Revolutionary Essay, Research Paper
Revolution Essay
The three revolutions the “Glorious Revolution” in England, the French
Revolution, and the American Revolution all had a profound effect on there
country and the world. We talked about and discussed each one of these in
class. All three of these revolution have lots in common but there all alot
different form each other. All of these revolutions were started by people
who wanted better or different things to be going on in their country, they all
were trying to change things to make there country better to live in. Some of
these revolutions helped or started the other revolutions, but there was only
one great revolution and that was the “Glorious Revolution”. The “Glorious
Revolution” had more effect than the other revolution on its country and the
world.
The “Glorious Revolution” in England was the greatest revolution of
all. It was started in England in 1688. It was called the “Glorious Revolution”
because of a couple of reasons, one because there was not one war in the
entire revolution. The other reason was that it made the way for all the other
revolutions to come. The English monarch was kicked off his throne, for the
second time in 40 years. Charles l was the first one the be taken from his
throne, then in 1688, it was James ll, the brother and heir to Charles ll.
James ruled the same way his brother did, without the permission of
Parliament and to restore Roman Catholicism as the main religion in
England. Everybody turned against James including the nobles and gentry
because they wanted different things then what James wanted. So
Parliament invited William of Orange and his wife, Mary to come and be the
king and queen of England. Then in December of 1688 James was thrown
from his throne and he fled to France. William of Orange, ruled from 1689 to
1702, and his queen, Mary II, only was queen until 1694, when she died.
During William’s monarchy Parliament passed some acts that would
establish the revolution. The most important of the acts were the Bill of
Rights and the Toleration Act, which were both passed in 1689, and the Act
of Settlement was passed in 1701. The purpose of the Bill of Rights was to
make it the kings responsibility to govern with the assistance of Parliament,
even if James was still around, it would now be impossible for him to rule
without Parliament. The Toleration Act allowed everyone to worship as they
pleased, well except for Catholics, Jews, and Unitarians. The Act of
Settlements only said that it was required that all future monarchs to be
members of the church of England. This is the most important revolution of
them all because it was the first one and it started all of the rest, probably
without this revolution, the other ones would not of started.
The American Revolution was first started by the thirteen colonies
revolting against their British rulers in 1775. The colonists revolted against
their rulers because they were interfering with the way that they were running
there country, America. Britain wanted to run America like another one of its
cities, it wanted absolute control over it, but on the other hand America
wanted to run its self as a independent country. This the major reason for
the America Revolution and that Britain would outrageously tax people in
America, they also would not let America prosper. Britain went to such high
standards to make sure everyone obeyed there laws, too. They would send
British soldiers to make sure everybody in America was obeying there laws.
Still, America didn’t have any rights and Britain started taxes more things,
they made up these acts to money off America. The acts were the Molasses
Act, the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Quartering Act and the Currency Act.
The Molasses Act forced colonists to pay import duties on foreign molasses,
sugar, wine, and other goods. The colonists were very displeased with this
and started smuggling thing into America, instead of paying the Molasses
Act. All the Sugar Act was, was a British law that raised duties on certain
imports in the North American colonies. It was just like the Molasses Act.
The Stamp Act was a tax on all newspapers printed in the colonies and a tax
on most commercial and legal documents used in business. The Quartering
Act said that any English soldiers could walk in and make living quarters of
your house, they ate your food and slept in your bed, they were basically a
new member of the family. The Currency Act basically said that the
Americans had to pay a lot of the money to repay the debt that England had
made because of the French and Indian War. England made all these acts
and still did not make enough money to finiace a army. The American
Revolution was great for America because America gained its independents
from it but was not so good for Britain who lost there major source of income
in the war, America. After Britain lost the revolution the United States was
looked at to be a nation of small farms owners and all of Britain restrictions
on America were lifted, like the barriers that held the Americans east of the
mountains. State governments were started and the first national union was
started, too. This revolution was important but not as important as the
“Glorious Revolution”.
The French Revolution started at the meeting of the Estates-General
on May 5, 1789. The slogan of the French Revolution was were trying to get
“Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.” The French Revolution was mostly about
equality. The members of the Third Estate started it all, then some of the
clergy and the nobles came into play. Estates-General then changed it
name to the National Assembly, which was the people of France. Then
many people were mad to take the Oath of the Tennis Court on June 20,
1789, which was a pledge that said they would not separate until France has
its constitution. Soon after that the Declaration of the Rights of Man was
written, this came to be regarded as the charter of democracy. In June of
1791, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were captured when they tried to
leave France. This then brought the dividing of the revolution into two
parties; the Constitutional Royalists and the Republicans. The king finally
excepted the new constitution in September of 1791. After this the revolution
became alot better, it got more successful. This revolution started
democracy for the rest of the world instead of monarchy. It showed other
countries that there is different kinds of governments instead of just one.
This was the major effect of the French Revolution.
To conclusion, the three revolutions the “Glorious Revolution” in
England, the French Revolution, and the American Revolution all had a
profound effect on there country and the world. All of these revolutions were
started by people who wanted better or different things to be going on in their
country, they all were trying to change things to make there country better to
live in. Some of these revolutions helped or started the other revolutions,
but there was only one great revolution and that was the “Glorious
Revolution”. The “Glorious Revolution” had more effect than the other
revolution on its country and the world because it made way for the other
revolutions.
Bibliography
Work Cited
The Western Experience
Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia CD ROM
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