Conservapedia:World History Lecture Nine

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World History – Revolution, Nationalism and Industrialization
Ninth Lecture
Instructor, Andy Schlafly

Outline of Lecture:

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Religious Conflict in England 3 Age of Revolution 3.1 America 3.2 B. France 3.3 Napoleon’s Empire 3.4 Congress of Vienna 4 Other Revolutions 4.1 Haiti 4.2 South America 4.3 China 5 Revolutionary Art and Literature 6 Nationalism 6.1 Italy 6.2 Germany 7 The Industrial Revolution 7.1 Where, When and Why 7.2 The Effects

[edit] Introduction

As Christianity continued to grow in the 1700s, many around the world came to the same conclusion: we want our own country rather than taking orders from a king. But kings resisted these demands for independence by the people, and revolutions became necessary to overthrow kings.

In the 1600s in England, there was some of the worst religious persecution in the history of the world, as Protestants harshly persecuted each other and there was also continuous conflict between Protestants and Catholics. The conflict between Anglicans and Puritans in England was particularly severe, causing many Puritans to flee to New England. Quakers were also persecuted in England, and William Penn founded the state of Pennsylvania in the late 1600s after being persecuted in England for his Quaker faith. In 1688, a “bloodless” revolution known as the “Glorious Revolution” replaced a rare Catholic English king (James II) with a king and queen who were Anglican (William and Mary).

In the 1700s, all the revolutions were quite bloody, entailing violence and great losses of life and limb. Nearly every region of the world saw violent revolutions. There was the American Revolution, which began with bloodshed in 1775 (Lexington and Concord and the ride of Paul Revere), and then the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, and ultimately the conclusion with the Treaty of Paris in 1783. There were also many other revolutions, including ones in Mexico, Haiti, South America, China and France. We will learn about all of them here, spending most of our time on the French Revolution.

Beginning in 1800, a new leader had a dramatic effect on Europe: Napoleon Bonaparte, known to the world as simply Napoleon. He possessed a combination of military genius, unlimited ambition, leadership and a brilliant overall mind like Alexander the Great of the ancient Greek world. Napoleon had an ambition and drive that were so great that the term “Napoleonic complex” is still used today to describe a power-hungry, diminutive person intent on taking over everything in sight. But just as Alexander the Great could not capture India and the Mongols could not take Japan, Napoleon could not conquer Russia in the wintertime. Over a century later, the German Adolf Hitler also failed in a similar attempt. Once Napoleon failed, other nations in Europe began to rise in power.

Some monarchs (kings or queens) avoided or delayed revolutions by becoming “enlightened despots” to conform to the Enlightenment ideas of good government. These rulers attempted or pretended to put the well-being of the people and the state ahead of the monarchs’ own preferences. Examples were Catherine the Great of Russia, Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia (the former name for Germany), and the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II of Austria. Often these reforms included some freedom of religion and speech, as allowed by Joseph II and Frederick the Great. Catherine the Great continued to modernize Russia as Peter the Great had done, but she also participated with Prussia and Austria in carving up Poland in the First, Second and Third Partitions (1772, 1793 and 1795) such that Poland did not exist again as a separate nation until after World War I. Catherine the Great also gave increased power to the Russian nobles over the serfs in order to appease the nobles.

Economically, there was another kind of revolution in the world in the late 1700s and early 1800s: the industrial revolution. Beginning in England, which had the most advanced economy, power-driven machinery enabled the use of factories to manufacture goods in large quantities. Marvelous new inventions, such as the steam engine and telegraph, began to change how people traveled and communicated. Pollution became a problem for the first time wherever there was a high concentration of factories.

Although Britain dominated the world in economically from 1776 to World War I, the United States began to grow in world influence in the early 1800s. But the Civil War (1861-65) set the United States back and it took decades for it to recover fully.

[edit] Religious Conflict in England

In the 1600s, the major European countries adhered to the “divine right of kings,” such that the authority of a king came from God. But in England, unlike the countries in continental Europe, there was a constitutional monarchy that required the king to obey the law and share power with the Parliament. In all the other countries the king (or queen) simply did what he wanted.

The sharing of power between the King of England and the Parliament caused continual conflict, some of it religious in nature. The religious disagreements between the Church of England, the Puritans, the Quakers and other Christian faiths caused many to flee to the new colonies in America to establish religious communities free from persecution in England. But note that many of these Christian denominations, such as the Puritans, did not believe in religious freedom for others any more than the Church of England did.

After the founder of the Church of England (King Henry VIII) died in 1547, there were three noteworthy monarchs: Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I. Queen Elizabeth took the throne in 1558, about a decade after King Henry VIII, and remains the most popular English monarch in history. She ruled for nearly 45 years, until her death in 1603, and had two remarkable accomplishments: she deftly managed Parliament and many religious conflicts, and she crushed the massive Spanish Armada that attempted to invade England in 1588. A Protestant who was formally excommunicated by the Catholic Church, Elizabeth obtained the “Religious Settlement” from Parliament in 1559 that funded the Church of England and set many rules for it (like the ability of its clergy to marry) that remain to this day. Queen Elizabeth’s successful rule is known as the “Elizabethan Age.”

Queen Elizabeth never married and had no heirs. After her death in 1603, her cousin James Stuart, King James VI of Scotland, took the English throne as James I. The King James Version of the Bible, first published in 1611, was the magnificent English translation funded by his reign. This stunning work greatly influenced the development of the English language for centuries to come. But unlike Elizabeth, James I fought frequently with Parliament.

Charles I became king in 1625 and conflicts worsened between the king and Parliament. Charles I needed funding in 1628, but Parliament refused unless Charles signed the Petition of Right. This important document would have limited the powers of the king in four significant ways. The king could no longer imprison people without good reason, or force people to house soldiers in their private homes, or impose taxes without the consent of Parliament, or impose martial (military) law during peacetime. The king’s power would be greatly weakened by this Petition, and Charles refused to sign it.

Charles also refused to give religious freedom to Puritans in England and Presbyterians in Scotland. This led to the religious English Civil War from 1642 to 1649, whereupon the Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell emerged victorious. King Charles was then tried and publicly executed. This was the first execution of a king by his own people in history, setting an example that future revolutions imitated.

An example of the harsh religious conflict in England under Charles I was the experience of the Puritan William Prynne (1600-69). He wrote and distributed pamphlets, including his famous pamphlet Histrio Mastix (1632) that attacked stage-plays liked by Queen Henrietta Maria. Prynne’s writings caused him to be tried before the monarch’s Star Chamber and, of course, he was convicted in that unfair tribunal. His sentence in 1634 was the extremely harsh life imprisonment and the cropping of his ears (removal of part of his ears to disfigure him). But he continued to write pamphlets and thus in 1637 he was further punished by removing the remainder of his ears. In 1640, the Long Parliament limited the absolute power of the monarch and freed Prynne, and he was even elected to Parliament himself in 1648. But in December 1648 the English army (led by the Puritan Colonel Thomas Pride) led a coup that excluded more than 100 members of Parliament who sought to settle with Charles I, including the Puritan Prynne, from the House of Commons. That was known as “Pride’s Purge.” A “rump” Parliament then assembled without these excluded members, and allowed the execution of Charles I. It is easy to see why some Puritans decided to come to America during this time rather than stay in England.

After defeating Charles I, Oliver Cromwell initially founded the “Commonwealth” (1649-53), which was a republican form of government. But like other future revolutionaries, Cromwell then decided simply to rule as a military dictator, which he did until his death in 1658. Most revolutions simply replace one form of dictatorship with another. The shining exception was the American Revolution, as its leader (George Washington) voluntarily gave up his power for the good of the people.

To this day Cromwell is loved by many in England, but hated by others. The Irish, which suffered from his brutality in Ireland, vilify Cromwell. Royalists, or those who love the English monarchy, also hated Cromwell and even dug up his corpse to behead him once the monarchy regained power. The anger against Cromwell was so great that his severed head was displayed outside Westminster Abbey for over 20 years, from 1661 to 1685, and the remainder of his corpse thrown into a disgraceful pit.

After Cromwell’s death, the older son of Charles I took the throne as Charles II and instituted the Restoration (of the monarchy) in 1659. He ruled until his death in 1685, during which he established the rights of prisoners not to be held unless there was a good reason. This was the Habeas Corpus Act, passed in 1679, which became a basic right under the U.S. Constitution, Article One, Section Nine (“The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”). Also during the reign of Charles II the first political parties developed, known as the Whigs (liberals) and Tories (conservatives). Today those same political parties exist in England, although the Whigs are now the Labour Party (the English spelling of “labor”, which represents common or union workers).

James II, a Catholic, was the second son of Charles I and succeeded Charles II to the throne. The Catholic-Anglican conflict had been ongoing for over a hundred years, and many Protestants were unhappy about having a Catholic rule the country. Even now in England there is a law prohibiting a Catholic from serving in a top position. In 1688, the Protestants in Parliament asked Mary, the Protestant daughter of James II, to rule England (and Scotland) along with her Protestant husband William of Orange. James II was forced to flee to France, where he died in exile in 1701.

This transfer in power in early 1689 became known as the “Glorious Revolution,” or the bloodless revolt. But while the ouster of James II itself was bloodless, it was incited in part by the execution of 300 persons (and sale into slavery of another 800) who participated in the 1685 revolt against James II known as (Duke) Monmouth’s Rebellion.

William and Mary were the only “joint sovereigns” in British history such that each had equal power, because usually the spouse of a monarch has no power and serves merely as a “consort”. The College of William and Mary in Virginia, founded by this king and queen in 1693, is the second oldest college in America. Mary died in 1694, and William then ruled alone until 1702, when he died.

William and Mary agreed in 1689 to a new Bill of Rights proposed by Parliament, which prevented a monarch from:

1. denying citizens the right to petition (complaint to) the monarch
2. infringing on freedom of speech in Parliament
3. suspending a law of Parliament
4. imposing taxes without the consent of Parliament.

[edit] Age of Revolution

The Age of Revolution is a general time period when revolutions swept the world to overthrow kings (monarchies) and establish constitutional forms of government. Some historians, focusing on the major revolutions that overthrew monarchies, consider the late 1700s to be the Age of Revolution, including the American (1776-1783) and French Revolutions (1789) and its subsequent Reign of Terror (1793-94). Other historians, seeing continued occurrence of revolutions worldwide after 1800, describe the period as being from 1776 to 1848, a year in which there were many unsuccessful revolutions and Karl Marx wrote the inspiration for future revolutions, The Communist Manifesto.

A “revolution” is itself a controversial idea, and has little or no basis in Christianity. The ancient Greeks were entirely opposed to the idea of a revolution, and thought it occurred only when the morality and religious values of a society had decayed. In the Middle Ages, revolution was unknown and armed revolt against one’s society was unacceptable. Religious authority was strong and social order was desired. Armed revolt by Christians against their government leaders did not occur in ancient Rome, when the emperors were as cruel as possible, and such revolts remained rare or non-existent for over 1600 years.

Historians credit Machiavelli as being the first thinker to lay the intellectual foundation for revolutions, though he never used the term. His work did indicate the need for change in the structure of government, and he expressed concern with maintaining stability. The English poet and writer John Milton (1608-74) was the first to express the desirability of revolution to overthrow a tyrant or abusive dictator, and thereby achieve freedom for the people. Milton’s view differed from Englishman Thomas Hobbes, who wrote in the Leviathan (1651) that people were inherently greedy and cruel, and that we needed an absolute monarchy to restrain our worst desires.

The German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) later wrote that revolution was a “natural” step towards mankind reaching a higher ethical value system. The American and French Revolutions drew upon Kant’s ideas.

Subsequently another German philosopher, G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831), insisted that revolutions were essential to human destiny, and that revolutionary leaders were heroes in promoting reform. Karl Marx, the most influential supporter of revolutions in world history, then drew upon Hegel’s ideas in order to promote future communist revolutions.

Revolutions continue even to this day. The most famous revolution in recent history was the Islamic Shiite revolution that overthrew the Shah of Iran and took control of that country in 1979, and holding American diplomats hostage for about a year.

[edit] America

The American Revolution, beginning with the Declaration of Independence in 1776, was led by a small minority of colonists. Amazingly, there were just as many Loyalists (pro-British) as Patriots (pro-revolutionaries). Like the French Revolution discussed below, the American Revolution was instigated by an educated middle class. The ideas in the Declaration of Independence, drafted by 33-year-old Thomas Jefferson with help by other Founders, were very powerful. Invoking the authority of God frequently throughout the document, the Declaration contains the most striking legal statement of all time: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” The phrase “that all men are created equal” was original to the Declaration of Independence and was quoted frequently by Abraham Lincoln (e.g., in the Gettysburg Address) and by other future Americans.

The Declaration of Independence drew upon Christianity and the Enlightenment English philosopher John Locke. In his famous work “Two Treatises on Government” (1690), Locke declared that all men have the natural (inalienable) rights of “life, liberty and estate (property).” Adam Smith, the great economist, modified this to be “life, liberty and the pursuit of property.” Notably the Declaration of Independence does not emphasize a right to pursue property, however, speaking instead in favor of pursuit of “happiness”.

Locke also wrote that government exists to defend our natural rights, and when government fails to do so then it may rightfully be overthrown. Locke built on the concept of a “social contract” first proposed by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), who felt that government was a contract by which people gave up some rights to government to obtain protection and order in return. When this social contract is violated by government, as when it fails to defend our natural rights, then Locke felt that rejecting the authority of government was justified. This logic was embraced by the Declaration of Independence by declaring that the colonies were right to break away from the King of England because he failed to uphold the social contract. The Declaration said: “That to secure these [inalienable] rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government ….” And the Patriots did “abolish” English rule here.

[edit] B. France

The French Revolution is the most famous in all of world history. It started out with the hope and promise of the American Revolution, but ended up with nearly everyone being executed by the guillotine. There was a “Reign of Terror” which was exactly what it name implies: terrifying chaos when anyone and everyone could be killed at any time.

In its Old Regime prior to the revolution, France had three tiers or levels in its social system: the First, Second and Third Estates. The First Estate was only 1% of the population but it controlled 10% of the land. This was the clergy and they paid no taxes. To be fair, however, much of this land was church land made available to the public, and clergy do not pay any taxes today in the United States either. ^{[Yeah, how fair you are.]} The Second Estate was only about 2% of the population but they controlled 20% of the land. This was the landed nobility, and they paid very little in taxes. The Third Estate was everyone else: the peasants, the merchants and the laborers, and they were badly overtaxed by the monarch, King Louis XVI. Recall that taxes were a major cause of the American Revolution also.

The leaders of the Third Estate were the middle class, also known as the bourgeoisie. They did better than the peasants and worked as merchants or skilled artisans. They were educated and trained in many of the ideas of the Enlightenment, most notably Jean Jacques Rousseau. His work “The Social Contract” (1762) supported a direct democracy rather than the republican form of government adopted in America. The “social contract” was a contract among free people to create government. Rousseau disapproved of titles like nobility, and demanded complete equality between all people.

France was near bankruptcy in 1789 due to King Louis XVI’s extravagance and high taxes, which discouraged work. The Second Estate then made a big mistake in demanding a meeting of the Estates-General, which was a French Assembly that had not met in 175 years. The defect in this strategy was that each Estate had one vote in the Assembly, such that the First and Second Estates could always outvote the Third Estate. That was acceptable in the early 1600s, but the Third Estate would not allow this in 1789 after learning the Enlightenment ideas. They wanted a system of one vote per delegate, which would have given the Third Estate the same number of votes as the First and Second Estate combined.

When the First and Second Estates refused this request by the Third Estate, it left and formed a new National Assembly. When the Third Estate was locked out of its meeting place, it met on tennis court and took the “Tennis Court Oath” to draft a new French constitution.

Violence soon hit the streets. On July 14, 1789 (“Bastille Day”), French peasants stormed the large Paris prison known as Bastille, freeing the inmates. The Great Fear or panic resulted, as riots occurred and peasants proceeded to burn wealthy homes. Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were forced from their home in Versailles by a riot of women over the high price of bread. Supposedly the snobby Antoinette responded unsympathetically to the lack of bread for the peasants by declaring, “Let them eat cake!” Historians doubt she ever actually said that.

By then the French Revolution was in full swing. The National Assembly approved the “Declaration of the Rights of Man,” which combined ideas of the American Declaration of Independence with some Enlightenment concepts. The result of this combination had many debatable claims. The entire document is short and worth reading in full: http://www.hrcr.org/docs/frenchdec.html

Unlike the American declaration that “all men are created equal,” the French version declared that “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.” Unlike the American declaration that all men have inalienable rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” the French version declared that all men have natural rights of “liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression.” Some of the French declarations seem silly, like this one: “Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.” What is the meaning of a freedom if it is arbitrarily limited by undefined “abuses of this freedom”? ^{[Oh the irony!]}

In 1791, a French journalist named Olympe de Gouges proposed a “Declaration of the Rights of Woman,” but the National Assembly rejected her proposal. She, like many other leaders of that time, was eventually executed by guillotine.

The French National Assembly established a constitutional monarchy and, in 1791, adopted a new constitution that created a Legislative Assembly. Three factions quickly formed in the new Legislative Assembly, known as the radicals (liberals), moderates (centrists) and conservatives, similar to those political movements today in the United States. The three factions sat in different sections of the large assembly hall, with the radicals (liberals) sitting on the left, the moderates sitting in the center, and the conservatives sitting on the right. That gave rise to the left-center-right terminology that we still use today in the United States to describe these three political groups.

Meanwhile, Prussia and Austria were at war with one another, and Prussia offered to help the French King Louis XVI and his royal family. In response, in August 1792, the French revolutionaries imprisoned the king and his family.

A new National Convention replaced the Legislative Assembly and abolished the monarchy in order to establish a republic in 1792, which gave all adult males the right to vote. A radical political group called the Jacobins gained power, led by Georges Danton and Jean Paul Marat. Under the influence of the Jacobins, the National Convention used the guillotine to execute Louis XVI in January 1793. By this time many countries, including Great Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, Prussia and Austria, had formed a First Coalition to prevent the violence in France from spreading outside. The National Convention responded by drafting people into an army. Historians claim women were drafted, but such a politically inspired claim is worth investigating before accepting it.

The execution of Louis XVI led almost immediately to the Reign of Terror. Maximilian Robespierre, head of the Committee of Public Safety, proceeded to guillotine numerous alleged enemies, including Marie Antoinette. In a classic illustration of Jesus’s teaching that “he who lives by the sword dies by the sword,” Jacobin leaders Georges Danton (a fiery orator) was guillotined, and Jean-Paul Marat (a scientist) was stabbed to death in his bathtub. Eventually Robespierre himself was guillotined in 1794, and the Reign of Terror ended with his death.

At last the government of France was in the hands of a legislature, and an executive branch of five men called the Directory. The Directory picked a young, highly successful military genius named Napoleon to lead the French army. The very next day Napoleon seized all power in France as its dictator, in November 1799.

The influence of the French Revolution was immense throughout the western hemisphere, as other peoples felt that they, too, could rise up against their rulers and defeat them. Historians credit the French Revolution with spreading the ideas of the Enlightenment, limiting the power of nobility and clergy, and ending an absolute monarchy. But many who supported the French Revolution in its beginning were horrified by where it led, including numerous executions and terror. Some would say that France never fully recovered, as the French Revolution unleashed an hostility towards Christianity that continues to this day in France. Islam has recently risen in power there.

[edit] Napoleon’s Empire

Napoleon was smart, ambitious, and a tremendous leader. Quickly, by 1802, Napoleon had signed peace treaties with all his major enemies in the Second Coalition against France, including Great Britain, Russia and Austria. He then improved France immensely with reformed taxation, improved finance through use of a national bank, a successful system of laws known as the Napoleonic Code, and even a public school system. But all was not for the better. Napoleon repealed a ban on slavery in the French Caribbean, restricted freedom of speech and the press, and did not allow women to have the same property rights as men.

Napoleon needed cash to fight a new Third Coalition against him, and also to pay for a failed attempt to quell a rebellion against France in the Caribbean Saint Dominigue (Haiti). Napoleon sold the massive territory of Louisiana, which had already implemented the Napoleonic Code and where it is still used to this day in the State of Louisiana, to the United States for a few million dollars in 1803. Then, in 1804, Napoleon declared himself emperor of France and proceeded to conquer or acquire as much territory in Europe as possible. He did very well until he failed to conquer Great Britain, which had a superior navy that defeated Napoleon’s fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. English Admiral Horatio Nelson was the hero of that battle.

Napoleon continued to win victories on continental Europe, and by 1812 his empire included all of it except Sweden, Portugal and, near Asia, the Ottoman empire. But Napoleon’s undoing was his invasion of Russia in the winter of 1812. It is virtually impossible to conquer Russia with a wintertime invasion, because the weather is frightfully cold and the Russian people are extremely resilient, willing to live on rats rather than surrender. The German Adolf Hitler failed in a similar mistake in invading Russia during the wintertime in World War II.

Napoleon made other strategic mistakes also. His blockade against Great Britain in 1806, known as the Continental System, did not help him. His Peninsular War against Spain from 1808 to 1813 was hurtful also.

By 1813 Napoleon’s army was weak enough for the Fourth Coalition to defeat it, at the Battle of Leipzig. By 1814 Napoleon could see that he would have to give up his throne, and his opponents sent him off to an island in Mediterranean known as Elba. Napoleon remained banished there for a year, but escaped in March 1815 to grab power over France again for “The Hundred Days.” But in June 1815, the Prussia and Great Britain defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, and this time Napoleon was shipped to the distant island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died in 1821. About six years ago scientists analyzed hair samples from Napoleon’s corpse and found arsenic, and concluded that he died from poisoning. But then other scientists said that the arsenic was from hair tonic, not poisoning, and that no one had murdered Napoleon after all.

[edit] Congress of Vienna

In the aftermath of Napoleon’s defeat, European nations convened in Vienna, Austria to hold the “Congress of Vienna.” Prussia, Austria, Great Britain, Russia and France were all there. Austrian Prince Klemens von Metternich, who was chairman of the proceeding, proposed establishing a “balance of power” among rival nations to ensure that no single nation could threaten the others. Metternich established a set of alliances between nations that required them to assist others if war broke out. This would protect all the nations against revolution or invasion, as the balance of power would shift in response to such threats. These alliances were called the Concert of Europe.

The primary motivation of the Congress of Vienna was to prevent French aggression in the future, or any repetition of what Napoleon had done. Restoration of a balance of power would help protect the other nations and provide for peace in Europe for the future. There were also other goals for this meeting. Royal families feared revolutions in their own nations similar to what France had gone through with its revolution. In other words, the monarchies wanted “legitimacy”.

In addition to the Concert of Europe described above, the Congress also adopted these specific changes to the map of Europe:

1. Gave legitimacy to the monarchies (royal families)
2. Recognized Switzerland as an independent nation
3. Required France to return territories conquered by Napoleon
4. Created the German Confederation
5. Created the Kingdom of the Netherlands
6. Allowed the Kingdom of Sardinia to include Genoa

The impact of the new balance of power, the legitimacy of the monarchies and the specific nation-building was enormous throughout the West. A lasting peace in Europe resulted. France lost power, while Great Britain and Prussia gained it. Latin American governments established as colonies of European powers felt confident to declare their independence. Finally, and perhaps most of all, nationalism grew in Europe. A century later, this nationalism would result in the worst wars in the history of the world.

[edit] Other Revolutions

There were many revolutions in addition to the American and French Revolutions, as the world threw off the yoke of monarchs and replaced them with more representative governments. The most successful of these was the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) in Latin America. Revolutions in South America from 1810 to 1824 did bring independence from Spain, but failed to lead to prosperity in South America. Mexico won its independence from Spain in a Mexican Revolution that lasted from 1810 to 1821. A century later, from 1910 to 1919, the Mexican Revolution led to a constitution that advanced land reform, education and workers rights; historians also credit it for bringing some rights to women.

[edit] Haiti

The first Spanish colony in the New World was the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean, which was one of Christopher Columbus’s first discoveries. Today Hispaniola has two countries separated by mountains: its eastern two thirds is the Dominican Republic, while its western one-third is Haiti. The Dominican Republic has produced many great baseball players today, including Albert Pujols, Sammy Sosa, Pedro Martinez, Jose Reyes and Manny Ramirez.

In the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, Spain ceded control of the western third of Hispaniola to France, which established a colony named Saint Dominique (also spelled as “Saint-Domingue”). A hundred years later, this colony became famous for several reasons: (1) it was the first independent black republic, (2) it was the only nation formed based on a successful slave revolt, and (3) it was the second colony after the United States to declare its independence in the New World, on Jan. 1, 1804. Haiti also had a recent revolution or uprising, in 2004.

The Haitian Revolution began when an African priest sparked an uprising by 100,000 slaves, led by Toussaint L’Ouverture in 1791. French troops eventually arrived in 1802 to suppress the revolution, and tricked L’Ouverture into boarding a French ship where he thought he would be able to sign a peace treaty granting the colony independence from France. Instead he was captured and returned to France, where he died in 1803 in a French prison (France has always had the worst prison conditions in Europe). But Dessalines, a general under L’Ouverture, fought on for freedom on the island, and Haiti successfully declared its independence on Jan. 1, 1804.

[edit] South America

In the Spanish colonies, creoles (pronounced KREE-oles, and meaning Europeans born in the colonies) were leading revolutions to gain independence from their Spanish rulers. Creole Generals Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin led Venezuela, Ecuador, and Argentina to independence and with the help of Bernardo O’Higgins, Chile was also freed in 1818. Bolivar freed the rest of the colonies at the Battle of Ayacucho in 1824, and attempted to establish the unified nations of “Gran Colombia” and “United Provinces of Central America”, but both collapsed after only a few years.

Brazil won its independence in a peaceful manner. It was a colony of Portugal, and when Napoleon invaded Spain and Portugal in 1807, the family of the Portuguese monarch fled to Brazil. Prince John, the future King John VI, declared the large Brazilian capital of Rio de Janeiro to be the capital of both Brazil and Portugal. In 1822, after the defeat of Napoleon and the return of King John VI to Portugal, the creoles (people of European descent born in the colonies) demanded independence for Brazil. King John declared his son Dom Pedro as ruler of the newly independent Brazil. Brazil was thereby the only Latin American country to be ruled by a king after it gained its independence.

In 1810 in Mexico, a war for independence was initiated by Catholic priest Father Miguel Hidalgo from Dolores, who rallied mestizos (people of mixed Indian and European blood) in a rebellion against Spain. This revolt was memorable because it was the first time a rebellion was led in South America by the mestizos and not by the creoles. Led by Hidalgo, the mestizos marched to Mexico City, but were defeated in 1811 by the Spanish and the creoles. Hidalgo was executed in 1811 and then succeeded by Father José Maria Morelos, who also lost to the creoles, led by Augustin de Iturbide in 1815. The struggle ended in 1821, when Mexico successfully gained independence from Spain.

An Indian governor named Benito Juarez enacted reforms including the redistribution of land to the poor and separation of church and state. He was exiled by Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who was the president of Mexico four times following the revolution against Spain. During his rule, Santa Anna was unable to stop Texas from seceding from Mexico in 1845, an act which fueled the Mexican-U.S. War. In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo brought an end to the U.S.-Mexican War, giving the United States Southwest territories including California and New Mexico. Benito Juarez again rose to power in 1861, and strongly opposed the French occupation of Mexico in 1862, and especially the Austrian archduke Maximilian.

When the French left Mexico in 1867, Juarez was followed by dictator Porfirio Diaz, of Indian descent, who encouraged building projects and economic growth but unsuccessfully distributed land and failed to resolve problems among the working class such as low wages. Diaz found opposition in Francisco Madero, who founded the “Anti-Reelection Party” and was a firm supporter of democracy. Madero called for an uprising in 1910, marking the beginning of the Mexican Revolution, which lasted until 1917. Other prominent figures of the Mexican Revolution included cowboy Francisco “Pancho” Villa, and peasant leader Emiliano Zapata. Control of Mexico often changed hands and many were assassinated, including Madero, who was then replaced by Diaz’s ally General Victoriano Huerta, who then fled and was replaced by Venustiano Carranza. Carranza met his downfall after tricking and killing Emiliano Zapata in 1919, which turned everyone against Carranza. He attempted to flee Mexico, but was killed. These events marked the end of the Mexican Revolution.

A Mexican constitution was established as a result of the Revolution, which increased the rights of workers and in some cases, women, and, strengthened the land redistribution system. In 1920, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (in Spanish, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional or PRI) was organized. It came to power in 1929 and was the most prominent party in Mexico for the next century. The IRP gave politicians in Mexico City control, and many of the Mexican constitutional provisions were disregarded by PRI presidents.

[edit] China

The movements towards revolution and nationalism spread to China. Sun Yixian was just one of the many Chinese inspired by the unified nations arising in Europe. A rebellion arose in 1911, which ended the rules of the Qing (also known as Manchu) dynasty. Confucianism was rejected by the reformers, who viewed it as old-fashioned, and reforms were sought to give more rights to workers and the poor. The revolutions did not resolve much, but marked the beginning of a period of strife and unrest for China in the early 1900s, which would lead to its establishment as a Communist nation in later decades.

[edit] Revolutionary Art and Literature

In the early 1800s, art (including music) and literature underwent “revolutions” similar to the political ones. Romanticism was the major artistic movement, reflecting an emphasis on thoughts, feelings and nature. Lord Byron was a leading romanticist who fought for the independence of Greece. This emphasis on feelings mirrored a political romanticism that promoted democracy and the needs of the “common man” or everyday person.

In music, the greatest composer in the history of the world burst onto the scene in the early 1800s: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). He revolutionized instrumental music and took it to new heights never before thought possible. His achievement was all the more remarkable because he became totally deaf before the age of 40, and before he composed his greatest works. A German like most great composers, Beethoven’s works capture an intensity and expressive emotion that surpassed even vocal music. It was Beethoven’s great work that led an English critic to declare, “All arts aspire to the condition of music.”

In the late 1800s, impressionism moved painting further away from its traditions. It began in France and continued into the 1900s. The chief feature of impressionism was to paint the transient effects of color and light, and attempt to capture a fleeting image or “impression”. The feeling of an image was emphasized more than the detail (see attached). Major impressionistic painters included Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir and Paul Cezanne. Manet, Monet, Renoir and others began emphasizing color and lighting as early as the late 1860s. They often painted landscapes, and insisted on remaining outdoors to until completion of the work, unlike predecessors who preferred to complete such work in the studio. Renoir, for example, is known for brilliance of color, intimate charm in his subjects, and a harmony of his lines.

Though the impressionistic movement in painting dissolved by the mid-1880s, it changed the path of art forever in its rejection of traditional Western approaches to subject matter. The artist Vincent van Gogh, for example, was greatly influenced by the impressionists. There was a musical impressionism also, which emphasized mood and understatement and reflected its composers’ view that pure sound (like color) is an end to itself.

Realism was the new form of literature that told the dark side of the industrial revolution: the overcrowded, filthy conditions in which many workers struggled.

[edit] Nationalism

Nationalism was a concept that arose at the same time as Romanticism. Nationalists believed loyalty to one’s nation was of utmost importance. They felt that society should be viewed as a whole, rather than as being made up of individuals. In Germany and Italy, nationalism inspired unification. The Congress of Vienna had left the independent city-states of Italy under Austrian control in the north and Spanish control in the south. It had established Germany as a weak confederation of 39 states.

[edit] Italy

In Italy, a prominent nationalist named Giuseppe Mazzini began to argue strongly for the unification of Italy as one nation, and formed the “Brotherhood of Young Italy” in 1831. Mazzini’s call for unification was premature, however; rulers of the various Italian city-states were not ready to unite. But Mazzini’s efforts were not in vain. Twenty years later, a fierce patriot and former member of the Brotherhood of Young Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi, led a revolution in Southern Italy, while King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia-Piedmont and his prime minister Count Cavour led one in northern Italy. Garibaldi zealously rallied an entirely volunteer army in Sicily and successfully overthrew the Spanish Bourbon king of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. Count Cavour eliminated Austrian control in northern Italy and the Italian people voted to unite their country in 1861. Venice and Rome were both added by 1870.

[edit] Germany

Germans were dissatisfied with the Confederation established by the Vienna settlement and the Frankfurt Assembly attempted unsuccessfully to unify in 1848. Prussia, the strongest “German” state, established a “Customs Union”—which resembled a national market system—and parliament. King Wilhelm I of Prussia chose Prime Minister Otto Van Bismarck in 1862. Fiercely patriotic to his native Prussia, Bismarck believed in “realpolitick” (or reality politics) and sought to unify Germany under Prussian control. He believed the only way this could be done was through a war. Bismarck’s motto by which to wage this war was “by blood and iron,” and without Parliament’s approval he forced the northern states to join the Northern German Confederation. When the southern city-states would not join, Bismarck tricked France into declaring the Franco-Prussian War, which Prussia won. This accomplished Bismarck’s goal of attaining southern Germany, which was now willing to accept Prussian rule. In 1871 the North and South were united into the new German Empire, the “Second Reich,” and Wilhelm was made “kaiser” (German word for “Caesar” or emperor, especially between 1871 to 1918).

[edit] The Industrial Revolution

The industrial revolution was the transformation of society from being based mostly on farming and handicrafts into an economy based mostly on manufacturing and industry. England, which had the strongest economy in the world, was the first to undergo the industrial revolution, although some historians cite the iron industry in China under the Song dynasty and the textile industry in India as being forerunners to what happened in England. Regardless, the real industrial revolution began in 1760 in England and then, aided by the economic insights of Adam Smith, England’s economy expanded and its industrial revolution lasted until 1840.

[edit] Where, When and Why

The industrial revolution began in England in the cotton textile industry, with new machines for spinning and weaving fabrics. England obtained much of its cotton from the South in the United States, picked by slaves on plantations. When Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in America, production of cotton soared and England’s factories bought up as much as the South could produce. England also imported cotton from Egypt and India, however; India is famous for its brightly colored fabrics and it exported a colored cotton known as calico. (The South overestimated England’s reliance on the South’s cotton when it made the decision to secede from the North in the Civil War; the South miscalculated that England would be economically required to help the South.)

England and the United States built canals to connect waterways and transport goods, and in 1807 American Robert Fulton started the first commercial steamboat service. Macadam (smoothly paved) roads and turnpikes helped distribute newly manufactured goods. In the early 1800s, the railroad emerged as a powerful form of transportation also.

The United States, particularly in the North, industrialized its economy almost as quickly as England had, although the real manufacturing might of the United States was not seen until after it resolved its internal conflicts in the Civil War. England attempted to hide and conceal the secrets of its industrial revolution from continental Europe. The first European nation to follow England was Belgium in 1807, then France in 1848, and then Germany in 1870. The industrial revolution did not reach eastern Europe until the early 1900s, and China and India did not undergo the conversion until the mid-1900s.

In Egypt, modernization was attempted by Ottoman ruler Muhammad Ali Pasha (1769-1849) and his grandson Ismail. Muhammad Ali Pasha forced farmers to leave their farms and work on commercial plantations he established to export cotton and other crops to Europe. But in the end, his “reforms” resulted in a huge Egyptian debt to European countries, especially England. In Russia, industrialization was encouraged by the completion of the trans-Siberian railroad in 1904, connecting Russian to China and Japan. Japan was the only Asian country to successfully industrialize. Under Meiji rule, the government invited foreigners to teach industrialization principles. Businesses were sponsored and controlled by the government, and, when established, were then sold to private individuals.

There were two key aspects to the industrial revolution: technological and culture. In technology, the industrial revolution began using iron and steel as basic resources and converted to energy sources such as electricity, oil and the steam engine. Transportation benefited from the steam engine (invented by James Watt in the 1770s) and later the car and airplane (invented by the Wright Brothers in 1903), while communication benefited from the telegraph (invented by Samuel Morse in 1837) and (later) the telephone (invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876) and the radio (invented in 1895). New machines such as the power loom and spinning jenny enabled mass production, and factories arose to divide labor and permit specialization. Increase application of science to industry helped enormously.

Other factors also caused industrialization. As farming techniques improved, each farm could obtain better yield or output from their land, and there was less of a need for so many farmers. A few farmers benefited from “economies of scale,” which is when something can be doing more efficiently on a larger scale, like when a large store like Wal-Mart provides cheaper goods than a small store can. In the early 1700s, there was an “enclosure movement” whereby wealthy farmers bought land from small farmers, then benefited from economies of scale in farming huge tracts of land. The enclosure movement led to improved crop production, such as the rotation of crops. People began moving to cities, where they could more easily work in factories than on farmland. In England, population growth caused former farmers or children of farmers to migrate from southeastern England to the northwest, where factories were being built.

England, the land of free enterprise and Adam Smith, had the perfect economic climate for the industrial revolution. England had all of the necessary “factors of production” (a term for the resources of an economy: land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship) to become an industrialized economy. There was plenty of money or capital to invest in new factories. There were many entrepreneurs hoping to profit from new businesses. There was sufficient land and natural resources, with the colonies of England providing raw materials as needed. And there was also adequate labor for the factories: the former small farmers. Most of all, there was a world of customers around the world wanting to buy the manufactured goods, and England’s merchant navy traded with the entire world.

Other countries lacked some of these factors of production, and it took decades or even a century to industrialize. Historians claim that some countries, like Austria-Hungary and Spain, lacked the waterways needed by factories, or had too much hilly terrain. But the real reason other countries did not industrialize as quickly as England and the United States is simple: the other countries did not respect free enterprise and the teachings of Adam Smith. Industrialization depends on capitalism, free enterprise, and the benefits of competition. In the United States, industrialization was enhanced by the structure of an entity known as the “corporation”, whereby investors provide capital without taking on risks any greater than the amount of their investment.

Additional factors contributed to the industrial revolution. Land declined as the major source of wealth, and more people could acquire different forms of wealth, such as cash, stocks, bonds or even intellectual property like books, music and paintings. Man felt more confidence in controlling natural resources like oil and gas fields, and enjoyed exploiting nature for profit. Political changes adapted to these social changes, and nations began to look to factories (which can make weapons) as the source of power.

If you are a businessman or investor, then you love the industrial revolution because it enables you to make money without being a farmer, and gives you access to all sorts of goods and products that might not otherwise be available, such as computers. But some people, like Thomas Jefferson, felt that a farming lifestyle was important to the family unit and overall peace and well-being in society. The industrial revolution did damage families and created a stressful lifestyle that exists today, such as commuting to work.

[edit] The Effects

Global effects of the industrial revolution included the growth of European nations in wealth and power and the increase of trade among nations. Areas of the world participating in trade and industrialization grew closer together, and global interaction increased. However, nations that resisted industrialization became increasingly isolated. Colonization continued, with Japan joining Europe in the conquest of territories to obtain raw materials. As aforementioned, the middle class increased and more people became interested in politics, which led to reforms and new policies.

Initially there were many negative domestic effects of the industrial revolution. Poor working conditions existed for factory workers: factories were dirty and dangerous places to work and wages were low and hours were long. But these initial problems among workers were lessened by the industrial reformation, by which quality and standards of living were greatly improved. A wide range of products, which previously would have been impossible to attain, were now cheaply produced and available to the average citizen. Real income—the actual purchasing power of money—greatly increased: people were able to buy much more with their money. The middle class composed of shopkeepers, factory owners, civil servants and merchants grew greatly.

However, many other problems arose. Child labor increased and many families lived in crowded “tenements”, or apartments, which were unsanitary and often burned down in fires. Urbanization—or the development and movement of people to cities—increased so rapidly that slums arose, garbage and sewage (there were no sewers) filled the streets and epidemics spread quickly. Authors such as Charles Dickens in England and Victor Hugo in France wrote about the negative effects of industrialization. In the U.S., the Confederate states bragged that slaves were treated better than northern factory workers.

In response to many social problems, some insisted that government should control the economy. Progressive taxation to redistribute wealth evenly among all citizens arose, and socialism became popular as a result of the industrial revolution. But many others believed it was the responsibility of Christians, not the government, to care for the poor. The social problems of industrialization inspired Christians to take action, especially in America and England. Charles Spurgeon was a minister who attracted huge crowds in London and taught that faith without works is dead. He urged Christians to take action and help the poor. He participated in the establishment of Stockwell Orphanage in England in 1867. In Germany, the Inner Mission was established by Johann H. Wichern. The Red Cross society was founded in Switzerland by Jean Henri Dunant, and was used in America during the Civil War. In Bristol, England, George Mueller spent his life working to care for youth delinquents, orphans, and anyone poor and needy. The YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association), originally founded as a place for Bible study and prayer in England in 1844, found enormous popularity and spread to America. In the 1860s, William and Catherine Booth founded the Salvation Army to provide food, clothing and shelter to the poor and homeless and spread the Gospel. Many of these Christian institutions continue to exist today.