Atlantic Revolutions, Global Echoes Chapter 16, 1750 – 1900

Atlantic Revolutions in a Global Context From the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century, a series of uprisings shook states and empires from Russia to China, and from Persia to West Africa. Some historians see these as part of a global crisis. While the Atlantic revolutions did not occur in a vacuum, there were several aspects of the American, French, Haitian, and Latin American revolutions that make them distinct. Importantly, these revolutions show how Europe, the Americas, and Africa were increasingly inter-connected in the post-Columbian world. The intellectual impact of the Enlightenment created a trans-Atlantic print culture, where ideas were exchanged and debated. John Locke (1632–1704) argued that humans should create social contracts between the people and the government; emphasizing liberty and equality.

Atlantic Revolutions in a Global Context (Cont’d) The Atlantic revolutions all shared a strong democratic impulse and outcome. While, with the exception of Haiti, all the revolutions promoted the interests of white men of property, they did greatly expand political participation throughout their societies. While the immediate events of the Atlantic revolutions were local political acts and events, their impact was truly global, setting the terms and parameters of political debates well into the 20th century. Nationalism became the most potent political ideology of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The North American Revolution, 1775 – 1787 The facts are well-known. But the question is “what changed?” Until the mid-18th century, British colonials had autonomy: - they saw it as a birthright. - they aimed at preserving their liberties as Englishmen rather than gaining new ones. Pre-revolution North America already had a quasi-egalitarian society: no aristocracy or single church.

The North American Revolution, 1775 – 1787 (Cont’d) Britain’s national debt (1763) was £132,716,049 sterling: - imposed a number of new taxes and tariffs. - colonists were not represented in Parliament. - denied the colonists’ identity as true Englishmen. - challenged colonial economic interests. - attacked established traditions of local autonomy. British North America was revolutionary for the society that had already emerged, not for the revolution itself.

The North American Revolution, 1775 – 1787 (Cont’d) No significant social transformation came with independence. Accelerated democratic tendencies that were already established: - political power remained in the hands of existing elites. - property requirements for voting were lowered. - property rights and popular sovereignty remained intact. Many Americans felt they were creating a new world order: - some acclaimed the United States as “the hope and model of the human race.” - declaration of the “right to revolution” inspired other colonies around the world. - the U.S. Constitution was one of the first sustained efforts to put Enlightenment political ideas into practice.

Map of the New American Republic

The French Revolution, 1789 – 1815 Thousands of French soldiers fought for the Americans. France was going bankrupt: - Louis XVI called the Estates General (legal orders: clergy, nobility; commoners) to address raising taxes. - third estate called themselves the National Assembly. - they drew up the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen: men are born free with equal rights. - many became radicalized and stormed the Bastille (a fortress) on 14 July 1789.

The Storming of the Bastille

The French Revolution, 1789 – 1815 (Cont’d) The French Revolution was born out of social conflict (unlike the American Revolution): - titled nobility resisted monarchic efforts to increase their taxes. - the middle class resented aristocratic privileges. - the urban poor suffered from inflation and unemployment. - the peasants were plagued by landlord dues, state taxes, Church obligations; unpaid public labor.

The French Revolution, 1789 – 1815 (Cont’d) The French Revolution’s first five years were violent, far-reaching, and very radical: - peasants attacked their lords’ castles. - hereditary privileges and remaining feudalism ended. - slavery (for a time) was abolished. - the Church was subjected to government authority. - Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were executed (1793). - this led to the Terror under Maximilien Robespierre (1793–1794), “enemies” of the revolution were arrested and guillotined.

Execution of Robespierre

The French Revolution, 1789 – 1815 (Cont’d) Accompanying attacks on the old order were efforts to create a new French society, 1792 became Year I of a new calendar: - briefly passed a law for universal male suffrage. - France became a republic and was divided into 83 territorial departments. - created a massive army (some 800,000 men) to fight threatening neighbors. - all adult males were required to serve. - officers came from middle and lower classes.

The French Revolution, 1789 – 1815 (Cont’d) In many of revolutionary disturbances in Paris, women played a prominent role in the famous mobs that attacked the Bastille and Versailles. There are also many examples of educated women, such as Olympe de Gouges, publishing political pamphlets and forming political clubs. However, there was a male backlash that limited women’s rights, banned their political clubs, and curtailed other forms of political participation. The French Revolution gave birth to the modern concept of nationalism and citizenship. People saw themselves not as members of a village or region or the subject of a king, but as equal citizens in the larger body of the nation-state.

The French Revolution, 1789 – 1815 (Cont’d) General Napoleon Bonaparte (r. 1799–1814) seized power in 1799: - preserved many moderate elements of the revolution. - kept social equality, secular law, merit-based promotion and religious freedom, but got rid of liberty. - he became emperor in 1804. - imposed revolutionary practices on conquered regions. - resentment of French domination stimulated national consciousness throughout Europe. - international resistance (Britain and Russia) brought down Napoleon’s empire by 1815.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Map of Napoleon’s Empire

The Haitian Revolution, 1791 - 1804  Saint Domingue (later named Haiti): - regarded as the richest colony in the world. - 8,000 slave plantations producing 40% of the world’s sugar and perhaps 50% of its coffee. - around 500,000 slaves, 40,000 whites, 30,000 “free people of color.” The French Revolution sparked a spiral of violence: - but revolution meant different things to different people. - massive slave revolt began in 1791. - became a war between a number of factions. - power gradually shifted to the slaves, who were led by former slave Toussaint Louverture.

The Haitian Revolution, 1791 – 1804 (Cont’d) This was the only successful slave revolt in history: - declared equality for all races. - divided up plantations among small farmers. - subsistence farming, Haiti pulls away from global commerce. Effects of Revolution: - inspired other slave rebellions. - scared whites, led to social conservatism. - increased slavery elsewhere (Cuba). Napoleon’s defeat in Haiti convinced him to sell Louisiana Territory to the United States.

Toussaint Louverture

Spanish American Revolutions, 1810 – 1825 Latin American revolutions were inspired by earlier revolutionary movements. Native-born elites (creoles) in Spanish colonies of Latin America were offended at the Spanish monarchy’s efforts to control them in the 18th century: - initially, however, there were only scattered and uncoordinated protests. Latin American movements were originally limited: - little tradition of local self-government. - society was more authoritarian. - stricter class divisions. - whites were vastly outnumbered.

Spanish American Revolutions, 1810 – 1825 (Cont’d) Creole elites had revolution thrusted upon them by events in Europe: - in 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain and Portugal and put royal authority in disarray. - Latin Americans were forced to take action. - most of Latin America was independent by 1826. Longer process than in North America: - Latin American societies were torn by class, race, and regional divisions. - fear of social rebellion from below. - most people in society were exploited and oppressed.

Spanish American Revolutions, 1810 – 1825 (Cont’d) Leaders of independence movements appealed to the lower classes in terms of nativism – all free people born in the Americas were Americanos: - in reality, natives and blacks did not benefit much. It proved impossible to unite the various Spanish colonies, unlike in the United States. After Latin American Independence: - The U. S. grew wealthier and more democratic. - Latin American countries, however, became increasingly underdeveloped, impoverished, undemocratic, and unstable.

Simon Bolivar – The Liberator Bolivar liberated most of South America.

Latin American Independence

Echoes of Revolution Smaller revolutions took place in Europe in the 1800s: - led to greater social equality and liberation from foreign rule. - by 1914, major Western European states, the United States, and Argentina had universal male suffrage. - even in Russia, there was an attempted constitutional movement in 1825. - abolitionist, nationalist, and feminist movements arose to question other patterns of exclusion and oppression.

The Abolition of Slavery Largely ended between 1790-1890: - Enlightenment thinkers were critical of slavery. - religious groups such as Protestants and Quakers were also critical. Industrialization and the new capitalist systems of production emphasized the use of free, wage labor, making slavery look backwards and inefficient. Thanks to moral, religious, economic, and political opposition to slavery, the British led the way in dismantling the institution by abolishing the slave trade in 1807 and emancipating the slaves in 1834.

The Abolition of Slavery (Cont’d) Brazil: last Latin American country to abolish in 1888. Russian czar emancipated serfs in 1861 by fiat. Resistance to abolition was widespread in the slave-trading and owning societies, none more so that the American South. The United States was the only nation that fought a brutal and destructive civil war, from 1861–1865, to end slavery. Emancipation usually did not lead to improved conditions. For example, sharecropping in the U.S.

Nations and Nationalism These movements brought the idea of a “nation:” - humans are divided into separate nations, each with a distinct culture and territory, and deserving an independent political life. - foreign rule is now regarded as heinous. - loyalty shifted from clans, villages, and regions to nations. - science weakened religion. Napoleon’s conquests brought about national resistance.

Nationalism (Cont’d) Nationalism could work to unify disunited people in fragmented political systems such as Germany (1871) and Italy (1861), but nationalism could also inspire groups such as the Greeks or the Poles to break away from rule by a multi-ethnic empire. “Civic nationalism” identified the “nation” with a particular territory, and encouraged assimilation. Some defined the nation in racial terms, for example Germany, based on a common ancestry.

Nationalism (Cont’d) Nationalism required defining who was a part of a nation and who was outside of a nation. This became a political act as groups might be forced to become part of a new cultural identity (seen in the Russian Empire, when Finns and Ukrainians were forced to speak Russian) or excluded and thus made vulnerable (as seen in the anti-Semitic politics of Germany). Importantly, nationalism was used to build movements to fight imperialism as in Ireland, India, and China.

Map of Europe in 1880

Feminist Beginnings Feminist movements in Europe/U.S. in 19th century: - changed the relationship between women and men. - during the French Revolution, some women argued that liberty and equality must include women. - more educational opportunities and less household drudgery for middle-class women. - women increasingly joined temperance movements, charities, abolitionist movements, missionary work, etc.

Feminist Beginnings (Cont’d) Some women had been admitted to universities. Women’s literacy rates were rising. Some U.S. states passed laws allowing women to control their property and wages. Some areas liberalized divorce laws. Some women made their way into new professions: - teaching. - nursing (professionalized by Florence Nightingale). - social work (Jane Addams). In 1893, New Zealand was the first state to grant universal female suffrage.

Feminist Beginnings (Cont’d) There was bitter reaction to various women’s rights campaigns from both the political left and the right. However, if socialists remained divided about the issues, conservatives almost uniformly viewed feminism as an almost alien threat. The movement was strongest in Western Europe and the United States, but various activists and intellectuals began to take the cause around the world.

Florence Nightingale