1750-1900: Enlightenment Revolutions

Speaker 1 Forgive me. I am a little out of breath here. I just biked up to the Northeast side of Grand Rapids, Speaker 2 and I'm standing on the corner of crescent and College Avenue. Right now. It looks like a very normal neighborhood, but over Speaker 1 150 years ago. I would have been standing Speaker 2 exactly at the center of a place called Speaker 1 Camp Kellogg Speaker 2 and it was here that men from all over Grand Speaker 1 Rapids and Western Michigan, came Speaker 2 to meet together to train and to plan for the killing of other Americans. Now, why they did that is part of the topic Speaker 1 of He's upset, we'll be getting to that and more as we talked about the Enlightenment and the revolutions. Speaker 2 Hello, this is mr. Reisman. Today in the AP World History review podcast. We're going to be talking about period, 3, 1750 to 1900 and a philosophical movement, called The Enlightenment and the political Speaker 3 revolutions that followed. Speaker 2 So this episode starts in Europe. And then we are going to be moving across the Atlantic to the Americas and starts off with some philosophical and scientific discovery. So, Terms of the College Board needs you to know are things like empirical evidence. This is the time period when Europeans are going to say nothing is true unless we can prove it scientifically. That's what we call the Scientific Revolution. One of the heroes, the Scientific Revolution is guy by the name of Isaac Newton. He's going to discover that the universe is gather governed by these things called natural laws including laws of gravity. Now, these scientific discoveries are going to push other men to try to apply these up rational ideas. And Concepts into politics. And guys, like John Locke are going to claim not only is the universe governed by natural laws. But our politics should be governed by something called, natural rights among these rights have the right to life liberty and the pursuit of property or happiness. Now, what John Locke is arguing is a direct threat to the traditional power system of Europe. The traditional power system said that God, chose one man to Speaker 1 rule and therefore, everyone else should just shut up and do whatever. He Speaker 2 says. Well, John Locke says in the age of science and reason that just doesn't make any sense. How can we know her? How can someone Saying that God chose them. The only way we can ration look at it is that we're all created equal. We all have natural rights that should be protected. The only reason why government should exist is to protect those natural rights. So obviously, John Locke's theory is very Speaker 1 controversial and anyone Speaker 2 trying to put these theories in place is going to be going against the king and that's going to lead to Speaker 1 a lot of fighting and some bloody Speaker 2 revolutions. Now, I'm going to go through these revolutions one by one. It all starts with the American Revolution. So this is actually North America and the Speaker 1 Thirteen, British colonies, Speaker 2 their land owners are going to be upset that they have to pay taxes across the ocean. So they're going to invoke, John Locke's, theories, Thomas Jefferson's going to write the Declaration of Independence. Just basically just based on John Locke. All men have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They don't want England to govern them anymore. So they have a right to fight. Speaker 1 As you know, they're successful in Speaker 2 this fight now compared to some of the other revolutions. This one isn't very radical, not a lot of people's lives actually. Change sir, if you're one of the wealthy landowners, yeah. Now you don't pay taxes over to England anymore. And your life is little bit better because you have power but what about the four million enslaved people from Africa? Speaker 1 Their lives, don't change. Speaker 2 What about the lives of women? They don't get the right to vote. Actually even poor white Speaker 1 men. Don't even get the right to vote in this new country. So yes, Revolution Speaker 2 successful, but it's not very radical. Now that's going to be drastically different than the Speaker 1 revolution. That's going to take place in France. Speaker 2 Now the French Revolution actually starts off. Looking pretty similar to the American Revolution. I mean, you have some wealthy landowners who are Speaker 1 frustrated by having to pay Speaker 2 taxes to the king and the King can do whatever he wants whenever he wants. So they're going to come up with something called Speaker 1 the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Actually, Thomas. Jefferson is going to help them write this based off of the ideas of John Locke Speaker 2 and they're going to demand some changes. That's a little bit more radical because one of the things that they're going to get is something called Universal male suffrage. It's idea that no matter how poor any man in France. It's going to have the right to vote. That's pretty radical. Unfortunately for the French Revolution, it's going to turn into chaos. Something called the reign of terror Sky. Bonilla Maximilien Robespierre is going to get involved. And the French Revolution is not going to just be about the enlightenment. It's also going to be about these kind of old disputes. I go all the way back to the feudal times. When Lords had power over serfs and there's all this frustration about this long existing social hierarchy and inequality in France. So French Ian is going to turn into a bloodbath and eventually the people are going to be so desperate that they're going to call on an army, General by the name of Napoleon. You're saying Napoleon, please do whatever you need to just bring the peace Napoleon. Does Napoleon's going to claim to be following. Enlightened principles trying to extend the right to vote. But at the same time he's going to Crown himself. Speaker 1 Emperor of all of France, which pretty much goes against the whole idea of limiting. The absolute Speaker 2 monarchy, the French revolutions going to lead directly. We into the Haitian revolution. So, at the time, Haiti was an island, the French Empire known as Saint Dominique, and it was actually the most wealthy part of the entire French Empire because they were growing the world's most precious commodity at the time, and that sugar, and where their sugar, you know, that most of the people are Speaker 1 actually going to be enslaved. So when these Speaker 2 enslaved, people are going to hear that. Over in France, they declared the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the equality of all Speaker 1 citizens and they're giving Universal male suffrage. Courage, they believe that this should mean their freedom as Speaker 2 well. Well, the sugar plantation owners don't see it Speaker 1 this way and a fight is going to ensue. Speaker 2 What you need to know about. The Haitian Speaker 1 revolution is that this is the first Speaker 2 and really the Speaker 1 only successful slave revolt in the history of the world. It's going to start with enslaved. People rising up against plantation owners and it's going to Speaker 2 end with Haiti, being a free country controlled by Free Speaker 1 People of African descent. It's going to become the second free. Tree in all of the Americas, the last two revolutions, I'm going to talk about are in Latin America. This in Mexico in a place called Grand Colombia. Speaker 2 In order to understand these revolutions. You really have to understand the context of the Speaker 1 caste system. This was the race based social hierarchy that was put in place during the Columbian Exchange. The Mexican Revolution actually starts off as a fight against really, that it's more societal than political and the mestizos and Native Americans want their rights. Well, in the end, the Mexican Revolution is going to result in a free country. Mexico is going to break from Spain. But in this new country, even though it's going to be called Mexico named after the Native American Mexico, people really nothing's going to change in society. It's going to be the Creoles or people of full European descent that hold all the power in. This is largely going to be the same result. We see in South America, in South America. A new state does form called Gran Colombia, but in this new state mestizos native, And don't really have a lot of Rights and it's the Creoles of European descent that control everything a vocab term. You need to learn about this revolution. Something called the Jamaica letter and in the Jamaica letter, similar to the Declaration of Independence of the Declaration of Rights of Man. The leader of the grand Colombian Revolution Simón, Bolívar is going to make his case for his argument, why Grand Columbia needs to be free and independent and his justifications are all based on earlier, Enlightenment philosophy. Yeah, so the college board says you not only need to know about the immediate causes of the Enlightenment revolutions. You also need to understand the long-term impacts that leads me to why I'm staying here in the corner of crescent and College Ave. The former site of Camp Kellogg. We are living in the first country ever to be started by Enlightenment principles. Speaker 2 No divine, right? No mandate from Speaker 1 heaven, but a state that gets his legitimacy solely from the People based on ideas, that all men are created equal and that no state has the right to take away the Liberty. Of its citizens yet. The economic Foundation of this country was based on chattel slavery. This contradiction was so great. That nearly a million people were going to have to die to correct. This flaw Lincoln said it. Best A house divided against itself. Cannot stand. He also called the war a new birth of Freedom. Since the Inception of this country, great abolitionist. Like Frederick Douglass used Enlightenment principles to point out the hypocrisy of the Constitution while arguing for the abolition of slavery. Speaker 2 And finally because of what the men who gathered, right? Right here at Camp Kellogg, and hundreds of others, like, it across the northern states. The u.s. Took further steps to truly Speaker 1 aligned itself with the enlightenment principles of freedom and equality. Finally, a Speaker 2 very important long-term Speaker 1 impact of the Enlightenment revolutions is something called Speaker 2 nationalism. This is very ironic because it's quite, literally, the opposite Speaker 1 of what the enlightenment was supposed to be Speaker 2 about transnational values, meaning across Nations. If all men are created equal that, well, that means all men Speaker 1 doesn't matter. You were born, Speaker 2 that's not a nationalism is all about. So nationalism is a myth that the leaders are going to use Speaker 1 to justify their rule because Divine Right is no longer popular leaders are going to use Concepts like language, shared history, territory religion, social Customs to create a sense of togetherness for the first Speaker 2 time. People began to Speaker 1 think of their own identity as something that was shaped by political borders that they lived within. One example, that you should know is the example of Germany, Germany had never Existed as a United State and all of world history. Until this time, this time a guy by the name of Otto von Bismarck Speaker 2 is going to unite all the German people and he's going to argue that the enlightenment values and sitting around talking about philosophy. It makes you weak, you get something done by using Speaker 1 Force. He says, we're going to forge the future with blood and iron. Speaker 2 So to conclude new Speaker 1 scientific thinking in Europe is going to impact political thinking. And finally, the divine right of kings is challenged. The enlightenment is going to say all men. Speaker 2 In are created equal and deserve equal rights and protection under the law. And this Speaker 1 going to lead to political revolutions, America, France. Hey, tigran, Colombia and Mexico, Speaker 2 even though these revolutions are based off, the enlightenment. It doesn't mean Enlightenment principles are Speaker 1 totally followed. For example, slavery is not abolished in the United States for Speaker 2 another hundred years. It's going to be a whole nut, 60 years after Speaker 1 that before women get the right to vote. So Speaker 2 it is a long process but the enlightenment starts all of that. Also nationalism. It's kind of Speaker 1 an unintended Speaker 2 consequence. But more than ever humans are going to Define who they are Speaker 1 by the political borders that surround them. Speaker 2 Anyway, I'm mr. Reisman. We'd love to hear from you. If you have any questions, please email me, Speaker 1 email mr. Gums. Hope guys doing well. Talk to you soon.