Revolutions

c. 1750-1900

Objectives


  • ​Explain the intellectual and ideological context in which revolutions swept the Atlantic world from 1750 to 1900.

  • ​Explain how the Enlightenment affected societies over time.
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  • ​​Explain causes and effects of the various revolutions in the period from 1750 to 1900.

The Enlightenment
  • ​Enlightenment philosophies applied new ways of understanding and empiricist approaches to both the natural world and human relationships; they also reexamined the role that religion played in public life and emphasized the importance of reason.

  • Philosophers developed new political ideas about the individual, natural rights, and the social contract.

  • The rise and diffusion of Enlightenment thought that questioned established traditions in all areas of life often preceded revolutions and rebellions against existing governments.
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  • The ideas of Enlightenment philosophers, as reflected in revolutionary documents— including the American Declaration of Independence during the American Revolution, the French “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen” during the French Revolution, and Bolívar’s “Letter from Jamaica” on the eve of the Latin American revolutions— influenced resistance to existing political authority, often in pursuit of independence and democratic ideals.
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​The Enlightenment
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Revolutions
  • The 18th century marked the beginning of an intense period of revolution and rebellion against existing governments, leading to the establishment of new nation-states around the world.

  • Colonial subjects in the Americas led a series of rebellions inspired by democratic ideals. The American Revolution, and its successful establishment of a republic, the United States of America, was a model and inspiration for a number of the revolutions that followed.

  • The American Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and the Latin American independence movements facilitated the emergence of independent states in the Americas.
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  • Discontent with monarchist and imperial rule encouraged the development of systems of government and various ideologies, including democracy and 19th-century liberalism.
The English Civil War 
Angry French citizens stormed the Palace of Versailles in October 1789, kidnapped King Louis XVI, and forced him to return to Paris. In this image, the heads of Louis XVI's murdered palace guards are paraded by the crowd atop pikes.
The French Revolution
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.
Napoleonic Europe
The Congress of Vienna
Latin American Revolutions
Argentine Republic
Domingo Sarmiento
Brazilian Empire
fazendas
War of the Triple Alliance
Antonio Conselheiro
Great Latin American Boom, 1880-1920

July Revolution of 1830
1848 Revolutions

​Nationalism

Francisco Goya commemorated Spanish national resistance to Napoleon's armies during the Peninsular War. ​
Nationalism also became a major force shaping the historical development of states and empires.
Nationalism

Early Reform Movements

"Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" medallion created as part of anti-slavery campaign by Josiah Wedgwood, 1787
  • ​Enlightenment ideas and religious ideals influenced various reform movements. These reform movements contributed to the expansion of rights, as seen in expanded suffrage, the abolition of slavery, and the end of serfdom.
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  • Demands for women’s suffrage and an emergent feminism challenged political and gender hierarchies.
Abolition of slavery

​Liberalism

​Eugene Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People celebrates the July Revolution of 1830.
Discontent with monarchist and imperial rule encouraged the development of systems of government and various ideologies, including democracy and 19th-century liberalism.
Conservatism, Liberalism, and Nationalism
The Political Spectrum
CONSERVATISM
LIBERALISM
SOCIALISM and COMMUNISM
ANARCHISM

​Unification

France's humiliating defeat in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War led to the unification of the German Empire, and set the stage for the First World War.
  • ​People around the world developed a new sense of commonality based on language, religion, social customs, and territory. This was sometimes harnessed by governments to foster a sense of unity.
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  • Newly imagined national communities often linked this new national identity with borders of the state, and in some cases, nationalists challenged boundaries or sought unification of fragmented regions.
Italian Unificationtrasformismo
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German Unification

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