Chapter 21
Revolutions in Europe and
Latin America
By: Zarela Zachariah
1790 - 1848
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With the Congress of Vienna, the great powers
wanted to return to how things were before
1789, but that didn’t happen. In the early
1800’s, one uprising after another swept across
Western Europe and Latin America. They were
caused by the political ideas of the French
Revolution, American Revolution and the
economic problems of the Industrial
Revolution.
Conservatives
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Conservatives included monarchs and their officials, noble
landowners and church leaders.
They supported the political and social order that has existed
before the French Revolution and want to suppress
revolutionary ideas.
Conservatives believed that change must come slowly.
They supported a social hierarchy, wanted to restore royal
families to the thrones, and backed an established church.
They believed that natural rights and constitutional
government will only lead to problems like it had in France in
1789.
Liberals
 Liberals included the business owners, bankers, lawyers, politicians,
writers, and others who helped to shape public opinion.
 Liberals were inspired by the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.
 They wanted the government to be based on written constitutions and
separation of powers.
 They defended the natural rights of individuals to liberty, equality, and
property.
 Liberals wanted rulers to be elected by the people.
 They favored a republican form of government over a monarchy.
 They later supported the principle of universal manhood suffrage or
giving all adult men the right to vote.
 Liberal supported the laissez-faire economics of Adam Smith and David
Ricardo. They saw the free market as an opportunity for capitalist to
succeed.
 They spoke out against divine right monarchy, old aristocracy, and
established churches.
Nationalists
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For many centuries, European rulers had exchanged territories
and people. As a result of that, many empires had people with
different nationalities.
Nationalists leaders tried to unite and win independence for
each group.
Nationalism gave people with a common heritage a sense of
identity and the goal of creating their own homeland.
It often bred intolerance, and led to persecution of other ethic
or national groups.
Revolts Against the Old Order
• By the ideas of liberalism and nationalism, revolutionaries fought
against the old order.
Independence for Serbia
• From 1804 to 1813, a Serb leader, Karageorge led a guerrilla war
against the Ottomans, but it was unsuccessful. In 1815, Milos
Obrenovic led the Serbs to a successful rebellion. They were
successful because they went to Russia for help. By 1830 with the help
from Russia, they won self rule.
Independence for Greece
• In 1821, the Greeks revolted against the Ottomans. They got help from
Britain, France, and conservative Russia. By 1830, Greece was
independent. The European powers pressured the Greeks to have a
German king. It was a move to show that they don’t support
revolution.
The French Revolution of 1830
The Congress of Vienna restored Louis XVIII to the French throne. He
issued the Charter of French Liberties. It created a two house legislature
and allowed limited freedom of the press, but the king had much of the
power. His efforts satisfied few people.
In 1824, Louis XVIII died and his brother Charles X inherited the throne.
Being a strong believer in absolutism, he rejected the charter. In 1830 of
July, he suspended the legislature, limited the right to vote, and restricted
the press. This angered many liberals and radicals and they revolted.
Frightened, Charles X abdicated and fled to England.
Now, the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the French legislature,
chose Louis Philippe. He was a cousin of Charles X and had supported the
revolution of 1789 in his youth. He was called “citizen king” because he
owned his throne to the people. Under him, the upper bourgeoisie
prospered. He extended suffrage to only the wealthy citizens. His other
policies favored the middle class at the expense of the workers.
The French Revolution of 1848
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In the 1840’s, discontent grew and led to a recession. Many people lost
their jobs. Poor harvest caused bread prices to rise and people started to
revolt.
In February 1848, when the government started to silence the critics and
prevent public meeting, the people began to rebel. As this spread, Louis
Philippe abdicated. This was the beginning of the Second Republic. Many
differences divided the new government.
By June, the upper and middle class interest had control of the government.
They shut down the national workshops that provided jobs for the
unemployed. Then the workers fought against the bourgeoisie until they
were stopped by the government. This caused the bourgeoisie to fear and
distrust the workers while the workers hated the bourgeoisie.
By the end of 1848, the National Assembly created a constitution with a
strong president and a one house legislature. All adult men can now vote.
Louis Napoleon became the president through the election. In 1852, he
called himself emperor, Nicholas III, thus ending the Second Republic. He
wanted to set up the Second Empire. The people thought that he would
restore France’s glory days.
The Spread of Revolution
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Both revolts in Paris in 1830 and 1848 inspired uprisings to break out in
Europe. Most uprisings were stopped by military forces, but some rebels did
win changes in the government.
Belgium
 In 1815, the Congress of Vienna had united the Austrian Netherlands (present
day Belgium) and the Kingdom of Holland under the Dutch king. The Belgians
hated this. The Belgians were Catholic and their economy was based on
manufacture. The Dutch were Protestant and based their economy on trade. The
Paris uprising encouraged Charles X to led a revolt. The Dutch king looked to
other European powers for help. Britain and France helped Belgium because
they would benefit from the separation. Austria, Russia, and Prussia were busy
with the revolts in their land. So in 1831, Belgium became a independent state
with a liberal constitution.
Poland
 The Congress of Vienna handed most of Poland to Russia. In 1830, nationalists
led an uprising, but failed to gain widespread support. They were crushed by
the Russian force and failed to win independence.
1848: Another Wave
of Rebellion
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In the Austrian empire, a revolt broke out in Vienna by surprise.
Metternich, who ruled Austria for more than 30 years, tried to stop the
revolt, but failed. He then resigned and fled the country.
Hungarian nationalist led by Louis Kossuth demanded an independent
government, end to serfdom, and a written constitution to protect basic
rights. The Czechs also made similar demands. The Austrian government
agreed to them. Later with the help of Russia, they regain these places
back.
Nationalist in the Italian states wanted to be independent from the
Austrian Hapsburgs. From Venice to Naples, the Italians set up
independent republics. They even expelled the pope from Rome. Then the
Austrian troops got rid of the new republics and the French restored the
pope back in Rome.
Throughout 1848, delegates from the German states met in the Frankfort
Assembly to create a constitution for Germany as a whole. They offered
the crown to Frederick William IV of Prussia, but he rejected it. By early
1849, the assembly dissolved due to the threats from the Prussian military.
Discontent in
Latin America
 Peninsulares, Spanish born, dominated Latin American political and
social life. They hold top jobs in the government and the Church.
Creoles are European descended Latin Americans who owned
haciendas, ranches, and mines. The resented their second class
status. Mestizos are people of Native American and European
descend. Mulattoes are people of African and European descend.
They are angry at being denied status, wealth and power. Each class
feared and distrusted each other, but worked together against the
Spanish. When they got independence, the creoles dominated the
government.
 Napoleon’s invasion of Spain in 1808, started the widespread
rebellion on Latin America. Napoleon threw out the Spanish king
and replaced him with his brother, Joseph. Leaders in Latin America
saw Spain’s weakness and demanded for independence.
Haiti’s Struggle for
Independence
• Haiti was France’s most valued possession. Many slaves were overworked
and underfed in sugar plantations owned by the French planters.
• In the 1790’s revolutionaries debated to end slavery in the West Indies, but
didn’t help to free the enslaved Haitians. So Haiti’s slaves revolt in 1791.
They were led by Toussaint L’Ouverture, a self educated former slave. The
struggle was long and complex. It took more lives than any other revolution
in the Americas. By 1798, the rebels achieved their goal. Even though Haiti
was still a French colony, Toussaint’s force controlled most of the island.
• In France, Napoleon Bonaparte came into power. In 1802, he sent an army
to reconquer Haiti. Toussaint then told the Haitians to fight for full
independence. They were aided by the yellow fever. In April 1802, the
French agreed to a truce. After that, the French captures Toussaint and he
later dies. In 1804, Haitians leaders declared independence. Napoleon’s
army had left due to the yellow fever. For years, rival Haitians leaders
fought for power. In 1820, Haiti became a republic.
Independence for Mexico and
Central America
In 1810, a Creole priest in Mexico, Father Miguel Hidalgo, called the Mexicans
to fight for independence and liberty. Few creoles supported him. Later Hidalgo
was captured and executed and his followers scattered.
Father Jose Morelos, a Mestizo priest, called for social and political reforms.
For 4 years, he led the rebels, but in 1815 he was captured and shot to death.
In 1820 in Spain, liberals forced the king to issue a constitution. Agustin de
Iturbide, a conservative Creole in Mexico, feared that the new Spanish
government might impose liberal reforms on the colonies. Backed by the
creoles, mestizos, and Native Americans, he overthrew the Spanish viceroy in
1821. Mexico was now independent. Iturbide took the title Emperor Agustin I,
but liberal Mexicans threw the monarch and set up the Republic of Mexico.
The lives of most people changed a little even after the revolution.
In the early 1820, Spanish-ruled land in Central America declared
independence. Iturbide tried to add them into his empire, but he was
overthrown. The Central American leaders set up the United Provinces of
Central America, however it was short lived. It was then separated into
Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica. These new
nations faced many social and economic problems.
Independence in South America
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The strongest challenge to Spanish rule by Native Americans was the revolt led
by Tupac Amaru. Even though he was captured, the revolt did have some
positive effects. The Spanish king eventually abolished the brutal system of
forced Indian labor.
In 1810, Simon Bolivar led an uprising that established a republic in Venezuela,
but it was toppled by the conservative forces. In August 1819, he marched and
took Bogoto, the capital of the viceroyalty of New Granada (present day
Colombia). By 1821, he had finally freed Caracas, Venezuela. He was called
“The Liberator.” San Martin, a Creole, help free Argentina from Spain in 1816.
After that, he defeated the Spanish in Chile and went into Peru. In 1822,
Bolivar’s forces won the final victories against Spain. Bolivar wanted to then
united the lands into a single nation called Gran Colombia, which didn’t work
out.
When Napoleon’s armies conquered Portugal, the Portuguese royal family fled
to Brazil. There the king introduced many reforms. When the king went back to
Portugal, he left his son, Dom Pedro in charge. In 1822, he became the emperor
of the independent Brazil. He accepted a constitution and an elected legislature.
Brazil remained a monarchy until 1889, when social and political turmoil led it
to become a republic.
Questions
1.) Which of these situations was the direct result of the other three?
A. nations of Latin America won independence
B. revolutions occurred in North America and France
C. the Napoleonic wars weakened Spain’s power
D. creoles and mestizos became discontented with Spanish rule
2.) During the early 1800’s, which was a major influence on the struggle for political independence
in Latin America?
A. poor conditions in urban centers in Latin America
B. the American and French Revolutions
C. the desire of the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America to escape European control
D. demands by Latin American workers to own their own factories
3.) One similarity in the leadership of Latin Americas of San Martin, and Toussaint l’Ouverture, was
that each leader
A. opposed United States intervention in Haiti
B. led a struggle to gain freedom for the people of his nation
C. opposed membership of his nation in the League of Nations
D. established an absolute monarchy in his nation
Questions
4.) Which social class controlled most of the political, economic and social power in colonial
Latin America?
A. peninsulares
B. mestizos
C. creoles
D. native people
5.) The French people voted for Louis Napoleon because they hoped he would
A. restore Louis XVI to power
B. adopt the ideas of the Protestant Reformation
C. restore France to the glory days of Napoleon Bonaparte
D. end British control of France
Answers
1.) A
2.) B
3.) B
4.) A
5.) C