Transcript Chapter 21: Revolutionary Changes in the Atlantic World, 1750-1850

Chapter 21: Revolutionary Changes in
Atlantic World, 1750-1850
Essential Question:
• How did the costs of imperial wars & the
Enlightenment challenge established
political structures & forms of governance
& religion in Europe & the American
colonies?
Prelude to Revolution:
Eighteenth-Century Crisis
• European rivalries increased
• Dutch attacked Spanish & Portuguese in Americas & Asia
• Britain:
– checked Dutch commercial & colonial ambitions
– defeated France-Seven Years War (1756–1763)
• French & Indian War in N. America
– took over French colonial possessions in Americas & India
• Huge costs drove them to seek new revenue
• Enlightenment inspired people to question & protest new ways of
collecting revenue
The Enlightenment & the Old Order
• Enlightenment thinkers applied methods & questions of
Scientific Revolution to study of human society
Enlightenment & Old Order
• Enlightenment encouraged
reform, not revolution
• Women were instrumental
• New ideas attracted
expanding middle class
• Americas viewed as new,
uncorrupted- progress would
come more quickly
• Benjamin Franklin was symbol
of natural genius & potential of
America
Folk Cultures & Popular Protest
• Most people didn’t support Enlightenment ideas
– tax reforms, etc. were violations of sacred customs
• violent protests meant to restore custom/precedent, not
revolutionary change
American Revolution, 1775–1800
• After French defeat in
1763, British faced two
problems
– Conflict between
settlers &
Amerindians
– need to pay debts &
defend colonies
• provoked protests in
colonies
• policies undermined
Amerindian economy
• led to attempts to restrict
settlement
• Proclamation of 1763
• Quebec Act of 1774
Road to Independence
• British government
tried to raise new
revenue
– Stamp Act of 1765
• Colonists organized
boycotts, staged
violent protests, and
attacked British
officials
– Boston Massacre
• East India Company
granted monopoly on
import of tea to the
colonies
– Boston Tea Party
Course of Revolution,
1775–1783
• Continental Congress formed
• Thomas Paine’s pamphlet
Common Sense & Declaration
of Independence
• Military sent to pacify colonies
– won most battles
– unable to control countryside
– unable to achieve compromise
political solution to problems
of colonies
Course of Revolution,
1775–1783
• Amerindians allies to both
sides
• France entered war as ally of
US in 1778
– Crucial to success
– naval support enabled
Washington to defeat
Cornwallis at Yorktown,
Virginia
• Treaty of Paris (1783), gave
unconditional independence
to former colonies
Construction of Republican Institutions,
to 1800
• colonies drafted written
constitutions
• Articles of Confederation
served as constitution for US
during & after war
• democratic but only minority of
adult male population could
vote
• protected slavery
French Revolution, 1789–1815
• Clergy/nobility controlled
most wealth
• Clergy exempt from taxes
• Third Estate, rapidly
growing, wealthy middle
class (bourgeoisie)
• peasants (80% of
population), suffered -poor
harvests
• violent protests-not
revolutionary
• expensive wars drove
France into debt
• kings introduced new taxes
& fiscal reforms to increase
revenue
• met with resistance
Protest Turns to Revolution,
1789–1792
• King called Estates General for approval of new taxes
• Third Estate & some members of First Estate declared National
Assembly-pledged to write constitution to incorporate popular
sovereignty
• As king prepared to arrest members of National Assembly, common
people of Paris rose up against government-peasant uprisings broke
out in countryside
• National Assembly issued Declaration of the Rights of Man
• As economic crisis grew worse, Parisian market women marched on
Versailles-captured king & family
• National Assembly passed new constitution -limited power of
monarchy, restructured French politics and society.
• Austria & Prussia threatened to intervene-National Assembly
declared war in 1791
The Terror, 1793–1794
• King’s attempt to flee, led to execution & formation of
new government, the National Convention, which was
dominated by radical Mountain faction of Jacobins, led
by, Robespierre
• Under Robespierre, executive power placed in hands of
Committee of Public Safety, militant feminist forces
repressed, new actions against clergy approved, &
suspected enemies imprisoned & guillotined
• In July 1794, conservatives in National Convention voted
to arrest & execute Robespierre
Reaction & Rise of Napoleon, 1795–1815
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Convention worked to undo radical reforms of Robespierre years, ratified a
more conservative constitution & created new executive authority, the
Directory
Directory’s suspension of election results of 1797 signaled end of republican
phase of revolution
Napoleon seized power in 1799-began another form of government: popular
authoritarianism
Napoleon provided internal stability & protection of personal/property rights
negotiated agreement w/ Catholic Church (Concordat of 1801)
Created Civil Code of 1804
declared himself emperor (also in 1804)
Napoleonic system denied basic political & property rights to womenrestricted speech & expression
stability depended on military & diplomacy
No single European state could defeat Napoleon– occupation of Iberian Peninsula turned into costly war w/ resistance
forces
– attack on Russia ended in disaster
Alliance of Russia, Austria, Prussia, & England defeated Napoleon in 1814
Haitian Revolution,
1789-1804
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1791-Slaves rebel, end slavery, create
Western Hemispheres second
independent nation; Haiti
French Saint Domingue was one of
richest European colonies in
Americas
one of most brutal slave regimes
political turmoil in France led to
conflict between slaves & gens de
couleur & whites
slave rebellion under François
Dominique Toussaint L’Ouverture
took over in 1794
Napoleon’s attempt to reestablish
French authority led to capture of
L’Ouverture- failed to retake colony
became independent republic of
Haiti in 1804
Congress of Vienna & Conservative
Retrenchment, 1815–1820
• From 1814 to 1815, Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria met in Vienna
to reestablish & safeguard the conservative order in Europe
• The Congress of Vienna
– restored the French monarchy
– redrew borders of France & other European states
– established Holy Alliance of Austria, Russia, Prussia
• Holy Alliance defeated liberal revolutions in Spain & Italy in 1820
• Tried, without success, to repress liberal & nationalist ideas
Nationalism, Reform, Revolution,
1821–1850
• Popular support for national self-determination & democratic reform
grew
• Greece gained independence from Ottoman Empire
• French monarchy forced to accept constitutional rule & extend
voting privileges
• Democratic reform in both Britain & in US
• In Europe, desire for national self-determination & democratic reform
led to series of revolutions in 1848
Conclusion: The American Revolution
• expense of colonial wars led to imposition of new taxes
on colonials
• Resentment over taxation led British American colonies
to fight & win independence
• New American government reflected for contemporaries
the democratic ideals of the Enlightenment
Conclusion: The French Revolution
• Revolutionaries in France created more radical
representative democracy than found in America
• Events in France led to Haitian Revolution &
Haiti’s independence
• Entrenched elite forces within & foreign
intervention from without, made French &
Haitian Revolutions more violent & destructive
than American Revolution
• In France, chaos led to rise of Napoleon
Aftermath of Revolution
• Conservative retrenchment after Napoleon prevailed in
the short term in Europe-nationalism & liberalism could
not be held in check for long
• New social classes that arose w/ industrial capitalism
demanded a new social & political order
• New political freedoms were limited to a minority
– Women could not participate until twentieth century
– slavery endured until second half of 19th century in America