Revolutionaries and Rebels: From the Great Fear to the Indian Uprising Flashcards
Overview
- The Conspiracy Theory
- The New York Conspiracy (1741)
- Popish Plots
- The Great Fear
- The Indian Uprising
The Conspiracy Theory and the Age of Enlightenment
- The Age of Enlightenment was an intellectual movement of the 16/1700s that emerged in response to the old ideas of the Church
- Encouraged people to stop blindly accepting the ideas and command of the Church and State
- Think for yourself (rationalism, skepticism, empiricism)
- Human beings can improve as a species if we think rationally
- Puts humans at the centre of the universe, rather than God (God is not intervening and micromanaging)
This gives human beings a much greater degree of responsibility and agency…
SIGNIFICANCE
But this also brings a wrinkle…
- Before the Enlightenment, everything that happened on Earth was explained in terms of Divine Retribution (the gods made it happen)
- But the Enlightenment brings about conspiracies…
- Conspiracy theories become appealing because they offer really simple explanations to complex problems (makes sense of a chaotic world in a simple way)
Conspiracies have simplified, to the point of ridiculousness, complicated situations.
6 Factors that Make Conspiracy Theories Appealing to a Society:
- Mass Organization
- Spread Info Quickly
- Thrive in Socioeconomic Gaps
- Thrive in Colonial Societies
- Make Sense b/c of Assumptions
- Simple Explanation to Complicated Situation
Whether or not the trigger is real, the response is real. Conspiracy theories can bring panic, violence and chaos, despite if they are reasonable.
The New York Conspiracy (1741)
&
Mary Burton
IDENTIFICATION
- In 1741, a few houses were broken into, and then a shop
- Attention was focused on the marginalized, and blame was directed at a slave, who was arrested with these petty thefts
- He was arrested at Hughson’s Tavern, and he was there with his white prostitute
- The elites and legalities viewed this tavern as a criminal house for whom it attracted
- And their servant (Mary Burton) accused Hughson of acquiring stolen property, but he accused his servant of just trying to make trouble, and it seems that this was dismissed
- Shortly after, a fire burnt down most of the structures in Fort George, including a government building
- The elite colonizers assumed that the slaves burned down the government buildings
- And in the next few weeks, there were more buildings burning down
- The white people of New York attributed them all to black slaves, and began to take matters into their own hands
- Mary Burton, the servant, returns to the story: she claims that all of these disasters are a part of black conspiracy to take over New York
- Many blacks were taken to the courts and executed (hanged, burned at the stake)
The city elites began to pull back, and think about how they were reacting
- Eventually, legalities admitted overreaction
SIGNIFICANCE
- Classic example of a situation in which people have difficult accepting coincidence
- A series of unfortunate events are connected and given a meaning that is not actually there
- And when there is already a fear/generalized anxiety in a society, it propels the conspiracy theory
The burglaries were just burglaries, and the fires were just fires…
- At any other time, the people in New York may not have invented a connection
- But at this time, they were facing anxieties and issues which had them feeling that they were on the edge of disaster (they underwent a harsh winter and food was scarce, and the poor were starving, ¼ of the population were slaves, many of which were alive for a past rebellion, so people feared another rebellion).
- This conspiracy confirmed what people feared
- In a society that felt it was on the edge of disaster, Mary Burton popped on the scene and fed peoples’ anxieties and fears
Mary Burton
IDENTIFICATION
- Servant of the family that owned Hughson’s tavern
- Propelled the New York conspiracy, claiming that all of the disasters (burglaries, fires) are a part of black conspiracy to take over New York
SIGNIFICANCE
- In a society that felt it was on the edge of disaster and had a general anxiety about rebellion, Mary Burton popped on the scene and fed peoples’ anxieties and fears
Popish Plots
A totally fictitious but widely believed plot in which it was alleged that Jesuits were planning the assassination of King Charles II in order to bring his Roman Catholic brother, the Duke of York (afterward King James II), to the throne…
Popish Plots: Background Information
IDENTIFICATION
- Up until the early 1500s, England was Catholic
- So Catholicism was good
- Until Henry VIII broke with the Church and transformed England to the Church of England (Protestantism)
- So Catholics became viewed as bad
It became deeply entrenched in the minds of English people that Catholics and Catholicism were the enemy…
Catholicism was bad in a religious perspective, but really bad from a political perspective
- England’s enemies (France and Spain) were Catholic, so politics made this a powerful force
- People were concerned more about the Pope as a political leader and influencer, than Catholicism as a religion
- England believes that the Pope wants to take over from outside, but Popish wanted to take over from inside
SIGNIFICANCE
The Great Fire of London (1666)
Titus Oates and the Popish Plots
The Great Fire of London (1666)
IDENTIFICATION
2 September 1666: a fire began in a bakery…
- The baker escape with their family, and the fire spread
- Most buildings in England were highly flammable, and this single-building fire begins leaping from house-to-house
- Eventually it reaches the river, where there are many industrial buildings full of things that are highly flammable
- The city authorities should have responded with fire breaks, but they deemed that too expensive, so they let the fire burn
- By the time the King was involved and ordered the authorities to make a fire break, it was too late
80% of London burned down (only 16 people died)
Many find themselves homeless and money-less, since their homes and businesses have been burnt down
SIGNIFICANCE
- The first assumption was that the fire had been started by agents of the French government, and people began to lynch people who were French or seemed to be French
- Then this was extended to include Spanish, Dutch, Irish
Clearly, a scapegoat was required…
Robert Hubert
After the Great Fire of London, a scapegoat was needed to explain the fire…
IDENTIFICATION
Thus emerges Robert Hubert
- A Catholic French watchmaker (foreigner)
- Emerges and willingly admits to starting the fire in Westminster (BUT the fire did not even hit Westminster, so he changes his story
- He threw his fireball through the bakery windows (BUT he is disabled and cannot throw, and the bakery did not have windows)
- He changes his story: he had accomplices (BUT he did not remember who they were)
- THEN it emerged that the willing Scapegoat arrived in London 2 days after the fire
However, the mobs were thrilled to have a scapegoat
The jury that tries him had 3 family members of the bakery owner on it, and if they do not convict Hubert, they may be blamed. So they convict him anyways, despite that it could not have possibly been him.
He was sentenced to death, hanged, and his body was torn a part by the crowds
SIGNIFICANCE
The conspiracy theory feeds the panic because it provides a simpler explanation…
- We know now that it began because of a small spark in a bakery, it spread because the city authorities were incompetent, and it spread quickly because the city was poorly constructed
- It is much easier to just hang a Frenchman than re-evaluate the entire structure of a city, and its policies
- London already hates papists, and are happy to accept that bad things happening are their fault
- Connections and meanings that are not actually there are made to feed the anxiety and fear of the people, confirming their paranoia and conspiracy theories
Titus Oates (and Dr. Israel Tongue)
IDENTIFICATION
- Titus Oats was a detestable, pathological liar, kicked out of many schools
- 1666: he got a position as a Protestant minister for a Catholic Duke (as a decoy to convince the public that this Catholic duke was not Catholic)
Dr. Israel Tongue
- Even more detestable than Titus Oats
- Visciously anti-Catholic
- He and Titus Oats made pamphlets that spread the news about the Popish plot (Catholic conspiracy)
Popish Plot:
The two made a plan together to go undercover, pretend they were Catholics, and reveal the truth about Catholics to England (Oats got into a Jesuit College, but was expelled)
The revealed the plot that: Catholic Jesuits were planning to kill Charles II, King of England, and replace him with his brother, James (Duke of York), who was more Catholic
- James denied that this was true
- But the rest of England jumped on this conspiracy (e.g., the government began to search Catholic homes)
- Oats made the mistake of accusing the Queen (who was very well-liked) was in on the Catholic conspiracy
- And then people looked into Oats and realized gaps in his story
- He was disgraced and tried, then pilloried
SIGNIFICANCE
There was never a plot at all - it was all a fabrication - but lots of people believed him because they were prepared to believe him; they were willing to accept that there was a Catholic plot.
The hatred of Catholics was always there, and all it took to set it off was a destructive fire or a plot about the Kings.
The Great Fear (1700s)
French Revolution
Aristocratic Conspiracy
Brigands
A period of panic and riot by peasants and others amid rumours of an “aristocratic conspiracy” by the king and the privileged to overthrow the Third Estate.
IDENTIFICATION
- During the French Revolution, French peasants were suffering badly from elite, economic depression, unemployment, crop failure and starving populations
- Masses of people were moving around the country looking to survive
- This led to people stealing food from storage and from farm crops
- In conjunction, there emerged a feeling that while the peasants were suffering, the aristocrats were not
- This led to the conspiracy that the aristocrats were hiding food and not starving, because they did not want the peasants to eat
- This evolved into the “ARISTOCRATIC CONSPIRACY” that the aristocrats were going to hire “BRIGANDS” to go around and steal what little food the poor had, to crush any though of Revolution that they may have had
SIGNIFICANCE
- This led to the “Great Fear”, which was a wave of fear that swept through France in the few years before the revolution about the “aristocratic conspiracy” and there were riots
- Because France had a well-developed communication network at this time, we can track the movement of the fear (insert map); it was possible to plot where outbreaks of fear emerged
- Soldiers were sent to calm everyone and they were mistaken for brigands, causing greater panics (more soldiers were sent, and mistaken)
- Everyone was ready to fight all based on a single rumour
- News spreads, and then it became a massive attack which drew tens of thousands of armed soldiers
If people fear something is going to happen, it doesn’t take much to convince them that something is going to happen. Anxiety turns to fear, and fear turns to irrational responses.
Brigands
IDENTIFICATION
SIGNIFICANCE
The Indian Uprising (1857) - shorter
IDENTIFICATION
In 1857, Indians began uprising independently against their British soldiers, disobeying them and then also killing them
- Although these were not exactly connected, nor was an uprising planned, it was assumed that the Indians were rebelling against the British East India Company to take over India and the British looked back and “saw” how the Indians had been planning this all along
- Nana Sahib: emerges as a leader in the Indian uprising (he came to the forefront by coincidence)
- But the British interpret that this was his plan since he was a child, and interpret the uprisings as a chain
SIGNIFICANCE
We see enemy within panics in colonial societies, as well, but it is a different dynamic because…
(1) Colonizers are anxious that the locals do not want them there, and
(2) Colonizers are sometimes outnumbered by the locals
…However, the colonizers know that the locals are too uneducated and disorganized to be a threat. BUT, they are also not smart enough to know if the leader they are following is honourable and trustworthy.
British East India Company
IDENTIFICATION
- India was colonized and ruled by Britain
- Trading companies gradually assumed control, and made sure that wealth flowed through them and not the people
- An English company formed for the exploitation of trade with India
- Started as a monopolistic trading body so that England could participate in the East Indian spice trade
- The The East India Company was the most powerful entity in India
- It was so profitable that it created in India a class of fabulously famous white settlers called Nabobs
- The East India Company was incredibly corrupt
- British Government realized they needed to get rid of it
- Eventually, England was able to claw power away from it, but it remained to be a force to be reckoned with
SIGNIFICANCE
- Despite its enormous wealth and power, there is still insecurity
- Small number of people trying to run a society of million
- They didn’t understand those millions well, which makes them feel vulnerable
- A curious combination of a smug sense of superiority, but also the uncertainty that the
Indian population will be after them soon
Thuggees
IDENTIFICATION
- A secret sect
- Criminals that attacked, robbed, and killed travelers by strangulation
- Killed 10s of thousands of people over multiple years
- Constituted an “organized crime syndicate” to the British
To the British, these thugees were seen as a huge problem - Were actually just petty thieves
- Their “real aim” was to undermine and bring down British rule
SIGNIFICANCE
- Emerges amongst the white elites that all of India was under this mass conspiracy
