We call the Bourgeois Revolution or Liberal Revolution the violent or radical change of the political institutions of a society carried out by the bourgeoisie. These have been happening throughout history since the Late Middle Ages, although the term bourgeois revolutions focuses on a series of revolutionary cycles that took place at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Let’s learn more about these Bourgeois Revolutions: Causes, Characteristics and Consequences with the Secondary School Syllabus.
The first bourgeois revolutions
The bourgeoisie was born as we have said, during the Late Middle Ages, it was a social class that lived in the boroughs (cities) and that enjoyed a series of recognized employment privileges. To understand this term in the Middle Ages we must remember how society was divided into estates in this historical period.
At the top was the nobility whose greatest representative was the king, then the clergy, while the rest of society or the most disadvantaged classes formed the lowest part of the pyramid, the latter class was also called Third Estate.
Within this Third Estate, the bourgeoisie will be born a new social class that begins to distinguish itself from the rest of the workers for its economic and labor improvements. However, it is not possible to speak of revolution since until the end of the 18th century, the bourgeoisie did not manage to change the old feudal regime that prevailed.
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The arrival of the Enlightenment
In order to understand what the bourgeois revolutions were, we must first talk about the appearance of a new cultural and intellectual movement that emerged in Europe promoted by intellectuals such as Hume, Voltaire or Rousseau, who firmly opposed the prevailing absolutism, based on three fundamental ideas, reason, equality and progress.
Religion was the basis of society at the time, enlightened thought he intended to replace religion with reason as the main characteristic of man.
the enlightened called for the abolition of absolutism embodied in the figure of the king and instead proposed that power had to fall on the people advocating for the freedom of each individual. All men are equal, so justice would be the same for everyone regardless of social class.
They advocated the freedom of trade therefore, everyone would be obliged to pay taxes without privileges for belonging to one status or another. In feudal or absolutist society there were privileges or not, depending on the social class to which they belonged.
The industrial Revolution
We can consider it as the harbinger of changes that would come next. The arrival of the industry led to a change in the social, economic and of course technological structure. The invention of the steam engine (Watt) in Great Britain changed the economy from a rural system based on agriculture and trade to a urban, mechanized economythe industry is born.
The countryside abandons the use of animals to make way for machines, production multiplies, ships and steam railways appear that transport merchandise, causing the expansion of trade. Society leaves the countryside and begins to live in cities or towns.
Rise of liberalism and capitalism As the base system of the economy and within this system, the bourgeoisie appears as a much more important social class than the clergy or the aristocracy. one is born new social class, the proletariatif the owners of the industries were the bourgeoisie, the workers were the proletarians, the latter with a precarious economic situation and lacking rights, giving rise in some cases to confrontation with the bourgeoisie and in other alliances with them against an enemy common, absolutism.
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Congress of Vienna
At the beginning of the 19th century, the absolutist monarchies came together to defend their interestsafter the defeat of Napoleon, trying to restore their privileges.
Causes of the Bourgeois Revolutions
Along with the Enlightenment that we have already seen, two more ideological currents are born, Liberalism and Nationalismall three agreed in their rejection of absolutism
Liberalism advocated the freedoms of each individual, everyone should be equal before the law and everyone would enjoy the same rights, this clashed with the interests of the nobility and the kings who believed they were above the law. Economic liberalism was based on capitalism.
Nationalism defended the idea of a nation based on historysince in the Congress of Vienna it had been agreed to group different nations under a single mandate and this would fall in the figure of the Emperors.
With the Industrial Revolution, the burghers who owned the factories had more capital than the noble aristocrats, but they lacked the political power that the aristocrats had. This created a lot of tension between the two since the bourgeois did not consider that there should be lineage differences or birth.
On the other hand, the Industrial Revolution generated another great movement, the worker who lived in a precarious situation, taking into account that they were the majority of the workers, they forced them to organize and take the social initiative.
American War of Independence
The colonists depended on the metropolis but without parliamentary representation, the existing social inequality and the rise in taxes caused them to organize themselves to claim better conditions, having no answer, the revolution broke out and as a consequence independence. The North American Constitution is considered one of the early examples of enlightenment and liberalism.
the french revolution
considerate the great revolution, capable of putting an end to absolutism (fall of Louis XVI and María Antoñeta) and the end of the old feudal structures. The reasons that led to the Revolution were social inequalities between the privileged classes (king, nobles and clergy) and bourgeois, proletarians and peasants. your motto Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, ideas of the Enlightenment. The French Revolution took place in 1789 when the people along with the bourgeoisie rose up in arms against the established order, this uprising ended the system and influenced the rest of the world.
Revolution of 1820
With the fall of Napoleon came the Congress of Vienna, where the absolutist kings sought to restore lost privileges, among the measures taken was the change of borders in order to consolidate their power. However, this event made react to the liberals who in 1820 started a series of revolutions who toured all of Europe with the idea of democratizing institutions using a very powerful weapon, the Constitutions.
Revolutions of 1830
Although the revolution of 1820 ended in failure, in that of 1830 joined liberalists, nationalists, workers and bourgeois, its origin France to later spread to the rest of Europe.
The last of the bourgeois revolutions, in this case the cause was the change of the system for a more democratic system. In some European countries, the right to vote or Universal suffrage for the first time.
The last cycle of bourgeois revolutions occurred in 1848. These had a much more popular character and their main cause was the search for more democratic systems. In some countries, universal suffrage was claimed for the first time.
Most of the participants in these revolutions were labor groups that sowed the seeds of the future revolutions that would happen at the beginning of the 20th century, such as the socialist and communist revolutions.
Independence of the Latin American colonies
largely influenced by the Enlightened and Liberal ideas, the French Revolution and the War of Independence of the United States. The bourgeoisie appears as a new social class in addition to the economic and political growth of the Creoles who had the most relevant positions of the administration vetoed since they were occupied by the peninsular.
The decadence of Spanish society and politics, invaded by Napoleonic forces, it was the fundamental factor for the arrival of the first independence movements. At that time the idea of the colonies was to achieve self-government, although under the name of the Spanish crown.
Consequences of the Bourgeois Revolutions
Policies
The consequences of the bourgeois revolutions were end the prevailing political system in many countries. Equality, universal suffrage and the loss of privileges to kings and aristocrats, appearance of different constitutions.
The workers organized in unions and political parties that would watch over their rights and social improvements. Latin American countries achieved their political autonomy.
Social
Disappearance of the old estates social, appearing a new type of society called class society. The group with the greatest economic and later political power was the Bourgeoisie, although a new class appeared, the petty bourgeoisie and upper bourgeoisie.
Economic
it evolves From a feudal economy to capitalism. Private property appears in the new societies.
Legal
Written constitutions are enacted in which all the acquired rights by society. Both economic and civil freedom are established and the equality of all citizens Before the Law.
Main authors of the Liberal or Bourgeois Revolutions
We have said that these revolutions are due to the arrival of enlightened ideas that come to change the mentality of society and claim a new functioning of classes and in all aspects. Among the many authors of these ideas that influenced the facts, we can highlight John Locke, Adam Smith, or Alexis de Tocqueville. Let’s know a little about them.
John Locke
John Locke is considered as the father of political liberalism. To him we owe a fundamental work for the time, such as the “Second treaty about the civil government”. If the ancients thought that before men established a contractual pact or imposed rules of coexistence, there was a State of Nature idyllic, where people lived in harmony and respect, Locke contradicts this belief. He thinks that it is impossible for everything to be so perfect, since the only way to settle conflicts in such a state would be to take each one of them into their own hands if there were no written norms or rules. And this can only lead to chaos.
According to this author, for there to be justice, there must be a pact between citizens with written rules, where each commits to respect the rights of the other. But among the rights that Locke contemplates, is the Right to Rebellion. This right enables citizens to rebel against the State when it is not duly protecting the fundamental rights to liberty, life and property.
adam smith
His most outstanding book is on economics and morality and is entitled “The Wealth of Nations.” East…