Liberté

WHAP/Napp

Cues: / Notes:
  1. Atlantic Revolutions
  1. Revolutions in North America, France, Haiti, and Latin America were not entirely separate and distinct events
  2. Thomas Jefferson was U.S. ambassador to France on eve of French Revolution and Simon Bolívar visited Haiti twice
  3. Revolutionaries shared a set of common ideas ideas were derived from the European Enlightenment
  4. Radical notion that human political and social arrangements could be engineered, and improved, by human action
  5. New ideas of liberty, equality, free trade, religious tolerance, republicanism, and human rationality were espoused
  6. Englishman John Locke (1632-1704) argued that a “social contract” between ruler and ruled should last only as long as it served the people well
  7. Except in Haiti, the beneficiaries were propertied white men but ideas of revolutions gave other groups opportunities for change in the future
  1. The North American Revolution
  1. (1775-1787) was a struggle for independence from oppressive British rule
  2. Began with Declaration of Independence in 1776 and resulted in an unlikely military victory by 1781 which generated a federal constitution in 1787
  3. Marked a decisive political change, but in other ways, conservative
  4. Originated in effort to preserve existing liberties rather than new ones
  5. Colonies in North America had considerable degree of local autonomy
  6. Revolution grew out of a sudden and unexpected effort by the British government to tighten its control over the colonies
  7. New taxes were imposed and tariffs on the colonies were established without the consent of the peopleBritish needed revenue due European wars
  8. Armed with the ideas of the Enlightenment – popular sovereignty, natural rights, the consent of the governed – the colonists went to war
I.Independence from Britain not accompanied by social transformation
J. Political authority remained largely in the hands of the existing elites who led the revolution
K. But property requirements for voting were lowered and more white men of modest means were elected to state legislatures
L. Yet U.S. Constitution – with Bill of Rights, checks and balances, separation of church and state, and federalism –put political ideas of the Enlightenment into practice and led to the expansion of rights in United States
III. The French Revolution
  1. French soldiers fought with colonistsreturned home with new ideas

Summaries:
Cues: /
  1. And French government, which had generously aided Americans in effort to undermine its British rivals, was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy
  2. In desperate effort to raise taxes against opposition of privileged classes, French king, Louis XVI, called into session an ancient parliamentary body, Estates General consisting of three “estates”- clergy, nobility, commoners
  3. First two estates, clergy & nobility, comprised about 2 percent of population
  4. Third Estate included everyone else and paid most of the taxes in France
  5. When convened in 1789, Third Estate soon organized themselves as the National Assembly, with the sole authority to make laws for the country
  6. Drew up the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, which declared that “men are born and remain free and equal in rights”
  7. Actions in acien régime (the Old Regime) launched the French Revolution
  8. French Revolution was driven by sharp class conflicts within French society
  9. Social conflicts gave Revolution, during its first five years, a much more violent, far-reaching, and radical character than its American counterpart
  10. National Assembly decreed the end of all legal privileges and abolished what remained of feudalism in France
  11. Early 1793, King Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, were executed
  12. Reign of Terror of 1793-1794 led by Maximilien Robespierre and Committee of Public Safety sent thousands to the guillotine
  13. As revolutionary France prepared for war against threatening neighbors, it created the world’s largest army with all adult males required to serve
  14. Common people, who had identified primarily with their local community, now began to think of themselves as belonging to a nation
  15. And French influence spread through conquest, largely under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte (ruled 1799-1814)
  16. Napoleon kept social equality but dispensed with liberty
  17. Resistance, particularly from Russia and Britain, brought down Napoleon and ended his empire by 1815 but ideals of revolution lived on
  1. Independence Movements in the Americas
  1. To slaves in French colony of Saint Domingue, promise of French Revolution’s ideas was personal freedom that threatened slave labor system
  2. Slave revolt began in 1791, triggered by rumors that the French king had declared an end to slavery, in the colony
  3. Power gravitated toward the slaves, now led by Toussaint Louverture, himself a former slave
  4. It was the only completely successful slave revolt in world history
  5. Country had been renamed Haiti, a term meaning “mountainous” or “rugged” in the language of the original Taino people
  6. Haiti was formally declared independent on January 1, 1804
  7. Jean-Jacques Dessalines was the new country’s first head of state
  8. Haitian Revolution injected social conservatism in elites of Spanish America as these nations soon fought for independence although inspired by Haiti
  9. Napoleon’s defeat in Haiti persuaded him to sell French territories known as the Louisiana Purchase to the United States

Summaries:

Questions:

  • In what ways did the ideas of the Enlightenment contribute to the Atlantic revolutions?
  • What was revolutionary about the American Revolution and what was not?
  • How did the French Revolution differ from the American Revolution?
  • What was distinctive about the Haitian Revolution, both in world history generally and in the history of Atlantic revolutions?

  1. Which of the following documents spells out Enlightenment ideas as they were applied to revolutionary France?
(A)The Declaration of Independence
(B)Second Treatise of Government
(C)The Social Contract
(D)Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
(E)Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
  1. Which of the following ran counter to the democratic impulses associated with the American Revolution?
(A)Rejection of aristocratic notions of hierarchy in the thirteen colonies
(B)Continued centrality of slavery to the colonial socioeconomic order
(C)New England’s tradition of town meetings
(D)Virginia’s practice of election of a House of Burgesses
(E)Demands for representation in British Parliament
  1. Historians estimate the numbers of victims in the Reign of Terror in roughly what figures?
(A)Hundreds
(B)Thousands
(C)Tens of thousands
(D)Hundreds of thousands
(E)Millions /
  1. Which list places key events of the French Revolution in proper chronological order?
(A)Formation of National Assembly, Reign of Terror, Directory, rule of Napoleon
(B)Reign of Terror, rule of Napoleon, formation of National Assembly, Directory
(C)Directory, rule of Napoleon, formation of National Assembly, Reign of Terror
(D)Formation of National Assembly, Reign of Terror, rule of Napoleon, Directory
(E)Rule of Napoleon, Directory, Reign of Terror, Formation of National Assembly
  1. Which group emerged at the peak of French social status as a result of the French Revolution?
(A)Urban proletariat and artisans
(B)Aristocracy
(C)Clergy
(D)Bourgeoisie
(E)Peasantry
  1. Which traditions of the French Revolution did not survive long beyond the initial and radical phases?
(A)Equality under the law
(B)Attack on feudal privilege and institutions
(C)Popular nationalism
(D)The metric system
(E)Women’s leading role in toppling established political powers

Excerpt frommtholyoke.edu

Anonymous print, "It is dreadful but necessary" ("Cest affreux mais nécessaire"), from the Journal d'Autre Monde, 1794.

This image shows the guillotine surrounded by the heads it has been responsible for removing. Although the print is sinister, its caption states that the Terror is dreadful, but necessary. This was a commonly held belief in 1793-1794 when the guillotine was a means of purging France of those who were deemed a threat to national security.

Reign of Terror lasted from September 1793 until the fall of Robespierre in 1794. Its purpose was to purge France of enemies of the Revolution and protect the country from foreign invaders. From January 1793-July 1794, France was governed by the Committee of Public Safety, in which Danton and Robespierre were influential members. In the course of nine months, 16, 000 people were guillotined, but executions of those labeled "internal enemies" of France took place throughout the country.

During this time there was a shift in power within the committee from Danton to Robespierre. Danton had a strong physical presence and was an incredible public speaker, while Robespierre was less passionate. However, Robespierre was a hard worker who was very ambitious. He blindly believed in the work of Rousseau, who argued that men are all born good at heart and are corrupted by society. It was these beliefs that caused him to continue the Terror even when it was no longer necessary (Spielvogel,696).

In 1794, the armies of France were very successful against their enemies, which meant that the Terror was no longer necessary. But Robespierre continued the Terror because he wanted to purge France of everyone who was corrupt. The killing ended when Robespierre was executed on July 28, 1794.

Thesis Statement: Comparative:The Atlantic Revolutions

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