Causes of Revolution

During the mid 1600 to the early 1800 a

world wide phenomenon started, this

was the revolutionary age. In the mid

1700’s America was suffering from a

strong and unjust political system, and a

cruel economy were the government

could just walk about taxing people

without representation. During the late

1700’s France’s society began to believe

that the upper class citizens were taking

all the land and leaving the lower class

citizens with very minute areas of land.

During the early 1800’s Communists

were talking over Spain and driving out

the free well of society, leaving the ideas

of the Americas to rot. These were all

conditions that led to the revolts against

the government; a revolution was at

hand to restore peace and prosperity

back to the country.

During the mid 1700’s British Parliament

had a strong hold on the 13 colonies.

Many of the citizens became upset due

to the many acts parliament bestowed

upon them. This caused uproars leading

to great clashes between the British

forces and the colonists. Soon enough

Congress set up a Continental Army with

George Washington in command to fight

the British Forces. Even though the

battles ended in Britain’s favor, the

Colonists became even more determined

to fight. Soon Congress took a giant step

forward, putting the Declaration in to

work. This declares independence from

Britain’s rule. Tomas Jefferson was the

key figure behind the Declaration of

Independence yet the ideas clearly

reflected that of John Locke. To Britain

this was an act of treason. Colonists

fought back with little supplies yet with

the help of French forces the war would

take a truing point. This would form the

utter defeat of the British forces. Than

two years later after the American

Revolution, diplomats signed the Treaty

of Paris thus recognizing the

independence of the United Stats of

America. (Doc. #4)

In late 1780’s French citizens

became unruly due to the old Regime,

this old regime was an out dated social

system corrupted by monarchy. The

citizens were not too pleased with the

social system anymore; the system was

made of a First Estate who was the

clergy. The clergy provide social

services. Included in the Second Estate

were the noble men, these men provide

defense for the land in France. The Third

Estate made up 98% of French

population. In the Third Estate the

wealthy families held the power and

poor citizens resented the fact that they

had so much and yet they had so little.

This was just one notch in the French

Revolution. To make things worse France

was in debt, due to the government’s

spending more money than it takes in.

This led to much more economical

disturbances such as poor harvests. The

people began to riot demanding food,

and peasants attacked manors. More

and more revolts occurred up the when

the National Assembly abolished

feudalism. This took away the Estate

system, leaving room for reforms. In a

step to reform the Assembly began to

write a constitution, the Declaration of

the Rights of Men and the Citizen. The

 document summed up equal rights to

the people of France. (Doc. #5)

Once more a revolution seed had been

planted, this time in Latin America. Many

of the citizen’s uproars were caused by a

social and political system that had been

in power for over 3 centuries. In the social

hierarchy Spanish born citizens ruled most

of the political system. They held the top

jobs in the government and most religious

affairs. As for the European-descended

Latin Americans, they owned mines and

ranches and resented their class status.

During this social unrest more people of

the Latin Americas were becoming more

violent. Most of the people became angry

when they were denied status, wealth and

power. To add more hurt they were

suffering from economic trouble. The

people also had many discrepancies

against the Spanish who conquered their

ancestors. The people of the Americas

were now longing for freedom, hoping for

independence. Soon Haiti would gain

independence from France, starting with

slave revolts. Many enslaved Haitians

fought against the unjust French thus

winning their freedom, but Haiti was still a

French colony. As Napoleon rose to power,

he sent a large army to reconquer Haiti.

Through the struggle for independence

France agreed to a truce. Then in early

1800’s, Haitian leaders declared

independence from France, creating a

republic. The events that occurred in Haiti

further inspired more revolts leading to

independence for Mexico and Central

America. In Spain Liberals forced the King

to issue a constitution. Although they

became free of Spanish rule, military

leaders ruled over the government. This

lead to more struggles to improve life for

the Mexican citizens. In South America,

more revolts sprung up to challenge

Spanish rule for independence. Many

Spanish officials denied the reforms,

causing more unrest. Even though the

armies fighting for freedom went through

minor setbacks, their will for

independence grew even grater. Soon

enough a young Creole, Bolivar would

denounce his plan to gain freedom. Bolivar

marched his army across the land to fight

the Spanish at Bogotá. Bolivar had

succeeded in freeing Caracas and

Venezuela. In his struggle to liberate the

lands he caused civil war among rival

leaders. Before Bolivar’s death, he stated

that they had succeeded in achieving

independence. Now Brazil soon would

experience independence from France. A

revolution soon brought new leaders in

Portugal; these leaders abolished reforms

that benefited Brazil. Dom Pedro would

not submit to the Portuguese rule, instead

he became an emperor of Brazil. He

accepted a constitution that led to

freedom to the people of Brazil. Yet Brazil

stayed a monarchy till 1889 when social

unrest led to Brazil becoming a republic.

(doc. #1,3)

Through much disparity the people

that fought so dearly for freedom

succeeded in achieving independence for

their countries. These revolutions had

changed the face of the Earth, inspiring

more countries to end in the old way and

restore a more unified world. Life now

would not be anything close to what it is

now if people had not opened their eyes to

see that freedom is the way.