Professional Documents
Culture Documents
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading and studying this chapter you should be able to:
1. describe what were the causes of the era of revolution.
2. explain the effect of these revolutions on the people.
3. discuss what were the gains and losses for privileged groups and for ordinary people in this generation of war
and upheaval.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
The French and American revolutions were two of the most important political events of all times. They were
also a dramatic conclusion to the Enlightenment, and both revolutions, taken together, form a major turning
point in human history. This chapter explains what these great revolutions were all about.
The chapter begins by describing classical liberalism, the fundamental political ideology of the revolution.
Liberalism, which had deep roots, called for freedom and equality at a time when monarchs and aristocrats took
their great privileges for granted. The immediate cause of the American Revolution, the British effort to solve
the problem of war debts, was turned into a political struggle by the American colonists, who already had
achieved considerable economic and personal freedom. The American Revolution stimulated reform efforts
throughout Europe.
It was in France that the ideas of the Enlightenment and liberalism were put to their fullest test. The
bankruptcy of the state gave the French aristocracy the chance to grab power from a weak king. This move
backfired, however, because the middle class grabbed even harder. It is significant that the revolutionary desires
of the middle class depended on the firm support and violent action of aroused peasants and poor urban
workers. It was this action of the common people that gave the revolution its driving force.
In the first two years of the French Revolution, the middle class, with its allies from the peasantry and urban
poor, achieved unprecedented reforms. The outbreak of an all-European war against France in 1792 then
resulted in a reign of terror and a dictatorship by radical moralists, of whom Robespierre was the greatest. By
1795, this radical patriotism wore itself out. The revolutionary momentum slowed, and the Revolution
deteriorated into a military dictatorship under the opportunist Napoleon. Yet, until 1815 the history of France
was that of war, and that war spread liberalism to the rest of Europe. French conquests also stimulated
nationalism. The world of politics was turned upside down.
STUDY OUTLINE
I. Liberty and equality
A. In the eighteenth century, liberty meant human rights and freedoms and the sovereignty of the people.
1. Liberals demanded that citizens’ rights had no limits except those that assure rights to others.
2. Revolutionary liberals believed that the people were sovereign.
B. Equality meant equal rights and equality of opportunity.
1. But most liberals did not extend such rights to women.
2. “Equality” pertained to equality of opportunity and legal equality, not economic equality.
C. The roots of classical liberalism
1. The Classical Greek and the Judeo-Christian traditions liberalism.
2. Liberalism’s modem roots are found in the Enlightenment’s concern for human dignity, human
happiness on earth, faith in science, personal freedom and legal equality.
3. These were best expressed by Locke and Montesquieu.
D. The attraction of liberalism
1. Liberalism was attractive to the prosperous, well-educated elites.
2. It lacked popular support because common people were more interested in economic issues and the
protection of traditional practices and institutions.
VI. Summary
A. The French revolution left a range of political options and alternative visions of the future-including
liberalism, assertive nationalism, radical democratic republicanism, embryonic socialism, and self-
conscious conservatism.