Revolutions! Revolts! New
Governments!
1750-1914
Enlightenment Revolutions
Commonalities? Contrasts?
The Enlightenment Ideals
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The two-prong rallying cry?
Origins?
Spread?
Ramifications?
The American Revolution (1776)
• Spurred by Locke’s ideas of “life, liberty,
and private property.”
• Changed it to be “life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness”
• Instituted by the emergent middle class
The French Revolution (1789)
• Corruption of absolute monarchs
• The Old Regime (ancien regime) social classes
into 3 estates:
– 1st: clergy, 1% of population, controlled 10%of land,
paid no taxes
– 2nd: landed nobility, 2% of population, controlled 20%
of land, minimal taxes
– 3rd: remainder of French citizenry: 97% of population;
merchants, laborers, peasants; heavily taxed:
leaders=artisans & merchants (bourgeoisie)
Recipe for disaster
• Extravagance of Louis XVI nearly bankrupted
France
• May 1789, forced meeting of the EstatesGeneral (French assembly)—1st time in 175
years
– Traditionally, each estate = 1 vote
– The bourgeoisie called for a change: 1 vote per
delegate
– denied
The National Assembly is formed
• The 3rd Estate formed the National
Assembly due to denial
• Met in a tennis court where pledged to
write a new constitution (Tennis Court
Oath)
• New gov’t: constitutional monarchy
– 1791—constitution completed, Legislative
Assembly formedformed 3 factions w/in
Revolution Begins!
• Storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1789
• The “Great Fear” begins, with the burning
of feudal manors
• October 1789, Parisian women riot over
price of bread; demand Louis XVI and
Marie Antoinette leave Versailles and go
to Paris
Declaration of Rights of Man
• Issued by National Assembly, 1789
• All men are born equal
• All enjoy the natural rights of “liberty, property,
security, and resistance to oppression”
• No reference to rights of women; Olympe de
Gouges (1791) wrote Declaration of Rights of
Women; not accepted; guillotined later
Fall of Monarchy
• 1792, Legislative Assembly dissolved,
establishing a National Convention
– Abolished the limited monarchy
– Established a republic, September 1792
– Male citizens given right to vote
– Controlled by the Jacobins, inc. Marat and
Danton
– January 1793, executed Louis XVI
Reign of Terror
• Maximilien Robespierre, head of Committee of
Public Safety
• Executed alleged enemies of the republic
– Marie Antoinette
– Marat and Danton, former leaders of the Jacobins
• Ended in 1794 w/ guillotining of Robespierre
• 1795-1799: The Directory
Napoleon’s Rise to Power
• Chosen to lead the army, November 1799
• The next day, staged a coup d’etat & became
dictator
– Established peace treaties w/ the 2nd Coalition (GB,
Austria, Russia)
– National bank; equalized taxes; public school system
– Napoleonic Code:
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equality of all adult men
patriarchal family
no property rights of women
restricted freedoms of press & speech
reinstated slavery in the Caribbean
Fall of Napoleon
• 1812, his empire controlled most of Europe
• 3 fatal errors:
– Blockade against Great Britain (1806)
– Peninsular War against Spain(1808-1813)
– Invasion of Russia in winter of 1812
• 1814, forced to abdicate throne
– to Elba
– March 1815, returned and reestablished
power
• Battle of Waterloo, June 1815, banished to St.
Helena
Congress of Vienna, 1815
• Austria, Prussia, Russia, Great Britain, &
France met in Vienna to “create stability”
in Europe
• To guard against future revolutions, set up
a series of alliances requiring nations to
come to aid each other lest war erupt
Goals and Action of the Congress of
Vienna:
• Goals
– Establish lasting peace &
stability
– Prevent future French
aggression
– Restore balance of
power
– Restore royal families to
their thrones
• Actions
– Formed the Kingdom of
the Netherlands
– German Confederation
– Independence of
Switzerland recognized
– Required France to
return Napoleon’s
conquered areas, but
kept France a power
Results of the Congress of Vienna
• Conservatives regain governmental
control
• Colonial Latin American governments
declared their independence
• Power of France diminished; power of
Great Britain and Prussia increased
• Encouraged growth of nationalism
The Haitian Revolution, 1791
• 1st Latin American territory to assert
independence= Fr. Colony, Saint
Dominique
• Population composed primarily of African
slaves, controlled tightly by minority
slaveholders90% of population was
slaves
Vive la revolucion!
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August 1791, African priest called for revolution
100,000 slaves revolted
Toussaint L’Ouverture emerged as a leader
Napoleon sent 20,000 troops to squelch the
revolt
• 1802, lured onto French ship to sign an
agreement for independence, and taken to
France against his will
• Died in France, 1803
Haiti is born
• Dessalines continued the struggle
• Haiti declared its independence, January
1,1804
• Dessalines declared self dictator for life
• 1st colony in which slaves gained freedom
from Europeans
Latin American Revolutions
Are they based on Enlightenment
ideals?
Social Classes in Latin America
• Rigidly stratified
– Peninsulares, creoles, mestizos, Africans &
mulattos, Indians
• 1808, Napoleon replaced Spanish king w/
his bro—no Creole or Peninsular loyalty to
the crown
• 1810 rebellion emerged
Independence for Spanish colonies
• Leaders of S.A. independence:
– Simon Bolivar, creole from Venezuela
– Jose de San Martin, from Argentina
• Simon Bolivar, the Liberator
Simon Bolivar
• Studied Enlightenment philosophies
• Educated, visited Europe & the United States of America
• Dreamed of creating a strong nation, called Gran
Colombia
• 1821, led Venezuela to independence
• Went to Ecuador, met w/ San Martin
– 1816, achieved Argentine independence
– Freed Chile in 1818
• 1822, in command of revolutionary forces
• Battle of Ayacucho, December 1824, remaining Spanish
colonies to independence
Simon Bolivar’s hopes
• Wanted greater prosperity for Latin
America after independence
• Reality:
– Destruction of cities, fields
– Economic devastation due to trade disruption
– Gran Colombia & United Provinces of Central
America divided into smaller national states
w/in a few years
– Continual Creole rule (Evo Morales, Bolivia)
Independence for Mexico
• Initiated by mestizos, rather than the creole
• September 16, 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo:
encouraged rebellion against Spain
– March of mestizos & Indians on Mexico City; creole
class (& Spanish) defeated Hidalgo in 1811
– Father Jose Maria Morelos took over revolution until
defeated in 1815
• 1821 Mexico achieved independence from
Spain, Treaty of Cordoba
The Mexican Revolution
• Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna served as
president 4 times
– Lost Texas & a border dispute with the US
– Treaty of Guadalupe (1848) ended Mexican
War
• Benito Juarez (Indian) came to power in
mid-19th C (deposed by Santa Anna in
1853)
Benito Juarez
• First term:
– Redistributed land
– Increased educational opportunities
– Maintained sep of church & state
• Returned to power in 1861
– French takeover of Mexico in 1862: Austrian
archduke Maximilian ruled as puppet emperor
• 1867, resumed presidency:
– Encouraged foreign trade
– Construction of railroads
Porfirio Diaz
• 1876, rose to power
• Authoritarian ruler of Indian descent
• Built banks & railroads; encouraged
foreign investment
• Land distributed unevenly; industrial
workers had low wages & poor working
conditions
• Formation of new political parties
Beginnings and End of Revolution
• Francisco Madero (elite class), educated
in US & France; believed in democracy
• Exiled to US by Diaz, called for revolution
• Leaders: Emiliano Zapata & Francisco
“Pancho” Villa
More Mex. Revolution
• Marked by years of frequent
assassinations and leadership changes
• Ended with murder of Zapata in 1919, by
the hands of Carranza, one of the leaders
of the revolution
Effects of the Mexican Revolution
• Revised Mexican constitution
– Promoted:
• Land reforms
• Workers’ rights
• Education
– Legal rights granted to women (such as initiating
lawsuits)
• New political party, Institutional Revolutionary
Party, came to power in 1929, dominated 20th
Century
Colonial Latin America, 1500-1750
The World in 1914