supplanted by Enlightenment ideas of equality, citizenship, and natural rights. The immediate causes of the revolution lay in poor harvests, bankruptcy due to past wars, an antiquated financial system, and an inequitable tax structure. Frustrated by aristocratic resistance to reform, Louis XVI summoned the Estates General in 1789, and this body, replicated in several forms, led the country in painful stages to establish a constitutional monarchy and then in 1792 a secular, democratic republic called the Directory. Beset by conservative foreign enemies, the republic successfully defended itself for ten years, but in 1799 it was overthrown by one of its own generals, Napoleon Bonaparte, who as self-styled consul and then emperor, imposed internal order and embarked on a futile ten-year effort to conquer Europe.
Figure 18. Clattering and hissing steam driven looms crowding the floor of an English textile mill suggest the fierce regimentation of everyday life embodied in early industrial labor practices. Image courtesy of Library of Congress.
returned Louisiana — the territory between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains — to France. However, following the failure of the French effort to crush the rebellion of its colony in Haiti, Napoleon Bonaparte lost interest in the region. Needing funds to wage war in Europe, he stunned President Jefferson’s diplomatic representatives to France — Robert Livingston and James Monroe — by offering to sell Louisiana. The president, faced with an unexpected opportunity to double the nation’s size and in spite of his concern about exceeding the legal powers of the presidency, agreed to purchase Louisiana in 1803 for approximately $15 million. 1810–1822 Latin America Gains Independence from Europe In 1800 Spain’s empire in the New World stretched from the western regions of the United States to the southern tip of Latin America, and from the Caribbean to the Pacific Ocean. By 1825, but for several islands in the Caribbean, that empire had virtually disappeared, replaced by newly independent countries such as Argentina, Chile and Mexico. A number of developments hastened the process of imperial disintegration. The most profound were the experiences of the American and French Revolutions, which had a powerful impact on Spanish, Portuguese, and French colonies in North and South America. A contributing factor was that Spain failed to incorporate into its colonial administration the highly successful class of New World creoles, preferring instead to appoint native-born Spaniards. Also significant was the fact that the Spanish king, Charles IV, was an indecisive monarch, more interested in joining with Napoleonic France against the British than in preserving imperial holdings in the New World.
1790–1850 Industrial Revolution in England
Concurrent with the political revolution in France, an economic revolution was gathering speed in England. This transformation involved steady improvement of production, transportation, and communications through the substitution of mechanical devices for human labor. It was given its specific direction by inventions in the textile industry and by the application of steam to the operation of machines. Eighteenth century England was particularly receptive to innovation. The country had a damp climate favorable to the manufacture of textiles, large supplies of coal and iron, and decent roads, canals, and later railroads. It had a population drifting to cities where it could be employed in factories. It had played a leading role in the great Commercial Revolution of 1400–1700, and its colonial empire continued to furnish a variety of raw materials and markets. British businessmen had accumulated large amounts of investable capital, and thinkers like Adam Smith encouraged them to pursue their self-interest. The result was increased wealth, a growing population, and a rising standard of living, creating what some called the “British century.” SEE FIGURE 18 1803 United States Purchases Louisiana from France At the beginning of the 19th century the Mississippi River served as the western boundary of the United States. The region west of the Mississippi belonged to Spain, which had taken it from France under the terms of a peace treaty in 1762. Forty years later, as its own New World Empire was disintegrating, Spain secretly
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