THE LEGACY OF THE FRENCH AND AMERICAN REVOLUTIONS LECTURE OUTLINE

OPENING DISCUSSION:

Read the following:

My uncle once told me about a warrior who had a fine stallion. Everybody said how lucky he was to have such a horse.

“Maybe,” the warrior said.

One day the stallion ran off. The people said the warrior was unlucky.

“Maybe,” he said.

Next day, the stallion returned, leading a string of fine ponies. The people said it was very lucky. “Maybe,” the warrior said.

 Later, the warrior’s son was thrown from one of the ponies and broke his leg. The people said it was unlucky.

“Maybe,” the warrior said.

The next week, the chief led a war party against another tribe. Many young men were killed. But, because of his broken leg, the warrior’s son was left behind, and so was spared. 

(from Marilyn, “Northern Exposure” tv show)

1. Consider two decisions you have made. List them. (not shared)

2. What CAUSED you to make the decisions you made…

3. Create a THEORY OF CAUSATION to explain how, in the abstract, decisions are reached. (to be shared)

Does your theory account for the possibility of multiple causation?

… for chaos, change, unpredictability?

…for unintended consequences?

The Legacy of the French and American Revolutions for Europe in the 19^th Century

I.              Cause and Effect in Europe and the Americas

A. The Imagined Impact of the “Americas” on Europe

1. Michel de Montaigne (16^th century French Renaissance figure)

America's native people were civilized, an original state of humankind, the state of nature, embodying "the most true and profitable virtues."

2. JOHN LOCKE:   (1632-1704)

“Though this is a state of liberty, yet it is not a state of license... the state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one, and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.” 

3. JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU: (1712-1778)

“Natural freedom is the only object of the polity of the savages; with this freedom do nature and climate rule alone amongst them. . . . They maintain their freedom and find abundant nourishment . . . and are people who live without laws, without policy, without religion.”  

B.    Enlightenment thinkers impact the British Colonies:

Thomas Paine: “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

                                                                                    American Crisis, 1776-1783

C.    American Rev helps to cause French Rev

                                                              1.     Training for revolution

                                                              2.     Ideas in action

                                                              3.     Financial Trouble

That, in addition to other long-standing causes means trouble, revolutionary trouble:

So radical was the revolution that it outlawed the church (Notre Dame was renamed the Temple of Reason), changed clothing styles, changed the way you said hello on the street, and outlawed the old calendar, in favor of  the months below:

1.            Vendémiaire                    7.        Germinal

2.            Brumaire              8.        Floréal

3.            Frimaire                9.        Prairial

4.            Nivôse                                10.      Messidor

5.            Pluviôse                11.      Thermidor

6.            Ventôse                 12.      Fructidor

“We are going to cut off her head, tear out her heart,

fry her liver, and that won’t be the end of it.”

D.   French Rev helps to cause the Rev in Haiti

II.            BROAD IMPACT OF THESE REVS ON EUROPE

A.   End of the Holy Roman Empire

Treaty of Pressburg, 1805

Confederation of the Rhine

Some included

Bavaria (3.5 million subjects),

Saxony (2 million),

Westphalia (2 million),

Wurttemberg (1.5 million)

Baden (1 million)

and the Duchy of Warsaw (4 million).

  

B.    Nationalism:

Otto Dann and John Dinwiddy: "It has long been almost a truism of European history that the French Revolution gave a great stimulus to the growth of modern nationalism." (1988). 

Nationalism in the Age of the French Revolution

1. Germany:

                                                Anger at Napoleon=love of Germany

2. Italy:

For nearly two decades the Italians had the excellent codes of law, a fair system of taxation, a better economic situation, and more religious and intellectual toleration than they had known for centuries.... Everywhere old physical, economic, and intellectual barriers had been thrown down and the Italians had begun to be aware of a common nationality…Frederick B. Artz, Reaction and Revolution: (1934) pp 142-43

C.    Balance of Power System:

The Congress of Vienna

Great Powers and their Representatives:

Russian Empire – Alexander I

Prussia – Prince Hardenburg

Great Britain – Viscount Castlereagh

Austria – Prince Clemens von Metternich

France – Prince Talleyrand

  

III.         Think again about Cause and Effect…

The French Revolution caused…

Ø  The realization of democratic ideals in Europe;

Ø  Nationalism in Germany…could that lead to anything exciting historically speaking? 

Ø  Revolution in Latin America

Ø  The deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphics