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World History Unit 5: Revolutions (c. 1750–1900)

Enlightenment ideas sparked political revolutions, while industrialization transformed economies and societies.

Covers: The Enlightenment, nationalism and revolutions, industrialization, industrial technology, the state and industrialization, capitalism and reform

Study guide

Enlightenment thinkers applied reason to politics and society. John Locke argued that people have natural rights to life, liberty and property and that governments rest on the consent of the governed. Montesquieu proposed separation of powers, Rousseau wrote about the social contract and Voltaire championed religious toleration and free speech. These ideas inspired revolutions. The American Revolution (1775–1783) created a republic. The French Revolution (1789) overthrew the monarchy, issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and eventually led to Napoleon. The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804), led by Toussaint L'Ouverture, was the only successful slave revolt to create an independent state. Simón Bolívar led independence movements in Latin America, where creoles resented peninsulares. Nationalism, the belief that people with a shared language and culture should have their own state, drove the unification of Italy and Germany.

The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain around 1750. Britain had coal and iron, rivers and canals, a growing population freed by the agricultural revolution and enclosure, capital from trade, and a stable government. Factories replaced the cottage industry, starting with textiles, and the steam engine (improved by James Watt) powered machines, railroads and steamships. The Second Industrial Revolution brought steel, chemicals, electricity and the telegraph. Industrialization spread to Western Europe, the United States, Russia and Japan, where the Meiji Restoration (1868) rapidly modernized the state. In contrast, Egypt under Muhammad Ali tried state-sponsored industrialization with limited success.

Industrial capitalism, explained by Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, encouraged free markets and private ownership. Workers faced long hours, child labor and dangerous conditions, leading to labor unions, reforms and new ideologies. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto, calling for workers to overthrow capitalism. Women's suffrage movements, abolition and other reforms grew, and some states reformed to resist pressure, like the Ottoman Tanzimat reforms.

Industrialization created a new middle class and an urban working class and moved work out of the home. Middle-class ideals cast women as homemakers in a 'separate sphere,' while working-class women and children labored in factories and mines. Rapid urbanization brought crowded housing and disease, which led to public sanitation reforms. Mary Wollstonecraft argued for women's education and equal rights. The 1848 Seneca Falls Convention in the US helped launch organized suffrage campaigns, and New Zealand became the first country to grant women the national vote (1893).

Liberalism (constitutions, individual rights and free markets), conservatism (defense of monarchy and tradition) and socialism competed as political ideologies. In Russia, finance minister Sergei Witte used state funds and foreign investment to build railroads such as the Trans-Siberian.

Key ideas

• Enlightenment ideas of natural rights and consent inspired revolutions.
• The Haitian Revolution was the only successful slave revolt to form a state.
• Nationalism drove independence movements and unification.
• Britain industrialized first because of resources, capital and labor.
• Industrial working conditions led to unions, reforms and socialism.

Formulas and rules

Common mistakes

• Thinking Latin American independence was led by Indigenous people; creoles led most movements.
• Saying industrialization began in the US; it began in Britain.

Words to know

Enlightenment

Intellectual movement applying reason to society and government.

Natural rights

Locke's rights to life, liberty and property.

Social contract

The idea that government rests on an agreement with the people.

Separation of powers

Montesquieu's idea of dividing government into branches.

Declaration of the Rights of Man

French revolutionary statement of rights (1789).

Haitian Revolution

Slave revolt that created independent Haiti.

Simón Bolívar

Leader of independence movements in South America.

Nationalism

The belief that a people with a shared culture should have their own nation.

Industrial Revolution

Shift from hand production to machine and factory production.

Enclosure movement

Fencing off common lands, pushing farmers into cities.

Steam engine

Machine powered by steam, improved by James Watt.

Second Industrial Revolution

Industrial phase with steel, chemicals and electricity.

Meiji Restoration

Japan's rapid modernization beginning in 1868.

Adam Smith

Economist who argued for free markets in The Wealth of Nations.

Karl Marx

Philosopher who called for a workers' revolution against capitalism.

Labor union

Organization of workers bargaining for better wages and conditions.

Tanzimat reforms

Ottoman modernization reforms in the 1800s.

Sample practice questions

5 more questions like these, from level 1 to 5, are in the practice set.