One Ocean, Four Revolutions
Between 1776 and 1826, four major upheavals transformed the Atlantic world:
- The American Revolution (1776–1783)
- The French Revolution (from 1789)
- The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804)
- The Spanish American wars of independence (1808–1826)
Historians debate whether to view these as one connected Atlantic phenomenon.
The French Revolution
France faced state bankruptcy from war debts. The Crown was forced to summon the Estates General in May 1789 for the first time since 1614.
| Date | Event | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| 20 June 1789 | Tennis Court Oath | Third Estate claims sovereignty |
| 14 July 1789 | Bastille falls | Popular force enters politics |
| 4 August 1789 | Night of 4 August | Feudal privileges abolished |
| 26 August 1789 | Declaration of the Rights of Man | Universal Rights asserted |
| 10 August 1792 | Tuileries stormed | Monarchy effectively ends |
| 21 January 1793 | Louis XVI executed | Republic cuts off retreat |
| 27 July 1794 | Thermidor | The Terror ends |
In November 1799, the coup of Brumaire brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power. He later issued the Civil Code of 1804, spreading legal equality across Europe.
Haiti
Haiti challenged the entire colonial order. Saint-Domingue was a brutally exploited plantation colony worked by half a million enslaved people.
- In August 1791, enslaved workers launched an uprising.
- The French Convention abolished slavery in February 1794.
- Bonaparte tried to restore slavery in 1802 but failed.
- On 1 January 1804, Haiti declared its independence.
Historian Michel-Rolph Trouillot showed that European thinkers long treated this victory as unthinkable.
Historiography
Debates over the French Revolution remain sharp:
- The social interpretation viewed it as a bourgeois victory over feudalism.
- Alfred Cobban rejected these class definitions using empirical data on revolutionary leaders.
- François Furet analysed the Revolution as an ideological and political dynamic.
Common pitfall: Viewing the Terror as alien to the Revolution. It arose directly from wartime pressures and revolutionary institutions.