1776–1867 · Europe · Trade
Debates over markets, labor, land, value, poverty and industrial growth became formal political economy, from Adam Smith to Karl Marx and many critics of empire and capitalism.
Atlas dossier · Enlightenment & RevolutionsFree device narration · synchronized English captions · transcript available
Why it matters
Debates over markets, labor, land, value, poverty and industrial growth became formal political economy, from Adam Smith to Karl Marx and many critics of empire and capitalism.
Adam Smith · David Ricardo · Karl Marx · workers · reformers · colonized producers
Economic ideas shaped taxation, trade policy, industrial regulation, labor movements and competing visions of prosperity and social justice.
Interpretation note
This dossier distinguishes the event’s basic chronology from later arguments about meaning, responsibility and legacy. When comparing religious, national, Indigenous or scholarly interpretations, consult the primary and institutional sources above alongside peer-reviewed historical work.
Elsewhere in the world
1776 · AmericasAmerican RevolutionThirteen colonies declared independence, advancing republican ideals while slavery and Indigenous dispossession remained entrenched.
1772–1888 · GlobalAbolition of Atlantic slave systemsEnslaved people, maroon communities, writers, religious organizers and political movements forced successive restrictions and abolitions across the Atlantic world.
1791–1804 · AmericasHaitian RevolutionEnslaved people defeated colonial armies and established independent Haiti.