Chapter 21

REVOLUTIONARY CHANGES IN THE ATLANTIC WORLD, 1750-1850

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

There is no single definition of the term revolution that encompasses all the subtleties and nuances described in the next several chapters. The word implies drastic change, yet there is much that remains constant. As you read, try to carefully find and analyze characteristics that persist throughout the whole period, even as the surface details change over more quickly.

Later chapters will revisit the nature of revolutions. Chapter 22 focuses on the Industrial Revolution. Chapter 23 examines the political revolutions in Latin America. Chapter 26 returns to Europe in the latter nineteenth century. While nearly every society on earth noted an increase in the rate of change between 1750 and 1914, there was much less consensus on the value of the changes.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading Chapter 21 and completing this study chapter, you should be able to:

• Explain how the new wealth generated by the Industrial Revolution, along with increases in trade and colonialism, coincided with the new intellectual trends of the Enlightenment to cause a questioning of tradition, which in some cases resulted on revolution.

• Explain how local concerns and conditions affected each revolution, and how the outcome of revolution changed the lives of common people.

• Discuss how conservatives reacted to revolution, and what methods they used to try to stem the tide of change.

• Describe the ways in which these revolutions began to transform Western political culture and how they eventually influenced revolutionaries the world over.

IDENTIFICATIONS

Define each term and explain why it is significant, including any important dates.

Enlightenment

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Benjamin Franklin

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George Washington

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Declaration of Independence

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Constitutional Convention

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Estates General

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National Assembly

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Declaration of the Rights of Man

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Committee of Public Safety

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Reign of Terror

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Jacobins

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Maximilien Robespierre

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Napoleon Bonaparte

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gens de couleur

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Toussaint L’Overture

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Congress of Vienna

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Revolutions of 1848

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Klemens von Metternich

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MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

Read the entire question, including all the possible answers. Then choose the one answer that best fits the question.

1. The revolutionary cycle was precipitated by a. cost of wars to gain new colonial holdings. b. Protestant Reformation. c. cost of opening up new farmlands. d. Scientific Revolution. e. Discovery of gold in the New World.

2. What did the complex and diverse movement called the Enlightenment do?

a. It applied the methods and questions of the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century to the study of human society.

b. It blended the Greco-Roman beliefs rediscovered during the Renaissance with Catholicism.

c. It applied the technical advances of the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century to the fledgling Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century.

d. It challenged the prevailing economic notions of the medieval period, resulting in a series of economic and business reforms.

e. It paved the way for the European conquest of Asia.

3. Which of the following was not an objective shared by the majority of European reformers, whether monarchs or intellectuals?

a. The selection of bureaucrats by merit. b. The development of national bureaucracies staffed by civil servants based on

merit. c. The creation of national legal systems. d. The modernization of national tax systems. e. The reform and eventual independence of imperial colonies.

4. Censorship tended to a. enhance the reputation of censored intellectuals and books. b. inhibit the spread of new information and ideas. c. enhance the power of monarchs. d. eliminate opposition to government policies. e. strengthen the position of the Catholic Church.

5. Benjamin Franklin’s career demonstrated that

a. the British colonies in America had grown away from Europe intellectually. b. the British colonists had more in common with the Spanish colonists than they did

with Europeans. c. Europeans did not view the people of the Western Hemisphere as their intellectual

equals. d. he was against many Enlightenment ideas. e. people in the Western Hemisphere shared in the debates of Europe.

6. The Spanish colonial slogan “Long live the King. Death to bad government” meant that

a. although common people disliked traditional authority, they feared going so far as to voice their opposition to the king himself.

b. the common people supported their king but were upset at attempts to modify the traditional system to which they were accustomed.

c. the common people disliked having a female ruler and disliked her policies and that they were relieved to have a male monarch again.

d. the common people wanted to overthrow the government and were being sarcastic when they said “Long live the King.”

e. the people in the colonies were agitating for independence.

7. Spontaneous popular uprisings and protests greeted nearly every attempt at government reform, but they gained revolutionary potential only when

a. the peasants had a strong charismatic leader to rally them to revolution. b. the common people could obtain weapons. c. they coincided with ideological divisions and conflicts within the governing class

itself. d. the country was too busy with foreign wars or the colonies to notice them. e. they were successful.

8. Which of the following had not occurred by the end of the revolutions of the eighteenth

century? a. The authority of the monarchs had been swept away or limited by constitutions. b. Religion had lost its dominant place in intellectual life. c. The old landed elite had been overthrown throughout Europe and America. d. The ideal of a social order determined by birth was gone. e. There was a new capitalist vision that emphasized completion and social mobility.

9. Which of the following approaches was not used by the colonists to communicate their dissatisfaction with the various reform measures attempted by George III?

a. Intimidation of royal officials. b. Boycotts of British goods. c. Migrations to the Caribbean colonies. d. Purchase of American-made products. e. Use of fiery political language against British officials.

10. Conditions favorable to revolution in France were created by the

a. grinding poverty of the French common people. b. discontent of intellectuals with censorship. c. narrow self-interest and greed of the rich. d. death of Louis XV. e. failure of the wheat crops and the resulting bread shortages.

11. The Committee of Public Safety was formed to

a. inspect factories for conditions dangerous to workers. b. design safer transportation systems. c. train people to protect the French royal family. d. seek out and punish domestic enemies of the French Revolution. e. stop the spread of malaria in the French colonies.

12. Why was Napoleon Bonaparte so successful?

a. He made the trains run on time. b. He promised order to a society exhausted by the Revolution. c. He was handsome and charismatic. d. He was a brilliant diplomat. e. He promised to restore pre-Revolutionary France.

13. The gens de couleur sent representatives to France to request a. more home rule and economic freedom. b. an end to slavery in Saint Domingue. c. an end to race discrimination and the achievement of political equality with

whites. d. independence. e. the right to emigrate to Africa.

14. Between the end of the French Revolution and 1848, popular nationalist movements in

Europe a. were repressed by the major governmental powers. b. were used as a pretext for wars of territorial acquisition. c. successfully bridged the gap between competing Protestant and Roman Catholic

religious organizations. d. grew in most of Europe but were brutally suppressed in France. e. became irrelevant due to developments in the Industrial Revolution.

15. The political philosophy of the Congress of Vienna (1815) can best be characterized as

a. favoring the enemies of France to prevent France from threatening Europe again. b. an attempt to restore pre-French Revolution political borders. c. resistance to Russian expansion into Central Europe following Napoleon’s

disastrous defeat in Russia in 1812. d. an attempt to restore France to her 1793 borders during the Reign of Terror. e. encouraging German nationalism as a counterweight against French

expansionism.

16. Which statement best describes the relationship among the several nationalist revolutions between 1750 and 1850?

a. Revolutions in the Americas were more successful and long-lasting than European revolutions.

b. Each revolution inspired and influenced later revolutions by providing examples of effective and ineffective techniques.

c. The French Revolution was the only one that had not accomplished the leaders’ goals by 1850.

d. England was the only European country to be directly involved in revolutions on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

e. The revolutions of 1848 were the most successful in gaining political and economic rights.

COMPARISON CHARTS

Using information gathered from the text; fill in the blank areas of each chart with the relevant data pertaining to regions and categories listed. (Not all blank areas will necessarily be equally complete.)

DIVERSITY AND DOMINANCE

After reading “Diversity and Dominance: Robespierre and Wollstonecraft Defend and Explain the Terror” in your text, answer the following additional questions.

1. What similarities do you see between the French Revolution and the Women’s Movement? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Do you think that Mary Wollstonecraft felt a kinship with the downtrodden of Paris? Is this why she apologized for their behavior? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Do you think that women in the Women’s Movement might also have resorted to violence had they not achieved their goals? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

MAP EXERCISES

On Outline Map 21.1, shade in the following:

• French Empire • Dependent states • Napoleon’s Allies • Regions at war with Napoleon

OUTLINE MAP 21.1

FOCUS QUESTIONS

1. What caused the British North American colonies, France, and Haiti to undergo revolutionary movements? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. How was society changed by each revolution? Was the outcome by 1850 all that the revolutionaries had hoped for? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. How revolutionary would each revolution in this chapter seem to a peasant, slave, or woman? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________