Maurizio's Connections

 

How did the enlightenment influence the age of revoluion?

 

The age of revolution was greatly influenced by the new ideologies created during the enlightenment. Revolutions such as the american, haitian, and rio de la plata all used these new ideologies when starting their revolutions and creating their new government. Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the united states of america, used john locke's works while creating the declaration of independence, he even uses almost the same wording, he states that that “whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends (protecting the people's natural human rights) it is the right g the people to alter or to abolish it”. It is clear that thomas jefferson read john locke's books and used his ideas as inspiration while writing the declaration of independence. In the haitian revolution, toussant l'overture was inspired by the european philosophies, and because of this, he rebelled against the government and he motivated many other slaves to do so too. In the rio de la plata revolution, san martin used the ideas the enlightened thinkers came up with, since he was in europe during the enlightenment, it was a very big part of his life. He saw that the spanish king had just been taken out of power and used this as an example when convincing the people in rio de la plata to rebel. These examples are all important, because we learn how much impact a new idea can have all around the world.  

 

How did the french revolution influence others?

 

The french revolution was one of the many causes for some other revolutions in the americas like brazil, haiti, and rio de la plata. In brazil, the french invasions to spain caused the portugese royal family to become scared for their safety, so the whole family moved to brazil. In brazil, they set up infrastructure good enough for brazil to become the capital of the empire, as well as they upgraded their status from a colony to a kingdom, making it equal to portugal. After a while, the king of portugal (now living in brazil) had to move back to portugal, but he left his son in charge of brazil. The people in portugal disliked the fact that brazil was equal, so they lowered the status back to a colony, moved the capital back to portugal and started to impose trading restrictions on the colony. These events infuriated the brazilian people, so they rebeled and declared their independence from portugal. In haiti, when the french revolution started, a few different groups were made and they started to rebel against the government. three if these groups were the grand blancs, who fought to gain freedom and independence from france, the petit blancs fought to be equal to the grand, and the people of color who wanted more rights. In rio de la plata, the case was a little different, when the french revolution started, and napoleon took over spain, they saw that the spanish government had lost a lot of its power, and they used this as an opportunity to rebel and gain independence without much resistance. As you can see, the french revolution caused many others, and it is important because you can see how one revolution or rebellion can cause a domino effect that affects many more people.  

What role did inequality play in tha age of revolutions?

 

Enequality was probably one of the main cause of many revoutions around the world, some examples being the french, haitian, and brazilian revolutions. In the french revolution, there was a large population increase, especially en the lower classes, there were also many droughts, so this caused the farmers to lose their jobs and the ones who did keep them, were only paid very little. In haiti, around 90 percent of the population were slaves and most of them were living in very poor working conditions, including diseases and harsh treatment, by the end, the slaves were tired of living in those conditions and they realized that they were the majority, so they rebelled against the government and gained their independence as well as some rights. In brazil, the lowering of the status to colony, the imposing of new taxes and the discrimination of brazilian-born european decendants in high-ranking jobs brought the need of a revolution and independence. It is undeniable that inequality plays a huge role in revolutions and it is important because we can see how, if people are not treated well and their concerns are not adressed, they are eventually going to revolt and they are going to try to fix the problem themselves.

 

Overall, what caused these revolutions?

The main causes of all of the revolutions during the age of revolution were inequality, the new ideologies that were formed during the enlightenment, and the influence from other revolutions. Inequality was a cause in all revolutions, whether it was social, political or economic, in some cases like brazil, some people were excluded from high-ranking jobs, in haiti, slaves were discriminated and had very little rights, and in france, the people were taxed large amounts to make up for the money spent supporting the american revolution. The new ideologies also affected every revolution in some way, for example, the american revolution using john locke's work to create the declaration of independence, or people being inspired to overthrow the government like in rio de la plata and in haiti. Finally, another reason why these revolutions happened and why they were all in the same time period is that they used each other as examples and some even as strategy, like in rio de la plata who used the french revolution and invasion of spain to revolt while spain was weakened and their focus was to in europe, not in their colonies.