Category: History
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Napoleon Invades Spain and Portugal
Although the processes of modernization and reform set the stage for the wars for independence, it was the Napoleonic wars, and more specifically, Napoleon’s invasion of Spain, that triggered the wars for independence in Spanish America. This outline first looks at the rise of Napoleon and his efforts to dominate Europe. We then closely examine…
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Seeds of Rebellion in Spanish America
This outline begins a series on the wars for independence in Spanish America. By 1750, the Spanish Empire in the Americas had been in place for two and a half centuries, and it was straining to survive. A powerful and increasing division had emerged between those Spaniards born in the Americas (Creoles) and those born…
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The Haitian Revolution
In August 1791, thousands of slaves rose up in Saint Domingue, led by a voodoo high priest named Boukman, in a war for their freedom. Over the next decade, the revolt destroyed the power of white planters and their estates and laid waste to the French colony. Amidst the violence, a group of charismatic black…
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Slave Rebellion in St. Domingue
The Haitian Revolution is the only successful slave rebellion in the Americas. This outline and the next analyze the only case of slaves rising up, taking power, and creating an independent nation. We begin with an overview of the rise of Saint Domingue as the classic example of the sugar and slave plantation complex in…
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The Radicalism of the American Revolution
The “meaning” of the American Revolution has been hotly debated for more than 200 years. For some, it is a conservative effort by planters to seize power and control the development of a society already divided between slaves and free men, whites and non-whites, and the landed and the landless. For others, it represents a…
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From Lexington and Concord to Yorktown
This outline covers the fighting during the American Revolution from Lexington and Concord to the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781. The victory of the American colonists is an extraordinary story of a small group of colonials challenging and defeating the most powerful empire in the world. This victory was made possible by the larger…
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The “North” American Revolution Emerges
This outline begins with a brief survey of the 13 colonies, including their origins, similarities, and differences. I stress the contingency and uncertainty of the colonists’ development as a unified group of peoples. This sense of unity emerges out of a series of colonial wars that the English fought, especially with the French in the…
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Colonial Empires on the Eve of Revolution
Between 1492 and 1750, European powers invaded and conquered much of the Americas. The Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English had carved out large colonial empires from the Arctic to Patagonia, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This article surveys those colonial empires, their dimensions, and key characteristics in 1750. In the century and a half…
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Origins of Revolution in the Atlantic World
By the beginning of the 18th century, the Americas, Europe, and Africa formed part of a world intimately connected by the exchange of peoples, goods, and ideas across the Atlantic Ocean. In this article, we look at the most important transformations that shaped that Atlantic world by the middle of the 18th century. The Enlightenment…
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U.S. Vetoes of UN Resolutions Critical of Israel: 1972 – Present
U.S. Vetoes/Negative Voting 1972-1982 Subject Date Vote Palestine: Syrian-Lebanese Complaint. 3 power draft resolution. (S/10784) 09/10/1972 13-1, 1 Palestine: Examination of Middle East Situation. 8-power draft resolution. (S/10974) 07/02/1973 13-1, 0 (China not partic.) Palestine: Egyptian-Lebanese Complaint. 5-power draft power resolution. (S/11898) 12/08/1975 13-1, 1 Palestine: Middle East Problem, including Palestinianquestion. 6-power draft resolution. (S/11940) 01/25/1976 9-1,3 (China…