Transcript Enlightenment, Revolution & Reaction

Enlightenment
American Revolution
French Revolution
Haitian Revolution
<Congress of Vienna>
and more revolutions………
The Enlightenment
Inspired by the Scientific Revolution
and the English Revolutions
All things have natural causes that
can be discovered by using
experimentation, observation and
reason
Deism
• The universe reflects a divine intelligence
• Divine Intelligence created the world to
function according to natural laws
• Divine Intelligence does not break [his] own
natural laws; does not interfere/intervene in
universe –
• Reason is our guide to understanding the
universe and so the Divine Intelligence also
• A few philosophes were atheists but most
were deists
• Why anti-Christianity?
• Saw it as perpetuating superstition, ignorance
and persecution
• So rejected miracles, Jesus’ divinity, clerical
authority, and that spiritual texts were from
God
Some philosophers:
• Hobbes, Locke, Voltaire,
Montesquieu, Rousseau
MATCH with Philosophers
• Power of the government should
be absolute
• Elite trick population into
accepting inequality
• Due process necessary
• Government derives from human
need
• No separation of church and state
• Freedom of speech
• Reason should drive government
decisions
• Separation of powers required
• A woman could head the gov’t
• Everyone’s rights should be
protected equally
• Focus on individual liberty
• Rejects divine right
• Anti-slavery
• Rights and liberties are created by
agreement of society
• Civilization has corrupted society
• Written during the English Civil War
• Subjects must accept abuses of
power
• No separation of powers
• People must put community before
private
• In the “State of Nature”, humanity is
free to do anything
• Religious toleration
• Based on Social Contract theory
• Purpose of government is to protect
people’s rights
Political spectrum
Rousseau
const.
monarchy
Hobbes
Divine
Right
Monarchy
“LEFT”
“RIGHT”
These terms arise during the French Revolutions
Enlightened Despotism
• A despot is an absolute ruler or autocrat
• An Enlightened despot was an absolute monarch
that tried to apply the principles of reason to their
rule – while still holding on to all their power!
– No constitution & no legislature
• Encouraged education, religious toleration,
organized, rational law code, tax reform, industry
• Catherine the Great of Russia
• Frederick the Great of Prussia
• Joseph II of Austria (&HRE)
• Expansion 
Impact of the Enlightenment
•
•
•
•
Laws based more on reason
Reduction of torture
Reliance on evidence for truth
Application of scientific method to study
of history, coins, chronology, linguistics
• Belief in progress
• Neo-classical art & architecture
• DESIRE FOR POLITICAL CHANGE
Neoclassical Art
Neoclassical Architecture
Monticello
University of Virginia
Milton High School!
Thomas Paine
• What techniques and allusions does
Paine use to draw people into his
argument against the English
government?
• Who is he trying to appeal to?
• Would the framers of the constitution
support his ideas?
The “American Revolution”
• What were the causes?
• How/why were the colonies able to defeat
Britain?
• Why/how were the Articles of Confederation
overturned (in a “coup d’etat”)
• What was the purpose of the Bill of Rights?
• How/why did the American Revolution impact
France?
The French Revolution
• Financial bankruptcy
• Meeting of the Estates General
• “rebellion” of the 3rd estate delegates
– “National Assembly”
– Tennis Court Oath
• Bastille
• Great Fear – peasant uprisings
• Women’s march to Versailles
The Oath of the Tennis Court
Reforms of the National Assembly
• Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen
• Constitutional Monarchy
• End to noble privilege and equality
before the law
• End of monopolies and guilds
• State control of the French Catholic
church
• Civil liberties
• Voting rights limited to men of property
Tri-couleur - French national Flag
Problems during the National Assembly
• Divisions in the legislature; Difficulty in getting
things done
• Dissatisfaction of supporters of the revolution
who had not seen their circumstances improve
• Clergy who refused to take an oath of loyalty to
the government
• Royal family caught trying to flee
• France went to war against Austria and Prussia
• inflation
• Propaganda
2nd Revolution
• Radicals in the legislature along with the sans
culottes of Paris:
• attack the royal palace
• Seize city government of Paris
• Seize control of the Legislature (National Assembly)
• Establish new government:
– French Republic;
– legislature: National Convention
Changes made by The Republic
•
•
•
•
•
•
No monarchy (king executed Jan 1793)
Universal male suffrage; abolition of slavery
Conscription/ military draft
Elimination of Catholic church
New calendar; no “Sunday”
Committee of Public Safety – to run the war and
guard against counterrevolutionaries inside
France/ one of the leaders: Robespierre
•  gov’t began reign of Terror – fear that the
revolution would be overthrown
David;
The Death
of Marat
Post-Reign of Terror
• New government more restrictive but still a
“Republic”
• Corruption, uprisings, ineffectual govt
• France still at war with everyone
• General Napoleon Bonaparte gains fame for
victories over Austria and in Egypt
• Coup d’etat by Napoleon - 1799
Napoleon
• Napoleon’s expansion of power:
– Consulate
– Consul for life
“Code Napoleon”
– Emperor of France (1804)
• Land:
– Netherlands, Italy, N. Germany, Spain
– Alliances with Prussia, Austria, Russia
• Only Britain kept fighting…
• Reorganized
Military
• Comprised of many
nationalities
• Viewed as “liberators”
• No looting & pillaging
• Loyal and proud – fighting
for “freedom”
– Liberte, egalite,
fraternite
• Won every land battle –
rapid movement of troops
(until 1813)
Why was Napoleon popular?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Land to peasants
Support for business (National Bank)
National board of education
Promotion on the basis of merit
Amnesty to nobles who had fled from France
Food at good prices for the people of Paris
Peace with the Catholic Church
STABILITY – tried to please everyone
• National pride

So what happened?
• Britain never gave up – caused continual
war & higher taxes
• Naval loss at Trafalgar (but followed by
•
•
•
•
HUGE land victory at Austerlitz)
Blockade against Britain became unpopular
Growing nationalism among non-French
groups
1812 - Invasion of Russia – devastating
1813 – loss at Leipzig to new coalition
Exile – return - exile
The French Monarchy
was restored but the
Code was retained
• Exiled to island of Elba
(made King of Elba)

• Returned and retook
France
• Defeated at Battle of
Waterloo (in Belgium)
• Exiled to St. Helena
(Middle of South
Atlantic) 
St. Helena
• Napoleon died 1821
– Cause?
• Body was moved
back to France 1840
Did Napoleon betray or preserve
the ideals of the French
Revolution?
Haitian Revolution
• French colony Saint-Domingue
• Plantocracy –
– Grand Blancs
– Petit Blancs
– Gens de couleur (mulattos)
– 90% African slaves (1/2 of all the slaves in the
Caribbean!)
• Gens de couleur wanted equality with the Blancs
(But NOT racial equality for blacks or the end to
slavery)
• Questions about authority
led to a slave rebellion
• Former slave Toussaint
L’Overture became a
leader
• 1792 – French Republic –
• 1791 -French
National Convention
National Assembly
abolished slavery
granted equality to
free blacks & gens de • Rebels joined the French
couleur
troops to enforce
• Grand Blancs refused • After the Terror, new
French government –
• conflict
reinstate slavery?
Toussaint L 'Overture
• T L’O led in creation of a
constitution 1801
• Napoleon reinstated
colonial slavery 1802
• T L’O was captured; died in
French prison
• But Napoleon’s troops
eventually withdrew (1804)
• 1804- 2nd new American
state!
Haiti
Problems in new Haiti
• Island destroyed by the wars
• Dominated by Gens de Couleur
• New elite sought to better their position at the
expense of the masses…
• Government corruption
• Isolated from slave states
• Lack of markets
• Lack of production
• Poverty
Congress of Vienna
Goals of the Congress
• Make a peace settlement
• legitimacy: restore “legal” governments
(hereditary monarchy)
• compensation: reward nations that helped
to defeat Napoleon
• balance of power: agree to keep any one
country from getting too powerful
• surround France with strong countries
Key Representatives…….
•
•
•
•
Austria: Count Metternich
Great Britain: Lord Castlereagh
Prussia: King Frederick William III
Russia: Czar Alexander I
• France: Talleyrand
1815
Post Vienna:
• Concert of Europe –cooperation among the big 5
• countries had regular meetings to settle
international problems
• Quadruple Alliance (B,P,R,A)
• Holy Alliance (P,R,A)
• “Metternich System”
• defend absolute monarchy
• stamp out nationalism and liberalism
• Metternich of Austria especially concerned
because revolutions would destroy the Austrian
Empire – comprised of multiple nationalities
But new forces grow in Europe
• Nationalism – national pride; the desire of
groups of people to have their own country and
independent government based on nationality
– Germans, Italians, Poles, Czechs, etc.
• Liberalism – based on the ideas of the
Enlightenment and the moderate French
Revolution; supported freedoms of speech,
press, religion & trade and equality before the
law
• So what was considered “radical”?
Impact of New Ideas
• Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire
• Belgium independent
• 1830 French revolution: Louis Philippe – the
“citizen” king
• 1848 Revolutions –
– Everywhere
– Desire for independent or unified state
Or
– Desire for political reforms
• Only Britain and Russia did not have a revolution
in 1848
1830 French Revolution
Napoleon III
(Napoleon’s nephew)
President in 1848
Emperor 1851-1871
Britain
• Had instituted some reforms:
• Parliamentary reform- 1832 (more middle
class voters)
• Ended the Corn Laws
Russia
• Nicholas I: Severe repression 1825 continued
until 1855
• So both avoided revolutions in 1848, but for
different reasons
The Industrial Revolution!!!
Began in Great Britain