Intro to Part 5 & Chapter 16 (first 2 sections)

Part 5: European Centrality and the Problem of Eurocentrism

Other peoples too had times of “cultural flowering”: Greeks, Indians south Asia, Arabs, Chinese, Incas, and Aztecs

The rise of Europe occurred within an international context. It was the withdrawal of the Chinese naval fleet that allowed Europeans to enter the Indian Ocean in the 16 and 17th centuries. Native Americans lacked the immunity of European diseases.
Industrial Revolution also benefited from the New World resources and markets (European control of the Elite).
The rise of Europe to a position of global dominance was not an easy automatic process. Europeans had to modify their policies

Peoples in the world made active use of European ideas for their own purposes. Seeking to gain an advantage over local rivals or benefits.
Haitian Revolution used French ideas about the “rights of man”
Christianity that took in the Americas or later in Africa evolved in culturally distinctive ways.
Ideas of nationalism, born in Europe were used to oppose European imperialism throughout Asia and Africa.
Russian and Chinese socialism in the 20th century departed in many ways from the vision of Karl Marx.
China confronted western aggression in the 19th century but also was absorbing a huge population, experiencing a massive revolt of peasants.
West African societies in the 19th century experienced a wave of religious wars that created new states and extended and transformed the practice of Islam that spread throughout centuries.

Chapter 16

Atlantic Revolutions in a Global Context

By the 1730s the Safavid dynasty that ruled Persia (Iran) for several centuries had completely collapsed, Mughal Empire governing India fragmented, Wahhabi movement in Arabia seriously threatened the Ottoman Empire, religious ideals informed major political upheavals in Central Asia.
Russian Empire under Catherine the Great experienced a series of peasant uprisings, in China too rebellions like the Taiping revolution 1850-1864.
In African Islamic revolutions and migrations are known as Mfecane, violent disruptions and creation of new states.
Atlantic Revolutions in N. America, France and Haiti, and Latin America took place in a larger global framework.
The costly wars that strained European imperial states (Britain, France, and Spain) were global rather regional. Sever Years War (Britain VS France). France joined North America to fight the British to help them seek independence.
Britain launched a series of additional taxes in North America without warning. French Monarchy also sought new revenue adding taxes.

Comparing Atlantic Revolutions

The struggle was launched with the Declaration of Independence in 1776, resulted in a military victory in 1781, and generated the Federal Constitution in 1787. Joining 13 formerly separate colonies into a new nation.
All free men enjoyed the same status before the law, a situation that excluded black slaves and in some ways white women.
The American Revolution did not grow out of social tensions within the colonies but rather a sudden effort by the British government to tighten its control over the colonies and to extract more revenue from them adding taxes.
British and France drained its treasury, therefore to continue in war with each other they implemented tariffs and taxes in their colonies without consent.

In desperate effort to raise taxes, Louis XVI called into session, the Estates General (consisted in 3 estates):

The 3rd estate (commoners) organized themselves as the National Assembly, claiming sole authority to make laws for the country. Drew upon the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.
Launched the French Revolution and radicalized many participants of the National Assembly.
French insurrection was driven by sharp conflicts within French society. – Rise of bread.
National Assembly ended all feudalism and slavery was abolished in France.
King Louis XVI and Marie Antoniette were executed.
Followed by Terror of 1793-1794 Maximilien Robespierre, accused of tyranny and dictatorship killed in the Guillotine

Nowhere did the example of the French Revolution echo more loudly than in the French Caribbean colony of Saint Domingue. (later Haiti)
A slave force of 500,000 made up a vast majority of the population. Whites numbered 40,000. gens de couleur libres 30,000 mixed background
French Revolution challenged the entire slave labor system. Slaves burned 1000 plantations and killed 100s of whites
Toussaint Louverture, a former slave, overcame internal resistance and defeated an attempt by Napoleon to re-establish French control.
A revolution unique in the Atlantic world socially had become the first.
Remained Haiti, meaning mountainous, and the original Taino language.

The final act in a half a century took place in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in Latin America. – shaped by receding events in North America, France, and Haiti
Spanish colonies Creoles were offended and insulted by the Spanish monarchy´s effort to exercise greater power over its colonies with heavier taxes.
Spanish colonies had been long governed in a rather more authoritarian fashion. Sharply divided by class.
Creole elites did not generate a revolution. In 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain and Portugal deposing the Spanish king Ferdinand VII and forcing the Portuguese elite to exile to Brazil
Latin American societies were so divided by class, race, and region. Contrast with North America was against the British not between themselves
Mexico moved toward independence in 1810 in a peasant insurrection, driven by hunger for land and high food prices
Led by two priests Miguel Hidalgo and Morelos.
Landowners with the support of the Church raised and army and crushed insurgency.
Later clergy and elites brought Mexico to a more socially controlled independence in 1821
The entire independence movement in Latin America took place under the shadow of great fear.

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