Deck 17: B: Atlantic Revolutions, Global Echoes 1750-1914

Question 1

How did new national identities both build upon older identities and take advantage of the weakening of traditional identities?

Answer 1

•Promoters of nationalist identities often presented their movements as a reawakening of older linguistic or cultural identities.In doing so,they drew on songs,dances,folktales,historical experiences,and collective memories of earlier cultures.
•Promoters of nationalist identities took advantage of an erosion of older identities and loyalties that was attributable to several developments,including the growing prominence of science,which weakened the hold of religion on some;the large-scale migration of populations to industrial cities or abroad,which diminished allegiance to local communities;and the growth of printing and the publishing industry,which contributed to a decline in the number and prominence of regional European languages and dialects.

Question 2

In what respects was the American Revolution democratic?

Answer 2

•Enlightenment ideas of popular sovereignty,natural rights,and the consent of the governed incorporated into the Declaration of Independence
•Property requirements for voting lowered,allowing more white men of modest means to be elected to state legislatures
•Justified the idea of the people's "right to revolution"
•U.S.Constitution and Bill of Rights gave political force to Enlightenment ideas

Question 3

How did Enlightenment ideas influence the Atlantic revolutions?

Answer 3

•Enlightenment ideas: Liberty,equality,free trade,religious tolerance,republicanism,human rationality,popular sovereignty,natural rights,the consent of the governed,and the social contract
•old ideas were challenged by Enlightenment ideas:
oDivine right of kings was replaced by popular sovereignty and the social contract.
oMonarchy was replaced by republic.
oState control of trade was replaced by free trade.
oAristocratic privilege was replaced by merit and equal opportunity.
oAuthority of a single church was challenged by increasing secularization,religious tolerance,and emphasis on reason.
oIdentity as subject of an empire was replaced by political citizenship.
•The Enlightenment notion that political and social arrangements could be improved by human action inspired revolutionaries to dismantle existing institutions that no longer worked and to create new ones better suited to the times.

Question 4

What were the various arguments made in support of women's rights?

Question 5

What were the driving forces behind the abolition of slavery?

Question 6

Among the Atlantic revolutions,why is the French Revolution considered to be more radical than the American Revolution?

Question 7

What obstacles prevented the leaders of independence movements in Latin America from uniting the Spanish colonies?

Question 8

How did class and racial differences shape the revolutionary goals of different groups in Haiti?