Democratic Revolutions and the Ancien Régime

This chapter applies the domestic contagion effects theory to the response to two democratic revolutions: the American Revolution and the Dutch Patriot Revolt. It establishes that there were no significant democratic revolutionary movements in the great powers responding to these revolutions, and th...

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1. Verfasser: Nelson, Chad E
Format: Buchkapitel
Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:This chapter applies the domestic contagion effects theory to the response to two democratic revolutions: the American Revolution and the Dutch Patriot Revolt. It establishes that there were no significant democratic revolutionary movements in the great powers responding to these revolutions, and thus, as the domestic contagion effects theory predicts, there were no contagion concerns that affected foreign policy. France (and Spain in the American case) supported these revolutions for geopolitical aims, and the other great powers (Britain, Prussia, Austria, Russia) either opposed or remained indifferent to these revolutions based on geopolitical calculations. There are hints of anxiety regarding domestic spillover from these revolutions, but the concern remained too abstract to affect foreign policy, with the partial exception of Spain. This is expected by the domestic contagion effect theory, but anomalous from an ideological perspective.
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780197601921.003.0003