23 - Atlantic Revolutions

Summary

Calls to revolution echoed throughout the Atlantic world at the end of the eighteenth century. Beginning with the American War for Independence from the British, insurrection spread to four continents. From the Americas to Geneva, from the Low Countries to France and the Caribbean, then up and down the West African coast and through the Andes, revolutionaries challenged an old order built on privilege. Thomas Paine proclaimed the decades following the American War for Independence “an Age of Revolutions.” Like the revolutionaries who followed on both sides of the Atlantic, Paine was convinced that anything was possible as empires unraveled and monarchs toppled off their thrones. A new era of rights appeared on the horizon.