MEPX
Chapter 1 of 10All chapters
  1. 1The age of revolutions
  2. 2Industrial society
  3. 3Empire and nationalism
  4. 4The First World War
  5. 5Between the wars
  6. 6The Second World War
  7. 7Building a new order
  8. 8The Cold War
  9. 9Decolonisation and civil rights
  10. 10Since 1991

Chapter 1 of 10

The age of revolutions

1776 to 1848.

New claims

American, French and Haitian revolutions turned arguments about consent, rights and equality into governments, with very different outcomes and levels of violence.

  • The Haitian revolution was the only successful large-scale slave revolt to found a state.
  • Latin American independence followed in the 1810s and 1820s.

Reaction

The Congress of Vienna restored monarchies after Napoleon, but the ideas persisted and returned in the revolutions of 1848 across much of Europe.