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.

Cultural Transformation, Religion & Science (Ch. 15 / Week IV)

A New Way of Thinking: The Birth of Modern Science

• The Question of Origins: Why Europe? 
• Reinvigorated & fragmented civilization 
• Universities became more independent from religion 
• Science as Cultural Institution
• Nicolaus Copernicus, "at the middle off all things lies the sun."
• Giordano Bruno, proclaimed an infinite universe and many worlds
• Enormous cultural transformation were almost entirely men
• Science and Enlightenment 
• Belief in the power of knowledge to transform human society
• Women argued for the rights between sexes
• Too much reliance on human reason
• Looking Ahead: Science in the Nineteenth Century
• Enlightenment was challenged not only by romanticism and religion but by European science itself 
• Darwins idea of evolution were as Shattering than Copernicus's idea of sun-centered universe
• European Science beyond the West 
• The telescope was widely spread around the globe after the discoveries of the moons texture and various other planets
• Chinese Scientist adopted European mathematics 
• Ban on importing Western books were lifted and Japanese scholars started to translate medicine, astronomy, geography, and mathematics

Progress and Enlightenment 15.2

Marquis De Condorcet 

Sketch of the Progress of the Human Mind

Marquis De Condorcet in, Sketch of the Progress of the Human Mind, expresses that humanity has finally gained its reasoning and ability to proclaim every opinion to reason. He goes on to talk about three important points for the future: the destruction of inequality among nations, the progress of equality within nations themselves, and the real improvement of humanity. He claims that a day will come were the sun will shine only on free men born knowing no other master then their own reason. Human creation based own scientific theories will bring forward new tools and machines that will change the capabilities of mankind forever. An individual will work less time but more productively. In so boldly acknowledging the future with science theories, Condorcet believes that less waste and less raw materials will be wasted. Written in 1793-1794, Condorcet predicted something that up until the 21st century mankind has not yet figured out a way to waste less raw materials. 

Politcal & Economic Transformations (Ch. 13 & 14 / Week II)

Chapter 13 delt with political transformations, empires and encounters, in a premature America. European empires in America had a strong advantage compared to their competitors. Their geographical position in the atlantic ocean gave them strong air currents towards America. Apart from having effective mobilization and material resources, Europeans brought with them diseases and  germs which wiped out approximately 90% of the native american race. This biological wipeout is known as "the Great Dying" which included disease like small pox, measles, typhus, influenza, malaria, & yellow fever. This event gave way to labor shortages which created the Columbian Exchange. Columbia exchange brought immigrant newcomers and enslaved Africans. Among them were plants and animals. The food crops that were cropped changed populations in Europe, China, and Africa.

There were various colonies in the Americas at the time. There was the Aztecs and Incas which was dominated by Spanish settlers who promoted commercial agriculture and silver & gold mining. Spanish males in this colony would intact recreate with natives and form what they called mestizos which were declared middle class after pure spaniards. Then there were colonies of sugar which were in Brazil and Caribbean. Brazil was controlled by Portuguese forces and the Caribbean was controlled by the French. The value in sugar was in high demand in Europe where it would be used as medicine, spices, and sweetener. Due to sugar production being so dangerous the controlling forces looked at the atlantic slave trade for their workforce. Approximatly 80% of slaves ended in Brazil or the Caribbean. Settler colonies in North America (New England, New York, Pennsylvania) were under British control. North American Colonies were said to be pure colonies because they didn't really need slaves. Independent farmers worked their land therefore they were actual settlers. The Settler Colonies focused more soft-gold, fur, unlike the South and Brazil/Caribbean. 

Chapter 14 felt with economic transformations, commerce and consequences, in a premature America. The beginning of the chapter talked about European & Asian commerce. The European & Asian network of commerce stretched from East Asia to China. The Portuguese Empire of Commerce formed a Trading Port Empire which was basically piracy. They controlled more of half the spice trade to Europe because of their advanced naval capacity. The East India Companies (Dutch, & British East India Company) were military and economically strong. The Dutch Inda Company monopolized nutmeg, mace, & cloves through bloodshed and slavery. The British India Company Established 3 major trading settlements in Bombay, Calcutta and India's West Coast.