AOR: Lesson - The Wider Web of Revolutions

The Wider Web of Revolutions

The Age of Revolutions can be confusing because there are so many, and they happen somewhat simultaneously. A traditional look at this Age of Revolutions tends to favor a timeline or a chain like this:

A graphic showing a linear list of the revolutions from earliest to latest.
Image note - text: The Glorious Revolution (1688) inspired...The American Revolution (1776-1783) inspired...The French Revolution (1789-1799) inspired...The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) inspired....The Latin American Revolutions (1810-1824).

This is easy to look at but simplifies a lot of the history. Even though it requires more nuance and isn’t as visually easy to remember, the Age of Revolutions looks more like this following, much more complicated image. Take some time to look over the image and the description which follows:

The Wider Web of Revolution diagram. Text below image explains details

Let's take a moment to draw out the information from this image. Use the chart below as a guide for the image. Not every text box is included in the chart to avoid duplicating text. The text boxes in the image include: Spain, France, Brazil, Portugal, Great Britain, the USA, Haiti, Kongo, Native Americans, Mexico, and South America.

Image Text Guide
Spain France Great Britain USA Haiti Brazil
  • Attacked Great Britain (1600s-1800s)
  • Supported USA (1780s)
  • Mexico Revolted (1810-1812)
  • South America Revolted (1811-1825)
  • Attacked Spain (1600s-1800s) and king dethroned (1808)
  • Attacked Great Britain (1600s-1800s)
  • Allied with Native Americans (1750s)
  • Threatened Portugal (1805-1815)
  • Supported USA (1780s)
  • Inspired Haitian Revolution (1790s)
  • Allies (1770s) or enemies (1600-1700s) with Native Americans
  • Inspired USA (1600s)
  • Attacked Haiti (1803)
  • Revolted against Great Britain (1776-1783)
  • At various times, the USA was an ally to Native Americans but was also often an enemy.
  • Supported French Revolution (1803)
  • Inspired by Kongo (1700s)
  • Revolted against France (1791-1804)
  • Inspired Mexican Revolution (early 1800s)
  • Inspired South American Revolution (early 1800s)
  • Led to Abolition from Great Britain (1807)
  • Inspired slave revolts in the USA (1811)
  • Gained independence from Portugal (1822)

What's Not Included?

Whew! That's quite the web, isn't it? And this image doesn’t even include any Prussian, Austrian, Hessian, Russian, and Dutch involvement, although these countries also actively participated in one or many revolutions. It also doesn’t include the European revolutions of 1848 and it lumps “Native Americans” into one entity, while in reality dozens of individual tribes changed their alliances between Great Britain, France, Spain, and the United States as it benefited them.

But, even in a somewhat simplified form, this web demonstrates how alliances shifted, how wars spilled across continents, and how many revolutionaries’ ideas inspired other revolutions, even if those revolutionaries rejected the country that originated the revolutionary idea.

Conclusion

The Age of Revolution, and revolutionary ideals, were messy but utterly human. The friction between mother country and liberated colony, ideals and reality, between conservative and liberal factions, and between monarchy and republic (and tyranny) didn’t disappear overnight. The legacy of this era would impact the next: the World at War. 

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