War and the international order

This section focuses on the wars and international upheavals precipitated by the struggles for independence and attempts at empire building that characterise the Age of Revolution.

The American and French revolutions were not merely internal affairs, affecting only the governance of their own countries. Because of the nature of global connections and empires by the late 1700s, they seriously disrupted stability, commercial relations and longstanding social orders across the Atlantic world. For Britain, this meant it was almost constantly at war between the start of the period to 1815, through attempts to quash uprisings in colonies in North America and Ireland, to defending territories and trade routes under threat from France during the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

Sub-themes

The Haitian revolution (1791-1804)

The first – and only – successful uprising of enslaved Africans, establishing Haiti as the first independent ‘black’ republic.
French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars (1792-1815)

A series of wars which reconfigured nations and societies within Europe, across the Atlantic, and far beyond, culminating in the legendary Battle of Waterloo.
Ireland’s uprising (1798)

The move, led by the United Irishmen, to drive through a fully-fledged anti-colonial rebellion against British rule, inspired by the American and French revolutions.
Spanish American wars of independence (1808-1833)

The Congress of Spain renounces its sovereignty over the Americas and recognise over a dozen new nations including Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Paraguay, Columbia, Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Brazil.
American war of independence (1775- 1783)

America’s epic struggle for independence from British rule, and the birth of the USA