The Haitian Revolution, 1791–1804

The French Revolution, 1789–1815

The N. American Revolution,

1775–1787

The Spanish American

Revolutions, 1810–1825

CH 16: The European Moment in World History, 1750-1914

Atlantic Revolutions, Global Echoes

1. In what ways did the ideas of the Enlightenment contribute to the Atlantic revolutions?

★Promoted: Human political

& social arrangements

could be engineered, &

improved, by human action.

★New Ideals: Liberty,

equality, free trade,

religious tolerance,

republicanism, human

rationality, popular

sovereignty, natural rights,

consent of the governed,

& social contracts

British philosopher John Locke wrote (1690):

“The State of Nature has a Law of Nature to govern it, which obliges

everyone; & Reason, which is that Law, teaches all mankind, who will but

consult it, that being all equal & independent, no one ought to harm

another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.”

2. What was revolutionary about the

American Revolution, & what was not?

American Revolution: 1776 Declaration of Independence: Fueled by

Enlightenment ideals (originating in Europe, esp. France)

Was the American Revolutionary War actually revolutionary?

Revolutionary:

★ It marked a decisive political change

Not Revolutionary:

★ Sought to preserve existing liberties of the colonies

rather than to create new ones

★ All contracts & rights respecting property remained

unchanged in America

2. What was revolutionary about the American Revolution, & what was

not?

3. How did the French Revolution differ from the American Revolution?

Both shared a common vocabulary &

concepts, including the issue of taxation.

However, while American Revolution

expressed tensions of a colonial

relationship w/ a distant imperial power,

French insurrection was driven by

sharp conflicts within French society

French Revolution, especially during first

5 years, was a much more violent, far-

reaching, & radical movement.

French revolutionaries perceived

themselves as starting from scratch in

recreating the social order, while the

Americans sought to restore or build

upon earlier freedoms.

“Hymn to Liberty” combined traditional church

music w/ the explicit message of the Enlightenment:

Oh Liberty, sacred Liberty

Goddess of an enlightened people

Rule today within these walls.

Through you this temple is purified.

Liberty! Before you reason chases out deception,

Error flees, fanaticism is beaten down.

Our gospel is nature

And our cult is virtue.

To love one’s country and one’s brothers,

To serve the Sovereign People—

These are the sacred tenets

And pledge of a Republican.

Fr. Rev. was a profound social

upheaval, more comparable to the

revolutions of Russia & China in the

20th century than to earlier American

Revolution.

3. How did the French Revolution differ from the American Revolution?

French Revolution led to efforts to

create a wholly new society

w/new: ★ calendar

★ administrative system

★ street names

Fr. Rev. also differed from Am.

Rev. in the way that its influence

spread.

At least until the U. S. became a

world power at the end of the 19th

century, what inspired others was

primarily the example of the

revolution & constitution.

French influence, by contrast,

spread primarily through

conquest.

3. How did the French Revolution differ from the American Revolution?

The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815): a series of major conflicts; French Empire led by Napoleon

against an array of European powers. They revolutionized European armies & played out on an

unprecedented scale, mainly owing to the application of modern mass conscription. The wars are

traditionally seen as a continuation of the Revolutionary Wars, which broke out during the French

Revolution. Initially, French power rose quickly as the armies of Napoleon conquered much

of Europe.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1799–1814): Highly

successful general during the Revolution (protecting France from neighboring countries)

Seized power, & is often credited with

taming the revolution.

Preserved many of its more moderate elements,

such as civil equality, a secular law code, religious

freedom, & promotion by merit, while reconciling

with the Catholic Church & suppressing the

revolution’s more democratic elements

Instituted a military dictatorship.

Became Napoleon I.

In short, he kept revolution’s emphasis

on social equality but dispensed with

liberty.

3. How did the French Revolution differ from the American Revolution?

Napoleon: Revolutionary figure?

Just a general?

The Result of the Revolution?

Or... as Napoleon said:

“I am the

Revolution.”

Saint Domingue, “The Pearl of the Caribbean” - becomes

HAITI

Only completely successful slave revolt

Ideals of French Revolution were most seen in the Americas.

Saint Domingue: French colony that revolted & it shared many of

the same principles as the Fr. Rev.

Haiti's grande blancs: brought on greater racial & gender

equality

Yet little changed for the life of former slaves economically.

4. What was distinctive about the Haitian Revolution, both in world history

generally and in the history of Atlantic revolutions?

4. What was distinctive about Haitian Revolution, both in world history generally and in the history

of Atlantic revolutions?

Nowhere did the example of the French

Revolution echo more loudly than in the

French Caribbean: Haiti.

French Revolution was powered by the

ideals of the Enlightenment, therefore the

Haitian was a continuation of those ideals.

Regarded: “Richest colony in the world” 8,000

plantations In late 18th cent produced some

40% of world’s sugar & 1/2 of its coffee

Social Groups:

1 - Slave labor force: 500,000 people

2 - Whites: 40,000 (divided between very

well-to-do & those known as petits

blancs, or poor whites)

3 - Free People of color: 30,000 - mixed-

race or Gens de couleur libres

4. What was distinctive about Haitian Revolution, both in world history generally and in the history of Atlantic revolutions?

Fueled by ideals of the French Revolution

& triggered by rumors that French king had

declared an end to slavery, slaves burned

1,000 plantations & killed 100s of whites &

mixed-race people

Soon warring factions of slaves, whites, &

free people of color battled Spanish & British

forces, seeking to enlarge their own empires

at the expense of the French, only added to

the turmoil.

Amid the confusion, brutality, & massacres of

1790s, power gravitated toward the

slaves, now led by the astute Toussaint

Louverture, himself a former slave. He & his

successor overcame internal resistance,

outmaneuvered foreign powers, & even

defeated an attempt by Napoleon to

reestablish French control.

This early-19th-century engraving, entitled

Revenge Taken by the Black Army, shows

black Haitian soldiers hanging a large number

of French soldiers, thus illustrating both the

violence & the racial dimension of the upheaval

in Haiti.

4. What was distinctive about Haitian Revolution, both in world history generally and in the history of Atlantic

revolutions?

Socially, the last had become first.

In the only completely successful

slave revolt in recorded history,

“the lowest order of the society—

slaves—became equal, free, and

independent citizens.”

Economically, the country’s

plantation system, oriented wholly

toward the export of sugar and

coffee, had been largely destroyed.

As whites fled or were killed, both

private & state lands were

redistributed among former slaves &

free blacks.

Haiti became a nation of small-scale

farmers producing mostly for their

own needs, with a much smaller

export sector.

4. What was distinctive about Haitian Revolution, both in world history generally and in the history of Atlantic revolutions?

Results of the Haitian Revolution:

Whites in Americas: “Remember Haiti”

Reflected a sense of horror & a determination

not to allow political change to reproduce it

Latin America: Injected a deep caution &

social conservatism in the elites that led their

countries to independence in the early 19th

century.

Ironically, though, the Haitian Revolution also

led to a temporary expansion of slavery

elsewhere.

Cuban plantations & their slave workers

considerably increased their production of

sugar as that of Haiti declined.

Napoleon’s defeat in Haiti persuaded him to

sell U.S. French territories known as the

Louisiana Purchase - from which a number

of “slave states” were carved out.

Napoleon conquered Spain & Portugal, deposing the monarchs

who ruled over Latin America and forcing Latin Americans to

take action.

Enlightenment ideas that had inspired earlier revolutions also

inspired the revolutions in Latin America, yet were much

more conservative than the French/Haitians. These revolutions

were led by elites who wanted to keep the revolutions

socially contained.

The violence of the French and Haitian revolutions was a

lesson to Latin American elites that political change could easily

get out of hand & was fraught with danger.

5. How were the Spanish American revolutions shaped by the

American, French, & Haitian revolutions that happened earlier?

Enlightenment thinkers in 18th cent. Europe had become increasingly

critical of slavery as a violation of the natural rights of every person.

American & French revolutions: liberty & equality; likewise focused

attention on this obvious breach of those principles

Some Christians in Britain & the U.S. felt that slavery was incompatible

w/their religious beliefs.

Growing belief that slavery was not essential for economic progress.

Actions of slaves (slave rebellion in Haiti) hastened the end of slavery

Abolitionist movements brought growing pressure on govts. to close

down trade in slaves & then to ban slavery itself.

7. What accounts for the end of Atlantic slavery during the 19th century?

In most cases, the economic lives of the former slaves did not

improve dramatically.

Outside of Haiti, newly freed people did not achieve anything

close to political equality

Greatest change was that former slaves were now legally free.

8. How did the end of slavery affect the lives of the former slaves?

Atlantic revolutions create Popular Sovereignty:

Citizens of a nation, bound to others by ties of blood, culture, or

common experience.

Other bonds weakened during the 19th century: religion & migration to

industrial cities or abroad diminished allegiance to local

communities.

Printing & publishing industry: A reading public think of themselves as

members of a common linguistic group or nation

Nationalism: Presented as a reawakening of older linguistic or cultural

identities. Leads to the unification of Germany & Italy in the 19th

century

Govts throughout Western world claimed to act on behalf of nations &

deliberately sought to instill national loyalties in citizens through

schools, public rituals, the mass media, & military service.

9. What accounts for the growth of nationalism as a powerful political & personal identity in the 19th century?

Achievements - women’s movement include admission of small

numbers of women to universities & growing literacy rates.

In the US, a number of states passed legislation allowing women

to manage & control their own property & wages, separate

from their husbands.

Divorce laws were liberalized in some places.

Professions such as medicine opened to a few women, while

teaching beckoned to many more. Nursing was professionalized

in Britain

Prompted an unprecedented discussion about the role of

women in modern society.

Limitations: (aside from New Zealand) women failed to secure

the right to vote in the nineteenth century.

Nowhere did 19th century feminism have really revolutionary

consequences.

10. What were the achievements & limitations of 19th cent. feminism?

Regions like France, the United States, & Latin America,

governments based on popular sovereignty emerged,

although in the case of France the government did revert to

monarchy at times.

The ideas of the revolutions, along with social pressures,

pushed major states to enlarge their voting publics.

The concept of the nation-state and nationalism

strengthened, shaping popular identities.

The Atlantic revolutions provided some of the ideological &

intellectual underpinnings for the abolitionist & feminist

movements.

Did Atlantic revolutions give a new & distinctive shape to the

emerging societies of 19th cent. Europe & the Americas?