5.3 Nationalism, Revolution, and Reform
• I. The rise and diffusion of Enlightenment thought that
questioned established traditions in all areas of life often
preceded the revolutions and rebellions against existing
governments
• II. Beginning in the eighteenth century, people around the
world developed a new sense of commonality based on
language, religion, social customs, and territory; these
newly imagined national communities linked the identity
with the borders of the state, while government used this
idea to unite diverse populations
• III. Increasing discontent with imperial rule propelled
reformist and revolutionary movements
• IV. The global spread of European political and social
thought and the increasing number of rebellions stimulated
transnational ideologies and solidarities
Overview
• The eighteenth century marked the ___ of an
intense period of revolution and rebellion against
existing governments, and the establishment of
new nation-states around the world.
Enlightenment thought and the resistance of ___
peoples to imperial centers shaped this
revolutionary activity. These rebellions
sometimes resulted in the formation of new ___
and stimulated the development of new
ideologies. These new ideas in turn further
stimulated the revolutionary and anti-imperial
tendencies of the period.
I. Enlightenment Thought and Revolution
• A. Thinkers applied new ways of understanding the
natural world to human relationships, encouraging
observation and inference in all spheres of life.
• Examples of such thinkers:
– Voltaire
– Rousseau
• B. Intellectuals critiqued the role that religion played in
public life, insisting on the importance of ____ as
opposed to revelation.
• C. Enlightenment thinkers developed new political ideas
about the individual, natural rights, and the social
contract.
• Examples of Enlightenment thinkers:
– Locke
– Montesquieu
I. Enlightenment Thought and Revolution
• D. The ideas of Enlightenment thinkers influenced
resistance to existing political authority, as reflected in
revolutionary documents.
• Examples of revolutionary documents:
– The American Declaration of Independence
– The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
– Bolivar’s Jamaica Letter
• E. These ideas influenced many people to ____ existing
notions of social relations, which led to the expansion of
rights as seen in expanded suffrage, the abolition of
slavery and the end of serfdom, as their ideas were
implemented.
II. National Communities
• Read the standard.
• Any examples?
III. Increasing Discontent =
Reformist and Revolution
• A. Subjects challenged the centralized imperial
governments.
• Example of subjects challenging imperial
governments:
– The challenge of the Marathas to the Mughal Sultans
• B. American colonial subjects led a series of rebellions,
which facilitated the emergence of independent states in
the United States, Haiti, and mainland Latin America.
French subjects rebelled against their monarchy.
• Examples of rebellions:
–
–
–
–
American Revolution
French Revolution
Haitian Revolution
Latin American independence movements
III. Increasing Discontent =
Reformist and Revolution
• C. Slave resistance challenged existing
authorities in the Americas.
• Example of slave resistance:
– The establishment of Maroon societies
• D. Increasing questions about political authority
and growing nationalism contributed to
anticolonial movements.
• Examples of anticolonial movements:
– The Indian Revolt of 1857
– The Boxer Rebellion
III. Increasing Discontent =
Reformist and Revolution
• E. Some of the rebellions were influenced by
religious ideas and millenarianism.
• Example of such rebellions:
– The Taiping Rebellion
– The Ghost Dance
– The Xhosa Cattle-Killing Movement
• F. Responses to increasingly frequent rebellions
led to reforms in imperial policies.
• Examples of reforms:
– The Tanzimat movement
– The Self-Strengthening Movement
IV. New Transnational Ideologies
and Solidarities
• A. Discontent with monarchist and imperial rule
encouraged the development of political ideologies,
including liberalism, socialism, and communism.
• B. Demands for women’s suffrage and an emergent
feminism challenged political and gender hierarchies.
• Examples of such demands:
– Mary Wollstonecraft’s “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”
– Olympe de Gouges’s “Declaration of the Rights of Women and
the Female Citizen”
– The resolutions passed at the Seneca Falls Conference in 1848
The encounter between Japan and the
increasingly aggressive Western powers
in the nineteenth century resulted in all
EXCEPT which of the following
outcomes?
• a. Japan’s industrialization
• b. Japan’s rejection of external expansion and
its defense of other regional states threatened
by Western powers
• c. Major reforms in the Japanese government
• d. The selective borrowing in Japan of western
ideas
Answer
• B
In comparison to the early modern
era, expansion by industrialized
nineteenth-century Europe
• a. was no longer driven by the needs of trade
because Europe produced all the manufactured
goods that it required.
• b. did not bring cultural change because
Europeans considered their culture of modernity
beyond the capacity of non-Europeans to
understand.
• c. never led to large-scale migration of
Europeans.
• d. was backed by far more powerful militaries.
Answer
• D
Which of the following was NOT a factor
that distinguished how Japan experienced
Western imperialism as compared to the
Ottoman Empire and China?
• a. Japan was less reliant on Western finance than either the
Ottoman Empire or China.
• b. Only Japan saw parts of its territory physically occupied by
Western troops.
• c. Japan chose not to renegotiate its “capitulation” treaties
with Western powers while both the Ottoman Empire and
China did.
• d. Western powers considered Japan of far greater strategic
and economic importance leading to more active Western
intervention in Japan than either the Ottoman Empire or
China.
Answer
• A
Which of the following factors do
you think played the most important
role in driving European imperialism
during the nineteenth century?
• a. Nationalism
• b. The need for new markets and raw
materials for industrial production
• c. New perceptions of other races as
inferior
• d. New culture of modernity
When considering the declining
fortunes of China and the Ottoman
Empire in the nineteenth century, do
you think that the most important
factor is
•
•
•
•
a. Western imperial intervention?
b. internal tensions?
c. weaknesses in leadership?
d. lack of a coherent reform program like
that followed in Japan?
With stronger leadership, could the
Chinese Empire have been saved?
•
•
a. Yes. Why?
b. No. Why not?