Unit 7 Study Guide – Chapters 17 and 18
Chapter 17 Study Guide
1. Explain the Eurocentric view of geography and history.
Modern European and North American societies came to exercise a new role in world affairs during the “long
nineteenth century.” Something approaching global dominance had these societies rewriting geography and history
in the ways that centered the human story on Europe and imposed those views on other people. Thus, maps placed
Europe at the center of the world, while dividing Asia in half. Europe was granted continental status, even though
it was more accurately only the western peninsula of Asia, much as India was its southern peninsula. The entire
world came to measure longitude from a line, known as the prime meridian, which passes through the Royal
Astronomical Observatory in Greenwich, England. (Original: p. 491; With Sources: pp. 771-772)
2. In what ways did the ideas, and heart, of the Enlightenment contribute to the Atlantic Revolutions?
The Atlantic basin had become a world of intellectual and cultural exchange as well as one of commercial and
biological interconnectedness. The ideas that animated the Atlantic Revolutions came from the European
Enlightenment and were shared across the ocean in newspapers, books, and pamphlets. At the heart of these ideas
was the radical notion that human political and social arrangements could be engineered, and improved, by human
action. (Original: p. 500; With Sources: p. 780)
3. The Atlantic revolutions shared a common political vocabulary and a broadly democratic character, but how did
they differ from one another?
They were triggered by different circumstances, expressed quite different social and political tensions. (Original: p.
501; With Sources: p. 781)
4. What was revolutionary about the American Revolution and what was not, in its break with Britain?
Revolutionary—It marked a decisive political change.
Not Revolutionary—It sought to preserve the existing liberties of the colonies rather than create new ones.
(Original: p. 502; With Sources: p. 782)
5. What was revolutionary about the American experience?
The revolution accelerated the established democratic tendencies of the colonial societies. (Original: p. 503; With
Sources: p. 783)
6. Where did the political authority remain after America’s independence from Britain?
It remained largely in the hands of existing elites who had led the revolution, although property requirements for
voting were lowered and more white men of modest means, such as small farmers and urban artisans, were elected
to state legislatures. (Original: p. 503; With Sources: p. 783)
7. Describe the composition of the three estates.
The First Estate comprised of the clergy and the Second Estate--the nobility. The first two estates made up about 2
percent of the population. The Third Estate was made up of everyone else--the commoners. (Original: p. 504; With
Sources: p. 784)
8. How did the French Revolution differ from the American Revolution?
While the American Revolution expressed the tensions of a colonial relationship with a distant imperial power, the
French insurrection was driven a by sharp conflicts within French society.
The French Revolution, especially during the first five years, was a more violent, far-reaching, and radical
movement than the American Revolution.
Unlike the Americans, who sought to restore or build upon earlier freedoms, French revolutionaries perceived
themselves to be starting from scratch and looked to the future.
The French Revolution differed from the American Revolution in the way that its influence spread. At least until
the United States became a world power at the end of the nineteenth century, what inspired others was primarily the
example of its revolution and its constitution. French influence, by contrast, was spread through conquest.
(Original: pp. 504-505; With Sources: pp. 785-786)
9. How was Napoleon Bonaparte credited for taming the French Revolution and how was French domination
received throughout Europe?
He preserved many of its more moderate elements, such as civil equality, a secular law code, religious freedom, and
promotion by merit, while reconciling with the Catholic Church and suppressing the revolution’s more democratic
elements in a military dictatorship. In many places within the empire, his reforms were welcomed, and further
seeds of change were planted. However, French domination was resented and resisted, stimulating national
consciousness throughout Europe. (Original: p. 507; With Sources: p. 787)
10. While the Haitian Revolution had been the only successful slave revolt in history, what were the social, political,
and economic outcomes of it?
Socially, the lowest order of society—slaves—became equal, free, and independent citizens.
Politically, they had thrown off French colonial rule, becoming the second independent republic in the Americas
and the first non-European state to emerge from Western colonialism.
Economically, the country’s plantation system had been largely destroyed. As whites fled or were killed, both
private and state lands were redistributed among former slaves and free blacks, and Haiti became a nation of smallscale farmers producing mostly for their own needs, with a much smaller export sector. (Original: p. 509; With
Sources: p. 789)
11. Despite the creole elites’ disenchantment with Spanish rule, what events in Europe instigated independence
movements in Latin America (include the movements of Fathers Hidalgo and Jose Morelos, and Simon Bolivar and
Jose San Martin)?
In 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain and Portugal, deposing the Spanish king Ferdinand VII and forcing the
Portuguese royal family into exile in Brazil. With legitimate royal authority now in disarray, Latin Americans were
forced to take action.
Alarmed by the social radicalism of the Hidalgo-Morelos rebellion, creole landowners, with the support of the
Church, raised an army and crushed the insurgency. Later, that alliance of clergy and creole elites brought Mexico
to a more socially controlled independence of 1821.
Simon Bolivar and Jose San Martin required the support of the people, not just the creole elite, if they were to
prevail against Spanish forces. This was no easy task, since many whites and mestizos saw themselves as Spanish
and because great differences of race, culture, and wealth separated the Americanos. Nationalist leaders made
efforts to mobilize people of color into the struggle with promises of freedom, the end of legal restrictions, and
social advancement. In the end, few promises were kept and the lower classes benefitted very little from
independence. Despite several failed efforts to unite the various Spanish colonies, a United States of Latin America
never emerged. (Original: pp. 511-513; With Sources: pp. 791-792)
12. The United States began its history as the leftover dregs of the New World and the Spanish colonies occupied
the wealthiest areas and were regarded as the more promising region. Nevertheless, as the United States grew in
power what happened to Latin America?
Latin America became relatively underdeveloped, impoverished, undemocratic, politically unstable, and dependent
on foreign technology and investment. (Original: p. 513; With Sources: p. 793)
13. The Abolitionist Movement reflected both Enlightenment and Christian values of human equality. How did
the end of slavery affect the lives of the former slaves?
In most cases the economic lives of slaves didn’t improve dramatically. With the exception of Haiti, nowhere in the
Atlantic world did a redistribution of land follow the end of slavery. In some parts of the Caribbean such as
Jamaica, where unoccupied land was available, independent agriculture proved possible for some. Sharecropping
emerged to replace slavery and to provide low-paid and often indebted workers. The understandable reluctance of
former slaves to continue working in plantation agriculture created labor shortages and set in motion a huge new
wave of global migration. Basically, the only thing that slaves got with abolition is their legal freedom. (Original: p.
515; With Sources: p. 795)
14. Compare the southern United States period of radical reconstruction with that of Russia’s ending of serfdom.
In the southern U.S.--newly freed blacks enjoyed full political rights and some power, which was followed by harsh
segregation laws, denial of voting rights, a wave of lynching, and an infectious racism that lasted well into the
twentieth century.
In Russia—the end of serfdom transferred to the peasants a considerable portion of the nobles’ land, but the need
to pay for this land with “redemption dues” and the rapid growth of Russia’s rural population ensured that most
peasants remained impoverished and politically unstable. (Original: p. 515; With Sources: p. 795)
15. What accounts for the growth of nationalism as a powerful political and personal identity in the nineteenth
century?
The era of Atlantic revolutions and their subsequent independence movements declared that sovereignty lay with
the people.
States were inhabited--by people who felt themselves to be citizens of a nation, deeply bound to their fellows by ties
of blood, culture, or common experience.
Science-- weakened the hold of religion on some. Migration, to industrial cities or abroad, diminished allegiance to
local communities. At the same time, printing and the publishing industry standardized a variety of dialects into a
smaller number of European languages, a process that allowed a growing reading public to think of themselves as
members of a common linguistic group or nation.
Governments throughout the Western world--claimed now to act on behalf of their nations and deliberately sought
to instill national loyalties in their citizens through schools, public rituals, the mass media, and military service.
(Original: pp. 516-517; With Sources: pp. 796-798)
16. Explain Nationalism in Poland.
In the 18th century, Poland had been divided among Prussia, Austria, and Russia and disappeared as a separate and
independent state. Polish nationalism found expression in the 19th century in a series of revolts, among which was a
massive uprising in 1863, directed against Poland’s Russian occupiers. (Original: p. 519; With Sources: p. 799)
17. What were the achievements and limitations of nineteenth century feminism?
Achievements—Because of feminist movements, upper-and middle-class women had gained entrance to
universities and women’s literacy rates improved. In the U.S., a number of states passed legislation allowing women
to manage and control their own property and wages, separate from their husbands. Divorce laws were liberalized
in some places. Professions such as medicine opened to a few, and teaching beckoned many more. Britain had
professionalized nursing and attracted thousands of women into it, while Jane Addams in the U.S. invented social
work which became a female-dominated profession.
Limitations-- Voting rights worldwide was slower in the political domain. However in 1893, New Zealand became
the first country to give the vote to all adult women, yet elsewhere widespread voting rights for women in national
elections were not achieved until after WWI and in France not until 1945. (Original: p. 521; With Sources: p. 801)
Explain the significance of each of the following:
Estates General—French representative assembly called into session by King Louis XVI to address pressing
problems and out of which the French Revolution emerged (Original: p. 504; With Sources: p. 784)
National Assembly—representatives convened during the Estates General and declared they were the sole authority
to make laws for the country (Original: p. 504; With Sources: p. 784)
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen—Document drawn up by the French national Assembly in 1789 that
proclaimed the equal rights of all men; the declaration ideologically launched the French Revolution (Original:
p.504; With Sources: p. 784)
Maximilien Robespierre and the Terror of 1793-1794—Robespierre was the radical leader of the Committee of
Public Safety and under his leadership thousands of deemed enemies of the revolution lost their lives on the
guillotine. He was eventually arrested and guillotined, accused of leading France into tyranny and dictatorship.
(Original: p.505; With Sources: p. 785)
Napoleon Bonaparte—He was a highly successful general in the French army who seized power in 1799. He is
often credited with taming the revolution. Napoleon also expanded France’s territorial boundaries and created a
great empire. (Original: p.507; With Sources: p. 787)
Gens de couleur libres—free people of color (Original: pp. 507-508; With Sources: p. 788)
Toussaint Louverture—He was a former slave and leader of the Haitian Revolution. He outmaneuvered the foreign
powers and even defeated an attempt by Napoleon’s forces to reestablish French control. (Original: p. 509; With
Sources: p. 789)
Jean Jacques Dessalines—Haiti’s first head of state after the revolution (Original: p. 509; With Sources: p. 789)
Nationalism—The focusing of citizens’ loyalty on the notion that they are part of a “nation” with a unique culture,
territory, and destiny (Original: p. 516; With Sources: p. 796)
Declaration of the Rights of Woman—written by revolutionary French feminist Olympe de Gouges in the hopes
that the revolutionary ideals of liberty and equality would include women. (Original: p. 520)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton—One of the first women to organize the expression of the new feminism in the U.S. which
took place at a women’s rights conference in Seneca Falls, N.Y. in 1848. At that meeting she drafted a statement
that began by paraphrasing the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
and women are created equal.” (Original: p. 521; With Sources: p. 801)
Chapter 18 Study Guide
1. Explain why the Industrial Revolution occurred in Europe first rather than elsewhere.
Certain patterns of Europe’s internal development favored innovation. Its many small and highly competitive states
provided an “insurance against economic and technological al stagnation,” which the larger Chinese, Ottoman, or
Mughal Empires perhaps lacked. In the absence of an effective tax collecting bureaucracy, the need for revenue
pushed European monarchies into an unusual alliance with their merchant class. States were granted charters and
monopolies to private trading companies, and governments founded scientific societies and offered prizes to
promote innovation. European merchants and innovations from the 15th C. onward gained an unusual degree of
freedom from state control and higher social status in some places than their counterparts. (Original: p. 530; With
Sources: pp. 828-829)
2. What does Peter Stearns say about the Industrial Revolution?
Europe’s Industrial Revolution stemmed in great part from Europe’s ability to draw disproportionately on world
resources. (Original: p. 532; With Sources: p. 830)
3. What did the new societies of the Americas offer?
They offered a growing market for European machine-produced goods and generated substantial profits for
European merchants and entrepreneurs. (Original: p. 532; With Sources: p. 830)
4. What was distinctive about Britain that may help to explain its status as the breakthrough point of the Industrial
Revolution?
It was the most commercialized country in Europe.
It had a growing population that ensured a steady supply of workers.
British aristocrats engaged in new mining and manufacturing enterprises.
The merchant fleet was protected by the British Navy.
Its policy of religious toleration welcomed people with technical skills regardless of their faith unlike
France’s persecution of Protestants.
It had tariffs to help cut cheaper Indian textiles.
Britain made laws to easily form companies and forbid unions.
Roads and canals helped to unify the internal market.
It had patent laws and helped to protect the interests of investors.
The country had a ready supply of coal and iron.
The country’s island location protected it from invasions that so many continental European states had suffered.
(Original: pp. 532-533; With Sources: pp. 830-832)
5. How did the Industrial Revolution transform the British aristocracy?
As large landowners, the British aristocracy declined as urban wealth increased with the rise of businessmen,
manufacturers, and bankers who had been newly enriched by the Industrial Revolution. By the end of the century,
landownership had largely ceased to be the basis of great wealth and businessmen, rather than aristocrats, led the
major political parties. (Original: p. 535; With Sources: pp. 833-834)
6. How did Britain’s middle class change the roles of women?
Women were cast as homemakers, wives, and mothers charged with creating an emotional haven for their men.
They were the moral center of family life, educators of respectability, as well as consumers.
Middle class women on the farms or in artisan’s shops were subordinate and worked alongside their husbands.
However, by the 19th C. some middle class women began to enter teaching, clerical, and nursing professions.
A lower middle class began to rise and included clerks, salespeople, bank tellers, hotel staff, secretaries, etc.
This class represented about 20% of Britain’s population and provided new employment opportunities for women.
(Original: pp. 536-537; With Sources: pp. 834-835)
7. Over time, which class suffered most and benefited least from the transformations of the Industrial Revolution?
The laboring classes. (Original: p. 537; With Sources: p. 835)
8. How was the environment in which most urban workers lived?
Cities were vastly overcrowded, smoky, poor sanitation, periodic epidemics, few public services or open spaces, and
inadequate water supplies. (Original: pp. 537-538; With Sources: p. 836)
9. How did industrial factories offer a work environment different from the artisan’s shops or the tenant’s farm?
Long hours, low wages, and child labor were nothing new to the poor, but the routine and monotony of the work,
dictated by the factory whistle and the needs of the machines, imposed novel and highly unwelcome conditions of
labor. (Original: p. 538; With Sources: p. 836)
10. How did Karl Marx understand the Industrial Revolution?
For Marx, class struggle was the central dynamic of industrial capitalist societies. (Original: p. 539)
11. What did Marx believe about capitalist societies and capitalism in general?
Capitalist societies could never deliver on the promise of ending poverty because private property, competition, and
class hostility prevented those societies from distributing the abundance of industrial economies to the workers
whose labor had created that abundance. Capitalism was flawed, doomed to collapse amid a working class
revolution as society polarized into rich and poor. (Original: p.539; With Sources: p. 837)
12. What did Marx look forward to?
He looked forward to a communist future in which the great productive potential of industrial technology would be
placed in service to the entire community. (Original: p. 539)
13. What hadn’t Marx foreseen?
Marx hadn’t foreseen the development of a strong middle class social group, nor had he imagined that workers
could better their standard of living within a capitalist framework. (Original: p. 540; With Sources: p. 838)
14. What were some reasons that Marxist socialism did not take root in the U.S.?
One is the relative conservatism of major union organizations
The immense religious, ethnic, and racial divisions of American society undermined the class solidarity of
American workers, and made it more difficult to sustain class-oriented political parties and socialist labor
movements.
There was a higher standard of living for American workers in response to the country’s remarkable economic
growth.
Higher level of home ownership among U.S. workers
By 1910, white collar workers in sales, services, and offices outnumbered factory labor. (Original: p. 544; With
Sources: p. 843)
15. What were the differences between industrialization in the U.S. and that in Russia? (Original: p. 542-547; With
Sources: pp. 841-846)
United States
Russia
U.S. was the Western world’s most exuberant
Russia remained an outpost of absolute monarchy.
democracy in the 19th C.
Change bubbled up from society as free farmers,
workers, and businessmen sought new opportunities
and operated in a political system that gave them
varying degrees of expression.
Workers in the U.S. were treated better and had more
outlets for grievances because of trade unions.
U.S. industrialization was associated with capitalism
and competition.
Change was far more initiated by the state itself in its
efforts to catch up with the more powerful innovated
states of Europe.
Russia developed an unusually radical class
consciousness, based on harsh conditions and the
absence of any legal outlet for the grievances.
Industrialization in Russia was associated with violent
social revolutions through a socialist political party
inspired by the teachings of Karl Marx.
16. What did Peter the Great do for Russia?
enlarged and modernized the Russian Army
created a new education system for sons of noblemen
Russian nobles were instructed to dress in European styles and to shave their beards.
St. Petersburg—the newly created capital—was to be Russia’s “window on the West.” (Original: p. 546; With
Sources: p. 844)
17. Until 1897, a thirteen hour work day was common. What other factors contributed to the making of a
revolutionary situation in Russia?
Ruthless discipline and overt disrespect from supervisors created resentment.
Life in large and unsanitary barracks added to workers’ sense of injustice.
The absence of legal unions and political parties often erupted into large-scale strikes.
Peasant uprisings, student demonstrations, revolts of non-Russian nationalities, and mutinies in the military all
contributed to the upheaval. (Original: p. 547; With Sources: p. 845)
18. Explain the tsar’s limited political reforms.
failed to tame working-class radicalism or to bring social stability to Russia
In 1906-1907, when a newly elected and radically inclined Duma refused to cooperate with the tsar’s new political
system, Tsar Nicholas II twice dissolved that elected body and finally changed the electoral laws to favor the landed
nobility.
In Russian political life, the people had only a limited voice. (Original: p. 547; With Sources: pp. 845-846)
19. What were the raw materials being exported from Latin America after 1860?
Chile—copper
Bolivia—tin
Peru—guano
Amazon rain forest—wild rubber
Mexico—sisal
Central America—bananas
Argentina—beef
Ecuador—cacao
Brazil and Guatemala—coffee
Cuba—sugar (Original: p. 550; With Sources: p. 848)
20. In return, what did Latin Americans import?
Textiles, machinery, tools, weapons, and luxury goods (Original: p. 550; With Sources: p. 849)
21. What was the impact of the export boom on the various social segments of Latin American society?
(Original: p. 552; With Sources: pp. 850-851)
Positive Effects
Negative Effects
Upper Class
Land-owning upper class was 1% of the
They benefited the most.
population
They saw their property values increase.
They benefited the most.
Middle Class
Middle class was 8% of the population
Skills proved valuable and prosperity grew
Lower Class
Urban workers who labored in the mines,
ports, in the railroads, and a few factories
organized themselves and created unions
and engaged in strikes.
Suffered the most and benefited the least
from the export boom
Many farmers lost land from the government
attacks on communal landholdings and
peasant indebtedness to wealthy landowners.
Women and children now were required to
work as field laborers.
22. What was the result of the Mexican Revolution of 1917?
Mexico had a new constitution that proclaimed universal suffrage.
It provided for the redistribution of land.
It stripped the Catholic Church of any role in public education and forbade it to own land.
It gave more fights to workers, such as a minimum wage and an eight-hour work day.
It placed restrictions on foreign ownership of property. (Original: p. 553; With Sources: pp. 851-852)
23. Was Latin America able to participate in the global economy through an industrial revolution of its own? Why
or Why not?
No. It developed a form of economic growth that was largely financed by capital from abroad and dependent on
European and North American prosperity and decisions. (Original: p. 554; With Sources: p. 852)
24. How does Strayer explain “dependent development” as a new form of colonialism? Give examples.
It was expressed in the power exercised by foreign investors.
The U.S. owned United Fruit Company in Central America was allied with large landowners and compliant
politicians, and the company pressured the governments of these “banana republics” to maintain favorable
conditions to U.S. businessmen.
This indirect imperialism was supplemented by repeated U.S. military intervention in support of American
corporate interests in Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Mexico.
The U.S. also controlled the Panama Canal and acquired Puerto Rico as territory (Original: p. 554; With Sources:
pp. 852-853)
25. Big Picture Question: In your synthesis of the chapter, what did humankind gain from the Industrial
Revolution and what did it lose?
Among the gains were an enormous increase in the output of goods and services because of a wholly
unprecedented jump in the capacities of human societies to produce wealth. Other gains included unprecedented
technological innovation; new sources of power; and new employment opportunities for participants.
The losses included the destruction of some older ways of life; the demise of some older methods of production;
miserable working and living conditions for many of the laboring classes; new and sometimes bitter social-and classbased conflicts; and environmental degradation. (Original: See entire chapter.)
Explain the significance of each of the following:
Bourgeoisie—Term that Karl Marx used to describe the owners of industrial capital; originally meant
“townspeople” (Original: p. 539)
Proletariat—Term that Karl Marx used to describe the industrial working class; originally used in ancient Rome to
describe the poorest part of the urban population (Original: p. 539)
Duma—The elected representative assemble grudgingly created in Russia by Tsar Nicholas II in response to the
1905 revolution (Original: p. 547; With Sources: p. 845)
Bolsheviks—Members of the most radical of the socialist groups in Russia (Original: p. 547; With Sources: p. 846)
Lenin—Pen name of Russian Bolshevik Vladimir Ulyanov who was the main leader of the Russian Revolution of
1917 (Original: pp. 547-548; With Sources: p. 846)
Caudillo—A military strongman who seized control of a government in nineteenth century Latin America (Original:
p. 549; With Sources: p. 847)
Haciendas—Plantations of the wealthy (Original: p. 549; With Sources: p. 848)