Week Six

Atlantic Revolutions in a Global Context:

• By 1730's Safavid dynasty, that ruled Persia, collapsed
• Early 19th century Islamic revolutions shook West Africa
• Wars financially strained European imperial states (Britain, France and Spain)
• Atlantic revolutionaries shared a set of common goals
• Atlantic revolutions had a global impact

The North American Revolution (1775-1787):

• American Rev. was a struggle for independence from oppressive British rule
• Britain's West Indian colonies seemed more profitable and important than the ones in North America
• American Rev. occurred because Britain was trying to tighten control of the colonies and extract more revenue from them
• Britain's national debt was increasing
• New types of society emerged within the colonies
• Slavery gradually abolished in the North but still prevalent in the south
• The US became the worlds most democratic country 
• Expressed a tension of a colonial relationship with a distant imperial power

The French Revolution (1789-1815):

• The French aided the Americans when trying to escape British rule
• National Assembly which consisted of a representative form the clergy, nobility & commoners
• They drew up the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
• French insurrection was driven by sharp conflicts within French society 
• Efforts to establish a constitutional monarchy & promote harmony among the classes
• Peasants attacked their lords castles, burning the documents that recorder their dues 
• Slavery was abolished, briefly
• Guillotine became the primary source of execution
• French Rev. raised the question of female political equality (far more than the American Rev)
• French women were active in the major events of the revolution
• Over 60 women clubs established

The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804):

• French Rev. impact the French Caribbean colony of Saint Domingue, lated named Haiti 
• 8k plantations, producing 40% of the worlds sugar and half of its coffee
• Due to rumors that the King had ended slavery, slaves burned 1,000 plantations and killed hundreds of whites. 
• Slaves, whites and free colored people began to battle one another
• Salves became equal, free and independent citizens
• Threw off French colonial rule, ebbing the second independent republic in the Americas and the first non-European state to emerge from Western colonialism
• Renamed the country "Haiti" meaning "mountainous" or "rugged" in their language
• All Haitian citizens were legally equal regardless of color or class

Spanish American Revolutions (1810-1825):

• Final act of Atlantic Rev. took place in the Spanish & Portuguese colonies of Latin America
• In 1808 Napoleon invaded Spain and Portugal, Portugal royal family had to move to Brazil
• With authority disorganized, Latin America took action
• Outcome was independence for various states in Latin America
• Established almost everywhere in 1826
• Creole sponsors of independence required the support of the people
• Native Americans and slaves benefited very little form independence
• Women helped reach independence, but were punished for their disloyalty to the crown
• Newly independent regions in Latin American because underdeveloped and impoverished