CHAPTER 16 Atlantic Revolutions

Atlantic revolutions  (affected the world globally)
1. costly wars that put strains on European states were global rather than regional 
2. the revolutions were closely linked to one another 

Global impact:
1.abolitionism
2.suffrage 
3.constitutions
4.feminism 
5.nationalism
6.equality 

The North American Revolution (1775–1787)

• the American Revolution was conservative  
• differences of England and North American colonies:
• Britain made out to control colonies/get more revenue (1760s) 
• British North America was revolutionary for society already emerged, not for the revolution itself
• many Americans believed they were creating a new world order

The French Revolution (1789–1815)

• many French soldiers fought w/ American revolutionaries
• French government was bankrupt
• Estates General convened in (1789) 3rd estate representatives broke out/declared 
• themselves National Assembly
• unlike the American Revolution, the French were driven by social conflicts 
• Enlightenment ideas gave  language to make out grievances
• French Revolution: violent, farreaching, and radical
• efforts to create a wholly new society
• French Revolution influences spread through conquest

The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804)

• Saint Domingue-French Caribbean colony
• French Revolution sparked a spiral of violence 
• the result was a unique revolution (the only successful slave revolt in world history) 
• destructiveness of revolution led to poverty and unstable politics
• Haiti’s success generated great hope/fear

Spanish American Revolutions (1810–1825)

• Latin American inspired by earlier movements
• native-born elites (creoles) were offended at the Spanish 
• monarchy’s efforts to control them in the eighteenth century
• Latin American independence movements were limited at first
• Creole elites had revolution thrust upon them by events in Europe
• gaining independence took longer than in North America
• leaders of independence movements appealed to the lower classes in terms of nativism: all free people born in the Americas were Americanos
• women gained little from the independence struggle
• proved impossible to unite the various Spanish colonies, unlike the United States
• after Latin America gained independence relationship with North America was   gradually reversed