Review Unit #13: Reactions to Political Revolutions

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

• the new government of France (after the Revolution) was weak – Napoleon took it over and made himself Emperor
• he made France strong again    
  
  • improved the economy
  • created public education
  • created the Napoleonic Code (set of laws for everyone to follow)
  • built a huge army
• used the huge army to take over most of Europe
• spread the seeds of the French Revolution (democracy) to other areas of Europe
• was finally defeated and banished to a far away island (St. Helena) and died there

CONGRESS OF VIENNA

• a meeting of European leaders
  
  • Conservative: to reorganize Europe the way it was before Napoleon took over
    
    • put borders back the way they were
    • reinstall kings and Queens that had been in power
  • Balance of Power:  don’t let any one nation in Europe get so powerful again

1848

there were many small revolutions all over Europe that year

NATIONALISM

Nationalism is the act of creating a nation

• Unifying Nationalism: when people that have common binds decide to come together to form a new nation
  
  • GERMANY: organized by Otto von Bismark
  • ITALY: organized by Guiseppe Garibaldi
• Separating Nationalism:   when different ethnic groups within a nation want to form their own—separate nations
  
  • AUSTRIA:  Hungarians, Serbs, Germans, and other small ethnic groups wanted their own nations
• Independence Nationalism: when a colony wants independence from another power
  
  • LATIN AMERICA: wanted freedom from Spanish, Portuguese and French control

If you already have a nation – nationalism is the pride (patriotism) you have for that nation

RUSSIA

• was not affected by the revolutionary ideas that were sweeping the rest of Europe at this time
• freed their serfs (finally) in the middle of the 1800’s—This created a huge peasant class that was very poor

LATIN AMERICA

• after the revolutions—not much changed
  
  • the Europeans left
  • rich land owners became the new leaders (they paid the military to support them)
  • poor peasants remained poor peasants—the revolution had little affect on them
  • rural (out in the country) gang leaders called caudillos terrorized peasants and controlled large rural areas
  • The Roman Catholic Church continued to try to keep peace between the strong (caudillos and landowners) and the weak (peasants)

Mexican Revolution (1910–1930)

• Causes:
  
  • Wealth was all going to a small upper class
  • Leader (Diaz) brutally suppressed all opposition
• Revolution led by Zapta (leader of southern Native Americans)—“Poncho” Villa (northern bandit)
• Results:
  
  • Rebels won – more rights and land to workers and women
  • New Constitution:  first Latin American country to give good changes to the common people
  • More Mexican control of trade and industry (not foreign [Spanish] control)