Essay On The Spanish American Revolution

During the 17th century in Europe, there was major social and political disgruntlement among the people, because of this many European experienced revolutions. Two countries who gained the most traction in their revolutions and saw major change was France and what is now known as Germany. France experienced revolutions in both 1830 and 1848, while Germany experienced a revolution in 1848. I will be focusing on both of Frances revolutions as they were both caused due to corrupt governments and the goal of both was similar, a more republican nation. The reason France had a revolution in 1830 was because the royalist believed the kings had too much power, in 1815 the Congress of Vienna had put a Bourbon Monarch into power names Louis XVIII

The French, not at all like the Haitian slaves, were under a legislature as nationals and were trying to overthrow their current government. In doing so, they wanted to create a new government where they had rights that could settle their social needs as well as repair the damages caused by the war and decrease France’s debt. France was going through an internal battle because for 175 years the estates general wasn’t in session and when it was in session in 1789, King Louis XVI asked for more money but locked out the third estate. The third estate had no voice, rights and were just poor peasants suffering from having to pay 40% tax. Louis XVI was the king of France and thusly was considered in charge of its monetary emergency and the disparity of the French society.

These ideas inspired the Americans to start a revolution against their sovereign, Britain. The French, being bitter rivals of the British for centuries, helped finance the Americans and ended up spending 1.2 billion livres and accumulating a debt of 3.3 million livres (Conway 242). This economic crisis, combined with an inept leader, Enlightenment sentiment and food shortages, snowballed into the French Revolution. The revolution got rid of the monarchy and set up a republic. After the rise and fall of Maximilien Robespierre, a five person council came into power known as the Directory.

Under Louis XVI France has depleted most of its finances, and is in debt because of France’s financial and military support of America during the American revolution. This has led to famine and civil unrest, while also giving birth to the revolutionary idea of nationalism during the French revolution. Radical leaders such as Robespierre used the idea of nationalism to motivate people into joining revolution in order to create the French republic. However, the true leaders of the revolution were the people, as they were the ones who stole the gunpowder from the Bastille and stormed Versai, while the leaders were just the ‘head of the snake’ that told people what to do in order for them to get what they want. Furthermore, nationalism did not spark the revolution, but rather fuelled

The colonists may have refused to accept the responsibilities of being Englishmen, however, the American colonists were reasonably justified in waging war and breaking away from Britain. The increasing distrust of and resentment toward British officials, the unfair and oppressive taxes imposed by Parliament on the colonists, and the restriction of colonial freedoms all contribute to the colonists’ justification of secession from Great Britain. Some may believe the colonists’ rebellion against British authority was not justified. The British Parliament had appropriate motives for imposing the laws they did on the colonists in the 1760s. The Seven Years’ War was “a war undertaken for [the colonists’] defense only,” to which Britain had devoted a large proportion of its resources.

The national assembly tackled the unfair tax system which taxed peasants more than those who were wealthy noblemen. This was a big step forward to fixing the rigid social structure of France and opposing the monarchy’s oppression of peasants. Additionally, Louis was convicted of crimes such as conspiring against liberty. He was later executed on January 21, 1793. (Scandiffio) This shows that the monarchy was seen as very detrimental to the ideal of liberty, the conviction and execution of the king marked the end of the monarchy which was formerly a vital feature of the Old Regime.

However the revolution still held devastating effects. The murals created during the revolution would be at fault for the development of depression for many people. Yet putting those two things aside the bigger picture appears. Nationalism was at its peak for the country. These people believed that their leader was abusing his power, and they fought back.

Many American’s are aware that the American Revolution started, because the British Government was taxing the colonies without giving them proper representation in parliament. However, what many American’s do not understand is that the colonial protestors had many more complaints about the British Government in the mid 1770s. Thomas Paine described the colonists view of the British best when he said, “The British were thieves, literally “highwaymen” who stole American rights and wealth as well.” The years following the Seven Years War brought drastic changes for the colonists as Great Britain started taking more control over the them and with each new tax they continued to fill with rage. The most convincing evidence the colonial protestors

This aspect of military might became the key piece for centralizing power in France, controlling the army meant collecting taxes without the consent of the Estates General, therefore diminishing the power of Estates. This is the reason why the Military Revolution went hand-in-hand with the emergence of absolutism. Hatton describes “the term ‘absolutism’ denotes a form of power which is unrestrained; more specifically it implies that no external agency can suspend or delay the action of the sovereign power” (Hatton, 1976, p.18) Absolutism was also a product of power struggle between the King and the Estates, for example in France the Crown won, establishing monarchical

Problems that contributed to the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte Before the French Revolutionary war, France was the most powerful European country. It was the most powerful because of it's constitutional monarchy. Later on, France had faced many problems that led to the French Revolutionary war. The French Revolutionary war was a rebellion from the peasants of France, which made up almost 98 percent of France's population, against the king and the higher class. The peasants were angry at the king because, he was taxing them, even though they barely have land to live on (spielvogel, 341).

The Prosperous and poor joined forces in America because of the taxation put on them by the English crown. The passing of Sugar Act in 1764 was the first of many small but economically divisive taxes passed by the British in an attempt to recover expenses from the colonists. The colonists however were not represented in parliament. Following Locke’s theory of the social contract they demanded representation otherwise they would not pay taxes. These taxes affected the rich and poor alike and when tensions escalated and after Jefferson wrote the Declaration Of Independence, the colonists rebelled.

The wars were named the Napoleonic Wars, and involved Britain, France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, with France fighting against Britain and everybody else fighting against France. All European ports under the command of Napoleon were closed because of the fear of invasion. Because of this, the Spanish-American trade cut-off made America rely on Britain all the more. America hated this, and started the tries to become independent, which was one of the reasons for the War of 1812. Tecumseh: Tecumseh was a First Nations military leader in the War of 1812.

The British were in massive debt following the French and Indian war, therefore they placed taxes on the colonists in order to regenerate some of that money lost. The Sugar Act of 1764 taxed the sale of molasses in hopes to gain some lost money, but this act led the people of Boston to boycott the molasses industry. The Stamp Act of 1765 shortly followed, making colonists buy a stamp with every paper product. The rage the colonists felt over the passing of this act, led the colonies to begin to unify as they together boycotted the trade industry. The Townshend Duties of 1767 imposed taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper and tea, but this only led to the colonist to again boycott the trade of those items and start newspaper attack.

The United States was formed from the original 13 Colonies but had to wage war with Britain to establish its sovereignty the Treaty of Paris concluded the revolutionary war in 1783 with America expanding to the Mississippi River and Spain recovering Florida sense in this war it was an American ally but in 1800 Spain secretly ceded the Louisiana territory back to France where Napoleon was hoping to establish an empire in North America when President Thomas Jefferson learned that this arrangement he became concerned with the potential threat of an aggressive Empire Builder descend on boys to France to purchase New Orleans and West Florida for ten million dollars instead they came back with the entire Louisiana territory for $15 million napoleon had needed money for his war against Britain in 1810 American settlers led a revolt against the Spanish in West Florida capturing the poor to Baton Rouge the remainder of West Florida was annexed later by President James

The increase of taxation led to a crisis from colonial people. Riots were established to those who initiated or supported the taxes, stealing everything from some members homes but the foundation and walls. Groups were formed of colonialists who sought liberty, declared the excessive taxation as unconstitutional and fought to protect what they felt were consumer rights. This all lead to the great American revolution in which once the Stamp Act was placed by the parliament, colonial society then produced a stamp act congress to counteract the parliaments decision. This establishment led to the Continental Congress, which eventually separated the colonies from the parliament to then govern themselves and cut ties to the English Crown moving towards