Atlantic revolutions and the formation of revolutionary movements

Atlantic Revolutions and How the Structure of the Atlantic World Created the Environment for These Revolutionary Movements to Form

The objective of this study is to examine the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions, known as the Atlantic Revolutions and to answer as to how the structure of the Atlantic World created the environment for these revolutionary movements to form. The North American Revolution took place between 1775 and 1878. The French Revolution took place between 1789 and 1815, and the Haitian Revolution between 1971 and 1804 and finally the Spanish American Revolutions between 1810 and 1825. These revolutions were found because of the issues of slavery, nations and nationalism, and the beginnings of feminism. In fact, the entire century from 1750 to 1850 was a century of revolutions. Political revolutions occurred in North America, France, Haiti, and Spanish South America. All of the revolutions were derived from ideas concerning Enlightenment. Revolution was certainly on the mind of Thomas Paine, author of "Common Sense' (1776) a work that is stated to allow a "biographical glimpse of the larger currents of revolutionary changes in this period. Specifically, it is stated "Paine foresaw that the struggle to create an independent republic free of monarchy was a cause of worldwide importance. For Paine, success would make America." (The Atlantic Revolutions, 2012, p.1) Soon followed the work to the Atlantic to the French Colony of St. Domingue in the Caribbean and an independent black-run Republic of Haiti in 1804 resulted in the U.S. being "joined by a second republican experiment in the New World." (The Atlantic Revolutions, 2012, p.1) Life in America was much freer than it was in Europe in that there was no titled nobility, no established church, the people had a right to be represented in Parliament, and they possessed local autonomy. The settlers of the New World had grown used to their liberties and objected greatly when control was tightened by the British government. The reasons for the revolution in France are many and include revolutionary ideas being introduced, the belief in liberal freedoms for all men, the belief in taking up arms against tyranny, and the fact that King Louse XVI preferred his own personal interests to those of the court. There was a need for tax reform in France and nobles in France were determined not to give up their tax concessions. The Haitian Revolution was won on January 1, 1804, when the victors proclaimed their independence and named the country Haiti, which was the original name of the island of Taino prior to Columbus arriving. The individual who led the victory, Jean-Jacques Dessalines "warned of the spirit of proselytism that could destroy the whole enterprise. Let us leave our neighbors alone, let them live under their own laws." (Klooster, 2009) However, peace was not yet because it was decreed that anyone who had been born a Frenchman that sets foot in Haiti would be killed and this is precisely what occurred. Of the 240 men women and children who were French that remained in Haiti, 208 were killed. In spite of the victory against France, Haiti was still a place with discriminatory characteristics and Haiti remained divided for fourteen years with the north and south disagreeing on whether to cut all ties with France or to continue with the association with France. The differences between the north and south Haiti people were not near as much as the similarities in that "Both regimes consciously emulated European Polities, systematically banning voudou -- while endorsing Roman Catholicism. Autocracy was another hallmark of both Haitian states." (Klooster, 2009) Reported as the primary problem with Haitian politics, following i9ndepdence "was the legitimacy of the plantation economy." (Klooster, 2009, p.115) It is reported that in Spain was characterized by "the preeminent group in these hierarchically structured societies" or those of the predominantly Creole or the locally born white aristocracy" (Klooster, 2009, p.115) Some of these individuals could trace their ancestry to the conquistadores, while other families had amassed wreath and noble titles through mining, plaiting or other forms of entrepreneurship. The preserved their family fortunes preferably by creating entail, the consolidation of property that could not be divided and thus passed entirely from generation to generation." (Klooster, 2009, p.115) The Creoles are reported to have held the elite status in peninsulares of Spanish-born officeholders, merchants, and military officers whose career had brought them to the Americas and whose children were frequently creoles." (Klooster, 2009, p.115) At the top of the hierarchy was the monarch's seat stated "universally seen as a benevolent ruler and the source of all justice, whose role it was to arbitrate disputes." (Klooster, 2009, p.115) The noble, commoner, Creole or peninsular, all whites are reported to have "found themselves at the apex of societies that were organized according to racial hierarchies." (Klooster, 2009, p.115) At the start there was separation between Indian communities and Spanish towns even though the Spaniards and mestizos "began to settle in highland native communities in early colonial times" that type of migration was prohibited according to Klooster (2009) until the "mid-eighteenth century." (Klooster, 2009, p.115) Under King Charles III (175901788) the segregative laws were annulled, as the authorities took away Indian common lands in areas with prized farmland, forcibly removing Indians form their ancestral lands." (Klooster, 2009, p.115) Those of African birth and descent are reported to have experienced no changes of a fundamental nature through the colonial period as "black slaves were by law relegated to a miserable existence and free blacks and mulattoes-unlike mestizos encountered numerous obstacles because of their ascribed vices, all purportedly rooted in their slave origins." (Klooster, 2009, p.115) These individuals are reported to have "paid a special royal tribute" although they were not allowed "to live on their own, could not become clergymen, scribes, or notaries, could not have Indian servants and females were forbidden to wear gold, silk, or pearls. They did not even have the right to walk side by whites in the streets, nor were they to be given a chair in a white houses." (Klooster, 2009, p.115) The Creoles held that their rights, political offices and privileges were due them as a reward for their royal descent claimed from the conquistadors "and their purity of blood." (Klooster, 2009, p.115) King Charles III decreed that no marriages where the union was "Marked by a notable inequity between the parties" would be accepted. Laws were formed again the union between whites and Indians, mulattoes, or blacks, or even whites an and a mixture of nonwhite blood." (Klooster, 2009, p.115) Following the revolution in Spain the constitution adopted was such that "abolished the Inquisition, Indian tribute, and forced labor. It limited the role of the king, created provincial deputations that were to serve as colonial legislatures and set up a Council of State that was to be the Crown's only advisory body." (Klooster, 2009, p.115) Elections were indirect and involved three stages: (1) men born in Span or Spanish American residing in any part of the empire had the right to vote.; (2) domestic servants, criminals, public debtors, member of the regular orders and men of African extraction, but all other males, Indians and mestizos among them, were authorized to vote provided they had a place of residence." (Klooster, 2009, p.115) It is reported that day laborers, muleteers, and shepherds were part of the electorate. This meant in Mexico City, that approximately 93% of all adult males "were enfranchised." (Klooster, 2009, p.115) The structure of the environment that made the Atlantic ripe for Revolutions at that time in history was quite simply colonial rule, oppression of classes, and lack of freedom and autonomy. Over-taxation of the poor and middle classes, slavery of the African-American and refranchising of the rights of certain races to vote and own land all worked in a boiling cauldron just waiting for the fire to be stoked to a roar of rebellion against the ruling parties. The cultural shift following each revolution was significant although these shifts occurred in layered happenings and over time to culminate in a self-rule by the people and for the people following the 100 years stretch of the Atlantic Revolutions.