Atlantic Revolutions, Global Echoes (Week VI)

Atlantic Revolution in a Global Context

• Atlantic Revolutions in North America, France Haiti, and Latin America
• Distinctive in that they were closely connected to one another 
• American, Thomas Jefferson, was the U.S. ambassador to France on the eve of the French Revolution
• Simon Bolivar, Spanish American, twice visited Haiti
• New ideas of liberty, equality, free trade, religious tolerance, republicanism, and human rationality where in the air
• Popular sovereignty - authority to govern derived from the people rather than from God or from established tradition

The North American Revolution, 1775-1787

• A struggle for independence from British rule
• Less poverty, more economic opportunity, fewer soul differences, and easier relationships among the classes than in Europe
• Ideas of enlightenment - Popular sovereignty, natural rights, the content of the governed 
• Went to war, by 1781 they had prevailed with aid from the French 
• Revolution accelerated the established democratic tendencies of the colonial societies

The French Revolution, 1789-1815

• Awakened by the American revolution 
• Declaration of the Right of Man and Citizen launched the French Revolution 
• Revolution driven by sharp conflicts within French society 
• "men are born and remain free and equal in rights"
• Women unlike in the Americas were involved and raised question for female political equality

Haitian Revolution, 1791-1804

• French Revolution lit several fuses and see win motion a spiral of violence 
• A war between social classes
• The only completely successful slave revolt in world history 
• First non-European state to emerge from Western colonialism 

Spanish American Revolution, 1810-1825

• Shaped by North America, French, and Haiti Revolutions as well as by their own distinctive societies
• Divided by class, race, and region
• Napoleon invaded Spain and Portugal
• Latin Americans were forced to take action .. independence for the various states of Latin America

 The Abolition of Slavery 1780-1790

• Enlightenment thinkers thought critical of slavery as violation of natural rights
• Slavery was not essential for economic progress
• Haitian Revolution led to rebellions, demonstrated that slaves weren't content
• Abolition movement-pamphlets, numerous petitions, lawsuits, boycotts of slave sugar
• Britain was the first to free slaves.. Patrolled slave water for illegal slave ships

Nations and Nationalism

• Novel form of political loyalty
• Single language used around the nation to make the 'citizens' feel like 'citizens'
• An aid to individual aspirations toward wider involvement in political life 
• Usually had to do with conforming people to: a religion, culture, or way of living

Feminist Beginnings

• Europe and North America 
• French Rev. raised the possibility for re-creating human society on foundations of the sexes
• National American Woman Suffrage Association claimed about 2 million members
• In China, modernists believed that education and a higher status for women strengthened the nation

Foundresses Week (Week V)

Foundresses week consisted of learning about many little known facts about Notre Dame de Namur through a campus tour led by one of NDNU's sisters. As a class we went through the campus analyzing a couple of buildings that have some significance in them. We started off at the chapel where one of the sisters explained to us the glass stained windows. What really caught my attention was that each held an important testimony of the bible. Not only that but the position of each window had a meaning. After the chapel we went to the SJ building where I learned many incredible facts about not only what the building had to offer but how the university came to be. I learned that SJ's lounge held three crests, one of which was the universities emblem. I learned that the univeristy first started in San Jose were it was an all girls campus. The most interesting fact that I learned that day in SJ was the adversity that two sisters had to go through to get here, the bay. After SJ we went down to the mansion where we learned the conditions of the university when it was purchased. We heard Ralston's story of how he became this wealthy man through out the Gold Rush and how he passed in a unfortunate set of events. Our campus tour ended with a statue next to what used to be Ralston's horse stable. A place hidden significantly from plain sight. I say this because of all the times I've gone down by the building and have never noticed it. The tour was no longer than the class period but it did its job in acknowledging our campus and its past history.