Enlightenment ideas from France and Great Britain were the primary influences on the Atlantic Revolutions, which included the American Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and the French Revolution—all of which occurred within twenty years of each other. John Locke's ideas about the natural rights and liberty of men, as well as notions about property rights, were especially important in the context of the American Revolution. Montesquieu's idea about the separation of powers, as explained in The Spirit of Laws was another important influence in forming American government.
The American Revolution is believed to have strongly impacted the leaders of the Haitian and French Revolutions. The American colonies had successfully thrown off a much older and greater power, on the basis of self-determination (e.g., no taxation without representation—a notion that did not extend to slaves, of course) and a desire for a democratic government in which everyone would supposedly be given equal access to opportunities to obtain property and participate in government while also being protected from any potential abuses by government.
Along with Enlightenment ideas that stressed the "natural rights of man," Toussaint L'Ouverture and Dessalines may have believed that if the Americans could overthrow Britain, the Haitians could overthrow the French. The Haitian Revolution began in 1791 and ended in 1804, one year after the Louisiana Purchase. Unfortunately, Haiti's triumph did not last. Over the centuries, the nation has been exploited by greater powers and has fallen to dictators.
The French Revolution took place in 1789. After the Revolution, there was a great deal of interaction between American and French dignitaries. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson all spent time in France. The exchange of ideas between the two nations, during the revolutionary period and after, was key in the development of both nations and in the persistence of their democratic ideas.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
From where did the ideas that generated the Atlantic Revolutions of the 18th century emerge? What were the consequences of these revolutions at a global level?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Summarize the major research findings of "Toward an experimental ecology of human development."
Based on findings of prior research, the author, Bronfenbrenner proposes that methods for natural observation research have been applied in ...
-
One way to support this thesis is to explain how these great men changed the world. Indeed, Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) was the quintes...
-
Polysyndeton refers to using several conjunctions in a row to achieve a dramatic effect. That can be seen in this sentence about the child: ...
-
Both boys are very charismatic and use their charisma to persuade others to follow them. The key difference of course is that Ralph uses his...
-
Equation of a tangent line to the graph of function f at point (x_0,y_0) is given by y=y_0+f'(x_0)(x-x_0). The first step to finding eq...
-
At the most basic level, thunderstorms and blizzards are specific weather phenomena that occur most frequently within particular seasonal cl...
-
Population policy is any kind of government policy that is designed to somehow regulate or control the rate of population growth. It include...
-
Gulliver cooperates with the Lilliputians because he is so interested in them. He could, obviously, squash them underfoot, but he seems to b...
No comments:
Post a Comment