Chapter 29

Revolutions and National States in the Atlantic World

THE CHAPTER IN PERSPECTIVE

Revolutions shook the Atlantic world in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, bringing unprecedented political and social changes. The American Revolution brought independence from Great Britain and the creation of a new republic. Shortly thereafter a revolution broke out that radically transformed French society and shook Europe to its core. Central and South America, including the Caribbean, would undergo similar transformations. These revolutions spread Enlightenment ideals and promoted the consolidation of national states.

OVERVIEW

Popular Sovereignty and Political Upheaval

Obviously, much of the intellectual foundation for this revolutionary age relates back directly to Enlightenment thinkers. Enlightenment ideals such as popular sovereignty, individual freedom, political and legal equality, and the social contract formed the core of the philosophy of these revolutionary thinkers. The American Revolution proved a natural, although at the time surprising, expression of these concepts. The overwhelming victory in the Seven Years’ War pushed the British ahead in the race for world hegemony, but it also increased tension with their North American colonies. Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence mirrored the influence of Enlightenment thinkers such as Locke as well as the growing colonial dissatisfaction with the nature of their constitutional relationship to England. The colonial victory in the resulting war—due to a combination of American grit, British indecisiveness, and French aid—stood as an example for other thinkers dreaming of a new world.

The French were inspired by the American example but also pushed to carry out change on a much more profound and radical level. The French Revolution attempted to transform every aspect of the ancien régime. As expressed in the ideals of The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, the National Assembly strove to ensure popular sovereignty, the equality of all individuals, and the sanctity of individual rights. Eventually, as is so often the case in revolutions, the French Revolution took a more radical turn that left many of its original and more moderate proponents mystified. The Convention declared France a republic, established the levée en masse, and eventually executed Louis XVI. Maximilien Robespierre’s establishment of the “cult of reason” would be the most radical phase of the revolution. The Directory marked a turn back toward a more moderate, if politically indecisive, direction. Napoleon Bonaparte’s usurpation of power brought the revolution almost full circle. A complicated figure, Napoleon stands somewhere between reformer and dictator. At the height of his power Napoleon controlled most of continental Europe. The disastrous Russian campaign of 1812 turned the tide on his glorious career, and he would eventually die in exile on St. Helena in 1821.

The Influence of Revolution

The inspiration for revolutionary change was not a European or North American monopoly. The uprising in Saint-Domingue would prove to be the only successful slave revolt in world history. What is more, the efforts of Boukman and especially Louverture in creating an independent Haiti brought about a level of social change even greater than that accomplished by their American or French counterparts. The other Latin American revolutionaries were concerned mainly with political independence and not as committed to social upheaval. Mainly, the creoles hoped to displace the peninsulares while maintaining their own privileged place in society. Leaders such as Augustín de Iturbide, Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín, and Bernardo O’Higgins carved off most of Latin America from European control. No revolution met the expectations of its early leaders, however. After failing to put together a powerful Latin American federation, Simón Bolívar complained that “those who have served the revolution have plowed the sea.”

The revolutionary fervor also spawned new political philosophies. The English philosopher Edmund Burke, although a supporter of the colonial position in the American Revolution, decried the extremism of the French Revolution and became the chief early spokesman for conservatism. Liberalism grew from the writings of John Stuart Mill and others. A call for the end to the slave trade and even slavery itself attracted many followers during this period. In 1807 William Wilberforce pushed a bill through Parliament that ended the British slave trade. The British abolished slavery in 1833. Other countries followed suit on both measures. Political freedom and social equality for ex-slaves would be much more difficult to attain. Writers such as Mary Astell and Mary Wollstonecraft, through her A Vindication of the Rights of Women, championed the cause of women’s rights. Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the Seneca Falls conference in 1848 and demanded rights equivalent to those of men. Once again though the goal of equality would prove elusive.

The Consolidation of National States in Europe

Despite all the revolutionary changes of these years, the development of nationalism may have cast the longest shadow. The first nationalist thinkers were proponents of what might be called cultural nationalism, which was a call for people to appreciate the unique cultural and intellectual achievements of a national community. Johann Gottfried von Herder’s discussion of Volksgeist was a classic example of this form of nationalism. These thinkers stressed examples of cultural accomplishment as a means of creating a sense of community, but they did not argue for superiority. Political nationalists pushed for loyalty and solidarity for their national group and argued for political independence and state-building. Examples of this type of nationalism would be Giuseppe Mazzini and his Young Italy movement, and Theodore Herzl and the rise of Zionism. The specter of rapid national independence was a frightening one for many European leaders. Prince Klemens von Metternich, presiding over the Congress of Vienna, attempted to suppress national consciousness and re-create the sense of balance that he equated with the ancien régime. The efforts of Cavour and Garibaldi brought the independence and unification of Italy. Otto von Bismarck, stressing the political reality of change through “blood and iron” rather than debate, unified Germany and permanently changed the European landscape.