A WHAP Glossary of Sorts: 1750 1914 C.E

A WHAP Glossary of Sorts: 1750– 1914 C.E.

WHAP E. Napp

Part IV: 1750 – 1914 C.E.

“The Age of Revolutions”:

· The ear from 1750 to 1914 has often been called “The Age of Revolutions,” and for most people, the phrase brings to mind a vision of wars among competing militaries

· However, other types of revolutions occurred during this ear, most notably the Industrial Revolution that was not characterized directly by military conflict

· In its broadest sense, a revolution, in contrast to reform, implies change at a basic level, and involves either a major revision or an overthrow of existing institutions

· A revolution usually impacts more than one area of life

· For example, the Industrial Revolution first altered the economies of Europe from manorialism to capitalism, but eventually changed their political systems, transportation, communications, literature, and social classes

· Likewise, the French and American Revolutions were directed at the political systems, but they significantly changed the economies and societal practices of both countries, and spread their influence throughout the globe

· During the period 1750 – 1914 the long trend toward increasing interdependence among various regions of the world continued

· By 1750 the two hemispheres had united through trade and cultural exchanges, but the frequency and intensity of international contact grew immensely by 1914

· The era was characterized by many technological innovations that now spread rapidly to more areas of the world than had been possible before

· As a result, even though this era is much shorter than the previous one – only 164 years – much change took place, and by 1914 the world was on the brink of even more changes as the old European habit of internal squabbling threatened to tear the new world order apart

French and Indian War:

· The first major Enlightenment-inspired revolution occurred among the British colonies in North America, far from the Enlightenment’s philosophical centers in Europe

· The forces that led to the American Revolution were part of a wider mid-18th century struggle for power between England and France that caused the two countries to fight the Seven Years’ War on fronts not only in North America, but also in Europe and India

· In North America the conflict was known as the French and Indian War, and even though the British won, their efforts had been extraordinarily expensive

· To help pay for the war and the administration of their newly enlarged empire, the British Parliament levied new taxes on the colonies, an action that was quite unpopular in North America

· The colonists were not only incensed by the new laws, such as the Stamp Act of 1765, the Townshend Act of 1767, and the Tea Act of 1773, but by a strict enforcement of old navigation laws that had been widely ignored before

· Their argument of “no taxation without representation” was testament to the power of Enlightenment thought: as British subjects, they should have a say in the creation of policies that affected their welfare

· Tensions escalated as colonists boycotted the British products, dumped British tea into Boston Harbor, and skirmished with British troops charged with keeping order in the area around Boston, where resistance was most evident

Declaration of Independence:

· On July 4, 1776 a representative delegation signed the Declaration of Independence, that from their point of view, severed ties to Britain and created an independent country

· Since Britain did not agree, a war followed, fought entirely in North America, that eventually resulted in victory for the colonists and a humiliating defeat for one of the most powerful empires in the world

George Washington:

· The last battle of the American Revolution was fought at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781, where British forces surrendered to General George Washington

· The peace treaty was finally signed in Paris in 1783

· Many factors shaped the success of the American Revolution, including the ability of the colonists to enlist the help of France in their struggle for independence

· George Washington was the first President of the newly independent United States of America

Federalist System:

· In 1789 the new country, the United States, created a constitution based on Enlightenment principles, with separation of powers and checks and balances among the branches of government and written guarantees of individual liberties

· Some limited voting rights gave the government a basis in popular sovereignty (rule of the people), and a federalist system was created in which political powers were divided between national and state levels in an effort to avoid concentrating control in the hands of one person

Bourgeoisie:

· Finally, the American Revolution directly contributed to the events that led to the French Revolution

· The French government was already in serious debt when they decided to help the Americans and the military expense involved may well have pushed the financial situation into crisis

· For many years the French kings had resisted calling the Estates General – a medieval assembly of nobility, church officials, and bourgeoisie (middle class business and professional people) – because doing so would question the absolute rule of the king

Louis XIV:

· However, the need for tax reform was so great that the king Louis XVI called the assembly to meet in the spring of 1789

· He hoped to convince the assembly to support new and increased taxes to pay the bills for multiple wars and an extravagant royal life style, but the middle-class representatives drew strength from gathering in one place, and decided to demand that the Estates General become a real parliament that shared power with the king

National Assembly:

· The bourgeoisie gained support from some of the nobles and clergymen and succeeded in outmaneuvering Louis in their demands for political power

· A series of events over the summer of 1789, including a mob attack on a royal prison (the Bastille), involved ordinary Parisians, and the rebellion spread to the countryside

· By October, a large group of women marched from Paris to the King’s palace at Versailles, demanding that Louis and his wife, Marie Antoinette, pay attention to the fact that children were starving

· The king and queen remained prisoners in Paris until the new parliament, the National Assembly, called for their executions in 1793

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen:

· Like the Americans, the French wrote an Enlightenment inspired declaration, but unlike the American Declaration of Independence, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen was not intended to declare political independence, but rather to proclaim freedom of thought

· Both documents affirmed the “natural rights” of citizens

· The French also began writing a constitution for their new republic with the intention of providing a blueprint for a new political system that limited the power of the king and gave new authority to the National Assembly

· However, the conflict did not end there for the French, but instead spawned internal disagreements about the type of government they wished to establish

Reign of Terror:

· On one side, the radical Jacobins stressed the Enlightenment value of equality, and on the other, the king’s supporters were more interested in controlling the king’s restrictions on personal liberties

· When the radicals won the debate, a government was formed by Maximilien Robespierre that eventually decided that there was no place in the new republic for a king

· After the king’s execution, many others who were suspected of disloyalty to the new regime went to the guillotine, a device meant to provide more humane executions

· This time of mass executions in 1793 and 1794 was known as the Reign of Terror, and it ended only with the guillotining of Robespierre himself

Nation, Nationalism:

· Despite the contrasting early outcomes of the two revolutions, both played a role in the creation of a new type of political organization based on the concept of a nation, a group of people bound together by a common political identity

· Common identities may be seen in earlier civilizations, such as the Chinese identity as “Han” or religious identities based on Islam, Christianity, or Hinduism

· What was newly created by the revolutions of the late 18th century was the separation of political identity from loyalty to a king or ruler, replacing it with constitutions and laws that provided the necessary political unity

· Ideally, political boundaries were drawn around cultural identities, so that “Americans” and “French” would each be united under their own government that presided over people with a common language and similar customs

· One result was nationalism, or the sense of belonging and identity that distinguishes one nation from another

· Nationalism has often been translated as patriotism, or the resulting pride and loyalty that individuals feel toward their nations

· This transition from “Long Live the King!” to America’s “My Country ‘Tis of Thee!” and the rousing French anthem, “La Marseillaise,” was an important “marker event,” that eventually produced a world organized into competing nation-states, each with its own sense of righteousness and destiny

Napoleon Bonaparte:

· As the Reign of Terror came to an end with the death of Robespierre in mid-1794, France was in chaos

· To make matters worse, the French were at war with Austria, where Queen Marie Antoinette’s brother ruled, and other monarchs in Europe were beginning to ally against the upstart republic

· From the anarchy, a young army officer saw an opportunity he never would have had under the old regime, and he took it upon himself to save France, and in promoting himself, he played a pivotal role in the creation of the new political order, the world of nation-states

· This man, Napoleon Bonaparte, was destined to be one of the most famous men in world history, partly because of the charisma of his leadership, but also because he inspired French nationalism that lived on long after he was gone

· Once Napoleon gained control of France, military victories made him a popular leader, and he stabilized the country by rolling back some of the most radical measures passed during the Reign of Terror

Napoleonic Code:

· Napoleon retained church property for the state, but he recognized Roman Catholicism as the preferred state religion of France, and he agreed to pay the clergy as employees of the state

· He reduced the National Assembly to a rubber stamp, but he confirmed religious freedom, and guaranteed equal rights for men, though not for women, in new laws organized as the Napoleonic Code

· Meanwhile, he began aggressively attacking countries around him, and by 1810 he was at war with every other major power on the continent

· At its height, this new French Empire directly held or controlled as dependent states most of western Europe

· One testament to his power was the elimination of the Holy Roman Empire, a configuration that was never to appear again on a map of Europe

· His drive to power was halted in 1812 when he unsuccessfully attacked Russia, where most of his men died from the cold, not from Russian bullets

· The tactical blunder of marching an army toward Moscow so far from his supply lines resulted in tremendous loss of military personnel, and he also met stiff resistance from Spanish rebels on the opposite side of Europe

Battle of Waterloo:

· The British led the alliance against Napoleon that captured Paris in 1814, and finally defeated him in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo (present-day Belgium)

· He was banished first to Elba in the Mediterranean Sea, and then to St. Helena, a small island in the Atlantic, where he died several years later

Congress of Vienna:

· Diplomats from major European powers met at the Congress of Vienna to decide what to do with France once Napoleon was exiled

· The decisions made there put in place a balance of power in Europe that stabilized the continent for more than fifty years

· France lost most of its new territories, and the countries around it were made stronger with a tactic called “the encirclement of France”: the Austrian Netherlands was united with the Dutch Republic to form a single Kingdom of the Netherlands, the German Confederation united previously disparate German states, and Switzerland was recognized as an independent and neutral nation

· The French monarchy was also restored, with Louis XVI’s brother crowned as Louis XVIII

· In an effort to balance power, Britain gained new colonial territories and Russia gained substantial holdings in Poland

Balance of Power:

· Diplomats from major European powers met at the Congress of Vienna to decide what to do with France once Napoleon was exiled

· The decisions made there put in place a balance of power in Europe that stabilized the continent for more than fifty years

Alexis De Tocqueville:

· In the 1830s a young Frenchman named Alexis de Tocqueville became quite interested in the question of why a democratic republic took root in America more readily than it did in France

· In his classic book, Democracy in America, he reflected a great deal of respect for the young United Sates and its people

· Tocqueville identified several reasons for democracy taking root in America such as abundant and fertile soil, no feudal aristocracy, independent agriculture, and individualism

Conservatives:

· In Europe, three conflicting ideologies shaped the 19th century after the fall of Napoleon: Conservatives, Liberals, and Radicals

· Conservatives wanted to roll back the clock to the days before the French Revolution to restore the monarchies in all countries, including France

· These voices prevailed at the Congress of Vienna and remained strong, especially in Russia, Prussia, and Austria

Liberals:

· Liberals were interested in checking the power of monarchs and increasing parliamentary authority

· They supported the original goals of the French Revolution, a government defined by constitutional law and the guarantee of personal freedoms of religion, press, and assembly

· Most liberals were bourgeoisie – middle class professionals or businessmen – who wanted their views to be represented in government and their economic goals to be unhampered by government interference

Radicals:

· Radicals emphasized equality more than liberty, with most advocating wider voting rights and more direct government participation for ordinary people

· Many promoted social reforms to help the poor gain some measure of economic security

· A small branch of radicals attacked private property as the source of inequality and urged the government to actively work to increase equality