Prior to the revolution that would change the system of governance in France, the people had suffered under the mismanagement of King Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, who, along with the aristocracy, refused to acknowledge the economic plight of the lower classes.

The first phase of the French Revolution started in 1789 when representatives of the noble, clergy, and common classes convened in a meeting of the Estates-General to address the economic duress of the population and institute reforms. King Louis XVI, under the influence of the conservative nobles of his privy council had banished the reformist finance ministers Turgot and Necker and generally neglected discussions of reform. He banned the crucial meeting of the Estates-General, forcing them to meet outside where they drafted the famous Oath of the Tennis Court on June 20, 1789. By July of 1789 the people of Paris were clamoring for change and began taking to the streets in protest. They stormed the Bastille on July 14, 1789, tearing down what had been a symbol of monarchical and aristocratic abuse of power for years.
The slogan of the French Revolution was “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” and aimed to elevate the rights of the impoverished lower classes and mitigate the inequalities that had existed for centuries in the French feudal system.

Both political and socioeconomic factors contributed to the French Revolution as the ambitions of the rising bourgeoisie were allied with aggrieved peasants, wage-earners, and individuals of all classes. The influence of the ideas that rounded out the revolutionary movement, rooted in Enlightenment philosophies were also paramount to the desire for change in what was felt to be a stagnant system of government.

The poor economic situation, peaked by high national debt due to Louis XVI’s involvement in foreign causes and war on the North American continent, aggravated the inequality between the classes in France. The feudal peasants and the enlightened liberals resented royal absolutism and aspired for a republican government that would represent the rights of individuals. In the months before the revolution, high unemployment and high bread prices resulted in strife for the lower classes who could not afford to purchase food and led to a general dissatisfaction and upheaval among the population.

The King, his wife Marie Antoinette, and their children attempted to escape from Paris in 1791 after months of popular dissatisfaction and the increasing threat to the monarchy. The King and his family did not make it out of Paris and were instead captured and held in Paris and in 1792 the King was sent to the guillotine. For three years, between 1792 and 1795, a committee was established to rule the country headed by Georges-Jacques Denton, Jean-Paul Marat, and Maximilien Robespierre. They ruled in what became known as the Reign of Terror, sending thousands of Royalists to the guillotine including Marie Antoinette and other Royalists, dissidents of the Revolution, and even moderate thinkers who sought to mediate the excesses of the revolutionary movement. The Revolution succeeded in overturning generations of autocratic monarchic rule but became a symbol of excessive force and revolt without sufficient stabilizing elements to fundamentally change conditions for the French people. In 1799 a young General named Napoleon Bonaparte helped overthrow the government, called the Directory, and by 1804 had risen to such power that he etablished himself as “Napoleon I, Emperor of the French.”

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With the end of the Napoleonic Empire and a general trend toward more dissipated fashion that relied less on grandeur and more on available, less hierarchical trends, the middle classes would become the dominant social influences on costume. The great courts of Europe had lost their influence on the general population in political, cultural, and social custom and economic progress would become forces of change.

There was a mingling of influences in the first half of the 1800’s as people looked to multiple sources instead of to one dominant hierarchical model. By the mid 1800’s several inventions, such as that of the sewing-machine, the embroidery machine, and advanced looms for wool and lace changed the dynamic of clothing production. Furthermore, transport by rail and developments in advertising made everything in the realm of fashion more accessible to the average person. The commercialization of the garment industry began in earnest during this period. It was no longer necessary for customers to go to more than one vendor to assemble a garment; merchants converged services to provide the first ready-to-wear shops that would herald the larger department stores that we are familiar with today.

The concentration of capital in busy centers where people, products, and distributors could interact freely with the backing of borrowed money allowed for a new era of growth in fashion as much as in societal trends at large. The urban centers became the new social arena and the home, as opposed to the noble court, became the place where the lady of society could showcase herself again and become a dominant figure in opposition to the hierarchies that had been imposed by court etiquette.

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*image: Early 1800’s fashion plate
*image: Oil painting by Edgar Degas, ‘The Millinery Shop’ , c. 1879

With the conclusion of the Louisiana Purchase in late 1803, President Jefferson had the land that would push the United States from coast to coast. A route to the Pacific Ocean was the main geographical priority of the era. But with 828,000 miles included in the purchase, discovering the route would take determination, ambition and most of all, perseverance.

Perhaps in the spirit of the lands former owner, Napoleon, Jefferson decided an army of adventurers was necessary for the exploration of the Louisiana Purchase territory. Approval from Congress was given for $2,500 to fund a group of men called the Corps of Discovery. The Corps was to travel from coast to coast, east to west creating the official geography for the area. The Corps needed a leader and Jefferson had someone in mind.

Secretary to the president, Meriwether Lewis was assigned the task of mapping the route to the Pacific as well as collecting valuable data about the area he would travel through, the former Louisiana Purchase region. His companion and equal on the journey was William Clark, an army buddy and friend chosen by Lewis for his strength, courage and past guidance. His map making abilities and army survival techniques would also come in handy. The pair began an expedition that has provided lovers of the past with many a story, adventure and lesson.

In early spring of 1804, after receiving congressional approval in February, the corps of Discovery (which consisted of about 45 men) set out on the trail with the main objective of discovering a river route from coast to coast. This waterway could aid in the transportation of commercial goods, encourage further exploration and migration and expand the reaches of American influence.

The journey began in Wood River, Illinois in May of 1804, traveled through the Midwest into the Rockies and the lands of Missouri, the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Oregon. They ended up in Chinook, Washington along the Pacific coast in November of 1805.They travel home in 1806. It took a total of two and half years for the Corps, its leaders and guide to find a clear route to the Ocean but they did, despite numerous hardships, lack of supplies and treacherous weather conditions.

Along the journey, the Corps encountered various Native American tribes, fur trappers and early settlers including the Shoshone wife of a French trader. The story of Sacagawea stems from this meeting and is one of the most well known components of Lewis and Clark’s journey. Sacagawea, along with her two month old son, acted as guide for the explorers through the lands of her people giving advice on obstacles ahead as well as what prairie plants and desert animals were safe to eat. Even after Sacagawea’s knowledge became regional, she chose to stay with the explorers.

They traveled about 15 miles a day, marking their paths on hand drawn maps, sketching the scenery and wildlife and sending specimens and news back to Washington throughout. They entered areas hitherto unknown to western Europeans and were surprised at the diversity of species and landscapes they encountered. Bears were just one of the animals the group would discover in the wild lands. When they returned home after their two plus year journey, the men, their helpers and the stories of their travels immediately became legend.

Before the travels of Lewis and Clark, no American knew of the beauty of the Rocky Mountains or the diverse culture of the country’s original tribes. The price tag of 15 million dollars seems cheap in comparison to the wealth of information, people and natural beauty offered by the American west. Lewis and Clark and the tales of their encounters and discoveries will decorate the pages of American history books forever as testament to curiosity, ingenuity and American style adventures.

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The expansion of European influence and power through Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas in many ways began with the flow of traders, travelers, and missionaries intent on establishing themselves in non-Western territories and strengthening their own nation’s resources. Already in the 15th century the Portuguese established trade with parts of Africa and by the 16th century the movement of European powers into foreign lands for expansionist political and commercial purposes was well underway.

The Europeans began a system of global expansion that had not been seen in the west since the fall of the Roman Empire. The presence for nearly a millennium of the Ottoman Empire in the Near East made European colonial expansion a political and cultural imperative as much as an economic one. Soon European political ambitions and their quest to find alternative trade routes to Asia during the 15th century resulted in a collision between the European and the Islamic worlds. An initial period of European extension into other territories first began as mercantile exploits that aimed to increase the wealth of European monarchies through settled commercial outposts and agricultural systems whose only purpose was to fuel and feed the European continent. The slave trade also grew out of this mercantile period as an offshoot of the desire to maximize production and profits.

A second period in European colonialism began at the end of the Napoleonic wars as European powers struggled to maintain their colonial territories. The wars in Europe depleted the strength and resources of the French, Spanish, and Portuguese particularly. In this second phase, the British also reduced their focus on their colonial outposts after their experience with the rebellion of their American colonies and the abolition of slavery in 1807. The abolition of slavery ended the once endless stream of labor that fueled the economy in the British Caribbean colonies and made them profitable.

A new phase of imperialism began in the 1880s through the beginning of World War I when a resurgence of colonial expansionism encapsulated almost all of Africa and most of Asia. In this era, the military and political problems between the European powers on the European continent manifested themselves on the colonial front. Furthermore, incentives for colonial expansion in Africa grew out of a reaction to the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism in the north and the discovery of gold and diamonds in the south. In Asia, the Europeans increased their colonial efforts mainly due to the weakening Asian regimes which made their countries vulnerable to new exploits. Following World War I and World War II, the European grip on its former colonies weakened, leading to the independence and formation of new countries made from the diverse ethnic and religious groups that were once subjugated by the Europeans. Today, these former colonies struggle to find their national identities while maintaining tenuous relations with the European nations that once exploited them for centuries.

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