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The French Revolution: Reorganizing States Of America

Decent Essays

Nancy Orellana
Class 170- 01
09/26/16
Reflection Paper #1
There came a point in history when many believed in new ideas, a new way of thinking, a more “rational basis for reorganizing state, society and nation” (Knight, 106.), this became known as the Enlightenment. The French Revolution made people wonder and criticized the rule of monarchy, promoting the Enlightenment and causing a disparity between the government and slaves. The French Revolution unleashed twenty years of war, which Spain inconveniently became part of. The wars of independence in the Spanish and French Americas caused political movements across all of Europe.
The Enlightenment was a philosophical and popular movement in the 18th-century. It challenged the old order, the leading thinkers proposed new ideas “of individualism, collective liberty, political rights and of class equality” (Knight, 106). The Enlightenment was popular on both sides of the Atlantic, unnerving the political structures and challenging the traditional way of thinking. People started questioning slavery, if there was any “moral, religious, and economic …show more content…

Petits blancs wanted equality as well but only equality for whites. They wanted “active citizenship, for all white persons, not just the wealthy property owners, and less bureaucratic control of the colonies” (Rodriguez, 141.) The there was the Gens of couleur who also wanted equality for all regardless of their skin color. The National Assembly granted political rights to the free gens of couleur, which eventually led to the fight between whites and nonwhites. Later slaves started fighting for their rights as well, leading to the National Assembly granting the slaves dream and completely abolishing slavery. Without the occurrence of the French Revolution, it is questionable that the system in Saint Domingue would have broken down in

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