Ch 19 Revolution Flashcards
Describe the two primary social changes that were occurring before the American and French Revolutions
- Economic disparity between the nobles and wealthy merchants and professionals and the urban laborers and peasants
- Social structures to protect slavery
Why was the idea of liberty a radical to absolutist rulers?
Before the revolutionary period, even the most enlightened monarchs believed they needed to regulate what people wrote and believed.
How did equality prove to be an ambiguous idea?
o Eighteenth-century liberals argued that, in theory, all citizens should have identical rights and liberties and that the nobility had no right to special privileges based on birth.
o Believed that equality between men and women was neither practical nor desirable.
o Few questioned the inequality between blacks and whites. Even those who believed that the slave trade was unjust and should be abolished usually felt that emancipation was so dangerous that it needed to be an extremely gradual process.
o Liberals never believed that everyone should be equal economically.
o The essential point was that every free white male should have a legally equal chance at economic gain.
What new kind of government was being called for?
Essentially - constitutional monarchy
o Reformers believed that the people had sovereignty — that is, that the people alone had the authority to make laws limiting an individual’s freedom of action.
o In practice, this system of government meant choosing legislators who represented the people and were accountable to them.
o Monarchs might retain their thrones, but their rule should be constrained by the will of the people
Which group of people were allowed to vote in the pre-revolutionary period?
Only white men
Who “accidentally” created the roots of revolutionary ideas?
Locke or Montesquieu, but it was by no means inevitable that their ideas would result in revolution.
Describe the situation in North America at the tim eof the Seven years war.
Tensions also lingered in North America, particularly regarding the border between the French and British colonies. The encroachment of English settlers into territory claimed by the French in the Ohio Valley resulted in skirmishes that soon became war.
What were the results of the 7 years war?
British victory on all colonial fronts was ratified in the 1763 Treaty of Paris.
How did Britain try to gain money to help pay off war debts?
British announced that they would maintain a large army in North America and tax the colonies directly.
In 1765 Parliament passed the Stamp Act, which levied taxes on a long list of commercial and legal documents, diplomas, newspapers, almanacs, and playing cards. A stamp glued to each article indicated that the tax had been paid.
Stamp act measures seemed reasonable to British, for a much heavier stamp tax already existed in Britain, and proceeds from the tax were to fund the defense of the colonies
Also tea tax!
What was Britain’s response to the Boston Tea Party?
o In response, the so- called Coercive Acts of 1774 closed the port of Boston, curtailed local elections, and expanded the royal governor’s power.
o County conventions in Massachusetts urged that such measures be “rejected as the attempts of a wicked administration to enslave America.” Other colonial assemblies joined in the denunciations.
o In September 1774 the First Continental Congress— consisting of colonial delegates who sought at first to peacefully resolve conflicts with Britain — met in Philadelphia. The more radical members of this assembly argued successfully against concessions to the English crown. The British Parliament also rejected compromise. War Began
Where was the first battle of the American revolution?
In April 1775 fighting between colonial and British troops began at Lexington and Concord.
What were the ideas of Thomas Paine?
o Common Sense (1775), a brilliant attack by the recently arrived English radical Thomas Paine (1737–1809), mobilized public opinion in favor of independence.
o Ridiculed the idea of a small island ruling a great continent.
o In his call for freedom and republican government, Paine expressed Americans’ growing sense of separateness and moral superiority.
When was the Declaration of Independence signed?
On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.
Who were the conflicts between after the Declaration of Independence
After the Declaration of Independence, the conflict often took the form of a civil war pitting patriots against Loyalists, those who maintained an allegiance to the Crown.
Who were the Loyalists demographically?
The Loyalists (20% of white population), were wealthy and politically moderate. They were small in number in New England and Virginia, but more common in the Deep South and on the western frontier. British commanders also recruited Loyalists from enslaved people by promising freedom to any slave who left his master to fight for the mother country.
