UNIT 2.

The Age of
Revolution
History. ESO IV
1. The American Revolution
The origins of the independence

In 18th century England ruled over a territory called the Thirteen Colonies in North America.
Its economy was based on tobacco farming, and black slaves worked in plantations.

Settlers didn’t pay some taxes to London because they were not represented in the
Parliament. Furthermore, trade was a monopoly controlled by English companies.

In 1773, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act, which gave the English East India
Company a monopoly on the sale of tea in the colonies. Settlers attacked British ships, and
this event is known as the Boston Tea Party.
The American Revolutionay War

On 4th July 1776, the representatives of the Thirteen Colonies met in

Philadelphia, where they signed the Declaration of Independence of the United
States of America.

After seven years of war (1776-1783), when Americans were supported by

France and Spain, Great Britain recognised the independence of the Thirteen
Colonies, now the United States of America. In 1787, the new state had its
Constitution, which was the first in the world with separation of powers.

In 1789, George Washington became the first president of the United States.
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2. The outbreak of French
Revolution (1789-1792)
The rise of the Third Estate

France was suffering from an economic crisis, in which the State couldn’t pay the
international loans. So Louis XVI’s ministers proposed several financial reforms that were
refused by nobility and clergy.

The king called the Estates-General, and assembly that represented the three estates, in
1789. People from the three estates presented their problems in a document called Lists of
Grievances. As nobility and clergy refused to pay taxes, people from the Third Estate took
the Tennis Court Oath (juramento) to stay together until France had a constitution. Then
they became known as the National Constituent Assembly.

However, the people from Paris attacked the prison of Bastille on the 14th July 1789, and
the National Constituent Assembly introduced several measures.

This was the beginning of the French Revolution.

The Constituent Assembly (1789-1791)
The main measures taken by the Constituent Assembly were the following:

● It abolished feudal rights, such as the privileges of the nobility and the tithe for the
Church.
● It published the Declaration of the Righst of Man and of the Citizen, which supported
personal liberty, equality before the law and the right of property.
● The first Constitution with separation of powers: legislative held by the Assembly,
executive by the monarch and the judicial power by independent judicial courts. This
ended with absolutism and began the constitutional monarchy. It held census
suffrage.
Legislative Assembly (1791-1792)

● All of these measures gained a fierce opposition from the nobility and the clergy, as
they had lost their privileges. Many members of these estates emigrated and
conspired against France from abroad. The monarch was suspicious from conspiracy
too.
● On the other hand, other groups believed that the measures had to move forward,
and were supported by the so called sans-culottes.

Many European monarchies felt threatened by the revolutionary ideas, so in 1792, Austria
and Prussia declared war on France. In this moment, people took the royal family as
prisoners.
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3. The First French Republic
(1792-1799)
The Girondin National Convention (1792-1793)
An Assembly elected by male adults abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the first
Republic in France. The political party which ruled France during this first year was the
Girondin party, which represented the interests of wealthy bourgeoisie.

This government condemned Louis XVI for treason, the monarch was executed with a new
instrument, called guillotine. This event made that another European countries wanted to
declare war on France.

However, France was in crisis, so the government fell down and another party took the
power, the Jacobin.
The Jacobin National Convention (1793-1794)

A new Constitution was signed in 1793, but the Jacobin leader, Maximilien
Robespierre, assumed all of the powers and the Republic became, actually, a
dictatorship. Under his administration, every person who was suspicious of not
supporting the revolution was condemned and executed. This is why this period is
also known as the Reign of Terror.

On the other hand, Robespierre tried to ease the economic crisis by establishing
maximum prices for basic items and guaranteeing basic education. However, this was
not enough, and Robespierre was arrested in 1794 by moderate revolutionaries.
The Directory (1795-1799)

Following the execution of Robespierre, a new Constitution (1795) established

census suffrage based on property ownership. A moderate government was led by a
five-member Directory, while legislative power was held by two chambers or houses.

The new government had to face several challenges, inside and outside the country. In
Europe, the general Napoleon Bonaparte won a series of victories against its enemies,
and conquered several territories.

In November 1799, Napoleon carried out a coup d’état (golpe de Estado). A Consulate
was created, in which the power was supposed to be shared between three consuls.
In fact, Napoleon was the real ruler in France.
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4. Europe under Napoleon
Napoleon crossing the
Alps. Portrait by
Jacques-Louis David.
Reforms under Napoleon

Napoleon became First Consul in 1799, and a new Constitution (Carta Otorgada)
gave him powers as a dictator, because in 1802 he became Consul for Life (Cónsul
vitalicio). The most important features of his government were these two:

● Napoleonic Code: it was a legal code that prohibited privileges, allowed

freedom of religion and simplified the range of laws.
● Concordat of 1801: it was an agreement with Catholic Church in which State
controlled the Church, but clergy was allowed to resume religious worship.
The Napoleonic Empire

Napoleon was crowned as Emperor in 1804, and this was the beginning of his expansionist
policy. However, this led France to a permanent war state with other countries.

Firstly, Napoleon was defeated by British in the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), but he
conquered many parts of the continent in few years. His most important victories were in
Austerlitz (1805, against Austrians) and Jena (1806, against Prussians).

He tried a Continental Blockade against Great Britain in order to stop British trade. As
Portugal refused to apply this blockade, Napoleon tried to invade Portugal, but he
conquered Spain at the same time, not Portugal. This was the beginning of the Spanish
Independence War (1808-1814), which ended with a Napoleonic defeat.

At the same time, Napoleon tried to invade Russia, but this was the most important loss for
him. Finally, in 1813 a international coalition defeated the Emperor in Leipzig. Napoleon
abdicated in 1814 and went to exile, but a year later he returned to power for one hundred
days. The final battle was in Waterloo (1815), and after this, he was deported to Saint
Helena, where he died in 1821.
5. The Restoration and the liberal
revolutions
The Restoration and the Congress of Vienna

When Napoleon was defeated, the great European powers met at the Congress of
Vienna (1814-1815) in order to create a new Conservative Order (or Restoration).
The main aim was to come back to monarchy and the tradition broken by revolution.
On the other hand, the Austrian Foreign Minister, Metternich, played a leading role in
guaranteeing a lasting peace and avoiding new revolutionary waves by these
features:

● France returned to the frontiers before the Revolution.

● They created the Kingdom of the Netherlands, including Belgium, to make a
protective barrier around France.
● Austria, Prussia and Russia gained territories lost with Napoleon.
● European powers created international alliances to protect themselves against
future revolutionary waves.
Liberalism and nationalism

Liberalism: it is a political movement which defends freedom as the main natural right for a
human being. Freedom is understood as the possibility of choosing your political option, to
express your opinions, but also the chance of create your own business without the
permission of the state. This movement was innovative because it ended with absolutism,
but also with the influence of guilds and the monopoly.

Nationalism: it is a political movement which defends that any people have the right to
organise itself as a state, based on common language, history and folklore. This people is
known as a nation. However, there are two types of nationalism:

- Divisive: when a nation want to separate itself from another country. It was the case
of Greece from the Ottoman Empire.
- Unifying: when you want to unify different territories with the same culture in one
state.
The revolutions of 1820 and 1830

● Spain (1820): a military uprising forced Fernando VII to accept the

liberal Constitution of 1812, but three years later the Holy Alliance
invaded Spain and restored absolutism.
● Greece revolted successfully against the Ottoman Empire in 1821 and
gained its independence after the war in 1829.
● France (1830): it deposed the absolute monarch Charles X and replace
by Louis Philippe of Orleans, a liberal one.
● Belgium gained independence from the Netherlands in 1831.
● Poland made an uprising against the Russian Empire, but was severely
repressed.
The revolutions of 1848

Whereas the revolutionary waves of 1820 and 1830 were mainly liberal, in 1848 the
uprisings adopted nationalism as its main reason. Furthermore, people mixed liberal
and nationalist ideas with social demands for workers.

In France, the monarchy was deposed due to its corruption, and they declared the
Second French Republic. Three years later, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, the nephew of
the former Emperor, won the election, but soon later he led a coup dètat and declared
the Second French Empire.

The other scene was the Austrian Empire, where there was several nations
demanding more autonomy. All of these revolutions failed, but it was the beginning of
the independence of several territories in 20th century.
6. The unifications of Italy and
Germany
Italy

In the early 19th century, the Italian peninsula was divided into several states, some of
which were under foreign control (Austria). But Italians shared a common language and
history (Roman Empire), and that was the reason of its sense of unity.
The driving force was the Kingdom of Piedmont, with its king Vittorio Emanuele II and his
prime minister, the count of Cavour. On the other hand, we find a revolutionary leader,
Giuseppe Garibaldi, who wanted an Italian state with more social rights.
The stages of the unification were the following:
● 1859: Cavour allied with French and they gained the region of Lombardy from Austria
after the Austrian defeat.
● 1860-1861: Garibaldi took Naples and Sicily. Vittorio Emanuele became King of Italy
in the first Italian parliament.
● 1866: Italia helped Prussia against Austria, and it received Venice.
● 1870: Piedmont occupied Rome, which became the capital of Italy. This led to several
conflicts with Catholic Church, because the Papal States disappeared.
Cavour Vittorio Emanuele II Giuseppe Garibaldi
Germany

In the early 19th century, German territory was divided into 39 independent states included
in an association called the German Confederation. The two dominant powers were Austria
and Prussia. In 1834, Prussia organised a customs union of German-speaking states, which
didn’t include Austria.
The driving force was Prussia, with its king Wilhelm I and his prime minister Otto von
Bismarck.
The stages of German unification were the following:
● 1864: Prussia annexed Danish territories with German population.
● 1866: Prussia defeated Austria and formed North German Confederation.
● 1870-1871: Prussia defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War. The French Emperor
surrendered, and Germany gained Alsace and Lorraine.
In 1871 the Second Reich was proclaimed, and Wilhelm I was crowned Kaiser (Emperor).