Empire Building and American Independence

Empire Building and American Independence

Throughout empire building and the loss of empires, there are several events that changed the course of history and empires entirely. There are three major events that affected empire building by completely separating some empires in certain instances. Events that caused these changes are cases like American independence, The discovery and influences in the Pacific, and the Spanish Succession. These few actions are what caused the history of empires to change completely, whilst affecting the people of the period both negatively and positively. Many colonies and empires were involved with these changes around the same time period.

The American independence came to be when the thirteen colonies that Britain had previously controlled on the east coast of North-America, decided to abandon their ties with the British Crown and declared independence. Once the American Colonies rebelled against Britain, it caused a war which is well known as the “War of Independence”, this war directly affected both sides fighting the war as well as the West entirely. It affected America simply because the United States of America would eventually materialize, as well as George Washington would become the first president of the newly found constitutional system of government in the United States. Although Britain lost the “War of Independence”, they did not collapse as an empire, they soon became the most built military and the United States would become their allies in the following world wars. The United States inevitably became a model in the West and an influence to Europe by priding themselves on their independance and freedom.

The West and Europe shortly turned their attention to the Pacific and gained interest in colonizing the area. One major reason for the expedition to the Pacific was the fact that astronomers came to the conclusion that they would be able to clearly view the planet Venus from the area. This would cause for further development in the science field in the West. The science field was further developing through the form of astronomy but due to the cloudy skies in Europe, it was difficult to have a clear view of some planets. A European artist by the name of Paul Gauguin, was struggling with his career and fled to the Pacific in hopes to find the perfect society. Not much was going on in the Pacific at the time, which is why Gauguin believed that a perfect society consisted of a simple social structure, beautiful people and plenty of food. This further lead to the West colonizing to the Pacific and eventually led to colonizers bringing new forms of agriculture and foreign animals to the land. These new aspects eventually changed the land for the worst and caused the threat of extinction of native animals. The colonization of the Pacific would allow for expansion of both Britain and France.

Although, Britain and France are viewed as the more powerful and achieved empires, Spain was on the uprise as they began to create reformations, they lost influence by the British Crown and pushed for independence. Once Spain lost influence by the Crown, it allowed for further internal decision making, instead of the Crown deciding all trade conditions. One important reform that Spain underwent, was when they decided to strengthen the borders of the empire.  This would allow for evident Spanish culture in areas nearby the boundaries, which would confirm that explorers clearly see developped culture in the area. France shortly decided to invade Spain in attempt to take over, and did so successfully through several victories in war. The Spanish people were unhappy with the french throne and decided to strive for independence with the influence from the American Revolution. Spain eventually became independent from the Americas and doing so, became a less relevant member of the West.