Download Age of Revolutions & Rebellions

Age of Revolutions &
Rebellions
SSWH 14
Absolutism
A type of government in which a ruler has
total power
 Monarchy
 Complete authority over all subjects
 Divine Right of Kings

Louis XIV
 France
 1643-1715
– From 1643-1661,
government was actually
led by his mother and
chief minister, Jules
Cardinal Mazarin (an
Italian financier).
 “Sun
King” – source of light for the
people
 “l’etat, cest moi” – I am the state
 Wanted strong monarchy because he
inherited a kingdom that was internally
divided, militarily exhausted, and nearly
bankrupt.
 left to his heirs the greatest power in
the Western world.
 Built
Versailles
–Demonstrate wealth, power & glory
of France
–Personal household of king
–Chief offices of the state (keep an
eye on work)
–Royal court where people came to
seek favor
 Policies
of Louis XIV
–Biggest Threat: high nobles and
royal princes.
–To combat this:
 removed them from royal council
 kept them busy with court life
 Freed them from taxation
 In return, nobles gave Louis absolute
power
 Policies
of Louis XIV continued
–Chose advisors from middle class
 Middle class felt included, so it kept
them from revolting
–Demanded that administrators
obeyed his commands
–Complete authority over church,
foreign policy, and taxes.
–Bribed local nobles and officials to
see his policies enforced.
 Policies
of Louis XIV continued…
–Persecuted Protestant Huguenots
–Maintained large standing army
–Aggressive in foreign affairs
 Made many enemies
 Legacy
of Louis XIV
–Culture flourished
–Financial ruin
 Smaller tax base & large expenses in
building & war
–Power hungry nobility with no
ability/ knowledge of how to rule.
–Unhappy middle class/peasant class
Tsar Peter the Great
Russia
 1689-1725
 Used Europe as model for Russia

– Russia was behind technologically &
economically
Sent people to learn new skills
 Forced nobility to dress, act like
Europeans
 Built new capital at St. Petersburg


Peter’s Policies
– Wanted to be a European power
 Expanded borders (all of eastern Asia, Alaska,
California)
– Created a central bureaucracy which he
tightly controlled
– Brought Eastern Orthodox Church under his
control
– Gave privileges to nobles in return for service
 Tax exemption
– Reorganized army and started a navy
– Demanded compliance with his laws and
orders
 Legacy
of Peter the Great
–Stronger foreign affairs because
Russia was in mainstream Europe
–Domestic problems
 Broke with traditional Eastern
Orthodox culture that was a unifier
between nobility & peasants
 Tax burden was on the peasants
 Atmosphere of fear
Tokugawa Ieyasu
Japan
 1598-1616
 Policies of Tokugawa Ieyasu
– Tokugawa family controlled all
government
– Council of Elders was the administrators
– Established the Metsuke

 Officials who kept watch for revolts
– Sankin-kotai (hostage system)

Policies of Tokugawa Ieyasu continued
– Loyalty to Shogun above loyalty to
family
– Duty & Honor – central values
– Strict social structure controlled by
shogun
– Inner discipline required to meet social
position
– Closed Japan to western influence
 Expelled Christians
 Limited trade to island off Nagasaki with
Dutch only

Legacy of Tokugawa Ieyasu
– Active trade policy in southeast Asia to help
treasury
– Ended Western influence
– Limited power of regional lords (daimyo)
 destroy all their castles except those where they
actually lived
– encouraged the warrior class to pursue
scholarly learning.
– adopted measures to secure the lords'
allegiance to the new government
 norms of conduct
 military retainers
Leading up to
the English Revolution

Charles I
– 1628 – petition that prohibited taxation
without Parliament’s consent.
 Charles began to reject it because it limited his
power.
– Charles began to impose more Catholic rituals
into Church of England
 Led to many religious refugees

Finally led to Civil War in 1642
Leading up to
the English Revolution

Parliament supporters won the civil war
thanks to military leadership of Oliver
Cromwell.
– Eventually Cromwell took over power
 Executed Charles I
 Disbanned Parliament
 Created military dictatorship

After Cromwell’s death (1658), Parliament
restarts, and king (Charles II) is put on
throne 1660.
English Revolution (1689)

Causes
– Absolutist James II (Catholic) took over throne
in 1685
 Did not allow free worship
– Parliament waiting for him to die so his
daughter, Mary (Protestant) could take over
since James had no son.
– 1688, James had a son.
– Parliament then united against James and
invited Mary & her husband William to take the
throne from James.
 James had no support, so he fled the country
– Called the Glorious Revolution (no blood shed)

Results
– William & Mary took over & promised to rule by
Parliament’s rule
– William & Mary agreed to Bill of Rights





King could not raise taxes
King could not maintain army without Parliament consent
Rule of Law
Freely elected Parliament
Guaranteed certain individual rights
– Trial by jury
– No cruel & unusual punishment
– Limited bail
– Act of Settlement (1701) – kept any Catholic from
becoming king/queen of England again
American Revolution (1776)

Causes
– French & Indian War
– Proclamation of 1763
– Enforcement of Navigation Acts of 1660
– Series of acts (Sugar, Quartering, Stamp,
Townshend, Tea, Intolerable)
– Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, 1st
Continental Congress

Results
– US gained independence from England
– Formed its own government based on
Enlightenment writings
– Inspired other countries to fight tyranny &
form governments similar to the US.
French Revolution (1789)

Causes
– Inequalities of class system
 1st estate – clergy
 2nd estate – aristocracy (nobles)
 3rd estate – commoners (peasants, skilled workers,
& bourgeoisie)
– Financial crisis
 Spent lots of money on wars and court expenses
 Called for an Estates-General (Parliament) to
address the needs

From Estates-General to National
Assembly
– All three estates were part of the EstatesGeneral and votes were one per estate
– 1st & 2nd estate could veto 3rd estate
– 3rd estate wanted 1 vote per representative
– King said no
– 3rd estate created National Assembly & wrote
a constitution.
While king was acting to stop the 3rd
estate, commoners stormed the Bastille in
Paris
 Royal troops abandoned Louis XVI, who
fled to Versailles
 Rebellions took place throughout France
rooted in the long-hated landholding
system.


Effects
– National Assembly became the legislature of
France
 Took away old feudal dues & taxation privileges.
 Declared all male citizens could hold office.
 Composed Declaration of the Right of Man and of
Citizen
– Used Enlightenment thought: Locke, Montesquieu,
Rousseau
– All men equal before law
– Freedom of speech, press, and religion

Effects
– 1791 – French adopted new Constitution
based on Declaration of Right
– Church became controlled by state
– Monarchy’s influenced declined
 Louis XVI was basically held prisoner in Paris.

French Revolution went into Radical stage
– Paris Commune (a group of political radicals)
took over Legislative Assembly & forced it to
hold a Convention to decide future of France
 Abolished the monarchy & beheaded Louis XVI
 Angered many French outside of Paris & royalty
throughout Europe.
– Established a Committee of Public Safety – to
protect France from “Foreign & Domestic
Threats”
Committee on Public Safety – 12 people
 Led to Reign of Terror

– Leader was Maximilien Robespierre
– Executing any who rebelled against the
radical National Convention
– Raised by decree a huge army of over 1
million to end threat of foreign invasion
 An army of the people, not an army of professional
soldiers
– Ended with the execution of Robespierre

After Reign of Terror, National Convention
reduced power of Committee of Public
Safety and created a new constitution in
1795
– New legislative assembly – 2 houses (Council
of 500 & Council of Elders)
– Directory (5 leaders chosen as executives to
rule France with Legislative Assembly)
– 1795-1799 - was corrupt & unhappy
– Ended by coup d'état & Napoleon Bonaparte
Haiti Revolution (1791)

Causes
– French colonized as a farming/plantation
economy
 Mistreated slaves
– Francois Toussaint-Louverture led slaves in a
revolt against owners.

It was an on-going revolt for 13 years.

Results
– 1802 – Napoleon sent troops to put down
revolt
– Louveture was imprisoned in France
– Yellow fever ravages French army
– Haiti gained control and won independence in
1804
Latin America Revolutions

Causes:
– Enlightenment thinking
– Countries of Latin America heard of the
successful revolutions in other countries:
(Britain, France, United States, Haiti)
– Gave them confidence to try to gain their own
independence and protect individual rights
too.

Results:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Bolivia (1809-1825) led by Bolivar & de Sucre
Argentina (1810-1817) led by San Martin
Chile (1810-1817) led by San Martin & O’Higgins
Colombia (1810-1819) led by Bolivar, de Sucre &
Santander
Mexico (1810-21) led by Hidalgo, Guerrero & Morelos
Paraguay (1811)
Venezuela (1810) led by Bolivar, de Sucre & Miranda
Peru (1821) led by Simon Bolivar & San Martin
Ecuador (1822) led by Simon Bolivar
Brazil (1822) led by Dom Pedro

Results
– Protected by United States in Monroe Doctrine
– Relied heavily on Europe economically
– Several unsuccessful attempts to unify the
whole region of Latin America
Napoleon Bonaparte

Rise to power
– At the French Revolution, the government in
power was the Legislative Assembly and the
Directory
 Unpopular & corrupt
– Napoleon had won fame & popularity as a
successful military leader
– 1799 – Napoleon returned to France because
he had heard of the problems internally
– Joined in a successful coup d'état against the
Directory
– Set up a new Constitution
 Republic with 3 consuls
– Napoleon became first consul quickly
– 1802 – Napoleon named himself Consul for
life and was approved by popular vote.
 Established a dictatorship
– Napoleonic Code – wrote based on
Enlightenment ideas, but state was above
individual
– Recognized
Catholicism as
majority religion in
France, but allowed
toleration
– Expanded the French
borders
 Used family members
to rule new territory
 Abolished Holy Roman
Empire & established
Confederation of the
Rhine

Defeat
– Attacked Russia because they betrayed him
by resuming trade with Great Britain
 Attacked in winter
 Met little resistance at first
 In Moscow, Russians attacked & Napoleon suffered
very high casualties.
– Other enemies of Napoleon saw this
weakness and took the opportunity to attack
too
– Surrendered in March 1814
 Louis XVIII was put back on throne
 Napoleon exiled to Elba
– Napoleon returned to France from exile in
March 1815 & recaptured power for 100 days.
– Defeated for good at the Battle of Waterloo
by armies of Prussia, Great Britain, and the
Netherlands in June of 1815
 Exiled again, this time to St. Helena where he died

Legacy
– Ended the revolution in France
– Spread the Enlightenment ideas throughout
Europe
 equality before law
 Religious toleration
 Advancement on merit
– Improved standards of government
 Reformed tax system
 Promoted education
 Improved agriculture & industry
– Gave the people a taste of freedom outside
absolute monarchy
– Consequences for Europe
 Congress of Vienna
– New borders in Europe
– Monarchies restored
China, Japan, & the West

Opium War
– Britain
 Was limited to trade with China in one port
 Had a negative balance of trade with China
 Britain wanted more ports & tried to negotiate for them &
China kept saying no.
– Britain began trading Opium, an addictive drug, which
greatly increased their trade profits
– China illegalized the sale & tried to blockade English
trade, starting the Opium War
– Result:
 British destroyed Chinese fleet
 Treaty of Nanjing (1842)
– opened new ports to English trade
 Each port had a British section where Europeans
lived & were not subject to Chinese laws
– Limited taxes on imported British goods
– Gave Britain the island of Hong Kong
 Beginning of Western influence in China.

Tai Ping Rebellion
– Peasant revolt in China
– Called for social reforms:
 Giving land to all peasants
 Women’s equality
– Europeans had to come help stop the
rebellion
– China had been too busy dealing with
Western issues to pay attention effectively at
home.

Commodore Perry
– From the USA
– Pushed western influence in Japan
– Required Japan to make concessions
(compromises) to allow trade and better
treatment of foreign sailors.
– Again the West is the aggressor, pushing
influence on the East