StudySpace: Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, 2 e.

The hundred years after 1750 marked a profound restructuring of world power. Political and economic changes in the Atlantic world impacted Asia and Africa as the power of Europe expanded.

Revolutionary Transformations and New Languages of Freedom

Dissatisfied with their exclusion from power and wealth, politically aware people began organizing in hopes that a new or reformed system would provide freedom to trade and representation in government. Initially unwilling to revolt, these reformers found powerful resistance among the aristocracy. Arguing for popular sovereignty and free trade, they denounced trade monopolies and aristocratic domination of politics. New identities and concepts of “nation” arose. The question of how much freedom and to whom, however, generally meant for white males only.

Political Reorderings

As Enlightenment ideals spread, certain groups in the colonies began seeking a new relationship with their respective motherlands. More sought involvement in politics and claimed to serve the interests of the “people.” Ideas like independence, freedom, and equality had power and prompted political revolts in the Americas and Europe. Since then revolution has been a powerful force.

THE NORTH AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE, 1776–1783

Competition over land between estate owners and small farmers pushed American colonists into the interior where they fell into conflict with Amerindian peoples. Aligning with the French, Amerindians battled the British, but lost their ally when France was defeated in the Seven Years’War. Seeking to make the colonies pay for the war against France, King George III moved to restrain American smuggling and raise taxes. War broke out, encouraging talk of independence from England and the writing of the Declaration of Independence.

As they fought, Americans began constructing a new government system. Elections produced delegates to represent the “people”—head-of-household landowners. Women and slaves participated in the war, believing they would be rewarded for their efforts with greater freedoms. Landed elites, however, convened the Constitutional Convention to prevent the revolution from falling into anarchy. There the new federal government was empowered and the power of the legislature was reduced to moderate the popular will. The Constitution and a Bill of Rights formed the basis for government.

New lands deflected the slave issue but the problem did not go away. For the moment, white elites maintained their privilege by suppressing black uprisings.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 1789–1799

Also inspired by Enlightenment ideas, the French Revolution had global impact. In France, peasant suffering and widespread hostility toward the court, aristocracy, and church raised tensions. Visions of an Enlightenment-based polity and France’s extraordinary fiscal problems opened the door for revolution. Sustaining huge debts in support of the American bid for independence, the French court convened the Estates-General in order to raise taxes. The Third Estate (wealthy commoners), however, condemned the nobles and clergy as parasites and formed the National Assembly—a body claiming to speak for the people of France.

After news spread of the storming of the Bastille, crowds attacked aristocratic manors and records of feudal dues with such ferocity that frightened aristocrats renounced their privileges. The “Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen” championed individual rights and the right of the people to representative government. Women were granted some rights, but not equal to men. As aristocracy fled the country, the Revolution splintered into factions with the more radical Jacobins eventually taking control. They executed the king and launched a Reign of Terror to rid France of counterrevolutionaries. Universal conscription made the Revolution’s armies the world’s largest and spread revolutionary ideas to other parts of Europe. The transformation of France into a revolutionary system led to new names, times, and even religion. With time, however, enthusiasm for the radicals heading the Revolution waned and was eclipsed by the rise of Napoleon. Napoleon’s reign marked a return to more moderate policies. The bloodletting ended. Catholicism returned. A new constitution and legal system were adopted.

NAPOLEON’S EMPIRE, 1799–1815

French expansion into neighboring states was accompanied by promises of liberty for those who supported the revolutionary armies. As French successes mounted, however, many so-called liberated peoples began to resist. Even as Napoleon sought to unify Europe, he awakened nationalism in people, such as the Germans, who had cause to notice it before. A world war developed as Napoleon struggled against all of Europe’s powers. Forced to retreat from Moscow, Napoleon was defeated at Paris and later Waterloo, and dreams of a French empire collapsed. At the Congress of Vienna, Europe’s old aristocratic interests moved to build a new order capable of meeting the revolutionary threat. Rejecting the option of a constitution, the Congress based itself on a system of mutual support and balancing power politics. The French monarchy was restored. While France seemed to have returned to its former self, German and Italian principalities began to unify, upsetting the Congress of Vienna’s balance of power.

REVOLUTIONS IN THE CARIBBEAN AND IBERIAN AMERICA

Revolution soon spread, spearheaded by people of color in the lowest classes. Andean Indians rose up against Cuzco. Such energy prompted colonial elites to support their respective crowns in Iberia until the Napoleonic wars severed those ties. Elites suppressed revolution among the lower classes. Only in Haiti did slaves succeed.

Revolution in Saint Domingue (Haiti) Following events in France, white settlers called for independence while slaves sought emancipation. Civil war ensued. Slaves fought French, British, and Spanish forces, and then Toussaint L’Ouverture’s forces destroyed Napoleon’s army, which was sent to restore slavery and order. Most revolutionary nations, like the new United States, refused to recognize Haiti.

Brazil and Constitutional Monarchy Avoiding Napoleon by fleeing to Brazil, the Portuguese royal family reformed Brazilian society and preempted calls for independence, since Brazil was now the center of their empire. When the king left and Brazilian elites threatened to overthrow the crown, however, the prince declared Brazil independent. Brazil’s elites conspired to keep the lower orders in their place, preserving stability and crushing any movement that arose to challenge them.

Mexico’s Independence With the Spanish king under Napoleon’s control, Spanish America had to govern itself, developing autonomy in the process. When the crown again sought to assert control over the colonies, they resisted and pursued independence on the model of Enlightenment ideals as seen elsewhere. Royal troops kept the peace until a popular movement based on peasants threatened creoles and royalists alike. When Spanish control in Spain declined, the army sided with the creoles, and Mexican independence was declared.

Other South American Revolutions Despite commitment to Enlightenment ideals and rule by reason, the revolution led by Bolívar in Venezuela and San Martín in Argentina became bloody affairs. Revolution martialized the lower classes, which sought liberation from oppression of the elite landed classes. As class conflict broke out, civil war ensued, and the region broke into segments. Ideas of unity gave way to the realities of local need and interest. Bolívar’s hope for a unified confederation fell apart. Ultimately, regional military chieftains emerged as the real victors.

Change and Trade in Africa

Revolution also visited Africa, but primarily as a result of rising wealth and the demise of the slave trade, rather than Enlightenment views.

ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE

In the late eighteenth century, abolitionists condemned slave trading as immoral and organized themselves to ensure its end. One by one, European powers banned the trade. Britain then sent naval forces to enforce the ban off the coast of West Africa and to pressure the Brazilians to cease importing slaves. Some illegal slaving continued, but slave ships were harassed by British squadrons. Rescued Africans were repatriated to Sierre Leone or Liberia.

NEW TRADE WITH AFRICA

European traders then turned their interests to Africa’s natural resources and agricultural products, like vegetable oils. European interest came partly in the hope that trade would stimulate Africa’s economy and better enable Africans to afford European manufactures. Plantations did not impact the environment as heavily as in the Caribbean, but eventually did lead to desertification when forests were felled. In some cases, African merchants became extremely wealthy and produced a body of educated and wealthy elites able to engage in politics. Others, more closely aligned to the old slaving networks, found their income compromised, and either adapted or fell apart.

The rise of plantations in Africa, however, did not mean the collapse of slavery as an institution. Slaves were now owned by Africans, who employed their labor on agricultural plantations owned by Arabs or Swahili big men. Slaves were also used in military forces to the point that in some areas slaves comprised half of the total population.

Economic Reordering

Changes in the Atlantic world opened the way for the Industrial Revolution, shattered the old mercantilist system, and made Western Europe and North America the wealthiest and most powerful of world powers.

BRITAIN’S ECONOMIC LEADERSHIP

Coal, iron, new technologies, capital, internal markets, water transportation, and labor all contributed to Britain’s industrial development. Improvements in agriculture allowed it to feed more people and thus sustain larger cities, swelling with the surplus of a rising population. Peasants, cut off from the land, became laborers in the workshops of the cities, which turned raw materials from the colonies into manufactured goods. This economic change transformed the way people lived.

TRADING AND FINANCING

Ingredients or services from all parts of the globe drew together to form new products, such as tea and soap. The scale was such that even the poorer classes could afford imported goods. Merchants garnered immense fortunes, while lawyers, insurance agents, and financiers profited handsomely. Those enriched by commerce became the bourgeoisie. Eager to expand their influence, the bourgeoisie established ties with each other and began competing with the aristocratic class. Most bourgeoisie arose from the ranks of commoners, some becoming extremely powerful, like the Rothschilds. As world trade led to greater integration of the world economy, these leaders sought to streamline economic relations and open trade in order to provide better opportunities. Political power and laws became the means to push for free trade, particularly when foreign countries employed protectionist policies or used high tariffs to protect their farmers or other interests. The Americas initiated a drive to establish free trade relations with Europe: Latin America abolished protectionist tariffs, and the United States opened trade as well, but stopped somewhat short by refusing to allow cheap British goods to compete with locally produced goods. Europe, especially Britain, enjoyed inexpensive food items and raw materials as open markets and free trade became a guiding principle.

MANUFACTURING

As technical know-how developed among small operations in the countryside and then spread, it snowballed. Inventors, like James Watt who improved the steam engine, linked up with industrialists, thus combining thinking and producing. Improvements in steam engines and iron production, which opened the way for railways, steam-driven ships, and iron bridges, greatly cut distances. Textile production replaced home handicrafts and improved the quality and quantity of cloth. The cotton gin accelerated production of raw cotton, providing British looms with enough cheap cotton that the prices of shirts dropped considerably. By the middle of the nineteenth century, industrialization had spread to other northern European countries, but these still lagged far behind the British. There, agriculture still dominated.

WORKING AND LIVING

Industrialization meant that factory laborers as well as farmers and slaves worked harder. It also stimulated urbanization and great, but unhealthy, cities emerged, especially in England. Parents and children contributed wages to the family. Most jobs meant long hours for all, including women and children. New commitments to time schedules and rigid work disciplines emerged. Labor often produced poor wages and numbing drudgery. Unemployment, however, was worse, and the unemployed were forced to work in workhouses under terrible conditions. Industrialization, while increasing production, also destroyed age-old handicraft industries and abused a new class of laborers, giving rise to social problems and new legislation. In short, life had changed.

Persistence and Change in Afro-Eurasia

Economic reordering and revolution in the Atlantic world stimulated the old systems of Russia, China, and the Ottoman Empire to strengthen but not remake themselves. Changes in all three allowed them to survive into the twentieth century, but also taught that the world ran on a different set of principles that could not be ignored.

REVAMPING THE RUSSIAN MONARCHY

Defeating Napoleon allowed the tsar of Russia to glorify himself and those who fought in the war, but it also spread new ideas that sorely undercut the tsar’s absolutist system. When he died in 1825, army officers from elite families seeking change supported Constantine in the hope of getting a constitution for Russia. When Constantine supported Nicholas as heir, the reform-minded Decembrists were crushed. Grappling with new ideas of popular sovereignty and constitutions spilling over from other countries, the tsar justified his position by proclaiming himself the historical embodiment of the nation while adding healthy doses of suppression. Secret police, however, could not work alone and were aided by a new conservative ideology that sought to romanticize the Russian heritage and thereby to legitimize the tsar’s position. Reform went nowhere.

REFORMING EGYPT AND THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

Napoleon brought successes and ideas that challenged Ottoman rulers beyond even economic changes already affecting their empire. Reformist calls became commonplace. In Egypt, Muhammad Ali quickly adopted European modernizing institutions and systems. He built a modern army using French advisers and officers, reformed education and medicine, and improved agriculture. His reforms, however, pressured locals caught up in the faster pace of modernization and engendered local resistance. Military successes caught the eye of concerned Ottoman and British leaders who forced Ali to reduce his forces.

Worried about Egyptian and European strength and angered at the weakness of his own forces, Sultan Selim III moved to build a New Order military force, but it and his power were crushed in a coup headed by janissary and ulama interests. Military and religious interests thus blocked reform at the top until Mahmud II used clerical and popular support to crush the janissaries and institute sweeping changes. Unfortunately for Mahmud, the reforms stopped short of transforming agriculture, financing, or the Ottomans’ old administration. By the nineteenth century, the Ottomans had even lost control of international trade to Europeans.

COLONIAL REORDERING IN INDIA

Unlike the economy of North America, India’s economy fell increasingly under the control of the British, specifically the English East India Company. What started as a strictly commercial interest, soon began to involve politics when British troops took Delhi. Seizing taxation rights and annexing great portions of India, British control expanded to exceed even that of the Mughals. Hindu and Muslim princes became administrators overseeing the job of running the country along with the Company’s own centralized bureaucracy. To maintain its privileged position, the Company kept its own army. British influence increased. Orientalist scholars studied India’s past, languages, religions, and peoples, allowing the Company to present itself as a supporter of Hindu culture. The Company land-tax system greatly increased Company revenues while also stripping land from those unable to pay. Urbanization rose. Colonial cities, geared toward trade, began to supplant those that had once dominated India from the interior. Eager to share Company success, other British interests complained about the Company’s monopolization of Indian wealth and production. After the Company’s abolition in 1813, India began to be viewed more and more as a market for British textiles, thus destroying India’s own budding industrialization and reversing its balance of trade. Accompanying this was a shift in attitude about India in general. To justify further British control, James and John Stuart Mill attacked India’s cultural traditions, claiming that only autocratic government could work in India. Missionaries condemned Hindu and Muslim social practices. British administrators applauded British cultural superiority. All moved to create a class of Indians with British education and tastes. Many Indians rankled under British rule, which restricted their activities and opportunities. Nevertheless, British authority expanded.

PERSISTENCE OF THE QING EMPIRE

Enjoying continued prosperity and expansion, the Qing remained disinterested in revolutionary changes taking place elsewhere.

Expansion of the Empire The Qing enjoyed a powerful military, which extended China’s boundaries, and the fruits of New World crops, which helped stimulate agricultural production. Commercialization spread as the population rose. Peasant handicrafts industries spread.

Problems of the Empire Population growth, however, began to pinch resources even as the Qing court moved slowly to deal with changes. The tax system remained vulnerable to abuse and corruption. Rebellions arose. Despite problems, China continued as a strong and dominant power so long as Chinese goods continued to be extremely popular in Europe.

The Opium War and the “Opening” of China Opium, however, changed everything. In greater and greater numbers, Chinese accustomed to tobacco began to use opium brought by Europeans. Although the Qing court banned the drug, usage spread. Seeking to trade opium for tea, the East India Company induced Indian peasants to raise opium, which could then be shipped to China. Enormous quantities of opium made their way to China, swelled by the number of merchants involved. By the 1820s, the value of opium coming into China exceeded the value of goods exported out. Thus, the Chinese had to pay silver in addition to their goods to get opium. Silver shortages began to hurt peasants. To stop the trade, the Qing emperor sent a special commissioner, Lin Zexu, who froze all legitimate trade in Canton until foreign merchants handed over their opium stores. The opium traders eventually complied, giving Lin a short-lived victory. In 1840, however, British naval ships attacked and subdued Qing forces. The resulting Treaty of Nanjing gave Hong Kong to Britain and broke up China’s restrictions on foreign trade by opening new treaty ports. It also exempted foreigners from Chinese law and gave Britain any privileges that any other European nation might gain in the future. Although China remained under the emperor’s rule, foreign influence began to spread into the coastal areas and the cities.

 

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