Part Five Intro and Chapter 16: Part 1

In the introduction to the fifth section of the book, the author begins by noting that between 1750 and 1914, sometimes called "the long nineteenth century," two new, related phenomena took center stage in the global history of humankind. The first new phenomena during this time was the creation of a new kind of society, today called "modern society," which arose out of the intersection of the Scientific, French, and Industrial Revolutions, all of which initially took shape in Western Europe.  Such societies have generated many of the transformative ideas which have guided human behavior over the past several centuries.  Such ideas include the ideas that movement towards social equality and the end of poverty was possible, that ordinary people could participate in political life, that nations could trump empires, that women could be equal to men, and that slavery was no longer necessary.

The second of these new phenomena was the growing ability of these modern societies to exercise enormous power and influence over the rest of humankind.  In many places, this took place within expanding European empires, while elsewhere it still took place, albeit within less formal means, such as economic penetration, military intervention, diplomatic pressure, and missionary activity.  When taken together these two phenomena thrust Western Europe into a new, far more prominent role in world history than it had ever held before, as it was here where modern living emerged most fully.  These societies, as well as their North American descendants, came to exercise a wholly unprecedented role in world affairs, collectively achieving something close to global dominance by the early twentieth century.

The Atlantic revolutions in North America, France, Haiti, and Latin America took place within a larger global framework of upheavals, but were distinctive in various ways.  For one, the costly wars that strained European imperial states were global rather than regional.  In addition, the Atlantic revolutionaries were closely connected to one another, in addition to sharing a set of common ideas, largely derived from the English Enlightenment.  However, such ideas generated endless controversy and debate that has continued to this day in some form or another.