Nationalism, Revolution, and
Reform
The eighteenth century marked the
beginning 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
colonized peoples to imperial centers shaped
this revolutionary activity.
• These rebellions sometimes resulted in the
formation of new states and stimulated the
development of new ideologies.
• These new ideas in turn further stimulated the
revolutionary and antiimperial tendencies of
this period.
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
The Enlightenment
• Applied reason to the human world, as well
as to the rest of the natural world
• Stimulated religious tolerance
• Fueled democratic revolutions around the
world
Enlightenment thinkers and their ideas
• Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan: Humans exist in a
primitive “state of nature” and consent to
government for self-protection.
• John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government:
People are sovereign and consent to government
for protection of natural rights to life, liberty, and
property.
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• Montesquieu’s The Spirit of Laws: The best
form of government includes a separation of
powers.
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract:
Government is a contract between rulers and
the people.
• Voltaire: Religious toleration should triumph
over religious fanaticism; separation of
church and state.
• Thinkers (Voltaire, Rousseau) applied new
ways of understanding the natural world to
human relationships, encouraging observation
and inference in all spheres of life.
• Intellectuals critiqued the role that religion
played in public life, insisting on the
importance of reason as opposed to
revelation.
• Enlightenment thinkers (Locke, Montesquieu)
developed new political ideas about the
individual, natural rights, and the social
contract
• The ideas of Enlightenment thinkers
influenced resistance to existing political
authority, as reflected in revolutionary
documents
Influence of the Enlightenment
• Political philosophies of the Enlightenment
fueled revolution in the Americas and France.
• Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of
Independence incorporated Enlightenment
ideas.
• The Constitution of the United States of
America and Bill of Rights incorporated
Enlightenment ideas
Revolutionary Documents
• The American Declaration of Independence
• The French Declaration of the Rights of Man
and Citizen
• Bolivar’s Jamaica Letter
Impact of Enlightenment Ideas
• These ideas influenced many
people to challenge existing
notions of social relations.
• 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.
Representative composers, artists,
philosophers, and writers
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Baroque composer
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Classical
composer
• Voltaire: Philosopher
• Miguel de Cervantes: Novelist
• Eugène Delacroix: Painter (transition to the
Romantic School of the nineteenth century)
New schools of art and forms of
literature
• Painting depicted classical subjects,
public events, natural scenes, and living
people
–portraits
• New forms of literature evolved, such as
the novel
–Cervantes’ Don Quixote
Technologies
• All-weather roads improved year- round
transport and trade.
• New designs in farm tools increased
productivity
– agricultural revolution
• Improvements in ship design lowered the cost
of transport.
Nationalism
• Beginning in the eighteenth century, peoples
around the world developed a new sense of
commonality based on language, religion,
social customs and territory.
• These newly imagined national communities
linked this identity with the borders of the
state, while governments used this idea to
unite diverse populations.
Increasing discontent with imperial
rule propelled reformist and
revolutionary movements
Revolutions
• Subjects challenged the centralized imperial
governments
– challenge of the Marathas to the Mughal Sultans
• 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. Required examples of rebellions
• Slave resistance challenged existing authorities in
the Americas
– establishment of Maroon societies
• Increasing questions about political authority and
growing nationalism contributed to anticolonial
movements
– Indian Revolt of 1857
– Boxer Rebellion
• Some of the rebellions were influenced by
religious ideas and millenarianism
• Taiping Rebellion
• The Ghost Dance
• The Xhosa Cattle Killing Movement
Responses
• Responses to increasingly frequent rebellions
led to reforms in imperial policies
– Tanzimat Reforms
– Self Strengthening Movement
The global spread of European political
and social thought and the increasing
number of rebellions stimulated new
transnational ideologies and solidarities.
Discontent with monarchist and
imperial rule encouraged the
development of political ideologies
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Liberalism
Socialism
Communism
Conservatism
The Women
• Demands for women’s suffrage and an
emergent feminism challenged political and
gender hierarchies
– Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the
Rights of Women
– Olympia de Gouges's Declaration of the
Rights of Women and the Female Citizen
– The Resolution passed at the Seneca Falls
convention in 1848