Transcript Revolutions Reshape th World, 1750-1870

Revolutions Reshape the World,
1750-1870
Chapter 21
Revolutionary Change
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USA
France
Haiti
Latin America
Causes: wars to pay for and ideas of the
Enlightenment challenge the old order
• Effects: revolutions in one country helped
incite them elsewhere (for 2 centuries)
Personal Favorite--Haiti
• Free blacks, gens de couleur, served in the American
Revolution as part of France’s support of us
• Returned to Haiti and began an insurrection
• In the following decade they abolished slavery, defeated
military forces from both Britain and France and achieved
independence
• Toussaint L’Ouverture led the insurrection, organized
factions and the military, negotiated with France and
Britain and wrote the constitution
• A hero to slave resistance everywhere
• Captured and died in a French prison…
• Haiti’s successful revolt will be denounced by American
slave owners and slavery sympathizers into the present
Prelude to Revolution
Crisis in the 18th Century
• Colonial wars—in the 17th century the Dutch attacked the American and
Asian colonies of Spain and Portugal and seized parts Portugal’s empire in
Brazil and Angola. Great Britain attacked Spanish fleets and seaports in
the Americas
• Meaning it was necessary to protect trade routes and distant colonies,
which was expensive
• But the big fight was in the 18th century between France and England
• Which was a fight for political eminence in Western Europe and colonial
territories in Asia and the Americas
• The cost of these wars made them quite different from earlier wars and
traditional means of raising revenue were inadequate
• In 1763 the war debt in England was 137 M pounds, when the British total
budget before the war was 8 M pounds
• And this was the Enlightenment—ways to cover the debt were debated
The Enlightenment vs the Old Order
• Attempts to systematize knowledge as in Diderot’s Encyclopedia,
Linnaeus’ taxonomy and Samuel Johnson’s English dictionary
• Other thinkers questioned the long-established religious and
political institutions of Europe
• If scientists could understand nature through disciplined thought,
why couldn’t philosophers create more fair, and productive states?
• John Locke 1632-1704, argued in 1690 that governments were
created to protect life, liberty and property and that individual
rights were the foundation of civil government
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) argued that the will of the
people was sacred and that legitimacy of rule depended on the will
of the people
• Not all Enlightenment thinkers as radical as Rousseau and Locke,
but generally they were hostile to the existing institutions of the
Church and the States of Europe at the time
More
• Some European rulers embraced, or flirted, with
Enlightenment ideas, especially if reforms served Royal
interests
• But outright calls for reforms were usually suppressed
• Enlightenment thinkers met and corresponded with each
other, and could help a philosopher relocate if they faced
arrest
• Women were involved in the discussion generally by
holding “salons” in their homes
• The expanding middle class followed the debate through
printed books and pamphlets
• Much of the debate took place in the thousands of coffee
houses that sprung up in Europe in the 1700’s
Many Followed the Americas
• Some dismissed the Americas as barbaric, but
others were very interested in her Native People
• And in the British Colonists who seemed bot be
accomplishing a good deal in an environment
that was free some old world institutions
• Benjamin Franklin was a favorite of European
intellectuals—a man of science, a printer, and
inventor, a political activist
• Americans debated the legitimacy of colonialism
Sometimes
• What European intellectuals wanted was in conflict
with popular folk culture customs and activities
• Harvest festivals, religious festivals, county fairs were
popular celebrations of life and play where the gentry
and clergy were mocked
• Drinking and gambling, bearbaiting and a variety of not
terribly “rational” or attractive activities were
important parts of preindustrial mass culture
• Attempting to replace them with more civic rituals and
patriotic activities met with riots and protests
• Spontaneous popular uprisings did not always coincide
with the Enlightenment vision
The American Revolution 1775-1800
• Clumsy attempts to raise taxes outraged a
populace used to local autonomy
• The British were also worried about new
conflicts with Amerindians as settlers moved
west and they set firm limits on how far west
into Indian lands settlers could go—many
settlers had already gone beyond this
boundary and they lost their lands
• But it was the taxes that started the conflict
Accelerating Protests
• Attempts to tax the colonists resulted in protests
and boycotts
• The Massachusetts legislature was closed and
British troops were sent to quell violence
• Some taxes repealed; a small one remained on
tea, and when 3 ships of low cost tea arrived in
Boston it was dumped into the harbor as a
protest
• Britain closed the port of Boston and threw
thousands out of work
The Revolution
• The Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in 1775, after blood
had been shed at Lexington and Concord
• They assumed the powers of government, made a currency and
raised an army led by George Washington
• In 1776 they sent the Declaration of Independence to London
• The British sent 50,000 British troops and 30,000 mercenaries, a
large force for the time
• They occupied the cities but could not control the countryside
• On the frontier, both sides feared the Iroquois Confederacy, who
ended up divided and as a result of the war lost their lands
• Decisive American victories at Saratoga and Yorktown end the war,
but it takes 2 years to negotiate the terms of the peace
Creating the Structures of a Republic
• During the war states created new state constitutions
and ratified them by popular votes—fascinating to
European intellectuals
• Harder to draft a national constitution
• The Articles of Confederation created one legislature
where each state had one vote—simple majority for
most legislation but 9 votes required to raise taxes,
borrow money, declare war, make a currency
• The legislature was unable to get much done, in
particular they couldn’t figure out how to pay the war
debt
• So they met to discuss the problem
The Constitution
• The people who met secretly worked out the
details of a completely new Constitution
• Debate focused on representation, electoral
procedures, executive powers and relations
between this new powerful federal government
and the states
• Only a minority of the adult population had full
political rights, slavery was protected and the
slave trade was continued for 20 years, and there
was a clause that required all states to return
runaway slaves
The French Revolution
1789-1815
• Turns out that paying off the war debt causes
revolution in France as well as in the US
• Structural problems with taxes
• Louis the XVI calls a meeting of the Estates
General—a meeting of the three estates,
which has not met in 175 years
• May 5, 1789 at Versailles
3 Estates—each with one vote
• First Estate—the Roman Catholic Clergy, own 10% of the land, pay a
tax of 2%
• Second Estate—the nobles—about 2% of the total population, own
20% of the land and paid almost no taxes
• Third Estate—Commoners 97% of the population, paid almost all of
the taxes
• Made up of an educated, professional class—the bourgeosie.
Loved Englightenment ideas
• And poor, urban workers, often out of work and hungry
• And the peasants (80% of France’s population) who paid about half
of what they made (grew) in dues to nobles, tithes to the church,
and taxes to the King
• The old middle ages structure of those who pray, those who fight
and those who work
Two Votes to One
• The Third Estate wishes the First and Second
Estates to pay more taxes
• But the First and Second Estates vote against
this
• So the Third Estate leaves the Estates General
and forms
Phase 1-The National Assembly
• Vote to end the monarchy
• And vow to meet until a constitution is written
• Riots in Paris, the Bastille is stormed (July 14,
1789) and then panic (The Great Fear) and
riots in the countryside) suggests to the “Old
Regime” that things must change
• August 4, 1789 nobles join to agree the Old
Regime is dead
So What will the New Regime
Be Like?
• Declaration of the Rights of Man and the
Citizen—men are born and remain free and
equal in rights
• “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”
• A State-Controlled Church—confiscated
church lands will pay off that debt. This upset
the peasants.
• What about the King? He tries to escape and
is arrested
Phase 2-Constitution
• A Limited Monarchy? New constitution completed in
September 1791
• Legislative Assembly makes laws, raises taxes, but the
king enforces laws
• Factions develop in the Legislative Assembly
• Radicals—more change, big change
• Moderates—some change
• Conservatives-few changes, limited monarchy…
• Nobles who had fled France wanted the monarchy
back, the people of the streets wanted More, Big
Change
Phase 3—War and Executions
• The rest of Europe’s monarchies watched in
horror at the events of the revolution
• War declared with Austria and Prussia
• Mob imprisons the King, Queen and their
children
• Legislative Assembly sets aside the Constitution
and elects a new legislature, the National
Convention—all adult males vote in this election,
September 1792
• They elect Radicals, who want BIG CHANGE
What kind of Big Change?
• Close Churches, insist that priests take wives
• Promote instead of Catholicism a “Cult of
Reason” an alternative to Christianity
• Make a ten-day week with no religious
observances
• Allowed women to divorce and to inherit
property
• Confiscation of some property of the nobility
• And frequent use of the guillotine, a “rational”
device for execution
More Phase 3
• January 1793, the king is beheaded
• Continuing war—England, Holland and Spain
join Austria and Prussia
• France creates an army by drafting citizens
between 18-40
• “Enemies of the Revolution” tried and
executed (1793-4) 40,000 are thought to have
been executed, 85% were from the third
estate.
Phase 4-The Directory
• Moderate men of property take power in 1795
• They create an assembly, but power is held in the
hands of a committee of 5, called the Directory
• Restore some order
• One appointed member of the Directory will be
Napoleon Bonaparte
• Success as a general, ending domestic rioting, but
also defeating those various armies in various
battles
• He will seize all power in 1799
Phase 5-Napoleon as Emperor
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Defeats enemies
Conquers Spain, Italy, Austria, controls most of Europe
Restores economy
National Bank
Makes peace with the Church
Creates a comprehensive law code
Invades Russia 1812 with the largest army ever assembled in
Europe 600,000
• Only 30,000 will make it back to France
• Austria, Prussia and England will defeat Napoleon and sent him into
exile in 1814
• The next year he will return for one more battle and defeat at
Waterloo, and be exiled again where he dies in 1821
Conservatives Respond 1789-1850
• In 1814-1815 representatives of Britain, Russia,
Austria, Prussia and other Europeans meet at the
Congress of Vienna to reestablish political order
in Europe
• Most of the old monarchies had been overturned
and replaced by others, often Napoleons siblings
• Long established borders gone
• The wily Austrian diplomat Prince Klemens de
Metternich created a peace settlement that
restored the conservative order of Europe for 100
years—then all hell will break out with WWI
More Congress of Vienna
• Metternich believed it was essential to create a strong
and stable France. He restored the Monarchy,
recognized France’s 1792 borders, although most allies
received some territory
• But he also believed France’s power had to be offset by
Austria, Russia and Prussia
• Austria, Russia and Prussia actively worked to repress
revolutionary and nationalist movements within their
own borders and also
• In 1820 when liberal revolutions broke out in Spain and
Italy they used force to put them down
• The ideas were not dead, although suppressed
Nationalism and Reform
• Despite attempts to suppress ideas about national selfdetermination and democratic reforms did not work
• Greece fought for independence from the Ottoman Empire and was
successful (1830)
• In France Louis XVI’s brother ruled within constitutional limits from
1814 until his death in 1824—his brother took over and repudiated
the constitution, a mass uprising in Paris made him abdicate in
1830. France will have another revolution in 1848 which will pit
workers against the middle class and ultimately establish nothing
• In Britain the aristocracy agreed to a series of laws that increased
the power of the House of Commons and increased the number of
voters by 50%
• Nationalist movements in Hungary, Bohemia, and Italy press for
more autonomy from the Austria-Hungarian Empire with little
effect