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?