World History (American Revolution & French Revolution) by Shivlal Gupta

Model Answer

Question #1. Explain the important events that culminated into the French Revolution. Also, discuss the impact and significance of the French revolution on the rest of the world.

Approach:

• Briefly introduce the French Revolution.(40 words)
• Discuss the important events that culminated into the French Revolution.(80words)
• Discuss impact and Significance of French evolution to rest of world.(90 words)
• Conclusion ( 40 words)

Hints:

The French Revolution was a watershed event in modern European history that began in 1789 and ended in the late 1790s with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte. During this period, French citizens razed and redesigned their country’s political landscape, uprooting centuries-old institutions such as absolute monarchy and the feudal system. The impact on France was profound, shaping politics, society, religion and ideas, and politics for more than a century.

Causes of the French Revolution

• International: struggle for hegemony and Empire outstrips the fiscal resources of the state.
• Political conflict: conflict between the Monarchy and the nobility over the “reform” of the tax system led to paralysis and bankruptcy.
• The Enlightenment: impulse for reform intensifies political conflicts; reinforces traditional aristocratic constitutionalism, one variant of which was laid out in Montequieu’s Spirit of the Laws; introduces new notions of good government, the most radical being popular sovereignty, as in Rousseau’s Social Contract [1762]; the attack on the regime and privileged class by the Literary Underground of “Grub Street;” the broadening influence of public opinion.
• Social antagonisms between two rising groups: the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie
• Ineffective ruler: Louis XVI
• Economic hardship, especially the agrarian crisis of 1788-89 generates popular discontent and disorders caused by food shortages.

Impact and Significance of French evolution to rest of world: The French Revolution, though it seemed a failure in 1799 and appeared nullified by 1815, had far-reaching results which are as follow:

• Gift of principles - liberty, equality, fraternity: - Europe and world received valuable gift of the principles like liberty, equality and fraternity from French revolution. Man is free inborn, all are equal before law. Man has right to fight for liberty and justice. 
• It popularised the idea of nationalism. It also led to the eventual development of the Welfare State.
• Unlimited monarchy, feudalism, religious centres - shocked: Unlimited monarchs, feudals and clergies were exploiting common people continuously. Similar condition was almost in all Europe. Revolution ended that injustice. Monarchy was replaced by democracy, all special rights and concessions of feudals and clergies were denied. Equality was established.
• Inspiration to nationalist movements and democracy - Principles like liberty, equality and equality of revolution created equality and unity among people. It helped to increase nationality. Getting inspiration the movements of unification began in Germany, Italy, and Russia etc. So history of 19th century of Europe is the history of nationalism.

Conclusion:

The success of the French Revolution inspired people all over the world, and especially in Europe. Mobilised by the spirit of nationalism and the ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity, people rose in revolt against the absolutist autocratic State and strived to install democracy as the new form of Government.

Question #2. Discuss the factors that led to the American Revolution.  How did the American Revolution transform both Europe and America?

Approach:

• Briefly introduce with American revolution
• Discuss the causes and how American Revolution transform both Europe and America
• Conclusion

Hints:

The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in colonial North America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), gaining independence from the British Crown and establishing the United States of America, the first modern constitutional liberal democracy.
Causes of American Revolution

• The road leading up to the American Revolution did not happen overnight. It took several years and many events to push the colonists to a point where they wanted to fight for their independence.
• Britain and France engaged in the French and Indian War, battling over land in North America. After the British won the war, they gained possession of France’s North American territories east of the Mississippi River. Up until this point the British had left the American colonies mostly on their own, but under the rule of King George III, Great Britain began to exert more control over the colonies.
• The French and Indian War put the British crown in debt. In order to increase revenues for the costs of defending the expanding British Empire, Britain taxed the colonies. It imposed the Sugar Act in 1764, and, one year later, it added the Stamp Act. Colonists protested the added taxes. The Stamp Act was repealed.
• In another effort to raise money and exert its authority over the colonies, Britain established the Townshend Acts in 1767. This series of acts placed taxes on tea, lead, paint, paper, and glass imported to the colonies. The acts were resisted through violence, deliberate refusal to pay, and hostility toward British agents.
• Colonial opposition to the British grew, and the British sent troops to Boston, Massachusetts. As punishment for the colonists’ resistance, the British Parliament enacted four measures known as the Intolerable Acts. Meant to divide the colonies, the act united the colonies and provided justification for organizing the First Continental Congress in 1774.
• After representatives for the colonists called on Britain to cancel the Intolerable Acts, Britain responded by sending more troops. Fighting ensued, and the colonies officially declared independence on July 4, 1776.

Transformation of America:

• Immediate consequence:

1. 1. The creation of state constitutions in 1776 and 1777.
   2. The Revolution also unleashed powerful political, social, and economic forces that would transform the post-Revolution politics and society, including increased participation in politics and governance, the legal institutionalization of religious toleration, and the growth and diffusion of the population.
   3. The Revolution also had significant short-term effects on the lives of women in the new United States of America.

• The long-term consequence:

1. 1. The Revolution would also have significant effects on the lives of slaves and free blacks as well as the institution of slavery itself.
   2. It also affected Native Americans by opening up western settlement and creating governments hostile to their territorial claims.
   3. The Revolution ended the mercantilist economy, opening new opportunities in trade and manufacturing. Americans began to create their own manufacturers, no longer content to reply on those in Britain.

• Limitations:

1. 1. The Revolution did not result in civic equality for women. During the immediate post-war period, women became incorporated into the polity to some degree as “republican mothers.” These new republican societies required virtuous citizens and it became mothers’ responsibility to raise and educate future citizens. This opened opportunity for women regarding education, but they still remained largely on the peripheries of the new American polity.
   2. The Revolution also did not result in civic equality for Slaves.
   3. The Americans’ victory and Native Americans’ support for the British created a pretense for justifying the rapid, and often brutal expansion into the western territories. 

American victory (and British defeat) affected Europe in two major ways:

• First, many European liberal movements gained momentum from the American Declaration of Independence and the subsequent American victory.  Liberal revolutionaries held many of the same ideals as the American founding fathers, and consequently associated themselves with the American cause.  The most infamous “result” of the American Revolution was the French Revolution that started nearly a decade later. France also lost their most prized colonial possession – Haiti –due to their uprising inspired by both the American and French Revolutions.
• Secondly, American independence signified the creation of a new nation-state and a new player on the world political/economic scene.  With its history of European ties, an independent America was sure to become a key political and economic player in European affairs.  As the United States grew in the following centuries, its importance to Europe also grew.  Today, the United States is one of Europe’s greatest economic and political allies.

Conclusion:

The American Revolution produced a new outlook among its people that would have ramifications long into the future. The Revolution also unleashed powerful political, social, and economic forces that would transform the post-Revolution politics and society, including increased participation in politics and governance, the legal institutionalization of religious toleration, and the growth and diffusion of the population.