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Hey folks,
This is part two in a hot potato history series with Cypher over at Cynical Historian.
Each week we’re going to alternate talking about major revolutions in world history.
Last week, Cypher talked about The General Crisis, a period where the world became more
centralized in terms of organization.
What we are talking about today is where we see a major shift in who holds the power in
society.
A new class of wealthy people arose, and because of changes in economics and technology, became
extremely powerful, in many ways toppling the rule of kings and emperors.
At the beginning of this period in the western world from the mid 1770s to 1815, called the
Bourgeois revolution, people still lived under aristocratic rule.
Even England after the English civil war gave much of its power to the king, lords, earls,
dukes, and whatnot.
This aristocratic class held its power by owning land.
In a society dominated by farming, land roughly equated power.
However, things were beginning to change.
There has always been a small class of people who didn’t own farmland, but made an income
as artisans.
Butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, you know the drill.
Their lives were often modest, as their entire existence relied on selling enough of their
stuff to feed, clothe, and house themselves.
Given how long these products would take to make, this was quite a feat.
Around the same time, the european powers were also in a mad dash to colonize the world,
finding that conquering, enslaving, and subjugating the globe was very profitable.
This colonization led to a massive influx in raw goods and a corresponding drop in prices
for those goods, which was far more than our artisan class could possibly compete with.
The result was that many colonial agricultural plantations throughout the British empire
needed to reduce the cost of labour in order to make profits, hence the explosion of slavery.
The price changes also meant that the market called for many MANY more people in the manufacturing
sector, rather than farmhands.
We should also pause, and talk about some key technological innovations in this period
that contributed to the shifting scales of power.
Around the 1760s, huge inventions in chemical engineering, and iron production made goods
much cheaper, and more efficient use of water power, and even steam power meant that the
act of making manufactured goods could skyrocket.
So some entrepreneurial people changed their tactic of making stuff out of their own houses,
and instead started buying the materials, distributing it to many workers, and giving
them a share of their profits rather than the workers keeping all the profit themselves
like in the past.
By owning the raw material, the entrepreneurs were entitled in their minds to the lion's
share of the profit.
This later developed into manufactories, where entrepreneurs would have large buildings where
they would pay people to work, giving them money by the hour rather than based on how
much they made.
This was the first time we had people going to work, clocking in, and clocking out.
When water and steam power was added to the mix, new machines allowed more stuff to be
made, with workers who had less skill.
In just a few decades, it was possible to be very rich without having peasants, serfs,
and slaves working for you on farms.
You could own a few factories, pay your workers as low a wage as you could get away with and
make some mad profit (more on these guys in the future installment of this series) .
This new wealthy class, just like Rodney Dangerfield, had issues with getting respect.
In this period, the idea of working for your money was actually a sign of low birth, and
aristocrats refused to acknowledge these people as part of the rich people club.
Even southern gentlemen who actually embraced this philosophy were rejected as peripheral
riff raff.
They often mocked their attempts to act like the wealthy.
The new rich did not sit idly by as they were mocked by the aristocrats.
They developed their own sets of values.
These ideas consisted of the sacredness of owning and working property, their demands
for the right to manage their own affairs without giving tribute to local lords, and
the desire to think and worship as they saw fit.
It eventually resulted in the book Common Sense by Thomas Paine, who wrote that he didn’t
see all that much use for kings and lords.
All of this led to a string of revolutions throughout the western world in the late 1700s
and early 1800s.
When the British, after the seven years war, refused their 13 colonies the right to expand
into native territory, imposed taxation to pay off the king’s war debts, and suppressed
the freedom of speech in Boston, this group said no more.
They revolted, using the language they had developed over the centuries of liberty and
property.
Ideas that have roots as far back as the English Civil War discussed last week.
The revolt escalated into a revolution, and in 1776, representatives of this class from
the colonies declared their land an independent state.
By 1783, they were internationally recognized as the United States of America.
The new US constitution created in 1787 made sure to implement a form of democracy, but
one that left out anyone but this bourgeoisie class from voting.
Much of the western world heard about these ideas, which while designed for the new rich,
were written in very universal language.
All men are created equal, life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, etc.
These ideas would be received very well in other parts of the world.
For example, In France, where the government was very aristocratic, and very unequal, people
started to resent their leaders.
Again, the imposition of high taxes, a bad harvest, and the resentment of the privileges
of the aristocrats led to a very fast revolution in 1789.
The French revolutionaries abolished feudalism, threw out the catholic church, and established
the rights of man and the citizen.
This is actually where our terms left and right wing come from, as left wing revolutionaries
fought with right wing monarchists.
The revolutionaries declared a democratic, secular state with freedom of religion, divorce,
decriminalization of same sex relationships, and even rights for black and jewish people.
The reaction from Europe was fast and brutal.
France quickly found itself at war with basically the entire continent.
The revolution then began to have issues with organization and rule.
A committee led by Maximilien Robespierre imposed a dictatorship that executed anyone
who disagreed with them as counter-revolutionary.
Another council, called the directory then took over in 1795, but kept delaying elections.
In a military coup, they fell to Napoleon Bonaparte.
Bonaparte’s rulership was marked by wars where France conquered much of Europe, toppling
monarchies, and imposing these new ideas inspired by the Americans.
The French revolution sparked conflicts around the world, and led to the independence of
colonies like Mexico and Haiti, as well as unrest in India and China.
It would be the decline of the absolute monarchies that came out of the general crisis, and the
rise of the modern state.
Many call this the beginning of the “modern” era.
Following these bourgeois revolutions, we enter a new world, where kings that dominated
the world begin to lose their power, and in their place, rises a new class of people,
the business owners, and the professionals who would reign supreme.
Will this dominance last?
Well, we will just have to see when Cypher picks up the story on the spring of nations
next week.
There will be a link somewhere around here when it’s up.
Do you think the entire world can experience a revolution like this, or are there just
too many pieces that aren't connected?
Let me know what you think down below.
If this is your first time here, and you want to see more history videos, subscribe to this
channel, and click on the i in the corner to see the whole series so far.
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of advice for growing a channel and making videos.
And of course come back soon for more Step Back.