WW Intro to Part 5/Chapter 16: Atlantic Revolutions, Global Echoes

Thomas Paine, Author of "Rights of Man", Thetford, England

(Source: https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g315939-d320064-i89641173-The_Thomas_Paine_Hotel-Thetford_Norfolk_East_Anglia_England.html)

Chapter 16: Atlantic Revolutions, Global Echoes

1750 - 1914

We are the World

In the Prologue to Part 4, Strayer examines the period between 1750 and 1914, calling it "the long 19th century".  This part of the text chronicles the rise to dominance of the European civilization.  At this time Europe was rather full of itself, beieving that it was somehow endowed with superior knowledge, culture and vision.  On the plus side, the concepts of "Popular Soveriegnty", the notion that ability to govern is derived from the people, equality, free trade, and the thought that "human politcal arrangements could be engineered and improved by human action" (699).

Of course this led to an uptick in European pomposity and entitlement.  Maps were made with europe in the center and other civilizations were defined in their distance to Europe.  Students were taught European superiority.  Strayer offer 5 "answers" to balance out this Eurocentirc thinking.

• It's been brief - only a few hundred years.
• It relied on other civilizations to fuel it
• It was a "negotiated" arrangement.  It didn't happen easily.
• Other Civilizations made use of European ideas for their own localized purposes.
• Europe was not the only game in town

Revolting Developments

The Atlantic Revolutions durring this time period were highly influential, with echoes of changes for years to come afterwards.  Although they were in different countries and for different reasons, they all were influenced by one another.  The American Revolution was a result of a renewed commitment on the part of Great Britain to micromanage the colonies and extract more taxes from them to fill their empty coffers in order to help fight the French.  The colonies were used to governing themselves and would have none of it.  Interestingly enough, the concepts of democracy, liberty and freedom were already built into the culture of the colonies.  Meanwhile, back in the continent, the French were in similar straits - the were broke fighting England and raised taxes on the citizens in the hopes of restocking their war chest.  The French revolt was different though, it was more of a social revolt pitting the class of the "Third Estate" or the commoners in France against the elite aristocracy, within their own country.  It was much more violent and many heads were lost as a result.   Soon after, the creole poulation took up arms against the elite white population in the Haitian revolt with the understanding the the "rights of man" meant equal treatment for all regardless of race.  A new soveriegn state emerged from the rubble, headed by a creole.  Similar to the North American Revolution, Spanish America fought against its Spanish and Portuguese rulers gaining statehood for many of the coutries in South America.

The Upshot

The revolutions not only ended in newly minted countries, but great social change came about rapidly after the revolutions faded.  The Global Abolition of Slavery, new nationalist sentiment, and feminist sufferage all took center stage during the "long 19th century".