HIST 386

The Age of Revolutions: Europe1789-1798

FALL 2023

Instructor: Dr. Warren Wilson Office: Lb 1001.15.

Office hours: Wednesday: 16:00-17:15 and by E-mail:warren.wilson@concordia.ca

Appointment.

This course will examine the history of Europe during the period of the “dual revolutions” (Industrial
and French) situating them in the context of Enlightenment Europe after the American Revolution and
the suppressed Dutch Revolution of the 1780s. While our primary focus will initially on France and
England, we will be examining developments in the rest of Europe as well. This will include the
Napoleonic period, the Congress of Vienna, the revolutions of the Romantic era and the spread of
industrialization. We are thus looking at the growth of liberalism and the genesis of modern democracy,
nationalism, constitutionalism and socialism in an age of growing literacy, an industrial press and rapid
urbanization.

TEACHING FORMAT: Lectures (Wednesday: 17:45-20:15), discussion is encouraged within the limits of
time.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS: 2 in-person exams, both essay, the second with short ID questions as well.
One research paper of 12-15 pages. A list of possible topics will be posted on the course website before
our third class. STUDENTS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO CHOOSE AND DEVELOP THEIR OWN TOPIC.
It is part of the learning process of becoming a historian and one cheats oneself by passively picking a
topic off a list. Consultation with the instructor is recommended but not compulsory. The department
favours “Chicago style” format BUT any acceptable format may be used.

TEXTBOOKS and READINGS: NB There is nothing to buy. All books are either E-books with unlimited
access (some-times limited copying) in the Concordia Library, are available on-line free or are on E-
reserve at the Concordia library. We will use the first two thirds of Sutherland and all of Hobsbawm as
our texts, supplemented by a chapter from 5 other sources.

Donald M.G. Sutherland, The French Revolution and Empire: the Quest for a Civic Order. (Library-E book)

Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution. (on line-details first class)

Robert R. Palmer, The Age of Democratic Revolution. (Library E-book) Ch.2

Jonathan Sperber, The Revolutions of 1848-1851. (Library E-book)

John Merriman, “Challenges to Restauration Europe: the Middle Classes in the Age of Liberalism” Ch. 15
of A History of Modern Europe. ( library E-reserve)

Robert Gildea, Borders and Barricades: Europe 1800-1914. (Library E-reserve) (ch. 2)

Franklin Ford, Europe:1780-1830. (Library E-reserve) (ch. 11)

 CALENDAR

Sept. 6. INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT: Discussion of the syllabus and course requirements; Europe in
the 1780s; aftermath of the American Revolution; how Revolutionary was the Enlightenment? The
genesis of the Industrial Revolution in England.

Sept. 13. POLITICS IN THE 1780s: “Patriot” movement in the Netherlands; opposition to the Emperor in
the Austrian Netherlands; political troubles in England; a few words on Geneva and the Swiss
Confederation; the “Pre-Revolution” in France; the promise of a meeting of the Estates-General.

READING: Palmer, vol I, ch. X and Sutherland, pp 18-32. (recommended, Hobsbawm ch.1)

Sept. 20. 1789: How the Pre-Revolution became a Revolution; how the Estates General became the
National Assembly; universal Rights, yet….limited suffrage; the abolition of feudalism….yet seigneurial
dues continue; the capital returns to Paris.

READING: Sutherland, pp32-78.

Sept. 27. CONSTITUTIONAL (LIBERAL) MONARCHY: the Constitution; the financial crisis continues;
attempts at stabilization; Church property; the émigrés;reactions outside of France; the problem of the
King; early attempts at counter-revolution.

READING: Sutherland, pp78-80 and ch.3.

Oct. 4. YET THE REVOLUTION CONTINUES: The Revolutionary wars and the fall of the monarchy; the
popular terror; the King’s trial; Jacobin-Girondin split; Pitt the younger and the repression in England;
revolution in the colonies; the final destruction of Poland.

READING: Sutherland, ch. 4.

Oct. 11. Reading week, class cancelled.

Oct. 18. MIDTERM EXAM (beginning of class)/the REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT (2 nd part)

Oct.25. REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT (continued) AND CULTURAL REVOLUTION; exceptional
measures, institutionalized terror; committees and democracy; religion, education and communications.

READING: Sutherland, ch. 5 and pp181-198.

Nov. 1. FAILED LIBERAL STABILIZATION and the EMPIRE: Thermidor; the Directory; war and
counterrevolution; Hoche or Bonaparte; Sièyes and the Consulate; English imperialism vs French
imperialism; roots of Romanticism and nationalism; using French principals against France; the
Spanish Constitution of 1812.

READING: Gildea, ch. 2. (recommended, Sutherland, ch. 9,10,11,12 and Hobsbawm ch. 7.)

Nov. 8. CONGRESS OF VIENNA/EUROPE OF THE HOLY ALLIANCE: Meternich, Castelreagh and Talleyrand;
problems of the Restauration; renewal of the democratic movement in England.

READING: Ford ch. 11.

Nov. 15. The FIRST WAVES of ROMANTIC REVOLUTIONS: Spain, Greece, Belgium, France and troubles
elsewhere; renewal of French imperialism in Algeria.

READING: Merriman, ch. 15. (recommended, Hobsbawm ch.6.)

Nov. 22. STEAM, ELECTRICITY, COMMUNICATIONS and POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS: Industrialization on

the Continent; explosion of the press; the telegraph and its impact; radicalism and socialism; the
persistence of the nobility; religion and politics.

READING: Hobsbawm, Sperber, pp13-32, 109-116, Hobsbawm ch. 9.

Nov. 29. TOWARD 1848: Disaster in Ireland, genocide or murderous incompetence? A liberal pope? The
fall of Metternich; the promise of 1848 and its (limited) achievements; conclusion.

READING: Sperber,pp116-163, 170-175, 208, 258-264.

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