To what extent did the Atlantic Revolution succeed in advancing the Enlightenment ideals of liberty and equality? The Atlantic Revolutions were a series of Revolutions that took place around the 18th-19th centuries across North America, South America, Europe, and Haiti. Although the French and Haitian Revolutions were inspired by Enlightenment ideals, for the most part, they did not succeed in advancing the ideals of liberty and equality. While the French Revolution began as a revolution inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment, the exclusion of groups from the ideals of liberty and equality proved that it did not do much to spread the Enlightenment ideals. In the beginning of the French Revolution, the National Assembly drew up a document …show more content…
The peasants anger toward the nobility and monarchy was the base of the revolution, and yet after the monarchy had been abolished, instead of the enlightenment ideals taking place, Maximilien Robespierre, one of the leaders of the revolution, began using terror to force the citizens to do what he wanted. Anyone who showed a hint of sympathy for the monarchy would be executed by guillotine. Thousands of people were killed, and those years were dubbed the Reign of Terror. While this political unrest may have allowed Napoleon to take power and advance his Napoleonic Code, he too was considered by some to be a tyrant who used terror to force others to do his bidding and silenced the voices of those who opposed him, such as Madame de Stael. This shows that while he may have believed in some measure of liberty, he dispensed entirely with equality when he declared his one man rule. While the Haitian Revolution was founded on enlightenment ideals, the extreme violence that took place and the crippling debt that was levied showed that it did not truly advance enlightenment ideals. The Haitian Revolution began with the revolt of enslaved people, who killed hundreds of white people. There was then infighting and war between the formerly enslaved people, followed