A changing world

• 1600s – people began to question old ideas about the world around them through reason and rational thinking
• This led to the Scientific Revolution and the
Age of Reason or Enlightenment

• Philosophers created new ways of thinking about government

Philosopher who believed:
• People have certain natural rights that belong to them as human beings – life, liberty, and property/belongings
• Government is necessary to ensure that people keep those rights
• The government's power should be limited – if the government does not do its job, the people have the right to overthrow it

• Laissez-faire economics
– where economy is concerned, government should do nothing
• Natural forces in economy (supply and demand) should be allowed to work freely
• Government should protect against invasion by enemies, but not poverty

“ In the state of nature all men are born in equal, but they can not continue. The Society makes them lose, and they recover it only by the laws ”
• The purpose of the politics must be to restore and guarantee the equality of citizens.
• Montesquieu’s separation of powers : three branches of government - guarantees that one will not get too powerful
(equality)

• Writer
• Supported religious tolerance
• Justice for all
• Free speech
• Against slavery
• Attacked corruption in the government and Catholic church

• Rose with the use of experiments and observation – scientists learned how things in nature worked (planets, weather, plants)
• Laws of nature = Natural Law
• Scientific method – the systematic process for gathering and analyzing evidence (developed by
Francis Bacon)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_ embedded&v=_Y-svkL6zdo

• Nicholas Copernicus and Galileo Galilei – the planets revolve around the sun, not the earth

• Anton van
Leeuwenhoek – discovered cells in living matter using a simple microscope

• Isaac Newton – developed the Universal
Law of Gravitation; explained why the planets orbit the sun

• Edward Jenner – discovered the vaccine for smallpox

• Great Britain – tension between monarchy and
Puritans
• Parliament (controlled by Puritans) and King
Charles I fought over money
• This argument led to the
English Civil War –
Puritans (Roundheads) vs. supporters of the king (Cavaliers)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FyQnE
Dt7eA
• Oliver Cromwell – leader of the Puritans
• Puritans won in 1646,
Charles beheaded
• Effect – new government took power, monarchy restored, but power of the king was greatly limited

• Causes – colonies existed to make their home country rich… one way to do this was to make sure that trade was regulated through taxes for the home country’s benefit
• Catch – the taxes were revenue taxes meant to raise money, not to regulate trade
• http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=Eytc9ZaNWyc
Disagreement in the 1760s and early 1770s Colonists were furious – “No taxation without representation”

• 1775 – first shot of the
American Revolution in
Massachusetts
• July 4, 1776 – Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence
(adopted many of the ideas of John Locke)
• Music video: http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=A_56cZGRMx
4

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere http
://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4hUMQG3MI8
Disadvantages
1) Faced the largest, strongest professional army and navy in the world
Advantages
Strong leadership:
1) George Washington – put together an army with good officers
2) Army was made up of untrained recruits
3) Navy had only a handful of ships
2) Thomas Jefferson
3) Ben Franklin – got France to join the war effort
4) John Adams h ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3
EiSymRrKI4

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=QP6sI3O8v20 start: 9:27 end:
11:57
• How to make a mask letter:
1.
Cut your mask – fold paper in half and cut design
2.
Write your secret message using your mask
3.
Remove your mask and fill in writing around the secret message that makes sense
4.
http://www.clements.umich.edu
/exhibits/online/spies/methodsmask.html

• Lord Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781 – the war was over
Now what??
We need government!
• First written plan: Articles of Confederation (did not have a strong central government)
• 1787 – it was clear that the Articles were not working, delegates met in Philadelphia to make some changes, instead they created a Constitution

• Federal system – power shared between national, or central government and the state governments
• Central government divided into 3 branches
1) Executive
2) Legislative
3) Judicial
A system of checks and balances was developed so one branch would not gain too much power

• Americans wanted certain natural rights guaranteed by the Constitution – The Bill of Rights
• 1788 – Constitution ratified, Bill of Rights added – guaranteed freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition; right to bear arms; freedom of housing soldiers against will; freedom from unlawful search and seizure; right to a speedy fair trial and trial by jury; freedom from excessive bail, fines, or punishment
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO7FQsCcbD8

• Current King and Queen –
Louis XVI and Marie
Antoinette
• French Monarchies kept a tight hold on their power
• One thing they did not control = money
• 1789 – France on the verge of bankruptcy
• http://www.youtube.com/w atch?v=lTTvKwCylFY

1) First Estate – clergy
2) Second Estate – nobility
3) Third Estate – commoners

• King Louis XVI needed the agreement of the
Estates-General to raise taxes to try to fix
France’s financial woes
• First and Second estates paid no taxes
• Soooo…Third estate had to pay taxes
You see why this might cause some hard feelings…

• May 5, 1789 – The Estates-General met for the first time in 175 years
• Each estate met by itself and had 1 vote – the
Third Estate wanted the entire Estates-General to meet and count each member’s vote individually
• This type of meeting could bring about change and reform

• King Louis refused to allow the three estates to vote together
• Third Estate renamed itself The National
Assembly and began to work on a Constitution
• Louis locked them out of the meeting hall and brought in troops to drive them out when they met on the palace tennis court

• July 14, 1789 – people of Paris destroy a hated prison - marks the beginning of the French
Revolution

The National Assembly:
1) Eliminated privileges of the First and Second
Estates
2) Approved the Declaration of the Rights of
Man (stated the reasons for Revolution)
3) 1791 – adopted a constitution

• Powers of the monarchy were limited
• Government divided into three branches:
1) Executive
2) Legislative
3) Judicial
• Church property – taken by government and sold
• Government controlled the church – paid priests’ salaries

• The National Assembly disbanded and became the Legislative Assembly
• Radicals existed who opposed the assembly and wanted a republic of their own

• Prussia and Austria attacked France to defeat the
Revolutionaries and restore Louis to power
• Mobs took to the streets of Paris again
• Radicals took advantage of the chaos and called a
National Convention to write a new Constitution

• The radicals governed from 1792 to 1795
During this time:
1) The monarchy was abolished
2) Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were tried, convicted, and beheaded at the guillotine
3) The Reign of Terror took place

• Jacobins – most radical members of the
Convention seized power in 1793
• Anyone suspected of opposing them faced arrest and execution via guillotine
• Thousands died in the short year

• French lawyer, politician, and Jacobin
• one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French
Revolution
• As his power increased, his popularity decreased
•
• http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=OglrzNohp3Q

• 1795 – new constitution established a legislature with two houses and an executive branch of five directors
• The Directory governed France from 1795 to
1799
• France continued to be in a state of political chaos

• 1800 Napoleon and a group of officers overthrew the Directory
• Napoleon became the new ruler of France
• http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=BGxFNtCPnB
0
•

• Restored order and the economy improved
• Set up a centralized government managed by a professional bureaucracy
• Reform: the Napoleonic
Code – seven codes that replaced many systems if law
• At the same time,
Napoleon took more and more power for himself…
• Napoleon ignored the freedom of press and shut down the newspapers that opposed him
• 1804 – Declared himself emperor

• 1805-1813: led France into one war after another – Napoleonic
Wars
• 1813 – forced to step down, sent to the island of Elba
** Congress of Vienna assembly in 1814–15 that reorganized Europe chaired by Austrian statesman
Klemens von Metternich
• 1815 – escaped and took command of another French army to fight the Battle of
Waterloo, defeated again
• Sent to St. Helena Island where he died in 1821

• Napoleon wanted to spread the ideas of the
Revolution, in the nations that he conquered, he set up governments based on:
1) Legal equality
2) Economic opportunity
3) Religious tolerance
4) Limited power of nobility and clergy

• The American Revolution was influenced by ideas of the Enlightenment.
• The French Revolution was influenced by the
American Revolution and the Enlightenment.
• The Revolutions in South America were brought on by all three.

**The Creoles
The Social wanted a say in classes in South
King
America added a government, but a
Viceroys council in Spain spark for
Peninsulares: made laws for all
Revolution – a
Native Spaniards colonies social class is a residing in the New World
Crash course!
level in society
Creoles: People of pure based on wealth, http://www.youtube.c
European blood, but born om/watch?v=ZBw35 job status, birth, in the New World
Ze3bg8 or other factors
Mestizos: Indian + European blood
Mulattos: African + European blood
Slaves: Native Americans and Africans

• St. Domingue – a
French Colony in the
Caribbean
• The free people of color demanded citizenship, wealthy French colonists resisted – the result was rebellion
• Rebels – under control of Toussaint
L’Ouverture

• 1794 – National Convention ended slavery in
France’s colonies
• French were fighting with Spain and Great
Britain
• Rebels joined forces with France to defeat
France’s enemies
• France made Toussaint governor-general for life of the colony

• Once he seized control of France in 1799, he wanted to restore slavery and put French officials in control of St. Domingue
• Invasion of the island failed, Toussaint was captured
• The island was declared independent in 1804 and took the new name of Haiti, meaning, “a higher place”

• Father Miguel Hidalgo – inspired by Enlightenment ideas of liberty and equality
• Called upon his people to rebel against the Spanish
• Hidalgo’s armies were made up of 60,000 Mestizos and
Native Americans – marched towards Mexico city and captured several provinces
• Set up a government, returned Native American land, and slavery was ended

• Hidalgo was not a good general
• Peninsulares and Creoles were frightened of his policies and did not want to give up wealth and power – supported Spanish government
• Hidalgo’s troops were no match for the Spanish army, they were defeated and Hidalgo was executed

• 1821 – Peninsulares and Creoles decided to act for themselves – Agustin de Inturbide came to power
• He had the support of the rebels and the wealthy
• Forces defeated the Spanish, and Mexico declared its independence, Inturbide declared himself emperor
• Overthrown in 1823, Mexico became a republic with a government headed by a president

• Two major players in the fight for independence in South America - Simon
Bolivar and Jose de San Martin
• Both men were Creoles, their families sent them to school in Europe where they were exposed to ideas of the Enlightenment
• They became convinced that colonies must free themselves from Spanish rule

• Bolivar returned to
Venezuela and spent
11 years fighting to free it – succeeded in
1821
• Hailed as the
“Liberator” and made president of the new republic of Gran
Columbia

• 1812 – San Martin returned from Europe to what is today Argentina
• 1821 – set out to capture
Lima, Peru – his forces took
Lima, but the Spanish retreated into the mountains
• San Martin wanted to eliminate Spanish rule – in
1817, he put together an
• Bolivar and his army joined
San Martin army of volunteers and marched them over the
Andes- caught the Spanish by surprise and defeated a large force
• San Martin withdrew because the two men could not agree on tactics
• Bolivar’s forces liberated the rest of Peru