4.5: Chapter Summary and Key Terms

Chapter Summary

This period in world history can be defined by both enlightenment and turmoil. More people, particularly in the Atlantic World, demanded that their voices be heard, in many cases through violence and rebellion. The institution of slavery was deeply questioned, although very little would be done to address it for several decades in many places, with just France willing to abolish it outright, if only briefly. This type and amount of change certainly came from the Age of Enlightenment thinking, which gave birth to a number of social and cultural movements throughout the Western world, yet with a Eurocentric perspective.

The revolutionary movements seen here were truly revolutionary in many ways; the idea that “ordinary” people could rise up and refuse to be subject to authoritarian power was a concept alien to many and had been for many years, as indicated by the absolutism government structure that dominated many major world powers. However, once a revolution appeared successful, other regions and territories followed suit, leading to a domino effect of revolutions and rebellions, the rise of new government structures, and a change to what was the definition of “citizen.” These movements also created a certain amount of chaos in their wake as these new citizens and their leaders struggled to organize themselves into different government structures or risk societal collapse. In France, this was known as the Reign of Terror, subjecting French citizens to violence and severe uncertainty. Because of this uncertainty, a leadership vacuum was created, allowing another authoritarian to become ruler, Napoleon Bonaparte. France would briefly return to a monarchy but with more power given to a representative body, which made the monarchy more symbolic than anything, before becoming obsolete. With the creation of the United States, though, a new government structure emerged, involving a balance of republicanism and democracy. This has become known as the American Experiment and while it has evolved in numerous ways, still essentially remains.

As the United States grew after the American Revolutionary War, both in population and territory, a new concept took root, known as Manifest Destiny. Although this concept wasn’t given a formal name until the early part of the nineteenth century, it formed the foundation of European justification for colonization, as well as imperialism later practiced by the US. During the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries, the American descendants of European colonizers believed it was their Christian God-given right to expand “from sea to shining sea,” regardless of who originally occupied the land they were taking over. Europe used this concept to increase its colonization, especially as various European nations moved toward the middle of the Eurasian continent and into Africa.

However, not all revolutions affected the indigenous and marginalized populations in the same way. In Haiti, slavery was abolished and in Spanish America, the more marginalized groups like the castas and foresteros gained rights with the rise of constitutional rule and the decline of corporatism. It was these revolutions that provided a foundation for what would later be defined as “nationalism;” a distinct change in who was considered a “citizen” of that region or territory, also known as a nation. Under these new governments, citizens weren’t defined by their loyalty to a ruler, but rather by sharing common causes and loyalty to a population.

This period in world history was marked by a significant amount of uncertainty, turbulence, violence, and volatility. However, it also saw the greatest amount of change, moving us forward in many ways, both good and bad. The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, allowed more philosophical ideas and concepts to make their way out into the world, which would provide the foundation for modern ideas, concepts, and social movements. In addition, though, the movement of these ideas and concepts also cost a number of people their livelihoods, if not their very lives, predominately those within indigenous and marginalized populations. The change occurred rapidly which would impact world development, but many didn’t survive that change.

Key Terms

Age of Enlightenment: an intellectual movement which supported reordering government and society along rational lines.

Absolutism: a government where the monarch has absolute power

Popular Sovereignty: a government based on the consent of the people

Capitalism: an economic system in which private individuals and companies control the means of production such as factories and farms, and free (unregulated) markets set the value of most goods and services based on supply and demand

Constitutional Monarchy: a system of government which put constitutional limits on a king

Affranchise: the free blacks that lived in colonial Haiti