Age of Revolutions Lesson Plan
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 thelong 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.
3Additional Materials:•Map: Empires, Enslavement, and Revolutions Thematic Map•Graphic Biography: Edmund BurkeA selection of Atlantic Revolutions additional materials.
4Lesson 2: Recipe for RevolutionLesson objective: •Use the historical thinking practice of causation to identify the factors leading to revolutions in thelong nineteenth century, distinguishing between ideological and material factors.Description:Now that students have learned about the Atlantic Revolutions, it’s time to start cooking up answers to the question, What causes revolution? They’ll begin by watching a 1-minute video and writing a list of ingredients as a quick opener activity. Next, they’ll be introduced to the ideological underpinnings of revolution through an article on the Enlightenment. But the pantry of revolution contains more than mere ideas! In “Economic and Material Causes of Revolt,” they’ll learn that all the grand ideas in the world don’t amount to much if there’s no food to eat. To close out this lesson, students will revisit the ingredients they wrote in the first activity as they attempt to write a full recipe for one revolution. Opener: Video—So You Want a Revolution?If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the National Assembly! Have students watch this quick video about revolutionary recipes. Then, on a 3x5 card, have them list five ingredients not mentioned in this video that they think are important factors in causing revolutions. On the back of the card, they should pick one of these ingredients and write two to three sentences explaining how it might contribute to revolution. Article: “The Enlightenment”While historians often talk about the Enlightenment, they don’t really agree about what it was. Enlightenment thinkers generated a lot of new ideas about how the natural and political worlds worked. They proposed new ways for humans to study nature and organize our societies, and they believed that this work could help society to progress. But in some ways, the Enlightenment was less revolutionary than it could have been, and its benefits were not extended to everyone. For additional teaching support, including key idea reading questions, click here (log-in required).Article: “Economic and Material Causes of Revolt”The eighteenth century saw a world in crisis, particularly in the region surrounding the Atlantic. The growth of trade and production meant that more things were being made than ever before, and there was lots of money to be made. But populations were growing. Lots of people weren’t getting an equal share of the new wealth. Some people just wanted more, but others didn’t even have enough to live on. Both groups were angry enough to start or join revolutions. For additional teaching support, including key idea reading questions, click here (log-in required).Activity/Assessment: Causation—Recipe for a RevolutionIn this activity, students will create a recipe that explains the causes for a particular political revolution. Since revolutions are often messy (and bloody!), analyzing and categorizing the causes will allow students to expand their understanding of how causation helps to explain historical processes and how historians focus on particular causes to shape people’s understanding of those events. Note: This is a lengthy activity that asks students to watch one of three short videos. You might choose to assign as homework.
5Closer: Revolutionary Restaurant CriticStudents will write a 25- to 50-word Yelp review of a revolution they choose. They should write as though the revolution were a restaurant. Example: “Come for the cake, stay for the guillotine! The French Revolution is Europe’s new hot spot for aristocrats who like their revolutions spicy and unpredictable. My one complaint: NO BREAD! 3/5 stars.”Additional Materials:•Primary Source Collection: Words of the Enlightenment•Article:“Sovereignty”.Covers for Words of the Enlightenment and “Sovereignty” articles.
6Lesson 3: Expanding Revolution Lesson objective: •Assess the global reach of the Age of Revolutions and its impact on different groups of people.Description:Students begin this lesson by meeting three women who fought alongside Simón Bolívar but who are usually left out of the story of the Latin American revolutions. Next, students travel back across the Atlantic to West Africa and the series of conflicts that redefined political life in that region. Then, they’ll watch a video about the 1680 revolt, which some historians call the “first American revolution” but which was in reality part of a long tradition of resistance among Indigenous groups who took part in this age of revolutions. In their final closing activity, students will select and learn more about one of the women involved in the Age of Revolutions. Opener: Graphic Biography: Manuela Sáenz, Jonotas, and NatanManuela Sáenz (1797–1818) was born into rebellion. The daughter of a wealthy Ecuadorian merchant, she became a rebel and spy for Simón Bolívar during the wars for Latin American independence. She also rebelled against the rules governing how women should act in Latin American society. But she could not have done it without her enslaved companions, Jonotas and Natan, about whom we know little.Article: “West Africa in an Age of Revolution”We often learn about the US War of Independence, the French Revolution, and revolutions in Haiti and Latin America as a set of “Atlantic revolutions” that share some characteristics and were connected to each other by shared ideas and trade networks. But West Africa was also part of this increasingly linked Atlantic world. Were West African revolutions part of this Atlantic Age of Revolutions? Did these conflicts share causes and impacts with those across the ocean? This article argues that to some degree, they did. You and your students will have to decide whether you agree or not. For additional teaching support, including key idea reading questions, click here (log-in required).Video: Pueblo Revolt of 1680We’re used to hearing about revolutions in the US, France, Latin America, and Haiti. Less frequently do we hear about the role of Indigenous Americans in this revolutionary history. The first large-scale, successful revolt against colonizers in the United States was launched in 1680 by the Pueblo people of New Mexico. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 temporarily drove out the Spanish and helped ensure the endurance of Pueblo culture and communities into the present. In this video, Jerad Koepp interviews Porter Swentzell about the causes, experiences, and long-term effects of the revolt.Activity: Revolutionary WomenIn the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, all kinds of women became active in the fight for change. While these fights for rights may not seem particularly revolutionary today, and while not all of these women are famous or well known, these women were agents of change in history, helping to push the boundaries of what was “normal” at the time. In this activity, students will engage in an in-depth study of one revolutionary woman to illuminate just how “revolutionary” this person was, and how her impact is still felt and seen in women’s lives around the world today. Students will be tasked with creating an influence campaign to show others how this woman’s history is still usable and important in today’s world.
7Closer: Two-Dollar SummaryAsk students to write a summary of the Age of Revolutions that a third grader could understand. Each word costs five cents, and students need to keep their cost under two dollars.Additional Materials:•Graphic Biography: Rifa’a al-TahtawiDetail from Graphic Biography: .Rifa’a al-Tahtawi