political revolutions and their legacies

Political Revolutions and Their LegaciesHow were political revolutions during the 1700s and 1800s similar anddifferent?

Vocabulary

Glossary Vocabulary Cards

Constitutional Monarchy

English Bill of Rights

Common Sense

Declaration of Independence

Great Compromise

Reign of Terror

Napoleonic Code

Haitian Revolution

Introduction

P O L I T I C A L R E V O L U T I O N...

2020 Teachers' Curriculum Institute Level: A

This statue of Thomas Painein Thetford, England, caststhe revolutionary writer in aheroic light.

Towards the end of the 1600s, England experienced a revolution thatwould act as a catalyst for the rest of the Western world. Thisrevolution, called the Glorious Revolution, created the firstconstitutional monarchy, whereby a king’s power was constrained notjust by laws, but also by a legislative body.

During or shortly after the Glorious Revolution, English philosopher JohnLocke wrote a treatise describing his model for how and whygovernments are created. In this treatise, titled The Second Treatise onGovernment, Locke described a “state of nature” where man iscompletely free, but is therefore also free to cause conflict. To mitigateany possible danger, humans gave up some of their freedoms andcreated a society with government, laws, and rulers.

This government was not without constraints, however. Laws, Lockebelieved, had to agree with the will of the people and protect people’srights. If the government failed to protect these rights, or simplyviolated them, people had the right to defend themselves, even againstthe government. “Self-defense is a part of the law of nature,” wroteLocke, “nor can it be denied the community, even against the kinghimself.”


Level: A 2020 Teachers' Curriculum Institute

Locke believed that the government was created by its citizens, so thegovernment was thus required to protect them. He stated, “the peoplehave a right to act as supreme, and continue the legislative inthemselves; or erect a new form, or under the old form place it in newhands, as they think good.”

1. The Enlightenment andRevolutionThe Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement ofthe 1600s and 1700s. When the Enlightenment first emerged,authoritarian institutions and rules governed Europe.

The Enlightenment ideals at the center of the political revolutions of the1700s and 1800s were, to many Europeans, new and exciting concepts.These ideals, rooted in ancient philosophy and religion, worked tochange long-held perceptions about monarchal rule, which haddominated for centuries.

Revolution and Ancient Philosophy Ancient Greek philosopherswere extremely concerned with the role of government in everyday life.For many Greeks, citizenship—the exercise of one’s talents in theservice of the civic community—was an important part of their lives.



This statue depicts Pericles,an Athenian leader during thefifth century b.c.e. Pericles isremembered for makingmany lasting and influentialreforms to Atheniandemocracy.

In the fifth century B.C.E, the Greek city-state of Athens radicallychanged its form of government. The Athenians reorganized their city-state as a direct democracy. In a direct democracy, public decisions aremade directly by citizens meeting together in an assembly or voting byballot.

Legal philosophers in the Italian city-state of Rome used the Greekconcept of citizenship to develop a different form of government. In509 B.C.E., the Roman people overthrew their monarchy and turnedRome into a republic. Over time, the Romans set up a representativedemocracy to govern their republic. In a representative democracy,public decisions are made by leaders who are elected by the citizens torepresent their interests.

The ancient ideas of direct democracy and representative democracy



inspired revolutionaries to challenge monarchies and other forms ofauthoritarian rule. Enlightenment philosophers studied these forms ofdemocracy to construct their own understandings of how governmentsshould be formed and how people should be ruled. Similarly, manyaspects of European governments that these democratic revolutionsfought against also came from ancient philosophy. Traditionalauthoritarian concepts, such as the privileged status of nobles andclergy and rule by elite groups, were also influenced by ancient ideasand practices.

John Locke’s arguments onsocial contract theorystrongly influenced thecolonists who began theAmerican Revolution. Hiswork is referenced in theDeclaration of Independence.

Revolution and Religion Many aspects of traditional Europeangovernments came from religion. Monarchs often claimed to haveauthority from God, which they called the divine right of kings whenthey justified their rule. The divine right of kings would be challenged in



the coming centuries by new religious concepts.

Enlightenment thinkers were strongly influenced by the ethical ideasshared by Judeo-Christian religious traditions. Their notion of justice, forexample, was rooted in the principles of ancient Judaism, whichstressed that people should seek to create a just society based onrespect for the law.

They were also influenced by the concept of natural law. This is thebelief that there exists outside of human laws a set of moral principlesthat can be applied to any culture or system of justice. The Christianphilosopher Thomas Aquinas wrote that people could discover thesenatural laws using both reason and their inborn sense of right andwrong. A human law that violated natural law, many philosophersbelieved, was wrong and should be changed.

Drawing from this concept of natural law, numerous Enlightenmentthinkers developed the idea of the social contract. Thomas Hobbesintroduced the idea that government was the result of a social contractbetween people and their rulers. In this contract, people gave up someof their freedom by agreeing to obey an absolute ruler. In exchange,the ruler agreed to bring peace and order to society.

John Locke took the idea of a social contract between the people andtheir rulers a step further. He argued that the social contract wasconditional. If a ruler failed to protect the people’s life, liberty, andproperty, then the people had a right to overthrow that ruler andestablish a new government.

In his book The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau extended theconcept of a social contract still further, connecting it to ideas fromancient philosophy. He proposed that a government formed by a socialcontract must be based on popular sovereignty, or the general will ofthe people. Rousseau also argued that if a government acted contraryto the general will, it had broken the social contract and should bedissolved. These various iterations of social contract theory wouldinspire revolutionaries in the next few centuries to push forgovernments that protected people’s rights and to demand changeswhen they did not.

2. The Glorious RevolutionSome monarchs ruled with the best interests of their people in mind.Others ruled as tyrants who used their power for selfish ends. Growing



dissatisfaction with this form of government caused a series of world-altering revolutions in Europe and the American colonies.

The first of these revolutions occurred in England in 1688. The GloriousRevolution, also known as the Bloodless Revolution, led to theestablishment of Europe’s first constitutional monarchy—a systemof government in which the powers of the monarch are limited by awritten or unwritten constitution.

Discontent in England In 1685, James II became the king ofEngland, after his brother, King Charles II, died without any children.James II, however, was a Roman Catholic. Most English aristocrats wereProtestants who resented James’s Catholic beliefs. This religiousdifference set the stage for tensions during James II’s reign.

Several years into his rule, James II suspended several English religiouslaws and granted religious freedoms to non-Protestants, specificallyCatholics. This was part of James II’s reinstatement of the Declarationof Indulgence, originally a creed by Charles II to extend religious libertyto Protestant nonconformists and Roman Catholics in his realms.However, James II’s actions put him at odds with the non-CatholicEnglish population. When several bishops of the Church of Englandprotested against the declarations, they were arrested.

Unrest followed as James II continued to support his religion. Membersof the English nobility were concerned that the king was going too far inhis use of the monarchy to support a minority religion. Several eminentnoblemen called on William of Orange to address their grievances.William was a Dutch prince, James II’s nephew and son-in-law, andmost importantly, a Protestant.

William’s Rise to Power In 1688, William of Orange arrived onEnglish shores with a Dutch army, answering the summons fromEnglish noblemen. As William made his way towards London, supportfor James II disappeared, and the disgraced king fled to France.

With James II in France, England was left without a king. The Englisharistocracy again called up William of Orange, this time to temporarilytake over the government and ask Parliament to meet. This“Convention Parliament,” so named because it was convened withoutthe monarch, declared that James II’s flight to France meant he hadabdicated the throne. Parliament offered the throne to William and hiswife Mary, James II’s Protestant daughter, as long as they accepted anumber of conditions called a Declaration of Rights. William and Maryaccepted these conditions, which would become the basis for the



English Bill of Rights .

Creation of a Bill of Rights The English Bill of Rights tackled anumber of problems that came to a head during James II’s rule,providing a new structure for English government. It specifically limitedthe powers of the monarch and set up rights for Parliament in order toensure that the events of James II’s reign would not happen again. Forexample, the English Bill of Rights stated, “It is the right of the subjectsto petition the king, and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal.”

This artwork shows William of Orange arriving on the shores of Englandin 1688, marking the beginning of the Glorious Revolution.

This provision was a direct response to James II’s arrest of the bishopswho challenged his reinstatement of the Declaration of Indulgence. TheBill of Rights also made it illegal for a monarch, without the approval ofParliament, to levy taxes, keep a standing army, or suspend any laws.By requiring the approval of Parliament, the Bill of Rights challengedthe tradition of absolute monarchy.

Additionally, the English Bill of Rights challenged the divine right ofkings when it excluded Roman Catholics from inheriting the throne. Ifno Catholic could rule, then a king’s authority came from the consent of



the people. In essence, a king only ruled as part of what John Lockecalled a social contract between himself and his subjects. The EnglishBill of Rights ensured that a monarch would protect his people’s rights.

3. The American RevolutionThe American Revolution officially began with musket shots exchangedbetween British army regulars and a colonial militia at the Battles ofLexington and Concord in April 1775. However, it was not until theJanuary 1776 publication of Common Sense a 50-page pamphlet thatmade a strong case for independence, that colonists were persuaded tomore widely support revolution. The pamphlet declared: “Every thingthat is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, theweeping voice of nature cries, ’TIS TIME TO PART.”

Thomas Paine, the pamphlet’s author, grew up a student of theEnlightenment. Political thinkers of the Enlightenment used reason toidentify people’s rights and freedoms. One thinker, John Locke, wrotethat it was proper to overthrow a government that violated people’snatural rights. This was a radical idea—one that Paine believed firmlyand expressed persuasively. Six months after Common Sense waspublished, Americans declared independence. Their political revolutionhad officially begun.



The American Revolution hada profound impact on thenations of Europe. This 1784German print illustrating theBoston Tea Party is just oneexample of the ways in whichAmericans’ revolutionary actswere popularized overseas. Inthis depiction, you can seerevolutionaries dressed asIndians dumping tea into theharbor, as people look on.

The Path to War Tensions between Britain and its Americancolonists escalated following the French and Indian War, a nine-yearstruggle that ended in 1763. Britain’s victory halted France’s territorialadvances in North America, but it did not assuage many Americans’concern about Indian violence. Pioneers on the western frontier wereespecially worried and demanded protection from Indian attacks. TheBritish expected their colonies to help pay for their own defense.

To raise revenue, the British passed the Stamp Act in 1765. The act



required colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on everydaygoods such as newspapers and playing cards. The tax outragedcolonists. A secret organization known as the Sons of Liberty arose inseveral cities to organize protests against the Stamp Act. Before thistime, the colonies largely acted as distinct and separate units.Opposition to the Stamp Act, therefore, began to unite the colonies.

The violence of some protests, including threats against tax collectors,led Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act in 1766. But other new taxesfollowed. Colonists boycotted, or refused to buy, goods that carried atax. In one protest in December 1773, colonists dressed as Indiansdumped a load of tea from a British ship into Boston Harbor rather thanpay the tax on it. Britain denounced this Boston Tea Party and tooksteps to punish the colony. The Coercive Acts, known in the colonies asthe Intolerable Acts, closed the port of Boston. They also increasedthe power of the royal governor at the expense of local leaders.

The British had more in mind than just raising tax revenue. They alsowanted to exert more control over their colonies. Almost from thebeginning, the English settlers had enjoyed a modest level of politicalfreedom. Elected representatives served in colonial assemblies.Nonetheless, most colonies also had royal governors appointed by theBritish monarch. In theory, these governors had the power to say whenthe assemblies would meet, veto laws passed by the assemblies, andchoose key officials. But in reality, the colonies largely governedthemselves.

After the passage of the Intolerable Acts, those political freedoms nowseemed in jeopardy. Colonists’ fears of tightened British controlincreased when Parliament passed the Quebec Act. This act expandedthe province of Quebec southward to the Ohio River. Colonists would bekept from settling in this fertile region.

Colonial leaders decided to join together to form a single governingbody to present their complaints to the British. By forming a unitedfront, they hoped to have more power to negotiate. From September toOctober 1774, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. TheCongress consisted of a mix of moderates and radicals. The moderateswanted to compromise with the British to avoid a showdown. Theradicals hoped to persuade the British to restore the freedoms thatthey had come to cherish. If not, they were ready to separate fromBritain.

The Fight for Independence Weeks before the Second ContinentalCongress convened in May 1775, the Battles of Lexington and Concord



took place. The American Revolution had begun. Soon, the radicalstook charge, insisting on breaking free from Britain.

With the help of persuasive writings, such as Paine’s Common Senseand Thomas Jefferson’s Summary View of the Rights of British America,the movement for independence swept up many colonists—althoughnot all. A significant number of Loyalists, especially in parts of NewYork, New Jersey, and the Carolinas, opposed the Patriots. They wouldcontinue to support Britain throughout the Revolutionary War.

George Washington wasalready a war hero of theFrench and Indian War whenhe was chosen to lead theContinental Army.Washington would eventuallylead the Patriot forces to anunlikely military victory overthe British.



The members of Congress chose George Washington to command theContinental Army. Washington had earned their respect during theFrench and Indian War. From the fall of 1775 to the spring of 1776,Patriot forces took the offensive. They invaded and later retreated fromCanada. They pushed the British out of Boston.

In June 1776, the Continental Congress appointed a committee toprepare a document declaring the colonies’ independence. Jeffersonwrote the first draft. After some debate and revisions, the members ofCongress signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.Benjamin Franklin knew that this document was also a declaration ofwar. As he signed it he noted, “We must all hang together or assuredlywe will all hang separately.”

It did not take long for the British to respond. By September, armedwith about 32,000 troops and a huge fleet of warships, they had takenNew York City. Washington and his army fled. The British followed,chasing them into New Jersey. To escape, the Continental Army had tocross the Delaware River into Pennsylvania.

Just when the Patriot cause looked bleakest, Washington pulled off adaring move. On Christmas night, 1776, he led his army back acrossthe ice-choked river to attack the British at Trenton, New Jersey. Beforethey left, he boosted his troops’ spirits with that had been wordsrecently written by Thomas Paine:

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summersoldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrinkfrom the service of their country; but he that stands it now,deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

—Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 23,1776

Washington’s men decisively defeated the British force at Trenton. Tendays later, they won another victory at Princeton. Washington showedthat he was a superb strategist. But he knew that he owed much of hissuccess to foreign powers. France, along with two other Britishenemies, Spain and Holland, had been secretly sending vital supplies tothe Continental Army.



This 19th-century print depicts the British General Burgoynesurrendering his sword to General George Washington after the Battleof Saratoga. The victory at Saratoga helped win the support of theFrench, who were convinced that the Patriots actually had a chance ofwinning the war.

The French were willing to do more, but they needed proof that theAmericans could indeed win the war. That proof came with the Battle ofSaratoga, in upstate New York. By winning there, the Americansstopped the British from taking control of the Hudson River Valley,which would have isolated New England from the rest of the country.After that victory, France started to take an active role in the war. Thus,Saratoga was a turning point in the revolution.

Many bloody battles followed. The war shifted away from the northerncolonies as the British took control of much of the South. Eventually,with the help of French troops and ships, the Continental Army trappedthe main British army at Yorktown, in Virginia. The surrender of thatarmy in October 1781 marked the end of major hostilities. TheAmericans had won their independence.

Treaty of Paris The official end of the Revolutionary War came in1783 when American and British delegates signed the Treaty of Paris.In the peace treaty, Great Britain acknowledged the independence of



the United States. It also accepted the expansion of the new nationfrom the Great Lakes south to Florida and westward to the MississippiRiver. For its part, the United States agreed to recommend that statesrestore to Loyalists their rights and liberties and any property thatmight have been taken away during the war.

Constitution and Bill of Rights Thomas Paine had come up withthe name for the new country—the United States of America. Just how“united” those states would be, however, was unclear. But its firstconstitution offered some clues.

In 1781, the states had ratified, or approved, the Articles ofConfederation. This written constitution spelled out the role of thecentral government and its relationship to the states. After theirexperience with British tyranny, Americans were in no mood to investmuch power in a central government. The Articles did give Congresscertain powers. But to carry out those powers, it needed support andmoney from the states, and the states did not willingly provide either.

In essence, the states were to be considered sovereign. Each had theability to create laws, resolve disputes, and otherwise make and carryout policies without interference by other states or the centralgovernment.

In general, the Articles of Confederation proved to be a failure. They leftthe central government too weak to resolve nationwide economicproblems or maintain order. A number of leaders called for aconvention to fix the Articles. The Constitutional Convention met inPhiladelphia in May 1787. The 55 delegates decided quickly thatinstead of trying to fix the Articles of Confederation, they would replaceit. By the end of that long, hot summer, the people of the United Stateshad a brand-new Constitution, one that continues to serve the countryto this day.

The process of creating the Constitution involved a great deal of debateand compromise. Drawing from the premise of social contracts, thedelegates were determined to create a government that would protectcitizens without encroaching upon their rights and liberties. Not allcitizens had the same ideas about their rights, however. Many debatescentered on the issue of representation.

One major concern was competition between large and small states.The large states wanted representation in Congress to be based onpopulation. The small states wanted each state to have an equalnumber of representatives both in the House of Representatives and



the Senate. This issue was finally settled through the GreatCompromise. A state’s representation in the House would be based onits population, while all states had an equal number of representativesin the Senate. A related issue involved the counting of slaves indetermining a state’s population—and thus the number of itsrepresentatives in the House. Southern states wanted each slave to becounted. Northern states objected. The compromise was to count eachslave as three-fifths of a person.

The Constitution laid out a plan of government based on the separationof powers. It allotted powers to three branches—the executive,legislative, and judicial. Each branch could check, or restrain, the powerof the other two. This idea of separating the government’s powers intodifferent branches was based on French Enlightenment philosopher,Baron de Montesquieu, who wrote that distributing power would helpprevent tyranny.

The Constitution of the United States, which begins with the famousphrase, “We the People,” was created after the failure of the Articles ofConfederation. The Constitution was written by a convention of leadersin 1787, and its creation involved a lot of debate and compromise.

The Constitution also served as the supreme law of the land. It helpedensure that the rule of law would prevail. Rule of law means that the



law applies to everyone. No one—not even the president, the highestofficial in the land—is above the law.

The states ratified the Constitution in 1788. Three years later, theyapproved a Bill of Rights, inspired by documents such as the English Billof Rights. It was intended to protect individuals’ civil liberties. In thisway, the Constitution completed the American political revolution. Itreplaced the monarchical political system with a totally new structureof government—a representative democracy.

4. Revolutions in FranceWhile American delegates were gathered at the ConstitutionalConvention in Philadelphia, the seeds of another revolution were beingplanted across the Atlantic Ocean. Like the American Revolution, theFrench Revolution was inspired by Enlightenment philosophers and adedication to the ideals of liberty and equality.

Exorbitantly high taxes, national debt, and a mostly apathetic monarchpushed the French working class and peasantry to demand changes.When these demands were not met, radicals chose instead to dissolvethe government and form an entirely new one. The French Revolutionwas a radical assault on France’s traditional institutions—the monarchy,the Church, feudalism—and thoroughly transformed French society.

Social Divisions and Financial Problems French society in the1700s was very socially divided. The nobles and the clergy, or officialsof the Roman Catholic Church, represented the top two estates, or legalcategories of citizen. To be a noble or a member of the clergy, a personhad to meet specific legal requirements. Everyone else, frommerchants to peasants, belonged to the Third Estate. This commonerclass made up some 95 percent of the population.

Many commoners resented certain feudal privileges granted to thelandowning nobles and clergy. Noble landlords had an exclusive right tocarry weapons, hunt, and demand work from the peasants. They couldlevy taxes, but were themselves exempt from most taxes. Of the thirdestate, merchants and government officials paid a limited amount intaxes. The tax burden fell largely on the peasants, most of whom werepoor and unable to pay these taxes.



Most French peasants lived incrushing poverty. This 1788French engraving depictsKing Louis XVI handing outalms to the needy. However,charity was not enough toalleviate the suffering of thepeasantry, and it could notprevent bitter feelingstowards the nobility andclergy.

For France, the 1700s was a century of continual warfare. To pay fortheir military ventures, including support of the colonists in theAmerican Revolution, French kings had to borrow more and moremoney. By 1788, King Louis XVI faced severe financial problems. Infact, France hovered on the verge of bankruptcy.

Louis considered a set of reforms for resolving the economic crisis. Thisincluded raising taxes. The peasants, however, could not afford to payany more than they already did. The rich, on the other hand, wereprotected from new taxes by their exemptions and traditional rights.

To move forward with reforms, the king decided that he needed theapproval of the Estates-General. This assembly of representatives fromall three estates had not met since 1614. However, the king’s decisionto summon the Estates-General proved disastrous for the monarchy. Itgave the commoners access to power. They used that power in waysthat led, through a complex series of events, to a political revolution.



As the French Revolutionspread from Paris to thecountryside, some peasantslashed out against the elite.In this image, Frenchpeasants destroy the feudaldocuments that recordedhow much they owed theirlandlords.

A Radical Revolution On May 5, 1789, the Estates-General met atVersailles, the king’s palace, some 10 miles outside Paris. Delegates tothe meeting brought grievances to discuss with the group. Many alsobrought their Enlightenment ideas about liberty and a governmentbased on natural law. Most representatives of the Third Estate had legalbackgrounds. On June 17, they declared themselves to be a NationalAssembly with the power to govern France. With this power, theystarted designing a constitution.

The king took steps to stop the Assembly from meeting, which rousedthe people of Paris. On July 14, a mob destroyed the Bastille, a fortressand prison that symbolized royal power. The revolution had moved intothe streets. In the weeks that followed, it also spread through thecountryside.



The French Revolution did not begin with a sharply defined goal, suchas the abolition of monarchy. Instead, it was a broad-based war aboutclass divisions powered by Enlightenment ideas. The Assemblyexpanded the voting population and established civil equality, at leastin name. Like American revolutionaries, they also tried to build agovernment with Montesquieu’s separation of powers, although theyinitially hoped to have a constitutional monarchy. Louis XVI, however,was reluctant to let go of absolute control, leading to his imprisonmentand the dissolution of the monarchy.

The National Assembly kept control only for a few years. But by 1791, ithad transformed France. It had adopted the Declaration of the Rights ofMan and Citizen, a document that defined the individual and collectiverights of all three estates as equal and universal. It had turned thecountry into a constitutional monarchy. It had forced the FrenchCatholic Church to cut its ties with Rome. It had abolished feudalism,the system of privileges held by the nobles and clergy. All Frenchcitizens—all men who were neither foreign nor enslaved—were nowequal under the law. As the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of theCitizen—the preamble to the constitution—stated, “Men are born freeand remain equal in rights.”

Women also played a role in the revolution, but frequently facedopposition from men. These men argued that women were, “bynature,” unfit to take a political role. The political activist Olympe deGouges reacted by writing a Declaration of the Rights of Woman and ofthe Citizen. She wrote, “Woman is born free and lives equal to man inher rights.”

Still, many women did join the French Revolution. They took part inprotests and joined political clubs. Others actively opposed therevolution. Many of these defended priests, who were often mistreated,and tried to ward off attacks on the Catholic Church.



On October 5, 1789, French women of the Third Estate organized amarch on the palace of Versailles.

After 1791, the French Revolution took a turn toward violence. Fearinga foreign plot to undermine its progress, France declared war on Austriaand Prussia in 1792. It also replaced the National Assembly with a bodyknown as the Convention, which would govern until 1796.

Extremist politicians gained control of this new assembly. Theyencouraged a thirst for blood among the people, and the period of theirrule became known as the Reign of Terror . In 1793, they beheadedKing Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette and replaced the monarchywith a republic. Their quest for absolute unity and loyalty led to thedeaths of tens of thousands more citizens in the next year and a half.Many were executed, as the king had been, by guillotine. Many morewere killed in clashes with opponents of the revolution throughout thecountry.

Moderates in the Convention took charge in 1794. They executed themain agent of the Terror, Maximilien Robespierre. If this did not markthe end of the French Revolution, it certainly came five years later withthe rise to power of a shrewd and power-hungry French general,Napoleon Bonaparte.



Although Napoleon seizedpower in a military coup, heclaimed to rule according tothe will of the people.

Napoleon Takes Control In 1799, Napoleon, a skilled armycommander, seized control of France in a coup d’état, bringing an endto representative government. Napoleon ruled as a dictator. Yet he alsoretained—in theory if not always in practice—many of the gains of therevolution, including citizens’ equality, individual liberty, and protectionof property rights. In 1804, he put forward a law code that safeguardedthese ideals. It became known as the Napoleonic Code.

That same year, Napoleon crowned himself emperor of France. But hedid so with the support of the French people, who voted in favor ofrestoring the monarchy. Thus, he upheld, at least outwardly, the idealof popular sovereignty—that the people are the source of all politicalpower.

Soon after Napoleon took power, he defeated Austrian forces in Italyand Germany, ending a long-standing threat to France. To add to hisempire, Napoleon led campaigns across Europe. French forces defeated



Austria in 1805 and Prussia in 1806. In 1807, Napoleon’s armiesinvaded Portugal in the west and Russia in the east. The Frenchemperor thus extended his control and influence over much of thecontinent.

Napoleon also spread the Enlightenment ideas that inspired the FrenchRevolution, including popular sovereignty. Even after Napoleon’s reignended in 1815, the French Revolution continued to inspire Europeanswho valued liberty and equality. They challenged the authority ofmonarchies, seeking to replace them with republics, and took part innationalist movements.

5. Revolutions in Latin AmericaColumbus’s voyage west across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492 initiatedEuropean interest in the Americas. In the years that followed, Spainclaimed most of Latin America. Portugal acquired Brazil. There, theyestablished colonies from which they extracted resources that broughtthem great wealth. They held on to those colonies for approximatelythree centuries, until a string of revolutions rocked the entire region.

The transatlantic Republic of Letters, or the community that bridgedEnlightenment thinkers of Europe and the Americas, helped spreadrevolutionary thinking and activism. The American and FrenchRevolutions served as models of republican government, which inspiredrevolutionary uprisings across Latin America.



Toussaint L’Ouverture led asuccessful rebellion in theFrench slave colony of Saint-Domingue and helped foundthe republic of Haiti, the firstblack-ruled republic inmodern history.

Haiti In 1791, inspired by the French Revolution, slaves in the Frenchcolony of Saint-Domingue revolted. In this sugar- and coffee-producingcolony on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, slaves far outnumberedthe politically dominant whites. A third class included freed people ofcolor and those referred to as mulattos, or people of mixed black andEuropean ancestry. This class lacked social and political equality withwhites.

A free black man, Toussaint L’Ouverture, joined the rebels and helpedlead what became known as the Haitian Revolution. It was acombined slave rebellion and anti-colonial uprising. By 1800,L’Ouverture and his army had eliminated their opponents and takencontrol of the colony. After Napoleon gained power in France, he sent aFrench force to the colony to suppress the revolt. The rebels defeatedthe French troops in 1804, declaring their independence from Franceand massacring thousands of French colonial administrators and theirfamilies. They founded the first black republic in modern history, whichthey named Haiti.

Revolution in the Spanish Colonies Social tensions within SpanishAmerica’s multiracial societies also played a role in the revolutions that



unfolded there. After the Haitian Revolution, whites feared thatrebellions might arise among the lower classes of Indians, enslavedAfricans, and people of mixed heritage. The minority white populationdominated politically. It consisted of Creoles and peninsulares. Creoleswere American-born descendants of Spanish colonists. Peninsulareswere Spanish-born settlers. A series of Creole-led revolutions resultedin the founding of new nations throughout Spanish America.

Creoles had once played a leading political role as colonial officials. Butin the late 1700s, Spain’s leaders decided to exert greater control overtheir colonies. They introduced reforms that took the right to rule awayfrom the Creoles. From then on, Spain entrusted important political andmilitary positions to the peninsulares and generally snubbed theCreoles.

In 1808, French forces under Napoleon invaded and occupied Spain,severing the link between Spain and its colonies. Many Creoles saw thisas an opportunity to restore their position in colonial society. The moreradical among them, influenced by Enlightenment ideas and motivatedby the American Revolution, sought to free themselves from Spanishrule. Wherever these liberal-minded patriots could gain control, they setup local councils to govern themselves.

The peninsulares, too, established councils. But these Spanish citizenswere not revolutionaries or liberals. They were royalists. They, alongwith a significant number of Creoles, remained loyal to the Spanishking. They expected Spain to restore its control of the colonies.

These differing visions collided throughout Spanish America as therevolutionary movement grew. Spain had divided its colonial territoryinto regions, called viceroyalties. New Granada occupied northwesternSouth America. Río de la Plata, present-day Argentina, was located inthe south. Peru lay between them. New Spain included Mexico andmost of Central America, as well as Spain’s Caribbean colonies. Therevolutions in Spanish America varied from one viceroyalty to another.

San Martín in Río de la Plata The first solid achievement for theCreole patriots occurred in Buenos Aires. They established self-rule inthis southeast coastal city and maintained it in spite of several assaultsby royalists. Buenos Aires became a base for spreading the revolutionthroughout the southern part of South America. In 1816, patriot groupswithin the viceroyalty joined together to form the United Provinces ofthe Río de la Plata and declared their independence from Spain. Theychose Buenos Aires as the new country’s capital.



The patriots realized that their country could not be secure until theSpanish had been driven from power throughout the continent. Theviceroyalty of Peru, a key royalist stronghold, had to be conquered. In1817, patriot leader José de San Martín formed and trained an army inRío de la Plata. It included blacks, mulattos, and mestizos—people ofmixed Indian and European ancestry. He led this 4,000-man armyacross the Andes on a bold mission against royalist forces in Peru.

First, Martín’s Army of the Andes marched into Chile, south of Peru. In1814, a Peruvian army had stamped out the revolutionary movement inthis province. San Martín restored the Chilean patriots to power in 1818by defeating the royalist forces.

José de San Martín was apatriot leader whosuccessfully led an armyagainst royalist forces inPeru. His patriot armyincluded Creoles, blacks,mulattos, and mestizos, whofought against the privilegedpeninsulares class.

In September 1820, San Martín and his army headed north, by sea, toPeru. By July of the next year, the Army of the Andes had carried therevolution all the way to Lima, Peru’s capital. The royalist army fled into



the mountains. In July 1821, San Martín declared Peru independent.

The patriots had succeeded in taking control of the towns, but apowerful royalist army still had support in the countryside. To plan hisnext move, San Martín decided to consult with another great patriotcommander, Simón Bolívar.

Bolivar in New Granada Bolívar, a wealthy Creole, had led therevolution in New Granada. That revolution began in his home state ofVenezuela. He and his small Army of the North supportedindependence movements there and elsewhere in the viceroyalty. Forhis success in freeing various regions, he received the title “TheLiberator.”

However, the road to independence was not easy. Bolívar sufferedmany defeats along the way, and the rule of key cities often shiftedback and forth between patriot and royalist forces. Patriots in Caracas,Venezuela, for example, twice established a republic only to later losecontrol. The second republic was overturned in 1815 by a large armysent from Spain. That army forced Bolívar to flee to Jamaica. From therehe sailed to Haiti, which provided him the resources needed to continuethe fight for independence.

The Army of the North made little headway in New Granada until 1819.By then, Bolívar had changed his strategy. He and his army hadrelocated to the Venezuelan countryside to escape Spanish forces. Theyengaged in guerrilla warfare, living off the land and making quick, hit-and-run strikes against the enemy. Bolívar’s army now consisted of notonly Creoles, but also a number of British and Irish troops and, for thefirst time, mulattos. In addition, Bolívar had help from an unlikelysource, the llaneros. He persuaded these horse-riding cattle herders ofthe plains to switch sides after being poorly treated as mountedsoldiers in the royalist army.

In the spring of 1819, Bolívar led his diverse army on a long andperilous march west across the Andes into present-day Colombia.There, he launched a surprise attack on the Spanish force. It was thefirst in a series of patriot victories that, by May 1822, had broughtindependence to New Granada.



Simón Bolívar was a wealthyCreole patriot who led theArmy of the North to victoryagainst the Spanish in theregion of New Granada.Bolívar’s army includedCreoles, British and Irishtroops, mulattos, and llanerocattle herders.

Resistance to Revolution in Peru and Mexico In July 1822, Bolívarand San Martín met in Ecuador. There, San Martín decided to step asideand let Bolívar take the lead in the effort to liberate Peru. Bolívar andhis army accomplished this task in a series of battles starting in August1824. By April 1825, he had tracked down and defeated the remainingroyalist forces in the region then called Upper Peru. The nation formedfrom Upper Peru would rename itself Bolivia in honor of their Liberator.

Mexico, like Peru, remained staunchly loyal to Spain. Peninsulares there



ran the government and blocked attempts by Creoles to introduceliberal reforms. In 1810, a radical Creole priest, Miguel Hidalgo, calledfor independence. He inspired a nationalist uprising of Indians andmestizos across the Mexican countryside. Their goal was to force theSpanish out of Mexico. Hidalgo’s followers killed many peninsulares anddestroyed much property. The independence movement threatened tobecome a social revolution. Fearing that, many Creoles joined Mexico’sroyalist army.

The army finally overpowered the rebel forces and executed Hidalgoand his successor, José María Morelos. But the movement forindependence did not die. In 1821, in an unexpected turnabout, Creolesoldiers conducted a successful coup d’état against their Spanishofficers. They achieved independence and the promise of aconstitutional monarchy. But their leader, the former royalist Agustín deIturbide, declared himself emperor. His reign lasted less than a year, asMexicans from across the political spectrum opposed him.

Mexico remained unstable in the years that followed, as political,economic, and social ills plagued the country. Liberals andconservatives continued to clash. Military strongmen—known ascaudillos—vied for control at the local, provincial, and national levels.They promised order but often used oppressive measures to secure it.Economies wrecked by revolution could not bring about the prosperitythat people hoped for. Hostility among the various social classes alsopersisted.



This engraving depicts the Battle of Boyacá, which occurred on August7, 1819 in Colombia. Simón Bolívar and his army succeeded in forcinga majority of the Spanish forces to surrender. By 1822, after a series ofpatriot victories, the region of New Granada won independence fromSpain.

Brazil Napoleon’s invasion of Portugal in 1807 did not set off a majoruprising in Brazil, a Portuguese colony. It did, however, cause a reversalin the relationship between the mother country and the colony. TheFrench army’s conquest of Portugal forced the nation’s royal family toflee to Brazil. They arrived in the city of Rio de Janeiro in March 1808,along with thousands of members of their court.

The Portuguese ruler enacted economic reforms that pleased Brazil’sprivileged class and helped keep liberal-minded Brazilians in check.Brazil quickly became the political center of the Portuguese empire.When the king finally returned to Portugal in 1821, he put his son, DomPedro, in charge of the colony. In 1822, faced with growing calls forpolitical reform by republicans, Dom Pedro declared Brazil’sindependence. He accepted a moderate constitution in 1824, and in1825 Portugal recognized Brazil’s independence.

Throughout the 1700s and 1800s, revolutionaries began to call for



changes to their governments, or new governments entirely. Theserevolutionaries were often inspired by Enlightenment ideals, includingpopular sovereignty and social contracts, or by other revolutions of thetime. Some revolutions were not successful or able to achieve all theirgoals. However, the spread of Enlightenment ideas marked a majorturn in how people viewed their governments.

SummaryIn this lesson, you read about the political revolutions that occurredthroughout the world in the 1700s and 1800s. Many of theserevolutions were influenced by the democratic ideals of theEnlightenment.

Cultural Interaction Political revolutionaries in the Americas andEurope based many of their actions on ideas formulated in Europeduring the Enlightenment. Those ideas later appeared in theconstitutions put in place by newly formed nations.

Political Structures The revolutions that took place from the late1700s to the early 1800s sought to replace monarchies withrepresentative political systems. The French Revolution encouraged thespread of nationalism and, along with the American Revolution,inspired political upheavals elsewhere.

Economic Structures Many Enlightenment thinkers called forindividual economic freedom and the protection of private property.These ideas appealed to not just to the poor, but also wealthy andmiddle-class citizens, and helped bring about revolutionary politicalchange in the West.

Social Structures Tensions among social classes in France played akey role in the French Revolution, which transformed French society.The social structure in Haiti was changed by a slave rebellion thatturned into a political revolution. During the revolutions in LatinAmerica, society was split along racial and class lines.

The English Civil WarThe English Civil War was a series of battles and conflicts between theParliamentarians and Royalists in Great Britain. The English Civil wasalso known as the Great Rebellion. The English Civil War consisted ofthree major fighting events. The first war began in 1642 with the Battle



of Edgehill. Charles I controlled the north and west of England with thesupport of the Royalists, whereas Parliament controlled the south andeast of England, as well as London, with the support of theRoundheads. Charles I needed to capture London, a key financialcenter, from Parliamentary rule in order to gain an advantage in thewar, but he consistently failed to accomplish this goal. A decisivevictory for the Roundheads at the Battle of Marston Moor eliminatedtwo of Charles I’s armies. It also allowed for the creation of the NewModel Army, a centralized standing army. The New Model Army, alongwith assistance from the Scottish Covenanters, allowed Parliament towin a series of victories, forcing Charles I to surrender in 1646.

The second English Civil War saw the Scottish Covenanters insteadsiding with the Royalists and the king. In 1647, Charles signed anagreement with the Covenanters known as the Engagement. Thisagreement marked the promise of the Scots to join forces with theRoyalists and invade England in order to return Charles I to power inreturn for the establishment of Presbyterianism in England for threeyears. However, the Scots were defeated by Oliver Cromwell. Angry atCharles I, the troops marched on Parliament. The remaining membersbecame known as the Rump Parliament. They then ordered Charles I tobe tried for treason.

The third English Civil War began after the execution of Charles I in



1649. Following Charles I’s execution, Oliver Cromwell sailed to Irelandto put down rebellions and resistance. Charles I’s son, Charles II, thenarrived in Scotland where he allied himself with the Covenanters. TheCovenanters declared Charles II as the king of Britain, France andIreland. This event forced Cromwell to leave Ireland in order to lead anarmy to Scotland to fight the Covenanters and Charles II. Cromwell thenallowed Charles II’s army to move south in England in 1651. Cromwelland the Royalists then battled Charles II and his army at Worcester.Charles II was defeated and escaped to France in exile.

Following the end of the war in 1651, power was given to the republicangovernment of the Commonwealth of England until Cromwell assumedpower in 1653 where he ruled as a dictator until his death in 1658. Hewas succeeded by his son Richard, who was quickly replaced by theCommonwealth a year later. Charles II was then invited to return topower, and was crowned in 1661. The three Civil Wars led to the deathof more than 34,000 Parliamentarians and 50,000 Royalists, as well asdeaths in Scotland and Ireland.



political revolutions and their legacies

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