summary ( HISTORY)

profile7amany88
revolutions.ppt
Home>History homework help>summary ( HISTORY)

The Bourgeoisie, the Enlightenment and Political Revolutions

*

Preconditions to the revolutions

The rise of modern sea-based trade produced the following:

Rise of a new class, the bourgeoisie, which is a wealthy, urban, educated class hostile towards monarchy and nobility

Accumulation and circulation of knowledge

New scientific and technological ideas

Awareness of other peoples and other cultures;

Printing produces “reading publics” and “new identities”

Revolutions and the Enlightenment

  • Most philosophers were from the same countries that had benefitted the most from early modern trade and imperialism (connection wealth=culture)
  • As members of the bourgeoisie they embraced the “modern” against the “traditional”: nobility, monarchy, feudalism, organized religion were identified as part of the “old regime”.

*

What is the Enlightenment?

“Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another. […] Nothing is required for this enlightenment except freedom, […]the freedom to use reason publicly in all matters.

Immanuel Kant (1784)

The idea of Social Contract

The origin of sovereignty is the people and the social contract binding them to their king;

  • Life without government takes place in the state of nature, which means life without rules and laws. Some regarded the state of nature as brutal, others as benevolent;
  • People in the state of nature gave power to a king through a social contract to create an organized and safe society.

The people can revoke sovereignty if the social contract is broken.

When the contract is broken revolution is legitimate.

*

Economic and Social Rights dear to the Philosophers of the Enlightenment

  • Political Rights
  • Free speech (freedom of the press)
  • Freedom of worship
  • Freedom of assembly
  • Equality* under the law
  • Habeas Corpus (no unlawful detention)
  • Economic Rights
  • Property rights;
  • Free Trade;
  • Limited Taxation;
  • Taxation only with representation;

*

Criticisms of the philosophers of the Enlightenment

  • Mistrusted the poor and uneducated
  • Believed in limited or qualified democracy
  • Mostly male (Mary Wollstonecraft notable exception), regarded women as inferior
  • White Europeans, mostly racist did not consider “others” worthy of freedom.
  • Some believed in an absolute general will and disregarded minority rights;
  • Some historians argue that the idea of “general will” opened the door to totalitarianism

*

Bourgeois Revolutions

  • English Revolution 1688
  • American Revolution 1776
  • French Revolution 1789
  • Haitian Revolution 1791*
  • Latin American Revolutions 1830s

*

What is a political revolution

  • Political phenomenon that changes the fundamental basis of sovereignty and the a country’s fundamental institutions.
  • Some of these revolutions were “democratic” as they established representative government
  • Some of these revolutions were anti-colonial as the revolutionaries declared independence

*

Causes and Goals

  • Nationalism

Desire for self-government (independence)

  • Representative government (democracy)

Taxation without representation unfair

  • Equality
  • High tax rates affecting commoners;
  • End of noble priviledge
  • Desire for personal freedom

Memorable Quotes

“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed: whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government American Declaration of Independence, 1776

“We have three questions to ask and answer. First, what is the Third Estate? Everything. Second, What has it been in the political order? Nothing. Third What does it demand? To become something.” What is the Third Estate? Emmanuel J. Sieyès, 1789

We have dared to be free, let us be thus by ourselves and for ourselves. Let us imitate the grown child: his own weight breaks the boundary that has become an obstacle to him.

The Haitian Declaration of Independence, January 1804

Social groups leading the revolution

Lower Nobility

Bourgeoisie

Poor

Slaves

Religious Minorities

Creoles

Results and Consequences

All revolutions were long processes with multiple phases.

  • The revolutionaries who struggled for independence achieved it.
  • Some revolutions resulted in representative government (more or less democratic)
  • Some revolutions resulted in dictatorship

The English Revolutions

English Revolution of 1649

  • Causes:
  • Enclosure Acts;
  • Religious tensions between Puritans and Episcopalians(Anglicans);
  • Corruption and inefficiency;
  • Economic hardship resulting in Charles I’s attempt to raise more taxes, which finds Parliamentary opposition.

England

In 1640 England experiences a civil war when the authority of King James is disputed by the majority of the parliament.

Oliver Cromwell emerges as the leader of those who dissenters, which included puritans, businessman, small farmers, professionals.

King James is executed and for more than a decade Cromwell rules as Lord Protector of England.

Cromwell reign becomes a dictatorship and in 1660 the Monarchy is restored but in 1688 a new revolution makes England into a costitutional monarchy (even though England does not have a constitution)

The New King William of Orange agrees to the Parliament’s enactment of the English Bill of Rights.

taxes, army,

habeas corpus,

The parliament gained the upper hand.

*

English Civil War 1642-1651

  • Most members of parliament were wealthy traders, many of them puritans and frustrated with both the religious and economic policies with the monarchy;
  • Oliver Cromwell (a Puritan low-level nobleman) leads the lower nobility, small landowners, religious dissenters and the bourgeoisie against King, the upper Nobility and the Church of England

*

English Civil War 1642-1651

The Civil War takes place throughout England, Scotland and Wales—Cromwell also conquers Ireland.

1649 – Charles I of Stuart is executed, Cromwell becomes “Lord Protector Of England”

Monarchies can be abolished after all;

Cromwell proves to be more dictatorial than any British king in history;

  • Civil War establishes principle that monarchy can be abolished and kings can be executed.

*

English Civil War 1642-1651

England’s Glorious Revolution, 1688

  • After Cromwell's death in 1658 the Stuart monarchy is reinstated.
  • In the late 1680s English Protestants fear James II (Catholic) may make Catholicism the official religion of England.
  • The Parliament invites William and Mary, sovereigns of the United Dutch Provinces to invade England and replace the Stuart family.

*

England’s Glorious Revolution, 1688

  • William of Orange (Dutch) invades England and is welcomed as liberator.
  • The House of Orange is the new ruling family of the kingdom
  • William and Mary issue the Bill of Rights in 1689

*

Revolution in North America - 1776

American Revolution: Causes

  • Americans resent British control from 1760s onward;
  • Large British army in North America;
  • High taxation –no representation;
  • Shipping and trading restrictions;
  • Manufacturing restrictions;

*

American Revolution 1776

  • First protests and boycotts in 1765
  • Colonists’ goal is representation and autonomy within the British Empire.
  • Eventually anger led to Declaration of Independence as last resort;
  • Declaration asserts same concerns and rights of the Glorious Revolution

*

Excerpt from the American Declaration of Independence

…..We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…….

*

Revolution in North America, 1776

  • Colonists defeat British Empire through guerrilla warfare and thanks to French support.
  • Constitution and Bill of Rights, 1789-1791
  • Constitution creates federal government
  • Bill of Rights goes beyond British model to add freedom of press, religion, assembly, and right to bear arms

*

Consequences and Meaning

  • Represented rejection of colonial rule….
  • ….but westward movement created American imperial ambition
  • Not a complete political revolution; many groups left out but ideal of equality emerges;
  • Some argue that soon after independence the US became itself an Empire.
  • Importance of individual liberties tied to three factors:
  • 1) Settlers were religious dissenters; 2) absence of privileged classes; 3) the US was created as a country in an era of radical new ideas (enlightenment)

*

The French Revolution 1789-1799

*

Timeline of the French Revolution

  • 1 May 1789 Estates-General gather;
  • June 1789 The Third Estate declares itself National Assembly;
  • July 1789 Storming of the Bastille
  • August 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
  • 1790-1 Major Reforms
  • June 1791 The royal family attempts to escape and is reprehended;
  • September 1792 Declaration of the First Republic
  • March 1793: Committee of Public Safety
  • July 1794 Robespierre is executed, Direct takes over
  • 1799 Napoleon Overthrows the Directory;

*

Preconditions to the French Revolution

  • Enlightenment ideas such as the “social contract”
  • Excessive privileges for the nobility and the monarchy;
  • Growing number of “nobles of the robe” (new nobles)
  • Tax free status for most nobles and clergymen
  • Trigger: financial crisis and king’s request for more revenue.
  • Extravagant expenditures
  • War-related expenses

*

“What is the Third Estate?”

*

The rise of the Third Estate

  • The Abbe’ Seyes, an obscure priest, writes a political piece entitled “What is the Third Estate?”
  • “We have three questions to ask and answer. First, what is the Third Estate? Everything. Second, What has it been in the political order? Nothing. Third What does it demand? To become something.”
  • On May 1789 the Third Estate declares itself “National Assembly” and the legitimate representative of national sovereignty.

*

French Revolution:
First Phase 1789-1791

  • The Bourgeoisie mobilizes the Poor and saves the revolution:
  • Assault on Bastille, July 14, 1789
  • Women’s March on Versailles, Oct. 5-6, 1789
  • Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
  • Constitution of 1791
  • Reflects ideals of philosophes
  • Promulgated after wave of protests

*

French Revolution:
First Phase 1789-1791

  • Wealth and merit replace blood and birth
  • Abolition of guilds (freedom to work)
  • Abolition of Noble privileges (e.g. hunting rights);
  • Abolition of the divine right of the king;
  • Abolition of slavery
  • Church-related reforms:
  • Freedom of worship;
  • Jews and Protestants become citizens;
  • Nationalization of Church Property
  • Nationalization of the Clergy
  • Legalization of divorce

*

The King’s escape

  • The Royal Family attempts to escape to Belgium and possibly lead a European monarchical coalition to restore “order” in France
  • Following the King’s escape attempt, the revolutionary leadership becomes more radical;
  • In September 1791: Louis XVI accepts the constitution after the attempted escape to Varennes, but it is “too little too late”

*

French Revolution:
second phase 1791-95

  • April 1792: France declares war against Austria, later joined by other European monarchies;
  • September 1792: New Assembly (National Convention) elected through universal male suffrage declares the Republic
  • Louis XVI is executed.
  • the National Convention offers “fraternity and assistance to all peoples who want to recover their liberty”.

*

*

French Revolution:
second phase 1791-95

  • Conservative Resistance (Church; Nobility; Peasantry) especially in the countryside (250,000 deaths)
  • Disagreement among revolutionaries over the future of France with respect to the organization of the economy;
  • Fear of foreign intrusion and counter-revolutionary conspiracies;

*

Sans-culottes: the People

*

Second Phase 1791-95

  • March 1793: the Jacobins establish the Committee of Public Safety
  • Key reforms:
  • New Calendar
  • Revolutionary tribunals
  • De-Christianization;
  • Cult of Reason;
  • Cult of the Supreme Being;
  • Ruthless repression of the

Counter-revolution

*

End of the Second Phase: 1791-95

  • In one year the Committee of Public Safety executes 40,000 and imprisons 300,000.

  • July 1794: Robespierre, the Committee’s leader, is arrested and executed;
  • Jacobin Clubs are banned;
  • Committee of Public Safety is shut down and its members executed;

  • Directory (a committee of five) is established as the new government of France;
  • Partial restoration of pre-revolutionary order;
  • Seen by many as the end of the French Revolution proper.
  • It remained in place until 1799 when Napoleon takes over.

*

Why does the French Revolution matter?

  • Revolutionaries and their opponents fought over issues still relevant today:
  • Human rights;
  • The limits of state power with regard to morality, economic initiative.
  • Values such as democracy and equality;
  • Economic freedom and property rights;
  • Ideological war and the right of intervention;

*

Haitian Revolution

*

Haitian Revolution

Haiti: Slave Revolution & Overthrow of Colonialism

  • Caribbean Slave revolts commonly suppressed in the Americas;
  • Haiti (Hispanola) was most profitable French colony, biggest sugar plantation in the world; saw 40,000 whites in control of 500,000 black slaves;
  • Network of resistance begins in 1750s

*

Haiti: Slave Revolution & Overthrow of Colonialism

  • Begins in 1791, inspired by the American and French revolutions.
  • Free blacks demanded equality;
  • Slaves fought for freedom and won control of most of the Island;
  • Whites were supported by Britain and Spain;
  • Mulattos were divided—some were slave owners.
  • French army intervenes to defend the island and outlaws slavery; for a time French army and ex-slaves are united in their fight against Spain and Britan

*

Haiti: Slave Revolution & Overthrow of Colonialism

  • 1801 Touissant L’Overture, leader of the black revolutionaires, declares independence and issues a constitution.
  • 1802 Napoleon attempts to restore French control fails despite use of 20,000 troops.
  • Haiti’s independence recognized by the French in 1804.

*

The End of Colonialism in Latin America, 1810-30

The End of Colonialism in Latin America, 1810-30 – Key Facts

  • Revolts led by creole elites, direct descendants of original Spanish settlers
  • Creoles had helped Spain put down Indian revolts in the late 1700
  • Dissatisfaction with empire and fear of indigenous populations pushed creoles towards independence
  • Revolts led by creoles were for their control of countries & enjoyment of Enlightenment ideals;

*

Who are the Creoles?

  • The Creoles are the economic elites of Latin America, primarily of European descent; 5%
  • The Creoles opposed the Mestizos and Amerindians and Slave Revolts of late 1700;
  • Their identity was both European and Latin American: they were culturally European but their economic interests clashed with Spanish interest.

*

The End of Colonialism in Latin America, 1810-30

  • Simon Bolivar together with other military leaders lead Latin America to independence, but he failed to keep Latin America united.
  • Independence resulted in 18 different nations lead by military strongmen (caudillos) with little respect for democracy and the rule of law;

*

Mexico

  • Early Mexican movement opposed Creoles leaders and it was much more democratic and inclusive of indigenous populations;
  • Led by Priests concerned with the peasant condition
  • The most democratic and popular aspects of the revolution are crushed by the creoles.
  • By Independence (1821)creoles were in charge
  • Part of the Mexican territory was lost to U.S. and to breakaway nations

*

Political VS Economic Independence in Latin America

Countries in Latin America were politically independent yet:

Most of the population lived in the same impoverished conditions as under the Spaniards;

Inequality was not overcome;

Latin America remained economically dependent on Western capital (British and later American)

*