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16th to 19th Centuries:
War and Revolution in Europe and America
Time Line of Art History: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In his famous book, "Organism," Abraham Maslow originated the idea of self-actualization within a hierarchial structure of physilogical and psychological needs. Within this structure are what Maslow calls "esteem needs." From the very beginning of time historians have made manifest evidence of man's expression of "esteem needs." Over 30,000 years ago in Chauvet France the discovery of dynamic, vibrant paintings of animals drawn on limestone cave walls stand as a testament to man's need to express his world through art.
Beauty is truth, truth beauty,
That is all ye know on earth and
All ye need to know.
-------- John Keats (1819) "Ode on a Grecian Urn"
Take the time to see the truth, to see the beauty that man has created across time and space. "Click away!"
The United States, 1600-1800 C.E.
Time Line Index:
The Timeline Index : People, Periods, Places and Events in a chronological context.
The French Revolution 1789-1794
Historical Maps:
Eighteenth Century West-Central Europe
Central and Eastern Europe, 1740
Russia Expands to the Black Sea, 1725-95
The French Revolution, to 1794
Readings: Washington State University-World Cultures from 1500
French Revolution:
The revolution in France has captivated the imaginations of historians since it exploded the European landscape two hundred years ago. There are few if any events in European history that are regarded as fundamental to the character of the European world as the giddy, frightening, farcical, and overwhelmingly tragic events during and after the French Revolution. It may be that the event has been grossly overestimated. It was, after all, a complete failure; it ended the monarchy in France, but it ended in a different monarchy so repugnant and violent that the sloppy laziness of the eighteenth century monarchy simply palled in relation to the calculated violence of the years of Napolean's emperorship. The ideas of the revolution were not new; in fact, the revolution itself was simply a gathering point, a boiling pot in which ideas of the Enlightenment and the philosophes erupted into a single action.
The Crisis of the French Monarchy
The latter half of the eighteenth century saw fundamental challenges to the absolutist monarchy that had been built in France in the seventeenth century. Louis XIV and his advisors had attempted to centralize the monarch's authority by both limiting the power of regional aristocrats and parlements and by establishing a civil bureaucracy loyal to the king. The foundation of that bureaucracy was the intendant system, in which individual regions came under the control of a single intendant who oversaw, for the most part, the administration of that region. The intendants were largely selected from persons not of the aristorcracy and, ideally, were put in charge of regions where they didn't live in the first place. This would make sure that they would be more dedicated to the monarch than to their own or the local aristocracy's interests.
History has not been kind to Louis XVI; in fact, history is rarely kind to the losers. He is painted as vain, unintelligent, and ineffectual, so clueless that on the day the Bastille was seized by revolutionaries, he wrote in his diary, "Rien," "Nothing happened." It's difficult, however, to really assign any blame. The Revolution itself was an extraordinarly complicated affair; it was principally lit by the antagonisms between the first two and the Third Estate, antagonisms rooted in decades of abuse and frustration. It is certain that Louis XVI failed to maintain the centralization of power; all the forces in France were conspiring to fragment power away from the monarchy.
When Louis summoned the Estates General in 1788, he faced a difficult and insurmountable problem: the Third Estate. The last time the Estates General had been called was in 1614; the Estates General was set up in such a way that each Estate got the same number of members. In effect, this meant that the First and Second Estates, comprised almost unanimously of the nobility, could always outvote the Third Estate. Since 1614, the economic power of the Third Estate had increased dramatically; in 1788, the popular call was to double the number of representatives from the Third Estate so that they'd have equal voting power in comparison with the other two estates.
From its beginning, the revolution was not universally accepted in France or in Europe in general. There were throughout France many who disagreed with the innovations of the Revolution—some were aristocrats whose privileges were threatened, but others were intellectuals and common people who supported the monarchy. A number of Europeans declared the revolution to be the future of Europe, and revolutionary talk became the rage among European intellectuals schooled in the thought of the philosophes . The bulk of Europeans, however, were repulsed by the revolution and sympathized with the plight of Louis XVI and his family. The most famous counter-revolutionary theoretical work was written by Edmund Burke in 1790: Reflections on the Revolution in France .
In the summer of 1792, disaffection with the Revolution was growing among the lower classes, especially the peasantry. The Revolution, after all, had been staged by the middle class and the wealthier members of the Third Estate; most of the reforms, especially the economic reforms, benefitted only these two groups. In many ways, life had become harder for the lower classes. Agricultural enclosure threw many peasants off their farms and into the arms of starvation; economic reforms had spurred tremendous growth in industries, but had also resulted in wildly fluctuating prices and rampant inflation. You might say that bread was the fuel that fired the Revolution, for just about every major turning point got its start in some civil unrest over the price of bread.
There are few individuals in history that have
captured the imagination of their contemporaries and of historians; perhaps
the most compelling of these figures is Napoleon Bonaparte. Both historians
and his contemporaries were and are a little too captivated by this figure;
world history and world civilizations like to linger over this man, often
at the price of dealing sufficiently with other aspects of world history.
It is perhaps best to step back a little and look at this figure with a little
less imagination and captivation; while his story is truy impressive, an overly
solicitous concern with the details of the history blind us to the real changes
he wrought and the way he, and his actions, transformed the European imagination.
I will, then, endeavor not to make the same mistake almost every world history
textbook makes and lose the forest for the trees. The brevity of this history,
I hope, will be made up for by presenting a balanced picture that doesn't
get washed out in details.
Video Presentations
The French Revolution:
In France the old order collapsed under revolutionaries' attacks and the monarchy's own weakness
Libery, equality, and fraternity skidded into a reign of terror
The very word 'Revolution' conjures up peasants storming the palace gates, Kings fleeing for their lives, a corrupt system of government crumbling, and a new form of fair order taking its place. What kind of revolution was this, then? It was one that greatly changed the "natural order" of Europe. The French Revolution was not just a revolt against the regime of the Bourbon Kings; it embodied an entire new way of viewing the world and human society. Although the Revolution failed to live up to its own rallying cry, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity", it spread these ideals far and wide. It has partially made our world what it is today.
To begin your exploration of the French Revolution, click the above link. We recommend you start at 'The Enlightenment.
Readings: Washington State University-World Cultures from 1500
The Idea of America:
The Protestant Idea of America
Along with the Spanish, the Portugese, and the French, the English saw the American continents as unrivalled opportunity for mercantile trade. The English, however, particularly concentrated on the agricultural resources of North America, particularly the trade in tobacco and cotton (which was also exported from India). Unlike the Spanish, French, and Portugese, however, English settlement of the Americas was not solely motivated by commercial concerns. The English who settled America, the English from whom we inherit our world view, settled often for reasons completely different from commercial reasons. While we like to think of these settlers as brave Christians fighting the wilderness in order to freely practice their religion, the religious motivations were slightly different. These early settlers weren't simply coming to America to escape persecution in England, they came to America because it represented an idea. The idea of America was ultimately derived from both Protestant theology and the Christian theories of the end of time.
Absolutely fundamental to the world view of the radical Protestants that settled America was millenarianism, as discussed in the previous section. Millenarianism is complex affair and dates back, as a world view and a set of mythologies, to Persian Zoroastrianism. In Zoroastrianism, the unverse was divided into two distinct and nearly equal halves: good and evil. At the end of time, a final battle would be joined by these conflicting forces and good would win out.
The millenarianism of the Protestant settlers of America had two other crucial aspects: the Ordeal and the final battle between good and evil. Protestant sects were and are bitterly divided over the sequence of events at the end of time, so the exact relationship between these two events and the millenium were not universally agreed on among the settlers of America. But for the most part, it seemed logical that both the Ordeal and the final battle would occur before the rule of saints, since the rule of saints implies that evil has somehow been contained.
The Americans, despite their religious background and relative autonomy (growing less by each passing year), were still intimately tied to the English nation. Developments in England, such as the Glorious Revolution, the new scientific methods, and the rise of Parliamentary government, made their way to the colonies as well. The American Enlightenment, which is generally dated from the Glorious Revolution of 1688, was, however, an uneven affair. In part, it involved the exporting of scientific, social, and political ideas from Britain, but also involved the exporting of radical and marginal ideas, such as the republicanism of the "commonwealthmen." In almost all cases, however, the American Enlightenment did not mean the abandonment of the radical Protestant ideas that originally inspired the settlement of America, but started a long process of secularizing these religious ideas. Millenarianism would be caught up in the ideology of republicanism and eventually produce secular ideas such as Manifest Destiny.
The American Revolution was the product of two theoretical questions that the British could not translate into policy. The first was how to collect revenue from the colonies in order to help pay for the military and administrative machine that, in large part, benefitted the colonies. The second was how to exercise Parliamentary control over the colonies while still allowing the colonies the self-rules that was clearly spelled out in each colony's charter. The failure to resolve these questions led to a pattern of legislation and reaction that eventually produced open rebellion: the British Parliament would legislate some tax or power over the colonies, the colonies would respond with reasonable arguments and incendiary pamphlets, and the British Parliament would back off, usually not without passing another tax or assuming another power of the colonies. No-one really won in these conflicts, but both American and British wore thin from the process.
Video Presentations
The American Revolution:
Liberty: The American Revolution Series
EPISODE 1: "The Reluctant Revolutionaries" 1763-1774
In 1763, the capitol city of America is London, George Washington is lobbying for a post in the British army, and no one thinks of Boston harbor when they hear talk of tea parties. In a dozen years, the colonies are on the brink of rebellion. What happens to bring this country so quickly near war with England?
EPISODE 2: "Blows Must Decide" 1774-1776
A total break from Great Britain remains hard for Americans to imagine, even after shots are fired at Lexington and Concord. Words push matters "Over the Edge" in 1776. Common Sense argues that it is the natural right of men to govern themselves. The Declaration of Independence declares this same idea a "self-evident" truth. For Americans, there is no looking back. There will be war with England
EPISODE 3: "The Times That Try Men's Souls" 1776-1777
Days after the Declaration of Independence is signed, a British force arrives in New York harbor. Washington and his troops are driven to New Jersey. With only a few days of enlistment left for many of his volunteers, a desperate Washington leads his army quietly across the Delaware River on the day after Christmas, 1776, to mount a surprise attack on a sleeping garrison in Trenton.
EPISODE 4: "Oh Fatal Ambition" 1777-1778
The "united" states remain in dire need of funds and military support. Congress dispatches Benjamin Franklin to France in hopes of creating an alliance which will provide both. Meanwhile, a British army marches down the Hudson River trying to cut off New England from the other colonies. The British are crushed by Americans at Saratoga. The French enter the conflict on the American side
EPISODE 5: "The World Turned Upside Down" 1778-1783
The British hope to exploit the issue of slavery and to enlist the support of loyalists in the south. They fail. After a series of brutal engagements, the British army heads for Virginia, only to be trapped by the miraculous convergence of Washington's army and the French fleet at Yorktown. The end of the war is at hand.
EPISODE 6: "Are We to Be a Nation? 1783-1788
Peace comes to the United States, but governing the world's newest republic is no simple task. Congress is ineffectual and individual states act like sovereign nations. By the time the Constitutional Convention convenes in 1787, many wonder if the country can survive. The long ratification process helps define what sort of nation the United States is to be—a process that continues to this day.
Slavery and the American Revolution-Part 1 & 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6
How Slavery United the Colonies & Sparked the American Revolution. The video covers Lord Mansfield's decision that released James Somerset from slavery in England and its repercussions in British Colonial America as the "13 original" colonies headed down a path toward revolution and independence
A new repubic, the compromise of radicals and conservatives, was founded on universal freedoms
Liberty! The American Revolution
LIBERTY! The American Revolution is a dramatic
documentary about the birth of the American Republic and the struggle of a
loosely connected group of states to become a nation. The George Foster Peabody
award-winning series brings the people, events and ideas of the revolution
to life through military reenactments and dramatic recreations performed by
a distinguished cast. Click on a topic to learn more.
Bridging World History: Annenburg Media
How do ideas change the world? This unit traces the impact of European Enlightenment ideals in the American and Haitian revolutions and in South America. It also examines the revitalization of Islam expressed in the Wahhabi movement as it spread from the Arabian peninsula to Africa and Asia.
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