • Believed that there was a God but a God that created all things and then no longer intervened in the created order 

  • Atheism

    • Complete rejection of religious belief and any notion of divine beings 

New enlightenment ideas 

Political

  • Individualism

    • The most basic element of society was the individual human and not collective groups 

  • Natural rights 

    • Individual humans are born with certain rights and that cannot be infringed upon by governments or any other entity 

    • John lock argued every human being was born witht the natural rights of life,liberty and property

    • And that those rights were endowed by God and if those rights were given by God then those rights cant be taken away from a monarch 


  • Social contract

    • Human societies endowed with natural rights must construct governments of their own will to protect their natural rights 

    • If the government is eh then the people have the rights to overturn the government and establish a new one


Effects of enlightenment ideas 

  • Major revolutions 

    • Including the american, french, haitian, and latin american revolutions

The englightements emphasis on the rejection of established traditions and new ideas about how political power ough to work played a significant role in each of these great upheavals 

  • Those revolutions in turn created the conditions for the intensification of nationalism across the world

Nationalism

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


  • The expansion of suffrage in some places

    • The right to vote

    • After the american revolution only landed white males could vote but in the early 18th century laws were passed that recognized the right of all white males to vote and then in 1870 black males had gained the right to vote

      • Enlightment ideas like liberty and equality were revered in america as part of the cultural heritage beginning with a declaration of independence 

  • Abolition of slavery 

    • Great britiain abolished slavery in 1834 due to an abolitionist movement 

      • Massive slave revolt known as the great jamaican revolt occured in british jamaica and the scale and casualties of that rebellion played a significant role in britains decision to abolish slavery throughout their empire

  • Ends of serfdom

    • In the midst of the transition from agricultural to industrial economies during the industrial revolutions surfs which were peasants bound in coerced labor became more and more unnecessary to economic flourishing 

    • Peasant revolts in various places induced state leader in england and france and russia to abolish surfism 

  • Calls for women suffrage 

    • Feminist movement emerged 

    • Women began to demand equality in all areas of life

Causes of revolutions

  • Nationalism

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

Some states attempted to use this growing nationalistic fervor to their advantage in order to foster a sense of unity among their people

  • They did this by nationalist themes, public rituals, military service

  • Political dessent 

    • Widespread disconetent with monarchist and imperial rule 

These revolutions took place in the context of a much more generalized rejection of authority across the world 

Safavid empire

  • Tried to impose harsh new taxes and was met with rebellion from various nomadic groups on the edges of the empire and that resistance led to the weakening of the safavid state so much that in the early 18th century outside invaders officially put an end to the safavids

  • New ways of thinking

    • The development of new ideologies and systems of government 

New ideologies 

  • Popular sovereignty 

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

  • Democracy

    • People have the right to vote and influence the policies of the governent 

  • Liberalism

    • An economic and political ideologu that emphesized the protection of civil rights representative governemtn, the protection of private property and economic freedom 


The atlantic revolutions

New ideologies

  • American revolution 

    • Began in 1776

    • British had established 13 colonies in north america on the atlantic coast and bc britain was so far removed from these colonies by the giant fricking ocean the colonies independently developed a culture, system of government and economic framework wihtout interference from britain 

    • After the seven years war britians debt was substantial 

    • Thats when britiain decided to clamp down on those colonies and get them to pay for that war with a bunch of taxes

    • Bc of the imposition of new taxes, the curtailemnt of freedoms and adoption of enlightenment principles the american revolution began

    • The enlightenment principles are in full desplay in the declaration of independance

    • With help from france the americans won the war and the us was born in 1783

This victory was a real big deal because it provided the template for other nations throughout the world for a successful overthrow of oppressive power and the establishment of a republican style government 

  • French revolution

    • Began in 1789

    • France played a big part in the american revolution and as french soldiers returned home from war many of them were inflamed with ideals of democracy and started looking at their own stupid absolutist king with suspicion 

    • So when louis the 16th attempted to tighten his control over france in order to pay for his own enormous war debts the people of france rebelled and went ahead and overthrew the governemnt and established a republic 

    • Enlightenment ideas influenced the declaration of the rights or man and citizen 

    • Abolished the french monarchy


  • Haitian revolution

    • Began in 1791

    • Haiti was the colonial property of france and it happened to be the most prosperous colony in the whole world

    • So when the isnaldns majority enslaved black population heard about french revolutionaries calling for liberty and equality they were like the frick i want that 

    • Under the reladership of toussaint louverture the enslaved haitians revolted and eventually defeated the french establishing the second republic in the western hemisphere after the united states and the first black governemnt in this region


  • Latin american revolutions

    • Spanish and portuguese colonies throughout central and south america were similarly influenced by enlightenment ideas and began to resent the increasing control their imperial parents were exerting upon them 

    • Was especially present in the creoles class which was made up of those who were of european heritage but were bron in the americas and on the racial hierchy in the americas that put them in the second below the peninsulares who were of european heritage and born in europe

    • They were not happy that the penninsulares were getting all the power 

    • In 1808 napoleans invasion of spain and deposition of the portuguese monarch created an unstable political situation in the america colonies and that created the occasion for the revolution in latin america and so creole military leaders like simon bolivar appealed to colonial subjects across racial lines with enlightement ideals which he summarized in his letter from jamaica and that document just like the other revolutionary documents weve considered contained appeals to popular sovereighenghty  and the right to self rule along the various spanish colonies 

    • Through a series of long and protracted wars one latin american colony after another won its independence and many of them formed republican governments in its weight 

Other nationalist movements 

While nationalism was a prime factor in the full-blown revolutions we just talked about there were also many other nationalist movements that resulted not in revolution but calls for a higher degree of self-rule in some cases and national unification in other cases 

Propaganda movement

  • Philippines 

  • Also a spanish colony 

  • They imposed a similar racial hierchy here as they did in their american colonies 

  • The spanish controled opportunities for education 

  • Meant only the wealthy creoles and mestizos got university education 

  • European was a wash in nationalist and enlighenment ideas and some of those filipino students absorbed those ideas and brought them right on home so they started publishing these like crazy 

  • Spain was like nah and they tried to suppress the movement and as a result the philippine revolution broke out at the end of the century 

  • Then nationalism played a major role in the unification of italy and germany

  • Both italy and germany were made up of dozen of fragmented states but undet the influence of nationalism military leaders from both nation inspired their respective populations to come togtehr and unify each place under a single government

  • Through a combo of dimplomacy and military tactics it resulted in the unification of these fragmented regions 


Industiral revolution defined 

  • The process by which states transiitoned from primarily agrarian economies to industrial economies

  • Goods for sale went from being made by hand to manufactured 

The industrial revolution findametally changed the worlds balance of political power,reordered societies, and made industrial nations rich 


Why great britian came first

  • The industrial revolution started in great britian around 1760

    • Proximity to waterways 

    • Geographical distribution of coal and iron 

The first phase of the industrial revolution would be powered by the burning of coal 

  • Britain had the profound geographical luck to have a bunch of coal buried underneath their soil 

  • Increased efficiency in the production of iron

  • Which they used to make bridges and railroads which contributed to their rapid industrialization


  • Abudant acces to foreign resources 

    • Britain had a massive maritime empire so they had a lot of access to raw material 

      • North american nolonies provided timber

      • India gave them cotton

  • Improved agricultural productivity 

Prior to the industrial revolution many places in europe especially britain experienced an agricultural revolution in which the amount of food grown on farms increased significantly

Agricultural revolution

  • Crop rotation

    • Kept part of the land unplanted so the fertility of the soil would be maintained 

  • Seed drill

    • Ensured seeds could be planted more efficiently and accuraretly which led to less waste and greater harvests

The new foods that come from the columbian exchange also made an impact the potato was introduced to europe from the americas and this high caloric food diversified their diets especially along impoverished folks in rural areas and that in turn made them healthier and increased their life expectancy 

  • Made a spike in the european population


  • Rapid urbanization 

    • Massive rural to urban migration