504
PART5 / THEEURO PEAN
M O M EN TI N WO R L DH l S T O R y7, 7 5 0 - 1 9 7 4
property, retnained unchanged by the Revolution."a In the century that follorved
independence, the united Statesdid beconre the rvorld's lllosr delnocratic counrry
but it was less the direct procl-rct of the rcvolutiori and more the gradr-ial lvorking
olrt in a refirrnrist f-ashion of earlier practices and the principles of equaliry
announced in the Declarrtion of Independence.
Nonetheless, ntany American patriots felt passionately that they were creating
"a new order for the ages."James Madison in the FederalistPapersrnade the
point
clearly: "w'e pursued :r ncr,v and more noble course . . . and accomplished a revolution that has no parallel in the annals of human sociery." Supporters abroad agreed.
the eve of the French Revolution, a Paris newspaper proclainred thar the
on
United States r,vas"the hope and rnodel of the human race."r In both cases,they
were reGrritig prirnarily to the political ideas and practices of the new country.The
Anrerican Revolution, after aii, initiated the political dismantling of Europe'.s New
empires. Thc "right to revolution," procl:rirned in the Declaration of
Independence and nrade efTective oniy in a great struggle, inspired revolutionaries
and nationalists from Sini6n Bolivar in nineteenth-century Latin Arnerica to Ho
Ciri Minh irl twentierh-centuryViernam.
Moreover, rhe new (J.S. Constitutionworld
with its Bill of Rigirts, checks and balances, separarion of church and state, and
fedcralism
was one of the first sustained etTorts to put the political ideas of the
Enlighrenrnent into practice. That docurnent, and the ideas that it elrbraced,
echoed repeatedly in the political upheavals of rhe century rhar followed.
The French Reuolution, t78g-t8r5
I Comparison
Howdid the French
Revolutiondiffer from the
AmericanRevolution?
Act Tw'o in the drarna of the Atlantic revolutions took place in France, beginning
1789, aithough it r,v:rsclosel1, connected to Act One in North Arnerica.
Thousands of French soldiers had provided assistanceto the American colonists and
in
now retlrrned horne full of republican enthusiasrn.Thomas
Je{Ierson, the U.S.
atnbassador in Paris, reportecl that France "lias been awakened by our revolution."6
More irnmediately, the French government, r,vhic:h had generously aided the
Anrericarts itr an effort to undernrine its British rir,'als,.uvasteetering on the brink
of bankruptcy and had long sought reforms that r,vould modernize the tax system
and rnake it t.uore equitable. In a desperate etlbrt to raise taxes against the opposition of the privileged classes,the French king, Louis XVI, had cailed inro sessionan
ancient parliamentary bodl: the Estates General. [t consisted of representatives of
the three "estates," or legal orders, ofprerevolutionarv France: the clergy, the nobiliry
and the cornmoners.The flrst two estatescomprised about z percent of the population, and the Third Estate inciuded everyone else.'When that body convenecl in
I789, representativesof theThird Estate soon organrzecl rhcnrselvesrs the National
Assernbly, with the sole authoriry to nrake lar,vsfor the country. A fer.v rveeks later
they drerv up the l)eclaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, which forthrighrly
declar:ed that "nren are born and remain fiee and equal in rights." These actions,
unprecedented and illegal in the ancien r(qime (rhe oicl Regime), launched the
1750-l .914
C H A P T E R 1 7 / AT L ANT ICREVOL UT IONSAND T H EIR E C H OES '
in the National
French Revolution ancl radicalized many of the participants
A sse rn bl y.
That revoiution was quiCe different from its North American predecessor.
relationW'hereasthe American Revolution expressedthe tensions of a colonial
was driven by sharp
ship with a distant imperial power, the French insurrection
pres.or-rfli.r, within French sociery.Members of the titled nobility-privileged,
them
subject
to
efforts
monarchy's
the
tigious,and wealthy-resentecl and resisted
lawyers,lower-level
to ne* taxes.Educated middle-classgroups, such as doctors,
in wealth and
otlicials,and merchants,were growing in nurnbers and sometimes
which they were
were o{Iendedby the remaining privileges of the aristocracy,from
declined for a
had
incomes
whose
of
excluded. ordinary urban residents,many
rising price
rapidly
the
generation,were partlcularly hard-hit in the late r78os by
though
of br."d and widespread unemploynlent. Peasantsin the countryside,
imposed by their
largely free of serfilorn, were subject to a variery of hated dues
requirenrent to
the
and
church,
landlords,raxesfrom the srate,obiigations to the
French
penetrated
work without pay on public roads.As Enlightenment ideas
including some
sociery rnore and more people, mostly in the Third Estate but
grievances'The
these
articulate
to
which
with
priestsand nobles,found a language
was"manifestly
it
that
them
told
famousFrench writerJean-JacquesRousseauhad
themselves
gorge
contrafy to the law of nature... that a handful of people should
with superfl.uitieswhile the hungry multitude got-sin want of necessities'"7
first five
These socialconflicrs gaverhe French Revolution, especiallyduring its
its
Amertcan
than
character
years,a much more violent, far-reaching,and radical
revolutions
counterpart.[t was a profound social upheaval,more comparableto the
American
of Russia and China in the rvventieth century than to the earlier
to more
way
gave
monarchy
Revolution. Initial efforts to establisha constitutional
that
fear
a
produced
radicalmeasures,as rnternal resistinceand foreign opposition
insurthe revolution might be overturned. In the process,urban crowds organized
documents
rections.Some peasantsattacked the castlesof their lords, burning the
the end of
decreed
Assembly
thar recorded their dues and payments.The National
Even slavFrance.
in
all legal priviieges and abolishedwhat remained of feudalism
albeit briefly. church iands u,ere sold to raiserevenue,and priests
..y *",
"t,otirn.a,
we r e put u nder gov er nm en ta u th o ri ry executed,
In early r7g3, King Louis XVI anclhis queen,Marie Antoinette, wefe
a new
nrarked
an act of regicide that shocked traditiorralistsall acrossEurope and
Under
stageirr revolutionary violence.What foilowed was theTerror of ry93-t794'
tens
Safery
Pubiic
of
committee
his
and
the leaclershipof Maximilien Robespierre
grillotine'
the
on
lives
of thousandsdeemed enemies of the revolution lost their
accusedof
Shortly thereafter,Robespierre himself rvas arrested and guillotined,
of its
leading Franceinto ryranny and clictatorship."The revolution;'remarked one
victims,"was devouring its own children'"
new sociAccornpanyingattackson the old order were effortsto createa wholly
for
ery synrbolizedby a new calendarr'vith the Year r in t7g2, marking a fresh start
505
506
PART5 i THEEUR0PEAN
M O M ENTlN W0 R L DH I S T 0 R Y1, 7 5 0 - 1 9 1 4
France. Unlike the Americans, r.vho
sought to resrore or build upon earlier
freedonrs, French revolutionaries perceived themselves to be starting from
scratch and looked to the future. For the
first tirne in its history
the country
became a republic and briefly
passed
universal niale sutTrage,although it was
never irnplemented.The old administrative system u?s rationalized into eighrythree territoriai departments, each with
a new name. As revolutionary
France
prepared for war against its threatened
and threatening neighbors, it created the
rvorld's largest arrny, with some 8oo,ooo
nren, and all adult males r'vere required
to serve. Led by ofhcers liom the middle
and ev.'n lowcr classes.
this was an army
of citizens representing the nation.
The impact of the revolution rvas
felt in many \ /ays. Streets got new
narncs; nlonun1erlts to the royal farnily
were destroyed; tities vanished, people
referred to one another as "citizen soand-so." Real
politics
in
the public
sphere emergecl lor the first time as
many
people joined
politicai
clubs,
took part in marches ar-rd demonstraT he Ex ec ut iono f
R obes pierre
Th e b eheadingo f t h e r a d i c a I
leaderRobes pi e n ew, h o h a d
h i mselfbroughtt h o u s a n d s
o f ot herst o t he g u i l l o t i n e ,
ma rke da dec isi v et u r n i n g
p oi n t i n t he unf o l d i n go f t h e
F renc hRev olut i o na n d t h e
e nd of it s mos t v i o l e n t
phase.(tu'lusee
de L.tRevolution
Fr anqaisVe.
'z illeF. r a n c e /
Br i d geman
A rtLib r a n ,
tions, served on local cornrlittees, and ran for public otlice. Common people,who
had identified primarily with their local communiry norv began to think of themselvesasbelonging to a nacion.Thestatereplacedthe ClatholicChurch asthe place
lor registering births, nrarriages,and deaths,and rer.olutionary Gstivalssubstitrrted
for church holidays.
More radical revoh-rtionaryleadersdeliberatelysor-ightto convey a senseof new
beginrrings.A Festivalof Uniry held in r7g3 to m:rrk the first anniversaryof the end
of monarchy burned the cror,vrrsand sceptersof the royai family in a huge bonfire
rvhile releasinga cloud of 3,ooo white doves.The Cathedral of Notre Danre rvas
temporarily turned into the Temple of Reason, while a "Hymn to Liberry" combined traditional church rnusic u.ith the explicit nlessageof the Enlightennlent:
Oh Liberry sacredLiberry
Goddessof an enlightenedpeople
Rule today within thesewalls.
Through you this terllple is purified.
ANDT H E I RE C H O E S7' 7 5 0 - 7 9 1 4
1 7 / AI LANTI CREVO LUTI O NS
CHAPTER
507
Liberty! Before you reason chasesout deception,
E,rror flees, fanaticism is beaten down.
Our gospel is nature
And our cult is virtue.
To love one's country and one's brothers,
To serve the Sovereign PeopleThese are the sacred tenets
And pledge o f a Rep ub lic an. s
The French Revolurion
ditTered from the American
Revolution
also in the way
its influence spread.At least until the United Sratesbecame a world power at the end
of the nineteenth century, what inspired others was primarily the example of its revolution and its constitution. French influence, by contrast, spread through conquest,
largely under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte (ruled r799-r8r4). A highly
successfirl general who seized power in 1799, Napoleon is often credited with taming
the revolution in the face of growing disenchantment with its more radical Garures
and with the social conflicts it generated. He preserwed many of its more moderate
elements, such as civil equahry a secular law code, religious freedom, and promotion
by merit, while reconciling with the Catholic Church and suppressing the revolution's more democratic elements in a rnilitary dictatorship. In short, Napoleon kept
the revolutiont emphasis on social equaliry but dispensed with libercy.
Like many of the revolution's ardent supporters, Napoleon was intent on spreading its benefits far and wide. In a series of brilliant military campaigns, his forces subdued most of Europe, thus creating the continent's largest empire since the days of
that empire, Napoleon imposed such revoluequaliry of rights, insisting on reliproclainring
tionary practices as ending feudalisrn,
gious toleration, codi$ring the larvs, and rationalizing government administration. In
the Romans (see Map r7.z).Within
many places, these reforrns were 'nvelcomed, and seeds of further change were
planted. But French dornination was also resented and resisted,stimulating national
consciousnessthroughout Europe.That too was a seed that bore fruit in the century
national resistance, particularly from Russia and
Britain, brought down Napoleon and his amazing empire by r8I5 and marked an
not to the potency of its ideas.
end to the era of the French Revolution,though
that followed. More
immediately,
The Haitian Reuolution,t7gl-18o4
Nowhere did the exalnple of the French Revolution echo more loudly than in the
French Caribbean colony of Saint Domingue, later .renamed Haiti (see Map r7.3,
p.5rr).Widely regarded as the richest colony in the world, Saint Domingre boasted
8,ooo plantations, which in the late eighteenth century produced some 40 percent of
the world's sugar and perhaps half of its coffee. Slaves, about Joo,ooo of them, made
numbered about 4o,ooo, sharpiy divided
plantation owners, merchants, and lawyers and those known
aspetits blanrs,or poor whites. A thrd social group consisted of some 3o,ooo gens de
up the vasr majoriry of its population.W'hites
benveen very well*to-do
I Comparison
Whatwas distinctive
aboutthe Haitian
both in world
Revolution,
historygenerallyand in
the historyof Atlantic
revotutions?