Chapter Seventeen: Atlantic Revolutions and Their Echoes

In the beginning of this chapter we are comparing four different revolutions. Those revolutions being: The North American Revolution, The French Revolution, The Haitian Revolution, and the Spanish American Revolutions.  In European History, the French Revolution was the most significant. The French Revolution had followed after the American Revolution. The American Revolution had led to the establishment of the United States, or the beginning establishment. The Haitian Revolution was the first successful slave revolt, and we are followed to the Spanish American Revolution which was the end of the Spanish and Portuguese colonial rule leading to the establishment of Latin America. There of course were many other Revolutions that followed these, but the Revolutions above were like the first gun shot fired, leading to other’s inspirations and want to fight for rights.

These revolutions were not separate. More so that they obviously inspired each other in a chain. Thomas Jefferson, who was the American Revolutionary leader, was the U.S. ambassador to France in the midst of the French Revolution and gave advice and encouraging words to the reformers and the revolutionaries.  The leader of the Spanish American Revolution, Simon Bolivar, had visited Haiti twice, where he had received military aid. Not only did these revolutions have direct influence on one another, but they all shared common ideas and central thoughts that pushed them to fight. Among the list of ideas were the fight for, “…equality, free trade, religious tolerance, republicanism, and human rationality…” (500) These ideas did not just come from out of nowhere in these countries, but spread from the ideas of Enlightenment in Europe and across the Atlantic.

In political terms, “popular sovereignty” was among it all and a central idea. It means that “…the authority to govern derived from the people rather than from God or from established tradition.” (500) Other than Haiti, there has been arguing case in that the Revolutions only got any sort of gain from the Revolutions, whereas women, slaves, Native Americans, and men who had little to no property did not gain much. However the ideas that it did accomplish could give them hope and insight for the future. T

These Atlantic Revolutions have also been known to be referred to as, “democratic revolutions.” This is because of its fight on political rights had been the point across along with the other central ideas that they fought for.

But it is important to lastly note that through all these similarities, they were substantially different from each other. They were sparked by different events, different circumstances, difference in social and political distresses, and each varied in their outcomes and what they were able to accomplish and bring about.  The book notes that, “‘Digesting Liberty’ occurred in quite distinct ways in the various sites of the Atlantic Revolutions.”