Age of Revolutions Lesson Plan 1
1AGE OF REVOLUTIONS LESSON PLANThe first half of the long nineteenth century is often called an “Age of Revolutions.” The American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and uprisings across Latin America transformed the Atlantic world. But the revolutions kept on coming. Soon, other people in other places rose up and cast off the chains of monarchy and empire. Still, not everyone experienced the benefits of these revolutions, and many people—especially women, the enslaved, and Indigenous peoples—are often left out of historical narratives of revolution. These lessons will introduce students to several important revolutions and their causes, leading up to a final lesson that encourages students to challenge the narratives of the Age of Revolutions. Students begin by learning about the Atlantic Revolutions that launched it all. Next, they’ll identify the ideological and economic causes of revolt as they develop their own recipe for revolution. Finally, they’ll explore this period through a global lens as they inquire, Who is included in our revolutionary narratives, and who gets left out?OverviewLength: Three lessons; each lesson should take one or two days. Learning Objectives• Understand the causes and effects of the major Atlantic Revolutions.• Use the historical thinking practice of causation to identify the factors leading to revolutions in the long nineteenth century, distinguishing between ideological and material factors.• Assess the global reach of the Age of Revolutions and its impact on different groups of people.
2Lesson 1: The Atlantic Revolutions Lesson objective:• Understand the causes and effects of the major Atlantic Revolutions.Description:In this introductory lesson on the Atlantic Revolutions, students begin by thinking about what they would like to change in their own communities and what it might take to do so. Next, they’ll read an article about the Atlantic Revolutions, including the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and the series of revolutions that transformed Latin America. Students will watch a short video on the Haitian Revolution featuring Marlene Daut, a historian of the Caribbean, and they’ll consider whether we really should consider this period of slavery and inequality an Age of Revolution. Finally, students will read a one-page graphic biography of Edmund Burke, the conservative British intellectual whose life reveals the complexity of revolutionary thought. Opener: Revolution or Evolution?Before students begin to dig into the causes, consequences, and longer-term impacts of revolutions, it will be helpful for them to first have a good understanding of what a revolution actually is and to grasp how this relates to the political and social transformations that often occur as a result of these upheavals. To achieve this understanding, this opener invites students to think about the differences between revolution and evolution to see how they’re related—and how they’re different. As they do this, students will learn about a lot of different historical revolutions.Article: The Atlantic RevolutionsBetween 1775 and 1825, a series of revolutions overturned the administration of aristocratic and overseas rulers in several parts of the Atlantic world. The French, American, Haitian, and Latin American revolutions were wars of independence inspired by liberal political ideas, but they only partly lived up to their promise. For additional teaching support, including key idea reading questions, click here (log-in required).Video: The Haitian RevolutionIn the late eighteenth century, the French colony of Saint Domingue teetered atop an unstable social pyramid. At the top of the hierarchy were wealthy white plantation owners who enslaved the majority of the island’s population: hundreds of thousands of Africans and their descendants. New ideas about natural rights swirled around the Atlantic world and reached the people of Saint Domingue—including enslaved people—and helped launch the most radical of the Atlantic revolutions. But the fight didn’t end with independence, as the new nation of Haiti continued to struggle for its survival and the end of slavery.Closer: So You Want a Revolution?For this quick closing activity, students will choose something in their lives or in their local, regional, national, or global communities that they would like to see changed. Using the lyrics from a revolution-related or protest song, students will think through the changes they’d like to see, why they would like to see them, and the actions they might take to make those changes happen. This will help them apply lessons learned from history to issues that exist today, which will help make this history more usable.