#28 War, Revolution and the Struggle for European Domination 1750 to 1815: Conditions for Industrial Transformation in Europe

Characteristics of the global upheavals after the 1757 American Independence war were the collapse of ancient states, revolution, new leaders, new ideas, the end of ancient empires, the growth of new political and economic structures, the destruction of much social convention, and the formation of new leading global states. Cataclysmic war in this period destroyed much of the old social, legal, and political infrastructures, creating new systems in their place.

The dynamics that arose from European global exploration, colonisation and exploitation of the world’s wealth led to war and destruction.

The 1789 French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars that followed were the first of the two 20-plus year periods of global upheavals, closely associated, if not directly caused by, a combination of developments in science, capitalism, and the expansion of empires. Every aspect of domestic private and public life was shattered by each upheaval. Whole societies were left in flames and old institutions were hurled into the firestorm of history. The great upheavals of history have always been difficult to grasp in their entirety; historians continuously reinterpret these events every decade, as we try and grasp their consequences.

The French Revolution of 1789 was one such pivotal event which set all of Europe on fire. When the fire was eventually put out in 1815, the European scene had been fundamentally altered. The forces of the French Revolution lost, and the ancient regimes attempted to replace their broken structures. Violent overthrows of regimes would happen again throughout the 19th century. The ideas which dominated the revolution alongside those prevailing when North America seized power some 22 years earlier were summarised in Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man: a work, which has excited scholars and revolutionaries ever since. The idea that people’s actions can overthrow an unjust state has tumbled down through the ages.

The French Revolution itself, and Napoleon’s armies afterwards, attempted to abolish European feudalism. In practice, this meant the end of constitutional monarchies, serfdom, and the guilds in the towns. The revolution offered new political freedoms to the growing middle classes. An entirely new code of law was established, together with the rights to private property, the core idea of capitalism. The church was brought under state control; a fair system of taxation was instituted, and religious and secular toleration established. Napoleon did away with many petty divisions and principalities, and in their place created rational and simplified central controls. Minorities like the Jews were liberated. Napoleon’s reforms were thorough and complete. In a word, he had created the necessary conditions for the transformation to capital.

All progressive movements - such as the Haitian and later the Russian Revolutions - were deeply resented by the established authorities, and in 1815 the British, the Russians and the Ottomans attempted to replace the fallen monarchies.

In this blog our aim is to examine the underlying causes which set the French Revolution in action. The sudden turmoil and revolutionary wars which consumed all of Europe after 1793 were a direct consequence of the French Revolution and loosened the ropes which held the feudal system of government in place. The social and political transformations which would herald an industrial and capitalist society had been held tightly in the old feudal order throughout most of Catholic Europe.

Several forces were at work in creating the conditions for the revolution. New wealth and social classes had arisen in France and Britain because of slavery and the plantations in the Caribbean and the Americas. The new middle classes were largely without political power, however. New wealth from the colonies had been created, both by a new emerging bourgeoisie and by the old nobles and aristocracy. In both countries, control of commerce, banking and industry had increased upper-class standards of living. In Britain, the overthrow of the king in the 1640s had reduced the power of the monarchy as an absolute authority. In France, by contrast, the monarchy retained its ancient power. The apparently unsolvable problem in France was the institution of monarchy sanctified by God as the ultimate authority. This was a political structure designed for diverse purposes, but industrialisation was not one of them.

The French Revolution in 1789, the Revolution in Haiti in 1795 which followed, and the Napoleonic wars of 1793 to 1815, had many unforeseen and unintended consequences, including:

1.       The global framework of colonial power in 1790 was altered by 1815, leaving Britain as the new dominant world power. All the others – France, Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal - fell away during these tumultuous events.

2.       The structure of the ancient power of feudalism in Europe was broken. The turmoil prepared the way for further conflict, which led to a new capitalist industrial set of European nation-states in the 19th century.

3.       The Revolution in Haiti led to the success of the anti-slavery movement, but not the end of slavery which flourished in the southern states of the USA until 1865.

Attack and take of the Crête-à-Pierrot (24th March 1802). Original illustration by Auguste Raffet, engraving by Hébert. Source: Histoire de Napoleon, M. de Norvins, 1839, page 239 via Wikimedia Commons.

The colonial structures over which the European powers had fought through for two centuries, over religion and power, was for a time resolved in Britain's favour. Spain, Portugal, Holland, and France lost most of their overseas colonial properties. Only Russia and the Ottomans retained territory in terms of colonial possessions. Both the latter were still led throughout the 19th century by pre-capitalist feudal kings and courts. Britain became the foremost colonial power for the next 130 years, until 1945. Let there be no doubt: from 1750 to 1815, the struggles, revolutions and wars were about who should exercise domestic power, and who controlled colonial power, as the prime source of external wealth. These same struggles would continue into the 19th and 20th centuries, changing their form, but maintaining control over other peoples' territories.

The French Revolution appeared due to specific social conditions in France at that moment in history. The revolution was one consequence of bloody struggles on an international scale. The list below gives the reader some idea of these violent events over a period of 65 years from the 1750s to the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815. Here we can see an outline of the dominant nations of Europe, fattened from their exploitation of their colonies, fighting each other to the death. Out of the turbulence arose the most powerful global nation-state. The British rulers, despite Britain's small size, developed their ambitions to rule the world, in the 19th century.

Timeline leading to the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the aftermath

Wars were taking place in the Caribbean and North America, in India and Europe. Communication and travel were carried out via sailing ships:

1739-48 Spanish British colonial wars for the Caribbean

1745 Jacobite Rising

1749-54 British and French East Indian Company wars

1756-63 US Independence: British, French Seven Years Wars, fighting in USA, India and Europe; Britain obtains Quebec, Florida, part of French West Indies and large parts of India

1757-Battle of Plessey; Britain takes Bengal

1775-82, British East India Company war in Bengal

1779-83 Spanish and British war

1780-84 fourth Anglo/ Dutch/ French wars

1788 Slave abolition movement gathers steam

1789 French Revolution

1793 Britain goes to war with France in Europe, Spain, India, and North American colonies

1795 Haitian Revolution

1795 British troops invade Haiti

1798 Napoleon takes power in France and invades Austria/Prussia, then Spain and Portugal; Russia defies French demands

1802 Napoleon sends French troop to Haiti, defeated in 1804

1805 British navy defeat French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar

1807 Bonaparte becomes Emperor of France

1807 Britain outlaws the trade in slaves

1812 Napoleon invades Russia and is defeated

1812 Resurrected European monarchies unite to overthrow Napoleon; he is overthrown again in 1815

1814 Congress of Vienna; Europe re-organised into German confederation

1831 Slave revolt in Jamaica; it fails

1833 British abolition of slavery in the British Empire

The Ottoman Empire in 1783, the beginning of this period, included Greece, Bosnia, Serbia, Crete, Cyprus, most of northern Africa, Egypt, and the entire Arab world. The Ottomans were primarily an ancient empire of multitudes of religious faiths, designed to control the old Silk Road trade. The empire’s primary rationale fell away with the advent of 19th-century European industrialisation. It remained a strong vital empire for all the countries surrounding its territory. Future blogs will follow the Ottoman Empire and show it finally fell apart in the late 19th century.

“Map depicting the Ottoman Empire at its greatest extent, in 1683” by Atilim Gunes Baydin. This map shows how the Ottoman Empire controlled land around the Red Sea, Egypt, parts of the Arabian Peninsula, and northern lands in the Mediterranean. View details

The Hapsburg Empire in the 18th century had included large parts of Central Europe including Hungary, Czech, Austria, parts of Poland and all the German mini-states. The empire was renamed in 1815 the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Holy Roman Empire had encompassed all or most of the Hapsburg Empire during its lifetime of 1000 years, before collapsing. It had been the domain of the Pope; the Catholic Church thereafter was in retreat.

This map shows Europe in the years between the 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea after the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 and the Russian annexation of Yedisan in 1792 at the end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792. The red line marks the borders of the Holy Roman Empire. The work was created with Inkscape and is mainly based on a map in: Putzger - Historischer Weltatlas, Berlin 1990, 78 pp. By Bryan Rutherford, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

As would happen later in Russia in 1917, the major powers invaded to counter the revolution. Napoleon was chief of the armed forces of the revolution and counterattacked. Napoleon’s armies swept through Europe, taking with them the ideas of the French Revolution.

Ideas played an important role, not just in Europe but throughout the Americas too. Napoleon freed the peasants from their feudal ties. Kings and monarchs were overthrown, the new middle classes were freed, and new laws under the Napoleonic Code were instituted. The ideas of 'freedom' first generated by the American settlers were carried forward over this period. Ideas however important should be understood in perspective; sheer military power was the deciding question for most of the old states.

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