Inspired in part by Enlightenment ideas, the French Revolution introduced mass politics, led to the creation of numerous political and social ideologies, and remained the touchstone for those advocating radical reform in subsequent decades.
Revolution,
c. 1648-1815 CE
Contents
The French Revolution was the most formidable challenge to traditional politics and diplomacy during this period. Inspired in part by Enlightenment ideas, the revolution introduced mass politics, led to the creation of numerous political and social ideologies, and remained the touchstone for those advocating radical reform in subsequent decades. The French Revolution was part of a larger revolutionary impulse that, as a transatlantic movement, influenced revolutions in Spanish America and the Haitian slave revolt. Napoleon Bonaparte built upon the gains of the revolution and attempted to exploit the resources of the continent in the interests of France and his own dynasty. Napoleon’s revolutionary state imposed French hegemony throughout Europe, but eventually a coalition of European powers overthrew French domination and restored, as much as possible, a balance of power within the European state system. Conservative leaders also attempted to contain the danger of revolutionary or nationalistic upheavals inspired by the French Revolution.
The romantic movement of the early 19th century set the stage for later cultural perspectives by encouraging individuals to cultivate their uniqueness and to trust intuition and emotion as much as reason. Partly in reaction to the Enlightenment, romanticism affirmed the value of sensitivity, imagination, and creativity and thereby provided a climate for artistic experimentation.
Source: https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-european-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf
The romantic movement of the early 19th century set the stage for later cultural perspectives by encouraging individuals to cultivate their uniqueness and to trust intuition and emotion as much as reason. Partly in reaction to the Enlightenment, romanticism affirmed the value of sensitivity, imagination, and creativity and thereby provided a climate for artistic experimentation.
Source: https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-european-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf
The Colonies
Objectives:
- Explain the causes and consequences of European maritime competition from 1648 to 1815.
- Explain the economic and political consequences of the rivalry between Britain and France from 1648 to 1815.
18th Century Warfare: Crash Course European History #20
European powers had a lot of wars in the 18th century, and they weren't confined to Europe. Conflict raged across the globe, in what might be called a World War...but we don't call it that, because we already have a couple of those coming up in the 20th century. Some call it the Great War for Empire, and some call it a bunch of separate wars, but in any case, all this conflict was important, and you're going to learn all about it right now.
Britain and France vied for control of North America and India during the 17th and 18th centuries.
HMS Centurion captures Nuestra Señora de Covadonga during the War of Jenkin's Ear
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The Colonies Quizlet (comprehensive)
The Colonies Quizlet (abridged)
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The French Revolution
Objectives:
- Explain the causes, events, and consequences of the French Revolution.
- Explain how the events and developments of the French Revolution influenced political and social ideas to 1815.
- Explain the effects of Napoleon’s rule on European social, economic, and political life.
- Explain the nationalist responses to Napoleon’s rule in Europe.
The First French Republic
The French Revolution: Crash Course European History #21
In 1789, the French Monarchy's habit of supporting democratic popular revolutions in North America backfired. Today, we're talking about the French Revolution. Across the world, people were rising up to throw off monarchies, and Louis didn't see the writing on the wall until it was too late. Today we'll talk about how the French Revolution unfolded, and what (if anything) was really accomplished. You'll learn about stuff like the National Assembly, the Tennis Court Oath, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, the guillotine, Robespierre, and a bunch of other kind of unbelievable details.
July 14, the anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille in 1789, is celebrated a French national holiday.
mass shootings of counter-revolutionary peasants in the Vendée region during the Reign of Terror
The Haitian Revolution
Free Women of Color with their Children and Servants by Agostino Brunias
"En Liberté comme toi / La République fran.se d'accord avec la Nature / l'ont voulu ; ne suis-je pas ta Sœur?"
“In freedom like you. The French Republic in accord with Nature has desired it; am I not your sister?” 
Following a successful slave revolt inspired by the French Revolution, Jean-Jacques Dessaline became the first Emperor of Haiti.
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The French and Haitian Revolutions (comprehensive)
The French and Haitian Revolutions Quizlet (abridged)
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The Napoleonic Empire
Napoleon Bonaparte: Crash Course European History #22
Napoleon Bonaparte is a big deal. Join us as we track the rise, further rise, fall, rise, fall, mortal fall, and posthumous rise of Napoleon. This guy changed France, he changed Europe, and in a lot of ways he changed the world.
Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of the French in 1804. For a brief while, he dominated the European continent and led the largest empire in Europe since the days of Rome.
Construction of the neoclassical-style Arc de Triomphe, seen here in the 1890s, was ordered by Napoleon I to honor those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Louis-François Lejeune, The Battle of the Pyramids (1808)
Louis-François Lejeune, The Battle of Borodino (1822)
The Congress of Vienna
Objective: Explain how states responded to Napoleonic rule in Europe and the consequences of the response.
The Congress of Vienna: Crash Course European History #23
The end of the Napoleonic Wars left the great powers of Europe shaken. Judging from the destruction that had been wrought across the continent, it seemed to the powers that be that the Enlightenment had liberated the people and led to disaster. So, everybody got together in Vienna to have a Congress, and to try to put Europe "right" again. By "right" I mean they wanted to go back to the old days of kings, queens, and nobles running the show. But this new yearning for the past pervaded the continent. Romanticism arose at the same time, looking back at (imagined) golden age of Medieval Times. Today we'll talk about the Congress of Vienna, The Holy Alliance, and the Romantic movement across the arts.
Louis XVIII trying on Napoleon's boots. This British political cartoon by George Cruikshank mocks the conservative Congress System's interventions to smother liberal revolutions following the Congress of Vienna.
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Europe's conservative aristocracy met at the Congress of Vienna to restore the pre-revolutionary order and prevent further revolution.
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Napoleon on Saint Helena by Franz Josef Sandmann (c. 1820)
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The Napoleonic Empire and Congress of Vienna (comprehensive)
The Napoleonic Empire and Congress of Vienna Quizlet (abridged)
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Romanticism
Objective: Explain how and why the Romantic Movement and religious revival challenged Enlightenment thought.
- Rousseau questioned the exclusive reliance on reason and emphasized the role of emotions in the moral improvement of self and society.
- Romanticism emerged as a challenge to Enlightenment rationality.
- Romanticism broke with Neoclassical forms of artistic representation and with rationalism, placing more emphasis on intuition and emotion.
- Romantic artists and composers broke from classical artistic forms to emphasize emotion, nature, individuality, intuition, the supernatural, and national histories in their works.
- Romantic writers expressed similar themes while responding to the Industrial Revolution and to various political revolutions.
Painting
Literature
Architecture
Neuschwanstein Castle (1886) in Bavaria, Germany
Music
German Romantic Nationalism
The Brothers Grimm contributed to early German nationalism by writing down a collection of German fairy tales from the peasant oral tradition.
- Napoleon’s expanding empire created nationalist responses throughout Europe.
- Revolution, war, and rebellion demonstrated the emotional power of mass politics and nationalism.
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Romanticism (comprehensive)
Romanticism Quizlet (abridged)
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