5.3 III: Increasing discontent with imperial rule propelled reformist and revolutionary movements.
A: Subjects challenged centralized imperial governments.
1) One example of this is the challenge of the Marathas kingdom in the southwest of India to the Mughal sultans. The emperor at the time, Emperor Aurangzeb, his foe was Prince Shivaji, the leader of the Hindu Marathas. Since the Marathas were Hindu, they did not like living under the Muslim Mughal sultans. So, they began to fight to win the right of the recognition of their homeland. Aurangzeb used European gunners to capture many of Shivaji's forts. Shivaji didn't have very many musketeers, so he relied on swift mounts and guerrilla raids. After Shivaji's death, Aurangzeb sent a huge offensive. The Marathas bounced back after a few decades and won the recognition of their homeland.
2) Another example of this is the challenge of the Taipings to the Manchus of the Qing dynasty. To the Chinese, social discontent and economic distress were signs that the current dynasty had lost the Mandate of Heaven (political legitimacy). The Taiping rebellion only further weakened the Qing's government crisis. They had already taken a huge blow from European economic and military assault. However, the leaders of the Taiping rebellion began to fight among themselves and adopt lavish lifestyles. This only weakened the rebellion. Eventually, I was defeated by the Hunan militia in 1864 under the scholar-official Zeng Guofan. The lesson learned by intellectuals and officials was the value of Westernization. This led to the opening of mines and the development of textile industries, railroads, and the telegraph in the 1870s.
B: American colonial subjects led a series of rebellions-including the American Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and the Latin American independence movements-that facilitated the emergence of independent states in the US, Haiti, and mainland Latin America. French subjects rebelled against their monarchy.
1) The American Revolution. Basically, the American colonists were mad at the British and began to rebel to become independent. Eventually, they did, becoming the USA. The colonists were mad at the British for a variety of reasons. A huge reason was taxation. Ever heard that phrase, "No taxation without representation!" before? That came from when the colonists thought they were being taxed too much with no say in the matter. Britain was taxing them because they were in a LOT of debt from the Seven Years War with France. Since the war had been about protecting the US colonies, it seemed fit for them to pay it off. Another reason why the US was mad at Britain was Mercantilism. If you remember, Mercantilism is where a colony sends raw materials to its mother country. There, they are processed and sold back to the colony for a price the mother country gets to decide. The colonists didn't like that they had to do this either. So, the fighting began when all the colonies were unanimous, except for New York because the British had it surrounded. The USA officially got its independence on July 4th, 1776 when everyone signed the Declaration of Independence. Then, finally a few years later, the US won its independence and became a separate state.
2) The French Revolution was inspired in part by the American Revolution. It started when France went bankrupt. This happened because they were in huge debt for helping the Americans and the nobles didn't have to pay taxes. King Louis XVI then called the Esate General, which basically the French version of Parliament. It was made of 3 estates: the 1st had the nobles, the 2nd had the clergy, and the 3rd was everyone else. This meeting helped the problem in no way whatsoever, and King Louis eventually locked the 3rd estate out of the meeting. The 3rd estate left and formed the National Assembly in an indoor tennis court where they took the Tennis Court Oath to form their own separate government for the poor. King Louis sent troops to Bastille. This provoked the rebels and they stormed Bastille prison (Yay Bastille Day!) supposedly to free the prisoners, but they really only wanted to get their hands on guns. The rebels later wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. This was all the beginning. Then began the Terror. The Terror happened when everyone in France were fighting. People on the same side fought each other. Things turned bloody. Finally, King Louis and his wife, Marie Antoinette were executed by guillotine by the rebels. Things then turned chaotic. That was when Napoleon took over. When Napoleon finally died, France's monarchs were returned, but their power was severely limited. France became more of a republic.
3) France controled Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean-modern day Haiti. The slaves here worked on plantations and were badly mistreated. Women even used plant induced abortions to prevent bringing a child into misery. These conditions allowed for many slave uprisings. Many escaped and formed their own communities. The ones who stayed behind were roused by news of the French Revolution. They began an organized slave uprising in 1791. They had success after success. Eventually, an enthusiastic French official was sent to calm them. What he did was the opposite of what anyone espected. He issued a proclamation in 1793 granting the slaves their freedom. Then Napoleon gained power and began to fight against the rebels. However, they persevered and proclaimed the independent republic of Haiti in 1804.
4) The Latin American independence movements took place between the slaves, the Spanish, and Napoleon. The fighting began because of empire discontent among people and rivalries between creoles and Spanish-born officials. It ended when Latin American slaves became independent in different areas. These areas became different idenpendent states: Mexico, Peru, and Brazil.
C: Slave resistance challenged esisting authorities in the Americas.
1) One example of this is the establishment of Maroon societies in the Caribbean or Brazil. Maroons were slaves who ran away from their plantations and formed their own slave communities in different areas of the Carribean and Brazil. This is an example of resistance because it showed how little they were willing to work on plantations.
2) North American slaves revoted in more peaceful ways. They weren't freed until the 1800s, so they did little things, like, leaving their tools too blunt or breaking them so their masters would have to get a new one.
D: Increasing questions about political authority and growing nationalism contributed to anticolonial movements.
1) An example of this is the Boxer Rebellion in Qing China. Defeat in 1895 at the hands of Japan rocked the faith of ordinary people in China's future. So, peasants organized locally into secret societies to restore Chinese integrity. One society was the Society of the Righteous and Harnomious Fists or the Boxers. They believed that ritual boxing would protect them from a variety of evils, including bullets. In 1900, when the Boxers reached the height of their power, troops from Europe, the US, and Japan invaded to crush what the West was calling "the yellow peril". The Chinese were defeated and endured foreign military occupation and had to pay a huge indemnity. The Qing dynasty faced its downfall.
E: Some of the rebellions were influenced by diverse religious ideas.
1) An example of this is the Ghost Dance in the US. The Native Americans in the US were being treated horribly. So, one day, a man named Wovoka claimed to be a messiah to the natives to deliver them from their suffering and get rid of their white oppressors. This gave the natives hope that they would one day get better.
5.3 IV: The global spread of European political and social thought and the increasing number of rebellions stumulated new transnational ideologies and solidarities.
A: Discontent with monarchist and imperial rule encouraged the debelopment of political ideologies, including liberalism, socialism, and communism.
1) Liberalism is a political ideology that emphasizes free trade, individual rights, and the rule of law to protect rights as the best means for promoting social and economic improvement.
2) Socialism if you'll remember, ties in closely with Communism and has many of the founding ideas. It is a social and political ideology that stresses the need to maintain social harmony through communities based on cooperation rather than competition; in Marxist terms, a classless society of workers who collectively control the production of goods necessary for life.
3) Communism is the system with the thoughts of Karl Marx and the solidified ideas of Vladimir Lenin. It is a classless, stateless society. Everyone is equal.
B: Demands for women's suffrage and an emergent feminism challenged political and gender hierarchies.
1) One example of these demands is Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women. It opened people's eyes to how women were so badly suppressed and held back in society. It demanded that women have more rights.
2) Another example is Olympe de Gouges's "Declaration of the RIghts of Women and the Female Citizen". It demanded that women be equel to men and encourages women to actually recognize it when they are being demeaned. Sadly, Olympe de Gouges words earned her a trip to the guillotine for being too revolutionary to the French.
3) A last example is the resolutions passed at the Seneca Falls Conference in 1848. This was the first ever women's rights meeting in the US. Together, they came up with a list of rights and resolutions for women.
Next time, we'll look at 5.4. See you then!
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