Strayer 17, The Atlantic Revolutions

1/17/2016

Eight chapters to go. Just eight more weeks of grinding the content, getting into your Strayer habit. Keep your eyes on the prize. The payoff for successfully finding your way through this class and this exam exam are enormous, and multi faceted.
This more recent history requires your full attention, and multiple study techniques. Push through. I'm here to help.

14 Comments

Kendal LeFlore

1/18/2016 02:04:32 pm

This chapter is suspiciously short. I don't know what that means for the difficulty of the test, but I doubt it bodes well.

Anyway, since there is a strange shortage of activity for this chapter, I suppose I can start us off by discussing the first margin question, "In what ways did the ideas of the Enlightenment contribute to the Atlantic Revolutions?"

COMMON IDEAS
-At the heart of the common ideas shared by Atlantic revolutionaries was the radical notion that human political and social arrangements could be altered and improved by human action.
-Ideas of liberty, equality, fair trade, religious tolerance, republicanism, and human rationality arose
-The core notion politically was "popular sovereignty", the idea that the authority to govern came from the people
THE RESULT
-These ideas made it both possible and desirable for people to start over in the construction of human communities and to reform current social and political systems

ilona

1/18/2016 06:19:19 pm

Oh that looks great Kendal, I don’t have anything to add, I like how you separated them! and yes ah the Chapter was relatively short but also very full and interesting! I think it is so strange to read about how morality shifts over time, reading about slavery and how radical feminism was almost startling as I think I I take it fore-granted now. It is also sort of the feeling I get after Schindler's list, how could this have happened? How could we really not believe in the equality of all men, or blind ourselves and say that slavery and the subordination of females was a necessary part of life? What does this even mean about humanity goodness

I just wanted to contribute this very very cute video I found! Its a song about the French Revolution and it made me really my day, and also just helped me understand it a lil better :)

http://www.history.com/topics/french-revolution
(the first video)

Bingham

1/18/2016 07:03:41 pm

Thanks Ilona, that was a real treat.

Jonathan Jalbert

1/18/2016 06:21:05 pm

Hi Kendal!
Your answer covers pretty much everything that I found for this question; the only other thing might be the skepticism toward divine kingship, the aristocracy, and the church that led to those entities having less influence/legitimacy among the people (they were attacked a lot). I also agree with you about this chapter seeming suspicious, several of the questions have fewer specific answers than I expected...

Sabrina Koseki

1/18/2016 07:48:20 pm

Here's a shot at MQ #2: What was revolutionary about the American Revolution, and what was not? (I'm not sure that I got all the points... but here goes)

REVOLUTIONARY:

-Decisive political change

-First major upheaval in the Atlantic world

-Accelerated existing democratic tendencies of colonies:
>Requirements to vote were loosened (property), so more white men could vote, even from lower social classes, such as small farmers and urban artisans, and could even be elected to state legislatures.

-The political ideas and practices which included:
>The "right to revolution" (which inspired other revolutions globally)
>The U.S. Constitution- the first sustained effort to realize the political ideas of the Enlightenment

NOT REVOLUTIONARY:

-It was a conservative movement, which tried to keep the liberties of the existing colonies

-Not much social change occurred:
>Land was mostly kept by previous owners
>Slavery remained in practice in the South (though was slowly abolished in the North)
>Women/ people of color gained nothing in regard to political power

[This seems to be a quiet week on the forum... there are usually a lot more comments by the time I drag my sorry self online :P]

Sabrina Koseki

1/18/2016 08:00:57 pm

Here's another one that I was working on:

What was distinctive about the Haitian Revolution, both in world history generally and in the history of Atlantic Revolutions?

1. It was the second independent republic in the Americas, and the only completely successful slave revolt in world history (and it also inspired other slave rebellions)

2. It was an overthrow of French colonial rule

3. It was the first non-European state to emerge from Western colonialism

4. It was a direct confrontation of an emerging racism (and declared all citizens legally equal regardless of race, color, or class?)

5. It injected a deep caution and social conservatism in the elites that led their countries to independence, especially in Latin America.

6. Ironically it led to the temporary expansion of slavery elsewhere (ex. Cuba)

7. Napoleon's defeat in Haiti persuaded him to sell French territories (Louisiana Purchase) to the United States.

cathleen

1/18/2016 10:12:34 pm

Some people like to have stories to attach what we learn to. Here is a mental story I have to keep the revolutions separate in my mind.:
The north American Revolution is a total frat boy. Conservative and suddenly patriotic. Frat boy north america hasn't really had to much struggle in his life thanks to his chill parent Great Britiain that focused most of its energy on its more profitable and more likely to go to Harvard daughter, West India. north america feels like it's his birthright to do whatever he wants with minimal adult supervision(GB). North america gets sophisticated while he's away at college- starts wearing polos and tom ford (or powdered wigs in the 1770s...). frat boy north america is also super social. north america is also all about freedom and liberty except if you're a slave or a woman. north america thought its parent great britain was pretty great until big sister west india doesn't get into harvard and the economy starts hurting, great britain starts giving him a curfew! and cuts his allowance! and makes him pay for his car gas! north america is livid! north america starts going to law school and learns things like popular sovereignty and natural rights so he can argue against Great britain with knowledge. and all of a sudden, north america is the most democratic frat boy in all the land.
the french revolution is its own deal. it has too many characters to be its own stock type. It would take seven years (ha) to describe the plot, so I'll just give the breakdown:
king louis xvi: fourth grade president of his elementary school student council, because his older brother was several years earlier. king louis gives all his rich friends perks like skipping everyone else in the lunch line. king louis realizes though, that the treasury of the elementary school is almost out and doesn't know what to do- he's not doing so hot in long division! So he creates a super special club called the estates general and has one of his noble friends as a member, an older fifth grader (clergy), and a third grader (commoner) to make up the club that will help him with decisions. The third grader decides that he represents the common elementary schooler more than the other two members and decides to make his own sect within the group called the national assembly to make rules for the school. They created the declaration of the rights of man and citizen that declared "all students are born and remain free and equal in rights". This makes all third graders and younger realize they need to take a stand against the upperclass elementary students. The delicacy of cafeteria ice cream goes up one whole dollar and many of the younger students can no longer afford to buy ice cream at lunch. Mean fourth and fifth graders make the younger students give them all their lunch money, because they know they can't afford the ice cream. Everybody started revolting. It got crazy. King Louis got expelled from the school. Nobody ever heard from him again. A new president came along, Max. Max got rid of all of the fourth and fifth graders that were rude. Then, Max was expelled as well because he was really just a bully. Finally, Napoleon became student council president and helped tame the revolution here and made sure this affected everyone far and wide. But other elementary schools saw this and were threatened and ruined Napoleon's student council campaign.
The Haitian revolution had terrible, super strict, and crazy rich parents who named him Saint Domingue. Saint Domingue was a prodigy at coffee and sugar from a very young age, because his parents pushed him to practice every minute of the day. Saint Domingue went to a private school by the school king louis went to and saw the rebellion they had there. It inspired saint domingue to rebel. With the help of a friend, toussaint, they revolted against their french parents. Finally, saint domingue had freedom and changed his name to haiti. While haiti revolted, he was no longer very good at sugar and coffee and struggled financially.

This is just kind of an overview of the first three revolutions. I'll think of something for the spanish american revolutions later

Bingham

1/19/2016 04:18:42 am

I think that is great! And a technique that can work well for most people.

Trevor

1/20/2016 07:22:27 pm

The Spanish American revolutions were a group of delinquents at finishing school sent their by their strict, rich parents: Portugal and Spain. However, Spain and Portugal's companies went bankrupt when Napoleon bought up all the industry. The students at the finishing school realized their parents will be coming over and selling their cars and private jets and mansions for money, so they rallied under the student council presidents Simon Bolivar and Jose San Martin. Since they didn't have many similarities, they decided to rally as a collective whole known as "rich kids" to rebel everyone coming to take their stuff, which they labeled as "broke parents". After they drove out their parents to the streets, some of the less rich kids started complained about having less money than the others, and this caused arguments in the school, preventing the development of the student council as a whole. As a result, the Spanish American Finishing school could never compete with the Boy Frats of America.

Bingham

1/21/2016 04:11:40 am

Nice.

Rose Dopkin

1/19/2016 05:28:15 pm

hey all :) Big picture #1 asked what categories would best separate a chart comparing the four revolutions looked at in this chapter (North American, French, Haitian, Spanish American), and Mabel, Melissa, and I attempted to map out this chart with these categories:
-time
-circumstances/causes
-social tensions
-political tensions
-outcomes
-influence
I was wondering if there are any more categories y'all think would be important to include? I’d also be more than happy to share the full chart!

Bingham

1/19/2016 06:39:57 pm

These are great. Everything you need to know or say will fit into these.

Melissa Alter

1/19/2016 08:10:10 pm

MQ6: "What accounts for the end of Atlantic slavery during the 19th century?"

First, secular/moral concerns came into play.
Enlightenment thinkers believed slavery was a violation of human rights.
The American and French Revolutions emphasized liberty for all - a bit hypocritical, if they continued to have their own slaves.

Religious concerns also played a role in the end of slavery.
Some Christians (especially Quakers and Protestants) believed that slavery contradicted the values of their religion.

Additionally, there was an economic element to the decline of slavery.
During this time period, there was an increasing belief that slavery was not essential for economic progress (as Great Britain and the United States, two of the world's leading countries, were "based on free labor").

Finally, politics came into the discussion, as well.
The Haitian Revolution demonstrated potential consequences for the continued use of slaves. Additionally, the revolution showed that slaves were not content and were being brutally oppressed, which swayed British public opinion to oppose slavery.

These factors resulted in abolitionist movements, which put growing pressure on governments to end the slave trade.

Bingham

1/21/2016 04:12:41 am

Big picture questions?

Strayer 17, The Atlantic Revolutions

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Bingham

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